by Sarah Morgan
‘No, agape mou.’ Controlling the car with smooth precision, Nikos executed a perfect U-turn and headed away from the harbour. ‘I’m staying with the mother of my child. So where are we living at the moment?’
CHAPTER THREE
A CANAL boat?
She was living alone on a canal boat?
A torch in his teeth and a sleeping woman in his arms, Nikos cursed mentally, wondering how people who were not blessed with long legs managed to stretch the distance between the bank and the deck.
The hazards were too numerous to be counted.
The towpath that led from the boat to the road was unlit and overgrown, and the thought of who might be lurking in the shadows watching a woman on her own on a boat brought him out in goose-bumps.
Why had she chosen to live in a place like this?
What was she trying to prove?
Following the directions she’d drowsily given him before she’d fallen asleep, he’d parked in a deserted picnic spot next to the towpath and then walked the remaining distance to the boat, his tension mounting with every stride.
It was a security nightmare, and she was living alone.
Tomorrow he’d move her out of here, he vowed swiftly.
The scent of her blonde hair teased his senses and Nikos gritted his teeth as he unlocked the door and ducked down into the boat with her still in his arms.
Despite his efforts he still smacked his head hard on the top of the door and grunted in pain as he flashed the torch around the interior of the boat.
He needed lights. Did a boat like this one have lights?
Aware that he was less than three centimetres away from being knocked unconscious on the roof, Nikos placed her gently on the sofa.
The thought of her living somewhere so isolated brought him out in a cold sweat and he made a mental note never to let her spend five minutes on her own here again. And if that meant moving into this floating equivalent of a suitcase, then so be it.
With a grim sense of purpose he found a light and switched it on, his impression of the place not improving as an army of insects from the river swarmed towards the glow. Closing the doors, he strode down the length of the boat, cast an appalled glance at the small double bed wedged in between two cupboards and gazed in disbelief at the small bath.
How was a guy supposed to wash in that?’
Deciding that the bed should just be able to accommodate his six-foot-three frame if he slept diagonally, Nikos returned to the living area, carefully scooped Ella into his arms and transferred her onto the more comfortable mattress.
Still she didn’t wake and he shrugged off his jacket and hooked it carelessly over the corner of a convenient door, his eyes scanning her pale face and the dark shadows under her eyes, the result, he presumed, of either the pregnancy or stress or both.
Recalling her stricken expression as dressings and instruments had slipped from her shaking fingers, Nikos experienced an uncomfortable surge of guilt as he acknowledged the role he’d played in raising her stress levels.
So much for being calm and rational.
All his intentions about not losing his temper had flown out of the window when he’d seen her. He was still angry, but now the anger was permeated with a very different emotion, and it was that emotion that made him bend down and gently ease off her shoes and cover her sleeping form with a blanket.
She was trying to shut him out, but she wasn’t going to succeed.
As far as he was concerned, this situation could only have one outcome.
‘Ella?’ He spoke her name roughly but still she didn’t stir, her lashes forming perfect crescents on her pale cheeks, her pink lips slightly parted as she slept.
Discovering that his skills at undressing a woman didn’t extend to the sleeping variety, it took Nikos endless minutes and much personal frustration to part her lush body from her clothes. Deciding that removing her underwear wouldn’t earn him any thanks, he slid the covers over her.
Then he emptied the pockets of his jacket, undressed swiftly and slid into the bed next to her, gently shifting her position so that there was room for both of them.
In sleep she nestled against him and he tensed as he felt the instant, fierce response of his body.
This was the reason he’d ended their relationship.
His feelings for her had been growing and he’d promised himself that that was never going to happen to him again.
But that was before he’d discovered that she was having his baby.
That changed everything.
Ella woke to the sound of ducks and the glare of sunlight. For a moment she just lay there, smiling sleepily to herself, the sounds of nature acting like a sedative.
