The Greek's Acquisition (7 page)

Dimitri muttered something against her lips, and then he was kissing her hungrily, fiercely, desperately.

Louise cupped his face in her hands. The stubble on his jaw felt abrasive against her palms. He pushed his tongue into her mouth and slid one hand to her nape to hold her tightly to him. His other hand cupped her bottom and jerked her hard against his thighs, so that she could feel the solid ridge of his arousal jabbing her stomach.

The evidence of his desire escalated her excitement to fever-pitch. There were too many barriers between them: her dress, his shirt. She tugged at the buttons and moaned softly as she pushed the material aside and skimmed her hands over his bare chest—an olive-gold satin covered with whirls of black hair.

‘Patience,
pedhaki
,’ he murmured. ‘We’re going to do this properly, on a bed.’

He fought the temptation to strip her and position her over one arm of the sofa and lifted her into his arms to carry her into the bedroom. He set her down at the foot of the bed and turned her round so that he could undo the zip that ran the length of her spine. His hands shook and he cursed as the material caught.
Theos
, he was acting like an inexperienced boy. He dragged air into his lungs and worked the zip down to reveal the semi-transparent French knickers that covered her
derrière
. The dress slithered to the floor and he hooked his fingers in the top of her panties and pulled them down to her knees. The sight of her rounded bottom,
as smooth and velvety as a ripe peach, caused his arousal to strain painfully against the restriction of his trousers. The knickers slipped to her ankles and she gave a faintly embarrassed laugh as she stepped out of them and kicked them and the black silk dress away.

Dimitri had never seen anything so erotic as Louise wearing only black hold-up stockings and stilettos. He turned her to face him and cupped her breasts in his hands, heat surging through him as he watched her pupils dilate when he rubbed his thumb-pads over her nipples.

Honey-blond curls framed her flushed face, and her eyes were the intense blue of sapphires. She was so beautiful he could just stand there looking at her. The throb of his arousal reminded him that looking wasn’t enough. He wanted her to touch him, wanted to feel her cool hands caress his hot flesh.

‘Undress me,’ he demanded raggedly.

He sensed her faint hesitation as she reached for his belt buckle, and once she had unfastened it she hesitated again before sliding the zip of his trousers down. It suddenly hit him that she was shy, and he felt a tugging sensation in his gut when she blushed. His instincts told him that it was a while since she’d had sex. But that didn’t make sense. Maybe he had been wrong about her and there was no rich lover in her life? He frowned, remembering that she had admitted her dress had been a gift. Surely only a lover would buy her sexy designer wear?

But at that moment Dimitri didn’t give a damn about the dress or anything else. All he could think was that he had never been so turned on in his life and that the chances of him making love to her with any degree of finesse were distinctly unlikely.

He remembered how he had told her he wanted to kiss her everywhere, and he kept his promise—starting with her
mouth. With practised efficiency he slipped off his shoes, socks and trousers, and then drew her into his arms and claimed her lips. His excitement intensified when she responded instantly. She was an intriguing mix of diffidence and boldness, and when she tentatively pushed her tongue into his mouth he groaned and crushed her against him, the last vestiges of his restraint decimated by his savage need to possess her.

It was an amazing bed, Louise thought as Dimitri lifted her and laid her on the mattress. She looked up at the silvery-grey silk canopy above her head. The satin bedspread she was lying on felt decadently sensual against her skin, but the touch of Dimitri’s naked body aroused her even more. She hadn’t been aware of him stripping off his underwear, and as he knelt over her she could not help but stare at his massive erection.

She felt a faint flicker of trepidation when she imagined taking him inside her. She had done so once before, she reminded herself, albeit seven years ago. Giving her virginity to him had been a beautiful experience, and the quivering sensation in the pit of her stomach was a sign that her body was impatient for him to make love to her with unrestrained passion.

But first it seemed that he wanted to play—to tease and tantalise her. He slipped off her shoes and then peeled her stockings down her legs before he started to kiss her. Within minutes of him trailing his mouth over every dip and curve of her body she was breathing hard and trembling with anticipation.

