Книга - Contracted For The Petrakis Heir

Contracted For The Petrakis Heir
Annie West


‘I’m pregnant.’But this baby bombshell is nothing compared to Adoni’s scandalous solution…!A positive pregnancy test isn’t the only reminder Alice has of her one scorching night with Adoni Petrakis. As she defiantly tells him the news, memories of his skilled touch overwhelm her! The contract he draws up—to claim her and his child—is utterly shocking. As is her realisation that she’s still powerfully and inescapably in thrall to this vengeful Greek!







“I’m pregnant.”

But this baby bombshell is nothing compared to Adoni’s scandalous solution!

A positive pregnancy test isn’t the only reminder Alice has of her one scorching night with Adoni Petrakis. As she defiantly tells him the news, memories of his skilled touch overwhelm her! The contract he draws up—to claim her, and his child—is utterly shocking. As is her realization that she’s still powerfully, inescapably, in thrall to this vengeful Greek!


Growing up near the beach, ANNIE WEST spent lots of time observing tall, burnished lifeguards—early research! Now she spends her days fantasising about gorgeous men and their love lives. Annie has been a reader all her life. She also loves travel, long walks, good company and great food. You can contact her at annie@annie-west.com or via PO Box 1041, Warners Bay, NSW 2282, Australia.


Also by Annie West

The Sinner’s Marriage RedemptionSeducing His Enemy’s DaughterA Vow to Secure His LegacyThe Flaw in Raffaele’s RevengeThe Desert King’s Secret HeirThe Desert King’s Captive Bride

The Princess Seductions miniseries

His Majesty’s Temporary BrideThe Greek’s Forbidden Princess

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


Contracted for the Petrakis Heir

Annie West






www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


ISBN: 978-1-474-07185-7

CONTRACTED FOR THE PETRAKIS HEIR

© 2018 Annie West

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


With smiles and thanks to Anna C for both prodding and cheering and Efthalia P for the Greek!


Contents

Cover (#u35273ee6-41a7-5a11-86cf-113dd97c86dd)

Back Cover Text (#u8d6ea7a4-8fa6-58e7-a45a-43abc6a79c50)

About the Author (#u05a4eb73-4289-5922-9c76-47f1c557ba74)

Booklist (#u0542a3fc-362b-57bc-8fd8-e1fde68fa577)

Title Page (#ubdb2bf02-5346-5ba7-9c5c-282857800ab7)

Copyright (#ufcc67021-6737-5e70-990e-bb345e47d3ce)

Dedication (#u774004fc-cc03-57d0-8e71-c9eda49f4fe0)

CHAPTER ONE (#u5c41b74f-e6f0-5d59-bb13-43188ebb5e62)

CHAPTER TWO (#ubd195368-c460-586b-acd3-72ee33278b98)

CHAPTER THREE (#u5905decb-c98e-5c83-ad2f-60ad5518954d)

CHAPTER FOUR (#u431cb535-b052-5358-9a6f-cb6038283aca)

CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)


CHAPTER ONE (#u066b7091-3fd1-590d-9eb4-81aba1c5306f)

ADONI PETRAKIS SURVEYED the crowd filling the ballroom of his flagship London hotel. Initially the guests had been on their best behaviour for the wedding ceremony, partly from finding themselves in such a prestigious venue. There had been open-mouthed stares at the soaring antique glass domed ceiling, the recently refurbished hand-blown chandeliers and the other elegant furnishings.

Now the mood bordered on raucous. His school friend Leo’s new English in-laws were letting down their hair with abandon.

Adoni’s gaze cut to Leo and his bride, now changed out of their church clothes, surrounded by a phalanx of groomsmen playing a drinking game. There was a flurry of bridesmaids in ostentatiously frilled dresses that ranged from pale lemon to a particularly bilious shade of mustard. A braying laugh from one of them scraped like fingernails across a blackboard and Adoni shuddered.

Now the formalities were over, the cake cut, photos taken and speeches delivered, there was nothing keeping him. He’d done his bit, offering Leo the premises for the event and attending in person, even dancing with the bride.

He lifted one shoulder, easing the old stiffness in his collarbone. It had been a long week. A long month for that matter, and while he wasn’t ready for bed, nor was he inclined to stay for an increasingly rowdy party. This group had little in common with a man whose life was devoted to business.

If there’d been a woman here he found attractive he might have invited her up to his suite for a private celebration. There wasn’t. The only really pretty women were either attached or looked at him with dollar signs in their eyes.

He’d learned his lesson long ago with that breed.

Instead he crossed the room, wished the happy couple all the best, kissed the flushed bride on both cheeks then left. A nod to the hotel events coordinator who was keeping an eye on the evening, then Adoni was in the blessed peace of the atrium.

Since he didn’t have company for the night, he’d look over that new contract. Or maybe use the gym.

He was restless, his thoughts on the couple who’d just pledged their lives to each other. And, inevitably, on his own hastily cancelled wedding years ago. His mouth firmed.

He sure as hell didn’t carry a torch for Chryssa. Yet it was strange how, all evening, his mind had backtracked to that half-forgotten past, when life had seemed straightforward and he’d believed in love.

A lifetime ago.

He keyed in the code for his private lift to the owner’s suite. The doors slid open and he stepped inside. Seconds later a figure catapulted into the small space, slamming against him in a slither of satin and a cloud of pungent hairspray.

Adoni’s nostrils pinched and a sneeze escaped.

‘I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?’ a husky voice whispered near his chin. ‘But please, don’t give me away.’ Instead of moving back the girl pressed closer, hip to his thigh, hand clawing his sleeve.

‘Give you away?’

‘Please. He’ll hear.’ She reached out a pale hand and jabbed the button to make the door close. As soon as it did she released her grip and sank back into the corner.

‘Are you okay?’ Adoni’s voice sharpened. Her head was downcast but the tension in her shoulders and the frenetic pulse at the base of her throat spoke of fear. ‘Has someone hurt you?’

‘Hurt me?’ She shook her head and straightened away from the wall, swaying a little. ‘No, though I’m sure he’d like to strangle me if he could. He hates me and he’s a vicious little toad.’

With a gasp she clapped a hand over her mouth and looked up. Unfocused eyes of slate blue met his. Eyes that might have been pretty if it weren’t for the huge swathe of too-bright azure eye shadow and the most enormous pair of false eyelashes weighting her lids. She looked like a startled trollop.

‘I didn’t mean to say that out loud.’ She frowned up at him suspiciously as if he’d coaxed the words from her.

‘He sounds like a man to avoid.’

‘Oh, he is.’ The girl nodded so emphatically another acrid wave of hairspray assaulted him. She was a girl. Eighteen maybe, twenty max, and trying to look older with that brash make-up. ‘If I’d known he was going to be here I’d never have said yes to Emily. Discretion is the better part of valour, after all.’

‘Emily?’ Adoni crossed his arms and settled his shoulders against the wall, intrigued. Why this unprepossessing female caught his curiosity, he couldn’t say. But he was in no hurry. There was nothing waiting in his suite except work and a good brandy.

‘The bride.’ The frown became a scowl. ‘Weren’t you at the wedding? I thought I saw you on the other side of the room looking all dark and brooding.’ She leaned closer, her gaze intent, and beneath the sharp hairspray smell he caught a hint of something delicate.

She swayed back again. ‘I’m sure it was you. The silly sisters were tittering with excitement, egging each other on to ask you to dance.’

‘Silly sisters?’

‘The other bridesmaids.’

‘Ah.’ No wonder she looked vaguely familiar. This was the bridesmaid who’d sat on the end of the long table, her dress of dark yellow tinged with green making her look slightly nauseous. Or maybe she was nauseous.

‘Are you sick?’

‘Only of the company in there.’ Again those eyes grew huge and her hand hovered over her mouth.

