by Annie West
He yanked his thoughts from Carter’s crimes to the man’s daughter.
She took her pretensions seriously. Or perhaps the outfit was for his benefit, though surely it wasn’t designed to please a man. Flat black shoes, black leggings and an oversized black T-shirt that gaped over one shoulder.
Definitely not Alexei’s style. He preferred a woman who dressed like a woman.
Yet even as he dismissed Carissa Carter as not his type, his gaze lingered on the length of shapely legs silhouetted in black. Long legs, the sort of legs he’d enjoy wrapped around his waist during sex.
His gaze flicked higher, skimming her slight figure. He supposed, in the right gear, she’d be a perfect clothes horse, but personally he preferred a woman whose curves were more abundant.
Then the tilt of her head altered and he found himself face-to-face with her.
She was too far away for him to make out her features properly. Just good bone structure and dark hair pulled ruthlessly back into a bun. He had the impression of a wide, mobile mouth, but he wasn’t paying attention. His thoughts were on the sudden throb pulsing through his belly.
It couldn’t be attraction. Not for the daughter of a criminal. A woman whose lifestyle had probably fed her father’s depredations. He had no proof Carissa Carter knew of her father’s crimes, but she’d benefited. Maybe she’d been in on the scheme, eager to fund her easy life in Paris. Alexei couldn’t trust her. He’d play the part of eager suitor, pretending he was in the market for a wife.
As if he needed a third party to find him a woman!
He stared back at her, expecting her to duck her head and pretend not to see him.
Instead she stood motionless, watching as if he were under the microscope. It was a curious feeling. Alexei was used to people inclining their heads in agreement or deference. Except women, who tended to stare.
Carissa’s bold regard was something altogether different. It sent heat skittering down his spine, drawing every sense to hyperalert.
Finally, after she’d looked her fill, she turned to Henri. Alexei caught a flash of white teeth as she smiled but it was the coltish grace of her movements that held his attention. There was a fluidity to her supple body that reminded him of a Russian ballet dancer with whom he’d once shared a fiery affair. Alexei recalled not only the dancer’s grace but her athleticism and body awareness that had taken sexual pleasure to a new level.
He watched Carissa Carter saunter towards his house. Shoulders back, head up, yet she didn’t march. Instead that loose-limbed stroll was a symphony of sensual femininity.
For his benefit?
Of course.
His guest might play at being the bohemian artist, but if she was her father’s daughter, she’d have her eye on the main game, getting Alexei’s money.
For the first time since he’d learned of Carter’s betrayal, Alexei smiled.
He didn’t want the woman here, except as bait to draw her father. The fact she’d accepted his summons told him she’d sell herself into marriage with a man she didn’t even know. Though she knew the size of his bank balance. That regularly featured in rich lists around the world.
It could be amusing watching her try to seduce him.
CHAPTER TWO
MINA KNEW ABOUT WEALTH. She’d been born royal. But her family riches and privilege were tied to duty, responsibility and service. The palace where she’d grown up had been the nerve centre for her country’s administration.
This was pure sybaritic indulgence.
As if it wasn’t enough to own a tropical island rimmed with beaches so white they looked like sugar frosting, Alexei Katsaros’s home was the last word in luxury. The pool wrapped around the house so every room looked out on water. There was a bar actually in the pool too, so he and his guests wouldn’t have to stir from the water to get a drink.
Four-poster daybeds were scattered around the pool, their gauzy hangings romantic and alluring. Her artist’s eye appreciated the cushions in turquoise, teal and jade that reflected the vibrant shades of the tropical garden and the sea beyond. Then there were the sculptures in pale stone, which she glimpsed through the greenery. She itched to detour and investigate.
Forcibly she yanked her attention back to the house. The huge entry door stood open. Beside her, Henri waited for her to precede him.
Strange, this momentary hesitation.
All the way from Paris she’d been buoyed by indignation on Carissa’s behalf. Now though, Mina knew an uncharacteristic moment of doubt. A wariness at odds with her practice of facing problems head-on.
