by Kendrick, Sharon; Lawrence, Kim; Crews, Caitlin; Milburne, Melanie
Allegra remembered all too well. It wouldn’t have been a good look to be in the bridal party photos with red splotches all over her face and neck—but apparently it hadn’t been hives but a reaction to the facial she’d had the day before as part of the hen’s party spa day. Just as well the make-up artist had done an excellent job of disguising it with cover-up. ‘That was an allergic reaction—’
‘I rest my case.’
Allegra rolled her eyes. ‘Anyway, I’ve agreed because…well… I’ve agreed, that’s all. I’ve known him since I was a teenager. I used to run into him at corporate functions and stuff with my father.’
And proceed to embarrass myself with humiliating frequency.
‘But six months ago you were spitting chips about how arrogant and up himself he was,’ Emily said. ‘Now you’re wearing his ring. Show me, by the way.’ She leaned across the desk to grasp Allegra’s hand. ‘Oh. My. God. Isn’t it gorgeous?’
‘Yes, I couldn’t have chosen better myself.’ Which made Allegra wonder if Draco knew her better than she’d thought, despite his claim he’d selected the ring at random. What else did he know about her?
Emily sat back down with a sigh. ‘Gosh, I wish some handsome billionaire would force me into a marriage of convenience. Is he a billionaire?’
‘Pretty close to it, I think.’
Emily leaned forward again, her toffee-brown eyes suddenly full of concern. ‘You sure you’re doing the right thing? I mean, you don’t have to go through with it, you know. You can always say no even as the priest is asking you if you’ll take this man and so on.’
Allegra couldn’t say no, but explaining why to her friend might make her look even more pathetic than she felt. She was ashamed about wanting to please her father at her age but there was no escaping it. ‘I know what I’m doing, Em.’
‘You said no sex, but surely you were joking?’ Emily said. ‘I mean, look at the guy. What’s not to want?’
Allegra could feel her cheeks giving her away. ‘I’ve told him it’s a hands-off affair.’
Emily snorted. ‘Like that’s going to work. Did he actually agree to that?’
‘Not in so many words, but he has to respect my wishes or—’
‘Wishes, schmishes,’ Emily said, eyes twinkling. ‘You want him. That’s why you were so cross about him that night in December. It was him you wanted, not that loser who didn’t have the balls to show up when he’d been the one to ask you out in the first place.’
‘I was cross with Draco because he seemed to be amused by the fact I was stood up by my date,’ Allegra said. ‘I didn’t find it amusing. I found it humiliating.’
‘What you found humiliating was Draco witnessing you being left high and dry,’ Emily said. ‘No girl wants a guy she fancies to see her rejected by someone else. It’s not good for the ego. Speaking of egos—am I going to be your bridesmaid, or aren’t you having one, since your wedding’s so rushed and all?’
‘Sorry, Em.’ Allegra gave her friend a grimace. ‘It’s a really quiet affair with only a handful of guests on his private island.’
‘His private island.’ Emily grinned. ‘No problemo.’ She slipped off the desk and straightened her skirt. ‘But I expect a full report with photos when you get back from your honeymoon, okay?’
‘Will do.’
‘Where are you having your honeymoon?’
‘On his yacht.’
Emily’s eyes sparkled. ‘You’re toast.’
CHAPTER FOUR
ONCE THE LEGAL work had been seen to during the week, Allegra didn’t see Draco again until the day before the wedding, when she arrived at his private retreat via a helicopter he had chartered to meet her at Athens airport. Her week had been a nightmare of juggling work, arranging a wedding dress and packing for their ‘honeymoon’. Every time she even thought the word, much less said it, it made her pulse gallop. She knew he wasn’t the sort of man to force himself on her. It was her own uncontrollable desires she was worried about.
Emily was right. How on earth was she going to resist him? Spending a week on a yacht with Draco was going to test her resolve like a chocolate addict standing in the middle of a chocolate fountain with her mouth open. She had no self-control around him. He only had to look at her with that black-as-sin gaze and her heart would skip as if it were jumping rope for England and Greece.
She had work commitments back home once the honeymoon was over, but apparently Draco had business meetings that week in London, so they would be travelling back together.
Just like a normal couple…
When Allegra arrived at the island it was like stepping into paradise. The eye-popping blue of the ocean with its fringe of sand on the villa side as white as powdered sugar was nothing short of stunning. The island was part of the Cyclades group and the andesite rocks, lava domes and prismatic columns of its cliffs and hills were geologists’ eye candy. They were relics of the intense hydrothermal activity of millions of years ago and gave the islands, and this one in particular, a sense of timeless beauty.
But it was the villa itself that made her breath come to a slamming halt. It was eye-squinting white, built on four levels with an infinity pool that overlooked the pristine beach below. Gardens that looked like something out of a fairy tale surrounded the villa, and there were cypress pines everywhere, including a thick forest of them on the hills at the back of the island.
Allegra had expected Draco to meet her, as he’d arranged the day before. But only that morning he’d sent a brief text to say he couldn’t make it. Couldn’t or didn’t want to? When she’d pressed the pilot for more information, he’d informed her Draco was tied up with something on the island which, considering a wedding was taking place the following day, wasn’t such an unreasonable excuse. There was certainly a lot of activity going on for all that it was to be a small ceremony.
