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CHAPTER TWO
‘IF’WASWAY better than what she’d come here expecting. In her heart of hearts, she’d been almost certain that his answer would be no, so it was a sign of how desperate Tessa was that she’d even gone through with this.
‘If’ was the starting of a negotiation. Her insides squished with a mix of adrenaline and anxiety.
‘I’d like to hear them,’ she said unsteadily.
He took two steps towards her, closing the distance and knocking her nerves sideways. Her heart stammered inside her ribcage and despite the fact she wasn’t an inexperienced, sheltered twenty-two-year-old any more, for a moment she sure felt like one.
She held her breath as he came to stand right in front of her, his alpine scent dangerously addictive, so she inhaled deeply before she could stop herself, tasting him at the back of her throat and wanting... Her eyes flared wide as she immediately tamped down on her illicit thoughts. This wouldn’t work if she wanted him. Desire was a double-edged sword; she’d felt the sting of its blade before and would do whatever she could to avoid that.
‘So?’ she asked, the word emerging as a husky prompt.
His smile was slow to spread, and it made her tummy feel all hollowed out.
‘Tell me about the kind of marriage you’d imagine us having.’
‘That’s a question, not a term.’
He dipped his head in agreement.
Rather than argue on a technicality, she acknowledged it was fair for him to want to understand exactly how this would work.
‘We’d have to live together,’ she said haltingly. ‘At least initially. Thanks to Jonathan, there’s a level of public scrutiny around my private life.’ She couldn’t contain a small shudder. ‘Obviously, I’m hopeful that will die down. At some point, I would imagine we could go back to living almost completely independently.’
‘I see.’
‘It would really be a marriage in name only. We’d give the media a new angle, and hopefully Jonathan’s relevance would fade into obscurity. But more than that, most importantly,’ her voice trembled, ‘Dad would have some peace of mind, at the end of his life.’
His obsidian eyes didn’t move. If he was touched by concern for her father, he didn’t show it. Such was the power of Alexandros Zacharidis. He was a skilled negotiator, an intimidating executive. ‘And what if I told you I’d want more than that?’ he asked, his eyes probing her, reading her, so she suspected he could see all her doubts and uncertainties, and so much more.
‘Which brings us back to your terms,’ she pointed out, huskily. ‘Why don’t you tell me what they are, so we can decide if this will work? I’m prepared to be flexible,’ she added, after a beat.
His eyes were gently mocking, and her insides turned to goo.
‘Am I to understand you’re suggesting a marriage without intimacy?’
Heat scored her nerves even as painful memories of her own marriage turned her veins to ice. Her crisp nod was belied by her stuttering voice. ‘Behind closed doors, we wouldn’t need to pretend we were anything more than...polite acquaintances.’
‘Is that what we are?’ The words held a gruff challenge.
‘We haven’t seen each other in years,’ she pointed out acerbically. ‘I don’t know if we could even say we’re acquainted any more.’
‘And yet you came to me and poured out your heart, begging me to help you.’
She swallowed, her throat scratchy and dry. ‘Was that a mistake?’
‘The mistake was in thinking the marriage you’re suggesting would ever work.’
Her insides twisted and uncertainty lurched through her. ‘Why wouldn’t it?’
Another laugh, so soft it was as though it had been designed just for her ears, and his husky warmth floated across, teasing the sensitive skin of her neck. ‘We cannot ignore what happened between us.’ She could barely look at him.
‘That was for ever ago,’ she said, unconvincingly.
‘And you think it wouldn’t happen again?’
Her eyes flew to his face. He moved closer, his expression a mask of grim determination, and her pulse went into overdrive.