Adoni watched, fascinated despite himself, as she blinked and stood straighter, the top of her head reaching the level of his mouth.

‘It must be the champagne,’ she murmured, her hand dropping. ‘Who’d have thought it? I only had two glasses. Would that do it?’ She tilted her head, surveying him owlishly.

‘Do what?’ Adoni repressed a smile.

‘Make me so loqua...’ Her brows knotted in concentration. ‘Talkative. Normally I think before I speak. Always.’

He folded his arms over his chest. ‘It depends how much you usually drink.’

‘I don’t. Tonight was my first taste of champagne.’

‘Then yes, it probably is.’ Diverted as he was, her friends would be looking for her. ‘Isn’t it time you went back?’

She shuddered and clutched his sleeve. ‘No! Not till he’s gone.’ She looked at the controls. ‘Why aren’t we moving?’ She slammed her hand onto the up button. ‘I’m sorry. I hope you want to go up. I’ll go anywhere so long as it’s away from him.’

‘The toad?’

‘Yes! How did you know?’ Her face broke into a wide smile that hit him in the solar plexus. When she smiled he saw something that even the plastered-on make-up couldn’t conceal. ‘Dark and brooding and clever too! I like you, Mr...?’

‘Petrakis. Adoni Petrakis.’

Again those eyes rounded. ‘Adoni?’

He nodded, waiting for the usual gushing excitement. He’d never had trouble attracting women but since he’d built his fortune...

‘As in Adonis?’

‘It’s a Greek name.’

‘Of course it is, but it’s all wrong for you.’ She squinted up at him, her lips pursed in a moue of concentration that looked surprisingly sexy, despite the bright shade of coral lipstick that clashed horribly with her pale skin. ‘You’re no Adonis.’

Adoni stared down at her. He was accustomed to flattery from women, not disappointment.

‘You know who Adonis was?’

She waved a dismissive hand as if he interrupted her thought processes. ‘In Greek mythology he was a gorgeous young man, loved by Aphrodite and later killed by a boar.’ She bit her lip. ‘Or maybe by someone else, I can’t remember. But you’re not an Adonis.’

Adoni couldn’t keep his smile back. Had he ever met a woman who spoke to him like this? Not flattering and eager? ‘Not pretty enough?’

Again that disparaging wave of her hand. ‘No one could call you pretty.’ Her voice rang with certainty. ‘Handsome yes, but in a tough, dangerous sort of way. And those wicked eyebrows.’ She lifted a hand towards his face but stopped short of touching him. ‘More like Ares, god of war. Sexy but hard.’

The doors slid open behind her and she turned while Adoni was still trying to work out if he’d just been insulted or complimented.

‘Oh, this is nice.’ She drifted out of the lift into the foyer of his private suite, peering through the open door to the vast sitting room. ‘Do you think it would be okay for me to stay here for a bit till he’s gone?’

She moved forward, catching her shoe on the hand-knotted rug. Arms windmilling, she swayed till Adoni strode over and caught her upper arm. Her flesh was cool and smooth as silk.

‘Are you sure you only had two glasses of champagne?’

She sagged against him, one hand planted on his chest. ‘Absolutely. But I don’t think I’d better have any more. I feel a little...different.’ She blinked hazily up at him. ‘Do you think I’m behaving oddly?’

What he thought was that, beneath the harsh make-up and the unflattering dress, this young woman was surprisingly appealing. And potentially vulnerable.

‘Your friends will be missing you.’

She shook her head. ‘Not my friends and they won’t miss me. I don’t know anyone there, except Emily—she’s my cousin. And her parents. But they don’t have time for me. They never did. I’m just a ring-in because bridesmaid number seven had to bail at the last minute. Oh, and the toad—I know him.’ She grimaced. ‘But I don’t want to see him. Couldn’t I just sit quietly for a bit? I could sneak out and catch a train home but I do feel a bit wobbly.’

Adoni scrutinised her. Clearly she couldn’t make her way home alone yet. She was far too trusting to be let out without someone to keep an eye on her.

‘Very well. Stay here and I’ll make us coffee.’

‘Lovely! I never thought of Ares being so domesticated. I think of him being all passion and fire.’ She beamed again, that huge, beatific smile, and to his astonishment Adoni found himself smiling back. She was talking nonsense but her sense of humour appealed. As did the fact she didn’t walk on eggshells around him.

‘Do you think I could use the bathroom?’

‘Of course. Down the corridor on the left.’

The sitting room was empty when Adoni came back. He set the tray of coffee and sweet shortbread on a table, telling himself he’d been a fool to let her in. He didn’t know anything about her. Except that she couldn’t hold her champagne and did know a surprising amount of Greek mythology. He didn’t even know her name.

He stalked from the room, doubt rising. Where was she?

‘Are you okay?’ He pounded on the bathroom door.

‘Sorry. I won’t be long.’

‘Are you sick?’ She’d seemed tipsy, not drunk, but perhaps he was wrong.

‘No. Not sick. Just sticky.’

Sticky? Adoni scowled. That made no sense.

The door opened and his visitor stepped out. She looked completely different. Shorter for a start, her shoes dangling from her hand.

‘I used the shower. I feel much better now.’ She stepped out into the corridor and tripped over the hem of her long dress, straight into his arms. Automatically Adoni caught her, but not before her soft breasts collided with his torso and her slim frame came to rest against him.

‘Oops. Sorry.’ She pulled back and smiled vaguely. ‘This dress is too long. It was made for someone else.’

‘Someone wearing shoes,’ he murmured, trying to shove the thought of her lithe body from his mind.

‘Ah.’ She nodded. ‘That explains it.’ She sniffed. ‘Is that coffee I smell?’ Before he could answer she lifted her trailing skirt so high he caught a tantalising amount of shapely, bare legs before she turned and, hand on the wall, made her way to the sitting room.

Adoni took his time following. He’d been rocked by his response to the woman who’d emerged from the guest bathroom. Gone were the thick make-up and fake lashes. Without them he discovered a clear peaches and cream complexion that suited those dark blue eyes. Then there was a heart-shaped face and a pink mouth that looked too much like a cupid’s bow for comfort.

Gone too was the elaborately curled and rigid hairstyle, threaded with mustard-yellow ribbon. Instead her dark hair lay straight and long around her shoulders. It was still wet, dripping at the ends, making the bodice of her dress water-stained and clingy.

He swallowed as he watched her turn and sink abruptly onto the sofa, the lamplight caressing the unexpectedly sweet tilt of her breast beneath the wet fabric. Heat stirred in his groin at the astounding sexual allure of her gentle curves and bare face.

Adoni frowned. His sex drive was healthy but such an instant, urgent response was rare. Especially as she wasn’t even trying to attract him.

Was she?

He’d met some devious women in his time, going to extraordinary lengths to snare him, but instinct told him this one was exactly what she seemed.

‘What’s your name?’ His voice emerged thick and abrupt but she didn’t seem to notice.

‘Alice. Alice Trehearn.’ She looked over her shoulder at him and, to his astonishment, the line of her throat, the angle of her neat chin and the curve of her smile fanned the fire in his belly to a needy, urgent blast of heat.

‘Don’t frown, though I have to say you look very sexy when you do, all macho and...’ Her words petered out and she squeezed her eyes shut. ‘Remind me never to drink champagne again.’

Despite himself Adoni laughed. There was something so refreshing about a woman who spoke her mind.

‘How old are you, Alice?’ Suddenly it was important he find out.

‘Twenty-three next week.’ She turned away and poured milk into one of the coffees. ‘How old are you?’

Relief filled him. With her unguarded behaviour he’d wondered if perhaps she was far younger. ‘Thirty-one.’ A lifetime apart from her in experience, but, he realised in shock, that didn’t dim his interest. His burgeoning interest. His trousers were too tight as he sat down opposite her.

