by Lynne Graham
‘No, of course not.’ Katie smiled with all her might, but there was a hollow sensation inside her.
Well, she had asked and she had been told, she thought numbly, wandering round the exhibits in Damon and Eugena’s wake and scarcely knowing what she said when pressed for an opinion on the various works of art. All Katie could think about was that Ianthe had been a genuinely wonderful wife, and Alexandros had been very happy with her. For the first time Katie was forced to confront the demon of her own jealousy. She was desperately ashamed of those feelings, but she still could not shake free of them. She was horribly jealous of what Alexandros had had with Ianthe, and knowing that she had no right to feel that way made little difference. Even so, she was disturbed by the awareness that bitter jealousy and injured pride had prevented her from giving serious consideration to his marriage proposal. On the other hand, was she really so desperate that she had to consider marrying a guy who had openly said that sex was all she had to offer him?
Alexandros had loved his wife. He had been grieving for Ianthe when he’d met Katie, and he had used Katie like a sticking plaster on the wound—easily discarded once he was on the road to recovery. In comparison to Ianthe she had been a casual fling, a temporary deviation from his sophisticated norm, and only the birth of Toby and Connor had given Katie a passport back into Alexandros’s life. She saw that those painful truths had savaged her self-esteem and made her deny the fact that she was still hopelessly in love with the twins’ father. But she also saw that she really did need to get over her less than presentable emotions about his late wife and his perfect marriage. The very fact that Alexandros regarded the subject of Ianthe as too private and personal ever to be discussed only reminded Katie that she was still very much on the outside looking in.
When the gallery opening was drawing to a close, Katie faked a yawn and turned down an invite to travel on to a party. Damon offered to take her home.
‘There’s a car waiting for me…’
Damon raised a brow. ‘I’ll see you out. So, you’re not free after all?’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Your children aren’t here, but you’re still running about in a chauffeur-driven limo. It’s an ownership statement. Christakis is posting very large “Keep off the Grass” signs all round you,’ the young Greek quipped.
‘Not necessarily,’ Katie muttered uncomfortably as they emerged onto the dark street. ‘I usually take the boys everywhere with me, and Alexandros insists that I use the car.’
‘Anyway, don’t worry about your nanny’s fatal attraction,’ Damon told her smugly. ‘If she’s available, I intend to keep her fully occupied!’
As that expression of interest in Maribel sank in, a flash of light from a camera almost blinded Katie, and she blinked in surprise like a myopic owl. The photographer sped off, and Damon urged her into the limo. ‘I’m surprised Christakis didn’t give you a bodyguard as well.’
‘He did…I told him I didn’t need him tonight,’ Katie sighed.
After a night spent pretty much tossing and turning, she got up to feed and dress Toby and Connor the next morning and went back to bed when Maribel arrived. It felt like only five minutes later when an urgent knock woke her again, and the door opened a crack.
‘Mr Christakis is here, asking for you…’
Katie threw herself out of bed, glanced in the mirror, and almost loosed a shriek of anguish. Her hair was an explosive tangle of ringlets. Why did he have to come calling on her without warning at this unearthly hour of the day? A belated glance at the alarm clock informed her that it was actually mid-morning, for she had slept longer than she’d appreciated. In a frantic rush, she cleaned her teeth, splashed her face and hurriedly pulled on some clothes, emerging from her room breathless, to hurry into the sitting room.
But Alexandros wasn’t there. He was in the nursery, with the twins and Maribel. Katie hovered unnoticed in the doorway, finger-combing her copper ringlets to make them flatter and smoothing down her black T-shirt and denim skirt. She wished she had taken the time to put on make-up and shoes. Alexandros was asking questions and Maribel was answering, her pink-cheeked smiles and flickering upward glances the response of a susceptible woman in the presence of a very fanciable and smoulderingly sexy guy.
‘Alexandros…’
He swung round and focussed incisive golden eyes on her. There was no smile on his lean, extravagantly handsome face. As he accompanied her to the sitting room, she found herself wondering if her interruption had been an unwelcome one.
