by Sarah Morgan
Despite everything that he’d done to her, to them, he’d never left her life. He’d always been there, lurking in the shadows of her mind, influencing her feelings and her decisions. The way she led her life.
Finally he slid a possessive arm around her and led her towards the waiting car.
A few hovering photographers rushed towards them but this time Zander didn’t break his stride, keeping her hand clasped firmly in his as he flashed them a charismatic smile and tossed them a remark that brought instant laughter.
There wasn’t a person he couldn’t charm if he wanted to, she reflected helplessly as she allowed herself to be bustled into the car. He used his charm like a weapon, to be turned on when necessary.
‘So—’ he loosened his tie and relaxed back in his seat ‘—did you enjoy the film?’
For a moment she just stared at him blankly, mesmerised by the wicked smile playing around his firm mouth. She hadn’t watched any of the film and he knew it.
‘I—’ She searched her brain for a suitably neutral answer. ‘It was beautifully filmed.’
‘Unbelievably tense, didn’t you think?’ His voice was suddenly soft and her heart started to thud.
‘Y-yes.’
‘And exciting—’ His eyes dropped to her mouth and she knew for sure that he wasn’t talking about the film.
‘Zander—’
His gaze was curiously intent as he studied her mouth. ‘And finally the time has come for us to stop playing games, agape mou.’
‘Games?’
He dragged shimmering dark eyes up to hers. ‘There is only so much foreplay that a guy can stand,’ he said huskily, his voice impossibly sexy, ‘and after the past two weeks I’m reaching that limit.’
So was she.
Which was why it was such a good thing that he was leaving. It would prevent her doing something that she’d end up regretting for the rest of her life.
Zander Volakis was like a drug. She’d kicked the habit once but now she’d had another taste the craving was stronger than ever. She needed to get away from him before she tumbled back into the abyss.
‘Then perhaps it’s a good job that our project is finished.’
He didn’t move, his powerful frame still as he sat watching her, his dark eyes glittering with amusement and another emotion that made her heart race. ‘It isn’t finished.’
What did he mean, the job wasn’t finished? ‘We’ve saturated the media. There’s absolutely nothing more we can do in the short term.’
‘I’m not talking about the media. Thanks to the work you did, Kouropoulos is willing to meet. I’m flying out to Greece tonight.’
She stared at him, uncomprehending, wondering what his travel arrangements had to do with her. ‘So you’ve achieved what you wanted—’
‘Not quite.’ His voice was soft. ‘The biggest challenge is still to come. Persuading him to sell to me.’
Her heart was thumping so hard she could hardly concentrate. ‘And what’s that got to do with me?’
‘Everything. You’re going to come with me to Blue Cove Island, agape mou,’ he said smoothly, lifting a hand and toying with a strand of blonde hair that had escaped from the pins on the back of her head. ‘You’re going to come as my wife, persuade Kouropoulos that I’m a warm, caring guy who can be trusted with his precious legacy. You’re coming with me to Greece.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
HAVING made that announcement Zander lounged back in his seat, wondering at exactly what point he’d lost his sense of reason. His lawyer was right when he said that taking Lauranne could jeopardise the whole deal. They’d all worked long months to get to this point and he was about to put all of it at risk for a woman.
A woman who’d betrayed him.
For only the second time in his life he was at a loss to understand his own actions.
The first had been when he’d married her.
He watched through narrowed eyes as she scooted as far away from him as possible.
‘There’s no way I’m going with you to Greece.’
This was his chance to change his mind about taking her. This was the time for reason to prevail, but her panicked refusal simply doubled his determination to take her. Ignoring all the finely tuned instincts that had made him a billionaire by the time he was thirty, and which were now warning him that this was a mistake of monumental proportions, Zander stepped up the pressure.
‘You’re in my car and we’re already on our way to the airport.’
‘Zander, no!’ Her denial was hotly passionate but he heard the shake in her voice and saw the longing in her blue eyes.
‘It’s a perfect opportunity to mix business with pleasure,’ he said frankly, trying logic as his first approach.
‘You can’t possibly believe that you really need me to negotiate the deal with this K-K—’
‘Kouropoulos,’ Zander supplied helpfully. ‘His name is Theo Kouropoulos.’
And he knew he didn’t need her for the deal. Negotiating impossible deals was one of the reasons he was in business. In fact, having her there was probably the single most stupid thing he’d ever done and at the moment he didn’t want to question his actions too closely.
Her eyes fixed on his. ‘You promised me a divorce, Zander—’
The mere mention of their disastrous marriage should have been enough to stifle his libido but it seemed to have no effect whatsoever. Whenever he was this close to Lauranne, his brain ceased to function.
He studied her closely, noting her flushed cheeks and the hardness of her nipples pressing against the silky fabric of her dress. His body tightened in a supremely male reaction and suddenly he didn’t even want to think about divorce. In fact he wasn’t capable of thinking of anything. He just wanted her in his bed. ‘This has nothing to do with our marriage. It has to do with the fact that we still want each other. Stop fighting me, Lauranne.’
‘I want you to take me home,’ she said hoarsely, her hands clasped firmly in her lap. ‘Now.’
