She was an independent, sophisticated twenty-nine-year-old woman. They were the things that had attracted Markos to her. No matter how wonderful their lovemaking, he certainly wouldn’t want that independent, sophisticated twenty-nine-year-old woman making a fool of herself over him!
Accept this for what it is, Eva told herself firmly as she finally got out of bed to go into the bathroom and tidy herself: wonderful sex, teasing banter and a good time had by all. For her to expect anything else from Markos was totally unacceptable.
Having feelings for Markos certainly wasn’t an option…
* * *
‘So as a child you spent most of your summers on the family’s private island in the Aegean?’
Markos nodded, having returned to the bedroom long enough to pull on faded denims and a black T-shirt, totally relaxed as he and Eva sat at the breakfast bar eating warmed croissants with honey and drinking coffee. ‘Drakon and Gemini are there now—on their honeymoon.’
Eva gave a wistful sigh. ‘It sounds idyllic.’
Markos quirked one dark brow. ‘I believe you mentioned your own childhood was less so?’
She shrugged narrow shoulders, the movement instantly drawing Markos’s gaze to the way the firm swell of her breasts was revealed as the black silk of his robe parted slightly. ‘My parents should never have married each other, and they probably wouldn’t have done if my mother hadn’t been expecting me.’ She grimaced. ‘Needless to say they didn’t make that mistake again, which is why I’m an only child.’
Markos frowned. ‘But you have other family…?’
Eva lowered her gaze as she began to crumble a croissant on her plate. ‘An aunt and uncle…a couple of cousins. And we aren’t exactly big on family reunions; I haven’t been back to England once in the last seven years.’
Unlike the Lyonedes family. There had been over three hundred guests at Drakon and Gemini’s wedding the previous month, and almost all of them had been related to the Lyonedes family in some way.
‘I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like not to have a huge extended family,’ he said.
‘It isn’t so bad.’ Eva gave another shrug. ‘Not enough people to have a big family fallout, for one thing!’
‘The Lyonedes family can certainly be volatile,’ Markos acknowledged dryly.
She smiled. ‘Must be all that hot Mediterranean blood!’ Her cheeks coloured hotly as she seemed to realise what she had just said. ‘I meant—’
‘I know what you meant, Eva.’ Markos chuckled at she blushed. It was an endearing and unexpected quality in a woman in her late twenties who had been married and divorced, had lived in New York for the last seven years, and ran her own very successful interior design company. ‘And I believe you once implied that you thought Drakon cold when you met him?’
Eva was beginning to wish she had never continued this particular conversation! ‘You must have realised after last night that my judgement of a man’s character isn’t all that good—oh, good Lord!’ She winced as Markos raised one mocking brow. ‘I obviously wasn’t referring to you when I said that—what I was really trying to say was—’ She broke off with an irritated frown as Markos began to chuckle. ‘It isn’t funny!’
‘I couldn’t agree more.’ He was still smiling as he stood up slowly to move around the breakfast bar until he stood beside her. ‘Obviously I need to take you back to bed and refresh your memory as to how un-cold my own character is…’
He held out his hand, very dark and handsome with his dark hair still slightly ruffled, his jaw unshaven, and the tight-fitting black T-shirt outlining the muscles of his chest and flat abdomen.
‘So soon…?’ Her eyes were wide.
Markos eyed her quizzically. ‘You would rather not…?’
‘I didn’t say that!’ she protested instantly, her nipples having noticeably tightened beneath the black silk robe, and that moist warmth once again heating between her thighs. ‘I just— I’m just surprised that you—well, that—’
‘That I would, or could, want you again so soon?’ Markos finished huskily, his eyes dark with intent. ‘Come back to bed, Eva, and let me show you how much and in what ways I want you!’
Eva felt slightly shy as she placed her hand in Markos’s and stood up to accompany him to the bedroom. A ridiculous feeling after the intimacies the two of them had shared earlier.
The intimacies they were about to share again…
* * *
‘You may just succeed in killing me with pleasure, Eva!’ Markos groaned as she collapsed on top of him a long, long time later.