‘Do you find Maribel attractive?’ Suddenly what Katie was worrying about, what she was trying not to think about, spilled from her lips in an unstoppable rush.
The most ghastly silence fell. It seemed to eddy out round her, as if she was trapped in the centre of a whirlpool. In the long stretch of quiet that followed she did feel as if she was drowning, as intense mortification crawled through her. Nothing would have persuaded her to look at him.
‘Let me get this straight…’ Alexandros was framing English words with the greatest difficulty because he was outraged by the question. ‘You’re asking me if I want to shag the nanny?’
Hot colour spread across her cheeks. ‘That’s not what I meant—’
‘Of course it is. The answer is no. I don’t ever hit on my staff, and I sack them if they try it on with me. You’re the single exception—the only employee who has ever ended up in my bed—’
‘And taking the fallout of that into consideration, I’m sure it’s not a risk you’d choose to take again.’
Alexandros surveyed her with brooding force. With the sexual pull she exerted over him, he was wondering what choice had to do with it. He hadn’t liked the way she made him feel then, and he really liked it little better now. But he knew that given the same situation he would repeat the exact same behaviour pattern. In the outfit she was wearing, with her little pink unpainted toes curling into the rug, she looked absurdly young and naive—until she glanced up from below those feathery lashes with witch-green iridescent eyes that had the most sinful effect on his libido.
‘You were with Damon Bourikas last night…explain,’ Alexandros invited coolly, the lust on his mind steadily spreading to even more responsive areas.
Her head came up, chin angling. ‘Excuse me…?’
‘He’s not fit company for you.’
‘I’m an adult. I can’t believe you’re saying that to me—’
‘I don’t want you associating with him.’
‘Nobody tells me who I socialise with—’
Disturbingly calm golden eyes assailed hers. ‘I do…and if you don’t listen Bourikas certainly will. Because I’m too influential for him to ignore.’
‘You wouldn’t dare,’ Katie told him shakily, her temper sparking with incredulity at that threat.
‘Oh, I think we both know that I would, and with pleasure, yineka mou,’ Alexandros responded with provocative silkiness. He had been incensed when he saw that photo in the morning paper. Damon bloody Bourikas! Rumour linked Bourikas to some very wild parties—but Alexandros had no intention of telling Katie that, in case a bad-boy image increased Damon’s sleazy appeal. He was already grimly conscious that, at barely twenty-five years old, the other man was much closer to her age than he was.
Of course the sensible thing to do would be to tell Alexandros that Damon was interested in their gorgeous French nanny, Katie reflected grudgingly. But her pride revolted against that course. And if Alexandros should think that another man was interested in her, it might make her seem more exciting and desirable in his eyes. Alexandros was very competitive in business. Mightn’t he prove equally competitive when it came to a woman? It was not the moment to tell him that Damon was too flash and smugly assured of his own charms to attract her.
‘You seem to be forgetting that I met Damon in your grandparents’ home,’ she reminded him.
‘They keep an open house. You are not in a position to be careless of appearances,’ Alexandros delivered.<
Katie breathed in so deep she was afraid that her lungs would burst. Being told that by the guy responsible for turning her into an unmarried mother galled her. ‘And why would that be?’
Brilliant dark golden eyes enhanced by inky black lashes rested on her. ‘One Greek tycoon…?’ He shifted a graceful lean brown hand in an accepting motion. ‘But being seen around town with a second rich Greek could suggest that you’re making a lucrative lifestyle choice.’
Katie went bright pink with bristling fury at that insult. ‘How…dare…you?’
‘I dare because your reputation matters to me, and to our children.’
Her hands knotted into fists, but that very first reference to the twins as something they shared did not pass her by. ‘I make my friends where I choose!’
‘No,’ Alexandros murmured with lethal finality, strolling closer and taking her hands in his to slowly, intently, unwind her angrily knotted fingers and curl them into his own. ‘You’re not on your own any more.’
‘Hands off! You’re the one who warned me not to touch!’ Katie reminded him breathlessly.