But when a woman in her late fifties came bustling out of the front door of the villa, welcoming Allegra in broken English, to her surprise she found herself feeling disappointed Draco hadn’t welcomed her himself. What about his insistence they act like a normal couple in front of his staff?
‘Kyria Kallas,’ the housekeeper said. ‘Kyrios Papandreou will be here soon. He is…how I say?… too busy?’
Allegra hoped it wasn’t a foreshadowing of their future. She had never been important to her father. Work had always come first. Was she to suffer the same treatment by Draco? She might not want this marriage, but the idea of being so overlooked sent a shudder down her spine.
Allegra smiled at the housekeeper and assured her she was fine without him being there when he had so much to do. She found out the woman’s name was Iona, that she had been working for Draco for five years and he was the best employer in the world. Allegra had trouble getting the woman to stop gushing about him. No doubt Draco’s charm had worked its magic on the widow who, from what Iona said, he had rescued off the streets of Mykonos where she’d been left to fend for herself after her husband had divorced her, leaving her with virtually nothing out of a thirty-year marriage other than the clothes on her back. Allegra knew Draco was a financially generous man, but she hadn’t seen him as the type to take in a homeless person and train them up to be his housekeeper.
Iona led her inside and showed her the wing of the villa she would be staying in prior to the wedding. It was a beautifully decorated suite of rooms with a marble bathroom complete with a freestanding bath with elegant gold taps and fittings. The furnishings in both the bedroom and sitting room were a lush combination of velvet, silk and brocade, and crystal chandeliers hung overhead. Allegra was no art expert, but the works on the walls were a mix of old and new, with a few pieces that looked like they were worth millions. The views from the windows were so breath-taking, she couldn’t stop staring and wondering how anyone could ever get used to being surrounded by such beauty and t
he grandeur of nature at its finest.
One of the staff brought in her luggage and once he had gone Iona asked if she could press the wedding dress and any other clothes that needed attending to.
‘That would be lovely, thank you.’
Allegra wandered over to the window overlooking the ocean and the gorgeous stretch of sand that sloped to the sparkling water below. Even though inside the villa was beautifully air-conditioned, the thought of a swim at the beach was so tempting she was rustling through her bag to retrieve her bathing costume before Iona could get it unpacked. She decided on her one-piece because she didn’t feel like parading around in a bikini that was smaller than most of her underwear—a last-minute present from Emily.
There was a pathway with steps down to the beach that went past the infinity pool. Allegra decided against using the pool because it was so exposed to the villa. She didn’t fancy the household staff watching her while she swam—or her version of swimming, anyway.
The sand was hot between her toes when she took off her sandals, and the sun beat down on her back and shoulders when she slipped off her light cotton beach poncho. The water was as warm as a bath and as clear as drinking water—so clear she could see fish darting away with every step she took. She went deeper and then did a shallow dive, her whole body sighing with pleasure when the water closed over her heated sticky flesh. It was like being baptised by nature, reborn and renewed by the elemental pulse of the water that had lapped this beach for aeons.
She swam back and forth, marvelling at the fish below her, and enjoying the sensation of the sun shining down on her back and legs after a miserable summer so far back in London. It was pure bliss to feel the water move over her body with every stroke she took, the sound of it splashing and the occasional cry of a seabird the only sounds she could hear.
Maybe she could get used to this sort of life—a week or two in London working her butt off and then coming back to this. To sun, sand and sea…and a sinfully handsome, sexy husband.
* * *
Draco came back to the villa, from seeing to an issue with one of his junior staff members at the staff quarters, to find Allegra had gone down to the beach. He could see her from the terrace, moving through the water like a mermaid, her long, black silky hair floating out behind her. His hormones shuddered at the sight of her. Her navy-blue and white one-piece highlighted her neat figure in all the right places—places he couldn’t wait to get his hands on again.
He had only touched her breasts through her clothes and that had been enough to make him crazy with lust. She insisted their relationship would remain unconsummated, but every time he kissed her the message from her response was the opposite. He wasn’t the sort of man to push a woman into doing things she didn’t want to do, but everything so far told him Allegra did want him. Wanted him as badly as he wanted her.
He walked down to the beach and stood with one hand over his brow, shielding his eyes from the sun, watching her slice through the water. But, as if she sensed his gaze on her, she stopped, stood upright in the waist-deep water and swung the wet curtain of her hair behind her back. She looked like a goddess arising from the depths of the ocean. The water droplets sparkled off her like a spray of carelessly flung diamonds, her creamy skin almost as white and pure as the sand.
Draco shucked off his jeans, T-shirt and shoes and walked into the water towards her. He would have slipped off his undershorts as well, but he decided to keep things in his pants, so to speak. Making love to Allegra with his staff watching from above was something he was keen to avoid. Once they were on his yacht and away from prying eyes, well, who knew what might happen?
He came closer to her and ran his eyes over her body. His flesh tingled, wondering if her hands and mouth would be as thorough as his searching gaze in the not-too-distant future.