‘Please …’ she whispered when he finally lifted his mouth from hers after a kiss that had plundered her soul. She was on fire, and molten heat flooded between her thighs in readiness for his possession.

‘I intend to please you,
glikia
.’

The quiet intent in his voice escalated her excitement, and she caught her breath when he cradled her breasts in his big palms and bent his head to kiss one nipple and then the other, curling his tongue around each tight bud and lapping her, licking her, until the pleasure was almost too much to bear. She arched her hips in instinctive invitation. He accepted as he moved down her body and pushed her legs open so that he could bestow the most intimate kiss of all.

She bucked and shook, and he laughed softly and held her firmly while he dipped his tongue into her honeyed sweetness. He brought her to the edge, held her there, but when she pleaded for him never to stop he positioned himself over her, supporting his weight on his elbows.

‘Touch me,’ he bade her harshly, and groaned when she obeyed and circled him with her slender hands.

He loved the way she blushed—her pink cheeks and soft smile reminded him of the girl who had given herself to him so shyly and yet with gut-wrenching eagerness on Eirenne. Common sense told him that his instincts had to be wrong, and she must have had other lovers apart from him. But not many, he guessed, and perhaps not for a while. She was still a little hesitant, and seemed content for him to take the lead. That suited him fine, Dimitri thought, because he was too fired up to wait any longer.

There were condoms in the bedside drawer—thankfully he always carried them with him. Not that he had expected he would need them when he had come to Paris. He hadn’t planned to take Louise to bed, but deep down he
had
hoped, he admitted to himself. There was something between them that defied explanation—a sense that she belonged to him, which was curious because he’d never felt possessive about other women he’d slept with.

The moment had come. Louise knew from the darkness of Dimitri’s eyes that the time for foreplay was over. But she
felt no fear or doubt, only a fierce joy as she stared at his face and saw the younger man she had known on Eirenne as well as the man he was now. They were one and the same—the Dimitri she had been falling in love with many years ago and the Dimitri who, if she was not on her guard, could easily threaten her heart now.

He kissed her lips softly, sweetly, so that tears filled her eyes. His hands were gentle as he spread her legs wider and slowly lowered himself onto her. She felt the tip of his penis push against her, and as he eased into her with exquisite care his eyes locked with hers and she felt that their souls as well as their bodies were joined.

‘Are you all right? Is it hurting?’ She was so hot and tight it was all he could do not to explode instantly, Dimitri acknowledged, gritting his teeth as he fought for control.

‘No, it’s fine … it’s good.’
It’s unbelievably wonderful
, Louise added silently. ‘Really,’ she assured him, and kissed away the slight frown between his brows. She lifted her hips. ‘I want you to …’

Her words died away as he slid deeper, filling her, completing her. He seemed to know exactly what she wanted, and he withdrew and slid deep again, each thrust more intense than the last, driving her relentlessly on a heart-stopping journey towards a place that she sensed was there but remained frustratingly out of her reach.

‘Dimitri …’ She gripped his shoulders and felt the sheen of sweat on his skin. She arched up to meet the rhythmic strokes of his body and gasped as he held her hips and drove into her harder, faster, until the world spun out of control.

He claimed her mouth and her heart leapt when she sensed tenderness as well as passion in his kiss.

‘Relax and let it happen,’ he murmured.

And then it did happen, and the beauty of it took her breath away. He thrust powerfully, the deepest yet, and the
hot, throbbing ache in her pelvis suddenly imploded, sending wave after tumultuous wave of pleasure through her. She sank into the exquisite ecstasy of her orgasm, drowned in its tidal force, and sobbed his name as the waves continued to pound her.

Her internal muscles convulsed around him, squeezed and released him in frantic spasms that blew Dimitri’s mind. He paused, every sinew straining as he sought to prolong the journey and delay the pleasure he knew was ahead for just a few seconds longer. The anticipation of it clawed in his gut. He took a shuddering breath, and as he stared down at Louise’s rose-flushed face he thought how lovely she was. No other woman had ever made him feel this way—as if he was a king and could conquer the world. He couldn’t hold on, and he made a harsh, primitive sound in his throat at the moment of release before he sank into the haven of her arms and she cradled his head on her breasts.

