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Certainly not now, as she finally emerged from the villa, her face set, not meeting his eyes, simply clambering up into the Jeep without a word, ignoring his hand reaching across the seat to help her in. Angry irritation flared briefly in Nikos at her obvious intention of refusing to acknowledge him. He released the handbrake, let in the clutch and sheered off, his eyes behind the sunglasses hard. He drove fast, not bothering to take the bumpy track easily, and was conscious that Ann was hanging on grimly, refusing to ask him to slow down.
He didn’t stop until he slewed the Jeep to a halt at the far end of the island, down by Ari’s ‘secret beach’. He’d brought Ann here deliberately. Not only would they not be disturbed, but the beach hut was ideal for his purposes. It was not luxurious, but it contained the essentials—mainly a bed.
As he cut the engine, tossing his dark glasses on to the dashboard, a silence seemed to descend along with the settling cloud of white dust around the car.
He turned towards Ann. She was still sitting with one hand clutched at the doorframe, the other planted on the dash to steady herself. Her expression was stony. She was wearing, Nikos realised, exactly the same outfit she’d worn when they’d brought Ari here—beige cotton trousers and a long-sleeved T-shirt. His eyes glinted mordantly. Did she think such a drab outfit would put him off? And why, pray, the cold shoulder? The glint came again, and there was a spark of anger in it now. ‘Cold’ had not been the word for her last night.
Time to stop this, right now.
‘Ann,’ he began, his voice edged, ‘I don’t know what you think you’re playing at, but—’
Her head swivelled. The expression in her eyes was scorching.
‘Playing at?’ she threw back at him. ‘I’m not playing at anything! I have absolutely no idea what the hell you think you’re doing, but—’
He laughed. He couldn’t help it. The scorching look in her eyes intensified. Absently, he noticed how it made them even more luminous.
‘What I think I’m doing, Ann,’ he said—and now the edge in his voice had gone, replaced by something very differerent, ‘is this—’
He reached for her. Unable to help himself. He’d been wanting to do it since he’d walked into breakfast and seen her there, feeling a punch to his system that had made him want to walk right up to her and sweep her to him.
She was pliant in his arms as he drew her to him, and satisfaction surged through him as he lowered his mouth to hers. The next moment she had gone rigid—as rigid as a board—and her hands were balling against his chest, her mouth jerking away.
‘Let me go! Let me—’
His mouth silenced her, catching her lips and his hand at her back slid up to hold the base of her skull, fingers spearing into her silken hair. God, she felt so good to kiss! So sweet and soft and honeyed—
Her momentary resistance had vanished, melted away into his kiss, and he took instant possession. He felt her hands splaying out, pressing through his polo shirt against the wall of his chest.
He kissed her thoroughly, deeply—arousingly. And not just arousing her. His own body was responding as though a switch had been thrown, and desire swept through him.
Eventually, breathlessly, he surfaced, holding her still, gazing down into her eyes. They were huge.
‘You were saying?’ he said. The amusement was in his voice again, but different now—husky and low.
For a moment she just gazed at him blindly. Then, with a little choke, she tugged free. He let her go—he had proved his point. Handsomely.
Her face was strained. ‘I don’t want this.’ Her voice was faint, hands knotting in her lap. ‘I don’t want it.’
His eyes glinted. ‘Ann, no games. Not now. Last night proved that amply.’ The glint intensified. ‘Very amply.’
He started to reach for her again, but this time she was faster. She thrust open the Jeep door and leapt down. Nikos stared with a mix of exasperation and incredulity as she started to march back along the track. Was the girl mad? It would take a good hour to walk back to the villa, and the sun was getting high in the sky. He gave a rasp of irritation and went after her. She was only doing it as some kind of grand gesture, though heaven knew why.
He caught up with her in seconds and turned her round towards him. She was rigid, face clenched.
‘Take your hands off me,’ she gritted, eyes sparking. ‘I told you I don’t want this! What part of that don’t you understand?’ she bit out.
