Making Her His

by Lucy Leroux

  “Well…I told her about us. I kind of had to,” she admitted with a little shrug of discomfort.

  “Of course you did. What did she say?” Alex sounded worried.

  “Lots of things. Our chat was helpful.”

  She took the package out with hands that weren’t completely steady and went to sit on a long leather couch on the left. She looked up to find him studying her.

  “What is that? What did the doctor say, exactly?”

  Stroking the plain brown wrapping of the big box abstractedly, she chose her words with care. “She suggested that the ‘bathroom episode’ might have been a symptom of my own insecurities. I didn’t really need her to tell me that. But she made me think about things in more detail.”

  “So she doesn’t blame me for making you do stuff you’re not ready for yet?” he asked softly, looking torn.

  “No, and neither do I,” Elynn assured him. “I am ready. I may even be overdue,” she said with a laugh, stroking the box again with restless fingers. “It’s just…”

  “Just what?”

  “It’s all happened so fast. Like zero to sixty. Making up for lost time. But that’s what I want. To keep moving forward,” she said, searching his eyes for his reaction.

  He looked relieved, but then his expression closed down, making his face forbidding and intimidating.

  “You can’t be sure what you want. I’ve pressured you into this, and now you’re afraid to tell me you want me to back off,” he said as he pushed away from the desk and rubbed his temple again as he paced in front of his desk.

  “Alex, come sit with me. I need to show you something.” She tapped the box with both hands.

  Reluctantly, he came over and sat next to her with a furrowed brow. “Did you buy me a present?”

  “I bought us something. Or some things. I…um…well, I’ve been thinking a lot about us, and what I want us to be. And I think some of these would be useful.”

  Elynn was beet red by the end of her explanation. Feeling giddy, she pushed the box into his hands and took a deep breath. He tore the box open and his eyes flew up to meet hers in complete shock.

  Oh God. I’ve miscalculated, she thought with a silent groan. Alex reached into the box and with a completely bewildered expression picked up a leather restraint. His wide eyes and dumbfounded expression would have been comical under other circumstances.

  “I’ve offended you. I’m so sorry,” she said, feeling a wild impulse to run.

  She grabbed the leather strap from his hand and shoved it into the box. Slamming down the lid, she slid away from him on the couch. His large hands stopped her progress.

  Alex pulled her back towards him, holding her tight against his body. “What possessed you to get those kinds of things for us?” he asked. She buried her hot face in his shoulder. “Elynn?” he asked, giving her a little shake.

  She took a deep breath, grabbing a fistful of his shirt in her hand. “I thought it might be a good idea to do some experiments.”

  “What kind of experiments do you need those for?”

  She let go of his shirt and met his eyes. He still looked surprised, but there was also expectation there.

  “I trust you,” she said. “More than anyone else in the world, but I thought maybe it would be a good idea if I could prove that. To reinforce that in my head in a more obvious way.” She shrugged helplessly. “I’m not explaining things right.”

  “No, I think I understand. So you think that using those would be effective?” he asked, gesturing to the box.

  Elynn blushed and looked away. “Yes. And you know, kind of exciting.”

  He didn’t say anything for so long that she finally risked a quick glance at his face. His expression hadn’t changed much, but he was a little flushed. Anxious, she tried to stand up, but he restrained her. Closing his mouth, he gave himself a little shake before breaking into a large and deeply sexy grin.

  “See I did some research on the kinds of things I thought I might want to try from stories I’ve read,” Elynn said quickly, her words running together. “Things I didn’t think I could ever do with anyone until now.”

  Alex leaned back on the couch with a little thump, taking her with him. His hand moved to her hair as she waited for him to respond. He didn’t, but he was still smiling and shaking his head. The smile was comforting, but the headshake was not.

  “I thought maybe given how you are, you might enjoy this stuff. You’ve probably done this before,” she said in a little whisper, sudden anxiety twisting her stomach.

