by Abby Green
‘I sorted it out. I needed to get back here.’ I shouldn’t have left, he surprised himself thinking, as lust slammed into his gut.
‘You did?’ Lucy was mesmerised by his mouth, remembering what it had felt like on her skin. Heat bloomed between her legs. People jostled past them and Aristotle took her arm and led her to the side, to the wall. He pushed her back against it and stood close—far too close. She could feel him, smell him…God, she wanted to taste him.
‘Ari…’
He bent his head, feathering a kiss to her neck. ‘Yes, say that again. That’s why I came back.’
‘Ari.’
His hands rested on either side of her head, his pelvis was tight against hers, and she could feel how aroused he was—right here in the middle of the street, with people passing by.
‘I’m going insane for you, Lucy.’
Lucy opened her mouth, but her words were stolen by his lips coming down hard and swift, demanding and eliciting a flash-fire of response. After a long drugging moment Ari lifted his head, his eyes glittering down into hers. Amazingly, she could see herself reflected in his eyes, looking up, dazed, and that sent sanity rushing back. Somehow, with superhuman strength, Lucy found the will to put her hands against his broad chest and push.
He budged only minutely, a frown drawing those black brows together.
‘No.’ Lucy was starting to panic. The speed with which he’d appeared and made her conveniently forget all logic was making her burn inside.
He quirked a devilish smile. ‘You’re right. Here isn’t the place.’
He took her hand and started to pull her away, clearly misinterpreting her reasons for wanting to stop. Lucy dug her heels in and pulled her hand back. He didn’t let go, just looked back impatiently when she wasn’t moving.
‘What—?’
He took one look at Lucy’s mutinous face and it sent something cold through him. ‘I’m sorry—did I misunderstand? Maybe you want to be made love to in front of Athens strollers and their families?’
‘I don’t want to be made love to, full-stop,’ Lucy hissed, very conscious of the stares they were getting—primarily from admiring women.
Ari gripped her hand tight and Lucy, very reluctantly, let herself be pulled towards him.
Ari was frowning again slightly, something like ennui trickling through him, making him feel absurdly disappointed. ‘If this is about the way I left…’
Lucy emitted a sharp laugh that disguised the dart of pain and the surge of anger at how easily she’d given in to his charm and fallen into his bed the other night. Faced with him now, the fact that she desired him even more acutely was making her regret it all the more fiercely. ‘Of course it’s not. I’m well aware of how you conduct yourself…I guess—oh, I don’t know—I expected at least a bunch of flowers. After all, isn’t that what you give all your one-night stands?’
He stood stock still, staring down at her, the lines in his face tightening and growing harsher by the minute.
‘Well, let’s make this more than a one-night stand, and then you’ll get a priceless piece of jewellery. Is that what it’ll take, Lucy?’
He looked around for a moment and spotted something Lucy didn’t see. With that tight grip on her hand, he began hauling her away again. Trepidation slithered down her spine. He’d looked ready to throttle her.
He growled back, ‘Tell you what—why don’t we cover all bases now? That way we’re clear, left in no doubt as to where we stand, because to be perfectly honest I don’t think I’m going to be satisfied with just two nights.’
‘What—?’
Ari stopped abruptly at a flower stall and picked out the biggest bunch of flowers the man had. Then, to Lucy’s horror and the flower stall man’s delight, Ari presented it to her with a mocking flourish.
Lucy took them purely because she couldn’t not. She pasted a smile on her face for the benefit of the flower seller, and after paying Ari was leading her away again. The flowers were huge and cumbersome. Lucy tried to get his attention, pulling on his hand, but it would have been easier talking to a block of wood. He led her relentlessly through a veritable maze of streets until they emerged into a charming square and Lucy spotted shops with designer names.
Again without pausing for a moment, Ari tugged Lucy along until she found him leading her into an exclusive jewellery store, the iconic name of which made horror slam into her. As the door hissed quietly closed behind them, and the security guard clearly recognised Aristotle Levakis, Lucy tugged fiercely on Ari’s hand—but to no avail. He led her over to where an eager assistant, already smelling a large sale, stood.
