The Greek's Acquisition (10 page)

She despised herself for her weakness and said sharply, ‘You might have forced me into your bed, but you can’t dictate what I choose to sleep in.’

Dark brows winged upwards. ‘
Forced
, Louise? There is no lock on the door to keep you here, nor chains to bind you. You are free to leave whenever you like.’ He studied her thoughtfully. ‘To be honest, I’m growing tired of being made out to be some kind of villain. We are two consenting adults who made a deal.’

He pulled a sheet of paper from his trouser pocket and handed it to her. ‘I spoke to my lawyer a short while ago, and he sent an e-mail to confirm that he has already begun proceedings to purchase Eirenne. The money should be in your bank account within a week.’ He paused and speared her with a hard look. ‘But I can easily stop the process if you have changed your mind?’

Tomorrow her mother would be on her way to the specialist cancer hospital in America. Changing her mind was not an option, Louise acknowledged. She drew a swift breath.

‘I want the sale to go ahead.’

The moonlight slanted over Dimitri’s face, highlighting his sharp cheekbones and resolute jaw. He was arrogant and uncompromising, but the predatory gleam in his eyes told her that his desire for her was something he could not control. She sensed that he resented it, just as she resented her fierce attraction to him. They were both trapped by sexual need, and she gave a little shiver as she remembered how Dimitri had stated his intention to slake his hunger by making love to her until his unwanted fascination with her had faded.

‘In that case you won’t need this.’

Before she could stop him he gripped the hem of her nightshirt and dragged it over her head. She knew she was blushing, but she refused to give in to the temptation to cover her breasts with her hands and instead lifted her head proudly.

‘
Thee mou
, you are beautiful.’ As Dimitri studied her naked body his breath hissed between his teeth. Louise was startled to see streaks of colour flare on his cheekbones.

‘You were lovely seven years ago, but now you are beyond compare,’ he said thickly.

Don’t
, she wanted to cry out. She did not want to be reminded of the most incredible night of her life and have those memories sullied by the soulless coupling they were about to perform.

Dimitri captured her chin and stilled when he felt the betraying moisture on her skin. Irritation flared inside him. Did she really think he would hurt her or take her by force? Or was she playing mind-games? Trying to make him feel bad for wanting what she had given willingly enough last night?

‘Why the tears,
pedhaki
? Am I really such an ogre?’

She could not have heard a faint note of hurt in his voice—not from a man who was as hard as nails and immune to emotions. And yet … Louise lifted her eyes to his face and for a second she glimpsed the younger Dimitri, who had made love to her with such tenderness seven years ago that she had wept with the beauty of it.

He traced his thumb over her lower lip. ‘Are you afraid of me?’

‘No,’ she admitted honestly. At least she did not fear he would ever cause her physical harm. But she
was
scared of the way he made her feel—out of control and a slave to her fierce desire for him.

He did not seem convinced. ‘I have never taken a woman by force—I find the very idea abhorrent. You chose to come to Athens with me,’ he reminded her.

‘I know.’ Her tongue darted out to moisten her dry lips. ‘I will abide by the terms of our arrangement.’

Louise tried to ignore a flicker of panic when he cupped her shoulders and drew her inexorably towards him. She had never noticed before that his olive-green eyes were flecked with gold. Like tiny flames, she thought, blazing with an intensity of need that lit the fire inside her. He lowered his head and brushed his mouth over hers, lightly at first, as if he was giving her the chance to pull back. But she sensed his hunger, felt it in his hands that shook slightly, and as he deepened the kiss and it became an erotic exploration of her mouth he demolished all her carefully erected barricades.

He moved a hand down to her breast and teased her nipple with his fingers until it felt tight and tingling. Sensation arrowed down to her pelvis, evoking molten heat between her legs, and with a low groan she parted her lips beneath his and kissed him back. Without taking his mouth from
hers he lifted her and strode through to the bedroom, where he placed her on the bed.

She was exquisite, Dimitri thought as he knelt over her and ran his fingers through her hair so that her curls were spread across the pillow like a golden halo. The bedside lamps were turned low and bathed her nakedness in a soft glow that made her creamy skin gleam. Her limbs felt like satin beneath his fingertips as he explored every inch of her, like a blind man reliant on touch, determined to imprint the shape of her on his brain.

Her breasts were rounded, delightfully soft and voluptuous, and when he pressed his face into the valley between them he inhaled the delicate fragrance of lilies. He raised himself up so that he could kiss her mouth again. Desire was pounding a pagan drumbeat through his veins and he wanted her with an urgency he had never experienced with any other woman. But he glimpsed the faint wariness in her eyes, and the memory of what she had said a few moments ago taunted him.

