by Maya Banks
Isabella squeezed Sadie’s hand. “It will be perfect. Maybe not yet, but it will be. The day he says I love you will make everything leading up to it worth it.”
Sadie smiled. “Now that that’s all settled, I have to say thank you. You didn’t have to do it, but at the same time, I’m so grateful.”
Isabella looked at her in puzzlement. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“The apartment, the rent, the account. You know, so I don’t have to go back to work at the club.”
Isabella shook her head.
Sadie frowned. “You didn’t arrange for my apartment to be paid up for the next year?”
“No-o-o....”
They both turned and looked at Theron at the same time.
“Then I don’t suppose you also arranged my meeting with Howard,” Sadie murmured.
“No, I had no idea,” Isabella said softly.
“You’ve got yourself a good man, Bella. Not that I’m fooling myself by thinking he did it for any other reason than he didn’t want you ever going into that place,” she said with a grin.
“He is a good man,” Isabella agreed as she stared across the room at Theron.
As if sensing her perusal, he lifted his gaze, the phone still held to his ear and looked back at her. His eyes smoldered with quiet intensity. Suddenly all Isabella wanted was for everyone to be gone from her room and for it to be only the two of them. In his arms, she could forget a lot. Including that she wasn’t the one he would have chosen as his wife.
“How about I have Reynolds see you home?” Isabella murmured to Sadie.
For a moment Sadie looked startled but then she followed Isabella’s gaze toward Theron and grinned. Sadie leaned forward and hugged Isabella tightly.
“Just don’t leave town without letting me know what’s going on, okay?”
Isabella hugged her back. “I won’t.”
Isabella got up and walked over to where Reynolds stood. “You’ll see her home?” she asked, though it wasn’t a request.
Reynolds looked quickly over at Theron, who evidently heard Isabella because he nodded at Reynolds and made a go gesture with his hand.
Moments later, Isabella closed the door, and for the first time since he’d put his ring on her finger, they were alone. Well, almost. There was still the phone.
Slowly, she walked over to where Theron sat at the desk in front of the window. He looked up, his eyes darkening when she placed her hands on his knees and then straddled him, sliding up against his chest.
He tensed and tried to ward her off as he continued talking, something about figures, finances, hotel plans, blah blah. None of that interested her as much as the possibility of getting Theron naked.
She took the hand he held between them and guided it to her chest, sliding it just inside the neckline of her shirt. He curled his fingers into a fist, as if denying her.
Isabella only smiled and began unbuttoning his shirt from the top down. His voice became noticeably more strained, and he even broke off twice as he seemed to lose his train of thought.
If she were a good fiancée, she’d leave him alone, become invisible while he conducted business and reappear later, but she’d already proven she wasn’t the best at suppressing her own wants. Not when it came to Theron.
As she parted the lapels, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his bare chest. She felt his quick intake of breath, heard his strangled response to whoever it was he was talking to.
She’d give him two more minutes tops. If he resisted beyond then, she’d have to give him credit for being very strong indeed.
Ignoring his disapproving look, she slipped from his lap and went seeking lower, unfastening the button of his pants. Every muscle in his thighs locked and went rigid when her hand caressed his equally rigid erection.
One minute left. Hmm.
She lowered her head as she gently freed him from constraint. When her mouth touched him, she heard his garbled response to whatever the other person on the phone had asked, and then she heard the unmistakable sound of a phone meeting the wall.
She smiled even as he lurched upward, grabbing her under the arms and hauling her into his arms.
A torrent of Greek flew from his mouth as he strode for the bedroom.
“English, Theron,” she said with a laugh.
“Theos, but what are you trying to do to me?” he demanded as he tossed her onto the bed. “I’ll have to ban you from my offices if this is the sort of thing you’ll do when I’m trying to conduct business.”
She tried to suppress the grin as he tore off his shirt and pants and sent them flying.
“Undress,” he said seductively.
She raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that your job?”
He fell forward, landing his hands on either side of her shoulders as he stared down at her. Then he reached for her hands and pulled them over her head, transferring her wrists into one hand so the other was free.
Then he began to unbutton her shirt. His movements were jerky and impatient as he ridded her of every stitch of clothing.
When he was finished, he let go of her hands. “Turn over,” he said.
She looked up in confusion.
His fingers roamed down her nakedness even as he urged her over.
“Do as I say, pethi mou.”
She shivered at the authority in his voice. Maybe she had started this whole thing, but it seemed he intended to finish it.
Carefully she rolled until her belly pressed against the mattress. She tucked her hands high, just over her head as she felt Theron lean down once more.
His fingers danced across the small of her back, and then she realized he was tracing her tattoo. She smiled.
“Do you like it?” she murmured.
“It’s driven me crazy since the first day you walked into my office,” he muttered. “I’ve had the most insane urge to throw you down and trace it with my tongue.”
“There’s nothing stopping you,” she said lazily.
“Indeed not.”
