Beauty and the Greek (6 page)

‘Or maybe you could get someone my size to take my place—' Beth suggested hopefully. ‘Enough!'

The sharp command cut her off. Beth opened her mouth to protest, then, as her eyes moved from his sensually moulded mouth to his eyes, she stopped abruptly. Something kicked low in her belly, her eyes connected with his hooded stare and a little shiver trickled down her spine.

‘Thank you,' he murmured ironically.

The silence between them ticked on for another few uncomfortable moments before he dragged a hand back and forth across his dark hair, rumpling it and making it stand up spikily at the front.

‘You should consider professional help with your body issues, but I am not a therapist.'

‘No, you're the big boss.'

‘You don't seem impressed?'

‘Of course I'm impressed. You sit at a big desk that is never untidy because you don't do any work—you just make decisions. Which I am sure is very difficult,' she jeered.

The breath whistled through his clenched teeth. ‘I have had a very trying day and my patience is limited. It might not be a good idea to wind me up, Elizabeth.'

Beth flung up her hands in an attitude of utter frustration. ‘
You've
had a trying day?' My God, she had not credited him with a sympathetic nature but, even by his egocentric standards, this statement struck her as incredibly selfish. ‘Have you been sitting there all afternoon while people poke, prod, peel and act like you're some sort of freak of nature? My skin is wrong, my hair is wrong, my…'

Without any warning, he took her chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilted her face up to him. Beth froze, her mouth half open, her pupils dilating as she lifted her eyes to meet his.

A slow insolent smile tugged at the corners of his sensual mouth but his dark eyes stayed sombre as he ran a finger slowly down the curve of her cheek.

Beth had no control over the shiver that ran through her body in response to the light touch. Mouth dry, she swallowed. Her heart was thudding, the charge in the air made it hard for her to catch her breath.

‘If they criticised your skin, they are fools,' he pronounced, rubbing the pad of his thumb along her jaw. ‘It is perfect and flawless like silk.' His lifted his hand and pushed his long fingers in her hair, an expression that had all the hallmarks of compulsion sliding into his eyes as his fingertips grazed her scalp.

Beth flinched and pulled back, shocked clear of the creeping paralysis that had nailed her to the spot by the
shock of the electric surge that tingled along her nerve endings.

‘Nothing I say will convince you that you look fantastic, will it?' His questioning gaze swept across her flushed upturned features.

She shook her head and watched the annoyance and frustration flash in his eyes. Breathing fast and uncomfortably conscious of the heat low in her belly, Beth ran her tongue across her lips, unwittingly drawing his attention to the soft curve.

Unable to explain the physical effect he had on her, she lifted her chin and took a casual step backwards.

Foiling her attempt to regain some personal space, he shadowed her action and then took another step, standing way too close. She couldn't think; she couldn't breathe.

‘I thought not.' His thumb skimmed lightly over the curve of her cheek before he slid his fingers down the pale column of her neck; he could feel the vibration of the pulse at the base of her throat through his fingertips.

His touch was light. There was nothing stopping her just stepping away, but she didn't; the powerful aura of raw sexuality he radiated froze her to the spot. She had never been physically aware of a man the way she was of Theo.

The seething intensity in his stare made her shiver. His dark sensual gaze sealed to her face, he curved a hand across her behind and pulled her into his body. Beth lifted her hands to push him away but somehow they stayed where they were against his chest. Palms flat, she spread her fingers, conscious as she did so of the hard solidity of his chest, the heat of his skin and the vibration of his strong beating heart.

Her own heart was acting like a captured bird throwing itself against her ribcage.

The corners of his sensual mouth tugged upwards in a
smile that spelt danger as Theo reached his other hand to cup the back of her head.

She swallowed past the emotional thickness aching in her throat and opened her mouth a split second before Theo covered it with his own.

Shock held her immobile.

Eyes wide, she stood there while his lips settled against her own, then, as his tongue slid between her parted lips, her eyes drifted shut. Without knowing how it happened, she was kissing him back, her arms curved around his neck as her feet left the floor. Above the roaring in her ears she heard a soft fractured moan but did not associate it with herself.

When he released her Beth took a staggering step backwards, batting away the steadying hand he extended as she wiped a hand across her trembling mouth. The seductive mixture of passion and dazed shock in her glazed eyes made Theo want to kiss her again.

‘Was that actually necessary?' she asked, even as she asked herself how she had come to be kissing him back. He wasn't Andreas; she didn't even like him.

‘I think so,' he responded calmly. ‘Do you believe me now that you look incredible?'

She blinked. ‘You kissed me to—' It was an explanation, but not one that explained the raw driving need she had glimpsed in his face.

‘I kissed you because you weren't listening.' It did not seem necessary to add that he had wanted to kiss her, that the idea of doing so had been growing all day until it had become a constant distraction.

It had been a two birds with one stone situation—satisfy his curiosity and remove the distraction.

In theory, at least.

‘The only thing you proved is that you know how to kiss, though, frankly, given your press, I was expecting better.'

There was a short startled silence before he burst out laughing. ‘Andreas will spontaneously combust when he sees you in that dress.'

She stared at him, her frown morphing into a wary smile. ‘Seriously?'

‘Seriously,' he agreed drily.

Beth gazed at him in amazement and said cautiously. ‘You really
like
the way I look?'

He dragged a brown hand over his dark hair and looked exasperated. ‘I thought I had already demonstrated that. Perhaps I am losing my knack.'

‘Oh, no, you're not.' Blushing fierily the moment the uncensored and heartfelt words left her lips, Beth willed the floor at her feet to open up.