‘Not intentionally, I assure you.’ Eva chuckled weakly as she lay against the dampness of his hair-roughened chest, having totally lost count of the number of times and in how many ways Markos had brought her to climax—before she had gently pushed him back against the pillow and made love to him, first kissing his chest and the flatness of his stomach, before moving lower to take him into her mouth. Her fingers had encircled him as she’d licked that responsive length, until Markos had begged her to stop and she’d moved up to straddle his hips, taking him deep inside her, inch by pleasurable inch, before riding him—riding them both—to explosive pleasure.
His arms encircled her as he rolled to one side and took her with him. ‘What are your intentions towards me?’ he prompted gruffly.
Eva’s heart gave a leap even as she opened one wary lid to look up at him. ‘Entirely dishonourable, I assure you,’ she said softly.
Markos felt a sense of disappointment in Eva’s answer, even though he held her in his arms and had every intention of doing so for the rest of the day. And tomorrow…? Tomorrow, as he had already stated, was another day…
‘Markos?’
He gave a relaxed smile. ‘We will sleep now and talk later,’ he encouraged huskily, and he rested her tousled head more comfortably against his shoulder before settling back against the pillows.
‘Talk about what?’ she prompted, that earlier wariness now back in her voice too.
‘Whatever needs to be talked about,’ Markos dismissed lightly, and he closed his eyes, Eva still held firmly in his arms.
Eva lay awake for a long time after she knew by the soft and even tenor of Markos’s breathing that he had fallen into an exhausted sleep—hardly surprising when he’d confessed to having had no sleep the night before, and then embarked on two athletic bouts of exquisite lovemaking.
Amazingly wonderful lovemaking, during which Eva knew she had lost all and every inhibition she had ever had as Markos touched and kissed her in places she had never been touched or kissed before…
She felt…wonderful. Deliciously satiated. Every part of worshipped. And for once in her life Eva intended to let tomorrow take care of itself.
* * *
She had no idea whether it was day or night when she woke up, although the brightness of the sun shining through the bedroom window would seem to indicate it was probably late on Sunday afternoon.
Amazing.
She had never ever spent the whole day in bed with a man. And this was not just any man, but Markos Lyonedes.
She turned her head sideways on the pillow to look at him, smiling warmly as she saw that Markos was doing exactly the same thing. Those green eyes gleamed appreciatively, and the stubble was darker on his square chin, his hair tousled on his forehead, his muscled shoulders bare above the bedcovers.
‘Good afternoon,’ she greeted him huskily.
His eyes crinkled at the corners as he returned her smile. ‘Did you know that you purr in your sleep?’ he asked.
‘You’re making that up!’ Eva refuted indignantly, her cheeks warming as she turned fully to face him.
‘No, I’m not,’ he assured her indulgently as he reached out to touch the hair at her temple. ‘You sounded like a contented kitten.’
That was probably because she felt like a contented kitten: warm, intensely satisfied and safe.
Safe?
How could she possibly feel sa
fe when she now knew that Markos was capable of breaching every barrier she had ever placed about her bruised emotions?
And yet that was exactly how Eva felt—safe, cared for, even cherished. So unwise when it came to this particular man! Eva knew better than most how ephemeral Markos’s relationships had been and always would be, and she had no intention of falling for a man who chose to fill a woman’s life before leaving it—and her—totally empty when he chose to walk away. She had already been burned so very badly once in her life. She certainly didn’t need—
‘You are thinking again,’ Markos rebuked gently, as his fingers moved to smooth the frown from Eva’s creamy brow. ‘Perhaps it is time for more food…?’
‘Good idea.’ Her smile didn’t reach those golden eyes as she turned away to throw back the bedcover. ‘If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go and take a shower while you look for something to eat.’
She picked up the black silk robe and shrugged into it in such a way that Markos couldn’t see her nakedness, before standing up to tie the belt tightly around her waist.
‘I can’t say I exactly like the idea of going home in a black silk evening gown in the middle of the afternoon!’ She wrinkled her nose in distaste.
