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‘I’m not stupid.’
‘Not stupid, but you are naive and trusting.’ He studied her with amusement. ‘After all, you ignored all the warnings and married me.’
‘If you treat me with respect I will treat you the same,’ Bee swore. ‘I don’t lie or cheat and I don’t like being manipulated.’
Sergios laughed out loud. ‘And I’m a very manipulative guy.’
‘I know,’ Bee said gravely. ‘But now you’ve got me in the same bed that’s as far as it goes.’
His curling black lashes semi-concealed his stunning eyes. ‘That would be such a waste, Beatriz. We have the opportunity, the chemistry.’
‘With all due respect, Sergios,’ Beatriz murmured sweetly, cutting in, ‘that’s baloney. You only want to bed me because you believe it’ll make us seem more intimate and therefore more of a couple for your grandfather’s benefit. And while I think he’s a lovely old man, I don’t want to go that far to please.’
‘I can make you want me,’ Sergios reminded her smooth as silk but it was the tough guy talking, his dark eyes hard as ebony, his strong bone structure taut with controlled aggression.
‘But only in the line of temporary insanity. It doesn’t last,’ Bee traded, longing for the smile and the laughter that had been there only minutes earlier and suddenly recognising another danger.
It would be so easy to fall for this man she had married, she grasped with a sudden stab of apprehension. He wasn’t just gorgeous to look at, he was an intensely charismatic man. Unfortunately he had very few scruples. If she let him, he would use her and discard her again without thought or regret. Where would she be then? Hopelessly in love with a guy who didn’t love her back and who betrayed her with other women? She suppressed a shudder at that daunting image, and her heart, which he had made beat a little faster, steadied again.
A ball suddenly thumped into her side and the breath she was holding in escaped in a startled huff. Instantly Sergios was vaulting upright and telling Paris off, but Bee was relieved by the interruption and quick to intervene. She threw the ball back to the boys, retrieved Eleni from the shells she was collecting and joined in their game.
Unappreciative of the fact that she was using the children as a convenient shield, Sergios was equally challenged by the idea that she could so easily discard the idea of becoming a proper wife. He thought of the countless women who had gone to extraordinary lengths to get him to the altar and failed and then he looked at Beatriz, distinctly unimpressed by what he had to offer in bed or out of it. He was out of his element with a woman who put a value on things without a price. He didn’t do feelings, fidelity or…virgins. Basically he operated on the belief that women were all the same, money greased the wheels of his affairs and he had few preferences. That ideology had carried him along a safe smooth path after his first marriage right up to the present day. But nothing in that credo fitted Beatriz Blake. In her own quiet way she was a total maverick.
A manservant came down to the beach to tell Sergios about an important call. He departed and Bee tried not to care that he had gone, leaving behind a space that absolutely nothing else could fill. It was impossible to be unaware of a personality and a temperament as larger than life as Sergios Demonides. When Bee trekked up from the beach late afternoon with two tired little boys and an equally tired and cross little girl, she was damp and sandy and pink from the sun in spite of her high factor sun cream.
Having fed Eleni and spent some time cuddling the little girl while chatting with the nannies about the child’s upcoming surgery that would hopefully improve her hearing, Bee left the nursery and went for a shower before changing for dinner. In the bedroom she found several boxes of exclusive designer nightwear on the bed in her size, items fashioned to show off the female body for a man’s benefit and not at all the sort of thing that Bee wore for comfort and cosiness. She could barely believe Sergios’s nerve in ordering such items for her but it was certainly beginning to sink in on her that he was a very determined man. When she returned to the bedroom, clad in her own light robe, Sergios was there and she stiffened, unaccustomed to the lack of privacy entailed in sharing a bedroom. Engaged in tying the sash on the robe to prevent it from falling open, she hovered uncomfortably.
‘Did you order those nightgowns for me?’ she pressed.
‘Yes. Why not?’
‘They’re not the sort of thing I would wear.’
Sergios shrugged off the assurance. ‘My grandfather has decided to return to his home.’
‘I thought it was uninhabitable.’
‘Two rooms are but it’s a substantial property. I think that was an excuse to allow him to check us out,’ Sergios confided wryly. ‘He’s taking the children and their nannies back with him.’
Her head flew up, green eyes wide with surprise and bewilderment ‘Why on earth would he take the kids with him?’
‘Because it’s a rare newly married couple who want three children around on their honeymoon,’ Sergios drawled, his face impassive. ‘Don’t make a fuss about this. It’s a well-meant offer and he is their grandfather—’
‘Yes, I know he is but—’
‘Objecting isn’t an option,’ Sergios sliced in with sudden impatience. ‘It’s a done deal and it would look strange if we turned him down.’
Bee could not hide her consternation at the arrangement that had been agreed behind her back. He had m
arried her to act as a mother to those children but it seemed that she was not entitled to the rights or feelings of a mother if they conflicted with his wishes. ‘Yes, but the children are just getting used to me. It’s unsettling for them to be passed around like that.’
‘You can go over and see them every day if you like.’ His beautiful wilful mouth took on a sardonic slant. ‘First and foremost you are my wife, Beatriz. Start acting like one.’
Bee reddened as though she had been disciplined for wrongdoing, her temper flaring inside her. ‘Is that an order, sir?’
‘Ne…yes, it is,’ Sergios confirmed without hesitation or any hint of amusement. ‘Let’s keep it simple. I tell you what I want, you do it.’
Those candid words still echoing in her ears, Bee vanished back into her bathroom to do her make-up. Being ordered around when she was naked below a wrap didn’t feel right or comfortable. But then she never had liked being told what to do. In addition she was very angry with him. He had encouraged her to act like a mother, only to snatch the privilege back again when it no longer suited him. Act like a wife? If she did that he wouldn’t like it at all…for a wife would make demands.
