The Greek's Acquisition (11 page)

Dimitri muttered a harsh imprecation as he swept her into his arms and strode into the bedroom. He dropped her onto the bed and knelt over her, caught her wrists and held them above her head while he captured one dusky pink nipple in his mouth. He lashed the taut peak with his tongue and then transferred his lips to her other breast and sucked hard, until she gasped and arched her hips in mute invitation.

Louise was all he could think of—his hunger for her. She aroused a level of desire in him that he had never felt with any other woman and his body shook with the intensity of his need.

Yet something hovered on the periphery of Dimitri’s mind. The Russian deal. The ten o’clock meeting that, if
it went well, would mean job security for hundreds of his employees at Kalakos Shipping—that would enable him to offer employment to hundreds more people who were without work at this time of economic hardship that Greece was currently experiencing.

Duty
. He could not ignore its demands, even though his body was craving sexual release.

Louise must have sensed his hesitation. She stared at him, her expression unguarded and increasingly wary, as if she thought he was rejecting her. The shimmer of tears in her eyes made Dimitri’s gut clench.

‘Dimitri, what’s wrong?’

‘Nothing,
pedhaki
.’ He quickly sought to reassure her. He groaned. ‘But my timing is atrocious. I’m due at a meeting this morning to finalise a deal which is worth millions of pounds to the company and, more importantly, which will secure jobs for thousands of my employees.’

Louise released a shaky breath. For a moment she’d been afraid that he was playing a cruel game intended to prove his dominance over her. She traced the deep groove of his frown with her fingertips. She had read the news reports about Greece’s financial problems, and how successful companies like Kalakos Shipping were vital to the country’s economic recovery. Dimitri carried a huge weight of responsibility on his shoulders. He had been groomed from a young age to take over Kalakos Shipping from his father. After they had rowed Kostas had threatened to disinherit his only son, but presumably he had later realised that Dimitri was the best person to head the company.

She gave him a rueful smile and tried to ignore the restless ache of unfulfilled desire that throbbed deep inside her. ‘Then you should go,’ she said softly. ‘People are relying on you and you can’t let them down.’

Dimitri drew a ragged breath and rested his brow on hers
while his body reluctantly accepted that it was not going to be granted the release it craved. Another woman might have sulked and accused him of putting business before her. He’d had mistresses who had not understood that running the company his grandfather had begun sixty years ago was more than just a job.

But never before had he resented the commitment Kalakos Shipping demanded of him, and never before had he been tempted to ignore his duty. It took all his willpower to get up from the bed, and he felt a sharp pang of regret when Louise sat up and tugged the sheet across her.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said roughly. ‘I promise I’ll make it up to you tonight.’

Her eyes met his. ‘I’ll hold you to that.’

She was so lovely. Her shy smile tugged on his heart, and he ignored the fact that he was running late and leaned over her to give her one last, lingering kiss.

‘Last night you were crying in your sleep.’

He ran a finger lightly over the smudges beneath her eyes, remembering how he had been woken by a sound some time around dawn and had gone to investigate why Louise had made that harrowing cry. She had been curled up on the sofa, fast asleep, but tears had slipped from beneath her lashes and he had been sorely tempted to wake her and try to comfort her.

‘You seemed to be having a dream that upset you. Do you want to tell me about it?’

Louise shook her head. She hadn’t been aware that she had been crying, but now she recalled fragments of the dream in which she had been searching for her baby. It must be seeing Dimitri again and being reminded of their past relationship that had brought back memories of the miscarriage, she thought unhappily.

She looked into Dimitri’s eyes and felt a little pang inside
when she glimpsed a gentle expression in his olive-green eyes that she had never seen before. For a moment she debated telling him about the miscarriage. But she had never spoken about it to anyone, and it hurt—even after all this time it still hurt so much to know that she had lost his baby. Her greatest fear was that he would not care, that he would shrug his shoulders and say it had been for the best because he hadn’t wanted a child. She could not bear to hear him say that, when she had wanted their baby so very much.

