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‘Of course. Are you still worrying about that?’ he said in surprise.
‘Worrying comes naturally to me,’ she admitted.
‘Worrying is a waste of energy that can be better employed. I want to have you again,’ Xan confided, pressing a kiss to a sensitive pulse point below her ear, making her squirm.
‘Already?’ she gasped, huge blue eyes lifting to his lean, darkly handsome face, instantly rejoicing in the sleek dark beauty of him laced with the wilder elements of his tousled hair and stubble.
Xan nodded very seriously. ‘I’ve got a major backlog of Elvi hunger to clear. I’m going to be very demanding, moli mou...’
A little flame of anticipation kindled wickedly low in her pelvis at that news. For the first time Elvi acknowledged just how much she revelled in Xan Ziakis, clothed or unclothed. It didn’t matter how much he infuriated her, it didn’t stop her craving him with every fibre of her being. It was only physical attraction, nothing more serious, she told herself with determination, telling herself to move with the times and stop judging herself for a situation she couldn’t change. After all, their arrangement wouldn’t last for ever and the real world would reclaim her soon enough.
Before she’d met Xan, she had sunk into a rut and stopped thinking about her own future, she acknowledged ruefully. Perhaps Joel had had a point when he’d criticised her for her absorption in her family. When Xan moved on, she decided that she would change her attitude. She would seek a more challenging job or even training that would enable her to be more ambitious. Her mother and brother were finding their own feet now and would no longer need to rely on her to the same extent.
When Xan emerged from the bathroom, Elvi was fast asleep. He had to fight the temptation to wake her while he studied her with brooding disquiet. Sex had never been so intense for him and his voracious desire to have her again disturbed him. He wasn’t treating her the way he normally treated a mistress. He didn’t know what it was about her that got to him deep down where he had sworn never to let a woman go again.
And inexplicably and unnervingly, she made him keep on changing his mind. What had happened to his determination not to touch her until she invited him to do so? What had happened to his decision to let her go free in five days?
Even worse, Elvi made him want more and he liked that even less.
Was it the fact that he was her first lover? Did he somehow feel responsible for her now? He reminded himself that he had wronged her and that he had deliberately set out to redress that damage. But that didn’t explain why he hadn’t just let her go or why he was tempted to put his arms around her when she was asleep and there was no chance of sex. Thee mou...that urge was freaking him out! He was even more unsettled by the tangle of clothing untidily littering the bedroom floor. That wasn’t like him either. He was quick to remove the evidence of his lack of patience and control, but throughout the exercise he was acknowledging that he should not allow any woman to affect him the way she did and he was urging himself to walk away fast.
* * *
Elvi drifted slowly out of a deep sleep to greet the dawn. Light was filtering through the curtains and she was too warm. She muttered a complaint and the sheet was tossed back, Xan’s fingers returning to the place which made her writhe and heat up even more. A slight gasp escaped her as he shifted against her, all power and potency and temptation and then he was where she needed him to be, sinking into her welcoming body with urgent force. But then the tempo changed to sensually slow and her tension ramped up accordingly, heart hammering with frantic longing, her body gripped by fierce, needy impatience. She pushed back against him, wanting, needing, and with a husky sound of appreciation, he speeded up, delivering what her body was programmed to crave in a heart-stopping, blood-stirring storm of sensation that peaked and then left her floating.
‘I ordered breakfast in bed for you,’ Xan murmured lazily. ‘I have some work to catch up on before I have to walk Delphina into the church.’
‘It’ll take me all my time to get ready for the wedding,’ Elvi sighed, feeling like a hot sweaty mess even while her whole body purred with little aftershocks of pleasure.
Xan strode out of the shower and she watched him dress, her brow furrowing while she ate. He seemed very preoccupied, his dark classic profile taut, his stunning eyes veiled. Something had changed, she grasped on a level she didn’t quite understand: there was something different about Xan. A distance she hadn’t noticed the night before? The first hint that their arrangement was already heading towards its natural end? Was he getting bored with her? It was what she wanted, what she needed. She had to pick herself back up and get her life back on track. Unfortunately, that did not clarify why her skin chilled and her tummy succumbed to a nauseous lurch at the thought of their parting.
There was no way she was becoming attached to Xan, she reasoned with firm conviction. She wasn’t that foolish or that quick to allow her feelings to control her. At heart she was sensible and practical and a stranger to the kind of dangerous emotions that were likely to upset her. For goodness’ sake, she had only been with him a few days, long enough to learn that sexual pleasure was a lot more seductive than she had ever dreamt but nowhere near long enough to start thinking too warmly of a man she disliked.
And she did dislike him, she thoroughly disliked him, Elvi reminded herself with satisfaction. Xa
n was immoral and unscrupulous and he expected the whole world to revolve around him and his needs and wants. All he cared about was making money and maintaining a stress-free sex life. They weren’t even in a relationship. Everything Xan did and said spelled out that message because he didn’t want her to misinterpret an intimacy that was not destined to last.
The sooner it was over between them, the better it would be for her, she told herself staunchly. She had changed as well. She would never be so naïve or trusting again. But that made her stronger rather than weaker...didn’t it?
Two hours later, Elvi was garbed in an elegant dark green dress and accompanying Xan’s eldest sister, Hana, and her family to the village church. A former monastery, the large church sat at the heart of a very picturesque little village overlooking the harbour. The pews were packed, even though Hana had said that Delphina had wanted a very small wedding attended only by relatives. Elvi’s attention was fully engaged taking in the wonderful painted ceiling and icons that made the candlelit church interior so colourful and warm. And then beside her, Hana said something abrupt in Greek and turned her head to look at the woman smilingly taking what appeared to be the last available seat in the row in front of them.
Hana’s husband put his finger to his lips to silence the speech that was visibly brimming on his wife’s lips as her dark eyes hardened with annoyance.
It wasn’t the time or the place to ask who the woman was. She was certainly eye-catching, Elvi conceded admiringly, and evidently not bound by the tradition that suggested that only brides should wear white at a wedding. The brunette in the shimmering white dress was very tall, very slim and graceful and she had the face of an angel with big dark eyes, flawless features and a sultry pink mouth.
Elvi watched a sort of selective shimmy take place amongst the guests, heads turning as much as they dared, all eyes skimming in the direction of the late arrival, a low buzz of comment following. Clearly, whoever the woman was, her attendance was unexpected and food for a good gossip.
Xan dealt with the sudden appearance of the only woman who had ever broken his heart without batting a single eyelash. His first reaction was irritation, because even though Angie would have received an invite, being the bridegroom’s cousin, she should have stayed away because Xan’s family universally loathed her. His second reaction was that, although he despised her, she had worn well in their years apart.
When he received a lingering look of invitation from her, his inventive brain projected an image he very much liked. Two birds...one stone. Revenge and the freedom to move on in one perfect little package, he decided with ice-cold logic. Sometimes doing the right thing could mean doing it by nefarious means. It would be the wisest move he had ever made and would certainly kill at source his family’s ridiculous conviction that he was ready to settle down.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘I’M SO SORRY about Angie showing up,’ Delphina said, as though it were her fault that Xan’s ex-girlfriend had decided to attend her wedding. ‘Takis’s mother insisted that it was only courtesy to send her an invitation but nobody expected her to actually come.’
‘Why are you worrying about it?’ Elvi asked gently. ‘I’m not one bit bothered.’
It was a complete lie but Elvi had already heard enough about Angie Sarantos from Xan’s worried family to last her a lifetime, and Delphina’s embarrassment made her feel guilty because every bride had the right to enjoy her wedding day free of all such concerns.
