Page 26 of Bought by the Greek Tycoon

es and stepped into them, but she had to walk around the bed to find her shirt. When she did she slipped it on and fastened the buttons with fingers that shook.

Her smile was reassuring, until Luke saw the shadows in her eyes and the haste with which she dressed. Was she regretting their romp in the decadent bed? Or was she remembering her last husband and wishing it had been he she had shared the experience with? The unbidden thought popped into his head.

No—surely not. If Luke had learned anything about his beautiful wife in the last few days it was that for a woman who had been married before she was oddly inexperienced in the bedroom—though flatteringly eager to make love. He had felt it in her tentative touch, seen the shock in her eyes and felt the slight resistance as he had delved into the fiery curls between her legs with his tongue and tipped her into a shuddering climax. It was something she had never experienced before, she had confided breathlessly. He had heard it in her startled exclamation—I didn't know that was possible—after a particularly adventurous episode in the spa bath, and this morning in her assertion that she had never heard of male morning arousal. Perhaps her late husband hadn't had much of a sex drive.

He watched her slip her small pink-toed feet into her sandals. He loved her feet… His mind drifted away as his eyes slid up over her. He loved everything about her. Her glorious hair fell down her back in silken disarray, her face was free of make-up, glowing in the aftermath of sex, and the swollen contours of her lush lips made him want to kiss her again. Love her again…

Jemma had turned out to be an amazing lover… shy, but growing bolder by the day. Remembering her laughter when she had thrown open the door of this room, the eagerness with which she had come into his arms, had him aroused again in an instant. His gaze dropped to her cleavage as she fumbled with the buttons of her shirt. He had never seen her wear a bra, but then she didn't need to. She was as natural as the flowers she adored, and, if anything, more exquisite than any specimen known to man. But she had known another man…

There it was again. The infantile curiosity to know what her last husband had been like as a lover. Damn it all, why was he bothered? It wasn't like him at all. With all the women he had known in his life he'd never had any desire to know about their previous partners, and he never discussed the women in his past. He knew he was a good lover, and he knew he made Jemma happy in bed; that was all that mattered, wasn't it…? He realised she had moved to the door. 'Leaving so soon?'

Jemma slanted him a glance over her shoulder. 'Yes. You've seen the place now, and we'll be back the day after tomorrow with the architect. You were right about the house; it will make a decent holiday home. But in my opinion it's not really suitable for Theo to live in; the access is far too difficult.' And without waiting for his response she opened the door and dashed down the hall out into the fresh air.

As she turned her back on him and shot out of the room it hit Luke like a blow to the solar plexus that keeping Jemma happy in bed was not all that mattered to him. He wanted more, much more. He wanted her to be incapable of walking away from him: he wanted to be the centre of her universe…

He, Luke Devetzi, who had never believed in love, was totally smitten. He had tried to deny it in his mind ever since their first encounter, because he had thought she was married. But suddenly he recognised the truth. He had been celibate for a year after meeting Jemma, and as a man who had never gone more than a couple of months without a woman since he was a teenager he should have realised something was wrong. It had been sheer desperation that had led him into dating Davina. But from the minute he'd seen Jemma again, and realised she was free, with single-minded determination he had plotted and planned and spent a fortune to make her his.

Stunned, he looked around the bedroom—a place designed by past lovers, exciting, but faded now, and certainly not essential to Luke. In fact, he didn't give a damn about the house—it was Theo's dream, not his—and yet he had used both it and her father's actions to force Jemma into marrying him.

Oh, hell… How could he hope she would fall in love with him, given the way he had behaved? In fact, if this gut-wrenching terrified feeling was love, he wasn't sure he wanted it.

Jemma took a deep steadying breath as she walked slowly down to the water's edge.

'I take it an orgy is out, then?' Luke appeared at her side and she lifted her eyes to meet the dryly amused expression on his face.

'You've got that right,' she shot back smartly. 'I want to get back to our comfortable hotel and be waited on hand and foot.'

Luke took her face between his hands; her hair was loose and gleaming golden in the sun. Her eyes lifted slightly warily to his, for all her smart comment, and he wanted to tell her then how he felt, to see the wariness fade from her incredible eyes, see them glow with a deeper emotion. But he didn't. Instead he took her mouth with his own in a long tender kiss. Jemma was his now; he would do everything in his power to keep her, and that was all he needed to know…

CHAPTER TEN

But on Thursday, after Luke had shown Paul the architect around the house while Jemma had determinedly stayed outside, he wasn't so sure.

Paul was young, dark and handsome, and his eyes had lit up when he saw the bedroom. But they'd lit up a hell of a lot more when, after he had sketched a rough plan, they'd exited the house and found Jemma lying on a towel on the beach in a minuscule bikini.

It struck Luke that, much as he appreciated Jemma's fantastic body, he was nowhere near happy to see other men appreciate it as well. Nor was he at all pleased by the architect's rather sly aside in Greek, 'Are you sure you want to get rid of that bedroom?'

Luke gave him a gimlet-eyed stare that knocked the smile from his lace, and fixed his attention on his wife.

'You've had enough sun for one day, Jemma,' he snapped, and reached down a hand to pull her to her feet. Picking up the towel, he wrapped it around her shoulders. He saw the surprise and query in her amber eyes and realised he had sounded harsh. But then he had never suffered from jealousy before…

How are the mighty fallen, Luke thought, and smiled wryly down at her, wrapping her possessively in the curve of his arm. 'The architect has done a rough sketch; I'm sure you'll like it, Jemma.' And, indicating the garden and the jetty with his hand, he explained, 'The house will be extended on that side in an L shape, to provide four bedrooms, incorporating a boat house to end at the landing stage and solving the problem of Theo's safe arrival and departure.'

She glanced up at him through the thick veil of her lashes. 'You mean obliterate the garden and rockery?'

'Yes. It makes perfect sense. Don't you see?' he said with growing enthusiasm. 'That side catches the sun all afternoon, and a veranda will run along the length of the building for shade. The rest will be a paved courtyard, for dining out, and you can have potted palms, plants, flowering creepers, anything you like. There will be very little maintenance involved.'

'No,' she rejected bluntly, and, twisting out of his arm, she ignored Luke and said to Paul, 'Sorry, you'll have to think of some other way; perhaps a second storey on the house, or restoring the original two bedrooms?'

Luke was puzzled and a little put out at her instant dismissal of the plan. 'Be sensible, Jemma, that's the only spare land there is. And as I recall you damaged your fingers building the rockery. The garden isn't necessary with the natural beauty of the bay all around.'

'It is to me,' she said flatly, avoiding his gaze.

He knew she loved gardening, but she was being ridiculous and he was becoming annoyed, it's all right,' he said to Paul. 'Show my wife the sketch and I'm sure when she realises how stunning it will be she'll agree.' But, to his amazement, Jemma took the sketch that Paul held out to her, glanced at it, and then tore it into little pieces.

'I'm afraid my husband has misled you, Paul. This house is mine, and only mine, and if there are any alterations to be done they will be ordered and approved by me, and only me. Isn't that right, Luke?' she demanded, lifting hard angry eyes to his. 'As I recall

, it's set out as such in our pre-nup,' she reminded him scathingly. 'You keep what's yours and I keep what's mine. And now, if you will excuse me, I'm going for a swim.' Shrugging off the towel, she ran down the beach and into the sea.

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