Forced to admit that logic didn’t seem to be working as well as it might, Zander switched tactics with smooth efficiency, sliding along the seat so that she was forced into contact with his body.
Lifting her chin with his fingers, he stared into her eyes. ‘I still want you more than I’ve ever wanted a woman,’ he husked. ‘I burn for you, agape mou, and, frankly, Kouropoulos will only have to see me with you to know that our relationship is totally genuine.’
He saw the confusion in her eyes and lowered his head, using the most effective weapon of all. Himself.
He took her mouth and felt her moan against him, her tongue flickering out to meet his as he kissed her gently. With considerable difficulty he lifted his head so that he could continue the battle. ‘What we have is so powerful. Why are you fighting it?’
His hand was locked in her hair and he could see a pulse beating frantically in her smooth throat.
‘Because I have to.’ Her voice was little more than a whisper and he could see the indecision in her eyes. ‘It wouldn’t work, Zander.’
‘You and me on a Greek Island with no Farrer.’ He gave a wry smile, watching her face. ‘Trust me, Anni, it will work.’
He could read the conflict in her expression, the stubborn lift of her chin at odds with the flame in her blue eyes. She was a woman of contrasts. Soft and gentle mixed with sparky and sharp.
And he wanted her so much it was starting to drive him crazy. Lauranne was the only woman who’d ever played these games with him. Other members of her sex were prepared to fall into his bed with almost exasperating ease, but Lauranne had to fight him every inch of the way and the challenge seemed only to intensify the aching throb of his erection.
His gaze burned into hers. ‘We have things to sort out, and I want to sort them out away from Farrer—’
She closed her eyes and he saw the faint colour on her cheekbones.
‘Zander, please—’
‘Theos mou, why are we playing these stupid games?
’ he said savagely. ‘We both know what we want.’
‘No!’ But her denial held no conviction, the longing in her eyes at odds with the words she spoke. ‘We can’t do this—’
‘We can,’ he promised, bringing his mouth down on hers with a groan of pleasure, his tongue finding hers, tasting and teasing until she finally gave in to the fire, leaning into him, sliding her arms around his neck.
His whole body throbbed with the intensity of a desire that he had never experienced before and he dragged at the clip holding her hair, feeling it slide over his arm in a whisper of soft silk.
‘Anni—’ He’d planned to wait until they reached Greece, but suddenly the back of his car seemed increasingly appealing. He felt her slenderness, her warmth, the way she trembled against him, but just as he decided that the venue really wasn’t important she pushed hard against his chest.
He shifted slightly to give her space, his hand still locked in her hair, his breathing unsteady as he stared down into her shocked, wary eyes.
‘You hurt me, Zander.’
‘You hurt me, too.’ His hand tightened in her silken hair, his voice fierce. ‘It’s in the past.’
‘I can’t do it again.’
He saw the sheen of tears in her eyes and felt himself tense in shock.
‘Anni—’ He looked at her uncertainly, feeling distinctly out of his depth for the first time in his life. He’d never seen Lauranne cry before. She wasn’t that sort of woman. For once all his legendary skill at negotiation deserted him.
‘I didn’t sleep with Tom!’
He gave a growl of frustration. The mere thought of her being with Tom made him want to smash something. ‘I told you, it’s in the past.’ His tone was fierce as his eyes raked her flushed face. ‘We don’t mention it again.’
‘But—’
‘Come with me.’ He didn’t want to listen to her denials. He didn’t want to think about it at all. ‘It’s what I want and it’s what you want too.’
She gave a whimper and arched upwards, seeking his kiss again, but he kept himself just out of reach, gritting his teeth as he tried to ignore the extreme reaction of his body. ‘If you want me, Anni, you drop this pretence and come with me. And you do it of your own free will—’
Her eyes clung to his and he watched the conflict of emotions flitting through her brain—desire, fear, confusion. He held her gaze, refusing to allow her to look away.
Her soft ‘yes’ was barely audible but it was the answer he wanted and he experienced the same rush of triumph that he always felt when he emerged successful from another particularly difficult negotiation.
With a groan of relief he lowered his head and kissed her soft mouth gently.
‘This time it will be so good between us, agape mou—’
The touch of her mouth against his tested his self-control to intolerable levels and he pulled away with difficulty, sliding back across the seat with a rueful expression on his face.
‘I have never felt so out of control with a woman,’ he groaned, the admission doing very little for his ego. ‘I want you all the time, everywhere, no matter how inappropriate.’
He watched the colour spill into her cheeks and the shy glance that she cast in his direction.
Anticipation throbbed between them and he gave a wry smile.
‘I hope Kouropoulos isn’t expecting to get much sense out of me. My main objective of going to his wretched island is to spend some time alone with you.’
The realisation that there was a strong degree of truth in that statement shocked him to an uncomfortable degree.
Suddenly something that he’d worked towards for months seemed less important and he struggled to justify such an uncharacteristic shift in his priorities. It was just sexual frustration, he brooded, coming up with the only possible answer. He’d never been this hot for a woman and he’d never had to wait this long for satisfaction.