  He was such an aggressive alpha male. He had probably played lots of dominance and submission games with those models and actresses.

  “No,” he said, immediately contradicting her. “No, I haven’t, but now I’m wondering why the thought never occurred to me. Jesus,” he said, shifting uncomfortably. “What do you mean how I am?”

  She shrugged, “You’re so strong. Dominant. It just seemed to fit that you might be interested in that sort of thing…”

  He laughed, a sound of wonder and surprise. “I hadn’t ever thought about it before. I don’t think I would have with anyone else. But baby, I think you’re too innocent for what you’re proposing.”

  Elynn’s stomach gave a short sharp drop. “Is that what you like about me?” she asked in a little whisper. “My inexperience?”

  “No!” He scowled. “I mean, yes. Sort of. I do enjoy that everything is new for you,” he said, squeezing her a little too hard. “Honestly, if there had been anyone else in your life, a lover, well let’s just say I would have made life very difficult for him. I’m a jealous bastard, I admit it freely. But I would never let something like your virginity get between us. Whether or not I’m the first or the hundredth, nothing would keep me from wanting you.”

  “Hundredth?” she repeated with distaste.

  She didn’t want another lover now. She probably never would. Even the thought of someone else touching her made her skin crawl.

  “Well, not the hundredth. Seeing you with someone else would have been impossible. Your poor friend Eric came pretty close to getting his clock cleaned. But that’s just jealousy. It had nothing to do with a need to…keep you pure. Just to keep you as mine. Even before you actually were mine.”

  Mulling over that too fine distinction, Elynn frowned. She was about to ask him what he meant about Eric, when Alex suddenly cursed in Greek and looked at his watch. “I was supposed to be back in that conference room five minutes ago!”

  He took the box lying at her feet and slipped it back into the shopping bag. He pecked her on the cheek and swiftly shifted, putting on his forbidding business face while straightening his coat and shirt as he went to the door.

  It was a little unsettling, the way he could slip on that expressionless mask.

  “I’ll send Magda, the office manager, in with some coffee,” he said. “I’ll try to make this quick. Did you bring a bag with you?”

  “My suitcase is in the car. The driver is waiting for me. Should I head to the house here?”

  Costas kept a sumptuous house in the hills. She’d stayed there once before with Mary, but not with Alex. He had been away on business and hadn’t been able to stop by during that trip.

  “No. I have a different idea. Wait for me here,” he ordered as he left.

  Elynn rolled her eyes as the door closed behind him. She needed to talk to him about the tone he took with her, but how could she explain to him that she wanted him to dominate her in bed but not outside of it?

  Well, I should probably start by telling him that.

  A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. It was opened by an attractive woman in her late forties. She smiled politely and set down a silver coffee service.

  “I am Magda. Welcome Elynn,” she said, setting down the tray on the desk. “It is so nice to finally meet you. Both Costas and Alexandros keep a photo of you on their desks,” she said, gesturing at a frame behind the tray with a polite nod.

  Smiling
back, Elynn stood to take a look. It was the same photo of her and Alex that she kept on her bedside table. One of the staff had taken it on her birthday when Costas and Mary were not around. Looking at it now, she wondered.

  In the photo, Alex was gazing down at her with an unguarded expression while she grinned directly at the camera. She had seen that look on his face recently. When he got that look now, it meant he was getting ready to take her to bed. But maybe she was misinterpreting him if that was how he had looked at her so long ago. It had always been her favorite picture of him, though, despite the fact he was partly in profile and she had many others.

  Dismissing the thought, she focused on Magda. The woman was talking about Costas and Mary warmly. Her mother had hosted several business functions here in Greece, events Magda had helped her organize. Elynn hadn’t been around for any of those parties. She didn’t know any of the staff based in these offices.

  Assuming she was here as a tourist, Magda made a few friendly suggestions for outings. They continued to make small talk while Elynn sipped the delicious coffee. It was lightly flavored with green cardamom, just the way both Alex and Costas took it.