Markos lay relaxed against the pillows as he looked at her from between narrowed lids, one of his knees bent and raised as a shield to the rampant hardness of his arousal. One look at a tousled Eva when he woke up, along with listening to those soft little purring noises she made in her sleep, and that part of him had immediately perked up and taken an interest!
‘Who said anything about your going home in the middle of the afternoon…?’
Eva frowned as she looked across at him uncertainly. ‘I think I’ve already been here long enough, don’t you?’
Markos gave a shrug. ‘I have no other plans for the rest of the day. Do you?’
‘Well…no, not exactly.’ She shifted uncomfortably, obviously having no idea how the silk material of robe once again outlined the fullness of her breasts. ‘I do have to things to do before work in the morning, though.’
‘Such as?’
Eva frowned. ‘How about I take a shower and we talk about this again afterwards?’ she said briskly. ‘I’d really like to freshen up now.’
As it was almost twenty-four hours since Markos had last taken a shower, he could perfectly understand Eva’s need to freshen up; he could do with a shave and a shower himself.
‘You’ll find a spare toothbrush in the bathroom cabinet.’
Eva raised dark, mocking brows. ‘Really?’
Markos could almost see the cogs of her imagination turning. ‘There’s also a spare razor in there—but you really shouldn’t infer anything from that!’ he drawled dryly.
Colour flared in her cheeks. ‘Very funny!’
Markos gave another shrug. ‘Just in case you were wondering.’
‘I wasn’t!’
Oh, yes, she most definitely had been. And Markos knew it hadn’t been in a good way. ‘What have I done since we met to give you the idea I make a habit of bringing women home to spend the weekend with me?’ He moved up on one elbow to look at her from between narrowed lids.
Nothing since the two of them had met, Eva accepted. His pursuit of her this past week or so had been completely single-minded. But she couldn’t allow herself to forget his reputation of coldness towards a woman once he had decided he no longer wanted them in his life. As with her cousin Donna.
‘Nothing at all,’ she dismissed lightly. ‘Is this the bathroom over here?’ She indicated the closed door on the right of the bedroom.
Markos shook his head. ‘The dressing room. Where you will find several of my shirts hanging up if you don’t want to put your dress back on.’
Eva tensed at the idea of the intimacy of dressing in one of Markos’s shirts. ‘Er—no. I’ll be fine in the dress, thank you.’
Markos continued to look at her for several long seconds before giving an abrupt nod of his head. ‘In that case, that’s the bathroom over there.’ He nodded at the closed door to the left of the room.
Eva avoided meeting that piercing green gaze as she grabbed her dress up from the carpeted floor, where it had been dropped the night before; no doubt she was about to go home in a very crumpled black silk evening dress!
‘Thanks.’ Her chin was high as she hastily left the bedroom.
Markos remained laying in bed for several minutes longer, listening as Eva turned on the shower. A large part of him—that hard and rampant part of him!—wanted to get out of bed and join her in the shower to make love with her again, but the more cautious part of him warned that Eva needed a few minutes alone, that—incredibly—her embarrassed awkwardness earlier this morning, and again just now, gave every indication that spending the day in bed with him had been completely out of character.
Reading between the lines what Eva hadn’t said last night, Markos could well imagine that her marriage to Jack Cabot Grey hadn’t been what the English called ‘a bed of roses’. So much so that Eva had fought shy of becoming intimately involved with anyone since her divorce.
Markos frowned as the music of Mozart interrupted his train of thought. The sound was coming from inside Eva’s evening bag, where it lay on the bedside cabinet, and was obviously the ringtone of her mobile phone.
He glanced towards the bathroom door, wondering briefly if he should go and tell Eva that she had a phone call, and then dismissed the idea as he thought of how she had almost run from the bedroom—from him. The sound of water still running told him that Eva was still in the shower. If the call was important then whoever it was would either leave a message or ring back.
Markos’s thoughts came to an end as the music stopped just as abruptly. As he’d thought—whoever it was would call back.
Mozart began to play a second time.
