Page 26 of The Greek Tycoon's Baby Bargain

‘Well, I don’t want to live in one of those bleak-looking penthouses which resemble some kind of laboratory, that’s for sure.’

Xandros gave a short laugh, wondering what his award-winning colleague who’d designed it would think of her dismissive attitude. ‘Perhaps you’d like to tell me what you consider important?’ He forced himself to treat her as if she were one of his clients. ‘If you were given an ideal home—what one thing would it have to make it special?’

That was easy. Well, if you discounted the fairy tale…what had she missed most since moving to the capital? ‘A garden,’ she said instantly. ‘That’s all.’

‘That’s all?’ Xandros gave a wry smile. Ironically, what she wanted was more elusive than any award-winning development. Was she being disingenuous or just genuinely innocent of the market? ‘Garden space in London is like gold-dust.’ He nodded. ‘But I know some people I can get onto it. Let me see to that.’

Rebecca pushed her fingers back through her untidy hair, resenting the way he could just snap his fingers and have a whole assortment of people to do all the running for him—but a feeling which was bigger than resentment was gnawing away at her.

Didn’t he realise that all this wasn’t easy? Going through all the motions of choosing a brand-new home, but without all the normal stuff that most new mothers might expect. Like the shared excitement of a couple in love. All she had was Xandros talking about putting his people onto it, in that cold and uncaring manner. Pretty much the same way that he’d dealt with everything else. ‘Fantastic,’ she said, with faint sarcasm.

His eyes narrowed—her attitude like a slap in the face to his macho Greek pride—and he felt the slow burn of anger, and something else too. Something which had been building inside him no matter how much he had tried to tell himself that it was no longer appropriate. ‘Such a truculent approach, agape,’ he murmured. ‘I thought you might at least be a little grateful.’

‘Did you?’ How many more expectations of her would he have? She had let him name the babies and sleep on her sofa and now she was letting him change the very fabric of her life. Where the hell was this all going to end? Rebecca glanced over at him, steeling herself against the sight of him leaning against the window sill—black denim encasing the muscular thrust of his thighs and a dark cashmere sweater clinging lovingly to the hard lines of his torso.

His black hair was ruffled, the ebony eyes were glittering with life and vitality and there was the dark hint of shadow around the strong jaw. This was Xandros at his most casual and sexy—and, heaven help her, but she wanted him. Was it normal for a woman to feel the slow, heavy ache of desire when she’d only recently given birth? Or was that just because he was Xandros? Because she had loved him and tasted the pleasures of his body so many times that maybe he’d spoilt her for any other man.

Gazing at the soft, olive gleam of his skin and remembering what it felt like to have it wrapped around her naked body, it was easy to forget all their turbulent history—even easier to forget that he was only here because he had to be. He’s only here because of the babies, she reminded herself painfully. She told herself that it shouldn’t hurt, but it did, of course it did—and she found herself wanting to hurt him back. To show him that she wasn’t going to act like a starving puppy who was just grateful for any old scrap he happened to throw in her direction.

‘And does my lack of gratitude rile you, Xandros? Would you like me to throw myself slavishly at your feet? Is that what you’d like?’

He heard the note of defiance in her voice and something like victory began to bubble in his veins. At last! It was the taunt he had wanted, the one which at some deep level of his subconscious he’d been praying for. The casting aside of the polite niceties. The green light to do what he most wanted to do.

Like some dark panther, he moved silently towards her, seeing her violet eyes darken and her rose-petal lips part. ‘What do you think I’d like you to do, agape?’

She wasn’t doing much in the way of thinking, not when standing so close that she could detect that lemony, masculine scent of his—and her senses had automatically begun to silently scream their appreciation and their hunger. Too late she saw the danger of his nearness and the spell it cast over her. And he wielded that danger like a weapon, she realised—he was perfectly aware of his own power. Yet crazily, she didn’t resent it—for wasn’t this the first indication that he still found her desirable? And wasn’t that reassuring, even if it was inappropriate? ‘X-Xandros?’ she breathed. ‘Wh-what is this all about?’

‘Oh, Rebecca. Isn’t it a waste of time to ask a question to which you already know the answer?’ he mocked as he pulled her, soft and unresisting, into his arms.

‘Don’t—’

‘Don’t what, agape? Don’t do what your eyes are begging me to do, even if your mind isn’t quite sure you should be letting me?’

His perception was almost as unsettling as his proximity. His warm breath stirred the tiny hairs on her neck as he whispered against it and Rebecca felt herself begin to shiver—hating the accuracy of his words and hating the sudden clamouring need of her body. His hands were holding her firmly by the waist and it seemed like a lifetime since he had touched her like this.

‘Xandros—’

‘What?’

‘Stop it.’

‘But you don’t want me to. Do you?’ The pad of his thumb began to trace a line over the silken surface of her neck and he felt her shiver beneath his touch. ‘Mmm. You smell delicious and you feel delicious.’

‘I smell of baby-milk.’

‘I know you do. And that’s delicious. You’re delicious.’

Was she? Really? Rebecca felt her heart-rate soar. He murmured as if it did not bother him that her body was still thick after having given birth to his children. As if he didn’t care that she hadn’t washed her hair for two days. And his fingers were moving down to touch the softness of her belly with shocking intimacy, making her yearn to have him drift them downwards and bring her to such quick and effortless pleasure, as he had done so many times in the past. She could feel the honeyed rush of desire and the urgent acceleration of her heart. ‘Xandros!’ she breathed.

‘Do you like that?’

She mocked him back with his own words. ‘Isn’t it a waste of time to ask a question to which you already know the answer?’

He laughed, but it was a laugh edged with anger and frustration and other stuff, too—stuff that he did not want to hold up for analysis. ‘Then let’s stop asking questions and let me kiss you instead.’ Turning her face upwards, he stared down at her wide-eyed expression before he brought his lips down onto hers. She tasted of toothpaste and of coffee and she smelt of baby and he didn’t think he had ever known a more unexpectedly powerful aphrodisiac. Because he had never tasted a woman in these circumstances before? Yes, that had to be it.

‘Rebecca,’ he groaned, against her lips. ‘Oh, Rebecca.’

‘Xandros,’ she whispered back, as if they had just been introduced. Her arms clung to his broad shoulders like a tenacious vine and she could feel her body softening and responding—the ache inside her building by the instant.

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