He drew Lucy in close to his side with an arm of steel and sent her a devotedly loving look. Only Lucy was aware of the hard glitter behind it. Hardly breaking that eye contact, he said, ‘I’d like to buy something for this beautiful woman.’ He flicked a glance at the sales assistant and smiled urbanely. ‘Although I’m sure you’ll agree that there couldn’t possibly be anything in this shop to rival her beauty.’
The sales assistant cleared her throat obsequiously and looked Lucy up and down, taking in the T-shirt and shorts, the flat gladiator sandals and dusty feet. Lucy cringed from head to toe under the snooty woman’s scrutiny, and right then she hated Ari more than she’d ever hated anyone in her life, hearing his well-practised patter.
Hellbent on proving something, Ari was still so incensed that he dragged Lucy from display to display, forcing her to look at priceless bracelets, necklaces, earrings and brooches. Every now and then she tried to entreat him, to tug on his hand, but he ignored her. A heavy mass of dark, twisted emotion was weighing him down inside.
Why hadn’t her eyes lit up when they’d got in here? And why had he felt that punch to his solar plexus in the street when he’d believed her to be exactly the same as every other woman? And why was she contradicting that now, insisting on leaving? Making him feel confused and out of his depth. He heard her speak again.
‘Ari. Please. Let’s just go. I don’t want anything here.’
He turned to look down, and the stunning natural beauty of her face and those stormy grey eyes nearly floored him. He could feel the thrust of her soft breasts against his chest. She looked pale. But he did not know how to get himself out of this situation except by saying, his voice harder than he’d ever heard it, ‘We’re not leaving until you choose something, Lucy. There’s not a woman in the world who would say no to that, so please don’t play the wide-eyed innocent with me. It won’t work.’
Lucy’s belly clenched at the look of pure cynicism that crossed Ari’s features, twisting them. Suddenly her anger dissolved, and all she felt was sad. She tore her eyes away and looked around futilely, hating every single item of jewellery on display. This whole scenario was making her skin crawl. But she knew he meant it. They would not leave until she’d chosen something.
She tugged her hand, and for the first time Ari let go. Moving away, feeling tears film her eyes, Lucy searched and searched, barely even seeing the glittering gems arrayed in glorious profusion.
But then something did catch her eye, hidden away at the back of one of the cabinets. It was a necklace of such stunning simplicity that it took her breath away. It was a butterfly design; she’d always had a sentimental thing about butterflies, and her mother had used to buy her presents with butterfly motifs. Seeing this now was like some kind of sign, and Lucy had to fight back the tears.
The wings of the design glistened with what she could only assume were tiny diamonds, and three delicate silver strands linked it on each side to the catch.
She pointed with a trembling finger. ‘I like that one.’
A startled gasp of disbelief came from the sales assistant, clearly seeing her month’s worth of commission disappearing down the drain.
‘That one?’
Ari had heard the exchange and was behind Lucy, looking over her shoulder. She tensed as the fine hairs stood up on the back of her neck.
The sales assistant co
uldn’t keep the pain out of her voice. ‘Well, yes, it is a nice piece…’ She laughed nervously, ‘If you like something more…subtle…and the designer is local. But really…’
Lucy heard a scathing, ‘Less than one thousand euros? I don’t think so…’ come from behind her, and then she felt his mouth close to her ear, so only she could hear which he said. ‘I think I want a lot more than a two-night stand Lucy, mou, so I think you’re worth a lot more than that…’
Before she knew it Ari had arrogantly picked out a completely different necklace, with a huge sapphire stone surrounded by diamonds, and the ecstatic sales assistant was wrapping it up efficiently before they changed their minds.
Outside the shop, Lucy broke desperately from Ari’s grasp, but he caught her again effortlessly and swung her round. She closed her eyes and to her utter horror could feel tears welling. She couldn’t stop one from slipping out. She felt a tense stillness come into his body.
