The Mediterranean's Wife by Contract

He was wearing a suit and a blue shirt that was open at the neck, and he looked as if he’d come straight from a business meeting. It made Carrie feel very self-conscious about her own dishevelled appearance.

‘I wasn’t expecting you!’ She tightened the belt of her blue silk robe. ‘I thought it was Jo.’

‘Are you disappointed?’ he asked teasingly.

She didn’t respond to the warmth of the enquiry. He was so damn sure of himself, she thought with a dart of anger. ‘I’m just surprised,’ she answered instead as she stepped back to allow him in. ‘When I didn’t hear from you yesterday I thought you’d probably forgotten that I leave today.’

‘No, I didn’t forget. I just got tied up with business in Athens.’

She noticed he didn’t bother to try and apologise—didn’t try to explain why he hadn’t phoned her when he had said that he would.

As he moved further into the room his glance moved to the open door and the suitcase on the bed.

‘You’re lucky to have caught me,’ she said lightly. ‘I leave in an hour.’

He turned to face her and as their eyes connected she could feel the chemistry swirling between them like a living entity…entwining around her heart, enticing her with invisible strings to step closer into his arms.

It took all of her self-control to stay where she was.

She had her pride, and he was probably only here to say goodbye. ‘So how is business going?’ she asked lightly. She wasn’t really interested; it was just something to say—something to cover the overwhelming feelings of need and confusion swirling inside her.

‘Hard to tell. It’s early days.’

She nodded. ‘Theo told me last night that you were at a delicate stage of negotiation.’

‘Did he?’ Andreas shrugged nonchalantly.

His laid-back attitude stung. She’d suspected last night that Theo was making excuses for his brother’s absence—but at least he had been trying to spare her feelings! ‘I hope the deal works out for you,’ she murmured, ‘but you know what I think about high-risk ventures.’

He looked amused. ‘Well, luckily I haven’t come to discuss my business strategies with you, Carrie.’

‘Haven’t you?’ She glared at him and raised her chin defiantly. ‘So what are you here for?’ she asked angrily.

To her surprise he reached out and took hold of her arm…pulling her closer. ‘I’ve come for this…’

Before she could move away, his head was lowering, his lips capturing hers in a fiercely possessive kiss. She tried not to respond—she was upset at his high-handed manner…still reeling inside from the way he had just ignored her for the last two days.

But, hell, he could kiss and she wanted him so badly, and before she realized what she was doing she was kissing him back hungrily.

Slowly she started to wind her arms up and around his neck.

‘That’s better.’ He murmured the words with satisfaction as his hand stroked under the silk of her gown, finding the curve of her breast. ‘This is our unfinished business…everything else doesn’t matter.’

Her eyes closed on a wave of ecstasy as his fingers stroked provocatively over her. But even as she started to give herself up to the pleasure of his caress her mind was still whirring. Everything else did matter. As much as she wanted this, she couldn’t shut out reality—he had ignored her for two days with not even the courtesy of a phone call, and her air ticket for home was sitting on the bedside table.

The reminder enabled her to pull away from him and draw the silk of her gown closer around her naked body. ‘Andreas, I leave in less than an hour.’

‘Yes—I realize that. But as I was saying, we’ve got unfinished business.’ He looked at her with dark brooding eyes. These last couple of days he had purposefully distanced himself from her—told himself that it was for her sake as well as his own. She was so young, her whole life stretching ahead of her, and if she stayed and they got deeply involved, pretty soon she’d want a level of commitment from him that he was unwilling—unable—to give.

He was at a crossroads—a place he didn’t want to be. He’d been heavily involved in a relationship once before and it had been a big—no, huge—mistake. He wasn’t going down that route again.

‘Andreas, I don’t think you heard me. I leave for England in an hour.’ She repeated her words fiercely, her eyes wide blue pools of shimmering emotion.

And suddenly he knew that, however selfish it was, he couldn’t let her go. ‘So why don’t you tear up that air ticket and stay?’

