The Greek's Forbidden Innocent

by Annie West

  Excitement eddied deep inside at his possessiveness. It should annoy her. It did. And yet...

  Heat flushed her throat and breasts as she recalled the weight of his erection. The way she’d ground herself against his thigh, trying to ease the desperate ache between her legs. The way one kiss had made her cast aside a lifetime’s caution.

  Maybe she was sex-starved after all. In twenty-two years she’d never felt anything like this compulsion. No man had come close to breaking her absorption in her art and arousing such fire.

  ‘Don’t call me Princess. I don’t like it.’

  Those expressive eyebrows lifted higher as if he were surprised she’d choose that to complain about. But the way Alexei said it in that deep, roughened voice cut too close to the real Mina.

  In her youth she’d chafed at the title ‘Princess,’ for it encompassed all the restrictions placed on her life by her father and her birth. Yet it was indelibly, undeniably hers, something she could never erase, though she didn’t use it.

  Hearing it now, from this big bear of a man who smashed through all the layers of civilisation and control she’d built up over a lifetime, evoked an atavistic fear that he knew her as no one else did. That he recognised the real Mina. More, that the wild, reckless woman who’d lost her mind and her self-respect when he kissed her, was the real Mina.

  Her jumbled thoughts were crazy, surely, yet she had to put at least an illusion of distance between them. Hearing him use her title, even if he didn’t know how apt it was, made her feel he saw past her attempts to be indomitable.

  Besides, the cynical way he said it made her shiver thinking of his retribution once he learned the truth.

  ‘Then of course I won’t call you that. Carissa.’

  The name was a deliberate caress, the soft sibilant curling around her vital organs like a silken cord.

  The terrible knowledge hit that Mina wanted to hear him say her real name like that. Not that it was nearly as musical. It was plain and ordinary, but the longing to hear it on his tongue was almost overpowering.

  She folded her arms across her chest and stumbled back a step. He’d see that as proof of weakness but that wasn’t as important as retaining her sanity.

  What had he done to her?

  How had a kiss tumbled her defences and addled her brain?

  But it had been more than a kiss.

  It had been momentous. Life-changing. Mina felt as if she’d woken from a dream to a new world where everything took on a sharp clarity. Where every sense was heightened and alert. Where light and shadow were more defined, colour brighter, feelings more vivid.

  She hefted a deep breath, saw his eyes flicker on the movement and angled her chin.

  Weakened she might be, but she was no pushover.

  ‘I’m sorry if my response just now misled you, Alexei.’ She faced his stare head-on, telling herself this was nothing compared to challenges she’d faced as a royal. Except then she’d been confident in her own abilities. Now, suddenly, she realised she wasn’t as strong as she’d believed. This man made her feel unexpectedly weak. ‘But I’m serious. I don’t want marriage.’

  He folded his arms over his chest, the movement mirroring her posture. Yet on him the gesture was challenging rather than self-protective. She watched his biceps bulge and tried not to remember the iron-hard strength of his embrace. His virile power had been part of the magic she’d felt in his arms.

  ‘So what do you want? An affair?’

  ‘No!’ Mina heard the shock in her voice and gave up any hope of pretending to be insouciant. ‘My response was...a mistake.’

  ‘A mistake?’

  ‘You’re a very persuasive kisser.’ She refused to look away, despite the heat warming her face. ‘But I’ve decided I’m not ready to settle down and marry.’

  Mina paused, waiting for him to respond but Alexei said nothing. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you. But it’s better to know now than later.’ She drew a slow breath, annoyance rising at his continued silence. ‘In the circumstances I’d like to return to Paris.’

  ‘That’s not possible.’

  ‘Not possible? Is there a problem with the plane?’

  Alexei shook his head. ‘I need you here until your father arrives.’

  ‘Sorry?’ Still dealing with shock at her physical response to Alexei, Mina found it hard to grasp his meaning.

  ‘Have you heard from him recently?’

