Irresistible Greeks: Passion and Promises: The Greek's Marriage Bargain / A Royal World Apart / The Theotokis Inheritance
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The words came stumbling over themselves. ‘Every pram that passed me in the street was like an arrow to the heart. You remember all those cute little baby outfits I bought?’ She sucked in a ragged breath. ‘Well, they just seemed to taunt me with what we could never have. Taking them down to the charity shop was so...heartbreaking.’
‘You could have kept them,’ he said. ‘We could have tried again for another baby.’
She flinched and shook her head. ‘And how was that going to happen—when you wouldn’t come near me afterwards? You couldn’t even bear to touch me, because I’d failed. I’d failed to provide a son and heir for the continuation of the Kanellis dynasty!’
He groped for the right response, but he who was so fluent could find no words in his vocabulary suitable for what he wanted to say. ‘I couldn’t—’
‘You couldn’t bear to touch me,’ she repeated. ‘And that’s the truth!’
‘Because I didn’t know how to comfort you,’ he said. ‘I didn’t know what to say. I’m still having difficulty saying it now.’
His obvious remorse stabbed at her heart. It made her want to comfort him, but Lexi knew that she couldn’t afford to crumble. For both their sakes she had to face facts.
‘Then let me say it for you. The first time I miscarried, I was only a few weeks gone and I hadn’t had much of a chance to get used to it. But the second time I was nineteen weeks pregnant. In some countries, that’s only a week away from what is termed as a stillbirth, Xenon, and that is something which people take seriously. But nobody seemed to take this seriously. It was the hardest and biggest thing I’ve ever had to go through and yet I felt as if everyone wanted to forget about my baby. To act like nothing had happened.’
He felt as if someone had driven a stake deep inside his heart. His hands were trembling as he stared at her. ‘Oh, God, Lex.’
She shook her head, trying to blot out the look on his face because somehow his bleak compassion was only making it a million times worse. ‘Everyone tells you that you’ll get over it. That you can go out and “have another one”. As if it’s a coat that you left on the train which you can replace by going shopping.’
The silence which followed was broken only by the sound of her breathing.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you felt like this?’ he demanded. ‘Why the hell didn’t you talk to me about it at the time?’
‘And when was I supposed to do that?’ she said. ‘You threw yourself into your work as if it was the only thing which mattered and moved into one of the other bedrooms. It was achingly obvious that your disappointment was so great, you could hardly bear to look at me.’
He saw for the first time how she must have interpreted his behaviour. That his inability to deal with his own feelings had helped create the vast chasm which had grown between them.
‘I was disappointed,’ he said heavily. ‘I cannot deny that. I guess that was my way of coping—the only way I knew. I was aware that I needed to be strong for you—but how could I do that if you could see that inside my heart was breaking, too?’
Her lips buckled as she stared at him, because that was the saddest thing he’d ever said. And never had she felt the pain of their parting so profoundly—nor been swamped by such a yearning wish that it could all have been different. She felt a sob rise up in her throat like a wave whipped up during a high storm.
‘Oh, Xenon,’ she said, her voice breaking.
She saw his jaw clench. Saw him shake his head before he pulled her into his arms and started to kiss her in the most raw and savage way imaginable. His mouth came down to crush against hers and she felt the heat of his hunger. Opening her lips beneath that first fierce onslaught, she clung to him and kissed him back. He was cupping her face like a man possessed, as if he couldn’t get enough of her, and somehow her glasses had slipped off. She heard them clatter onto the floor. But Lexi didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything because now he was backing her into the bedroom, still kissing her and she could scarcely breathe as he tore his mouth away from hers, and pushed her down onto the bed.
She guessed he was giving her time to change her mind. Why else would he stand there, slowly unbuckling his belt, his eyes not leaving hers? He peeled off his white T-shirt and briefly closed his eyes before easing his zip down. She heard him kicking off his shoes and the rustle as his jeans and boxers followed.
Suddenly he was completely naked and he came towards the bed and straddled her. ‘Lex,’ he said.
She could feel the hardness of his thighs as he leaned over and brushed his mouth over hers. She could see how aroused he was but he seemed hell-bent on demonstrating his self-control as he began to unbutton her dress. She squirmed as each button popped free and the cool air hit her skin. She saw the darkening of his eyes as he caught his first sight of her bra and knickers and she couldn’t hold back any longer. Reaching out, she caught his erection in her hand, gasping in a shocked breath as her fingers closed round him. It had been so long since she’d touched him. So long since she’d seen him naked like this.
‘Turn over,’ he said roughly. ‘And let me get this damned dress off.’