‘I will abide by our agreement,’ she had told him dully, as if she had resigned herself to a terrible fate.
Gamoto!
His male pride was stung. He did not want a sacrificial lamb. He wanted the eager sex-kitten she had been at his hotel in Paris and he
would
have her, he vowed. He would tease and tantalise her with his hands and mouth until she begged for his possession.

With deft movements he shrugged out of his clothes and lowered himself onto her so that their naked bodies touched from head to toe. His rock-hard arousal jabbed against her belly and he heard her catch her breath when she realised the size of him. He slanted his mouth over hers and kissed her, slow and deep, drawing a response from her that fanned the flames of his desire.

His body was impatient for sexual release, but he forced
himself to slow the pace while he trailed his mouth down to her breast and captured the dusky pink nipple between his lips, caressing her until she cried his name. She arched her hips in instinctive invitation and he laughed triumphantly, transferring his mouth to the other breast, lapping her eager flesh with his tongue.

‘Dimitri … please …’ she whispered tremulously.

He liked the fact that she could not deny her need for him. He slid his hand between her thighs, and when he discovered the proof of her arousal his restraint cracked. Pausing only to don protection, he positioned himself over her.

‘Ise panemorfi.’
The words were torn from him as he stared into her sapphire-blue gaze. ‘I have to have you now,
glikia mou
.’ He discarded his pride and did not care that he had revealed the intensity of his need for her.

‘I want you too,’ she admitted, and the unguarded honesty in her eyes made Dimitri’s gut clench. She was no longer playing games. Maybe she never had been, he thought.

Maybe she had never stopped being the lovely girl Loulou, who had once given herself so sweetly to him.

And then his thought process was obliterated as he thrust into her and felt her muscles stretch to accommodate him, to draw him deeper into her velvet softness.

Something curled around his heart—a feeling of possessiveness that would have bothered him if he’d had time to dwell on it. But his blood was pounding in his ears as she matched his rhythm and moved with him, accepting every hard stroke that drove them both higher. She sobbed his name and lifted her hips, her body as taut as an overstrung bow, before he tipped her over the edge. She shook
with the force of her orgasm, twisting her head on the pillows, and raked her nails over his shoulders.

Dimitri’s control shattered spectacularly. ‘Wildcat,’ he groaned raggedly, and tumbled with her into ecstasy.

A
LONG
time later Dimitri eased himself from Louise, surprised by his reluctance to break the physical connection between them. Sex with her had been as amazing as it had the previous night, and he felt a surge of male satisfaction as he propped himself up on an elbow and idly wound a honey-gold curl around his finger.

‘That was incredible,
glikia
. I’m beginning to wish I’d stipulated that you should stay with me for longer than a couple of weeks.’

He frowned when he realised he was actually serious. Not that he was contemplating anything long-term, of course, he reassured himself. He was happy with his life the way it was—uncluttered by the emotional dramas that women seemed so fond of. But he could not deny it would be easy to become addicted to Louise’s potent sensuality.

He studied her face, still rose-flushed from the passion they had just shared, and once again he was struck by her beauty, and the curiously innocent air that evoked a primitive urge to claim his woman and protect her from harm.

‘Perhaps we will have to renegotiate the terms of our deal,’ he murmured.

Dimitri’s words dragged Louise from the blissfully relaxed state that followed intense physical pleasure, and dumped her back into the harsh world of reality. A deal—

that was all sex with him had been. Yet foolishly she had allowed herself to feel that it had been a complete union—not only of their bodies, but of their souls. Clearly that had not been the case for him. She swallowed the lump in her throat and clung to her pride.

‘We agreed on the length of time I would be your mistress,’ she reminded him coolly. ‘I trust you won’t go back on your word and try and force me to remain here for a day longer?’

‘So we’re back to accusations of force, are we?’

His tone was soft, his anger controlled, but the warmth in his eyes had died and Louise felt the sensation of an ice-cube slithering down her spine.

‘I didn’t see any sign of your supposed reluctance to have sex with me. In fact I gained the impression that you rather enjoyed it—and I have the marks to prove it.’

He sat up so that she could see his back, and she gasped at the sight of several red weals on his shoulders, where she had raked her nails across his skin in the throes of feverish passion.

Her face burned with mortification. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realise I had marked you.’

‘I’m flattered you found me so exciting,
glikia
,’ he drawled as he lay back down and folded his arms behind his head in a position of indolent relaxation.

He looked like a sultan who had just been pleasured by his favourite whore, Louise thought bitterly. Her long and traumatic day had caught up with her and she ached with tiredness, but the prospect of sharing Dimitri’s bed for the rest of the night was too much to bear. In a strange way sleeping with him seemed even more intimate that having sex with him. If they were proper lovers she would snuggle up to him and rest her head on his chest, and he would cuddle her as they drifted off to sleep.

Memories of the night they had spent together on Eirenne made her heart ache. They had fallen asleep in each other’s arms that night, and had woken at dawn to make love again. But the situation between them now was very different from seven years ago. She was only with him because they had made a deal, and surely she had fulfilled her side of it adequately tonight.

