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‘Natalia is at university, my parents are happy and settled and have all the home help they need… Now I want to spend as many of my days as I can where the sun shines and live my life as I please.’ The wolfish grin she’d once so hated but now tugged at her heart curved on his lips, the gleam returning to his eyes. ‘And if delaying my freedom for another six months means I get to see your beautiful face every day then it will make the delay a little sweeter.’
She swallowed. ‘How can it be sweet when I tried to destroy you?’
‘Because living with me is the price you have to pay to put it right. When it is over we will be even.’
‘And last night?’ The question was out before she could take it back.
He gazed into her eyes a long time before answering. ‘Last night was nothing to do with you putting things right. I make no apologies for desiring you and you should make no apologies for desiring me. Attraction is bound by no rational thought. I have wanted you from the minute you stepped into my office and my bedroom door will always be open to you. If you enter is up to you.’
The meaning in his eyes was clear.
Andreas would make no further move on her.
If their marriage was to be more than a piece of paper she would have to be the one to instigate it.
It was a thought that should make her feel safe but didn’t. Not in the least.
One thing Carrie did know for certain, required no proof or corroborating evidence for, was that with Andreas her feelings were like kindling.
One touch and she turned into fire.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ANDREAS’S NEWEST STAFF were true professionals. He’d taken Carrie out shopping in an exclusive enclave in Agon’s capital, where an arcade of designer boutiques and chic cafés resided, tiny compared to London and Paris’s exclusive areas but with staff who could smile without looking as if their bottoms were being sucked out of their cheeks and who treated their clientele as if it were a pleasure to serve rather than a chore.
When they’d returned to his newest acquisition late afternoon he’d found the garden transformed exactly as he’d asked before they’d left and the scent of charcoal filling the air.
‘I thought you said you couldn’t cook,’ Carrie said accusingly when he’d added the two juicy steaks onto the newly built brick barbecue.
She was sitting at the garden table, lithe legs stretched out, wearing a strapless mint-green summer dress and a cream wrap around her shoulders to stave off the evening chill.
His senses told him she wore no bra under that dress.
‘I can burn meat as well as any caveman,’ he replied with a grin. ‘Why don’t you make yourself useful and get a bottle of wine from the fridge?’
‘Because I’m not your skivvy any more?’ she suggested.
‘Do you not feel guilty that I’m doing all the work while you are sitting there doing nothing?’
‘Nope.’ She looked pointedly at the bowls of salads and rice that had been prepared for them by his new chefs and laid on the beautifully presented table.
The staff had all gone now.
‘Please?’ he asked pointedly.
She pretended to consider then got to her feet. ‘Okay, then. Which wine do you want?’
‘There’s only one variety in the fridge.’
She bounded off into the villa, a spring in her step he’d never seen before.
It occurred to him that her jest about not being his skivvy any more had been the first time she’d alluded to those few days when he’d had her at his beck and call.
They had been on Agon for only three days and the change in her had been incredible. Yesterday they had explored Agon together, admiring the island’s rich heritage and what Andreas considered to be the most beautiful palace in the world. They’d eaten out, their conversation light and non-confrontational but the wariness he’d been greeted with at breakfast had still vibrated from her rigid frame. She avoided his gaze. The few times their eyes had met colour had suffused her face and her top lip would pull in. When they’d returned to the villa she had mumbled a goodnight before disappearing—fleeing—to her bedroom.
He hadn’t touched her once and he hadn’t flirted with her either.
He wanted to make love to her again. He hadn’t thought it would be possible to want it more than he had before but that was how it was, a constant ache, a constant fizz in his blood, a constant awareness of her every movement but her virginity had changed everything.
If they were to make love again Carrie had to make the first move. He needed to know that what they were sharing came from her head as well as her body.
Today, she had greeted him at breakfast with a smile that had been undoubtedly genuine.