Gradually her brain returned to consciousness and she was dimly aware that her hand felt strange. Turning her head slightly, she realised that she was lying against a strong male shoulder and that Nikos was sprawled next to her, the tangle of bedcovers revealing tantalising glimpses of his gloriously naked body.
‘Nikos?! What are you doing in my bed?’ Aghast, she sat up instantly, clutching the sheet against her. ‘Get out of here!’
‘Go back to sleep.’
His eyes remained closed and she was temporarily distracted by his thick, dark eyelashes. Even half-asleep he was extravagantly handsome, his hard jaw darkened by stubble, his mouth a firm, sensual line in a face that might have been designed by the gods to tempt a woman to ditch common sense and morals and live for the moment.
Oh, God, no wonder she’d abandoned years of caution.
A dangerous weakness spread through her limbs and she desperately tried to summon up the anger that she’d felt for the last four months.
Lies, she reminded herself. Lies, lies and more lies.
All right, so technically he wasn’t married. But there was still the fact that he hadn’t told her the truth about himself, not to mention his reputation for never becoming involved with women.
‘Get out of my bed, Nikos.’ She spoke through gritted teeth and he gave a slow, confident smile.
‘Why? Don’t you trust yourself to be this close to me? I thought we were over. I thought you didn’t feel anything for me any more, agape mou.’
‘I was wrong about that.’ Ella tugged at the sheet, covering herself. ‘I do feel something. I feel like thumping you. Hard.’
‘You already did that.’ His eyes opened. ‘If you’re planning to do it again, don’t use your left hand. You might do me serious injury.’
Puzzled, not understanding his comment, she glanced down at her left hand and stopped breathing. A ring sparkled and gleamed in the early morning sunlight—a beautiful diamond, so large that Ella just stared at it in disbelief.
‘What,’ she muttered faintly, ‘is that?’
No wonder her hand had felt strange. She was carrying the equivalent of half her body weight on her ring finger.
‘It’s a ring.’ He raised himself on his elbows, the muscles in his powerful shoulders flexing as he supported his weight. ‘My ring. You will wear it.’
‘Why would I want to do that? You may not be married, Nikos, but I’m still not interested.’
‘You’re having my baby. You’ll wear the ring.’ Nikos leaned back against the pillows, sickeningly handsome and incredibly sure of himself. ‘It will keep other men at a distance while I make the necessary arrangements for our wedding.’ He spoke in such a cool, factual tone that she mentally reran his words through her head a second time, sure that she must have misunderstood him.
Wedding? ‘Did you say wedding? You have to be kidding. You’re asking me to marry you?’
‘Why else would I have put a rare diamond on your finger?’
‘I’ve no idea. To be flashy, I suppose. Because your billionaire secret is out of the bag? And because it’s easier to buy a gift than have a conversation?’ Genuinely shocked, Ella scooted away from him, her mouth so dry she could hardly speak. ‘Nikos, how can you possibly propose to me after everything that has happened
?’
‘Why not?’
He was proposing to her?
How many times had she lain there at night, imagining this exact scenario?
How many times during their blissful six months had she dreamt about him asking her to marry him?
More times than she could count.
And then that dream had been blown away by the discovery that he had a wife. Only, she knew now that he didn’t.
She could just say yes, she thought weakly, and for a moment temptation was there, dangled in front of her in the form of this undeniably gorgeous man whom she adored. She could ignore everything that had happened, say yes and her dream would become reality.
Except that it wouldn’t, would it?
Her dream had never been about wearing a rock on her finger or choosing a frothy wedding dress. Her dream hadn’t been about bridesmaids, honeymoons or even exchanging vows.
Her dream had been about pledging to share her life with someone she loved and trusted, who loved and trusted her in return.
Where was the love and trust in their relationship?
How could she say yes to a man who had lied to her? Who kept so much of himself locked away?
‘No.’ The word emerged as a cracked whisper, as if her body knew that she didn’t really want to say that word.
His eyes narrowed with incomprehension. ‘No, what?’