And maybe there was an element of competition involved, he conceded grimly, his thoughts drifting to Farrer. It gave him considerable satisfaction to contemplate the fact that, after he’d finished with her, she wouldn’t have the energy to crawl from his bed, let alone dream about Farrer.
Satisfied with that perfectly reasonable interpretation of his current state of mind, Zander pushed thoughts of his unsettling and decidedly unusual behaviour away and instead concentrated all his attentions on the woman sitting next to him.
Only she held the key to restoring his normal peace of mind.
She gave a hesitant smile and then reached into her tiny bag for her mobile phone. ‘I’d better call Tom and tell him I won’t be coming back to the office this week—’
‘No.’ Zander stretched out a lean brown hand and grabbed the phone from her, his expression distinctly cool. ‘You can call him from Greece.’
There was no way he was allowing her to talk to Farrer before she climbed into his plane.
Fortunately he was assisted in this plan by their arrival at the airport.
He gestured outside the car. ‘I don’t want to keep my pilot waiting.’
He saw her eyes widen with shock. ‘You were serious about the airport? But I haven’t even packed any clothes—’
He resisted the temptation to point out that she wasn’t going to need clothes for what he had in mind.
‘I’ll arrange something,’ he said tactfully, urging her out of the car and into the plane with a haste that had nothing to do with his travelling schedule and everything to do with his ravenous libido.
He couldn’t believe that he’d actually managed to get her this far and he was absolutely determined that nothing was going to interfere with his plans this time.
* * *
Lauranne stepped out of the car and then stopped dead, staring at the plane in front of her.
It carried the Volakis logo, another blatant reminder of just how staggeringly wealthy this man was.
What was she doing?
When they’d been together five years before she’d somehow managed to shelve the whole question of his wealth. For most of the time they’d just been two people on a beach holiday, and then for the short time they were married. But somehow she’d managed to separate Volakis the billionaire from the man she’d been crazily in love with.
‘What’s the matter?’ He paused beside her, his dark eyes searching. And then he smiled the same smile that had eroded her resistance five years earlier. It was a smile that reassured, seduced and charmed all at the same time. A smile from which there was no escape.
She should be insisting on a divorce and heading back into London to the safety of her flat, instead of which she was willing to follow him to the moon.
He urged her up the steps and onto the plane, nodding briefly to the pretty stewardess who greeted them at the door of the aircraft.
She settled herself into one of the wide leather seats while Zander spoke a few words to his pilot and then strolled back to join her, relaxed and impossibly handsome in evening dress. He’d removed his bow-tie in the car and dark hairs clustered at the open neck of his shirt, offering a tantalising glimpse of the very male body concealed by the suit.
He sprawled in the seat next to her and she was painfully conscious of every inch of him, of the dark stubble hazing his arrogant jaw and the restless energy emanating from his powerful frame.
He wore his sexuality like a brand, a fact that obviously hadn’t escaped the air stewardess, if the longing looks were anything to go by.
What was she thinking? Lauranne wondered.
She must have seen a steady stream of women pass by on Zander’s arm. Perhaps she’d even been one of them.
‘No. Never. Not even close.’ Zander’s voice was silky smooth and she turned to him in shock, her mind still elsewhere.
‘What?’
‘You were wondering whether I’ve ever had a relationship with her, weren’t you?’
‘I—I—’
He lifted a hand and stroked her blonde hair away from her face. ‘The
answer is never.’
‘She’s looking at me—’ Hating herself for not playing it cool, Lauranne couldn’t hide her insecurity. ‘She’s thinking that I’m the next one in a long line—’
He gave a wry smile. ‘On the contrary, she’s thinking that you’re the first woman I’ve ever brought on this plane.’
She stared at him. ‘The first woman?’
He gave a short laugh and his hand dropped to his side. ‘By tomorrow the news of my deep involvement with you will be all over Greece and the international press.’
‘You’ve never taken a woman on this plane before?’
‘I can usually think of more entertaining ways of spending an evening,’ he drawled, his eyes alight with amusement as he watched her face change. ‘You are amazingly transparent, agape mou. And I love it that you’re so jealous.’
‘I’m not jealous.’
He smiled an infuriating smile. ‘No?’ The smile faded and his expression was suddenly curiously intent. ‘This plane is nothing more than a convenient mode of transport. Usually I am working when I fly. It certainly isn’t some sort of airborne love-nest.’
The desire to tease him overwhelmed her. ‘What, never, Zander?’
His eyes gleamed in recognition of the challenge. ‘Not so far. Perhaps we’re about to change all that.’
Suddenly realising just how dangerous it was to tease a man like Zander, she backed off. ‘I was joking.’
‘So was I. For what I have in mind I definitely don’t want to be in the air.’ His voice was a lethal purr that stroked her nerve endings and made her shiver with anticipation. ‘I think we might create a significant amount of turbulence.’
She blushed, heat flaring in her pelvis as she clashed with dark eyes glittering with a sexual promise that made her breath catch in fevered anticipation.
‘Perhaps you’d better tell me something about this deal,’ she said hastily. ‘If I’m supposed to play a part, then you’d better brief me.’
His eyes raked her flushed cheeks and then dropped to her mouth. ‘Coward.’
