The Kyriakos Virgin Bride (12 page)

How could she resist him in this mood? Did it matter that he didn't love her? Zac wasn't a fortune hunter. And, despite what she'd said, he wasn't cruel or barbaric. He loved his family. He was a good man, a man of principle, the kind of man she'd dreamed of marrying.

Could this simmering sexual connection between them be enough, as Zac had suggested? Should she take a chance and hope that he'd learn to love her?

“We'll take it slowly, one day at a time,” Zac was saying. “And if you stay, let's get to know each other a little more. I don't expect you to share my bed right away.” But his gaze had dimmed a little as he'd added the final words.

“You'd do that?”

“This is important to me. Give it two weeks here on Kiranos. At the end of that time, we talk again. Nothing is lost. If you still want to go, you can walk away and go back to your life in New Zealand. I'm offering you your freedom.”

“You'd let me go?” Her heart sank. For some ridiculous reason, that wasn't what she'd wanted to hear; she wanted him to fight for her, convince her.

“I won't keep you against your will. I brought you here to talk, to ask if you would consider staying for a while so that we could get to know each other a little better. Unfortunately—”

“Unfortunately I told you I wasn't a virgin.”

“That confession made things a little…difficult,” Zac admitted, his eyes hooded from her gaze. “I needed time to come to terms with your revelations.”

When his gaze met hers again, she thought she glimpsed something in the depths of his eyes, something vulnerable, uncertain. Then she dismissed it. Zac uncertain? Never!

“And what,” she asked, “if after two weeks I decide I want to…to leave?”

“We go our separate ways for a year or so and then file for a quiet, low-profile divorce. I'll do my best to protect you from the media backlash that will follow. Being in New Zealand will help—it's a world away.”

It sounded so simple. She could do that. Spend two weeks on Kiranos relaxing, enjoying Zac's company.

“You'll have no pressure of any kind. No lovemaking. Just the sun and the sea and spending some time getting to know each other all over again.” Zac echoed her thoughts. “To see if it can work.”

Except he omitted the one thing that she found herself thinking about most. His impact on her…

His touch.

His kisses.

And, above all, his lovemaking.

Disappointment curled inside Pandora. Their wedding night had been so exciting, a storm of passion. Nothing had prepared her for the wonder. The experience with Steve had not come close. Then, she'd been tipsy, filled with guilty excitement, and it had been over before it had started, leaving her feeling more than a little cheated. With Zac it had been different…

But Zac was right. A lot had passed between them. This was a chance to start over. To see what they had. All she had to do was sit it out on an island paradise and then she could walk away—if she chose to—without involving her father.

It wasn't even as if she was at any risk. Zac had made it clear he expected nothing from her—not even sex. Nothing except to give their marriage a chance.

“Okay,” she said. “Now can I have my cell phone back?”

“Okay? Just like that?” He gave her a long look. “And why do you want your cell phone?”

She shrugged. “There's no reception, so it won't be much use to me. But think of it as a gesture of good faith.”

“Agreed.” A strange smile played around his mouth. He reached into his shorts pocket and drew out her small, shiny silver cell phone and held it out to her. “And now you can give me something.”

Pandora hesitated, the glint in his eyes warning her. Then she took the phone. “What do you want?”

“A kiss.” His smile widened. “Think of it as a gesture of good faith.”

“A
kiss?”

Zac didn't answer. But the teasing glint in his eyes challenged Pandora. He expected her to refuse. He was laughing at her, darn him.

Recklessly, she blew out the nearest candles, leaving only one fat white candle burning on the sideboard, then she rose and leaned over the table toward him. “All right.”

Placing her hands on his shoulders, Pandora pressed her lips against his…and waited. He stayed motionless. Yet her own response flared wild and primal in her belly, and her breath came more quickly. The velvety darkness surrounding them intensified the sensual mood of the candlelight. Beneath her palms, his Polo shirt had become a barrier that prevented her from caressing his sleek skin. She moved her hands in urgent little circles against the fabric.

Under her mouth, his lips moved. A sigh. His? Or hers? She didn't know…and didn't care.

His body heat rose through his shirt, warming her hands, and his scent was intoxicating.

Pandora's breathing became ragged. Parting her lips, her tongue stroked across the seal of his lips in a bold caress.

Zac's body tensed, coiling into a tight, expectant mass of bone and muscle and man.

She repeated the soft stroke.

He groaned and his mouth gave under hers. The only sound in the room was their ragged breathing. Her fingers tightened on his shoulders.

At last Zac pulled away. “You are so beautiful.” The hand that stroked her hair away from her face shook. “You are kind to Maria—yes, she told me you gave her a silk scarf you valued. You think of your father worrying about you. Your heart is pure.”

She thought of the lie she'd told him and her hands slipped from his shoulders. She forced a smile. “You're embarrassing me. I'm far from perfect. And I did consider asking my father for help. But I decided against it.” And she squirmed inside.