Carrie stared at him. The quiet words made her heart pitch with so much emotion that for a few seconds she couldn’t think straight, and deep down she realized she’d wanted him to say those words to her…wanted it so desperately and so unrealistically that she hadn’t even dared to voice the thought to herself.

But close on the heels of happiness there was wariness.

She remembered how he’d told her he could only offer her a casual affair—remembered how she’d waited over these last couple of days just for the telephone to ring.

If she said yes to Andreas would she be placing herself in a relationship where she came second to business? It certainly seemed so.

She tried to dismiss the fear, but the sensible side of her wouldn’t let her.

OK, he’d asked her to stay, but she was all too aware of the things that had been left unsaid. What had changed between telling her that he didn’t want a serious relationship and now?

‘Why?’ She raised clear unwavering eyes to his and he looked at her as if he couldn’t believe the question. ‘What are you thinking?’ she continued quickly. ‘In what capacity do you want me to stay?’

‘I would have thought it was obvious. I want you…Carrie…’

The words were said almost coolly…dispassionately. But there was nothing cool about the way his eyes raked over her. ‘I want you in my bed. I want to teach you all there is about making love…morning, noon and night. Is that specific enough?’

The way he had just looked at her had fired her blood…She wanted him too. But his words weren’t enough to banish the doubt churning inside her. And she realized suddenly that she had wanted him to tell her he had feelings for her and that he had started to fall in love with her. How na?ve was that? she mocked herself fiercely. She really had lost all sense of reality!

Her eyes held with the darkness of his. He’d laugh if he knew what was going through her mind. She’d laugh herself only she was too deeply shocked by her own stupidity—and yet even now she felt a connection to him that was so deep that she couldn’t quite unhook herself from it.

He didn’t have time for deep emotion, she reminded herself firmly. He was too busy putting all his energies into business…playing for much higher stakes than love.

Could she really give up the good job that was waiting for her in London for this kind of uncertainty?

She took a deep breath, suddenly scared. ‘I’m sorry, Andreas…but maybe on balance it would be best if I went back to London.’ The words sounded stiff and staccato on her tongue. They weren’t the words she wanted to say…but they were the ones she had to say. She couldn’t give everything up for a man who put her second, a man moreover who liked to live dangerously where business deals were concerned—the lessons of growing up with someone like that were too deeply ingrained to ignore.

For a moment she saw surprise in his eyes. He’d expected her to just accept his terms, without any promises or even soft words. His arrogance was rather galling.

‘Unlike you I’m not a person who likes to take risks,’ she continued swiftly. ‘I’ve been offered an extremely good job in London—one that I’ve worked hard to get. Even if I just stay there for a short time I need to take it.’ She pulled the silk of her robe even closer around her slender body in an almost instinctively protective gesture as his eyes seemed to darken to deepest midnight. ‘And maybe we need some space to think about things.’ She added the words huskily, unable to bear the thought of completely closing the door on them. ‘You’re consumed with this business deal—who knows how we will feel about each other in another, say…six months’ time?’

‘You are quite a tease, aren’t you, Carrie?’ he cut across her suddenly, his eyes narrowing as rage started to simmer inside him. ‘What you’re really saying is that you want to keep your options open.’

‘That’s not what I’m saying at all!’ Her skin flared with colour. ‘Come on, Andreas. You are in no position to throw that kind of accusation at me! You are totally focused on this deal of yours. You said yourself you don’t want a relationship; you just want to take me to bed because…’ Her voice trailed away in sudden embarrassment.

‘Because you are a virgin.’ He finished the sentence for her and watched as her skin caught fire. ‘And you’re right, I do prize the fact that you are a virgin.’ He put a hand under her chin, tilting it so that he could look at her. ‘And I’ve respected you for it.’

Their eyes held and silence seemed to simmer between them.

‘But then you know that, don’t you, Carrie? And you’ve used it to your advantage.’

‘I don’t know what you mean!’