Had she thought that he’d been demonstrating self-control? Because suddenly it seemed to have deserted him as he peeled the dress from her body with shaking hands and threw it onto the ground. Her bra and panties followed, until she was as naked as he was.
And then she remembered.
How the hell could she have forgotten?
‘I’m not on the pill,’ she said.
His face darkened. ‘And why would you be, when we have not been sleeping together?’ he demanded arrogantly.
‘Because we haven’t been living together! We’re separated!’
‘But you are still my wife, Lex. You are still my wife!’
With a muttered curse he walked over to the closet and opened one of the drawers until he had found what he was looking for.
She watched as he tore open the foil, and as all their tumultuous history crowded into her mind Lexi thought maybe she should call a halt to this madness. But any remaining reason was soon silenced by desire. Her throat dried as she watched him stroking on the condom and it was much too late for a change of heart, because he was walking back towards the bed and the look on his face was making her melt with longing.
He returned to his previous position on the bed, with one thigh on either side of her. He bent his head and grazed his mouth over her nipples, teasing each tip into an exquisitely sensitised bud. Her hands flew to his head, her nails digging into his scalp as she lifted her hips towards his in wordless plea.
He slid his fingers down between her thighs, murmuring something indistinct when he felt just how wet she was. But Lexi saw the convulsive way he swallowed, as if he had a lump the size of a golf ball stuck in his throat. And that one small chink of vulnerability made her wrap her arms tightly around his neck.
‘Xenon,’ she breathed.
‘Lex,’ he gasped. ‘Oh, Lex.’
She moaned against his neck as he reached down to brush the tip of his erection against her waiting heat.
And never had anything seemed so symbolic as that first deep thrust, though he stilled when she cried out his name in a broken kind of way.
‘I am hurting you?’ he demanded.
‘No,’ she whispered. ‘It’s beautiful. Just beautiful.’
Her heartfelt words stirred him more than he would have anticipated, but then it had been a long time since he’d heard such tenderness in her voice. It wrapped itself around his heart like a velvet fist as he made love to her as if it were the very first time. It felt like sweet and exquisite torture as he tried not to come too quickly—when he wanted to come as soon as he’d entered her. He tried to think of other things. But he couldn’t.
Suddenly he was at the mercy of feelings so powerful that he almost lost control—he, who had never lost control in his life. Suddenly his head was bent and he was kissing her as if that kiss were the only thing sustaining him, as if it were as necessary to him as the very air which he breathed.
Her soft, pale thighs were tight around his back and he was lifting her up towards him, so that she was pinned almost effortlessly against his body while he thrust deep inside her.
He saw her head tip back just before that first low cry came from her lips. A sound once so familiar yet now so strange that he could have wept.
But then his own orgasm came to his rescue. It exploded like a truckload of dark fireworks going off in slow motion, before wrapping him in oblivion. And the last thing he could remember saying was her name.
CHAPTER NINE
FOR A MOMENT Lexi wondered why she felt so strange.
There was warmth and weight and an odd, aching feeling.
And a sound.
Her eyes fluttered open to see Xenon fast asleep beside her. The bed was huge but he was managing to take up most of it with his long limbs sprawled languidly over the ruffled sheets. Against the pristine whiteness of Egyptian cotton, his hair was as black as night and his olive skin looked like burnished gold.
She realised that the sound she’d heard had been his breathing—steady and slow—and the weight was one hair-roughened thigh imprisoning her own pale leg beneath. And the aching? She felt the sudden rush of colour flooding into her cheeks as she remembered.
Xenon making love to her.
Xenon lifting her up as if she’d been weightless and thrusting into her.
Xenon pinning her against the wall on her way back from retrieving her glasses from the sitting-room floor. A kiss which had turned into something more. She remembered the cool wall pressing against her back and one very hot, aroused man at her front.
She turned her head to stare at the blurred outline of the ceiling light, knowing that if she reached out for her glasses she might wake him. And she didn’t want to wake him; she badly needed a moment to be alone with her thoughts.
She closed her eyes. It had been amazing. It always was. He’d made her feel as if she’d come alive—properly alive. As if her body had been designed for Xenon to make love to her. As if she’d been empty without him.
But nothing had changed, she reminded herself. She mustn’t make the classic female mistake of thinking that an afternoon of incredible sex was going to make any real difference to them.
‘Kiss me.’
His murmured entreaty broke into the silence and Lexi stilled, not knowing how to react to him after what had happened. Clearly unwilling to wait, he reached out a strong hand and imprisoned her, locking his arm tightly around her waist as he levered her close so that she was confronted by the gleam of a pair of bright blue eyes.