‘You look older.’ She tilted her head as she surveyed him. ‘Except when you smile. I like your smile. You should smile more often.’ Carefully she put the milk jug down on the table.

Adoni’s lips twitched. Had he really preferred candour?

The answer was a definite yes.

‘I thought you liked my...er...dark, brooding looks.’

‘Oh, I do.’ She stopped abruptly, her mouth sagging a little as if she realised what she’d said, then she focused on the mug of coffee, cautiously taking a sip. ‘But your smile makes you look less like some bossy Greek god.’

‘Ares?’

She nodded emphatically. ‘Yes.’ She paused. ‘Or the one who threw thunderbolts.’

‘Zeus?’ Was he really so fearsome? Adoni preferred to think of himself as controlled and focused, a man who didn’t suffer fools in business or gold-diggers in his personal life.

‘That’s the one.’ Her brow furrowed. ‘Except they always show him with a beard and you don’t have one.’

Adoni suppressed a smile. ‘I could grow one.’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘That would be a waste. You’ve got a nice chin. Maybe a bit on the obstinate side but very nice.’ She took another sip of coffee and smiled vaguely.

‘Thank you. So do you.’ It was a little pointed perhaps but just the right counterpoint for that lush mouth he found himself staring at.

Adoni leaned in and grabbed his mug, gulping hot coffee. When he lowered it, she was staring, her mouth slightly open and her breathing quick.

‘Is everything all right?’ He told himself he was behaving impeccably, pretending he didn’t recognise her response for what it was—feminine interest. An answering interest quickened his pulse as he took in her delicate features and slim body.

‘Fine. You just look so...’

Maybe she was sobering up, for she thought better of finishing her comment.

‘So...?’ Adoni didn’t fish for compliments but he found himself wondering what she’d been about to say.

Dark lashes veiled her eyes as she took another sip of coffee. ‘Nice. You look nice.’

He’d bet his last dollar that wasn’t what she’d been going to say. ‘You do too.’

‘There’s no need to lie.’ She lifted her head, viewing him from under regally arched eyebrows. ‘I look dreadful. Why Emily chose this colour I don’t know. Honestly, it’s the colour of baby poo.’

Adoni laughed. She was right; it was reminiscent of a rather nasty stain. ‘It’s fair to say it’s not a good match for your colouring.’

‘That’s what I said, but it was too late to change it. Too late even to alter the fit.’ Her mouth turned down in a sulky pout Adoni found far too seductive.

‘At least it’s only for one night.’

She nodded. ‘That’s what I keep telling myself. It’s a day of firsts.’

‘Firsts?’

Another nod. ‘Absolutely. First time wearing yellow, for one thing. Never again.’ She shuddered. ‘First time in London. First time as a bridesmaid. I thought it would be a lot more fun but the other bridesmaids kept tittering and gossiping amongst themselves. And the groomsmen...’

‘Not your type?’

She shrugged hugely and one pillowy puffed sleeve slid off her shoulder. ‘I don’t really know. But I think not.’ She lifted her legs and tucked them under her then wriggled back on the sofa.

There shouldn’t have been anything remotely seductive about the action yet Adoni found himself fixated on that luscious little shimmy of hips and breasts.

‘You don’t know?’ His voice sounded unfamiliar.

She shook her head. ‘I need to research more.’ She blinked back at him and smiled. ‘I have some firsts.’ She looked down at her dress and scowled. ‘But there are a lot of nevers too.’

‘Nevers?’ Adoni’s English was excellent but he’d never heard of that before.

‘Absolutely.’ She lifted one finger. ‘Never had luck with the opposite sex.’ Then a second finger. ‘Never had a kiss that blew my socks off.’ Her gaze narrowed. ‘You look like a man who could blow a girl’s socks off with a kiss.’

Adoni choked on his coffee. ‘Is that a proposition?’ He was torn between amusement and a dark, fast-running channel of temptation.

Devoid of that tacky lipstick, Alice Trehearn had the most alluring mouth he’d ever seen. He swallowed hard and reminded himself this was the drink talking.

‘As if a man like you would kiss a girl like me.’ She leaned her head back against the sofa, her eyelids drooping. She lapsed into silence and he wondered if she was falling asleep.

‘Never driven a car either.’ She sighed. ‘I bet you have a lovely car.’

‘Yes, I do.’ And there was no way he was letting this inebriated woman near it, despite her eager smile. ‘But I’m not letting you drive it.’

She looked so ridiculously disappointed, her mouth turning down at the edges, that he almost wished he could bring back that sunny smile of hers and the twinkle in her fine eyes.

‘Is there anything else on your never list?’

Alice opened her mouth then closed it again. A flush of pink rose to her cheeks. Instantly his interest piqued.

‘Alice?’

She shook her head. ‘It’s nothing.’ She leaned forward, reached for her coffee and, seeing the mug empty, sank back.

‘You might as well tell me what it is you haven’t done. I promise to keep it to myself.’

Was he really so curious about her?

To his surprise, Adoni discovered he was.

She fidgeted. ‘I’m doing all the talking. Shouldn’t you tell me something?’ Just as if she hadn’t barged uninvited into his private suite. Yet Adoni hadn’t enjoyed a woman’s conversation so much in a long time.

What did that say about the women he dated?

‘What do you want me to say?’

She shrugged, melting even further into the sofa. ‘Anything you like. Tell me something you haven’t told anyone else. I promise to keep it to myself.’

The idea was absurd. Why share with a complete stranger? Yet as he sat in the mellow lamplight, watching Alice Trehearn’s easy smile and expectant look, he found himself tempted.

Because he wasn’t accustomed to sharing anything truly personal?

Because she was a stranger he’d never see again?

That, and the surprising tug of attraction, must be why he even considered playing along. And why he’d allowed her into his space when he was notoriously private.

His mood had been odd all evening. Restlessness had kept him on edge. Remarkably, it was only since she’d inserted herself into his presence that he’d begun to relax.

‘I don’t like weddings.’ The words came suddenly. Adoni was surprised how good it felt to admit it.

‘Really?’ One fine eyebrow arched. ‘Any particular reason?’

He took another mouthful of coffee. It didn’t taste as rich this time. ‘I was nearly married once. I suppose weddings bring back memories.’

Of rejection, disbelief and disappointment. But he’d been young enough to learn his lesson well. These days, apart from his hand-picked managers, he didn’t put his trust in anyone but himself. It was safer that way. When those closest to you could turn so viciously against you, trust was the first casualty, along with love.

Absently he rolled his shoulder, releasing a stiffness along the collarbone.

‘I’m so sorry.’ She leaned forward, her hand lifted towards him as if to smooth away the frown he felt settle on his brow. Then she sank back, regarding him seriously.

He waited for the inevitable, a question about why his marriage hadn’t proceeded, but again Alice Trehearn surprised him. Even inebriated she had enough delicacy not to trespass further. ‘Tonight must have been a trial.’

He shook his head, automatically rejecting sympathy. ‘It was fine. It was no big deal.’ Time to change the subject. ‘So what is the other thing you’ve never done? I told you my secret. It’s time for you to share too.’

She blinked, staring back at him with a look he couldn’t interpret. Annoyance? Embarrassment? Certainly the colour in her cheeks warmed to rose madder.

‘Alice?’

Her mouth tightened and then the words tumbled out. ‘Never had an orgasm, if you must know.’ For an instant she looked as regal as a young swan, stretching her neck higher and tilting her chin, trying to hide what he guessed was embarrassment.

Then something unexpected flashed in her eyes. ‘I don’t suppose you’d like to help me with that?’


CHAPTER TWO (#u066b7091-3fd1-590d-9eb4-81aba1c5306f)

HELP HER HAVE her first orgasm? Adoni tried and failed over the next hour to put Alice Trehearn’s words from his mind.

The idea was so outrageous it was laughable.

A woman, clearly the worse for drink, propositioning him so clumsily.