Her eyes met his in a flinty lock. ‘Is all your terribly important business sorted now?’
Draco placed his hands on her waist but, while she didn’t resist, she stood statue-firm with her eyes spearing him like dark blue darts. ‘Sorry, agape mou. I had an issue with one of my young staff. A homeless kid I took in a few months ago. He’s having some problems with the rules I’ve set down.’
She blinked a couple of times and her whole body sagged as it lost its rigid stance. ‘Oh…’
He moved his hands to her arms, stroking her wet skin cooled by the water. It was like caressing silk. Every cell in his body pulsed and strained to get closer to her. The blood pounded to his groin, his brain filling with images of him pinning her to the sand and getting all hot and primal with her. ‘You can’t be seen scowling at me the day before the wedding, ne?’
Allegra let out a breathy little sigh and stepped closer, placing her hands flat on his chest, making his blood roar all the harder. ‘I’m sorry… I was just feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all. Is he OK, this employee of yours?’
Draco held her by the hips, his need for her closing the distance between their bodies like a bridge of lust. ‘I found Yanni under the influence of something back at the staff quarters. I wasn’t sure if it was alcohol or something else. I had to make sure, because he’s got a history of substance abuse.’
She bit into her lower lip with her teeth. ‘Oh, how terribly worrying for you. Is he all right?’
‘Yes, but he’s going to have one hell of a hangover in a few hours,’ Draco said. ‘I’ve got someone watching him and keeping him hydrated.’
‘How old is he?’
‘Sixteen going on thirty.’ Draco grimaced and added, ‘He’s seen things you and I wouldn’t dream of even in a nightmare. He’s been living on the streets since he was ten years old.’
Her brow was as creased as the lines the wind had made in the sand. ‘How did you come by him?’
‘He tried to pick-pocket me. I caught him, and he fought like a demon, but then I realised he was sick with withdrawals from something. He was shaking and sweating and not in his right mind at all. He was barely coherent. I took him to a rehab centre and got him some help, but of course he relapsed as soon as he was released. You can’t be on the streets and on God knows what substances for six years without having a struggle to get clean.’
Her brow was still slightly furrowed. ‘So you took him in yourself? To live with you here on your island?’
‘Yes, because he’s safe here—relatively,’ Draco said. ‘This being an island, I can keep him away from the nightclubs and bars and seedy types who want to exploit him to do their dirty work for them. He’s a good kid underneath all the bluster, he’s just had some bad stuff happen to him.’
Her expression was thoughtful for a beat or two of silence. ‘Did you spend time on the streets?’
Draco didn’t like talking about the time after his father had died and he’d been left alone in the world. He had no money other than the pittance his father had saved which hadn’t even covered the funeral expenses. It was a time he would rather forget because his life could have turned out so different—or ended altogether—if he had made some of the bad choices Yanni had made. Taking care of the teenager was a way of reaching back in time to be the sort of mentor he had found in his first boss, Josef.
‘A few months. It was tough. I could have gone either way. But I managed to get out of there and make something of myself to honour my father.’
‘How did you go from there to where you are now?’
‘Guts and determination,’ Draco said. ‘And some luck. I got work down at the boat yard and the owner of one of the yacht-tour fleets took me on. I went to night school to finish my education and juggled a couple of other jobs to get some money behind me. I bought my way into the business and then bought it outright from Josef when he retired. I built it up and expanded it after that. I figured Yanni needs someone like Josef was to me. Tough but fair.’
Allegra gave him a lopsided smile and her hands s
lid up to link around his neck, bringing her body even closer to his until he could feel the cool, wet press of her breasts and the hot swell of her mound. ‘I didn’t realise you were such a nice guy underneath all that arrogance.’
Draco smiled and settled his hands on the sweet curve of her bottom, his gaze briefly dipping to the shadow of her cleavage. ‘If you knew what I was thinking right now, there’s no way you would ever call me nice.’
Her eyes shone with the same excitement he could feel throbbing through his body. Her fingers laced through his hair, her lips parting, and the tip of her tongue snaking out to leave a glistening sheen of moisture over them. ‘Are you going to kiss me for the sake of any staff who might be watching?’ Allegra’s voice was husky, her warm breath wafting across the surface of his lips. She smelt of sun and salt and sunscreen, and something else that made his self-control throw its hands up in defeat.
Draco gave a mock ‘let’s get it over with’ sigh. ‘All right—if you insist.’ He brought his mouth to hers in a kiss that spoke of the longing in his body. He explored the interior of her mouth, his blood rushing like a torrent at her response. Her tongue tangled with his, playing cat-and-mouse and hide-and-seek and I-want-you-right-now. He brought her as hard up against him as he could, his hands cupping her bottom until he could feel the intimate seam of her body. Never had he wanted someone so desperately. It was like a fire in his system, roaring through the network of his veins, making him zing from head to foot with sexual energy and demonic drive.
Her soft little whimpers drove him wild, so too the way her hands played with his hair, pulling and tugging until every hair root on his scalp tingled. Her mouth was wet and salty and he fed off it like an addict on a drug he couldn’t resist.