She jumped and closed her eyes when his warm tongue made contact with her skin. He emblazoned a damp trail over the small of her back and then he pressed a kiss right over her spine.
“The fairy is misleading. You should have had a devil tattooed on you.”
She smiled again and rolled over, meeting his smoldering gaze. “And where do you propose this devil go?”
His lips curled into a half smile before he dipped his head and kissed the area right above the soft curls at the juncture of her legs. “Here,” he murmured. “Where only I can enjoy it.”
“Don’t tease me, Theron,” she whispered. “I want you so much.”
“Then take me, Bella.” He spread her legs and covered her with his body. And suddenly he was inside her, deep and full. “Take all of me,” he said hoarsely.
She wrapped arms and legs around him, holding him tight as he filled her again and again. His lips found hers, sweet and warm. She drank from him, took from him, and still she wanted more. She wanted everything he had to give.
This time they came together, an explosion she felt to her very depths. As his body settled comfortably over hers, she sighed in utter contentment.
After a moment he rolled to the side and gathered her in his arms.
“Where did you learn such wickedness, Bella mou?” he asked as she snuggled into the crook of his arm and he stroked his fingers over her shoulder.
She rose up, positioning her elbow underneath so she could look at him. “What do you mean?”
“You were a virgin and yet you seduced me as thoroughly as someone with much more experience.”
She laughed. “Theron, tell me you aren’t one of these men who thinks the presence of a hymen equals complete ignorance on the w
oman’s part.”
But then given his antiquated views on honor, and the fact that he was marrying her over that thing called a hymen, perhaps it wasn’t such a stretch to believe he thought she should be ignorant of sex.
He looked uncomfortable as he grappled with his answer. “I suppose I thought it unlikely that someone with no experience would be so...”
“Good?” she asked cheekily.
He gave her a look that suggested he wasn’t amused by her teasing.
“I never said I wasn’t experienced,” she said lightly.
He tensed and raised his head to stare at her. “What do you mean by this? Who do you have experience with?”
She laid a hand on his chest. “Now, Theron, stop with the testosterone surge. You’re the only man I’ve ever made love with. Experience can be gained without participation you know.”
“As long as you don’t ever decide to participate with another man,” he said gruffly. “I will teach you everything you need to know.”
She grinned. “And maybe as we’ve previously discussed, there are things I’ll teach you, as well.”
He yanked her to him, and she landed with a soft thud, her lips a breath away from his.
“Is this so? Well then, Bella mou, by all means teach me. I think you’ll find me a willing pupil.”
Chapter 16
Theron reached across the seat and buckled Isabella’s belt. She roused sleepily and looked questioningly at him.
“We’ll be landing soon,” he said. “Then we’ll take a helicopter to the island.”
She yawned and nodded, trying to knock some of the sleep fog from her mind. “I’m looking forward to meeting Piers, well officially. I’ve seen him but just once and we didn’t speak,” she said as she shifted in her seat. “Though it’s been so long since I’ve seen Chrysander, it will be like meeting him for the first time all over again. What’s he like?” she asked.
He raised one eyebrow. “What’s who like, pethi mou?”
“Piers,” she said a little grumpily. “You know, the one I just said I hadn’t met.”
He smiled. “You’re not at your best when you first awaken.”
She yawned again and just frowned.
“To answer your question, Piers is...well, he’s Piers,” Theron said with a shrug. “He travels the most of any of us now that Chrysander has settled on the island. He’s flying in from Rio de Janeiro right now where he’s overseeing the building of our new hotel.”
“Married or otherwise attached?”
Theron laughed. “Not Piers. He has an aversion to becoming entangled with any female for more than the length of a casual affair.”
“Did your mother mistreat him?” Isabella asked dryly.
Theron shook his head. “You, Bella mou, have quite a smart wit about you. I’m going to have to think of ways to keep that mouth of yours occupied.”
“And Marley?” she asked as the plane began its descent. Already she could see tiny twinkling lights from the ground. “What’s she like? I admit, I find it hard to imagine a woman who could so easily subdue a man like Chrysander. He always seemed so...hard.”
“It wasn’t easy,” Theron said, his expression growing serious. “They went through a lot together. Chrysander is lucky to have her.”
“So you like her?” Isabella prompted.
Theron nodded. “I like her very much. She’s good for him. Softens him just enough.”
“She sounds...nice.”
“You have nothing to worry about,” he soothed. “You’ll like them, and they’ll like you.”
She managed a stiff smile. What she really wanted to ask is whether they’d liked Alannis more. How would they feel about the fact he was marrying someone else? She didn’t know how it worked in Theron’s family, but would they have expected him to marry Alannis for business reasons?
Theron’s hand found hers just a moment before the plane touched down. She was content to let her fingers remain entwined with his as they taxied. A few minutes later, they were disembarking the plane, and Theron was urging her toward a waiting helicopter.