A woman without glamour or any of the usual seductive skills he expected in a lover.

A woman in an ill-fitting dress the colour of bile, with her hair hanging damp around her shoulders and not a scrap of make-up. She didn’t belong in his world and shouldn’t be in the least attractive.

Yet Adoni couldn’t banish the provocative idea of giving Alice her first orgasm.

Was it the idea of initiating her to pleasure that snared his imagination and wouldn’t let go? Or was it Alice herself?

The rose-pink colour of her cheeks would spread across her breasts. Those dark eyes would glitter and that decadent mouth would open on a gasp, or perhaps a scream as he toppled her over the edge into rapture.

The image of her naked beneath him, trembling with satiation, was so vivid it had him rock-hard in an instant.

The chirp of his phone, an urgent call from his North American manager, had saved both him and Alice from the embarrassment of a response. Then, when he’d ended the call and turned to tell her she needed to leave since he had work to do, Adoni had found her asleep.

Suspicious, he’d initially wondered if it was a ploy, especially as she looked ridiculously cute curled up, hands beneath her cheek and bare feet pale against the cushions. But her occasional tiny snuffles proved him wrong. They were too close to dainty snores for any would-be seductress to countenance.

Now, sitting at his desk on the other side of the room, reviewing the contract his manager had just sent, Adoni directed a darkling stare towards the woman lying on his sofa.

How dare she make such an invitation then go to sleep? She rolled onto her back, the too-big bodice pulling askew to reveal the gentle curve of one pale breast.

The pulse in Adoni’s groin pounded hard and fast as his gaze traced her slender figure. His mouth dried as she shifted and the edge of the fabric strained, close to revealing one nipple. Her skirt was rucked up above her knees from the way she’d twisted. Even so, most of her was covered by that appalling bridesmaid’s dress.

She shouldn’t look attractive, much less seductive. Yet Adoni registered the heaviness in his lower body, the restlessness, the powerful hunger.

Maybe it was that sultry mouth, those lush, slightly downturned lips, surely designed for sin. He looked at her and thought of those lips on his body and it was no wonder he couldn’t concentrate on the document before him.

Perhaps it was the novelty of not knowing what she was going to say next. Her cheerfully frank assessment of how she looked in that dreadful dress, or the apparently artless combination of guilelessness and insight.

Or was it the shy hints that she wanted him? The blush, the spark in her eye when she’d asked about him giving her an orgasm.

Of all the preposterous pick-up lines, that was the best he’d heard.

Except it hadn’t been a pick-up line. She hadn’t wanted to admit her inexperience. That probably explained her flippant question about him helping her rid herself of that particular lack in her life. She’d been bluffing. Of course she had.

Adoni turned back to the screen. Yet it wasn’t the legal document he saw, but the rosy blush that coloured her creamy skin and her haughty, challenging glare.

Give her an orgasm? The trouble was how much the idea enticed.

What had she said? She’d never had luck with men, never had a kiss that knocked her socks off. Never had an orgasm. Clearly she was unlucky if none of her lovers had bothered to take care of that when they sought their own pleasure.

Adoni’s heart might no longer be engaged when he had sex, but he prided himself on being a generous lover. His partner’s satisfaction added to his own pleasure, and he’d no more bed a woman and leave her wanting than he’d renege on a business contract.

The contract. He ploughed his fingers through his hair, sinking his head into his hands and forcing his attention back to the computer.

He’d finish the contract then wake Ms Trouble-on-Two-Legs Trehearn and send her off in a taxi. Then he’d get a decent night’s sleep ready for work tomorrow, despite it being Sunday.

Adoni ground his teeth at the sly voice telling him his life was lacking if that was the best he could do on a Saturday night. Send home the female he lusted after then get an early night ready for work.

Was this what all those years of toil had been for? He’d scraped himself up from the gutter when Vassili Petrakis, the man he’d believed to be his father, disowned him. He’d risen above the pain of his fiancée’s rejection and poured his anger and determination into building his company from nothing.

He’d let his drive to succeed fill the void where his personal life used to be. He had no family to distract him now. Fleetingly, he thought of his younger brothers, a pang of regret piercing his chest. But they belonged to another life, one barred to him for ever.

Now he was CEO of a company worth billions. He had homes in Greece and the UK, plus a ski chalet in Colorado and a yacht that shared its time between the Med and the Caribbean. Not that he managed much downtime to enjoy them.

Adoni sighed and raked his hand through his hair again. Maybe that was the problem. He needed a vacation.

Or an affair. Intense, enjoyable and short—just the way he liked them. He had no inclination for long-term now he’d taught himself never to trust a woman’s intentions, despite protests of undying love.

Rubbing his temples, he hunched over the screen, rereading clauses he’d skimmed half a dozen times.

He was just sending his response to his New York manager when the back of his neck prickled. He stiffened, instantly aware that his guest was awake. He felt her eyes on him. Worse, that needy throb in his groin was back full force, reminding him he’d been celibate longer than usual.

Even so his reaction to this woman was unprecedented.

Adoni didn’t turn to look at her. That would, for reasons he couldn’t identify, be a sign of weakness. Instead he finished his message, sent it, then closed the computer. Only then did he deign to swivel round in his seat.

She was standing, half turned from him. The satin of her dress slid over svelte, sinuous curves and delectably long legs as she raised her hands to fix her hair in a tight knot.

‘Don’t.’ The sound of his voice surprised him and made her swing round, eyes wide. ‘I like it down.’

He couldn’t read her expressive eyes from this distance but the sudden clamp of her jaw made him expect some dismissive response.

Adoni was surprised when, instead, she paused, arms still raised. ‘Do you?’

When he nodded she dropped her arms and a dark curtain of hair fell to cloak her shoulders. Now it was dry he saw rich hints of auburn in the dark brown. He curled his hands closed against the impulse to get up and stroke those shimmering tresses.

Her breasts rose with her deep breath and Adoni’s gaze trailed from her bare shoulder where one sleeve drooped down her arm, across the upper slope of her breasts then up via her slender throat to her lips.

Damn! That sulky, sexy mouth would be the death of common sense. Why hadn’t he fully appreciated it till she wiped the horrible lipstick away?

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep on your sofa.’ Had she misinterpreted his shudder of arousal for one of disdain? ‘I apologise for...’ she faltered and gestured wide ‘...for inviting myself in here.’ She looked around the vast executive suite as if she’d never seen it. Presumably she hadn’t taken in her surroundings earlier.

That, and the way she spoke, plus the shadow of tension where before there’d been nothing but a lack of inhibition, told Adoni the effects of the alcohol were wearing off.

He was torn between relief that she was obviously recovered enough to go home, and regret.

As if he wanted her to stay.

For her amusing conversation, or something else?

White teeth bit that plump bottom lip. Did she read the sexual interest he couldn’t douse?

‘No need to apologise. It’s been an interesting evening.’

She shut her eyes for a moment. ‘I’m sure it has. You’ve been very forbearing. Thank you for...’ again that wave of one hand ‘...for the coffee and for letting me sleep.’ Once again, soft colour stained her pale cheeks. Adoni found himself wondering how long it had been since he’d met a woman who still blushed.

‘My pleasure.’ He stood and again her eyes rounded as they traced him, as if she hadn’t realised how tall he was. Or perhaps he looked different now he’d shed his jacket and tie, undone a couple of buttons and rolled up his sleeves.

Neither moved. Did he imagine the heavy chug of energy thickening the atmosphere? Adoni wasn’t prone to flights of fancy, yet it seemed all the air in the room was being sucked away, making it hard to breathe.

He watched her swallow, her slender throat pale and alluring, especially when compared with that mustard horror of a dress. It was as if someone had taken something pure and hidden it beneath layers of camouflage.

