Mistresses: Blackmailed With Diamonds / Shackled With Rubies

by Lucy Gordon;Sarah Morgan;Robyn Donald;Lucy Monroe;Lee Wilkinson;Kate Walker

  ‘Tell me about your sister.’ He topped up her wineglass.

  ‘You don’t want to talk about her.’

  ‘Actually, I do.’ He leaned back in his chair, one dark brow lifted in a silent prompt and she curled her fingers round the wineglass to give her the courage she needed to talk.

  ‘I was eight when she was born and I fell in love with her on sight. It was like having a real, live doll. She was so beautiful. And all mine.’

  ‘All yours?’

  Angie hesitated. ‘My mother wasn’t terribly keen on babies. To be honest, I’m not sure she would have had children at all if the choice had been hers. She—’ She broke off, feeling suddenly disloyal towards her mother. ‘She was quite busy with other things, so I looked after Tiffany.’

  ‘You?’ He frowned. ‘You were eight years old.’

  ‘I was a very mature eight-year-old,’ Angie said quickly, ‘and I loved looking after her. She was adorable. All blonde curls and smiles. She used to climb into my bed at night and sleep curled up against me. She was so sweet and warm and I loved it.’ Feeling a lump growing in her throat, she took a large sip of wine, wishing that Nikos would stop looking at her in that curiously intent way.

  ‘So you’re saying that you virtually brought your sister up?’

  She put the glass down on the table. ‘Yes. Until she was seven. And then Mum—Well, I suppose she suddenly discovered she liked having a real little girl.’ She gave a painful smile. ‘I was always a bit of a disappointment to her in that way, as you know. I preferred books to dressing up and I was quiet and painfully shy. Tiffany was different in every way. Her favourite colour was pink and she loved everything girly.’

  He studied her face. ‘So your mother suddenly took over the responsibility for parenting.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And you were so lonely that you spent even more time with your books,’ he said softly and she glanced at him, startled.

  ‘Well, I—’ She met his gaze and then dropped her eyes, wondering why she’d ever thought he wasn’t astute about people’s feelings. ‘Yes, I was lonely. And I missed Tiffany. We’d had such a special bond.’ She took a deep breath and forced herself to admit something that she’d been denying for years. ‘I suppose, if I’m honest, I carried on seeing Tiffany as that sweet little girl. I saw the change in her, of course. She loved going to parties and all she cared about was dressing up and flirting, but I still thought she was the same good person. I think what happened with my father affected her deeply.’

  ‘He lost his money?’

  ‘Everything. He had several affairs, very public ones, and he spent large sums of money.’ She toyed with the food on her plate. ‘I suppose he wanted to impress women. Unfortunately his business was already in trouble.’

  ‘And your mother and Tiffany lost a lifestyle they’d come to enjoy.’

  ‘Yes.’ It was painful admitting something so shallow. ‘I’d bought myself a little flat which I loved but in the end I rented it out and moved back home so that I could help Mum financially. But the biggest problem was Tiffany. She really resented the fact that Dad had spent all his money on these women. She kept saying that she was going to go out and—’ She broke off, pink with embarrassment and he finished her sentence, his tone cool.

  ‘—she was going to go out and do the same to some other guy.’

  ‘It wasn’t really her fault,’ Angie said quickly. ‘Mum kept telling her that she was beautiful enough to attract a really rich man, so Tiffany grew up with that expectation.’ She put down her fork and rubbed her forehead with shaking fingers. ‘It sounds so awful.’

  ‘There are plenty of women out there who think the same way.’

  She looked at him. ‘Is that why you’ve never married?’

  ‘I’ve never married because I’ve never met a woman I wanted to spend more than five minutes with.’ He gave a faint smile of self-mockery. ‘I have an extremely short attention span. And, despite what you think of me, I wouldn’t want to cause a woman the pain that my father caused my mother.’

  ‘Did she never think of leaving him?’

  ‘She loves him,’ Nikos said, ‘and love makes people do foolish things.’