“If I had thought, I would have arranged for us to stay on the mainland overnight so that you could see the beauty of the island from the air in daytime,” Theron said as they boarded.
“I’ll see it on the way back, right?” she said with a smile as Theron settled beside her.
He nodded as the engines whirred too loudly for conversation any longer.
The ride across the inky darkness was a little disconcerting, and then Theron pointed to a flash of light in the distance. She strained forward, leaning over him as they drew closer to the source of the light.
A few moments later, the helicopter lowered onto the well-lit helipad, and the pilot gestured to Theron when it was safe to get out.
Theron opened the door and ducked out, then reached back to help Isabella from the seat. His hand over her back, urging her low, he hurried across the concrete landing area toward the lighted gardens leading to the house.
As they approached the entryway, a man stepped from the door. Even from a distance, Isabella recognized him as Chrysander. He smiled, and she relaxed, even managing a smile in return.
“Isabella, how you’ve grown, even since your graduation,” he said as he enfolded her in a hug.
“Thanks for making me feel like a girl who just shed braces and training bras,” she said dryly as she pulled away.
Chrysander stared at her in obvious surprise and then burst into laughter. “My apologies. You’re far from that as Theron has no doubt found out.”
She couldn’t prevent the flush that worked its way up her cheeks.
“Why don’t you stop trying to find things to say and let us through,” Theron said balefully. “Before we have to extricate both feet from your mouth.”
Chrysander chuckled and gestured for them to pass. “Marley is waiting in the living room. She’s anxious to meet you, Isabella.”
He moved past her and Theron to call out in Greek to the man collecting her and Theron’s luggage from the helicopter.
Theron took her arm and they walked inside. The house was absolutely beautiful, and she couldn’t wait to see it in full light. And the beach. She could smell the salt air and even hear the waves crashing in the distance, but she wanted to see it and dig her toes into the sand.
A small, dark-haired woman who was bouncing a blanket-wrapped bundle in her arms was standing in the living room next to the couch. Isabella offered a tentative smile when she looked up.
“Theron!” she exclaimed as she walked in their direction.
Theron smiled broadly and caught her and the baby up in his arms. “How are my favorite sister and my nephew?”
“I’m your only sister,” she said.
“Marley, I’d like you to meet Isabella, my fiancée,” he said as he turned to Isabella.
Marley smiled, her blue eyes flashing in welcome. “I’m very happy to meet you, Isabella.”
“Please, call me Bella,” she offered. “And I’m very glad to meet you, as well.”
“Has Piers arrived?” Theron asked with a frown as he surveyed the room.
“He’s coming,” Marley said. “He left to go change when we heard the helicopter. We’ve held a late dinner for you and Isabella.”
Just then a tall, dark-haired man entered the room. He was easily the tallest of the three brothers, a little slighter than Chrysander but a bit more broad in the shoulders than Theron. Where Theron and Chrysander had golden-brown eyes, Piers’s were dark, nearly black. His skin tone was darker as well, as though he spent a great deal of time in the sun.
His expression was bland as he looked at Theron. “There you are.” He glanced over at Isabella. “And this must be the bride-to-be?”
“
One of the many it would appear,” Isabella said, refusing to dodge the inevitable awkwardness of the situation.
Piers’s eyebrows drew together at her bluntness then he cocked one and offered what Isabella suspected was as close to a smile as he got. “I like her, Theron. She has spirit.”
Theron didn’t look disquieted by her outburst, but then he seemed resigned to her mouth, as he’d put it.
Chrysander moved to his wife’s side and put an arm around her. “Want me to put him down so that we can eat?”
“If he’ll go down,” Marley said wearily. “Colic,” she said with a grimace as she handed the baby to Chrysander. “We’ve been up with him for the last two weeks. I just hope you can sleep through it.”
Chrysander brushed his lips across her forehead. “Don’t worry, agape mou. I’ll sit with him until he settles. You go eat and then I want you to get some rest.”
Isabella’s heart melted at the look of love in Chrysander’s eyes. She wanted that. Wanted it badly. It was all she could do not to sigh as Marley smiled back at him, her eyes glowing. The look of a woman who knew she was loved.
Then Marley looked at Isabella, and she cocked her head to the side as if studying her. Isabella quickly looked away, hoping she hadn’t betrayed herself in that moment. It was bad enough that she knew the truth about her engagement. She had no wish for anyone else to know she had schemed her way into Theron’s life.
“Come, let’s go into the dining room,” Marley said.
Dinner was laid-back with casual conversation. Marley asked general questions about Isabella, her likes and interests. Piers remained quiet, his eyes following the conversation as he ate, and more than once, Isabella found him staring at her as if he were peeling back the layers of her skin.
It was a relief when Chrysander rejoined them and the conversation shifted to business. Even Piers shed his reserve and entered the fray as they argued and debated.
Marley caught Isabella’s gaze, rolled her eyes and then motioned for Isabella to follow her from the table. The men didn’t even notice when both women slipped away.
