One-Click Buy: September Harlequin Presents

by Penny Jordan

  What was wrong with her? What was she thinking?

  She welcomed reality, letting it flow through her like ice, dousing the flame of desire that wanted to burst into flame like a flash fire. His mouth was still moving over hers, and a weak part of her was an insistent voice saying, Give in, give in.

  She clenched her hands into fists with a huge effort and pushed against his chest. It was like a steel wall, immovable. She twisted her mouth away from his and was shocked at how ragged her breathing was. Pushing her chest against his, making her very aware of how her breasts had begun to ache, her nipples so hard they chafed against her bra. He tried to twist her head back and Kallie struggled in earnest now, beating against his chest, her breath coming more and more ragged and jerky. She still couldn’t speak.

  He finally loosened his hold and Kallie used it to push herself out of his arms, staggering back against the desk behind her. If it hadn’t been there, she would have fallen to the floor, she knew that for sure. Her hands clung to the ridges behind her, her entire body pulsed, heat melted the ice and she had the strongest urge to throw herself back into his arms and beg him to kiss her again. She tried to bring her breathing under control and marvelled that kissing him so chastely at seventeen certainly hadn’t prepared her for this…

  She was undone. In the space of seconds. Had given in spectacularly before she’d stopped, letting him know of her weak acquiescence. She couldn’t look up and saw his feet come into her line of vision on the floor in front of her. A hand came under her chin, tipping it up to face him, and she shut her eyes.

  ‘Kallie, closing your eyes isn’t going to make the truth go away.’

  Against her better judgment she opened them and tensed herself for his look of triumph. But it wasn’t there. Instead was a look she couldn’t read and his eyes were dark, darker than she’d ever seen them. With deep glowing embers in their depths. Embers that she had lit? The thought made something rip through her. She trembled.

  She had to try and claw back some modicum of dignity and found a voice from somewhere.

  ‘Truth…’ She didn’t even have the energy to voice it as a question.

  ‘That there’s enough electricity between us to power the national grid.’ His eyes fell to her mouth and Kallie felt it quiver in response as if it were begging for his own lips again. ‘And that tomorrow we get married and…this we’ll come back to. We’ll have plenty of time on our honeymoon.’

  Kallie opened her mouth and couldn’t speak for a few seconds. Honeymoon! ‘That’s ridiculous. There’s no way this is going to happen.’ Panic was making her sound breathless. ‘I am not going anywhere with you for any honeymoon. I have to work, I can’t just leave—’

  He put a finger to her mouth. ‘Oh, yes, you are. It’s part of the deal. Make sure you’re packed…’

  Alexandros strode through the mass of photographers outside Kallie’s office. Unlike with other celebrities, who they would crush around, intimidate into submission, a space was left around Alexandros. That held a certain kind of respect. As if they knew that with one swipe of his hand, one word, he could do some serious damage. He ignored the barrage of questions and got into the back of his car. The blacked-out windows concealed him from view immediately.

  He tersely instructed his driver to take the long way back to his office. He needed to think, to collect himself. And this was as alien a concept to him as the thought of taking public transport. But the fact of the matter was that his body still throbbed with a level of arousal he’d never experienced before.

  What the hell had just happened back there?

  He ran a hand through his hair and stared unseeingly out of the window. He hadn’t planned on kissing Kallie. But when she’d walked in, so prim and proper in her buttoned-up shirt and tight skirt that drew the eye to the toned length of thigh, he hadn’t been able to resist.

  All he did know was the moment he’d taken Kallie into his arms he hadn’t felt like he’d thought he would. Oh, he’d felt the desire. That had been like a neon sign that lit up whenever he was near her…it hadn’t been that. It had been something else, something he’d never felt before. He’d expected to feel detached…but he hadn’t. He’d felt anticipation that had gone beyond the mere physical. As if he’d finally had something within his grasp that he’d been searching for. A sigh had gone through him when his mouth had touched hers. A sigh of relief…

  His whole body tensed in the back of the car in absolute rejection of his thoughts. And for the first time since seeing Kallie again, he questioned whether or not he was doing the right thing. His mouth pulled into a thin line. The fact of the matter was, though, that he’d left it too late now. He would need to find a wife to marry within twenty-four hours if he was to make the deadline of Dimitri’s will. And he certainly couldn’t afford to let this slip through his hands merely because he was having these…doubts.

