by Kendrick, Sharon; Lawrence, Kim; Crews, Caitlin; Milburne, Melanie
‘For as long as I want it to.’
And how long would that be? Allegra turned to look at the view from the window to give herself more time to think. The sunlight was so bright it was almost violent. The intense blue of the Aegean Sea, and the equally vivid blue domes in contrast to the stark white of the houses, never failed to snatch her breath. It was picture-postcard perfect, especially from her father’s luxury villa in Oia, where the best sunsets in the world were occurred.
It was home and yet it wasn’t.
She’d always felt like she had a foot in both countries and it added to her sense of not really belonging anywhere.
If she married Draco to save her father from financial disgrace, where would that leave her when it was time to call an end to their marriage? Few marriages ended with a mutual agreement to part. There was nearly always one party who wasn’t happy about the break-up. Would that be her? And—if he wasn’t joking about the heir he said he wanted—there was no way she would have a child under such circumstances, with the knowledge that the marriage had no guarantee, no promise of full and lasting commitment.
Allegra turned back to look at Draco. ‘Still speaking hypothetically here. What about my career? Or do you expect me to give that up?’
‘No, of course not,’ he said. ‘But there will have to be compromises occasionally. I have business interests in London, as you know, but most of my time is spent in Greece. I think the fact you have your own career will enhance our marriage rather than complicate it.’
‘And you would expect me to be with you most of the time?’ Allegra said it as though it was the most unreasonable request in the world. As though she’d be committing to daily root-canal treatment.
His expression flickered with amusement. ‘Isn’t that what husbands and wives do?’
Allegra sent him a speaking look. ‘Ones that are in love with each other, maybe. But that hardly applies in our case.’
One side of his smile went a little higher. ‘You’ve been in love with me since you were a teenager. Go on—admit it. That’s why you haven’t got married yet or dated with any regularity. You can’t find anyone that does it for you like I do it for you.’
Allegra affected a laugh. ‘Seriously? That’s what you think?’ What signals had she been giving off to make him think she was still that clumsy teenage girl? She wasn’t that infatuated fool any more. She was all grown up and she hated him. Hated. Hated. Hated him.
His eyes gleamed like wet paint. ‘When was the last time you slept with a man?’
She folded her arms across her body and pursed her lips like she was a schoolmistress staring down an impertinent child. ‘I’m not going to give you details of my sex life. It’s none of your damn business who I sleep with.’
‘It will be my business once we’re married. I expect you to be faithful.’
Allegra unfolded her arms and planted her hands on her hips instead. ‘And what about you? Will you be faithful or will I have to turn a blind eye to your little dalliances like my mother did for my father?’
Something hardened around his mouth, making it appear flatter, less mobile. ‘I am not your father, Allegra. I take the institution of marriage very seriously.’
‘So seriously you’re prepared to marry a woman you don’t love, for a short period of time, just so you can acquire a flagging business?’ She made a scoffing noise. ‘Don’t make me laugh. I know why you want to marry me, Draco. You want a trophy wife. A wife who knows which knife and fork to use. A wife you can take anywhere without worrying she might embarrass you. Then, when you’ve got me to pop out an heir, you’ll get bored, send me on my way and keep the kid. I’m not doing it. No way. Find some other puppet.’
She pushed past him to leave the room but he snagged her wrist on her way past, bringing her around to face him. Her skin burned where his fingers gripped her, but not a painful burn, more of a sizzling, tingling burn that sent heat rushing through her body and pooling in her core. He had rarely touched her since that kiss other than by accident. The contact of his flesh on hers was like being zapped with a lightning bolt. It made every nerve beneath her skin pirouette. His thumb found her thrumming pulse and soothed it with slow, measured strokes while his eyes held hers prisoner.
‘I was only teasing about the heir,’ he told her. ‘But think carefully, Allegra. Yes, I am in the market for a suitable wife, and you fit the bill. But this is also your chance to get your father to finally notice you. You won’t just be helping him, but Elena and little Nico, by providing them with security. If the business goes under, it will take them down with it.’
He had found another weak spot. Elena and Nico. They were the innocents in this situation and their future would be compromised if she didn’t do something. Allegra could offer her father a loan but the sort of money Draco was talking about was in the millions. Many millions. She was wealthy, but not wealthy enough to float a multi-million-euro corporation. She let out a rattling breath and looked down at their joined hands. How could she turn her back on her father’s financial plight when she was the only person who could do something? If her father went down, Elena and darling little Nico would be collateral damage. She couldn’t stand back and let that happen. Not when she could help it. She would have to marry Draco. Gulp. ‘It seems I don’t have any choice.’
Draco brought her chin up so her gaze meshed with his. ‘You won’t regret it. I can guarantee it.’
You think? Allegra brushed his hand away from her chin and took a step backwards. ‘I’m not agreeing to this for any other reason than to save my family. Are you absolutely clear on that?’
His eyes shone with a triumphant gleam that made the backs of her knees tingle. ‘But of course.’
She disguised a swallow, trying not to notice the way his eyes kept glancing at her mouth. ‘When are you thinking of…doing it? I mean, getting married?’
