For Love or Money Bundle (Harlequin Presents) Read online

  ‘We’re going to my Athens home,’ he returned, shrugging off his jacket and removing his tie. ‘And it isn’t far. But you won’t be sleeping, pethi mou, no matter how exhausted you are. You still have the rest of your bargain to keep. And after that kiss I think we’re both going to have a very interesting evening.’

  His blunt reminder of what they’d shared sent tingles through her already sensitized body and a slow, insidious warmth uncurled low in her pelvis. Desire, hot, restless and totally unfamiliar, tangled and pumped inside her.

  She saw the sardonic gleam in his black eyes and swallowed hard. ‘I don’t know what you mean—’

  ‘No?’ Sebastien was hard, tough and uncompromising but his voice was silky smooth as he undid the top few buttons of his shirt. ‘Need a reminder?’

  Dark hairs nestled in the dip of his bronzed throat, a tantalizing hint of what he kept concealed.

  Alesia flattened herself in the furthest corner of the car, enveloped by a sudden rush of panic and something altogether more complicated that she couldn’t begin to name.

  Up until this moment she hadn’t even considered Sebastien as a man. She’d seen him as the enemy and as the answer to her mother’s problems. Never as a man.

  Until that kiss.

  The kiss had wakened something in her. Taken her by storm. Changed her.

  Suddenly she was aware of him as a man. And for the first time in her life she was aware of herself as a woman.

  Like a rabbit in a trap, she stared at him. He lounged with careless ease in the seat next to her, long legs stretched out in front of him, an air of almost bored indifference on his handsome face. It was the first time she’d seen him anything less than rigidly formal and her eyes were drawn first to his powerful shoulders, the strong line of his hard jaw, blue-black with stubble.

  She realized with a sudden lurch of her stomach that the trappings of wealth and success disguised the essence of the man he was. Underneath his sophisticated exterior lay man at his most primitive and basic. Dark and dangerous. Raw and untamed. A hunter. She was just contemplating what that meant for her when she realized that they’d driven through electric gates and were approaching a large and very beautiful villa set in acres of grounds.

  Momentarily distracted, she just gazed in silence. ‘It’s huge,’ she mumbled finally. ‘And there’s only one of you.’

  He gave a short laugh. ‘And, as you’ve just discovered, I have an extremely large extended family,’ he said drily, ‘all of whom frequently decide to descend on me at once and need to be accommodated. I also do a great deal of business entertaining. I need the space.’

  Alesia stared at him in disbelief and then back at the house. He needed this much space? She was used to living in a room where she could virtually touch all four walls from her bed.

  ‘I hope the house comes with a map,’ she muttered as she stepped out of the car. Immediately she realized her mistake as Sebastien stared at her with brooding concentration.

  ‘You are the granddaughter of a man who is richer than Midas. Your grandfather is well-known for keeping elaborate homes. Why would you be so surprised at mine?’

  Alesia bit her tongue.

  She’d slipped up again.

  Stupid stupid stupid.

  Warning herself that she had to concentrate, she tried to recover her mistake.

  ‘I’ve never been that great at finding my way around new places,’ she muttered vaguely as he took her arm and led her towards the door.

  ‘Fortunately there’s only one room that you need to find,’ he advised in cool tones, ‘and that’s the bedroom.’

  Alesia flushed to the roots of her glossy blonde hair and would have stopped walking but he swept her up in his arms and carried her across a spacious marble hallway and up a beautifully curved staircase.

  ‘I can walk—’ she said through gritted teeth and he flashed her a grim smile.

  ‘This isn’t for your benefit, agape mou, but for the benefit of my staff who are at this moment peeping discreetly round corners hoping for a glimpse of my new bride. Unfortunately for us, they are as romantically inclined as my mother so I intend to give them the show they’re expecting.’

  Staff?

  Her mouth fell open and she closed it again quickly. Of course a man like him would have staff. How else could he run a house on this scale?

  He strode into a room, kicked the door shut behind him and dropped her with little in the way of warning before striding over to the full-length windows and opening them.