The eyes narrowed and his lips curved. ‘I said, kiss me.’
‘Is that an order?’
‘Would you like it to be?’
Reluctantly, Lexi felt her own smile tug back. How could you stop yourself from doing something you really wanted even though you knew it was probably wrong? She leaned forward and drifted her mouth over his. ‘You’re incorrigible.’
His hand moved from her waist to her bare bottom. ‘Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?’
‘I can’t decide.’ The temptation to continue flirting was close to irresistible, but Lexi forced herself to remember what was happening in the world outside this bedroom. The household would be gearing up for tomorrow’s christening and later today she was going to meet the baby who was still theoretically her niece. It wasn’t going to be an easy situation given her wobbly emotions around babies and especially now that she had complicated matters by having sex with Xenon.
But this wasn’t about her and what had happened in the past. It was about Kyra and her family and Xenon’s beloved grandmother.
She grabbed her glasses from the bedside table and turned to him. ‘Do you think I should offer to help with the christening preparations?’
‘I suspect that my mother probably has everything in hand. And since a lot of the tradespeople will be speaking Greek and your vocabulary is still in single figures, it’s probably best...’ he traced a finger from neck to breastbone, where he spread his hand out wide so that his fingers brushed against both her peaking nipples ‘...if you use your time more constructively by devoting it to me.’
This is what he does, she told herself as she felt her body responding to his touch. He fashions the world to suit his needs. And he does so by making you want him—even though you know you shouldn’t. She gave a half-hearted wriggle.
‘I need to shower and change before your sister arrives.’
He cupped her breast, and bent his head to kiss it. ‘Anyone would think you were running away.’
‘I need a shower,’ she repeated stubbornly, even though his tongue was cleaving a delectable path over the puckering nub.
He looked up from her breast. ‘You don’t think we need to talk about what’s just happened?’
‘And what has just happened? We had sex. It was good sex...’ She saw the look on his face. ‘No, amend that. It was great sex. It always is. You don’t need me to tell you that, Xenon. But it doesn’t change anything.’
‘On the contrary—I think it changes everything.’ He pushed a spill of hair away from her face. ‘And it’s not just “great sex”—if it were that simple then don’t you think I might have found it elsewhere?’
‘Oh, I see.’ She gave a short laugh. ‘So suddenly this has become a boastful testimony about your general irresistibility to women?’
‘I wouldn’t know about that.’ He coiled a strand of hair around his finger. ‘Because since the moment I met you, you’ve been the only woman I’ve ever wanted.’
She looked at him warily. ‘You mean...you haven’t been to bed with anyone else?’
‘No, I haven’t been to bed with anyone else,’ he growled. ‘I haven’t wanted to and I took my marriage vows seriously when I made them. I thought you did, too.’
‘I did,’ she said in a small voice, but now she was left wondering whether she had really believed in them. Hadn’t she felt a sense of disbelief that someone like Xenon should want someone like her?
Because beneath all the outward trappings of being a famous pop-star, she had always felt like the insecure outsider who nobody would really want. The girl in glasses who’d been laughed at whenever she’d actually made it into school. The girl with the shabby second-hand clothes and the promiscuous mother. Her view of life had been warped by her experience and she guessed that had been inevitable. She had never seen a relationship which worked and she had certainly never seen one which lasted. Was it any wonder that she’d had no idea about how to proceed with her own marriage?
She had tried to accept Xenon’s overwhelming control of their lives—her life—as something normal within a marriage. But she hadn’t really known what ‘normal’ was. She remembered how eager she’d been to please. How terrified she’d been of doing the wrong thing. Like a tightrope walker, she had stuck to the route he’d set out for her, never daring to deviate nor to look down in case she might fall.
And by doing that, hadn’t she made herself yet another responsibility to add to the load already pressing down on his shoulders?
‘I tried as hard as I could to make it work,’ she said. ‘But I can see now that I allowed myself to become completely dominated by the force of your personality and your power. And that wasn’t fair—not to either of us.’
‘We should have talked about it.’
‘But it’s impossible to communicate with somebody who’s never there.’
Their eyes met and when he spoke his voice was grave. ‘So what if I tell you that I recognise I wasn’t there for you? Not just when you lost the baby but afterwards. And maybe some time before that, too.’ He saw the way she flinched. ‘And what If I told you that I will ensure that never happens again? That I will learn to accept the things over which I have no control—what then, Lex? Are you really willing to just give up on all the good things which still exist between us? The compatibility and the chemistry and the...’ His blue eyes blazed a slow trail over her face. ‘The unbelievable fire.’
