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He’d undone all the buttons and was slipping the shirt from her shoulders before she could do anything.
She let out a strangled whisper. ‘The driver!’
She was now in just her bra and Alexandros was pulling his own sodden shirt off. Totally unashamed, he ignored her concern. He drew her back against his bare chest and wrapped them both in a couple of towels, tucking her arms around his waist. Sensation flooded her belly, her breasts, making them tighten painfully. She bit her lip.
Alexandros looked down briefly and when he caught a glimpse of two perfect creamy half-mounds spilling from her bra, pressed against him, he felt desire rocket straight to his lap.
The inevitable response became more acute. His jaw clenched, the towel dropped slightly. She moved to get comfortable and he gritted out, ‘Kallie, stop moving.’
She felt the hard ridge beneath her and heat flooded her body. The trip back up into the hills was excruciating and by the time they got out, Kallie’s face was hectic with colour, her eyes so bright they looked feverish.
He carried her up to her room and gently stood her outside her bathroom door. She had pulled the towel tight around her upper body and looked anywhere but at the expanse of bare chest in front of her.
‘Do you need help?’
‘No,’ she said quickly, and qualified it. ‘No…thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if—’
‘You need to get out of those wet things before you get a chill.’
She just nodded and went inside, stripped off and had a hot shower. Putting on a voluminous toweling robe, she emerged to find an empty room. Disappointment gushed through her. Then Thea appeared at the door with a look of
concern on her face. Which she quickly masked when she saw Kallie.
She bustled in and got Kallie into bed and Kallie’s final thought before she fell into a dreamless sleep was that maybe Thea wasn’t as cool towards her after all. Maybe she could try again. She refused to think of the dark angel who had saved her tonight, who had held her with such tenderness. Because it hadn’t been. That had been her imagination. He had been functional, that’s all.
When Kallie woke the next morning, her stomach muscles felt tender. She must have sensed something because just as she came fully awake, her door opened. Alexandros. Dressed and looking fresh and bright. Clean shaven. Her belly tightened and she pulled the sheet up around her neck.
He walked in and opened the curtains that covered the French doors leading onto her veranda. He stood looking out for a minute, hands stuck deep in his pockets, and then turned around. ‘How are you feeling today?’
‘Much better, thank you. I’m—’
He slashed a hand in the air. ‘Don’t say sorry, Kallie, you couldn’t help it. You must have some kind of sensitivity to liqueurs. Maybe the shellfish.’
You mean a sensitivity to the past!
She watched warily as he came close to the bed. He looked so tall and imposing and masculine.
‘I’m afraid I have to go to London for a couple of days. One of our ships has had a mutiny of sorts among the crew…’ His mouth quirked. ‘It would appear that only I can sort it out.’
Kallie could suddenly see very well that he would be a good negotiator. Tough but firm. Despite what had happened between them. With those people he’d have no bitterness. It was only with her.
She just nodded. His gaze slanted down at her, unfathomable.
‘Don’t miss me too much while I’m gone…’
She shook her head. ‘I won’t.’
But she would. The realisation mocked her.
‘Oh, I’m sure you won’t, Kallie.’ He smiled briefly, tightly.
CHAPTER TEN
AS ALEXANDROS drove away from the villa, he had to concede that being married to Kallie so far was nothing like he’d expected. And he had a feeling that things were only going to get more complicated. Again he had that funny sensation the perhaps somewhere along the line he’d made a monumental error of judgment. For the first time in his life, he hadn’t bedded a woman he’d desired when he’d wanted. But how he wanted her. If she didn’t come to him when he got back, her time was up. No more waiting. He’d had enough of her coy looks and game-playing.
Kallie went downstairs after a while and found some breakfast left over in the dining room. Feeling edgy and not wanting to look at why, she stacked the plates and made her way to the kitchen. She had finished washing them and had started putting them away when she heard a sound behind her. Thea stood there with a disgusted look on her face. ‘Why do you do this? Why? He is not here now. He doesn’t need to see you pretend to be something you’re not!’
Kallie couldn’t take her words in for a moment. Thea looked so hurt, and angry.