‘I … don’t remember what I dreamed about,’ she told him huskily. ‘It was probably about a film I watched recently. Sad endings tend to make me embarrassingly emotional.’

Dimitri studied her speculatively, not wholly convinced by her explanation. ‘If you have a problem that’s bothering you I would be happy to try to help.’

‘I don’t—but you’ll have a problem if you’re late for your meeting.’

He still felt reluctant to leave her. As he walked into the sitting room to retrieve his jacket another thought suddenly struck him.

‘
Theos!
It’s the fifteenth today. I’m supposed to be holding a dinner party tonight, and my sister is bringing her new baby,’ he explained to Louise, who had wrapped the bedspread around her and followed him. He raked a hand through his hair. ‘I’ll cancel.’

‘No, you can’t do that.’ Louise bit her lip. ‘I didn’t know Ianthe had had a baby.’

She thought of Dimitri’s younger sister, whom she had met a few times when Ianthe had visited her father on Eirenne. The visits had been awkward occasions, during which her mother had monopolised Kostas’s attention and Ianthe had clearly been upset by the break-up of her parents’ marriage. But despite that a tentative friendship had
started between Louise and the Greek girl, who was a similar age to her.

‘Her daughter is six weeks old,’ Dimitri told her. ‘Are you sure you don’t mind about dinner? You might like to see the baby—Ana’s a cute little thing.’

Louise felt a sensation as if a lead weight had dropped in her stomach. The subject of babies was always painful—especially so when her emotions were still raw after the dream. But she could not explain her fear that seeing Dimitri’s sister’s baby would open a deep wound in her heart and intensify her grief for the child she had lost.

She realised that Dimitri was waiting for her to reply. ‘I’m sure the baby is lovely. And I’d like to meet Ianthe again.’

‘Okay, that’s settled.’ He snatched up his briefcase, dropped a disappointingly brief kiss on her lips, and headed for the door.

‘Will the dinner party be a formal affair?’ Louise ran a mental check-list of the clothes she had brought with her to Athens and concluded that she had nothing suitable to wear. ‘I didn’t pack anything that could remotely be called evening wear. It’s a pity, because I have several dresses at home that would have been ideal.’

Dimitri paused on his way out of the door. ‘Like the dress you wore to dinner in Paris?’

His jaw hardened as he recalled the black Benoit Besson dress, and the elegant suit by the same designer that Louise had worn the previous day. He still hadn’t discovered who had paid for her clothes. He told himself it did not matter. He did not want to believe that she was a gold-digger like her mother. But his curiosity about the mysterious benefactor who bought her haute couture continued to bug him.

Louise frowned, wondering if she had imagined the sudden curtness in his voice. He was probably thinking about
his business meeting and did not want to be delayed by a discussion about clothes, she told herself.

‘The suit I wore yesterday will be okay, won’t it?’ She’d suddenly remembered it was hanging in the wardrobe.

‘It’ll be fine.’

Dimitri strode out of the room without glancing at her again, leaving Louise to wonder what on earth she was going to do all day when she did not have her job to occupy her.

A
FTER
breakfast, which Joseph the butler served on the terrace, Louise spent some time exploring Dimitri’s well-stocked library, and was pleased to find the latest thriller from an author she enjoyed. But although the plot was intriguing her day passed slowly. She was not used to having spare time. Her job at the Louvre was absorbing, and for the past few months she had gone straight from work to the hospital, to visit her mother.

Later that afternoon she phoned the hospital in Massachusetts and was reassured to hear that Tina had arrived and was comfortable. The specialist hoped to start the treatment the following day, and seemed optimistic about her mother’s prognosis. Louise knew that Tina’s chance of making a full recovery was not a certainty, but at least now she had a chance.

Even though she resented the condition Dimitri had imposed, she was grateful to him for agreeing to buy Eirenne. It was highly unlikely that she would have found another buyer who could have raised one million pounds so quickly. Being his mistress for two weeks was a price she was willing to pay for her mother’s life, and as long as she remembered that he only wanted her body there was no danger that he would be a threat to her heart.

