In the Greek's Bed: The Greek Tycoon's Wife / The Greek Millionaire's Marriage / The Greek Surgeon

The meal was torture; Nikos’s cryptic remarks were so numerous that Katie was sure Tom would catch on. It took all her will-power not to react to his wind-ups. The intrusive chime of Tom’s mobile just as they reached the main course was for once something of a welcome break.

He apologised but took the call and spoke for several minutes to someone on the other end. From the way his expression darkened it wasn’t hard to tell it was bad news he was hearing.

‘I’ll be there in about thirty minutes,’ he said, before sliding his phone back into his pocket. ‘I’m really sorry, folks.’ His apologetic glance slid from Katie to Nikos and back again. ‘But I really have to go. That out-of-town development I’m working on has been nothing but trouble from the start. I’d heard there was going to be some sort of demonstration so I arranged for the bulldozers to move in tonight, but it seems the damned eco-warriors beat us to it.

‘And,’ he added gloomily, ‘they’re not alone. A local TV station has picked up on it.’ Looking grim, he folded his napkin and got to his feet. ‘Can you believe it? All this over a scrubby bit of bog land nobody has ever heard of. Now they’ve come up with rare weed…I ask you, a weed!’

Katie, who found she had some sympathy with the local businesses and residents who didn’t want the out-of-town development, kept a tactful silence.

‘Some people,’ he complained darkly, ‘can’t stand progress.’

‘The future, my friend, is green,’ Nikos observed.

Tom’s laughter suggested he considered his friend’s remark a joke. Katie, who wasn’t so sure, began to get to her feet.

Tom motioned her to sit down. ‘No, sweetheart, you finish your meal—no need for everyone to suffer. Nik will see you home?’ He looked enquiringly at the other man, who responded smooth as silk.

‘My pleasure.’

Katie’s stomach gave a horrid lurch. Only a determination not to give him the satisfaction enabled her to conceal her dismay.

‘Thanks, mate.’ Tom gave Nikos a thumbs-up signal. ‘You two enjoy your meal,’ he encouraged, bending down to kiss the top of Katie’s head.

‘Perhaps I could help,’ she said, speaking quickly. ‘I know Mark Rogers’s mother.’ Tom gave a growl at the mention of the leader of the local opposition to his project. ‘She’s a lovely woman, Tom, and she was saying that it’s the scale of the development and the lack of local consultation that has upset Mark and the others. Perhaps if—’

‘I appreciate the offer, Katie,’ Tom said, unable to hide his impatience. ‘But this is business. I’m sure Rogers’s mother is a nice woman, but you can’t reason with troublemakers like him—they just see it as weakness. I’ll ring you in the morning.’

Katie had told herself that that was just the way Tom was and it wasn’t something she could do anything about, but on this occasion as she watched his departure part of her wanted to call him back and confront him. Why are you acting like a prehistoric jerk? Why are you treating me like a brainless ornament? she wanted to demand.

She’d seen him work perfectly amicably with high-powered female executives. He’d come across as an enlightened new man on the occasions she’d heard him express admiration for females in top jobs. So why, when it came to his own fiancée, did he assume that anything remotely connected with his business was over her head?

Maybe it was his upbringing, she reflected, or maybe I just look dumb?

She gave a sigh as he reached the door and, turning back to the table, discovered that Nikos Lakis was watching her.

CHAPTER THREE

‘WHAT,’ Katie snapped testily, ‘are you looking at?’ There was entirely too much understanding in those disturbing eyes of Nikos’s for her comfort.

‘The dynamics of a loving relationship.’

The reply didn’t soothe her; she didn’t want those cold, clever eyes dissecting her relationship with Tom.

Maybe you’re afraid he’ll make you see something you don’t want to?

Katie turned her attention back to the food on her plate; it was hard to simulate interest in the beautifully prepared meal.

‘He’s going to ring you…so you’ve not moved in together…’ Nikos regarded her down-bent head speculatively from over the rim of his glass.

‘No, we haven’t.’

‘Shrewd and beautiful?’ he drawled admiringly. ‘No doubt your tactics have a lot to do with a confirmed bachelor like Tom popping the question. Living together inevitably makes a man less eager to commit to marriage.’