She slid her legs over the side of the bed and remembered that her nightshirt was in the sitting room. During their wild lovemaking Dimitri had flung the silk top sheet to the floor, and she quickly snatched it up and wrapped it around her to cover her nakedness.

He frowned as she backed away from the bed. ‘Where are you going?’

‘If you have finished with me, I would like to sleep alone in my own room. I don’t think it is an unreasonable request.’

Dimitri made no attempt to hide his impatience. He was tempted to pull her down onto the mattress and show her that he was far from finished with her. Her tangible tension and his sudden realisation that her composure was close to snapping prevented him.

‘None of the guest bedrooms are prepared, and I’m sure you’d agree it would be unreasonable to expect Halia to make up a bed for you at midnight.’

‘Well … then I’ll sleep on the sofa.’

Louise flushed beneath his speculative look. She expected him to insist that she join him back in the bed, but after a few seconds of silence, he shrugged.

‘Please yourself. I have an important business meeting in the morning and I need some sleep.’

And with that he settled back against the pillows and shut his eyes, as if he was supremely indifferent to where she decided to spend the rest of the night.

Half an hour later Louise shifted position yet again on
the sofa, trying to get comfortable. She had demonstrated to Dimitri that she was not his puppet, but for some reason her victory seemed hollow. The sofa’s cushions were much firmer than a mattress, and her neck already ached from where she was using the armrest as a pillow. With a sigh she pulled the sheet tighter around her, wishing that the air-conditioning did not work so well. She was cold and tired and felt stupidly close to tears.

Something soft brushed against her hand as Madeleine sprang up onto the sofa and settled in the crook of her knees.

‘In two weeks’ time Tina will be responding to the treatment, Dimitri will own Eirenne and our agreement will be finished. I’ll never have to see him again,’ she told the cat, and wondered why that last statement did not fill her with satisfaction as it surely should.

Sunlight dancing across her eyelids roused Louise from the restless sleep that had finally claimed her just before dawn. She stretched, and winced as her aching neck and shoulders reminded her of the uncomfortable night she had spent.

‘I trust you slept well?’ Dimitri strolled out of his bathroom, dressed in a dark suit and white shirt accessorised with a navy silk tie. He looked impossibly gorgeous and energised to face the day ahead—in contrast to Louise, who felt as if she had been flattened by a truck.

‘Fine, thank you,’ she muttered, gritting her teeth as his amused smile told her he knew she was lying. She felt tired and irritable, and his arrogance riled her. ‘I would like some measure of privacy while I am here. I’ll ask Halia for some sheets so I can make up a bed in one of the guest rooms.’

‘No, you won’t,’ he said implacably. ‘Our deal was for you to spend every night in my bed. And I would appreciate
it if you could start acting like an adult rather than a petulant child.’

Louise’s temper simmered. The temptation to throw the marble paperweight on the coffee table at his head was so strong that she clenched her fists to stop herself from grabbing it. Instead she verbalised her frustration. ‘You can go to hell.’

‘And
you
can go back to Paris and find yourself another buyer for Eirenne. Because frankly,
glikia
, I’m getting tired of your martyr act.’ Dimitri strode towards the door, anger evident in every taut line of his body. ‘If you don’t want to be here you are free to leave.’

He did not add that if she returned home he would not continue with the purchase of the island, but the unspoken threat hung in the air.

Louise bit her lip, panic surging through her as she realised she had pushed him too far. Why
had
she so deliberately antagonised him? she wondered. The truth, she acknowledged painfully, was that she wished he would take her in his arms and kiss her into submission. She wanted him to make love to her but her pride would not let her admit it.

‘I
do
want to be here.’ She pushed the sheet away and stood up from the sofa to face him, thankful that she had put her nightshirt back on after she had left his bed. ‘It’s just that I’m finding this hard,’ she admitted. ‘I’ve never stayed with a guy before. I live alone, with just Madeleine for company, and I’m not used to this level of intimacy or to sharing my personal space with someone else.’

‘Are you saying you haven’t had many other lovers?’

Dimitri was surprised by his curiosity. He never asked about his mistresses’ past history—partly because he considered it bad manners, and partly because he wasn’t interested. But he was intrigued by Louise. She responded
to him so passionately during sex that he had assumed she was experienced—which was why her air of innocence at other times puzzled him so much. And then there was the question of her designer clothes and the diamond pendant that she had told him had been given to her as presents. He believed they had been gifts from a lover, but perhaps he was wrong.

‘Not many, no.’ Once again Louise’s pride asserted itself and prevented her from admitting that he was her only lover.

‘Why not? You’re a very attractive woman, and I can’t believe you haven’t had offers of relationships.’