Something shifted in his eyes. ‘This,’ he said. Deliberately, quite deliberately, he lifted a hand to her face, letting the other one drop from her arm so that she was quite free. His eyes never leaving her, he simply drew his index finger down her cheek—lightly, like a feather.
He saw her eyes flicker, saw her pupils dilate. Then he let his hand fall.
She didn’t turn, or run, or march away. She simply stood there, on the track, the sun pouring down on her pale hair, swaying slightly. There was a helpless look on her face.
‘That’s the part I don’t understand, Ann,’ he said, his voice low. ‘The part where I only have to touch you and you respond to me. Or not even touch you …’
His gaze held hers, lambent with desire for her. ‘Do you think I haven’t wanted you from when I first saw how beautiful you had become? All that was required was—opportunity.’ His hand lifted to her face again. This time he slid his fingers around her jaw, feathering her hair, his thumb playing with the tender lobe of her ear. She did not move. Very slowly, her eyelashes lowered over her eyes. His other hand lifted, his thumb going to her lips, tracing across their fullness. Then, as she still stood there motionless, eyes shut in the silence all around, he gently pressed down on her lower lip with the pad of his thumb, even as his mouth came down sensuously, languorously, to take its place.
He felt her give. Felt her mouth slowly start to move against his. Felt the stiffness leave her body, the rigidity ease, dissolve. She was dissolving against him. She was exploring, tasting every moment of the sweet, delectable arousing. How long he kissed her, standing as they were alone, at the edge of the deserted beach, he did not know. Only knew that at some point he let his mouth ease from hers, felt his hand slip into hers, take it lightly, loosely, but enough to lead her, as if she were still in a daze, towards the little stone building. She came willingly, unresistingly.
Just as he had known she would.
Light filtered through the wooden shutters. It slanted narrow fingers across the bed, casting planes of dark and shade across the strong face lying so close to Ann’s. She lay looking at it a moment. The eyes were shut and the features in repose. He looked—replete. The word came to her, and she knew it was apt. For herself she was—drained. Drained of everything—all emotion, all will. She could only go on lying there, her naked body held slackly against his. Her mind was a miasma, floating adrift in a strange state. She’d gone, she knew, beyond conscious thought—because what could she think? What was it possible to think, rationally, about what she had done? What was happening? It wasn’t possible, that was all.
It was barely sane …
Because how could it be sane to sink again into the bliss she had known last night when that bliss came courtesy of a man who made his contempt of her no secret? And yet that man, that harsh, condemning man, so sneeringly offering her money for Ari, for her time here on Sospiris, seemed a universe away from the man who had initiated her into an ecstasy she had never known existed …
She felt something squeeze inside her that was almost pain.
But it’s the same man … The whisper formed in her head, and she felt that strange, squeezing pain again.
Her eyes shadowed. Is it the same man—is it?
Her head told her yes, but her body—oh, her body denied it with all its power.
Without conscious thought, she let her hand press against his warm, hard body, smoothed the golden skin. He was so beautiful to touch. She felt her heart give that little squeeze again, felt a strange catch in her breath, as if in wonder—in homage—at such perfection.
The long lashes lifted from his eyes, and immediately his gaze focussed on her. Equally immediately she felt as if those incredible dark eyes were piercing right into her. She felt naked—
‘Ann—’
It was all he said, but it was said in a voice that sounded as replete as he was. He glided the hand resting on her upper arm along its smooth surface. It was not sexual, not arousing. It was just because she was there. In his bed. Beside him.
‘Ann,’ he said again, and drew her more closely against him, settling himself into the bedding, feeling her slender body curved against his. It felt good—but then everything about her felt good. Idly, he went on smoothing his palm along her upper arm. He felt full, at rest. And after a while he started to caress her again.
This time arousingly.
And yet again Ann went with him where he wanted to go.