Pure? An old-fashioned word for a woman who’d blatantly invited him to be sexually intimate. Yet it seemed apt. Alice Trehearn was surely the most honest woman he’d ever met. In Adoni’s world, where people pretended affection in return for material comforts, honesty was the purest quality he knew.

* * *

He took a step closer and Alice’s insides twisted like a riot of butterflies dipping and fluttering over a spring meadow.

Now the effects of the wine had worn off she was stunned to find herself alone with such a man.

That he was wealthy and powerful went without saying. It was obvious from the casual way he wore his hand-tailored clothes and the equally nonchalant way he took this exquisite, ultra-expensive suite for granted.

But it wasn’t the fact he came from a world far removed from her own that made her stare. It was the man himself. Tall, with a hard, chiselled face that had more than a trace of arrogance in those winged black eyebrows and high cheekbones. His mouth looked as if it didn’t smile enough, as if his world was too serious. Yet when he did smile his eyes, an amazing colour somewhere between blue and green, danced. The tight curve of his lips undid her as if he reached out and loosened a ribbon deep inside her.

What on earth had she said to him? She remembered some of their conversation, not all. She vividly recalled his laugh, rich and warm, enfolding her.

He hadn’t laughed at her, despite her appearance and the way the wine affected her. He’d laughed with her, sharing whatever joke she’d made. That sense of humour undercut her common sense. It was too appealing.

How she’d missed laughter lately.

She felt a link to this man she’d never experienced before, except to David, her godfather, who’d been her best friend despite the age difference. But her feelings for David had been a far cry from this. She swallowed hard, simultaneously shocked and intrigued by the way her body came alive under the Greek’s sea-bright stare. Tiny shivers prickled her skin and her nipples budded against the loose bodice of her dress.

When he noticed, his gaze dropping to her breasts, Alice’s breath clogged and excitement danced in her blood. To her amazement her breasts seemed to both tighten and swell. She’d never felt anything like it. But then her experience of men, and of sexual arousal, was almost zero.

She blinked, lifting her hands to rub her bare arms.

Was she trying to invite his attention? As if he’d be interested in a woman so ordinary and unsophisticated!

Yet her feet seemed welded to the floor.

‘Well, thank you again for your hospitality.’ She moistened her bottom lip with her tongue and was shocked when his eyes zeroed in on the movement. A hot wire of sensation tugged between her mouth and her breasts, then down to the achy spot between her legs. ‘I should be going.’

She made herself turn, looking for her handbag on the sofa. When she turned back he was closer—much closer. She had to tilt her head back to keep eye contact. Dimly she realised she was barefoot, that she’d need to search for her shoes. Her toes curled into the thick pile of the rug at the look in his eyes.

‘Is someone waiting for you at home?’

Alice frowned, feeling the sudden gnaw of anxiety that had become so familiar. She’d lost her home when David died and, though she’d known that day would come, she’d been so caught up in looking after him, making his final days comfortable, she hadn’t focused enough on where she’d live afterwards. Her little nest egg hadn’t gone nearly as far as she’d hoped. Nest egg! It had been barely enough to keep a roof over her head until she got a job.

‘I live alone.’

‘Then there’s no rush to leave.’ Those sleek dark eyebrows rose as his expression turned wickedly seductive.

Alice’s heart banged her ribs and her breath stalled. ‘Are you...’ She paused, hardly crediting what she read in his face. ‘Are you suggesting I stay here?’

‘You weren’t so hesitant earlier.’ His smile was slow and intense and it superheated her blood.

‘I wasn’t?’

He frowned. ‘You don’t remember?’

‘I...’ She frowned as snippets of conversation came back to her in vivid clarity. ‘I asked if you were a good kisser.’ Part of her shrank at the memory of such champagne-induced frankness, but now she was here, toe to toe with this fascinating man, excitement overrode bashfulness.

‘Would you still like to find out?’ His voice dropped to a low note that wound its way through her belly and down to her knees, making them wobble.

Impossible that he should affect her so intensely, this man whose name she couldn’t even recall. Adoni something. She knew so little about him.

Sensible Alice Trehearn, the one who’d spent years being dependable, devoted and reliable, knew this was her cue to leave. Yet another Alice Trehearn, the one who secretly yearned for life, and who’d only surfaced previously in her hell-for-leather gallops across the moor, shivered in excitement.

‘Yes.’ The word was out before she thought about it. Because if she thought about it she’d never say it.

‘Good,’ he murmured. ‘Your mouth has been driving me crazy.’

Her mouth? Alice lifted a hand to her lips but instead met his chin as his head lowered. He stopped a breath away. She felt his exhalation on her lips, scented with coffee and brandy and something indefinable. The pads of her fingers trembled against the solid plane of his jaw, then spread, testing warm skin with a hint of stubble that grazed her flesh as she settled her whole palm across his chin.

She’d shaved both her father and later her godfather, David, when each grew too ill to do it themselves. Neither had been like this. Adoni radiated heat and vigour and a sensuality she felt right down to the marrow in her bones. He was strong, his flesh taut and so vitally alive.

Alice drew a shuddering breath filled with the alien, delicious scent of man in his prime. She stared up into eyes as bright as she imagined the Aegean Sea to be. She read a question there. He was giving her time to change her mind.

In answer, Alice slid her hand around into his thick, short dark hair, surprised at its softness. She rose on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his.

For a moment he didn’t move and she cringed inside. This was a mistake. Hadn’t she known he couldn’t really be interested?

Then his mouth moved on hers, gently persuading her lips apart. His warm tongue slicked her lips then delved within and everything inside her melted and swayed at the eroticism of that sweet invasion. Her belly liquefied, her knees loosened and it was only the firm loop of his arm around her waist that kept her high against him.

His other hand eased the hair back from her face in a gesture so tender her heart rolled over.

Alice slipped her other hand up over his chest. The feel of hard, lean muscle sent a sizzle of excitement through her. She leaned closer, a willing pupil as he delved deeper, drawing out the kiss into something that sent shivery hot darts of flame through her blood.

She didn’t know which was better—the way Adoni kissed, making her feel treasured, or the feel of their bodies locked tight. The arm at her waist slid lower, drawing her hips against him.

Her breath stilled as she came in contact with a hard length against her belly.

Instantly he lifted his mouth and Alice almost wailed with disappointment at her loss, her face instantly tilting higher as if to tempt him back. Instead he pressed his lips to her forehead.

A shudder racked his tall frame and it hit her that she wasn’t the only one swept away in the moment. Surprise and satisfaction filled her. Even if this had started as a one-sided favour it had become something else.

‘Adoni?’ Her voice was husky and uneven.

He drew back just far enough to meet her eyes. What did he see? She felt flushed and wanton, not like herself.

‘This is your chance to change your mind.’ Gone was the slightly teasing gleam she’d seen in his face when he’d talked of kissing her. Now he looked solemn to the point of grimness.

‘About kissing you?’

‘And the rest of what you wanted.’

The rest? Her brow furrowed as she tried to recall their earlier conversation but her foggy memory couldn’t compete with the heady sensations bombarding her. That delicious spicy scent of his skin, the rich flavour of him still on her tongue. The heat of his large body surrounding her and that strange mix of vulnerability and power she felt at the differences in their closely aligned bodies.

‘You wanted an orgasm.’

Fire flooded her face as she met his steady scrutiny.

‘Please, tell me I didn’t say that.’

One corner of that thin mouth tipped up and fire trailed through her middle right down to her womb.

‘Apparently the men you’ve known haven’t been very obliging.’

Alice closed her eyes and dropped her forehead against his collarbone. Maybe if she wished hard enough she’d wake up in her own bed and discover this was a dream.

An intense, remarkably erotic dream. One large palm circled her lower back and instinctively her pelvis tilted forward, right to that hard column of masculine arousal.

Should she tell him there’d been no men in her life, not the way he thought? Admit that her previous experience of kissing had been once in her early teens and once again a couple of years ago, neither of them memorable except for her disappointment. Clearly her expectations had been too high.