‘Kyria Frobisher?’ Joseph walked across the terrace to
where Louise was sitting in the shade of a parasol. ‘Kyrie Kalakos has left a message to say that if you wish to swim in the pool there is a selection of swimwear in the summerhouse,’ he said in Greek.

‘Efkharistó.’
She smiled at the elderly butler. The late afternoon sun was scorching and the idea of a swim to cool off was tempting.

Following the path that Joseph showed her, Louise discovered a huge pool surrounded by white marble tiles that gleamed in the bright sunlight. The air temperature felt even hotter here, and the tall pine trees that circled the pool area prevented the breeze from rippling the surface of the turquoise water.

The summerhouse was unlocked, and after a few minutes of searching she found a storage box containing several bikinis. Who had they belonged to? she wondered. She hated the idea that Dimitri had invited other women to his house. From the skimpy cut of some of the swimwear she guessed that his girlfriends were happy to show off much more of their bodies than she was.

She chose a plain black bikini which was more substantial than a couple of triangles held together with string, and once she had changed went back outside to dive into the pool. The feel of the cool water on her heated skin was bliss, and she swam for a while and then climbed out and lay on a sunbed, telling herself that she would only close her eyes for a minute …

‘I hope you used sunscreen.’

Dimitri’s voice dragged her from sleep and she lifted her eyelids to see him striding towards her. Her heart gave a familiar lurch when he sat down on the edge of the sunbed. He had changed out of his business suit into black shorts and a sleeveless tee shirt and looked unbelievably
gorgeous. Louise knew there was a gym and squash court in the basement of the house, and guessed from his toned physique that he worked out regularly.

‘You didn’t, did you? You idiot—don’t you realise how quickly your fair skin will burn in this heat?’

Gorgeous, but as bossy as hell, she thought ruefully.

‘I’m not a child,’ she reminded him. ‘I’ve only been lying here for a minute.’

‘Sometimes you act like one.’ Dimitri skimmed his eyes over her slim body and thought how unbelievably sexy she looked in the halterneck bikini.

His frown faded and was replaced by a wicked glint that set Louise’s pulse racing.

‘But you certainly don’t look like a child,
glikia
. You are a beautiful, sensual woman,’ he murmured against her lips, before he slid his tongue between them and explored the moist interior of her mouth.

She responded to him with an eagerness that made him instantly harden.
His
woman—Dimitri frowned again as he felt a surge of possessiveness that was unexpected and unwanted. She
had
been on his mind all day, he admitted. Even during the meeting with the Russians he’d had to force himself to concentrate, and when he had taken his team of executives for a celebratory lunch he’d been impatient to race home and take Louise to bed.

He trailed his lips over her shoulder. ‘You’ve caught the sun. I love your freckles.’

‘No, really? Do I have freckles?’

Her horrified expression made him smile.

‘Uh-huh. There’s one here.’ He kissed her cheek. ‘And here.’ He kissed the tip of her nose. ‘And here …’ He trailed his mouth lower.

‘I don’t believe you,’ Louise said breathlessly, when Dimitri finally lifted his lips from hers after a sensual kiss
that left her aching for more. ‘I haven’t got freckles on my mouth.’

He laughed. Their eyes met—and time seemed to stand still. She remembered how they had been on Eirenne, the way he had teased her and made her laugh, the way he had kissed her until they were both shaking with need and he had carried her into the house in the pine forest and made love to her.

Desire unfurled inside her—a molten heat low in her pelvis. Memories of how they had almost had sex that morning flooded her mind and she leaned back on the lounger.

‘You’re back earlier than I expected,’ she murmured. ‘How was your meeting?’