L
OUISE
opened her eyes and stared at the grey silk drapes around the bed. She was instantly awake as memories of the previous night flooded her mind. She had never slept in a four-poster before, or in a bed of this size. Two people could sleep in a bed this big and never touch each other. But that hadn’t happened with her and Dimitri.

They had touched and kissed and caressed each other and made love twice during the night—three times, actually. But the last time had been just before dawn, when the sky outside had lightened from indigo to purple but the stars had yet to go out.

Now the cool grey light of early morning was filtering through the half-open curtains, and the new day brought with it big doubts about whether it had been wise to spend the night with a man who was to all intents and purposes a stranger. She had thought she had known him seven years ago, but their brief relationship had been based on lies. The reality was that she did not know Dimitri Kalakos at all.

The feverish excitement that had overwhelmed her last night had faded and common sense had returned. Sleeping with him had not been wise at all, said a voice in her head. It had complicated everything.

She turned her head to study him. He was lying on his front, his head pillowed on his arms and his face turned
towards her. His thick, dark eyelashes were fanned against his cheeks and Louise’s gaze lingered on the sensual curve of his mouth. She felt a little tug of emotion as she watched him sleeping. He looked relaxed. The fine lines around his eyes had smoothed out and he looked more like the younger Dimitri she had met on Eirenne.

He must have been a beautiful child. Her heart ached as she wondered whether their child would have resembled him. If she had had a son, he would be six years old now. She pictured a wiry, olive-skinned little boy, with a mass of dark hair and olive-green eyes, a cheeky grin and a streak of daring that would inevitably get him into trouble from time to time.

Sadness hit her like a blow to her chest. It did not matter how many times she told herself it was stupid to grieve for a child who had never been born. The loss of her baby still hurt after all this time, and being with Dimitri again made the memories so much more intense.

She wondered what he would have been like as a father.
If he had stuck around
, pointed out the voice in her head. There was no guarantee he would have supported her. If her pregnancy had continued she would have contacted him and told him she was expecting his baby, but perhaps he would have rejected his child as her father had rejected her.

The box of condoms on the bedside table was a mocking reminder of their night of physical pleasure. She could only be thankful he had remembered to use protection. She felt ashamed that in the heat of the moment contraception hadn’t crossed her mind. How awful was that? she berated herself. Hadn’t one unplanned pregnancy been enough? It was true that even if she
had
had unprotected sex her chances of conceiving were slim after the problems she’d suffered with her first pregnancy. But there was no escaping the fact that last night she had behaved utterly irresponsibly.

She stared up at the canopy above the bed and chewed on her bottom lip. Dimitri had told her he was returning to Greece later today. He was a notorious playboy and in all likelihood regarded last night as a one-night stand. What was the protocol when you woke up in bed with a man you’d had casual sex with? she wondered. Would he offer her breakfast and ring Room Service? Or would he be impatient for her to leave and arrange a taxi to take her home?

She couldn’t do it, she thought bleakly. She could not go through with the charade of acting as though spending the night in a guy’s hotel bedroom was something she did regularly. It was not that she was ashamed of sleeping with him; she was a free and single female living in the twenty-first century and she would not judge any woman for enjoying sex without strings. It was just that it wasn’t
her
. She had certain rules she lived by, and last night she had broken all of them.

Another thought struck her. Had she managed to
persuade
him to buy Eirenne? She paled. What had she been thinking last night? The truth was she had not been thinking at all, but had been swept away by passion tinged with evocative memories of their relationship years ago. Now, in the cold light of day, she could not bear for him to believe that she had followed in her mother’s footsteps and become the type of woman who was prepared to sell herself for financial gain—even if it was not for her own gain.

It suddenly became imperative that she left before Dimitri woke up. She couldn’t face him when her emotions were all over the place. Taking care not to disturb him, she slid out of bed and winced when she discovered muscles she had not known existed. The ache inside her was worse. She felt empty and a little bit sick as she gathered up her clothes from the floor and crept into the bathroom.