Lush black lashes screened his gaze to a sliver of gold as hot as sunlight on the animated triangle of her flushed and furious face. He could feel the passion vibrating in her tiny frame, and it drew him like a starving man to life-giving food. ‘I like an element of risk. It adds an edge,’ he murmured thickly.
The silence hummed with energy, and she snatched in a breath, holding her slight body very taut. But the stirring heaviness of her breasts and the little twist of heat at the heart of her were too pressing to ignore, and bewilderment flashed through her eyes. ‘But we’re having a fight…’
‘I don’t want to fight with you,’ Alexandros imparted very softly, deciding then and there that when playing it cool sentenced him to celibacy, he had played it cool for long enough.
‘I have to take Toby and Connor out for a walk,’ she told him hurriedly, struggling to suppress and sidestep the physical awareness that was threatening her self-control.
Releasing her hands, Alexandros startled her by walking out to the hall. He reappeared barely a minute and a half later.
‘What were you doing?’ Katie almost whispered.
‘I was telling your nanny that the boys need some fresh air.’
Katie blinked. ‘But…but why did you do that? For goodness’ sake, it makes it look as if—’
‘It’s not her job to think about how anything looks. You have such touchingly naive concerns, pedhi mou.’ Stunning dark golden eyes rested on her with a measured power that fired colour into her fair skin. ‘Come here…’
‘No way…absolutely no way!’ Katie asserted with feverish intensity.
Alexandros jerked loose his tie and, unbuttoning his jacket, shrugged his shoulders out of it and tossed it on an armchair.
Green eyes huge, Katie stared at him. ‘What are you doing?’
‘What does it look like I’m doing?’
His mobile phone buzzed like an angry wasp. He pulled out, gave it a regretful look, sighed, and switched it off without ceremony.
‘But that’s probably the bank and terribly important!’ Katie protested, as he cast his tie alongside his jacket and her sense of panic and confusion rose to suffocating proportions.
‘Theos mou…do you think I always do what people expect me to do? Sometimes obeying one’s natural instincts feels more right than following the rules. This is one of those times.’ Loosening his collar, he embarked on his shirt buttons.
‘Stop!’ Katie gasped, hot-faced.
‘If I stop, I leave…and I start looking for someone else.’ Brilliant dark golden eyes watched her absorb that statement and turn as ashen pale as though some vital life force was being leeched from her.
The very thought of Alexandros with another woman tore Katie to shreds. Just that one little mention of that option and she was living her worst nightmare. Dry-mouthed and trembling, Katie watched a bronzed segment of muscular torso appear between the parted edges of his fine cotton shirt. Her heart was beating very, very fast. ‘You’re threatening me—’
‘No, I’m being brutally honest, glikia mou. Did you think I would wait for ever? Either you want me or you don’t…’
‘Getting married is—’
‘No.’ Alexandros spread lean brown hands. ‘This is much more basic. I’m not talking about marriage. Leave that out of it. You don’t know what you want, and it’s time you did. I want to go to bed with you, but I don’t want a four-act tragedy after it.’
Her chin tilted, green eyes sparkling, cheeks pink. ‘I don’t like the idea of you with someone else!’ she flung back at him chokily, anger and pain coalescing in that forced admission.
Alexandros strolled closer. There was so much all-conquering hero in the blaze of primal satisfaction in his gaze that she was tempted to release her tension by slapping him for an opportunism that smacked of piracy. Furious tears glistening in her eyes, she hissed shakily, ‘Sometimes I hate you so much I could scream!’
Alexandros tugged her to him with strong, determined hands. ‘I know…and it’s refreshing to be with a woman who occasionally finds fault with me,’ he conceded, without a shade of irony.
Feeling like a feather fluttering up against a solid steel wall of assurance, she rested her brow against his chest. The rich, awesomely familiar scent of his skin assailed her and she trembled. She loved him; she hated herself. He had forced her into a tight corner and emerged triumphant with a truth she would never have willingly given him: all her proud independence and defiance was destroyed by the very thought of him slaking that high-voltage sex drive of his in the arms of another woman.