‘Successful—we finalised the deal.’ Dimitri stroked his hand over her thigh and halted at the edge of her bikini pants. The tightening sensation in his groin was almost painful. Sexual awareness fizzed in the air. It was hot out here in the garden, and the temperature between them was rapidly rising to combustion point. The way she was looking at him made his heart slam against his ribs. There was plenty of time to make love to her before tonight’s dinner party, he convinced himself.

He suddenly remembered that he had interrupted his journey home from the office to visit an exclusive boutique.

‘I bought you this,’ he said, handing her the box he had carried down to the pool. ‘It’s for you to wear tonight,’ he explained as she sat upright and stared warily at the box, as if she feared it might contain a bomb.

Louise read the name of a famous Italian fashion house emblazoned in gold lettering on the lid. A sense of foreboding gripped her and despite the heat of the sun she shivered. ‘I don’t think …’ she began.

‘You won’t know if you like what’s inside unless you open it.’

Without another word she lifted off the lid, parted the tissue paper and took out a sapphire-blue silk cocktail dress.

The silence quivered with tension. If he was honest, Dimitri was disappointed by her unenthusiastic response. ‘Do you like it?’

‘It’s exquisite.’ Louise recognised that the dress was a masterpiece of brilliant design, and she had a fair idea of its price. ‘It must have cost a fortune.’ She carefully folded the dress and placed it back among the tissue paper, replaced the lid and held out the box to him. ‘I can’t afford a dress like this.’

‘I don’t expect you to pay for it.’ His eyes narrowed when he realised she was serious about returning it to him. ‘The dress is a present.’

‘No, thank you.’ Her refusal was instant and instinctive.

Memories from her childhood surfaced in Louise’s mind. She pictured her mother, gleefully opening a box that had been delivered to a penthouse apartment in Rome owned by an Italian count. Alfredo Moretti had been short and balding, but he had also been immensely rich and Tina had become his mistress.

‘Oh, my gosh! Black mink,’ Tina had murmured reverently as she had lifted the fur coat from the box. ‘Do you have any idea how much this must have cost?’

‘It’s not your birthday, so why did Alfredo buy it for you?’ the ten-year-old Louise had asked.

Her mother had shrugged and continued to admire the coat in the mirror. ‘I keep Fredo happy,’ she’d said airily, ‘and in return he gives me presents.’

Feeling slightly sick, Louise pushed the memory away. Dimitri looked surprised and annoyed by her violent rejection of his gift, but she could not help it.

‘You don’t have to buy me presents—and certainly not
expensive designer clothes. I’m sorry, but I can’t accept the dress.’

He glanced at the box she was holding out to him but did not take it.

‘But you accept expensive clothes from someone else,’ he said, in a soft voice that for some reason made her shiver. ‘You told me the Benoit Besson outfits I’ve seen you wearing were given to you as presents—I assume by a rich lover. Why won’t you accept a gift from me?’

‘That was different. Benoit gave me the dresses.’

‘You mean you are
Besson’s
mistress?’

Louise could not define the expression in Dimitri’s eyes; it was somewhere between speculative and contemptuous. Her temper flared.

‘Benoit is a friend,’ she said tersely. ‘I’ve known him for most of my life. When he was a fashion student I was his muse, and he designed all sorts of weird and wonderful creations. Then he became a successful designer, and sometimes he still likes to try out his ideas on me rather than at his studio. The clothes he gives me are those that he’s made specifically for me—prototypes, if you like, for designs that are later modelled on the catwalk.’

‘I see.’ Dimitri relaxed a little, finally able to dismiss the ugly suspicions about her that had persisted in the back of his mind. But his satisfaction did not last long.

‘
What
do you see?’ Louise said sharply. She could see all too clearly what he had been thinking, and anger and hurt surged up inside her as the horrible truth dawned. ‘You thought I had been given those dresses by wealthy men, didn’t you? You thought—’ She broke off, so furious that she could barely speak. ‘You thought I was like my mother—that I was prepared to be some rich guy’s mistress in return for material possessions. Is that why you thought I slept with you in Paris?’ Her voice rose and she jumped
up from the sunbed. ‘Did you think that because you had paid for an expensive dinner you had
bought
me?’