  For Alexandros, who never ever doubted a decision he’d made, this was also a new concept. Not a welcome one. His mind even seized on Isabelle for a moment. He grimaced. There were plenty of women who would be only too happy to comply with his need for an immediate wife. But he had Kallie so well trussed now, not to mention the arousal that hummed in his every vein, why shouldn’t he use her? Have her. Sate himself with her.

  After all, wasn’t this just meant to be just a diversion for him? An amusement? A timely revenge and a way to get his needs met, both in and out of bed?

  It was only then that the belated thought struck him—he’d called at her office to see if she’d received the pre-nuptial agreement. He’d never before had a lapse like that in his concentration. He found himself ignoring the need to dwell on why he’d been acting so out of character and quickly instructed his bodyguard to go back and pick it up.

  It was a couple of minutes after Alexandros had left that Kallie fully realised that he’d gone. She still hadn’t moved. She felt as though she’d been flung into another dimension. He’d just kissed her, she told herself rationally. And told you that he expects you to go on a honeymoon…

  She felt dizzy, disjointed…her head was fuzzy. She went on shaky legs and sat down behind her desk. Her glazed eyes took in a note on the top of her pad. The big brusque handwriting that could only belong to one person. Him.

  ‘Please sign the pre-nuptial agreement and send it back.’

  Kallie read it and reread it, finally, slowly coming back to her senses. She heard the bells of a church ring ominously in the distance. Like a nail going into a coffin, her fate was sealed, this was it. He hadn’t even had the decency to tell her this much. He’d gone from issuing terse instructions to leaving curt notes. He’d waltzed into her office, tested her out like some Arabian prince buying a new girl for his harem. To see if she met with his approval. Her mouth twisted, she couldn’t help the shudder of reaction that went through her. Well, apparently she did. Lucky her.

  Her assistant popped her head around the door at that moment, diverting her thoughts, and when Kallie nodded she came in. Holding out a manila envelope, she said, ‘Sorry, this came earlier, but I got distracted when Alexandros…’ She blushed prettily and Kallie scowled. ‘Sorry. When Mr Kouros arrived.’

  She beat a hasty retreat and Kallie scowled even harder. Another female ready to drop at his feet. Was no one immune to the man’s charm? She ripped the envelope open and a sheaf of papers fell out. The agreement. Kallie skimmed it feeling numb. It outlined the terms of the marriage—basically she was entitled to nothing in the event of the divorce. That didn’t surprise her. It also specified the terms of the loan to her uncle, the generosity of which surprised her. He genuinely was reserving all punishment just for her. It suited her fine. She didn’t want to touch a penny of his money.

  She signed quickly, without thinking, and shoved the papers back into the envelope. About to call Cécile back in, she looked up when a shape appeared at the doorway. She almost thought it was him until she saw his bodyguard come in. She pulled herself together and held out the envelope.<
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  ‘Mr Kouros sent you for this?’

  He took it and left.

  The reality was stark. From now on, as long as he desired, for as long as they would have the reaction they’d both just had to a simple kiss, she was Alexandros Kouros’s property. For better or worse.

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘FOR better or worse…’

  The words swam over Kallie’s head. She stood in the mairie’s office with Alexandros by her side. Everything seemed to be swimming, ever since she’d come in the door with Alexei and seen Alexandros standing there. In a steel-grey suit, looking so tall and dark and vibrantly handsome that she’d stumbled on her walk towards him.

