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He could feel Kallie tense beside him and needed to touch her so badly that it was a physical pain and he pulled her into his side. They chatted for a few minutes more and Pierre left, wagging a finger. ‘I’m going to need her back, Kouros…she’s mine tonight.’
Alexandros couldn’t help the reflex he had to smash a fist into the other man’s face when he said that.
‘Alexandros, you’re hurting me.’ Kallie pulled free and looked up at him. ‘What are you doing here anyway?’
‘I…’
What was he doing there? Had he really been afraid that she’d be in trouble? Or what? That she’d be flirting with other men? So far, from what he’d seen, she was working tirelessly, harder than anyone else in the room. An uncomfortable prickling skated over his skin.
Kallie still had butterflies in her tummy, which had sprung to life when she’d seen him across the room. Ridiculous. She’d known him practically all her life, and now she knew him even better. They were lovers. And she desperately wished they weren’t. But right at that moment she felt as though she were seventeen all over again. The achingly sweet desire that he would have come like that, to see her, meet her at work because he missed her.
She’d gone through all the reasons as to why he might have come…had even dragged Pierre over to give her some time to collect herself. And now an awful thought struck her. Maybe he was going to serve her with the divorce papers here, now, tonight. She surreptitiously looked around him but couldn’t see anything. Just him, leaning back against the glittering bar, nonchalant in his suit and open-necked shirt. Easily the best-looking man in the room.
She remembered his words to Pierre. ‘How can you do that, say that?’
‘What?’
‘Let people think that this is a normal marriage. You said I charmed you into marrying you—’
‘Kallie.’ His face darkened. ‘Would you prefer if I tell people how we came to be married? That you betrayed me and I took advantage of meeting you again to take a convenient wife?’
She shook her head miserably. An ache formed in her throat as he put two hands on her arms and pulled her close again.
She hated herself for reacting, even now. Her head felt heavy as she looked up.
He brushed the back of his hand across her cheek. ‘We do have a real marriage, Kallie. As real as it can be in this day and age. We have great sex—’
His words tore at her. ‘Yes, but that’s all. If we didn’t, you would have divorced me as soon as you could after the wedding, and I wish you had, believe me.’
Two bright spots had appeared on her cheeks and Alexandros could feel her chest heaving against his.
Kallie couldn’t tear her gaze away from his. The room had disappeared, they could have been anywhere. Heat coiled in her belly like a live wire, her breasts tingled and pushed against the fabric of her dress. Alexandros’s gaze grew dark and heavy-lidded.
‘Just let me go, Alexandros.’ For good! ‘I have to get back to work. I’m busy.’
Alexandros felt off balance again, and felt like a fool for coming when he’d had no good reason. He’d acted on an instinct so strong he hadn’t questioned it, and that made him very nervous.
His mouth twisted into a cynical smile. ‘This is a normal marriage. When we get divorced we’ll just be joining the statistics of thousands of others.’
She finally managed to jerk free from his hands and stalked away, determined not to show him how he affected her.
She could feel his eyes bore into her back. Tears threatened, blurring her vision as she walked back through the room, the crowd swallowing her up. Why couldn’t he just leave her alone? Let her go? When would he stop desiring her? She bit her lip. That would be long before she stopped desiring him…and she knew she never would.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
WHEN Kallie arrived back to the apartment that night, she crept in and slipped off her shoes, sagging back against the door with relief. Thank goodness that was over. She felt as if she’d been put through the wringer. She heard a noise and jerked upright, eyes wide, to see Alexandros standing at the door of the living room, in dark slacks, his shirt open at the throat, revealing the bronzed column. Tiredness vanished. Energy pulsed through her body and she felt desire, hot, low and immediate in her belly.
‘What are you doing up? It’s almost three in the morning…’ She couldn’t keep the breathy tone out of her voice.
He walked slowly towards her. ‘I kept you some dinner.’
She gaped. ‘You made dinner?’
He kept coming. She couldn’t go anywhere, her back was to the door. Emotionally and physically. All she knew was that the man she loved was here, with her now, and she felt so weakly happy she could have burst. It must be the tiredness, she
reassured herself, even though that had fled like a cowardly traitor.
He was now so close that she could feel his body heat, smell his particular scent, a hint of musk and citrus. Nothing cloying or artificial. All male, all him.