  His need for fresh air and distance caused a shaft of pain that she couldn’t decipher.

  So the ‘show’ was over, she thought wryly, struggling to regain her balance and maintain some shred of dignity.

  Now what?

  Glancing at the tension in those broad shoulders, her heart sank. He certainly did not look lover-like.

  ‘Look—’ her voice was weary ‘—we both know that this whole situation is ridiculous. We don’t have to do this—’

  ‘This was part of our agreement.’

  He turned, his dark eyes glittering with intent. ‘What’s the matter?’ He strolled towards her with all the grace of a jungle animal stalking its prey. ‘Having second thoughts? Suddenly realizing what it is you agreed to?’

  His tone was clipped and hard and her heart leaped into her throat. Distant, cold and monumentally intimidating, Sebastien was totally out of her league and it was useless pretending otherwise.

  ‘What we agreed to,’ she corrected, taking a step backwards and then wishing she hadn’t as he registered the defensive movement on her part with a cool smile.

  ‘We agreed to a marriage,’ he reminded her softly, lifting his hands and unbuttoning the rest of his shirt with slow, deliberate flicks of his long fingers, each movement taunting her. ‘And that is what we’re going to have, Mrs Fiorukis.’

  He peeled off his shirt and let it fall to the floor with casual disregard. But then he was probably never going to wear it again, Alesia thought hysterically as she took another step back and suddenly realized that there was nowhere else for her to go. Her back was against the wall. Literally.

  With considerable difficulty, she moved her gaze from the tantalizing vision of bronzed skin and rough chest hair clustered against rock-solid muscle. Heart thudding hard, mouth dry, she stared defiantly into the corner of the room, just refusing to look at him. Perhaps if she didn’t look, then she wouldn’t feel. Wouldn’t want.

  The sound of a zip being undone made her flinch, the rustle of silk sliding to the floor made her nerve-endings tingle, and at that point she closed her eyes, just knowing that he was naked and absolutely determined not to look.

  ‘Well, Mrs Fiorukis?’ His rough masculine voice taunted her and she sensed him moving closer. And closer. ‘Are you ready to close this particular part of the deal?’

  Eyes still closed, heart still hammering, she tried to reason with him. ‘You can’t possibly want me and I certainly don’t want you—’

  He was too close.

  His raw masculine scent surrounded her and oozed into her senses, making her stomach drop and her legs weaken.

  ‘On the contrary, I paid an indecent sum of money for you,’ he reminded her coldly, ‘and I expect you to earn that money.’

  Her eyes flew open and she gave a disbelieving laugh. ‘In the bedroom?’

  ‘Where else?’ He gave a bored shrug. ‘I’m certainly not in need of your assistance in the boardroom.’

  Her mind searched frantically for an escape from the building sexual tension which was threatening her ability to think or function.

  ‘You already have a mistress—’

  ‘Several,’ he confirmed helpfully, ‘but you needn’t worry that it will affect my performance in bed.’

  She didn’t even want to think about bed.

  Every inch of her throbbed. Her senses danced and pirouetted in a crazy response to the man in front of her.

  ‘Look—I’m trying to be hones
t,’ she said desperately, ‘and the truth is we just don’t have to do this. You can go to your mistress—I don’t care—’

  She didn’t need this. Didn’t want this. She wanted freedom from these feelings that she didn’t recognize. Hadn’t felt before.

  ‘But my mistress won’t give me children,’ he reminded her silkily, ‘and I want children. And this is the way children are made, remember?’

  Her gaze, showing a glimmer of guilt, flew to his. It was a mistake. Slumberous dark eyes captured and trapped her, drawing her in. Those eyes alone were enough to make a woman lose herself, she thought dizzily, struggling to remember why it was that she didn’t want to go to bed with him. His eyelashes were long and dark and ridiculously thick and his hard jaw was covered in blue-black stubble that made him look even more dangerous.

  ‘If you’re nervous then you needn’t be,’ he said. ‘I may not like you but that kiss alone was enough to prove to both of us that, despite our emotions, physically at least there is a powerful chemistry between us.’