The clock on the bedside table flashed 9:13 a.m. As Dimitri stared at the red digits they changed to 9:14.
Theos!
He sat up and raked a hand through his hair. He had never stayed in bed until a quarter past nine in his life—or not to sleep, anyway. On rare occasions he invited a mistress to stay the night with him—the single benefit being that he could have sex the following morning. Last night had been one of those occasions, but it had backfired, because from the empty space in the bed beside him and the strangely muted silence of the hotel suite it appeared that Louise had already left.

Frowning, he flicked back the sheets and padded into the bathroom. The absence of the dress, shoes and underwear that last night had been strewn across the floor confirmed her disappearance. Maybe she’d gone to work, he mused as he stepped into the shower. He felt irritated that she had not woken him before she left. He was uncomfortable with the idea that she might have watched him sleeping, and that was crazy because he had never felt vulnerable in his life.

His bad mood was due to frustration that he hadn’t stirred first and kissed her awake, he decided. He’d bet she looked gorgeous first thing: sleepily sexy, with her hair all mussed and her mouth all soft and moist and eager. He would have liked to trail his lips down to her breasts and tease her dusky pink nipples until she made that little whimpering moan she had made last night. Hell, he would have liked to roll her beneath him and ease his swollen shaft into her, taking them both on an early-morning ride and watching her come apart in his arms.

He felt himself harden and turned the shower’s temperature setting to cold to cool his desire. There would be other mornings—and definitely other nights. He was not a fan of long-distance affairs, but the flight time between Athens and Paris was only three hours and it would be easy enough to meet up with Louise at weekends.

In many ways the fact that they did not live in the same city was good, he thought as he reached for a towel. There was less danger that their affair would slip into complacency and become boring. He could smell the lingering scent of her perfume when he walked back into the bedroom, and he kept picturing her lying naked on the satin sheets as he lowered himself onto her. The thought struck him as he donned chinos and a black polo shirt that he was disappointed that she had gone without saying goodbye or arranging when they would next meet.

Dimitri frowned again. The way she had sneaked out like that—it was as if she did not care if she ever saw him again. Maybe she didn’t. He was conscious of a peculiar sinking feeling in his stomach, and felt irritated with himself. Hell, how many times had he spent the night with a woman and in the morning made vague assurances about calling her that he had no intention of keeping? The fact that Louise hadn’t acted like a clinging vine should be cause for celebration, not regret.

He slipped on his jacket and checked his cell phone. There were no messages, but he had her number. He would give her a call later. Sure, he wanted to see her again, but he didn’t want to appear too keen.

The humiliation of scurrying out of a five-star hotel at dawn, wearing a dress that she had clearly worn the previous evening, was something Louise doubted she would forget in a hurry. The doorman’s face had been inscrutable, but she had been painfully aware that her wild hair, old make-up and bare legs—she hadn’t wasted time pulling on her stockings—had all indicated that she had spent the night in bed with a lover, and the dark circles beneath her eyes were proof that she’d had very little sleep.

Madeleine stared at her reproachfully when she let her-
self into the apartment, and showed her disapproval by remaining regally on her cushion on the windowsill.

‘I know, I know.’ Louise groaned. ‘I must have taken leave of my senses. But it won’t happen again.’

Dimitri would be back in Athens in a few hours. If—as she hoped and prayed—he agreed to buy Eirenne, the sale would be dealt with by their respective lawyers and there was no reason why they should ever meet again.

She headed straight for the shower and stood beneath the spray for ages, as if she could wash the touch of his hands from her skin. Images kept pushing into her mind of the way he had made love to her—with the consummate skill of a renowned playboy but also with an unexpected gentleness. It made her heart ache when she recalled the soft endearments he had whispered in Greek as she had lain spent and utterly sated in his arms …

A message on her answer-machine drove Dimitri and every other thought from her head. The consultant in charge of her mother’s care was voicing his concerns that Tina’s condition had worsened, and he suggested that Louise should meet with him as soon as possible.