  Mina frowned. ‘Heard from him?’

  ‘A phone call? Text or email?’

  She shook her head.

  That shadowy green gaze bored into her but now he didn’t bother to hide his expression. It was sharp with disbelief. With distrust.

  ‘It’s true!’ Mina had been thankful Carissa’s father hadn’t arrived, because it delayed the moment of her unmasking, giving her friend time to get away with Pierre. Now Mina’s stomach sank and her skin tightened. She had a bad feeling that this situation was more complex and fraught than she’d suspected. What had she walked into?

  ‘Then lend me your phone. I’ll check the number I have for him. Clearly the one I’ve got is wrong. It’s vital I contact him.’

  Mina bit her lip. This conversation got odder and odder. But she could hardly refuse. ‘I’ll write it down for you.’ She’d have to get it from Carissa.

  ‘Hand over the phone, Carissa. That will do.’

  There was something about the way he spoke, the air of ruthless command that sent warning cresting through her. Something was very wrong.

  Drawing on years of royal training, she masked her tension. ‘Of course. I’ll go and get it now.’

  She felt his suspicion like tiny pinpricks on her skin but eventually he inclined his head and relief juddered through her. For a moment she’d thought he’d insist on walking her back to her room.

  Mina turned away, forcing herself not to run. But all the way to the house she felt shaky. From the sudden sense of foreboding when Carissa’s father had been mentioned? Or from that kiss?

  In her room she turned the latch to lock her door and sagged against it, knees wobbly with reaction. But she had no time to waste.

  Seconds later she had the phone in her hand, punching out Carissa’s number. But her relief when her friend picked up was short-lived. Mina recognised the panic in Carissa’s voice as she admitted she hadn’t heard from her father. It wasn’t like him to be out of contact so long. Worse, Pierre had rung again to confirm he wouldn’t be back in Paris for two days. Could Mina hold out till then?

  Mina pressed a hand to her forehead, her thoughts frantic. Two more days here wouldn’t affect her work schedule too much. But did she really want to stay with Alexei Katsaros? Especially now the stakes seemed infinitely higher. What had started as a defiant plan to save her friend grew tangled and risky.

  Then Carissa sniffed and said Mina should tell Alexei the truth. She’d done more than enough and it was time Carissa fought her own battles.

  Mina was tempted to agree.

  Except Carissa would be bulldozed by Alexei. She’d be cowed and if not browbeaten then emotionally blackmailed into doing what her father and Alexei wanted. Could Mina stand by and see that happen to her dear friend?

  There was even a part of her that protested at the idea of Alexei with Carissa, not for Carissa’s sake but Mina’s.

  Where had that come from?

  Mina drew a steadying breath and thrust aside the wayward thought. She warned Carissa to move out of her apartment as a precaution, in case the masquerade came unstuck and Alexei came looking for her.

  Then she ended the call and stared at the phone in her hand. If she was to play this role any longer she couldn’t let Alexei see her call history or contacts. It would be obvious she wasn’t Carissa.

  Which meant refusing to hand over her phone.

  Adrenalin rushed her bloodstream
at the thought of Alexei discovering the truth. But there was no other option.

  All she had to do was hold out for a couple more days.

  A rap on her door made her stiffen.

  ‘Carissa?’

  Mina’s heart thumped and she knew a craven desire to admit defeat. To open the door and tell him everything.

  Except Carissa relied on her. Carissa, who’d been there when Mina was desperately homesick and convinced she’d never make it as an artist. Carissa, whose warm, gentle nature made her the best friend Mina had ever had. The only real friend, since all the people she’d mixed with in Jeirut had been hand-picked by her father.

  Carissa didn’t care about her royal status. She liked Mina for herself. She was genuine and caring and Mina refused to see her throw her happiness away for some moody tycoon.

  Mina breathed deep and tiptoed to the glass door that led outside.

  Behind her the door rattled. ‘Carissa?’