‘No, I can’t marry you. There is no way I’d ever marry you, Nikos. I can’t honestly believe that you’d think I would.’
He stilled, his shock at her refusal as great as hers had been at his unexpected proposal. ‘You are having my child.’
And that was why he was here, of course. That was why she was currently wearing an enormous diamond on her finger.
‘You left me, Nikos.’ Saying the words was a painful reality check. ‘You didn’t want to be with me.’
‘When I left you, you weren’t having my baby.’
Ella turned her head, struggling for control. ‘If you didn’t want me before I was pregnant, why would you want me now that I am?’
‘The answer to that is self-evident.’
She swallowed back the hurt. ‘A baby isn’t a reason to get married. A child is not a good enough reason to get married, Nikos! Marriage is about love and trust and feelings—’ She broke off, feeling a flash of despair because here he was proposing and she was turning him down. ‘Two people shouldn’t marry just because they’ve made a baby. It isn’t enough.’
‘What are you saying?’ He raised an eyebrow, a sardonic smile touching his sexy mouth. ‘The diamond isn’t big enough?’
She gritted her teeth. ‘I’m saying that a ring can’t fix what’s wrong between us. All this ring does is remind me that you’re a billionaire and that you kept that fact from me.’ She began to slide out of the bed but he hauled her back down, rolled her onto her back and covered her body with his.
‘We are talking. Don’t walk away.’
‘Let me go, Nikos!’ She tried to wriggle away from him but the slide of her thigh against his sent a tremor of sexual awareness through her body. She went still. ‘This is crazy! You’re a billionaire and I made you cheese on toast.’
Amusement shimmered in his dark gaze. ‘I love your cheese on toast.’
‘We slept in my single bed—’
‘Which was extremely cosy,’ he murmured, bringing his mouth close to hers.
‘I don’t even know you!’
For a highly charged moment he just looked at her and she was desperately conscious of his weight pressing her into the mattress. ‘You don’t know me?’ He shifted deliberately, and she gave a soft gasp as she felt his body come into intimate contact with hers. ‘Tell me something, pethi mou—just how much more of me do you want to know?’
‘Nikos—’
‘I love the way you say my name.’ His smile was lazily possessive and he lowered his mouth to hers with the confidence of a man who had never known rejection.
His kiss made her tremble in the way that it always had and probably always would. And all the time his mouth feasted on hers, his fingers skimmed her body until Ella’s skin was so sensitised that she felt as though she was on fire.
He shifted slightly in order to allow himself better access and her body thrilled with excitement at his skilled touch.
It was the possessive stroke of his hand over her softly rounded abdomen that brought her to her senses.
‘No.’ For him, this was all about the baby. ‘No, Nikos. I’m not going to let you do this to me again.’ Ignoring the wild crazy pulse of sexual attraction that drew them together, she pushed him away and slid out of the bed before the maddening ache in her body drove all resistance from her. ‘We get into bed and we don’t think about anything else! We don’t think about what’s right or sensible. We don’t have a proper relationship! We’re not doing this again.’ She licked her lips—tried to shut her reaction down. ‘And stop looking at me like that!’
His hooded gaze was fixed on her semi-naked body in pure masculine appraisal and she gave a murmur of exasperation that was directed entirely at herself, before grabbing a large T-shirt from the bag that she still hadn’t unpacked. She dragged it over her head with such haste that it took her a moment of struggling to find the armholes. Then she scooped her hair free and walked down the narrow corridor that led to the kitchen area and the living room, her body screaming a protest.
Every part of her was aroused, warm and ready.
She wanted him. Every single part of her wanted him.
Her hand shook as she filled the kettle, reminding herself that just because you could, it didn’t mean you should. If she was ever interested in a man again it was going to be a calm, sensible Englishman, she promised herself as she turned on the gas and put the kettle on to boil. Not a volatile Greek with superior seduction skills.
