The Mediterranean's Wife by Contract

CHAPTER FOUR

CARRIE OPENED THE BLUE shutters and bright sunshine flooded into the cool interior of her apartment.

It was Sunday morning, the last day of her holiday and time to go home. Somewhere a church bell was tolling, the sound echoing down the narrow cobbled streets of the village. Carrie leaned against the window sill and allowed the heat and the tranquillity of the morning to wash over her.

She’d thought Andreas would have come to her last night, that he would have wanted to make the very most of their last evening together—but he hadn’t. Of course he’d happily seen her over the past few days, on his terms! She hadn’t been able to say no when he’d invited her out to dinner a couple of days after their trip to the reef. Nor had she had the strength to refuse his subsequent invitations. The truth was, she was wildly attracted to him, and she’d naively jumped at every chance to spend time getting to know him.

And now he’d seemingly tired of her. She didn’t know whether to feel sad or just plain angry. He could at least have had the decency to phone her and tell her he wouldn’t see her before she left.

But what did she expect, she asked herself furiously, when it was just a holiday fling and Andreas was a busy man?

Carrie raked a hand through the long length of her blonde hair as she thought back over the holiday. So much had happened—including the momentous news of Jo and Theo’s engagement. And Jo had taken the decision to remain in Greece.

The four of them had enjoyed a celebratory dinner two nights ago. It had been a very joyful occasion. Carrie was going to miss her friend, but she was so happy for her.

But she hadn’t seen Andreas since.

After the dinner he’d told her he was too involved with work to make a definite next date, and that he’d ring her.

That was the last she’d heard from him.

She wished now that she had never got involved with him—had never allowed herself to start believing that he might actually care about her. Especially when he’d made it quite clear up front that he wasn’t looking for a serious relationship.

At least she hadn’t been stupid enough to sleep with him.

But how much of that decision had been down to her good sense and how much had been down to his restraint, a traitorous little voice asked her mockingly. Because she did want him, in fact so much so that she ached for him. And he knew that. There had been a few times when he had kissed her at the end of an evening and she had been a whisper close to just begging him to sate her.

She turned away from the view of red-tiled rooftops and shimmering blue sea. It was just as well he hadn’t come to her last night—because she might have done something she would have regretted.

She’d had a narrow escape, she told herself angrily as she glanced at her watch. Obviously the man couldn’t really care less about her! If he did he would at least have phoned her last night to say goodbye.

It was time to start packing. Jo would be here to give her a lift down to the ferry terminal in an hour.

Carrie could hardly believe that Jo wasn’t going to come back to London with her. It was going to be so strange not having her around any more, but she had no doubt that her friend was doing the right thing; Theo was such a nice, steady and reliable kind of guy.

The same could never be said of Andreas, she thought disparagingly. He spoke about commitment and love as if they were things to be avoided at all costs. And he’d obviously broken hearts by the truckload.

Yet he had been genuinely pleased for his brother and Jo.

She couldn’t quite work him out.

Not that she wanted to work him out, she told herself firmly.

Their relationship was never going to be anything as serious as Theo and Jo’s. Neither of them were ready for settling down, it was the wrong time, the wrong place. Andreas was totally consumed with his business deal and she was too wary to commit herself to just a holiday romance—she had a good job to go back to.

So why did she feel like this? she wondered angrily as she got her suitcase out and started to pack. Why had she waited and waited last night for her mobile to ring?

Somehow over the last week reality had been swept away on a tide of emotion that she had never experienced before. Maybe it was something to do with the beauty of the surroundings and the way Andreas had wined and dined her; perhaps she had even been caught up with the mood of romance that surrounded Jo and Theo she thought rationally as she folded T-shirts and shorts.

And then she remembered the way Andreas could kiss her and her hands stilled. Deep down she knew her feelings weren’t anything to do with their surroundings, Andreas’s attentive generosity or even Theo and Jo’s wonderful love for each other. It was the way Andreas made her feel. The way he’d been able to send shivers of pleasurable anticipation through her with just a look. The way he could kiss her and set her totally on fire.

No one had ever done that to her before.

But she wasn’t stupid; she’d tasted the danger in his kisses, knew that beneath the charming urbane exterior there was the steely heart of the predatory male.

He was the type of man who would normally have made her run for the hills, yet something strange had happened when he’d touched her; he terrified her, yet he’d captivated her.

And because he had treated her with restraint and respect she’d even started to imagine that she meant something to him…Stupid, she told herself as she started to fling clothes into her suitcase now without bothering to fold them. The sooner she got away from here and back to reality, the better.

There was a knock on the door and Carrie glanced at her watch. Jo was early! The realization that it was almost time to say goodbye to her best friend struck through her like ice.

‘I wasn’t expecting you for another hour…’ Her voice drifted off as she swung the door open and found that it wasn’t Jo, it was Andreas outside. Surprise and pleasure flooded through her. ‘Oh…it’s you!’

Hastily she tried to pull herself together. Every time she saw him she couldn’t believe how gorgeous he was. But didn’t he just know it, she reminded herself quickly as his dark intense eyes seem to sear into her and he smiled that confident smile of his.

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 naïve 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!’

‘Well, let me spell it out. If you are waiting for me to propose marriage, it’s not going to happen. I can’t offer you that kind of commitment—it’s not who I am.’