  Members of both their families were seated behind them. The speed with which the last few weeks had flown, the reaction of her body just standing beside this man…was overwhelming. She struggled to fix her gaze on a point in the distance and only belatedly realised that Alexandros was turning her towards him, having been told he could kiss his wife.

  His wife…

  Kallie looked up into his face, helpless now. Bound to him in front of everyone, in front of society. Wordlessly she tried to communicate with him. Willing the harsh, stark lines of his face to relax…just for a moment so that she could reach something of the person she’d once known. But they didn’t. That person was gone. As his head bent towards hers for the second time in two days, she felt every treacherous cell in her body leaping in response, hungering for his touch, his mouth on hers. She fought it, though…tensed her entire body and willed herself with every fibre of her being not to have the same reaction as yesterday.

  He took her face in his hands, tilting it up to his. Why did he have to do that? Why couldn’t he just plant a dry kiss on her lips, quick and efficient? With his big hands cupping her jaw, face close to hers, his thumbs feathering across her cheeks, she felt her body temperature soar and imagined he must be able to feel her heart about to explode from her chest.

  Slowly, and surrounded by a hushed quiet in the room, his head came closer and closer. Kallie’s eyes were trapped by his. When the drowning sensation became too much she closed them, the lids feeling heavy. And then…his mouth angled over hers and fitted so perfectly that her every nerve ending seemed to meet and connect with every one of his. The reaction in her blood to just the touch of his lips to hers made her knees weak and she had to put out her hands and cling to his waist in an effort to stay upright. The scent of him intoxicated her, his body heat enveloped her in a haze of sensual warmth. Just like yesterday—and she was being played like a violin, again.

  He had intended for it to be a quick kiss. As much as he wanted Kallie with a desire that was fast running out of control, Alexandros had no intention of being surrounded by people when he plumbed the depths of that lush mouth again. So this was just going to be chaste, dry—certainly not this. This fire that had taken over his blood as soon as he’d touched her skin, as soon as their lips had made contact. Light exploded behind his eyes. And when he felt her eyelashes flutter against his cheeks, it tugged at a thread of a memory from long ago…

  When he felt the tremor run through her, felt her hands reach out to steady herself, it was too much. He was only human. He pulled her in close and dropped a hand to her back to anchor her against his body. The crowd, witnesses forgotten. The world was reduced to this moment, this woman, these lips under his which were opening to him so enticingly, with such potent sweetness. And he was lost in a maelstrom of passion that made him shake with the effort not to stroke and explore and plunder the moist, hot interior.

  A child’s cry pierced Alexandros’s consciousness and went through him like shock of cold water. Feeling every impulse in his body wanting to stay, he somehow managed to pull back. When he opened his eyes they felt dazed, hazy, and Kallie’s were still shut, her lips pink and plump, lashes curled against her cheeks. He could feel the uneven raggedness of her breath.

  Kallie knew he had stopped kissing her. She knew it like a bizarre intellectual fact but could not seem to open her eyes or move. When she felt him tap a finger against her cheek it unlocked the stasis she’d been stuck in. Her eyes flew open to meet his. They were full of heat and darkness. A sound made her look and when she turned her head she saw their relations staring, open-mouthed. She felt her insides go cold, even as she felt hectic colour flood her cheeks.

  Kallie couldn’t look at him. Instead, she smiled brightly, breaking the spell that seemed to encompass the room. The crowd started clapping and Alexandros took her hand and led the way back outside. Only when Kallie was sure she had regained some semblance of control did she turn to him. Before they were sucked into a round of congratulatory hugs, she said coolly, ‘Don’t think that just because I can put on a performance for the family, it’ll be the same in private.’

  His face visibly darkened and Kallie rejoiced in needling him, even a little, even as she had to realise that this was not a man to trifle with. He would exact revenge for every petty point she scored. She was saved from a caustic response as they were surrounded in seconds and before she knew it they were getting out of a car and stepping into an exclusive discreet hotel for the lunch reception.