‘I have already taken the liberty to make all the arrangements. We’ll be married next weekend. I would have done it this one but I didn’t want to steal little Nico’s limelight.’
Allegra’s eyes bulged in alarm. ‘So soon?’
‘It is a little rushed, but it will be a relatively simple affair. Just a handful of close friends and family.’
‘But what if I want the whole shebang?’
‘Do you?’
She blew out another breath and averted her gaze. ‘No…’
‘You’d be surprised at what can be done in a short period of time when you have money. If you want a white wedding, then that’s what you will have.’
Allegra had never been the sort of girl to hanker after the fairy-tale wedding. She had rarely even thought of getting married. Her career had always been her top priority. She normally avoided bridal shops and didn’t drool at jewellers’ windows. But ever since she’d been a bridesmaid at a friend’s wedding a couple of months ago she had started to think about what it would be like to be a bride. To be loved by someone so much they would promise to spend the rest of their life with her. It was indeed a fairy tale, one she saw turn to ashes and heartache every day of her working life.
‘We’ll be married on my island retreat,’ Draco said. ‘It will be easier to keep the press away.’
Allegra had never been to Draco’s private retreat but she had seen photos. He had a villa in Oia, an apartment in Athens and other homes on Kefalonia and Mykonos. But his secluded retreat on his private island had the most amazing gardens and an infinity pool that was perched on the edge of a vertiginous cliff. It would make a stunning wedding location.
And a perfect spot for a honeymoon.
Do not even think about the honeymoon.
‘Aren’t you worried what the press will make of us?’ Allegra asked.
He gave a loose-shouldered shrug. ‘Not particularly. I’ve grown accustomed to them speculating on my private life. Most
of the time they make stuff up.’
Not everything was fiction. She had seen enough photos of him surrounded by beautiful women to know he wasn’t living the life of a Tibetan monk. Far from it. He was considered one of Greece’s most eligible bachelors. Women were elbowing each other out of the way to score a date with him. What would everyone say when they heard she was to be his wife? A single-minded career woman like her, marrying a fast-living playboy like him.
It was laughable.
‘You’ll have to take a week off work, of course,’ he said. ‘We’ll take a short honeymoon on my yacht.’
Her heart flapped like a goldfish trapped in the neck of a funnel. ‘Hang on a minute—why do we need to have a honeymoon?’
There was a spark of something at the back of his gaze. Something dark and sensual and spine-tinglingly wicked. ‘If you need me to spell that out for you, agape mou, then you’ve been living an even more cloistered life than I thought.’
Allegra crossed her arms, holding them tightly against her stomach. A honeymoon? On his yacht? His yacht was no cheap little fishing dingy, but it could never be large enough for her to feel safe. Safe from her own wicked, traitorous desires. She would need a cruise liner or an aircraft carrier for that and even that would be no guarantee. ‘Look, I’m prepared to marry you for the sake of my father, but I’m not going to sleep with you. It will be an on-paper marriage. A marriage in name only.’
Draco came back to where she was standing but she had moved back against the wall, which gave her nowhere to escape. And with her hands crossed over her body she didn’t have room to unwind them to push him away. She breathed in the scent of him—lime and cedar with a hint of something that was unique to him. It unfurled around her nostrils, making them flare to take more of him in. She felt drunk on him. Dazzled by the pheromones that swirled and heated and mated with hers.
He slipped a hand to the side of her head, his fingers splaying through her hair until every root on her scalp shivered in delight. His eyes had that dark, twinkling spark of amusement that did so much damage to her resolve. Lethal damage. Irreparable damage. ‘And how long do you think an on-paper marriage between us would last, hmm?’ His voice was a deep burr that grazed the length of her spine like a caress from one of his work-callused hands. ‘I want you and I intend to have you.’
Allegra couldn’t stop staring at his mouth—the way his lips shaped around every word; the way his stubble made her want to press her mouth to his skin to feel the sexy rasp of his regrowth. Kiss me. Kiss me. Kiss me. The chant was pounding an echo in her blood. She didn’t want to be the one to make the first move. Not like she had done all those years ago, when she’d thrown herself at him only to be brutally rejected. She wasn’t that girl any more. Making the first move would give him too much power. She could resist him. She could. She could. She could.
As if he could read her mind, he brought a fingertip to her mouth and traced a slow outline of her lips, setting off a round of miniature fireworks under her skin. ‘Such a beautiful mouth. But I’m not sure if you’re going to kiss me back or bite me.’
She inched up her chin. ‘Try it and see.’
His smile was lazy and lopsided and sent her belly into free fall. But then he tapped her lower lip with his index finger and stepped back. ‘Maybe some other time.’
CHAPTER TWO
DRACO PICKED UP his champagne glass because, unless he gave his hands something to do, he knew they would be tempted to jump ahead a few spaces. He could wait. Sure he could. Allegra was all for keeping things on paper but he knew she would crack before the ink was dry on their marriage certificate.