But this man blasted those expectations to smithereens. She’d never thought a kiss could make her feel so...

‘Alice?’

She lifted her head. ‘I’d like to kiss you again.’ Her voice was rough, unrecognisable, and she swiped her tongue over her bottom lip. A shudder ripped through her at the way his eyes narrowed on the movement.

‘Is that all you want?’

She opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say. She’d never had a conversation like this. She’d assumed that when the time was right and she’d finally found a man with whom she wanted to lose her virginity, it would just...happen.

Stupid to be shy now when she’d apparently already propositioned the guy. But now she was sober. Her head as clear as it was possible to be when wrapped in the arms of an impossibly gorgeous Greek God of a man.

‘Couldn’t we just kiss and see what happens?’

Again that tiny uptilt to the corner of his mouth, only this time Alice read tension there as much as humour. ‘I already know what will happen. We’ll have sex and we won’t stop till we’re both utterly sated.’

Her heart gave a wild flutter and something tugged hard inside her. She felt moisture at her core and wriggled, hyper-aware that the ribbon of fabric between her legs was damp.

‘You need to decide.’

He gave her the choice to step away and behave like sensible, sane Alice Trehearn.

Yet how could she when the tips of his fingers traced a pattern of temptation across her back? They roved from one hip to the other, dipping and swirling and making desire course through her.

‘I...’ She closed her eyes, trying to gather her wits. But all she could summon was the realisation she wanted this man as she’d never wanted before. It didn’t matter that she’d always imagined sex as part of a loving, committed relationship. Life had taught her that you never knew what was around the corner and happiness had to be grabbed with both hands.

Maybe it was partly the champagne but she sensed it was Adoni himself who tempted her to take a step she’d never taken before.

Surely he was the perfect man to initiate her into sexual pleasure?

What did she have to lose except her inexperience?

And wouldn’t a night in his bed be the perfect antidote to loneliness? Loneliness had compounded the sharp ache of grief since she’d been forced to leave David’s estate and all the people she cared for.

Firm hands gripped her shoulders and he stepped back, shocking Alice with the sudden, urgent distress she felt.

‘No! Don’t!’ She looked up into those dazzling eyes and knew there was only one answer she could give if she was to be true to herself. ‘I can’t guarantee orgasms but I’d like to stay with you.’ The words came out in a breathless tumble.

A warm hand cupped her chin, his thumb stroking rhythmically over her mouth till her bottom lip dropped open and Adoni traced her mouth. Alice shivered at the heavy weight of desire filling her belly and the decadent promise of pleasure in his remarkable eyes.

‘I’d like you to stay too, Alice.’ The way he said her name, with the slightest of accents, sent a shiver of pleasure through her. ‘As for the orgasms—’ he smiled, a slow, sexy smile ‘—let me worry about those.’


CHAPTER THREE (#u066b7091-3fd1-590d-9eb4-81aba1c5306f)

ADONI ROLLED ONTO his back, his blood thundering, aftershocks of rapture echoing through him. Light flashed in the blackness of his closed eyes and he struggled for breath, his chest rising mightily as he sucked in air.

Finally he found the strength to open his eyes and stare at the ceiling of his bedroom. It looked unfamiliar, as if the events of the evening had changed his perspective, even on something as mundane as cream paint.

Certainly he felt different. Not just sated but as if he’d tapped into an energy source that both drained and renewed him at the same time.

‘They didn’t do it right,’ he said finally, his voice raw.

‘Sorry?’ Alice’s voice was a wisp of sound. It shivered across pleasure points on his body that were still remarkably receptive to that sweet cadence.

‘The guys you had sex with. The ones who didn’t give you an orgasm. They had no idea what they were doing.’

For Alice Trehearn had to be one of the most sensual women he’d met. Her responsiveness, her passion, had soldered a connection between them that felt rare, almost precious, even if her limited experience had been glaringly obvious. She hadn’t been able to conceal her shock at some of his caresses.

At one stage, when he’d finally allowed himself to thrust deep within her, he’d even imagined for a moment that he was her first. She was so incredibly taut and close around him she might have been a virgin. Except virgins didn’t offer themselves to strangers and talk so casually of orgasms.

He’d half wondered if, despite her frank talking, she might be reticent and cold with a man. Instead she’d been like a live wire just waiting to explode in a shower of sparks.

Aware that she’d never before had an orgasm, Adoni had taken his time exploring her body, lavishing caresses all over till she was trembling and gasping against him, sobbing for release. Her throaty pleas had been sweet as wild honey and had prolonged her sensual torture. For he’d lingered, experimenting, revelling in each gasped exclamation.

By the time he’d slipped his fingers across that nub at the centre of her need, it had taken barely a caress for her to lift off the bed, shuddering as she gasped out her release. And again when he’d nuzzled her there...

Adoni closed his eyes at the vivid memory of musk and sweet femininity, of silky thighs clamping round him and her choked little cries of disbelief as rapture took her.

He’d almost come undone there and then, so aroused was he by this woman. Yet she’d been worth the wait. Finding his own completion, deep-seated within her velvet heat, watching her slate-blue eyes blaze in wonder as her body reached that pinnacle a third time. That was a pleasure that would stay with him well into the future. He couldn’t remember another climax so intense it felt as if he’d lost a part of himself.

But he’d eagerly lose himself again and again with a lover like Alice Trehearn. Even now, gasping for breath as they fought their way down from that incredible high, her fingers splayed possessively across his thigh.

If this was how it was when they barely knew each other’s bodies, what would it be like when they were even better attuned?

How would it feel if she did for him some of the things he’d done for her?

Adrenaline slammed into his blood, hurtling around his body at dangerous speeds.

‘Well, I’m glad you know what you’re doing.’ Her voice was an uneven whisper. ‘That was amazing.’

Something about the hoarse strain in her tone made Adoni open his eyes and turn his head.

She too lay on her back, staring at the ceiling, her pert breasts rising and falling with her rapid breathing. The sight of them, the memory of their sweetness on his tongue, sent a charge of energy back to his groin.

Again? So soon?

Adoni smiled, his nostrils flaring as he inhaled the scent of sex underlain with the orange blossom fragrance of her hair. There was something overwhelmingly attractive about a woman who made a man feel all man.

He opened his mouth to murmur something suggestive when his gaze rose to her face and his mouth snapped shut.

Her pale brow was furrowed in thought and those full lips pursed as if something other than bliss occupied her brain. His gaze moved to a reddened patch of skin on her slender throat. Razor burn. He’d kissed her there as he powered into her, stifling the need to yell his triumphant pleasure with a ravaging caress of her tender flesh.

‘Alice?’

She blinked rapidly and to Adoni’s consternation he saw fat tears spike her dark lashes.

He didn’t do emotion. Not with lovers. Sex was about pleasure, scratching an itch, not—

Her tongue slipped out to swipe her reddened lips and, despite his sudden tension, Adoni’s sex stirred.

‘Sorry.’ She swiped her cheeks with the heel of her palm. ‘I’m feeling a little...overwhelmed. It will pass, I’m sure.’ Her laugh sounded strained. ‘It was just so much more than I expected.’

She turned her head and snared him with her brilliant eyes. Adoni’s heart knocked his ribs in a rough, unfamiliar rhythm.

‘Thank you.’ Her mouth turned up into a crooked smile that did something devastating to his internal organs.

‘My pleasure.’ What a weird conversation. They were so...polite when just seconds ago he’d been deep within her, pulsing out his climax and revelling in her broken gasps of wonderment and the close embrace of her body.

He wanted to kiss her again, see if the promising stirrings of his lower body would strengthen. But that mouth was so solemn. That puckered brow so serious. Above all, there were those crystal teardrops clinging to her thick, bunched lashes. Those made him pause and rethink.