  A few hours later, the only thing keeping Kallie back from the brink of sheer white-knuckled panic was the sight laid out in front of her in the glittering ballroom. Members of her family that she hadn’t seen in years and some of Alexandros’s family were seated at little round tables dotted around the room. Petra caught her eye beside her beloved husband Alexei, and waved at Kallie, who waved weakly back.

  When they’d come out of the office earlier, into the Place Du Panthéon with its massive monument to the glory of secularism dominating the magnificent square, her uncle’s wife had rushed up to Kallie with tears in her eyes and, taking advantage of Alexandros talking to someone else, had whispered in her ear, ‘Kallie, darling, I’m so happy for you. When Alexei told me about how you two got together, I have to say I was a little worried, but after seeing you now…’ She’d raised her hands high. ‘It’s obvious you’re in love.’

  Kallie couldn’t believe that people patently saw what they wanted to see. Not what was right under their noses. She was doing this against her will and no one could see it.

  The lunch was finally over and Kallie could absent herself from Alexandros’s disturbing presence beside her. Thankfully he’d agreed that they wouldn’t make speeches—that would have been pushing things too far, even for Kallie. She excused herself to go to the bathroom and once inside splashed water on her wrists and on her neck to cool her pulse which had been racing since that kiss.

  She sent up silent thanks that he obviously hadn’t thought to invite Eleni and her husband, and then chastised herself for her churlish thought. Perhaps Eleni was back in hospital again? She looked at her pained face in the mirror. Why couldn’t she be more like him? Emotionally cut off from the neck down?

  Wearily she straightened her hair, fixed her make-up and made her way back into the huge room, firmly diverting any line of thinking that involved the future or even later that evening. She hadn’t yet figured out how to handle Alexandros because there was one thing she was certain of—she was not going to be sleeping with him.

  Alexandros couldn’t focus on the conversation around him. Kallie’s shining head stood out like a glowing beacon from all the darker ones. He watched her progress as she walked back into the room, the only member of the family who wasn’t entirely Greek on both sides. She’d tied her hair back in a loose, tumbled knot. With an orchid caught in the glossy strands and minimal make-up, Alexandros thought he’d never seen anyone lovelier.

  Her outfit was simple, highlighting her natural elegance, and he had to admit that he hadn’t been entirely fair when he’d criticised the way she dressed. A knee-length cream silk dress with a gossamer-light golden-coloured shawl, high strappy golden sandals that drew the eye to slim ankles and shapely calves. And when she moved, like now, to greet one of her family, the silk of the dress moved with her and
tightened across her hips…again, he was blown away by the beauty that had been lying in wait through her younger years. Yet hadn’t she always possessed it? Her eyes had always been that distinctive blue-green colour, her lips always as soft…Desire surged through him fast and urgent as he thought of the kiss in the registry office.

  Acting on blind impulse, he strode through the crowd. It was time to get out of there and take her with him.

  Kallie was still talking to one of her aunts when she felt a presence behind her like an electric frisson, and her skin tingled in reaction. She closed her eyes briefly in despair and when she opened them again a strong arm had come around her waist. She didn’t look up at Alexandros but smiled brightly at the older woman and chattered on nonsensically. She could feel the tension in the man beside her as his arm tightened on her waist, causing a whirlpool of sensations in her belly.

  ‘Are you ready to go?’

  As if she had a choice, Kallie thought slightly hysterically. She just nodded, realising that she actually did want to get away from the attention, the looks, the questions. They said their goodbyes.

  In the lobby, with her hand in the firm grip of his, Kallie stumbled, trying to keep up with his long-legged stride. And in that moment, the enormity of what had just happened hit her. They were about to walk outside, away from any last piece of protection. She would be alone with Alexandros and he would expect—

  She stopped dead in her tracks, forcing him to come to a halt, too. He looked back, a dark look on his face. ‘What is it?’

  ‘What is it? What is it?’ Kallie’s voice was rising as her fear rose, too, like an unstoppable volcano that had just blown its top. She yanked her hand out of Alexandros’s with an effort and stood there shaking.