  After a few minutes, Magda excused herself, but before she left, she leaned in with a conspiratorial air. “Can I assume that you and the boss are planning on a special surprise gift for your parents?” she asked with a nod to the box on the floor.

  “Um, not exactly a gift per se…but we are definitely planning on surprising them,” Elynn said noncommittally, praying that the woman wouldn’t ask to see what was in the box.

  But Magda just smiled before taking her leave, letting Elynn finish her coffee alone. Half an hour after Alex had left, he came back in, spitting orders at a few harried assistants who entered at his heels. They were followed by a few members of the local staff who wanted to introduce themselves.

  Embarrassed, Elynn flushed. Everyone was staring, looking at her approvingly and telling her what a wonderful thing it was that they were planning to give their parents a surprise gift. No one was presumptuous enough to ask what the gift was, but Elynn still broke out into a cold sweat. Coughing slightly, she snuck several nervous glances at the box at her feet.

  “Don’t worry,” a young man assured her comfortingly as he sat next to her on the couch. “We won’t spill the beans about your visit or your surprise to Costas.”

  “Good,” Alex said in a cold tone, after he dismissed his assistants. “Why don’t you start on those figures. I want them on my desk by tomorrow morning, Damon,” he said briskly.

  “Oh, err…of course,” Damon said, springing back up to attention. “I will work on them tonight,” he said nervously. “All night,” he added as he rushed out the door, presumably to escape before he was given more work.

  She frowned at Damon’s retreating body, before swinging back to look at Alex. He was still busy, continuing to fire off directions at the remaining employees. After a few minutes, they scattered, rushing off to carry out his orders like good little soldiers.

  Finally, they were all alone. “Come, we need to catch the helicopter in half an hour,” he said, gesturing to the door. Elynn grabbed the bag. “I had your suitcase transferred to my car and sent the driver off with a big tip,” he added as he led the way out of his office.

  The busy executive floor was busy, even this late in the day. Despite that, the staff wasn’t shy about loitering to take a look at her. One or two might have wondered just how brotherly Alex’s affection for her was from the possessive hold he kept on her as he guided her to the elevator. These observant souls wisely averted their gaze when the two of them passed.

  When they reached the ground floor, the two women at reception stumbled over each other to open the doors and wish them a good evening. Elynn refrained from smiling cynically, focusing on Alex instead. He was playing the arrogant captain of industry to the hilt, but his remote manner lasted only as long as they were out in public. Once the door to the limousine closed, he dropped his reserve and pulled her towards him with hard, hungry arms.

  Grateful that the privacy partition was already up, Elynn crawled onto his lap, trying to press herself as close as possible to him. When he withdrew to draw in more air, she decided to ask him about a suspicion she’d had upstairs.

  “Alex. Were you jealous when you saw me talking to Damon?” she asked.

  “Why do you think that?” he asked, his expression shutting down.

  “You went all cold. Kind of like now,” she added a little sarcastically before shaking her head. “How could you possibly feel threatened?”

  “I wasn’t threatened,” he said. “But he was standing too close to you. Damon’s the local office Lothario…and he’s asked about you before. I’ve found him looking at your picture on Costas’ desk more than once. He probably thinks marriage to you would be a good career move,” Alex said with a small sneer while stroking her cheek.

  Elynn laughed. She hadn’t gotten that vibe from Damon at all, but she didn’t make it a habit of examining men too closely. And that was clearly a mistake, she thought when Alex squeezed her arms a little tighter.

  “That laugh better not indicate you were flattered by that little weasel,” he said from behind gritted teeth.

  She took his face in her hands and kissed him. “I’m not flattered by his attention. I’m flattered by your jealousy.”

  “Don’t make a habit of poking the bear, Elynn,” he said before pulling her in for a kiss with a hand on the back of her head.