  ‘Yes.’ She could easily understand that because now she was in love she was tempted to do no end of foolish things, including making a wild declaration about her feelings for him.

  She almost laughed aloud at the thought of his reaction. What would he say if he knew the truth of how she felt about him?

  He’d laugh and he’d be horrified. And he’d also pity her for believing that she could ever be the sort of woman he’d willingly select as his wife.

  No. She lifted her glass to her lips and stayed silent. There was no way she was going to complicate things further by confessing her true feelings.

  They finished dinner, lingered over coffee and then finally went up to bed.

  ‘I have an early meeting,’ Nikos said in a cool tone, removing his shirt in a swift decisive movement. ‘I’ll sleep next door so that I don’t wake you.’

  He wanted to sleep next door?

  Everything had changed, she thought miserably. The fragile truce that had existed between them had been shattered by her discovery of the truth.

  She wanted to stop him leaving the room. She wanted to tell him that she was only too happy to spend the entire night awake as long as she was with him, but she knew that he didn’t want to hear that.

  He’d suddenly realised that this marriage needn’t have happened and he clearly wanted to stay as far away from her as possible.

  She gave a miserable nod. ‘Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  Angie spent her second night without sleep, her brain playing with the problem.

  She wasn’t the woman he would have chosen but he was stuck with her, so the least she could do was try and make things easier for him.

  It was still early when she stood up and padded into the bathroom, scraping her hair out of her eyes and staring at her reflection in the mirror.

  It wasn’t all bad, she told herself firmly. He always said that he liked her eyes and surely a man couldn’t fake the degree of sexual interest he’d shown towards her? All right, so last night he’d left the room with an unflattering degree of haste, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t tempt him back.

  He liked confident women, didn’t he?

  So, it was up to her to show him that she’d grown more confident.

  And she had, she reminded herself, turning sideways and looking at her profile.

  Experimenting with her new wardrobe had been fun and she was starting to learn what suited her and what didn’t.

  And their relationship didn’t have to be about looks and sex. She was cleverer than his previous girlfriends and he was definitely finding her useful in some of his meetings.

  She gave a sigh and let her hair fall back over her face. What was the use of pretending? A man like Nikos wasn’t interested in whether a woman was clever or not. A man like Nikos didn’t need a woman who was going to be useful in meetings; he had an entire payroll of staff for that purpose. He needed a woman to occupy him in a different way. He needed a confident, beautiful, sexual woman.

  And that wasn’t her. Not really. She was improving, that was true, but she was still nothing like the women he usually dated.

  She chewed her lip and sank down on the edge of the bath, deep in thought. She’d already discovered that she enjoyed clothes and socialising far more than she would ever have thought possible. His friends and colleagues seemed to find her more than acceptable. The only area that needed work was the bedroom. She was painfully aware of her lack of experience in that area. That he was always the one in control.

  But was it really so hard for her to take the initiative?

  She didn’t know anything about seducing men, but so far she’d done nothing to intentionally attract him and he’d had no trouble having sex with her, so presumably if she made an effort—

  Glancing a
t her watch, she saw she had the whole day ahead of her, which was just as well, she mused as she stared in the mirror at her unruly, tangled hair, because she was going to need every second if she was going to transform herself into the sort of woman that Nikos usually had on his arm.

  Nikos sprang out of the helicopter, his mind still on the meeting he’d just left.

  Was it his imagination, or was he finding it harder and harder to concentrate these days?

  He strode across the lawn and up the steps of the villa and then stopped dead, staring in amazement at the woman standing in front of him. It took several moments for him to realise that it was Angie.

  ‘What have you done to yourself?’ He saw the colour rise into her cheeks and cursed himself for being so tactless. ‘I mean, you look great, of course. Just not like you.’

  Her amazing hair had been styled and blown straight and now slithered over her shoulders, her bare, creamy shoulders, in a silken curtain that gleamed and shone in the strong Greek sunlight. Her elegant silk dress was short enough to remind him that she had legs that went on for ever and her slender arms were bare.