‘I need to see to the condom.’ Even as he said it, an inner voice rose in protest, telling him he could have her again, find easy satisfaction with this unlikely siren.

But a lifetime’s caution came to his aid. He refused to get involved with feminine tears and...feelings.

He levered himself from the bed and strode across to the bathroom. Strange how, with every step, he felt the weight of her gaze. It was as if she touched him, a light caress that strayed from his shoulders, down the sweep of his spine to his buttocks and thighs, then back up to the bunching muscles of his glutes. A shiver of awareness rippled through him.

Again, temptation rose to turn back to Alice and take more of what they’d already shared. Instead Adoni kept walking. It was only when he closed the bathroom door behind him that the tension pushing at his shoulders eased.

In the end he decided on a cold shower, sluicing water off his face and relying on the chill to douse his libido. It would be too easy to fall back into sex with Alice Trehearn. Her combination of naivety and forthright ways attracted as he couldn’t recall being attracted before. She was different, possibly unique, and something about her cut straight through his hard-won caution to the instinctive risk-taker deep within.

Which was why Adoni would take stock before having sex with her again.

That they would have sex again was a certainty. He might be cautious but he wasn’t a self-denying fool.

He grabbed a towel, roughly drying his hair, then leaned forward, considering the shadow darkening his jaw. He should shave, out of consideration for Alice’s delicate skin. Yet he hesitated. He’d gone blindly into sex with a stranger and got more than he’d bargained for, in satisfaction and pleasure. But in tears too, and that made the hackles of caution rise.

For a second he hesitated. That in itself piqued his anger. He prided himself on his quick decisions, yet with this woman he was second guessing. Frowning, he reached for a towel and wrapped it around his hips. They had some talking to do.

After that there’d be time for shaving and for more sex.

Lots more sex.

Adoni repressed the urge to smile as he crossed the vast bathroom. Already he was fantasising about where the next time would be. The whole time he’d showered he’d been picturing Alice naked with him under the icy spray. Or naked on the sofa by the fire. Or up against the big picture window that gave his owner’s suite its multi-million-dollar views of central London.

He swallowed, his mouth drying as he thought of those delectable legs wrapped around his waist, her sultry mouth open as she gasped her pleasure and—

Adoni slammed to a stop. The sheets were a riotous tumble on the vast, empty bed but Alice wasn’t beneath them. He frowned.

Was that a door he heard closing down the corridor?

‘Alice?’ He cast about, expecting to see her in some dim corner of the room, but she wasn’t there. Nor was that abomination of a dress.

A niggling sensation started up in his belly. He couldn’t place it but it reminded him of the nerves he’d felt the first time he’d gone, virtually penniless, to beg for a loan to start his business. When he’d had nothing to recommend him but his bright ideas and determination to succeed or die trying. Anything to prove to Vassili Petrakis that the son he’d disinherited was a man to be reckoned with.

The memory of that day halted him, mid-stride. His frown became a scowl. Nothing could compare to the way he’d felt that day.

Yet that curious, unsettled feeling persisted.

His stride lengthened as he headed down the corridor, checking out each room as he went. She was nowhere to be found. He paced the sitting room. Hadn’t she left her shoes beside the couch? Hadn’t her purse been there too?

‘Alice?’ He swung round, taking in the unmistakable emptiness.

She’d gone. Not just gone, but run away without a word.

Unbelievable! No woman had ever done that before.

He didn’t like it.

Adoni retraced his steps, his brow furrowed as he tried to work out why she’d run.

Embarrassment? It seemed unlikely, given the conversation they’d had and her enthusiasm for sex. Heat stirred anew at the memory of Alice, abandoned with rapture. It had felt like the first real moment in this long, trying day. He’d even had someone trying to sell him real estate over the wedding dinner.

Adoni stood in the bedroom doorway, scanning the room as if it could provide a clue to her bizarre behaviour. In his experience women were far more likely to hang around long after you wished they’d left than go too early. Most had that greedy look in their eyes. The one that said they lusted after his body or his money or probably both.

Unease filled him. Was Alice capable of looking after herself alone in London late at night? Should he follow her? She wasn’t drunk any more, he’d never have taken her to bed if she was, but—

His thoughts halted as he spied his wallet on the floor. When he’d shed his clothes it had still been in the pocket of his trousers. Now it lay, splayed open, beside the bed. The side of the bed where Alice had lain, exhausted and emotional.

Apparently exhausted and emotional. For now he stepped closer Adoni saw that not only was his wallet open but one of his credit cards was tugged out of its slot.

He blinked, mind cataloguing the implication of the open wallet. Yet something, a part of him that hankered after the illusion of an honest woman, protested he couldn’t be seeing what he thought.

Adoni picked up the wallet and sank onto the bed. How much cash had been in there earlier? He flicked through the notes. Nothing was obviously missing. But that didn’t mean she hadn’t helped herself to some.

Of more concern was that she’d obviously been rifling his credit cards. They were all there; she hadn’t stolen them.

But maybe she’d made a note of the numbers and security data to use later? She could even have taken an imprint. Who knew what she carried in her bag?

Adoni leaned back against the bedhead, torn between disbelief and anger at himself for being so easily gulled. Women had tried to inveigle their way into his life in so many ways, he’d thought himself awake to them all. Yet he’d allowed Alice Trehearn to slip under his guard.

If that was even her name. Now he thought about it, it sounded a little too sweet and old-fashioned. Made up to allay suspicion?

He raked a hand through his hair. What a bloody fool he’d been! Thinking with his penis while she’d been busy scheming to get her grimy fingers on his money.

You’d think, by thirty-one, he’d be awake to such schemes. Especially given his history. A mother who’d lied shamelessly to both her husband and her son. A fiancée who’d fooled Adoni into believing she loved him then dropped him the moment he was disinherited.

As for the man he’d once called Father...

Truly, it was remarkable Adoni had allowed himself to be conned. He’d learned the hard way not to take people at face value.

Until tonight when a slip of a girl with an endearing smile, an owlish stare and a voracious sensuality had blindsided him.

His mind clicked back to that heady rush of primal, masculine possessiveness. That first slow thrust to Alice’s silken core, when she’d felt as tight and untried as he imagined a virgin would be. Then she’d looked up with wonder in her glazed eyes and something had beaten hard and insistent in his chest. Pleasure and a primitive satisfaction that made him feel as sophisticated as a caveman.

He’d even believed, when her breath caught and her whole body stilled, that perhaps she was a complete innocent. Until her fingers dug into his buttocks and she demanded ‘More!’ in that husky little voice that was the most potent aphrodisiac he knew. That had banished the strange moment of fantasy.

Adoni’s jaw set. He supposed he should be thankful he hadn’t taken longer in the bathroom. If he had he was sure his wallet and his credit cards would have been exactly where he’d left them and he wouldn’t have realised Alice was a thief till large sums disappeared from his accounts.

Alice Trehearn was just another gold-digger who’d set her sights on his fortune.

He breathed out hard, shoulders rising and falling in self-disgust that he’d actually fallen for her scam. She’d better look out if their paths crossed again. He wouldn’t fall for her wiles a second time.

He reached for the phone. It was time to cancel his credit cards.

* * *

‘Sensitive breasts. That was the first sign.’ The woman’s whisper penetrated the hum of the crowded café. ‘Even when I just crossed my arms.’

Alice paused, feeling her eyes widen at the empty cups and plates she was clearing from a nearby table. Her own breasts had felt sensitive for the last couple of days.

Out of all the customer conversations in the room, her tired brain would snag on that one. Any minute now she’d hear that the woman had since been diagnosed with a weird flu or some horrible life-threatening illness. Alice did not need to hear that. She couldn’t afford time off with illness. She had enough trouble making ends meet.

She blinked and tried to focus on her task, wrinkling her nose at the half-drunk coffee she loaded onto her tray. For some reason the scent of coffee, one she usually adored, seemed downright unpleasant today.