With unwarranted viciousness Katie speared an innocent butter-coated new potato with her fork; it made a poor substitute for what she longed to stab.

‘Seeing their beloved first thing in the morning rarely matches up to a man’s romantic fantasy,’ he observed in a superior, amused tone.

‘Like you’d know such a lot about romantic fantasy!’

Nikos didn’t seem offended by her gibe. ‘Oh, I wasn’t referring to myself; you’re right, I’m no romantic. I don’t expect or particularly want perfection in a woman and I was seventeen the last time I put one on a pedestal. Tom on the other hand…’ His arched brows rose.

Katie lifted her head from her prolonged contemplation of her food. ‘Tom does not put me on a pedestal!’ she retorted uneasily. ‘That’s a disgusting thing to say!’ Her nose wrinkled with distaste at the idea.

‘Disgusting…?’ His broad shoulders lifted. ‘An interesting choice of adjective.’ His upper lip curled in a cynical sneer. ‘I’d have thought that being worshipped was most women’s dream.’

‘Being loved is most women’s dream.’ Oh, God, I sound like a starry-eyed teenager… Her resolve stiffened as she stuck her chin out fully expecting his scorn—why should she be embarrassed by something that she believed? She wasn’t going to let some dyed-in-the-wool cynic make her feel self-conscious. After all, you couldn’t expect someone like Nikos Lakis to appreciate the difference between being loved for what you were and being loved for what someone wanted you to be.

Their eyes touched; hers were defiant, his were… Katie swallowed; then again maybe Nikos understood more than she thought. Uneasily she observed the subtle shift in his expression as he registered her loaded riposte.

Without saying anything he made her feel she’d just made some remarkably revealing comment.

‘Tom loves me,’ she gritted. ‘And he doesn’t care how I look in the morning. I suppose you look marvellous after a late night,’ she snarled.

The instant the words were off her tongue Katie knew they’d been a bad idea. It was like opening the floodgates of her imagination. Unwelcome images of tousled dark hair, slumberous, sexy eyes and hard, olive-toned flesh minus any form of clothing—Nikos Lakis definitely slept naked—flashed through her undisciplined mind. She sucked in air through her flared nostrils and then exhaled hard through her parted lips.

Thoughtfully Nikos watched the soft colour mount the smooth contours of her cheeks. ‘Actually I’ve not had any complaints as yet,’ he revealed softly.

The colour in her cheeks deepened. ‘Amazing what some women will put up with if they think they stand the chance of snagging a rich man,’ she grunted contemptuously.

‘I bow to your superior experience in such matters.’

It was the closest he’d come yet to an outright accusation of gold-digging. Katie’s fork fell from her grasp; she barely registered the noisy clatter of the metal on porcelain.

‘I wouldn’t kiss a man before he’s cleaned his teeth in the morning for any amount of money!’ she declared loudly enough to draw the amused attention of several diners close by who heard her forthright words.

For the first time she had the impression her response had perplexed Nikos. His glance slid to the undulations of her heaving bosom before returning to her angry face.

‘If you really mean that, I think you’ve been spending your nights with the wrong sort of man.’

Katie, her attention hopelessly held in thrall by the low, husky throb of his voice, watched as the heavy lids of his exotically slanted eyes dropped lower over his dark glittering gaze.

Elbows planted on the table, he leaned towards her, it seemed to Katie’s feverish mind that his closeness had cut them off from the rest of the room. Her senses were teased by the elusive male fragrance he used and the even more elusive but naturally occurring faintly musky male scent rising off his warm skin.

‘There is a special sort of pleasure in kissing someone and tasting the scent of your body on their lips…’ With each successive syllable his voice dropped lower until it was just a husky purr. The mesmeric drawl sent tiny shivers trickling through her body. ‘The intimacy awakens memories of the pleasures of the night before,’ he rasped.

The images that filled her brain sent a scalding hot flash of heat washing over Katie’s body, sending her core temperature off the scale. Katie tore her eyes from the dark ones of her tormentor. It would have been a lot less humiliating to pretend that it hadn’t happened…that Nikos Lakis hadn’t turned her into a mindless bundle of lustful longing with a bit of coarse sexual innuendo, but he had.

Forewarned is forearmed, she told herself without any particular conviction—there were some things even she, the eternal optimist, found hard to put a positive slant on.