She shrugged. ‘I’m not interested in having a relationship.’ She sensed he was waiting for her to explain her comment, and after a moment she continued quietly, ‘Throughout my childhood I watched my mother lurch from one affair to another. I was sent to boarding school at the age of eight, and I never knew at the end of term where I would be spending the holidays. Often I visited my grandmother, but after she died there was no alternative but for me to stay with Tina and her current lover. My mother usually lived in a luxurious apartment when she was some rich guy’s mistress, but inevitably after a few weeks or months he would tire of her and end the affair. Then she would have nowhere to live, and we would have to stay in hotels or she would rent a cheap place—until she found another man to keep her.’

She gave Dimitri a fierce look. ‘I vowed when I saw how my mother was treated by her lovers—like she was an object rather than a person—that I would never have casual affairs or be reliant on anyone.’

Tina Hobbs had no one to blame but herself, Dimitri thought grimly. He felt no sympathy for his father’s mistress who, in his opinion, had been no better than a prostitute.
But for the first time he appreciated how Louise’s upbringing must have affected her.

Children were far more perceptive than most adults gave them credit for, he mused. From an early age Louise’s views about men had been formed from witnessing Tina’s experiences, and he could not blame her for being wary and mistrusting of all men—including him.

His anger lessened and he walked back across the room to her. ‘And yet you were happy to have a relationship with me seven years ago,’ he said softly.

Louise stiffened, not wanting to be reminded of how stupid she had been. ‘I was young and gullible back then.’

He frowned. ‘What do you mean by gullible? I have good memories of the time we spent together on the island.’

Presumably he meant that he had enjoyed making a fool of her and breaking her heart. Memories of how he had hurt her, and the river of tears she had shed over him, evoked a dull pain in Louise’s heart. She wished she could leave and never set eyes on him again, but for her mother’s sake she had to stay and somehow survive the next two weeks with her emotions intact.

‘What happened between us was over long ago,’ she said tersely. ‘I’m not the naïve girl I was then. I agreed to be your mistress in return for you buying Eirenne, and I am prepared to do whatever you ask of me.’

Something about their past brief relationship clearly troubled her, Dimitri mused. It was true they had parted abruptly, and events immediately after Louise had left Eirenne had meant he’d been unable to contact her for months. When he had eventually tried she had not answered his calls and at last he had given up.

He wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery, but a glance at his watch told him he did not have time before his meeting with the CEO of a Russian export company,
with whom he hoped to finalise a deal. Further discussion with Louise would have to wait until tonight. It seemed that she was still desperate for him to buy the island and had decided to stay and stick to the terms of their agreement.

‘In that case, my first request is that you bin the granny gown,’ he murmured.

Her nightshirt had a row of tiny, fiddly buttons down the front that would take far too long to undo. Instead he gripped the two edges of the shirt and yanked them apart, sending buttons pinging in all directions and evoking a startled cry from Louise.

‘You …
Neanderthal
!’ Her voice shook with fury. ‘Now I have nothing to sleep in.’

He looked unconcerned. ‘Request number two—no, let’s make that a demand: you sleep naked. Your body is far too beautiful to keep covered up.’

Dimitri trailed his eyes slowly over her and lingered on her breasts. The heat in his gaze made Louise’s skin prickle and to her shame her nipples jerked to attention and stood proudly taut, demanding his attention.

‘I see that the air-conditioning is set a little too cool,’ he drawled.

She flushed. ‘I hate you.’

‘Really?’ He gave her a sardonic look. ‘I don’t think it’s me you hate,
glikia
, but you resent the way I make you feel.’ He cupped her breasts in his palms and smiled when he felt the tremor that ran through her. ‘Sexual desire between two consenting adults is nothing to feel ashamed of.’ He lowered his head until his breath whispered across her lips. ‘You want me. And I sure as hell want you.’

She wanted to deny it, and hated herself for the heated desire that licked through her veins. Her heart thudded as she waited for him to close the tiny gap that separated his mouth from hers. She longed for him to kiss her, and he
must have sensed her impatience because he gave a low, triumphant laugh before he claimed her lips with fierce possession.

The effect was electric. Passion instantly flared between them, white-hot and simmering with potent urgency. She might resent him, but Louise could not resist him, and she gave up the fight that she had never stood a chance of winning and sank against him as he deepened the kiss and it became intensely erotic.

He skimmed his hands over her body and caressed her breasts, then moved down to probe his fingers between her thighs and discover her slick wetness.

Everything faded from Louise’s consciousness but her need for Dimitri to make love to her. She slid his jacket over his shoulders and ran her hands over his torso, tugged at his shirt buttons and pushed the material aside so that she could feel his satiny skin and wiry chest hairs beneath her fingertips. Her body trembled with a primitive need to take him inside her and she boldly traced the hard ridge of his erection straining beneath his trousers.