He knew she was attracted to him. She’d had a teenage crush on him, which had amused and annoyed him in equal measure back in the day. He’d been a little ruthless in handling her back then, but he hadn’t been interested in messing with a teenager, especially so soon after his break-up with the ex he’d thought he was going to marry. Back then, Allegra had been young and starry-eyed, fancying herself in love, and had needed to be put firmly in her place.
But she was a woman now—a beautiful woman in the prime of her life.
And he wanted her.
Ever since London, Draco had realised Allegra was exactly what he was looking for in a wife. And when her father, Cosimo Kallas, had come to him for help, he had seized his opportunity and made his financial support conditional on marrying her. Besides, there were other men who were circling like sharks for the money her father owed them, men who he knew wouldn’t hesitate to go after Allegra next. He couldn’t stand by and let one of them force her into their bed to settle the debts he could pay without flinching. Who knew what might happen to her? Her father had angered a lot of his business associates. Draco wasn’t going to let anything happen to her because her father was a fool.
Allegra was classy. She was well-educated, she was well-spoken and she was half-Greek. And, with her untouchable air, she was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. She could have graced a catwalk or been found starring on an old-world Hollywood movie set. She walked like a dancer, her slim figure moving effortlessly across the floor. Her glossy black hair was straight and hung almost to her waist. When she moved, it moved with her in a silk curtain that held his gaze like a super-powerful magnet. He couldn’t stop himself from imagining that silky black skein draped over his chest, her long, slender legs entwined with his.
Draco suppressed a shudder of anticipation. He was hot for her. Seriously hot. So hot he only had to look at her and his blood would thunder. He couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off her. When she’d spilled her champagne, the silk of her blouse clinging wetly to the perfect globe of her breast had made his blood shoot south in a torrent. He had rarely touched her in the past. Since that kiss when she was a teenager, he had respectfully kept his distance because he hadn’t wanted any boundaries to be crossed. He had made it clear he wasn’t interested back then and he hadn’t wanted to give her mixed messages.
Now was different.
Their marriage wouldn’t be for ever, just long enough to secure the business and get Allegra out of his system. Draco had nothing against long-term marriage, but he couldn’t see himself doing the time.
He had teased Allegra with that talk of an heir to suss out her feelings on the issue of children. It wouldn’t be fair to lock her into marriage—even a short-term one—if she was desperate to have kids. Thankfully, she wasn’t, and it was the last thing he wanted from this marriage. Given his childhood, he wasn’t sure he could ever see himself having a family.
When his mother had died from a gangrenous appendix when Draco was six, he and his father had been a team intent on survival in a world that didn’t notice, let alone help, the desperately poor. Draco had a clear memory of walking with his fisherman father past the Kallas corporation headquarters one day only a month before his father’s death. His dad had looked up at the building with its shining brass sign and expressed how he wanted Draco to aim high, to dream big and bountiful, to make something of himself so he wouldn’t have to struggle the way he had done. When his father had been killed in a boating accident four weeks later, Draco had been left to fend for himself.
But his father’s words had stayed with him, motivating him, fuelling his drive and determination. He’d clawed his way out of poverty, working several menial jobs while trying to get an education. At nineteen, he’d part-owned a business, and had gone on to own it fully when the partner had retired. He had gone from strength to strength after that, building and expanding each company he acquired. He was a self-made man and he was proud of it.
No one could say he wasn’t a prize catch.
Not now.
And who could be a better wife for him than Allegra Kallas—the daughter of the businessman who owned the corporation his father had singled out that day with such aspiration? Acquiring the company would be a symbol of Draco’s success. A token of th
e dreams and hopes his father had had for him and that he had now fulfilled in his father’s honour.
Draco watched her sipping her champagne, sitting there on one of the plush leather sofas. Her long legs were crossed, one racehorse-slim ankle moving up and down in a kicking motion—the only clue she was feeling agitated. Her expression had gone back to her signature cool mask of indifference, which was another thing that secretly turned him on. He was amused how she took that schoolmistress tone with him. When she tried to stare him down with those flashing, unusually dark blue eyes, it made him hard as stone. Harder. He could feel the throb of it even now.
He’d wanted to kiss her. Of course he had. What man with even a trace of testosterone wouldn’t want to feel that lusciously soft mouth? He’d tasted those sweet, hot lips once and couldn’t wait to do it again. But he knew if he moved too soon it could shift the balance of power. He wanted his ring on her finger. He wanted her hungry. He wanted her begging. He wanted her to be honest about her lust for him. For lust after him she did. He should know the signs because he was experiencing them himself. He couldn’t take his eyes off her generous and supple mouth. Couldn’t stop thinking about that mouth opening over him, drawing on him, sucking him till he blew like the volcano Santorini was famous for.
Draco met her eyes across the space that separated them. She raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow at him, that starchy, English aristocratic, ‘I’m too good for the likes of you’ spark in her eyes making him want to carry her off fireman-style and show her just how good he could be for her. ‘Another drink to celebrate our engagement, agape mou?’ he said.
Her mouth was puckered like the drawstrings of an old-fashioned purse. ‘Don’t call me that. You know you don’t mean it.’
He pushed away from the window where he had been leaning. ‘Here’s the thing—we have to act like a happy couple, even if in private you want to play pistols at dawn.’