‘I didn’t have that at all.’ Another woman spoke. ‘My first sign was cigarette smoke. Every time Jake lit up I gagged. I made him quit smoking, which is just as well when you think about it. But it wasn’t just cigarettes. Coffee too. I couldn’t bear the smell.’

Alice froze, her arm outstretched towards a cake plate.

Was this some hoax? Was she being set up in an elaborate joke?

She shook her head. Tiredness was confusing her. She’d spoken to no one about either of those strange symptoms. It was just coincidence.

Briskly, telling herself she wasn’t listening, she finished stacking the tray.

‘And of course that led to morning sickness.’ It was the second voice again. ‘You don’t know how lucky you were to miss out on that.’

Alice felt the hairs on her nape lift, one by one, till her flesh drew tight. She took a slow, calming breath, its effect spoiled as another waitress walked by with a load of coffees. Alice inhaled the fumes and swallowed convulsively.

She felt clammy now, as if her skin was too tight for her body. Perspiration popped out on her hairline and she swayed.

It took an enormous effort to straighten, supporting the laden tray, and turn towards the kitchen. As she did her gaze turned to the pair who’d been speaking. Both were young and healthy-looking. Both smiling. One had a baby on her knee and the other was so pregnant it was a wonder she managed to fit in the alcove seat.

A tremor racked Alice and she almost dropped the tray.

Pregnancy!

That was what they were talking about?

But Alice couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible.

He’d used a condom!

Of course she wasn’t pregnant. She was only twenty-three. She was just starting to live life for herself. She had no plans for a baby.

It was just coincidence.

A strange, scary coincidence.

But as the morning wore on Alice became more and more conscious of the way her breasts tingled whenever her arm pressed in as she reached for something. She found herself avoiding the coffee machine as much as possible.

By her break, despite some stern self-talk about not leaping to conclusions, Alice found herself in a pharmacy, handing over hard-earned cash for a pregnancy kit.

It couldn’t be. Of course it couldn’t be.

But it was.

Alice stood in the cramped staff washroom and stared at the indicator that told her she was pregnant.

She didn’t slump against the counter. She didn’t squeal with excitement or cry. She didn’t do anything but stare as the implications worked their way into her brain.

She’d experienced so many life-changing events. Alice had learned railing against fate or trying to avoid reality didn’t work.

Her mother had died in a car crash when Alice was twelve. Her father’s injuries in the same smash left him in a wheelchair, needing constant support until he’d died of complications when she was seventeen. At least her godfather, David, had given them a roof over their heads when their money dried up and the house had to go. Then David, as close as family, had been diagnosed with a terminal condition. Alice had been the one to look after him through the prolonged illness till last year when—

Alice shook her head. At least, for a change, the latest crisis in her life wasn’t about death, but about life. Maybe when she got her head around it she’d even be happy.

She stared into the mirror at the wan-faced young woman whose eyes seemed too big for her face.

Fear stirred.

Fear of the unknown. She knew nothing about babies!

Fear about how she’d support a child when she could barely support herself.

And, yes, a blinding moment of frustration and self-pity. Because, as she’d lost the people she loved, she could find only one positive—that now she could begin experiencing those things her peers took for granted. Parties and carefree weekends. Dating. Starting a career. Going to art school, if she could scrape enough money to support herself.

Now art school would be on hold again, perhaps permanently. She’d have to find a way to support her child, plus a career that earned well and had family-friendly hours.

Alice’s mouth twisted at the impossibility of it all.

She grabbed at the counter as another thought struck and her knees gave way.

She’d have to tell him. Adoni Petrakis.

For, she realised, she was having this baby. She didn’t know anything about babies but she was sure she didn’t want a termination.

That was one thing sorted at least.

She tried to smile at her reflection and failed. For she cringed at the idea of confronting Adoni. They were from different worlds. It was a miracle they’d ended up in bed together. He was rich, sophisticated and urbane. She was ordinary and embarrassingly inexperienced. More, she’d been downright gauche that night.

The memory always left her torn between horror at what she’d done and a wish that it had never ended. She could get used to a handsome, sexy man with a sense of humour and an appreciative glint in his eyes. A man who was kind and generous and awakened all sorts of unfamiliar desires.

Just as well she’d peeked into his wallet to check his surname. At the time shame had pushed her to spy because in her alcoholic haze she’d forgotten his last name. She’d been determined to know the full name of the man she’d given her virginity to.

Her crooked smile became a rictus grin, her cheeks aching at the pull of taut flesh.

At least she had a name to put on the birth certificate!


CHAPTER FOUR (#u066b7091-3fd1-590d-9eb4-81aba1c5306f)

‘MR PETRAKIS?’

‘Yes?’ Adoni paused on the way into his London office. He smiled at the temporary assistant filling in for his trusted PA, and watched the young woman blush. He repressed a sigh. The sooner his PA returned the better.

‘I’m sorry to interrupt.’ She glanced to the man beside him. ‘But a woman has been ringing quite a lot, wanting an appointment.’ Adoni heard what might have been a snicker from Miles Dawlish and the temp blushed even more. ‘But her name isn’t on the approved list.’

‘Then she doesn’t get an appointment.’ Adoni turned and gestured for Dawlish to precede him into the office. He didn’t like the man but the deal he offered was interesting enough to warrant Adoni’s personal attention.

‘It’s just that...’ He swung round to find the temp biting her lip. He waited, reining in impatience. She leaned forward, her voice dropping. ‘She said it was personal. And that it was vital she see you.’

Adoni felt his eyebrows wing up. How difficult was it to get a competent replacement for his sick PA? Surely any assistant worth the name understood the meaning of ‘no unapproved meetings’?

The woman’s gaze dropped and she fiddled with the notebook on her desk, the picture of guilt. She looked so nervous he almost felt sorry for her.

‘What name did she give?’ he asked, determined not to scare off another temp.

‘Alice Trehearn. She was very insistent. It sounded...important.’ The woman looked up, relief in her eyes, but Adoni barely noticed.

Alice Trehearn?

Unbidden, memory unfolded like a bud bursting into bloom. Skin as pale as ivory. A lithe body that responded to him like an instrument tuned to his touch. Lips like crushed berries, sweet and reddened from his kisses.

A mouth that lied. A woman who’d targeted him and played him for a fool.

Yet, even as he opened his mouth to say there’d be no meeting, curiosity rose. What did Alice hope to gain from seeing him? She must have tried his card numbers without success. Was she hoping to seduce him into giving her something else?

The idea of Alice Trehearn trying to seduce him again was undeniably titillating. Especially as Adoni had no intention of letting her get her greedy claws on anything of his. It might be amusing to have sex with her again, purely to finalise unfinished business. Ever since that night a month and a half ago he’d been plagued by the realisation that he still wanted her, despite the fact she was on the make.

Sex with Alice Trehearn still appealed. Almost as much as wiping the smile off her face afterwards when he told her he was awake to her schemes and she’d never get a penny of his.

Adoni smiled at his temp and didn’t even mind when the woman blushed and smiled dazedly back.

‘Tell her I’ll see her. As soon as possible. Here in my office.’

‘Oh, but she wondered if you could meet—’

‘Here.’ Adoni paused, his smile fading. ‘Tomorrow. Or not at all.’ Then he strode into his office where Miles Dawlish stood. Adoni gestured for him to take a seat.

‘I couldn’t help but overhear,’ the Englishman began. ‘I know an Alice Trehearn too. She was at the wedding reception where you and I met. I wondered if it could be the same woman.’

Adoni didn’t respond, but took a seat opposite. He had no intention of sharing his personal life. If it weren’t for Dawlish’s property, Adoni wouldn’t waste time with the man. Adoni knew his sort—convinced the world owed him a living. Ready to sell off his inheritance, a truly superb estate, for ready cash.





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