  Alesia felt dizzy and drugged and her mouth was so dry she could barely speak.

  She gaped at him. ‘Chemistry? You think there’s chemistry between us?’

  ‘I know there is—’ he curved a hand round her waist and drew her against him ‘—and so do you. Stop pretending you don’t feel it too.’

  Alesia was so busy trying to understand his belief that there was chemistry between them that she somehow managed to miss the fact that his hand was moving down her back. With a swift, purposeful movement he undid her dress and she gave a soft gasp of shock as it pooled at her feet, leaving her dressed in only a pair of silk panties.

  Consumed by embarrassment, she lifted her arms to cover her naked breasts but Sebastien caught her hands and drew them around his neck before scooping her up in his arms.

  ‘This is definitely not the time to cover up your best assets,’ he urged thickly, carrying her to the bed and depositing her in the centre.

  Before she could move a muscle, he came down on top of her, his weight pinning her to the bed.

  ‘Whatever your faults, you have a fabulous body,’ he said huskily, sliding a lean bronzed hand over her body with maddening slowness as he surveyed her with raw male appreciation. ‘I’ll be honest about one thing, pethi mou, I was all ready to refuse this deal whatever the incentive and then I saw you.’

  Her breath jammed in her throat. ‘You were going to refuse?’

  ‘Of course.’ He raised his head to look at her and there was a flicker of dry amusement in his dark eyes. ‘We are expected to make babies for our respective families, agape mou, and that requires a certain activity on my part. If I had found you unattractive there was no way I would have agreed to this marriage. Despite rumours to the contrary, I’m extremely particular about who I take to my bed.’

  She stared up at him, her heart pounding, her resistance crumbling to dust under the hot sexuality of his gaze. ‘You find me attractive—really?’

  No man had ever looked twice at her before but then she’d gone out of her way to avoid all but platonic relationships with the opposite sex.

  ‘Really.’ His tone of self-mockery drew her attention to his body for the first time and her colour deepened. It was the first time she’d seen a naked man. A naked aroused man. The sight was nothing short of daunting.

  Now that the moment had come, panic assailed her. He was right, she thought, closing her eyes with a helpless moan as his mouth traced the line of her jaw. She hadn’t really thought this through. How could she ever have thought she’d be able to pretend that she was experienced? She didn’t have a clue and there was no way she’d ever be able to convince him otherwise.

  ‘You loathe me,’ she moaned, moving her head away from his clever mouth with a gasp of disbelief. ‘You despise me. You can’t possibly want me.’

  She was wondering frantically what to do when Sebastien took control and, with a smooth shift of his powerful frame, he rolled her under him and lowered his mouth to hers. Instantly her body erupted and with a whimper of helpless excitement she realized that he was so used to being in charge that all she had to do was to lie there and he’d make all the moves. He’d show her the way.

  It was her last logical thought before she fell deep into his kiss—

  Just like the time before, she forgot everything. She felt the erotic slide of his tongue in her mouth, the hotly sexual exploration that sent shivers through her whole body and had her arching against him. She felt his hand move downwards, dragging over one sensitized nipple and resting on her hip.

  And her head started to spin. Nothing felt straight or clear.

  Her heart hammered, her pelvis burned and her senses tangled and swirled in an exotic dance, fired by the sensual thrust of his tongue.

  Just when she thought she was definitely going to pass out, he dragged his mouth away from hers. With a reluctant groan he trailed his mouth down over her neck, her throat, until finally he lingered on her breast.

  At the first casual flick of his tongue she cried out in shock, driven wild by the intensity of the sensation, and as he sucked her into his mouth she shifted her hips in a desperate attempt to soothe the wild burning in her pelvis.

  ‘You have amazing breasts,’ he groaned, turning his attention to the other one. ‘It was virtually the only thing I noticed about you when we first met.’

  Some deeper part of her brain registered that remark but she wasn’t capable of any reaction other than a pleading whimper.