  She gave a slightly shy smile. ‘Actually this is me. Just a different part of me, I suppose. I’ve discovered that I really like dressing up. I like the clothes you bought me. I know you only bought them for me because you didn’t want me to embarrass you in public,’ she said quickly, ‘but I’m really enjoying them. Thank you.’

  Aware that some sort of response was required, he struggled to drag his eyes away from the tempting dip of her cleavage. ‘You look great.’

  ‘Let’s go upstairs.’ Her tone was slightly husky and Nikos lifted a hand to his collar and loosened his tie with a jerk.

  ‘It’s extremely hot today—’

  She smiled and held out a hand. ‘It’s cooler inside.’

  Overcome by a painful attack of lust, Nikos followed her upstairs to their bedroom, reminding himself that she hadn’t really chosen to be in this relationship and sex was probably no longer a part of it.

  But it was impossible not to think about sex when she was looking at him with those amazing blue eyes.

  Was he allowed to kiss her?

  Confused about how to behave with a woman for the first time in his life, Nikos pushed the bedroom door shut and watched with a sense of wary anticipation as she strolled towards him and lifted her hands to the buttons of his shirt.

  ‘Did you have a stressful day?’ Her voice was smoky and feminine and he felt his body’s instant and very powerful reaction.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Good.’ She smiled and slid the shirt from his shoulders, her fingers sliding slowly over his heated flesh. ‘Because I know you always need to relax when you’re stressed.’

  He stared down at her. ‘Angelina, agape mou, you can’t—’

  ‘Why can’t I? You’re the one who taught me to enjoy sex, Nikos, so if you don’t like the person I am then you have only yourself to blame.’

  At a loss for words for the first time in his life, Nikos was struggling to formulate a coherent sentence when he felt her fingers release the button of his trousers and slide them down to the floor.

  ‘Angelina—’ He groaned her name, sure that there was some sort of conversation that they should be having but unable to formulate his thoughts into any sort of logical order.

  He struggled for control but suddenly realised that he was entirely naked and she was now on her knees in front of him.

  ‘I’ve never actually done this before,’ she murmured huskily as her mouth trailed over his abdomen and lower still to his straining erection, ‘so you’re going to have to tell me if I do anything wrong.’

  Wrong?

  He tried to say something but at that moment her soft, wet mouth slid over his throbbing shaft and he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. Close to losing control, he tried to focus his mind on something serious but her fingers and her tongue were everywhere and the pressure inside his body built to dangerous levels.

  ‘Angelina—’ Speaking was difficult but he forced his eyes open and then wished he hadn’t because the look in her eyes was all woman, all seductive, sexy woman, and he knew that there was no hope of gaining any sort of control.

  Her tongue and fingers tortured him with pleasure. ‘Does it feel good, Nikos?’ She removed her mouth from him just long enough to speak and then took him in her mouth again and he felt the agonising ache in his loins build to unbearable levels.

  ‘Angelina, you have to—you can’t—’ And then his entire world exploded in a climax so intense that for a moment the world around him went black. The powerful throb of his release went on and on and all the time he was aware of her soft, clever mouth touching him.

  Finally, just when he was beginning to wonder whether he’d ever feel normal again, his body calmed and he sagged against the door with his eyes closed.

  He felt her move. Felt her mouth press a gentle kiss against his chest and then she was tugging at his hand, leading him to the bed.

  Still recovering from what could only be described as an explosive experience and only too happy to lie down, Nikos sprawled on the covers with his eyes closed.

  ‘Just how stressful was your day?’ She straddled him and slid her hands up his chest before lowering her mouth to his. Her silken hair fell forward, tickling his bare skin, and he lifted a hand and brushed it away from her face, trying to find the energy to speak.

  ‘That was amazing—’

  ‘It isn’t finished yet.’

  He wasn’t sure which was more erotic. The look in her eyes, the sound of her voice or the feel of her body over his. ‘I need some recovery time—’

  ‘That’s fine by me. You just lie there and I’ll do all the work.’