The hospital was in a suburb of Paris. She found her mother dozing when she slipped into her private room, and as she sat by the bed she noted with a pang of dread that Tina had lost more weight and her skin was ashen. The scarf tied around her head hid the fact that she had lost her hair after chemotherapy. Tears stung Louise’s eyes as she remembered Tina’s blond beehive hairstyle. How cruel was this disease that had robbed her mother of her looks and seemed intent on stealing her life.

‘Loulou?’ Tina’s eyes fluttered open.

‘I’m here.’ She wished she could call her mother ‘Mum’, but Tina had always insisted that Louise should use her Christian name.

‘It makes me seem old to have a teenager address me as Mum,’ Tina had complained.

For years she had lied about her age and told her lovers that she was twenty-eight.

Louise sighed and curled her fingers around Tina’s bony hand. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t visit yesterday. I worked until late, and then I …’ She faltered when she thought of what she had done after work. ‘I went out to dinner.’

A gleam of curiosity flickered in her mother’s eyes. ‘With a boyfriend?’ She studied Louise. ‘I’m glad you’ve started to make more effort with your appearance. The suit you’re wearing is gorgeous. You’ve got a great figure and it’s about time you started to show it off. That’s the only way to attract a man.’

Louise gave a wry smile, but did not explain that she was wearing one of Benoit’s designs because she knew her mother liked her to dress well. ‘I’m not trying to attract a man,’ she murmured. ‘I’m too involved with my job. Did I tell you I’ve applied for a position as an assistant curator in the Department of Paintings at the Louvre?’

Tina had closed her eyes, but after a moment she opened them again. ‘I’m pleased you’ve got a good career. I always hoped you would. Not like me—I never trained in anything.’

Talking seemed to tire her and she fell silent for a few minutes. Louise was just about to tiptoe from the room when Tina spoke again.

‘Kostas was in love with me, and I cared about him. He was the only one. All the others just wanted me for one thing. It boosted their egos to have a mistress, but they never thought about me as a person and after a while I stopped hoping they would. I used them like they used me.’

Louise swallowed the lump in her throat. She had never realised before that her mother had been looking for love
with all those different men. In the end she had found it with Kostas Kalakos, but their relationship had hurt so many other people—especially Kostas’s wife and family. She understood why Dimitri despised Tina, she thought bleakly.

‘The tumour is growing quicker than we had expected,’ explained Alain Duval, the cancer specialist who was caring for Tina, after he’d invited Louise into his office. ‘I can’t guarantee that the pioneering treatment offered at our associate hospital in Massachusetts would be successful, but it
is
your mother’s only chance. Soon the opportunity for that chance will be lost,’ he added quietly.

‘How long does she have before time runs out for her to have the treatment?’ Louise asked tensely.

‘A few weeks at most. Ideally she needs to start the newly developed form of radiation therapy immediately. I appreciate that medical costs in the United States are high, and that your mother does not have health insurance that would cover the costs. But if there is any way at all that you could raise the money I suggest you do so without delay.’

If
only
Dimitri would agree to buy Eirenne. She could not give him any more time to make up his mind, Louise thought frantically. She prayed he had not left Paris. As soon as she had finished at the hospital she would go back to his hotel and plead with him to give her an answer.

Her mind whirled. If he refused to buy the island she would instruct the estate agent to advertise for a buyer. In the meantime she would try to arrange a temporary loan. But she had already asked the bank once and her request had been refused. Panic churned in her stomach.

‘I’m in the process of selling some assets to cover the medical expenses,’ she explained to the consultant. ‘The money should be available soon. But I want my mother to begin the treatment right away.’

‘I can make arrangements for her to be transferred
to the U.S. But I have to advise you that the hospital in Massachusetts is unlikely to start Madame Hobbs’s treatment until they have assurance that all her medical costs can be covered,’ Alain Duval explained gently. ‘You will also need to pay for your mother’s flight on an air ambulance.’ He checked his computer screen and scribbled down a figure. ‘This is the amount you’ll need to find initially.’