  She wanted more—something—

  ‘Sebastien—’ She breathed his name on a sob of desperation and he gave a wolfish smile of male triumph.

  ‘And the other thing I like about you,’ he murmured huskily as he slid further down her frantically writhing and excited body, ‘is that underneath that prim, restrained exterior you are so hot. How could I ever have thought that you were cold and English?’

  Alesia couldn’t even respond because at that moment he spread her legs in a ruthlessly possessive gesture and concentrated his attentions on an entirely different part of her body.

  Torn between shock at being exposed to a man’s gaze for the first time and a sensual pleasure so terrifying in its intensity that she could hardly breathe let alone think, Alesia bit back a moan of denial. Resisting her feeble attempts to close her legs, he held her firm and used his tongue with an erotic mastery that made her writhe and sob in an ecstasy that she hadn’t even dreamed existed before this moment. She just couldn’t believe that he was doing these things to her and that she was encouraging him.

  ‘Sebastien—’ Confused and overwhelmed by the sudden explosion of sexual need that she didn’t properly understand, she arched her back and curled her fingers into the sheets. ‘Sebastien—’

  He slid up the bed in a fluid movement, his eyes scanning her flushed cheeks with ill-disguised satisfaction. ‘Definitely not cold,’ he murmured, his hand closing over her wrist as she reached to pull the sheet up. ‘No way. You never cover up until I say so and I haven’t finished looking at you yet.’

  His gaze made her feel hotter still and he slid a hair-roughened thigh over her legs as she writhed against the sheets in an attempt to relieve the burning need that threatened to consume her whole body.

  ‘Something the matter?’ he taunted her softly, his eyes shimmering dark with barely restrained passion. ‘Is there something you want from me other than my money, agape mou?’

  Her body throbbed and ached from his all too skilled seduction and she was just desperate for him to finish what he’d started.

  ‘Say it,’ he said harshly, shifting his weight so that his powerful body covered hers, teasing her further. She felt his silken arousal hard against her and curled her legs round him, arching in mute invitation.

  Still he held himself back, his gaze faintly mocking as he looked down at her.

  ‘Lose that English reserve. Tell me what you want, agape mou,’ he commanded and she lay looking up at him, totally in his con
trol, her heart beating rapidly and her body consumed by a powerful craving that she just had to satisfy.

  ‘You,’ she groaned softly, writhing under him in a wanton attempt to get closer. ‘You. I want you. Please.’

  With a growl of masculine satisfaction, Sebastien slid an arm under her hips, lifted her in a decisive movement and thrust into her with barely restrained masculine force.

  Shocked by the power of that alien invasion, Alesia gave a sharp cry and her eyes flew wide and clashed with his.

  She saw the sudden speculation in his sultry, sexy gaze and kept her expression blank. She didn’t want him to know. The brief pain faded, extinguished by her driving need for physical satisfaction, and she moved her hips under his. His eyes still holding hers, he lowered his head and captured her mouth, teasing and tasting with his tongue until her whole body was burning hot and writhing under his.

  Only then did he move again, this time incredibly gently as if he was trying not to hurt her. And his unexpected tenderness made the whole experience unbearably erotic. Alesia clutched at his broad shoulders and slid her hands down his muscular back, feeling the degree of strength and power that he’d so carefully leashed on her account.

  Without moving his mouth from hers, he lifted her with a strong arm, shifting her position, and ripples of excitement exploded through her sensitized body as he changed the angle.

  How did he know?

  How did he know to move in a certain way, touch her in a certain way?

  How could he make her feel like this?

  She gasped his name against his mouth and he gave a growl of satisfaction low in his throat and thrust hard, each stroke long and deep as he controlled her and drove her to completion. She shot into orgasm with a strangled cry of disbelief, her body convulsing around his in waves and waves of pulsing ecstasy that refused to end.

  It was wild and uninhibited and totally outside her control, her body just exploding in a frenzy of raw sexual excitement.

  She heard him mutter something rough in Greek and then with a harsh groan he grabbed her hips and buried himself deeper still, not even giving her a chance to escape from the storm that was overtaking them.