  Still dazed after the most explosive orgasm of his life, he stared up at her in disbelief. ‘What’s happened to you?’

  ‘You happened to me,’ she said, sliding a hand over his hard abdomen and touching him intimately. ‘You changed me from Angie to Angelina. You showed me a different part of myself and I really, really like it.’ She positioned herself above him and slowly lowered her hips.

  He gave a groan of disbelief and slid his hands over her silken flesh, trying to hold her still—trying to take some of the control back. ‘I think I like it too, but you have to stop moving for a minute. Just for a minute—’

  ‘I’m not sure that I can.’ She leaned forward and caught his lower lip between her teeth, biting gently. ‘I’ve been thinking about you since you left this morning, you see. And it’s been a very long day.’

  ‘Tell me about it.’ Her tight, velvety warmth gripped him and his eyes closed. The smooth, seductive movement of her hips drove him to the point of desperation and suddenly he gave a soft curse and flipped her on to her back, coming down on top of her in a fluid, confident movement. ‘Enough.’

  ‘Enough?’ Her eyes went wide and he gave a satisfied smile that was totally masculine.

  ‘Enough of being teased. Now I’m the one in control.’ He slid a hand under her bottom, raised her and his powerful thrust brought a gasp of ecstasy to her lips.

  ‘Oh—yes—Nikos—’

  ‘You feel so good—’ He brought his mouth down on hers and kissed her deeply, the movement of his tongue mimicking the intimate thrust of his body and almost immediately he felt her tremble and felt her body tighten around his. The ripples of her orgasm triggered his own and he swallowed her cries and held her tightly as they both flung themselves over the edge into an abyss of sexual pleasure.

  It was fine, Angie told herself a week later as she dressed for the formal dinner they were attending. He might not love her but he definitely had a good time in bed and wasn’t ashamed to be seen with her in public. It wasn’t such a bad marriage.

  She saw him enter the bedroom behind her and paused in the process of fastening an earring. ‘Do we have to go out?’

  He frowned as he reached for his jacket. ‘You have no reason to feel shy. You are an intelligent
woman and you speak fluent Greek. You are a match for any social situation.’

  ‘Thank you, although that wasn’t really what I meant.’ She blushed at the unexpected compliment. ‘I just thought it would be nice if we could stay in.’

  ‘We have “stayed in” for the last week,’ he drawled, humour lighting his dark eyes. ‘And now I need to go out for a rest.’

  She smiled. ‘Tired, Nikos?’

  ‘You are insatiable. I had no idea what it would be like to be married to a sex maniac.’

  She laughed. ‘You taught me everything I know.’

  ‘And make sure it stays that way.’ He hauled her to her feet and brought his mouth down on hers in a possessive kiss. ‘Dimitri will be there tonight. If you have to talk to him then do so from a distance of at least two metres.’

  She knew he didn’t love her but surely the fact that he didn’t want her to flirt with other men suggested that he must care a bit?

  The ballroom of the exclusive hotel was crowded with people and Angie was surprised and more than a little disturbed to spot Nikos’s mother across the room.

  ‘She is patron of the charity,’ Nikos said smoothly, intercepting her worried glance. ‘Most of Athens society is here. This dinner is an annual event. Very boring. Don’t worry. Just behave naturally. We’ll leave as soon as I’ve spoken to the people I came to see.’

  Throughout dinner Angie chatted to the man on her right, a lawyer based in Athens, but she was all too aware of Nikos seated right beside her, talking to a slender blonde.

  He had every right to enjoy another woman’s company, she reminded herself, waiting until the meal finally ended and excusing herself so that she could breathe in some fresh air.

  She walked on to the terrace and down on to the lawn and sat by the edge of a bubbling fountain.

  Lost in thought it took a moment for her to realise that two people were having a conversation on the terrace above her, And that those two people were Nikos and his mother. Knowing instinctively that she wasn’t going to like what she heard, Angie tried to stand up and declare her presence but her legs wouldn’t hold her and her tongue wouldn’t move. She sat in stillness, frozen to the spot in horrified anticipation.