‘Lucy…’ He sounded exasperated now. Lucy didn’t doubt that he’d moved women to tears after buying them jewellery before, but for entirely different reasons.
Ari took hold of Lucy’s arms. They felt slender and fragile under his hands. He saw the tear slip down the pale softness of her cheek and cursed himself silently, feeling like an absolute heel when he didn’t even know why. He’d just spent a fortune on her! And in his experience money equalled a satisfied woman. He was floundering badly, had never been in this place before, and had certainly never expected a reaction like this. She looked almost green.
Seeing her still holding onto that crazy bunch of flowers, Ari grabbed them out of her hand and passed them to a woman strolling past. He was unaware of her gasp of delighted surprise as she took them, entirely focused on Lucy again. More tears were slipping down her cheeks. He was used to women’s histrionics, but this was different. She was doing it so silently. And he could tell that she hated that she was crying.
‘Lucy…look—’
She seemed to come to life and lifted a hand, knocking aside one of his as she wiped her cheek. Finally she opened her eyes, and their swirling depths made him want to pull her close. But everything about her screamed stay back.
Her voice was heart-achingly husky. ‘I’ve never been so hu…humiliated in all my life.’
Ari raked a hand through his hair. He wanted to go back to when he’d seen Lucy in the street, taken her in his arms and kissed her, and start all over again. But when she’d pushed him away and then said those things about the flowers he’d lost all perspective. Without wanting to look too closely at why, he just knew it had something to do with her reference to those other women. That this was exactly the same…A small voice crowed, Wasn’t it?
Lucy couldn’t look up at Ari any more. She broke free and started to walk back towards the hotel. She could see it in the distance; they were closer than she’d thought. She felt numb.
When she felt Ari take her hand again she stopped dead and took a deep breath before turning around. ‘Look—’
‘No, you look.’
She did—right up at him, emotion still swirling dangerously in her breast. She’d never felt so vulnerable, like every one of her childhood fears was being taken out and exposed to the harsh sunlight.
Ari felt tight. ‘Those women in London—the flowers…They weren’t one-night stands. They were pathetic attempts to negate your effect on me and to keep up appearances.’ His mouth twisted. ‘I’d agreed with Parnassus that it might help distract people from investigating the merger if I was seen to be out and about as usual.’
Lucy’s head went into mind-melt.
‘I’m sorry for leaving you so abruptly the other morning. I’m sorry for the flowers, and I’m sorry for dragging you into that shop and forcing you to choose something you didn’t want.’ Even now he couldn’t understand her reaction, or why he was explaining himself when he never had before. And he couldn’t really believe he’d felt compelled to defend his actions in London. But he wanted Lucy more than he wanted to understand right then…
Fresh tears threatened and Lucy wailed inwardly, Don’t be nice! I can’t handle nice.
She pursed her lips even as her anger drained away spectacularly. He hadn’t slept with those women? She felt very wobbly and vulnerable, and knew her words lacked impact. ‘Your behaviour was unforgivable. Spending that kind of money just to make a point is disgusting.’
His face tightened. He held up the bag. ‘What do you want me to do with it?’
Lucy felt wrong-footed by his immediate response. The Ari she’d thought she knew was morphing out of all recognition. She thought for a second. ‘I don’t think that lady in the shop deserves commission when she couldn’t be bothered to promote local talent. I don’t know…it’d be nice to give it to someone who’d really appreciate…’
She looked around. In the thronged square, back at the jeweller’s shop, she could see a young couple clearly in love, looking wistfully through the window at the engagement rings. Lucy could see the pain on the young man’s face at his girlfriend’s quickly disguised yet crestfallen expression as they walked away. She glanced up at Ari and could see that he had followed her gaze and witnessed the little exchange.
She saw his jaw clench. He let her hand go and strode through the crowd to the young couple. Lucy saw the conversation, saw Ari gesture back to her with a rueful smile and hand the young man the elaborately wrapped box. The young couple’s faces were shocked as Ari walked back to Lucy and took her hand again.
He led her away, but looked back for a moment and said, ‘Satisfied now?’