Her impulsiveness, her father would have said.
Why? Mina wasn’t overawed by Katsaros’s wealth, or cowed by any threat he could make.
Yet for a moment, as her gaze locked on the big man watching her from inside, something unfamiliar quivered through her. Something starkly unsettling.
An inner voice urged her to flee while she had the chance.
Of course she lifted her chin and stared right back instead.
The bright bowl of azure sky above her seemed to drop lower, the air thickening as she drew a slow, steadying breath. Still, he held her gaze.
Her bloodstream fizzed, making her fingers and the soles of her feet tingle. For a second she wondered if she’d been hit by a bolt of lightning out of the clear sky, till reason told her that was impossible.
Deliberately she turned away, feigning interest in her surroundings. Yet the image imprinted on her retinas wasn’t the white mansion with its picture windows, but the powerfully built man whose eyes locked on her. Everything about him, from his wide-set stance to that deep, muscled chest revealed by his open shirt, screamed strength.
Well, Mina was strong too. No bossy tycoon would intimidate her.
Nodding to Henri, she headed for the door.
She was greeted by Henri’s wife, Marie, whose smiling eyes and lilting accent made Mina relax in spite of herself.
‘Alexei is eager to meet you but perhaps you’d like to freshen up first?’
Mina smiled and shook her head. The flight by private jet had been far from onerous. ‘Thank you, but no. I’m eager to meet my host.’
‘How...charming.’ The deep voice came from beyond Marie. Its cadence drew Mina’s skin tight, as if someone dragged a length of rich velvet across it. A shimmer of heat flared low in her body and she had to work to keep her expression bland.
Slowly, so slowly she seemed to feel each muscle and joint move, she turned her head towards the shadows.
Never had Mina been more grateful for her royal upbringing. She’d spent seventeen years learning to look composed and calm, even if she’d never quite mastered regal. At twelve she’d sat on podiums listening to interminable speeches. At fifteen she’d held her own at royal dinners. Her polite interest expression could fool everyone but her sister.
Which meant the man watching her through narrowed eyes had no idea she felt as if someone had sliced the tendons at the backs of her legs.
Mina’s knees shook for the merest instant before she stiffened them, but her cool smile remained steady. As for the sizzle in her blood, no one else knew about that.
She waited for him to frown and say she wasn’t Carissa Carter. Yet he simply stared down at her from his superior height. Could it really be that he didn’t know what Carissa looked like? That flaw in her plan had kept her awake on the flight from Europe. Yet, against the odds, it appeared he didn’t. So sure of himself. Arrogant enough to expect everyone to obey his every whim. So unquestioning.
Mina let her mouth curve slightly. ‘Mr Katsaros. How lovely to meet you at last.’
‘At last, Ms Carter? You’ve been waiting to meet me? Surely your trip was admirably quick?’ His hint of indolent surprise and the tilt of one slashing eyebrow gave him an air of smug superiority.
‘Oh, it was.’ Mina looked down and
flicked lint from her sleeve. ‘Admirably so. Why, I didn’t even have time to check my diary for commitments that might clash before I was whisked away. Or to arrange for someone to keep an eye on my apartment.’
She let her brow pucker in a frown. ‘I hope the fruit I bought doesn’t spoil while I’m away. And the milk.’ She let her smile widen. ‘But I understand. I’m sure you’re used to wanting something and having it happen immediately. No time to waste on boring niceties like invitations or queries about whether the dates suited me.’
Below his rumpled black hair grooves corrugated that wide brow. Mina raised her hand. ‘Not that it matters. I know how terribly valuable your time is. After all, what could I possibly have scheduled that could be nearly as important?’
From behind her Mina heard a snuffle from Henri that sounded suspiciously like a stifled laugh. Then he excused himself, murmuring something about putting her luggage away and prudently followed his wife down a corridor.
Which left Mina alone with Alexei Katsaros.
He didn’t even seem to notice Marie and Henri leave. All his attention was on Mina.