Dimitri shrugged. ‘You slept with me because you hoped to persuade me to buy Eirenne.’

Louise paled. His words hung in the air between them and she could not look at him.

‘You wanted a million pounds as quickly as you could lay your hands on it. Isn’t that right?’ he continued remorselessly. ‘But you’ve never explained why you need the money.’

‘I don’t owe you an explanation.’ She stared at his hard face. The warmth she had seen in his eyes when he had teased her about her freckles had disappeared and she sensed that a chasm had opened up between them. ‘I am
not
like Tina,’ she said fiercely. ‘She is my mother, and I love her, but I hate how she lived her life.’

She did not understand why she cared so much about Dimitri’s opinion of her, but she desperately wanted to convince him that she was not like his father’s mistress, whom he had so despised.

‘The money is not for me. It’s to help … someone I care about.’ When he made no response she continued huskily, ‘It was not the reason I slept with you in Paris. I did that because … because I—’ She broke off and stared at him miserably, knowing she would be a fool to reveal the truth—that she had yearned to recreate the special night they had shared on Eirenne seven years before.

‘Because what?’ Dimitri demanded. He got up from the sunbed and walked towards her, his jaw hardening when she backed away from him.

‘If it wasn’t to persuade me to buy the island, why
did
you make love with me? Was it because you couldn’t help yourself? Because you wanted me so badly that you couldn’t resist me or deny your desire for me?’

Louise wished she could sink through the floor. She was utterly mortified that he had been aware of his effect on her. ‘You arrogant bastard,’ she choked. ‘What do you want from me—blood or just my total humiliation?’

‘I don’t want either.’ He gripped her shoulders to prevent her from fleeing from him. ‘I’m telling you how it was for
me
. I was listing the reasons why I made love to you,
glikia mou
.’

She was too hurt to believe him. ‘Don’t call me that. You thought I was like my mother—and you once referred to her as a whore.’

Dimitri felt as if his heart was being squeezed in a vice when he glimpsed tears in her eyes.

‘I was jealous,’ he said harshly. ‘When you told me your clothes had been gifts it seemed reasonable to assume they were from a man—and I was jealous. I
hate
the thought of you having other lovers—even though I know you must have done so in the seven years since you were mine.’

‘You were
jealous
?’ Louise gave a bitter laugh. ‘What gives you the right, when you have a reputation as a playboy and your numerous affairs are plastered over the tabloids?’ Her temper fizzed. ‘Your attitude is
so
chauvinistic.’

‘I’m not proud of the way I feel,’ he admitted grimly. ‘It has never happened to me before—this feeling that I’d like to kill any guy who comes near you.’

He was serious, Louise realised with a jolt. Dimitri looked as stunned as she felt by his admission. Her anger drained away and she shrugged wearily.

‘I was never yours seven years ago. We spent a couple of nice days on Eirenne and slept together one night. We both know you only made love to me to get at my mother.’

Dimitri looked genuinely taken aback. ‘Where did you get that crazy idea from?’

She ignored him as seven years of pent-up hurt burst from her like a torrent from a dam.

‘I didn’t stand a chance, did I?’ she said bitterly. ‘I admit I was painfully naïve for a nineteen-year-old—but, Goddammit, you took advantage of my innocence. You took my virginity without a second thought.’

Dimitri tensed at her accusation. Shock and another emotion he did not want to define but which felt disturbingly like possessiveness surged through him. He speared her with an intent look.

‘You’re saying I was your first lover? You told me at the time that you’d had other boyfriends.’

Louise flushed guiltily, knowing that she had not been entirely truthful with him. ‘I’d been on a couple of dates with guys I met at university. But I’d never had a … a sexual relationship. I spent most of my teenage years at an all-girls boarding school and I hardly had an opportunity.’ She sighed. ‘Tina might not have been the most maternal mother, but she was very protective of me—especially with regard to boyfriends. I must have made it so easy for you.’