The caller was either very persistent, or the call was an emergency. After Jack Cabot Grey’s parting comment to Eva last night Markos could easily guess who the persistent caller might be, and having Eva talk to her ex-husband now was guaranteed to hasten her departure. But if it was an emergency—
Damn it, he’d answer the call and take the flak from Eva later for doing so!
The name of the caller on the lit screen of Eva’s mobile phone made his eyes widen in surprise.
CHAPTER TEN
EVA felt more than a little awkward when she entered the kitchen half an hour later. Her hair was still damp from the shower and she wore no make-up, although she had accepted Markos’s invitation and borrowed one of his shirts from the dressing room—a cream silk. She felt less conspicuous wearing the shirt over her figure-hugging evening gown like a jacket, the sleeves turned up to just beneath her elbows.
Markos had obviously been busy in her absence. A salad and a selection of cheeses were laid out temptingly on the breakfast bar, and she could see from the dampness of his dark hair and clean-shaven jaw, as he turned to look at her from beneath hooded lids, that he had also taken a shower and freshened up in one of
the apartment’s many other bathrooms. He was wearing black denims and a fitted white T-shirt which emphasised both his muscled chest and the natural tan of his skin. Markos looked more edible than the food!
This was not what Eva wanted to feel after deciding earlier on today that she was going to be sophisticated and casual about all this, and not try to make it into something it wasn’t. As far as Markos was concerned, anyway. Eva would have time to sit and decide how she felt about it once she was safely back in her own apartment.
The guarded look in Markos’s expression as he put a basket of freshly baked bread on the breakfast bar before sitting down on one of the stools only served to confirm that Eva needed to act cool as well as sophisticated.
‘This all looks delicious!’ she complimented him brightly as she sat on the stool opposite him. ‘I’ll just eat a little something and then I really do have to leave.’
His expression was still guarded. ‘I thought we could talk
first.’
Eva avoided his piercing green gaze as she concentrated on breaking open a piece of the crispy bread. ‘I’m not really one for post-mortems, are you?’ she dismissed lightly. ‘We had fun together. Let’s just leave it at that.’
Markos looked across at her. ‘Can we do that?’
She gave him a startled look. ‘Sorry…?’
Markos leant his elbows on the breakfast bar and continued to stare across at her. ‘You had a telephone call earlier when you were in the shower.’
Her eyes widened, her thoughts racing at Markos’s continued aggression. ‘And you answered it…?’ If Jack had carried out his threat to ‘be in touch…’
‘No.’ His eyes glittered through narrowed lids. ‘I decided not to after seeing the identity of the caller on the display.’
Eva moistened suddenly dry lips. ‘And…?’
‘And it would seem that you forgot to mention we have a mutual acquaintance,’ he commented mildly. Too mildly.
Eva gave up all pretence of putting food on her plate and straightened warily. ‘We do…?’
‘Yes,’ Markos rasped.
She gave a puzzled shake of her head. ‘I’m afraid you’re going to have to be a little more explicit than that if you expect me to know what you’re talking about.’
Markos stood up abruptly, too filled with impatient restlessness to sit at the breakfast bar any longer. ‘I am curious to know why you have not mentioned that you are acquainted with Donna Cresswell—the woman who you surely know was my PA in London until a few weeks ago?’
‘Ah.’
‘Yes—ah,’ Markos bit out evenly, not in the least comforted by the way the colour had leeched from Eva’s cheeks.
To say that Markos had been surprised to recognise the name of the Englishwoman making the call to Eva’s mobile phone earlier was putting it mildly. It was the same Englishwoman who had once been his PA—a PA he had been forced to dismiss some weeks ago under less than pleasant circumstances.
Eva’s obvious dismay now only seemed to confirm his earlier suspicion that perhaps this was the reason behind those two cancelled appointments made by interior designer Evangeline Grey, and behind her dismissive manner towards him the evening Markos had introduced himself to her at Senator Ashcroft’s cocktail party. He also strongly suspected there was a distinct possibility Donna Cresswell might have told her friend Eva a different version of those events of six weeks ago.
His Reputation Precedes Him Page 11
