Font Size:  

As he held her protectively, waiting for the shudders vibrating through both their bodies to lessen and the heavy beats of their echoing hearts to subside, a fierce possessiveness grabbed at his chest, words floating in his head he couldn’t shake.

Carrie was his.

CHAPTER TWELVE

CARRIE APPLIED HER mascara for the third time and willed her hand to stop shaking and poking the wand in her eye.

The nerves she was feeling were almost as bad as when she’d waited in the reception room to be taken in to Andreas for the first time.

His cousin was getting married in three hours. Andreas had gone to collect his parents and niece from the airport and drop them at the hotel where the evening reception would be held. The whole family was staying at the hotel, Carrie and Andreas included. Apparently it was a Samaras tradition for the bride and groom to have their first breakfast as a married couple with their family all looking at them and knowing exactly what they’d been getting up to in the marital bed.

Thank goodness she and Andreas were marrying in a Chelsea registry office. It would be just them and a couple of witnesses.

She was terrified of meeting his parents but even more scared of seeing Natalia again. It scared her even more than having to pretend to everyone that she and Andreas were in the throes of a whirlwind love affair.

A whirlwind lust affair she could easily fake, mainly because that wouldn’t involve any fakery.

She could hardly keep her hands off him.

She didn’t know exactly when the shift in her thinking had occurred, just knew that as she’d changed for dinner after their shopping trip, she’d looked in her mirror and asked herself what she was so afraid of. Why fight something so pleasurable? Why deny them both? She’d slipped her dress on and closed her eyes, remembering his touch on her skin.

Carrie had discovered the joys of sex. Twenty-six years of a dormant libido had been unleashed and now her body was making up for lost time on all it had missed out on.

She told herself that on an hourly basis.

The good news was that she had a full six months to get all this making up out of her system because she couldn’t quite quell the fear that her body only reacted this way because of Andreas. For Andreas.

But as she also continually told herself, if it was only him she reacted this way to, then so what? It was still only sex, glorious, blissful sex.

Ta da. Her make-up was done. Third time lucky.

Her phone rang.

She grinned to remember how Andreas had deliberately kept her incommunicado when she had first infiltrated his life. It was one of the reasons he’d chosen to take her to the Seychelles, because the signal on his peninsular was so dire.

Her grin dropped when she saw her sister’s name flash up.

Carrie had left three messages for her in the past week. She’d bitten back the hurt to find herself being ignored again. Violet had always been good at ignoring her if she didn’t want to speak.

Taking a deep breath, she answered it. ‘Hi, Vee. How are you?’

Silence.

‘Are you there?’

‘Is it true?’

Carrie’s heart sank. ‘Is what true?’

‘That you’re seeing Andreas Samaras.’

She took another deep breath. ‘Yes. It’s true.’

And it’s all because of you and the lies you told.

‘You know what he did to me, right?’ After only three months in California her sister had picked up an American twang.

‘Violet… Are you still seeing the counsellor?’

‘Answer my question.’

‘I will when you answer mine. Please, tell me you’re still seeing him.’

‘Her. My counsellor’s a her.’

‘I’m sorry. I thought you were seeing a man.’

‘I was.’ The stiff angry tone suddenly changed. Became softer. ‘We decided I would find it easier to talk to a woman.’

‘And are you finding it easier?’

‘Yes.’ She sounded surprised. ‘I am. She’s really nice and non-judgemental.’

Carrie tried not to take that as a dig against herself. ‘I’m glad.’

‘Now you answer my question. You know what that man did to me?’

‘He didn’t do anything to you, did he, Vee?’ she said gently, her heart thumping, mouth dry. ‘He didn’t do what you accused him of. He didn’t set you up. The drugs were yours. Vee, it doesn’t change how I feel about you. I still love you.’

All that played in her ear was silence but she knew her sister was still there.

‘I’m sorry you felt you couldn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth but please, I beg you, admit the truth to yourself. Talk it through with your counsellor. You were treated terribly by James but Andreas isn’t James. He is nothing like him.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like