If she were in the mood to feel fear it would have swamped her now, for the man watched her with the hyperawareness of a hunter. Then there was the sheer size of him, not only tall but well-built, all muscled strength beneath those straight shoulders. She’d caught a glimpse of a well-developed chest and taut abdominals that confirmed this man did far more than sit behind a desk, making money. His thighs beneath the faded jeans were those of a skier or a horseman, honed hard and strong.
Without taking his eyes off her, he slowly finished buttoning his white shirt. Then he tucked it into his faded jeans with a casual insouciance utterly at odds with the speculative gleam in his dark eyes.
Mina’s manufactured smile solidified as he took his time shoving the material down, his hand disappearing behind the denim. For reasons she couldn’t fathom the sight of him dressing made her pulse quicken. Her palm prickled as if her own hand slid down that flat abdomen.
‘I’m sorry, did my arrival wake you?’ The snap in her words betrayed her discomfort but Mina compensated for it by slowly taking stock of his tousled black hair and the dark shadow of beard growth across that solid jaw.
His hands fell to his sides and he stepped out of the shadows. The light hit sharply defined cheekbones, a well-shaped mouth and a stern blade of nose, down which he surveyed her. Mina was reminded of precious icons she’d seen. But whereas those old saints had looked flat and unreal, this man exuded raw energy and the glint in his dark eyes was anything but unworldly. Alexei Katsaros was too...physical for sainthood. With his imposing size and posture he could model for a cavalry officer from a previous century, supercilious and deadly in a bright uniform, with a sabre at his side.
Mina repressed the warm shiver that started at the base of her spine and threatened to crawl, vertebra by vertebra, up her back.
‘You know you didn’t wake me. We watched each other.’ His voice was both rough and dangerously soothing.
Mina couldn’t explain it but he made the simple words sound almost indecent. As if they’d been naked at the time, or as if she’d watched him doing something—
‘So, you’re concerned about your groceries, is that right?’ One dark eyebrow rose and it took a second for Mina to follow the change of subject. She was still lost in a hazy daydream of Alexei Katsaros stripping his shirt away and reaching for the button on his jeans. ‘I can have one of my staff deal with your apartment, Ms Carter, since I put you to such inconvenience.’
Mina wrenched her thoughts back to the man before her. The man whose satisfied smile told her he knew he’d unsettled her. Whose tone conveyed that she’d managed to needle him with her pointed comments about being dragged away.
‘That’s very kind, Mr Katsaros.’ She blinked up at him, mimicking Carissa, then thought better of it. She’d never batted her eyelashes in her life and wasn’t about to start.
‘Something in your eye, Ms Carter?’ Not by a whisker did he betray a smile yet Mina knew he laughed at her.
To her surprise, Mina had to stifle a smirk of her own. He was right. She couldn’t pull off such feminine wiles. She was better to stick at being herself.
‘Sand, probably.’ She blinked again. ‘My own fault. I insisted on driving with the window down to enjoy the breeze.’
Carissa would have shrieked at the thought of her hair getting messed up, but Alexei Katsaros didn’t know that. Mina would have to get by with pretending to be a Mina version of Carissa. Less fluttery and uncertain, less overtly feminine, less willing to be bullied.
‘Thank you for the offer to take care of my apartment but I prefer not to have my home taken over by strangers. I’m sure you understand.’
He understood all right. His smugness fled as he registered that she referred to his staff who’d politely yet inexorably ushered her from Carissa’s flat.
‘My staff disturbed you? You felt threatened in some way?’ His voice was sharp.
Had he really thought she’d be happy, herded by armed bodyguards?
Mina remembered Carissa’s tears and frantic fear. How would she have coped, confronting those big men with cold eyes and suave suits?
They’d been impeccably solicitous but Mina read in them the same quality she’d seen in her father’s royal guards. Beneath the polish were men trained to use force. If she’d refused to go, they’d have bundled her onto that private jet without a qualm.
‘Oh, I didn’t feel at all threatened by anyone else while I was with them.’ She paused, letting him absorb her words. Would he understand they’d been the threat?