  The sound sent her catapulting into the garden, eyes on the path to the beach, her phone gripped in one clammy hand.

  He wouldn’t be happy. In fact, Alexei would be furious. The thought lent her speed, though of course there was no real escape. The best she could do was ensure he didn’t discover she wasn’t Carissa. It still amazed her that he hadn’t bothered to check her photo. No one but the immigration official had bothered to view her passport.

  Her stride slowed as she approached the beach. Did she really mean to—

  A rhythmic thudding reached her ears. Louder than her pumping heart. Mina looked over her shoulder and saw Alexei covering the ground between them in long strides. For a second, a primitive thrill of fear engulfed her, freezing her limbs. But Mina was no cornered prey. Her hand tightened on the phone. Then she turned, hauling her arm back and letting go.

  Alexei grabbed her arm a moment too late. She heard his rough breathing, felt the clamp of his fingers on her wrist and the heat of his massive frame behind her as the phone arced over the water and disappeared into the endless azure sea.

  The die was cast.

  * * *

  With a sense of disbelief, Alexei watched the phone plummet into the sea.

  He’d almost convinced himself that despite her contrariness Carissa was an innocent pawn in her father’s scheme.

  Because her kiss blew you away.

  A kiss meant nothing. Logically he knew that, yet Alexei had been close to believing in her.

  Because he’d wanted her since she stepped across his threshold. Her feisty attitude and subtle sexiness were a unique turn-on, especially combined with that indefinable sense of connection, as if behind the charades they played he knew her and she him. As if at a level so deep it defied logic, they understood each other.

  When they’d kissed it was combustible. He’d been combustible.

  She’d been far more than he expected. Responsive. Blatantly hungry for him, wildly passionate and yet, when he’d first tasted her he’d sensed a hesitance that felt almost like innocence.

  Innocence! She was in cahoots with her thieving father. She was messing with his mind.

  ‘You’re so desperate that I don’t contact your father?’ He slid his free arm around her waist, holding her back against him in a travesty of the passionate embrace they’d shared on this very beach.

  Now the passions he felt were fury and jarring disappointment. He’d actually wanted to believe in Carissa.

  Because you want her in your bed. You’d begun to trust her. Even now, knowing she’s part of his scam, you can’t turn off your hunger.

  It was true. His arm around her middle wasn’t lover-like and his grip on her wrist was unbreakable, yet his body reacted to the soft pressure of her rump against him, the underside of her breasts brushing his arm and the scent of her hair teasing his nostrils.

  If anything, ire hiked his arousal higher. His sharpened senses picked up her ragged breathing and her quick, thrumming pulse and the tension of her muscles, as if she waited for him to slacken his hold so she could run.

  There was nowhere she could go that he wouldn’t find her.

  Suddenly, their situation took on a whole new, delectable piquancy.

  ‘I didn’t want you prying into my private messages.’ Her voice was choppy, and Alexei felt as well as heard her harsh breathing.

  ‘Why’s that, Carissa? Have you been sexting with your French boyfriend?’

  Her hissed breath confirmed it. Alexei’s constraining arm tightened. At the idea of her sharing erotic messages and images with another man?

  Impossible.

  Yet he felt a deep satisfaction that while she was on his island she’d have to devote all her attention to him. There’d be no other men in her life.

  ‘You know about him?’ Her voice was wary.

  ‘Was he supposed to be a secret?’ Of course he was. She’d even faked a show of tremulous innocence when her lips met his. Not that it had lasted.

  ‘My messages are my affair. You have no right to pry. You’re a bully.’

  She yanked her arm, trying to free it. The movement was so violent it slammed her into even more intimate contact with Alexei’s hardening body. Flame shot through him as she rubbed against his groin.

  Carissa froze, her breath a shocked hiss. He felt the pulse at her wrist sprint out of control as if she only now realised how intimately close they stood.

  ‘You think I care about seeing your nude photos? All I want is to bring your father out of hiding.’