He smoothed her hair almost clumsily, and expelled his breath on a slow, measured hiss. ‘A month is a long time for me…too many cold showers, endless lonely nights.’
Against her stomach she could feel the hard male heat of him, and her tummy flipped in response. Long fingers knotting in her ringlets, he claimed her generous pink lips with a voracious hunger that made her knees give way under her. Bundling her up into his arms with easy strength, he tumbled her down on the sofa and let his tongue delve with erotic precision into her mouth, while he eased her slender thighs apart to explore the taut stretch of fabric that concealed her most secret place from him. He stifled her helpless whimper of need with his lips when she jackknifed beneath the tormenting stroke of his lean fingers, every sensual nerve jangling with urgency.
He pushed up her T-shirt, let his teeth graze a stiff pink crest, dallied there while she arched her hips and gasped, insanely conscious of his every move and her terrifying response. All sensation was centred at the damp hot core at the heart of her. He drew up her knees, tugged down her panties, and told her hungrily that lace-edged white cotton was a real turn-on. The tightness low in her pelvis made it impossible for her to stay still. She dug her hands into his shoulders and pulled him back to her, driven by a need so powerful it was a consuming instinct.
‘Don’t stop…’ she pleaded frantically when he lifted his arrogant dark head.
Passionate dark golden eyes slammed into hers. ‘We need to get a couple of things straight—’
‘Not now!’
‘No more nonsense about friendship,’ Alexandros decreed raggedly, hauling her to the edge of the sofa with strong hands. ‘No more references to duty or love. Let this be pure, perfect enjoyment for both of us.’
Katie wouldn’t let herself think about what he was saying. Her body was on fire for him, singing a pagan song of shameless craving. She knew conscience was going to kill her, but she was prepared to pay the piper. He plunged into the hot satin heat of her receptive depths and she almost passed out with pleasure. What followed was the wildest, hottest excitement she had ever dreamt she might experience, and at the summit an incredibly intense climax.
Afterwards she clung to him, dimly wondering if she was in heaven, trying not to be shocked by the fact that they were both still wearing most of their clothes.<br />
‘I needed that,’ Alexandros confessed hoarsely, seeking and demanding a passionate kiss that demonstrated a renewed hunger that took her aback. He laughed huskily when she looked up at him in bemusement. ‘I really, really needed that, pedhi mou…and I need so much more.’
He lifted her up into his arms, clamped her legs round his waist, and carried her out of the room.
‘No…what about—?’
‘Our children were safely off the premises before you started screaming with pleasure.’ Alexandros pressed his mouth hotly to the sensitive skin below her ear and began doing something so impossibly erotic she moaned out loud.
‘I didn’t scream,’ she mumbled belatedly as he brought her down on her bed.
‘You will this time.’ With single-minded efficiency Alexandros was stripping off her T-shirt and her skirt, yanking the duvet out of her grasp before she could scramble out of sight below it. ‘No…I’m a big boy. I get to look all I like.’
‘Alexandros!’ she wailed, jerking up to hug her knees. ‘I can’t—’
‘Please…’ he said, for the first time, burnished golden eyes smouldering over her.
‘It would make me feel shameless—’
‘Shameless in the bedroom works well for me.’ Meeting her strained gaze, Alexandros hastened to add, ‘But only if it’s you…’
She shut her eyes tight and lowered her knees, lay down like a sacrifice on a slab.
‘You can blush in places that I didn’t know could blush,’ Alexandros breathed not quite steadily, rearranging her slender body into a slightly more daring pose. ‘But if you don’t look back at me I’ll feel like a voyeur…’
Katie went rigid, and then lifted her lashes.
‘That’s perfect.’ Alexandros spoke very quietly, tugging her hands very gently back down to her sides when they made a sudden sneaking attempt to cover up her most interesting areas. ‘You’re so beautiful…’
She frowned. ‘No, I’m not—’
‘You are to me,’ he told her truthfully, admiring her delicate porcelain-pale curves with immense appreciation, and only vaguely wondering why it was the most intensely erotic moment of his life.
-->