Lucy nodded jerkily. She couldn’t quite believe he’d done that, and asked a little shakily, ‘How…how much was it worth?’
He tossed back a figure and she felt the colour drain from her face. She bit her lip and said quietly, ‘Oh, well, it’ll buy them a nice engagement ring…or three.’
She felt the earth shift as she realised she was seeing a completely different side to Ari. She was very much afraid that she’d stuck her head into the lion’s mouth and he was about to bite down—hard.
By the middle of the following week Lucy was as drunk as she’d ever felt, and all without touching a drop of alcohol. She couldn’t stop her mind drifting back to last Sunday afternoon, now as she sat waiting for Ari to come out of a private meeting with Parnassus being held in his villa in the hills above Athens.
When they’d got back to the hotel an unspoken inevitability had vibrated between them, intensifying the closer they’d got to her room. Once inside, as if to stave it off, as if she could save herself from the burning flames, Lucy had said breathlessly, ‘Wait…what is this now? What are we?’
Ari had rested back against the door, hands behind him, those lean hips in the low-slung jeans making Lucy’s mouth dry and her head ache with the effort it took not to look down.
‘We are two consenting adults, exploring a strong mutual attraction, and this is…the second time we make love.’
Heat had exploded all around her. He’d pushed off the door and come towards her. Lucy had put out a hand, as if that could stop him, and had watched as he’d nonchalantly stripped off his T-shirt.
She’d swallowed. ‘But…what about us…working together? How can we do this…?’
He’d caught up with her effortlessly and pulled her into him, tight. She had felt the bulge of his arousal pressing against his jeans, pressing just above the apex of her thighs, and her legs had nearly buckled.
He’d bent his head and whispered at the corner of her mouth, ‘This is how we do this…’
Things had escalated swiftly. Clothes pulled and yanked, they’d stumbled and staggered towards the bed, Lucy falling back into the softness, somehow naked except for her underwear.
She’d watched as Ari yanked down his jeans and briefs in one go. She’d gazed at him in all his bronzed, aroused glory, she’d realised in that moment that ever since that day she’d bumped into him in the lift this image had been hidden deep in the recesses of her
darkest fantasies. A fantasy she never might have acknowledged if this man hadn’t wanted her too.
Was that why he’d got under her skin so thoroughly from the start? The revelation sent her pulse soaring, pounding through her veins and under her skin, even now, as she sat on the chair with her legs tight together and Parnassus’ own assistant sitting just feet away.
Even that couldn’t halt the images, though. Ari had come towards her like an avenging god and pushed her legs apart, where they dangled over the bed. On two hands he’d rested over her. After looking down at her for an intensely long moment, he’d pushed down one bra strap and then the other, and then pulled down the cups of her black bra so that her breasts were exposed, upthrust by the confining underwire.
When he’d bent his head to blow softly Lucy had groaned deep in her throat, in between her legs a deep, endless ache. When his tongue had flicked out and teasingly licked around the rapidly hardening peak of one breast she’d arched her back, willing him to suck it deep, like he had before.
When he hadn’t, she’d looked at him, felt sweat breaking out on her brow. He’d smiled devilishly, and she’d cursed him silently, her eyes flashing in a mute appeal.
He’d shifted her back onto the bed and with far too practised ease managed to dispense with her bra. His big hands on her thighs had held her apart. He’d looked at her with such desirous intensity she’d felt trepidation lick through her, feeling that she had to be imagining this.
She’d spoken huskily, and winced now at the memory. ‘How can you…how can you find me attractive? I’m not like…I’m too big…I’m plump…’
He’d merely hooked fingers into the side of her pants, said throatily, ‘You’re perfect…’ and started to pull them down, dropping them summarily on the floor. He’d stood again, blatantly aroused, making a mockery of her words. Making her feel as if she was all woman and the only woman for him.
He’d bent over her and she’d felt his erection teasing her, hot and hard against her desire-drenched sex. She’d felt so wanton, but had bitten her lip and forced herself not to move her hips towards him as she’d wanted to do so very badly.