For a moment Lexi didn’t answer. Her mind was buzzing as she tried to find the right response. He was so clever with words and she was not. Years of negotiating at the top end of the business world had guaranteed him the slick gift of persuasion. He could probably sell hot chocolate on a baking hot beach and convince people it was the next best thing.
But how much of his declaration was about his wounded pride—about the fact that she had been the one who had walked out? For a man of Xenon’s standing, that would not have looked good. He’d told her that he’d never failed at anything. Wasn’t it possible that his suggestion they give their relationship another go was simply being driven by his ego?
Deep down she doubted whether he could ever be the kind of man who would just accept things. How would that work when for him control came as easily as breathing?
She shook her head. ‘It’s not a question of “giving up” but more a case of letting go. Too much has happened.’ Now she could feel the light trail of his thumb against her pulse. Could he tell how frantically it was beating? Did he know that she was having the fight of her life against her own desires? ‘I’m not the right kind of woman for you.’
‘You don’t think that I should be the one to decide that?’
‘Let’s just say I’m helping you out.’ She lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘You only want me because you can’t have me.’
‘No, Lex. I want you because I want you.’
Lexi met the unyielding expression in his eyes as a silent tussle of wills took place. But she had learnt plenty from her time living with him—and she knew that fighting him was no good. It never had been any good, because he always had to win. So why not meet him halfway? There was nothing wrong with indulging their physical needs while she was here, even if their other needs could never be met. Sooner or later it was inevitable that Xenon would come to the same conclusion as her and, until he did, why not just enjoy the chemistry he’d spoken of? She brushed her fingers over his lips.
‘Enough of the heavy stuff. Come on, Xenon—think about your sister and baby Ianthe’s special day. Isn’t that why we’re here? Hmm?’ She dodged the kiss he aimed at her lips. ‘So I am going to take a shower and I don’t care what you say—because you are not going to change my mind!’
He found himself laughing as he watched her get up from the bed with a grace which had once transfixed concert-goers the world over—himself included. Except that none of her fans would have recognised the woman who was heading for the bathroom. He thought how unselfconsciously beautiful she looked, naked but for that geeky pair of glasses, her strawberry-blonde hair cascading down to her waist.
He shook his head in bemusement because she was frustrating the hell out of him, but, when he stopped to think about it, hadn’t she always done that? She was unpredictable. As slippery as an eel. He had just made love to her but afterwards he had sensed those damned barriers going up again.
He headed for the second bathroom and turned the shower on cold, shivering as the icy rivulets coursed over his heated flesh. This was getting to be a habit, he thought grimly as he rubbed shampoo into his hair.
Afterwards, he went back into the bedroom to find Lexi already dressed. She was sitting at the dressing-table mirror and putting on mascara in front of some sort of magnifying mirror.
He pulled a fresh shirt from the wardrobe, wondering how she could she sit there looking so damned composed—as if nothing had happened. Dropping the towel, which was the only thing between him and nakedness, he saw her flickering glance reflected back at him in the mirror. He saw the faint flush which stained her cheeks and he smiled. Nice to know that she wasn’t completely immune to him.
‘Want to come over here and button up my shirt for me?’ he drawled.
‘You’re a big boy now, Xenon—I think you can probably manage on your own.’
But he noticed that the hand which replaced the mascara wand was trembling a little and he felt a disproportionate sense of triumph.
Kyra arrived soon afterwards, accompanied by her husband, Nikola, who was carrying their baby daughter, Ianthe. Lexi stared at Xenon’s pretty sister and her mouth broke into a wide smile.
‘Lexi!’ squealed Kyra, running across the courtyard and throwing her arms around her. ‘I can’t believe you’re actually here—or that you’ve stopped dyeing your hair!’
‘Nice to see you, too!’ laughed Lexi.
She hugged the younger woman tightly and was introduced to her rather serious-faced husband, Nikola. But Lexi knew she couldn’t keep putting off the inevitable and at last she turned her attention to Ianthe. The baby was plump and apple-cheeked, her features shaded beneath a silky bonnet designed to protect her delicate head from the sun.
Lexi could feel the stab of pain as she stared down at the button nose. She thought she could see a trace of Xenon’s mouth in the rosebud shape of her mouth—or was that just wishful thinking? She stroked one soft little cheek and felt a wave of longing washing over her as she looked down at the little girl.
‘Oh, Kyra, she’s beautiful.’
‘Isn’t she?’ Kyra beamed, her blue eyes glowing. ‘Well, I’m her mother so of course I’m biased, but Nikola agrees with me that she is the most beautiful baby in the world. And she sleeps. Oh, how she sleeps! Sometimes we can’t believe our luck, can we, darling? Oh look, here’s Mitera.’
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