“Pandora.” Holding her a little distance away from him, he said, “Zeus, this is hard for me, but I'm not going to break my promise to give you time. I'm not going to make love to you.”

His eyes were clear of everything except an intensity that drew her in, making her aware that he was male and she was his mate…and nothing else mattered.

“I'm not going to rush you into something that might be a mistake. I want you to be very, very sure. Understand one thing—I want this marriage to work, okay?”

Slowly she nodded.

 

The next week passed in a daze of sun and sea and sleep. As part of their two-week truce, they'd fallen into meeting before breakfast for a run along the footpath that wound past the pebbled beach in front of the villa and then curved away from the beach, between the olive trees up to the headland, before descending to a sandy cove on the other side. The sand in the secret cove was soft and silky, so different from the pebbled beach. Zac would strip off his singlet and charge into the water, and Pandora would drop her towel and follow at a more sedate pace.

Since kissing him at dinner, Pandora found it increasingly difficult to ignore the effect Zac's briefly clad body had on her. She seemed to have developed an inner sensitivity to his closeness. Each morning when they swam out and around the tall rock that jutted out from the sea, she was intensely aware of the smooth, easy stroke of his arms cutting through the water beside her.

Once back in the shallows, she struggled not to gawk at Zac as the droplets streamed off him, his broad muscled chest sheened by moisture and his skin golden in the sunlight. She was tempted to kiss that full, smiling and deliciously sensual mouth, but she didn't dare in case she unleashed a force that she could not control.

Instead, she would run up the beach, pull on her sneakers and grab her towel before tearing down the pathway. Zac would laugh, then she would hear the thud of his footsteps behind her. Eventually she would slow her pace to a jog through the olive grove, absorbing the clatter of the cicadas as the heat started to rise.

Back at the villa, she would veer off to her room for a cool shower, so that by the time she joined Zac for breakfast she was composed enough to face him with no sign of her craving hunger for him. After breakfast, Zac would disappear into his study, leaving Pandora to amuse herself for the rest of the day by listening to music, reading or sunbathing at the beach or watching DVDs from the huge collection Zac owned, while inside her the glow of desire smouldered unslaked.

By Friday Pandora had exhausted Zac's library of DVDs. It was after watching
Zorba
that afternoon that Pandora said rashly after dinner, while they were drinking strong Greek coffee in the glassed room, “Teach me to dance.”

Zac got the reference instantly. “You've been watching
Zorba.
”

“Yes, and that's not all. Although, I gave the soap operas a miss. Maria said she watches them.”

“That's where she's learned the little English she knows. She loves them.” Zac's eyes smiled as he spoke about the old woman. “So what else have you watched?”

“
Strictly Ballroom, Take the Lead
and
Shall We Dance?
You have an interesting selection.”

“Katy loves dance movies.” His gaze turned watchful. “Are you bored?”

“I'm not used to doing nothing,” she said honestly.

“We'll remedy that. When we get back to Athens I'll introduce you to Pano, the CEO of Kyriakos Cruises, and perhaps you can develop an active role in the South Pacific region of our tourist-cruise program.”

Pandora shot him a sideways look. He made it sound as if her agreement at the end of the two weeks was a foregone conclusion. Did Zac know how tempted she was to stay married to him? Even though he didn't love her?

But she wasn't ready to surrender quite yet. So she tracked the conversation back to dancing. “Remember at our wedding…you said you'd teach me to dance some of the more complicated dances?”

Zac pushed the coffee table back and moved to the bank of stereo equipment, and a few seconds later the sound of music filled the air.

“Come,” he said.

Pandora rose. For a moment fear rode her and she wondered if she'd gone too far too fast. Then she stepped forward to where Zac waited and lifted her arms.

“The
hassipikos
is not like a lot of other Greek dances. We start slowly. Once the music speeds up do we change over to a faster, spiralling dance. Now, stand beside me. Here.”

Pandora obeyed.

“Get ready to take a step forward. Left foot this time—not right, like most other Greek dances.” The music changed. “Now.”

Confidently, she stepped forward.

“Good,” said Zac. “Two more steps, then we're going to move sideways. Watch my feet.”

Pandora was laughing by the time they got through the next section of music, the sweeping arm movements, the complicated crossover steps.

“Let's try that again.” Zac flipped the track back to the beginning. “Ready? Now wait for it, then the steps.”

Pandora stood still, her arms stretched out and linked with his. She thought about what Zac had said during their wedding about listening to the music, about letting it take her. She heard the tempo change and started forward, the gliding, swaying steps with Zac beside her.

The music swelled, the singer's voice rose. Then she and Zac were moving sideways, their bodies perfectly in time, in tune, yet not touching. A sense of wild exhilaration filled her at the accomplishment.