His expression didn’t alter.
Clearly he had no idea how frightening it was for a woman not used to close personal protection to have stony-faced men wearing shoulder holsters usher her into an anonymous vehicle.
Suddenly weary, Mina suppressed a sigh. What was the point? He wouldn’t care even if he understood.
‘Your staff were polite and incredibly...efficient. I’m sure no express parcel could have been delivered to your door more quickly.’
She looked away, letting her gaze rove the white marble foyer, taking in the carved Cycladic figurine in a niche on the far wall. Mina’s pulse quickened with interest but she couldn’t afford to be distracted. Slowly she turned back to her host, whose hands, she noticed, were bunched in fists at his sides.
He stepped forward and Mina’s nape prickled. This close she realised those intent eyes were a stunning dark green, opaque and intriguing. She’d never seen the like. Momentarily she was mesmerised. Then she dragged her thoughts back to their conversation.
‘I prefer to make my own arrangements, Mr Katsaros. I’m sure you understand.’
* * *
Alexei understood all right.
He was being taken to task by a woman who didn’t know she was playing with fire. Or did she believe she could set her own rules because he contemplated marriage?
That had to be it. There was no other explanation.
He’d wondered if Carter’s daughter was a spoiled princess. As far as he could tell, she’d lived for years off her father’s, and by extension his own, largesse, while enjoying a dilettante’s life.
Now he had his answer. Carissa Carter was used to getting her own way. Spoiled rotten, he had no doubt. Her father had led her to expect an advantageous match and she seemed sure it would happen.
Yet her words disturbed him. Had she really been frightened of his security staff? Alexei barely noticed them now, just considered them a normal part of life.
He stared down at the woman who continued to surprise him. It wasn’t only her plain outfit, or the accent that wasn’t quite as he’d heard it over the phone, but then there’d been interference on the line. He’d imagined someone more eager to ingratiate herself. More overtly charming.
Carissa Cart
er was more complex than he’d imagined.
She was confident yet not in the way of a woman used to trading on male admiration. She carried herself with an intrinsic elegance that, when she looked down that straight nose at him, bordered on condescension. That intrigued. As did the intelligence shining in those sherry-coloured eyes and in the snarky undercurrent of her conversation.
He’d imagined Carter’s daughter more eminently dismissible. The man had said her nature was sweet rather than incisive and that she wasn’t cut out for business. Alexei had assumed she was pretty but vacuous.
How wrong he’d been.
Nor was she as he’d expected her to look. He saw no resemblance to Carter in her dark hair, luminous eyes or expressive mouth. Her skin was golden, not pale, and she met his gaze with a direct curiosity that, at any other time, he’d appreciate.
It evoked a hungry gnawing in the pit of his belly, a reminder that, despite his preoccupation with her father, Alexei was a vigorous man with healthy appetites.
He drew a slow breath, marshalling his thoughts, and was fascinated to see that, despite her sugared verbal barbs, Carissa Carter wasn’t immune to him after all. Her eyes tracked the rise of his chest, her pupils dilating as if mesmerised. Then she blinked and turned away, feigning indifference.
Satisfaction stirred. He’d disliked her jabs about the way he’d got her here, had even felt a stirring of remorse. Seeing that chink in her armour pleased him.
‘How remiss of me to keep a guest standing in the foyer.’ Alexei smiled and watched a tiny wrinkle appear above the bridge of her nose, as if she concentrated on not reacting. Fascinating.
‘Won’t you come in?’ He stood aside and gestured for her to precede him into the main sitting room.
‘Thank you.’ She inclined her head in the slightest nod.
Alexei caught a hint of perfume as she passed. Another surprise. He’d expected some expensive designer scent but this was one he’d never encountered. Instead of florals or cloying sweetness, she’d chosen a fragrance that hinted at the exotic Near East. Alexei inhaled cinnamon and spice and a warm, earthy richness that made him think, bizarrely, of veiled temptresses in gauzy silks. He canted towards her.