The Jeep was rattling over the trackway again, heading back to the villa. Nikos was driving a lot more sedately now—and why not? His ill-tempered mood of the outward journey had disappeared completely. Of course it had! Ann’s ludicrous and incomprehensible show of resistance had taken him nothing more than a few moments to dispose of. Why she’d done it he had no idea, and he didn’t much care. It had obviously been some kind of ploy, and it had equally obviously been completely pointless. Anyway, it was irrelevant now. All that mattered was that it was over and would not be returning.
A smile played around his mouth. No, Ann had proved—conclusively and incontrovertibly—that she was completely incapable of resisting him. Which was exactly what he’d known all along.
Just as he’d known—the smile around his mouth deepened—that his decision to stick to the strategy of making Ann Turner his mistress was the right one. Every cell in his body told him blatantly that it was certainly the right one for him personally.
As his mistress, Ann Turner was malleable, enjoyable—definitely enjoyable!—and above all disposable. His strategy was foolproof. He’d been mad to think it had any risk to it. Not only was he now going to be able to stop Ann Turner from being a thorn in his flesh, but her own exquisite flesh was his to enjoy—to enjoy with an intensity that had proved as real today as it had last night. Just why there was such an extraordinary intensity he didn’t much care—he wasn’t about to question it, just make the most of it.
Whenever he could.
His smile faded, replaced by a tightening of his mouth. Now, that was going to be an impediment he didn’t welcome. But it would have to be managed, all the same, until he could take Ann back to Athens with him.
He turned his head to speak to her.
‘We’re going to have to be discreet, you understand? But I will see what can be done to make time for you.’
A looming hairpin bend made him look back at the road. Then, having negotiated it, he said, having got no response to his comment, ‘Ann?’
He glanced at her again. She appeared not to have heard him.
‘Ann?’ he said again, now with a slight edge in his voice.
‘Yes, I heard you. Thank you,’ she answered.
Nikos considered her profile. Was she put out because he’d said they would need to be discreet? Perhaps she didn’t understand that there was no way he was going to expose his mother to what they were doing? Or perhaps she thought he was not intending to continue with her—or that the necessity for discretion was in fact a lack of appreciation for her on his part? Well, that could easily be sorted—no problem. He knew exactly what would keep her sweet.
And it wasn’t just sex …
Ann sat on her bed, the shutters of her bedroom window drawn, locking out the light of the day. Locking out the world. She had told a maid she’d passed on her way in that she had a migraine and would be keeping to her room.
Blankness enveloped her. She knew with one part of her mind that it was a kind of safety mechanism, like anaesthesia, blocking everything else out. The blankness made her calm—very calm. In a little while, but not just now, she would think about what she had to do. But not just yet. Not quite yet. Soon.
She ought to go down and see Ari. After all, that was why she was here. But she couldn’t face it. She needed time—time here on her own, with the world locked out, safe.
Safe from Nikos.
But she wasn’t safe from him. She had proved that, conclusively and indelibly. He only had to touch her and she was lost.
And there was no point bewailing it, no point being angry with herself, feeling ashamed. She had tried to resist him, tried to reject him, and failed. Failed completely.
How could any woman say no to Nikos Theakis when he wanted her?
But somehow, cost what it would, she was going to have to find the strength to do just that.
A bleak look crossed her eyes.
She couldn’t cope. That was the only thing she knew about this whole situation.
But why? That was the question that wrung her mind. Why?
Why had Nikos Theakis seduced her?
It didn’t make sense. He could have his pick of women—women from his own world—so why bother with her, a woman he openly despised? Surely not just to prove to her that he could? He hadn’t liked her attempt to reject him—was that it? His male ego demanded her submission to him? Was that all it was? He wanted her to be as susceptible to him as every other woman must surely be?
Well, she thought heavily, he had all the proof he needed of that now! His ego could rest easy—she could no more say no to him than honey could refuse to melt over a hot spoon!