“I did it! I can do it.” She threw her arms around Zac. “Thank you.” Her lips smacked his cheek. “I want to do it again.”

Zac had gone utterly still.

Pandora pulled back. Too late. Emotion raged in Zac's eyes. Self-consciously she dropped her hands from his shoulders. Zac's hands shot out, circled her wrists and yanked her close.

“You're not going anywhere.”

And then his head sank. His lips slanted across hers, hard and hungry. No longer gentle and exploratory, as on their wedding night. No longer immobile and waiting, as when she'd kissed him after dinner a week ago. Now his hips moved against her, his erection unhidden. This was the full masculine hunger unleashed. And it aroused her. Unbearably.

She gave a hot little moan into his mouth. The music was picking up, the rhythm quick, building to a climax.

It brought back the memories of their wedding night. Of the dancing. Of what had followed…his hands on her skin, her body writhing under his.

“No!” Zac tore his mouth from hers. “I gave you my word. Only another week still remains of the two weeks I promised you. Then I will demand my answer.”

“You're refusing to make love to me unless I give you the answer you want?” She glared at him in mock outrage, her body objecting as he held her away.

A hard grin slashed his face. “Yes, I have to use every advantage at my disposal to get what I want.
You.
”

 

The days passed swiftly, and by the following Tuesday Pandora was the rich, golden colour of honey. A sensual glow filled her as she smiled across at Zac. They'd just completed their run to the sandy cove she'd begun to think of as their secret place.

Four days left. On Saturday morning Zac would demand his answer. And Pandora knew what she was going to tell him.

She watched him covertly as he shrugged off his singlet and waded out into the sea. When the water lapped the edges of his shorts, he dived forward and came up ten yards farther ahead. He flicked his wet hair away from his face and called out to her, “Aren't you coming in?”

What was the point of waiting? She knew what she wanted. She wanted Zac, inside her, here, now. Pandora's heart knocked against her ribs at what she was contemplating.

Before she could chicken out, she stripped off her T-shirt. Then slowly, with hands that shook, she tugged the bows that fastened her bikini bra loose. She let the skimpy top fall to the ground. Reaching up, she pulled out the hair tie that held her hair in a sleek ponytail. Bundling the mass together, she secured it with the stretchy tie on the top of her head, her breasts lifting pertly, the nipples tight from the excitement that pulsed inside her.

Finally she shot Zac a glance where he stood motionless in the sea. Pandora's nerve almost gave out. In the bright sunlight, his face was hard, the bones standing out in sharp relief under the taut tanned skin. She looked away and headed for the water, forcing herself not to hurry, aware of the undulating sway of her hips and the movement of her unrestrained breasts.

The sun was warm on her bare breasts, and the cool water rippled against her knees…rising higher as she walked steadily deeper…pooling between her legs…cooling her belly. With relief Pandora sank into the silky water and started to breaststroke into the deeper water, still refusing to look in Zac's direction.

But she could sense his stillness. Sense the tension winding tighter in him. So she stroked a little faster, her gaze fixed, unwavering, on the tall rock in the sea ahead. She heard the splash behind her and broke into freestyle. A quick glance over her shoulder showed her the flurry of Zac's arms powering through the sea, gaining on her, and she started to swim in earnest until her heartbeat resounded in her ears.

She didn't make it to the rock. It was still ten yards ahead of her when Zac's hand closed around her ankle. He yanked. She went under and surfaced a moment later, sputtering, as he forced her to the surface.

“What are you—” She didn't finish. His mouth covered hers, wet and cool and salty.

She gasped, her feet floundering, searching for the sea bottom, out of her depth in more ways than one.

Her legs brushed against his thighs, and desire bolted through her as she felt the hardness of his arousal.

He lifted his head and she gulped in air. “What are you doing?”

Pandora smiled into his eyes. By stripping off her brief swimsuit top and brazenly swimming past him she'd broken the pact between them and raised the stakes.

The days of inane chitchat had worn her down, and the egdy awareness under the banal social chatter had been rising, twisting higher and higher. She was tired of waiting.

“I want you.” She moved against him.

He groaned. “Don't do that. We have an agreement.”

“I know what I want. I want you. I want to stay married to you.”

He stilled. “Are you sure you don't want to be free?”

“I want to be your wife.”

Then his mouth took hers again, his hands framing her face. Tangling her legs with his, Pandora let her body go heavy and was rewarded as they sank, the water closing over their heads.

Zac worked his arms to take them to the surface, but Pandora countered by wrapping her arms around his upper arms. She opened her mouth. Her tongue slid into his mouth, her lips sealing against his to stop the water rushing in.

Zac had stopped beating his arms. The hair tie had worked loose and her hair spread around their faces as they spiralled lazily down, weightless in the current. Bubbles streamed past, diffusing through the blue-green world that encapsulated them.