  ‘Hiding? What are you talking about?’

  Alexei applauded her acting skills. She sounded confused rather than guilty. ‘Spare me the dramatics. Only a woman desperate to hide the truth would pitch her phone. You’re in this with your father.’ He hadn’t quite believed she’d do it, even as she drew her arm back in that perfect curve. ‘You’ve just proved it.’

  She was silent for so long he wondered if she were about to admit defeat till she said in a completely different tone, ‘In what?’

  Furious and sick of her lies, he spun her round, his hands on her narrow waist.

  Yet, reading her expression, Alexei felt a splinter of doubt.

  ‘What has he done?’ Instead of avoiding his stare, she peered up at him, a tiny wrinkle between her eyebrows, her look searching.

  Probably hoping to pretend that she didn’t know.

  ‘Embezzled a fortune. And that’s just the funds he’s stolen in the last couple of months. Who knows what the total is in the years he’s worked for me?’ Alexei spoke through clamped teeth, watching her eyes grow wide.

  He’d thought his financial systems the best. The rigorous accounting and auditing processes were held up as the gold standard. But when the man who designed them was the one with his fingers in the till...

  ‘You’re sure?’ Carissa looked the picture of shock. He felt a tremor pass through her and held her more firmly, telling himself he didn’t want her pretending to faint. It wasn’t dramatics he wanted but retribution.

  ‘Absolutely. There’s a complete audit underway. You can be sure it will uncover every cent he’s stolen. Including the money that’s supported your party lifestyle while you pretend to be an artist.’

  The fact some of the stolen money had funded this woman’s taste for idle self-gratification twisted the knife. Alexei had laboured hard for everything he possessed. It had been tough, especially scraping together capital to invest in his first innovative software package when he’d had no track record and only a mediocre education. He hadn’t even had a permanent roof over his head.

  Nothing had been handed to him. And he knew all about leeches who fattened themselves by living off the hard work of others.

  Yet he’d allowed himself to be conned by Carter.

  He stared down into soft brown eyes and knew they lied. His voice held bitter amusement. ‘After this you’ll have to
work for a living like the rest of us. That will be a novel experience for you.’

  * * *

  Now Mina understood the rage flaring in that deep green gaze, the snap of his words and the harsh jut of his chin. It was like staring into the boiling heart of a volcano.

  The raw quality of his emotion should unnerve her. Yet at the same time, that elemental ferocity drew her.

  Was she mad?

  Her father had always said she was reckless, yet there was something so vital about Alexei in this moment. Even as she warned herself to be careful, her artist’s eye was busy cataloguing the changes in him, the way potent masculine anger imbued every sharp angle and bunched muscle.

  Already his hold on her waist loosened. Was she ridiculously naive? Yet the vibe she picked up from Alexei was the same as she got from her brother-in-law, Huseyn. When he’d first appeared, Huseyn had been the enemy, storming in to snatch the kingdom and her sister in marriage. Big, abrupt and deliberately provoking, he’d nevertheless proved appearances wrong. He’d turned out to be a devoted family man and an unobtrusively kind brother-in-law, whose bark was worse than his bite, at least with those he cared for.

  Was Alexei like him? Or did her instinct lie because she was attracted? And because she battled a compulsion to commit that sparking, urgent energy to paper? Mina wanted to capture his aura of power.

  Almost as much as she wanted that energy focused on kissing her again.

  She blinked. She couldn’t take her safety for granted.

  ‘Do you plan to hurt me because of him?’ Mina had no idea if confronting Alexei directly was the right approach but she had to know.

  His head reared back, a scowl settling on his forehead. ‘I suppose you’ll find it tough to work for a living instead of living off your father’s ill-gotten gains. But I’d hardly call that hurting.’

  ‘I mean, are you so angry you’ll hurt me.’

  She saw the moment her meaning registered. Alexei’s instinctive recoil and the horror in his eyes.