The cold, arrogant comment made her eyes widen with fury and gave her the strength to pull away from him. ‘Well, it’s a good job, because it’s not who I am either. I’d have turned you down flat.’ She gave a shaky incredulous laugh. ‘I don’t want a marriage proposal from you! I’m an intelligent woman, not a naïve fool. And we hardly know each other, for heaven’s sake.’

‘Good, we are both of the same mind, then. And I know very well that you are an intelligent woman, Carrie.’ His voice was quiet, his gaze flicking over her, noting the rise and fall of her chest, the way she moistened her lips as his eyes touched them.

‘I also know that you want me…’

The husky, confident words made her senses swirl. He was right she did.

There was still a part of her that wanted to say, Yes, OK, let’s give this a whirl, but for what? She certainly didn’t want a marriage proposal from him, but she did need more from him emotionally than he seemed prepared to give.

She hated his cold arrogance—hated the way he could look at her like that, tell her he just wanted her for his bed, and still turn her on.

If she stayed, she could end up as a kept woman totally dependent on his every whim! She wouldn’t even be able to get a decent job because she didn’t speak Greek.

And then he could simply discard her for his next conquest when he got bored and she would be left without any fallback position.

She took a deep breath.

‘The timing isn’t right for us, Andreas, and we both know it.’

The fact that she could look at him with such emotion in her eyes, such warm need, and yet still turn him down enraged him; it also reminded him forcibly of things he didn’t want to remember. Such as how he had no right asking her to fulfil his needs when he could never meet hers.

He’d made a mistake coming here. Asking her to stay had been crazy and he’d known that all along. Even if he just made her his mistress he would be in too deep—before he knew it they would be back at this crossroads and the relationship would have to end. Better that it was done now. He should have done it days ago, he told himself angrily, for her sake as well as his. He needed to burn all bridges and forget her.

‘And when would you deem the time to be right, Carrie? When my business deal has paid off? Are you planning to save your virginity for the highest bidder?’

‘I can’t believe you’ve just said that!’

He was unrepentant as he watched the furious fires of anger and hurt burn in her beautiful eyes. He needed to do this.

‘Don’t worry about it, Carrie—we’ve had a bit of fun. And you were right, your innocence did intrigue me—I admit I wanted you and I know that, despite what you might say, you wanted me too.’

Carrie felt as if he had just struck her. ‘Yes, well, hell would have to freeze over before I’d stay here and be stupid enough to give myself to someone like you!’ she retaliated furiously.

He smiled. ‘Actually, that’s not true. I know I could have had you any time.’

With that he turned for the door, leaving her speechless with rage.

CHAPTER FIVE

Two years later

CARRIE stood out on deck as the high-speed ferry skipped across the glittering blue of the sea. In the distance she could see the small island of Pyrena drawing closer, shimmering in the hazy heat of the Greek sunshine, and memories tumbled painfully through her mind.

It was two years since she had first come here on holiday with Jo. And she could still recall every detail of that summer so vividly it was as if it were just yesterday.

Now it was hard to believe that Jo wasn’t going to be waiting for her on that quay.

Even though they’d been mainly apart for the last couple of years the strong and enduring bond of friendship between them had never been broken. Jo had always been there in the background with emails and phone calls…

And Carrie had been back to visit her on the island three times and on each occasion Jo had been waiting eagerly for her.

And now she was dead…and Carrie could hardly bear it.

The island was clearer now; Carrie could see the familiar purple mountains, the secluded golden bays, the stunning scenery inevitably reminding her of Andreas, and the time they’d spent together.

Hastily Carrie turned her mind away from that. She didn’t like to think too deeply about Andreas. Even under happier circumstances the recollections of him made her emotions twist—which was crazy considering it had meant nothing, whereas Jo and Theo’s relationship had been the real thing.

The last time Carrie had visited the island had been just after Jo had given birth to her daughter six months ago. The couple had been ecstatic and more in love with each other than ever.

Lilly’s christening had been only three weeks ago, a time of celebration and happiness.

Carrie hadn’t been able to make the christening. She’d been dealing with a vitally important contract at work and her boss had refused to give her the time off, had needed her to go to Hong Kong to sort things out for him.

But Jo had still wanted her to be Lilly’s godmother, and had arranged it in her absence.

‘I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have to watch over my precious little girl,’ she’d told Carrie in their last conversation. ‘We may not be blood relatives but you are a part of my family and this is very important to me.’

It had been important to Carrie too—she’d taken the honour very seriously.

And now the words kept playing over and over in her mind. Because by the time she’d got back from Hong Kong to London there had been a letter waiting for her telling her that Jo and Theo had been involved in a car crash and that they’d both died instantly. The letter had been dated just four days after the christening.

The view of Pyrena blurred under the weight of Carrie’s tears. Firmly she brushed them away. Since receiving the news from Jo’s solicitor she had done nothing but cry and it wasn’t helping. She had to be practical now, for Lilly’s sake.

Jo and Theo had no family except for Andreas. Lilly was with him at the moment. But Carrie was worried about the situation, because, as she well knew, Andreas wasn’t a family man; a six-month-old baby wouldn’t fit into his bachelor life! And, besides, by the sounds of things he was still as deeply involved with business as ever. Certainly every time she had visited the island he’d been away overseeing some important deal or other.