For twenty-four years she’d been careful around men. She’d been cautious and wary. Then she’d met Nikos and all that caution had been burnt up in a rush of explosive sexual chemistry.
What was it about the man that made it so hard to do the sensible thing?
Her eyes slid to the diamond on her finger. The diamond she was still wearing.
It was stunning, the beautifully cut stone appealing to the woman in her.
It would have been so easy to say yes. A huge part of her wanted to say yes. Yes to marriage, yes to sex, yes to a life with this man.
But how could she say yes when not only had he kept secrets from her but he didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong in that?
To gain herself thinking time, she made two cups of coffee and took hers out on the tiny deck at the prow of the boat, instantly calmed by the early morning peace of the canal. The sun played on the surface of the water, casting shadows and light. Nettles and reeds stood guard along the river bank and rhododendrons crowded over the water, as if admiring their own reflections. A swan glided past, watchful of her three cygnets, and Ella felt a pang of kinship for this mother, protecting her young.
Suddenly feeling a huge burden of responsibility, Ella put her hand on the curve of her abdomen, still intrigued by her new shape.
‘You need to move off this boat.’ Ducking his glossy dark head to avoid the low door, Nikos joined her on the polished wooden deck. He’d pulled on his trousers but nothing else. Curling dark hairs shadowed the muscular contours of his bare chest and his bronzed shoulders gleamed in the morning sunlight. ‘It isn’t safe.’
Feeling the immediate stirring of her body, Ella sat down as far away from him as possible. ‘I like it. It’s beautiful here.’
‘It’s a totally unsuitable place for a woman to live alone.’ His tone smooth, he cast her a glance that sent her insides spinning in a whirlpool of highly charged sexual awareness. ‘Especially a pregnant woman.’
He’d zipped up his trousers with a casual hand and they rode slightly low on his hips, exposing an unfair amount of bronzed, muscular abdomen.
Why was it, she wondered, that
just a glimpse of those taut abdominals was enough for her to be able to picture him naked?
Her mouth as dry as a ditch in summer, Ella instinctively pulled her T-shirt lower over her thighs, wishing she’d stopped long enough to find her jeans. ‘Who is going to bother me here? There’s no one around.’
‘Precisely.’ Those dark eyes with those long, long lashes shifted to the silent, overgrown towpath. ‘It’s deserted.’
‘I wanted space.’
‘Well, you’ve certainly got that.’ His tone ironic, he looked around him with a faint smile. ‘It is beautiful,’ he conceded grimly, ‘but there must be safer ways of achieving country living.’
‘Not on my budget.’ She instantly regretted the words. ‘And I don’t want your money, Nikos,’ she blurted out quickly, ‘just in case you think I was dropping a hint.’
He studied her for a long moment. ‘Where we live is my responsibility. There is no need to be defensive.’
‘I’m not living with you, Nikos.’
He sat down on the seat opposite. The bows of the boat were as narrow as the rest of the craft. With his superior height, their knees were almost touching. ‘All right—let’s deal with this. You are trying to push me away,’ he said harshly, ‘but it isn’t going to work. That is my baby you are carrying and my ring you’re wearing on your finger.’
Heart pounding, Ella twisted the ring round and round her finger. ‘I would have thrown it back at you,’ she muttered, ‘but I thought it would knock you unconscious. You don’t do subtle, do you? The ring tells the whole world that you’re filthy rich.’
‘No, agape mou. The ring tells everyone that you are mine.’ His eyes stayed on hers. ‘I want there to be no misunderstandings.’
She wondered what lay behind that comment but knew that there was no point in asking. He didn’t confide in her, did he? There was so much he hadn’t told her about himself. ‘I am not yours, Nikos.’
‘Why do you insist on fighting with me?’
‘I don’t know.’ Her tone was flippant. ‘Perhaps because you’re unbelievably insensitive?’
‘Then we must be experiencing a severe cultural clash. No matter how hard I try I cannot see how proposing marriage to the woman carrying my child could be classed as insensitive.’