Restlessly, she got to her feet, starting to pace around the room. The blankness was leaving her now, and she wished it wasn’t. It was like anaesthesia wearing off …
With every portion of her body she could feel the physical evidence of what she had done—her muscles were stretched, her lips beestung, and between her thighs a low throbbing beat to her pulse. She headed for the bathroom. A shower would help, surely? And it would give her something to do—something other than letting impossible thoughts go round and round in her head, like rats in a trap.
When she emerged from the shower they were still going round, but they no longer mattered. How could it matter that she did not know why Nikos Theakis was so determined to prove her vulnerability to him? How could it matter that he only had to touch her for her to melt into his caress?
Because from now on it wasn’t going to happen. From now on, even if she had to lie and be evasive, say whatever it took, she would not spend one minute alone with Nikos. Not a single minute.
She dared not.
She knew it was cowardice, but so what? If that was what was necessary to keep her safe, but still with Ari, then so be it. It would be hard, but so what? If she could just hold to her line then she would be safe. There was nothing Nikos could do to her if she refused ever to be alone with him.
It was either that or leaving Sospiris. And she wouldn’t be chased off by him! She wouldn’t! This was her only opportunity to see her nephew, her sister’s son, and nothing would make her give that up!
Resolution filled her. She was here for Ari—that was all, and that was what she must remember. Nothing else.
She kept her mind focussed on that resolution as, deliberately trying to divert her mind from the tormenting channels it was running in so fixedly, she occupied herself in catching up with her correspondence—including the large number of postcards she had bought on Maxos. Writing them did her good—it reminded her of the world far beyond Sospiris, touching essential base with her real life.
She ought to go down for nursery tea, she knew, but she was too chary of Tina’s astute eyes. Surely it must be branded across her forehead just what she had gone and done? No, Ari had his playmate. He would not notice his aunt’s absence particularly, and she had already said she had a migraine. She had better make the most of it and keep to her room. Hiding.
She knew that was what she was doing but she needed to do it. Strengthen her resolve. Prepare her mental barriers.
And pray they would hold.
Nikos strolled along the corridor, his mood enjoyably anticipatory. It had been annoying to discover, on emerging from his office for his mother’s pre-prandial drinks, that Ann was apparently in her room with a migraine, and was not coming down to dinner. Damn—evidently Ann had indeed understood the need for discretion. If he’d only known sooner she was in her room, and not with Ari, he could easily have slipped along there at some point. He’d had to endure a dinner without her that had seemed to go on for ever until now, pleading some late night work he had to attend to, he could head straight for Ann’s room.
Outside her door, he knocked briefly, then walked in. Already he was eager for her—the beach chalet seemed far too long ago.
His eyes went to her immediately. She was in bed waiting for him, idly flicking through an English language magazine.
‘Kalispera, Ann,’ he said, as he walked into the room.
The magazine dropped as if it were a hot stone, and her head snapped up. Shock emptied her face. He strolled across the room and sat down on the bed.
‘I’m sorry you’ve had to wait for me—I only learnt at dinner that you were keeping to your room. I’d been working till then. My apologies.’ He leant forward, unable to resist the pleasure of making skin contact, drawing the back of his hand down her cheek.
She jerked, as if an electric shock had gone through her. Nikos smiled. That was good. Responsive.
Just the way he wanted her.
Then, as if his touch had thrown a switch, she spoke.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing here?’ Her voice was half a croak, half a whisper.
He gave a low laugh. ‘Don’t panic. I’ve been very discreet, the way I told you we would need to be.’
‘Discreet.’ She said the word as if it were an expletive.
He gave a shrug. ‘It’s inconvenient, yes, but there it is. My mother has certain codes of behaviour, and I would not wish to breach them openly.’
Even as he spoke he was conscious of a sense of discomfort. He did not relish this aspect of the business—but it was for his mother’s sake in the long run that he made Ann Turner his mistress and got her greedy claws out of the Theakis family by putting her beyond the pale of his mother’s misplaced forbearance of her.
‘Inconvenient—’ Her voice was hollow now, and she was staring at him with a peculiar expression in her face.