  Pulling away she laughed, again. “I really don’t think I have to poke it to get it riled up.”

  Alex relaxed. “That’s probably true,” he admitted before sighing. “It’s just that Damon is a lot closer in age to you than I am. So forgive an insecure old man.”

  “Alex, you’re thirty-one.”

  “That’s ten years older than you,” he scowled before changing the subject. “Baby, I’m pleased that you couldn’t wait another day to see me, but I’m not happy you came without Andrea. Where is she?”

  “Home,” Elynn said pointedly. “I’m perfectly capable of getting on a plane by myself. And it’s nine years and eight months.”

  He scoffed. “That’s close enough to ten. And I know you’re more than capable,” he said eventually. “But I would feel a whole lot better if you didn’t travel alone. Andrea gets a handsome salary to watch out for you. Let her do her job. Humor your old man, okay?”

  Elynn sighed. “Next time. And Andrea did put me on the plane. She also arranged for the driver who picked me up. He was thoroughly vetted and approved, and I had a picture of him in advance. Satisfied?”

  “Not entirely, but I won’t dock Andrea’s pay, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  She rolled her eyes, but decided she would rather spend this time kissing him than arguing. Before Elynn knew it, they were at the airfield. She was buckled in on the helicopter before she thought to ask where they were going.

  “It’s a surprise,” Alex said with that small private smile she now loved.

  Closing her eyes in anticipation, she leaned against him for the duration of the flight.

  Chapter 13

  Some thirty minutes later, they landed on a small jewel of an island. The security men who had accompanied them melted away while she took a look around. “Where are we?”

  “This is the island where I was born. I thought we could stay here for the next week.”

  “But there’s no house here anymore,” Elynn protested.

  Costas had grown up on this island. The Hanas family had once owned a large estate here, but a bad storm had done a lot of damage to it. Due to the lack of funds during his youth, Costas had been forced to abandon the family’s rambling ancestral home and sell off the property. Alex had always talked about buying back their land and restoring the house, but as far as she knew, it had only been talk.

  “Did you do it? Did you buy back the property?” Elynn asked excitedly.

  “All the land we owned and then s
ome,” he said with satisfaction. “The house was a total loss, however, so I just built a new one on a slightly better vantage point.”

  They turned the corner, and Elynn gasped. The new ‘house’ was a gorgeous sprawling Mediterranean mansion high on the cliff ahead. Wrapped around the house was an exotic snaking garden that was designed to blend in with the hillside’s natural conformation. A more direct path up to the house was on their right along the cliff’s edge.

  The interior of the house was beautiful—warm and open with comfortable-looking furniture and beautiful paintings and antiques. A matronly Greek housekeeper Elynn had never seen before appeared halfway through their exploration of the house. She smiled and said something to Alex in soft Greek before she retreated.

  “Dinner is ready,” he translated.

  He took her hand and showed her to a terrace with a spectacular view of the sea. An elegantly set table for two was waiting for them.

  “When did you finish this place?” Elynn asked in between bites of a to-die-for shrimp saganaki.

  “Last year,” he said, looking around appreciatively. “You know, I used to think Costas was too sentimental about this place. He used to drag me here all the time when I was younger to keep us in touch with our heritage. I hated it when I was a teenager. The old house was a mess and there was no semblance of a social life. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized the privacy we could have here was worth more than gold. That’s when I started construction. I’ve come here a few times to relax in between trips. Costas knows about it, but he and Mary are more concerned with traveling right now. He wants to show her the world. I understand the feeling.”

  Elynn answered with a smile. She hoped he meant to follow in his father’s footsteps and would soon be globetrotting with her. Traveling the world with Alex was a tantalizing prospect. When she had time away from work that is.

  Dinner was followed by a leisurely dessert, but soon the light faded. When servants came to light candles on the tables, he waved them away.

  “I think it’s time you saw the master bedroom,” he announced before showing her upstairs.