‘It is not me you need to drive wild with lust.'
Wild
was a slight overstatement, he told himself, because he was still in control.

Control was not a problem for him.

The derision in his tone brought a mortified flush to her cheeks. ‘That would be a nightmare.' Not to mention about as probable as her being offered the lead in a West End musical—she was tone deaf.

As her antagonistic gaze slid to his mouth, Beth was conscious of a tight fist of heat low in her stomach as her eyes traced the sensual curve. She lowered her glance quickly, catching her full lip between her teeth—she refused to think
wild
and
lust
in the same sentence as Theo Kyriakis!

It was just too uncomfortable.

The woman who did drive this man
wild with lust
had her total sympathy because the impeccable tailoring and cultured aloof manner was only a thin veneer; peel it away and Beth was pretty sure that on a sexual level he was not
the sort of man who held back and being on the receiving end of all that raw sexuality…?

Beth gave a little shudder. Some women might find the dark, brooding stuff exciting but she was definitely not one of them; she'd prefer to plug herself into a million volts of neat electricity and half suspected the effect would be much the same.

‘I was simply asking for the male viewpoint; you are a man.' She blinked as her eyes connected with his and thought, actually, he was probably more masculine than any other man on the planet! ‘I've no desire to send anyone wild with lust,' she promised him truthfully.

All the same, it was hard not to wonder what Theo would look like in the grip of uncontrollable lust. The kiss had been controlled, devastating but basically a means of proving a point.

It had proved he was a very good kisser but with that mouth it had always been sort of a given.

Without warning, Theo leaned towards her and Beth pushed the maverick thought away as she took a step backwards and collided with a chair; it fell over with a clatter and she would have overbalanced if he hadn't shot out a hand to steady her.

‘You can't pull away when I touch you,' he warned irritably.

‘Why would you touch me?' And would touching include more kissing? Her sensitive stomach muscles flipped at the prospect.

‘Because the more I touch you, the more
I
find you fascinating and the more Andreas will want to touch you too and the more Ariana will want to scratch your eyes out.'

The groove above his aquiline nose deepened as he studied the smooth skin of her face. He had not anticipated this degree of success, or the very real probability that Ariana's
anger might be aimed at her made-over rival. Theo was becoming uneasily aware that Elizabeth Farley was not equipped to deal with the likes of Ariana.

He pushed away the unease and reminded himself that he would be there to act as a buffer and keep Ariana in line.

‘I'm glad you think it's funny.' Even as she spoke, she realised he had stopped smiling and was looking pretty grim.

‘Don't worry. I will protect you.'

Her gaze drifted to his mouth and Beth experienced a scary little rush of excitement. ‘And who is going to protect me from you?'

He gave a sardonic smile. ‘Andreas—isn't that the whole point of this?'

She moved and caught sight of her reflection in the fulllength mirror. Panic shot through her and she suddenly felt as if there was a heavy weight pressing down on her chest and she couldn't breathe.

She covered her face with her hands. ‘I'm beginning to wonder if there ever was a point to any of this.'

‘Don't bail out on me now, Elizabeth.' He could literally see the throb of her heartbeat beneath the black silk. ‘What's the worst that can happen?' he asked, pitching his voice low as if he were soothing a nervous horse.

Some of the calm in his voice seeped into Beth. She dropped her hands, exhaled and lifted her chin. Her gran had never had much sympathy for any kind of cowardice.

Though Beth doubted Gran had had this situation in mind when she had advised facing your fears.

She gave him a direct look. ‘The worst already has happened.'

He arched a dark questioning brow.

A distracted expression fogged Beth's angry gaze as the memories intruded; for one brief moment inside her head
she could taste him, feel him, smell… She drew a shaky inhalation, wiped a hand across her lips and pushed away the images.

His grin flashed, though it did not reach his eyes as he recalled the soft lost cry she had moaned into his mouth. ‘There you go—it's all up from here on in.'

‘I wish I could share your optimism,' she said, thinking that life had been far simpler when she had been unable to recognise the charm in Theo Kyriakis's smile.

B
ETH
was silent on the journey to the restaurant but it was clear to Theo that she was bursting to say something.

He unbuckled his seat belt and turned to her; the woman was hard work. ‘All right; spit it out.'

‘There's one thing you haven't considered,' she said, looking worried.

‘I doubt that.'

His confidence irritated her. ‘Why—because you always think of everything?' His conceit really was incredible.

‘Not on this occasion, it would seem,' he said, looking at her soft pink mouth and feeling a strong urge to kiss her again; this fixation was a possibility he had not considered.

‘While you're pretending to…to…' He arched a questioning brow and she glared at him and said angrily, ‘Fancy me.'

Her gruff embarrassment drew a laugh from Theo and the need to kiss her intensified.

She slung him a look of angry reproach. ‘What about your girlfriend—how is she going to feel? I know it's acting, but will she?'

‘I do not encourage jealousy in my girlfriends.'

Beth rolled her eyes. No, she thought, he encouraged long
legs and cut glass profiles. Maybe it was a genetic thing, she mused gloomily. Andreas went for much the same.

Though their tastes did differ in one significant area. Theo Kyriakis, if his brother and the things she'd read were accurate, appeared to date almost exclusively high achievers, successful in their own field, women in high profile jobs who were sophisticated and stylish—none of them looked the needy type.

Andreas, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind needy so long as the needy female in question greeted every comment he made with breathless wonder and told him he was marvellous.

Shocked by the disloyal direction of her thoughts, Beth scowled.

‘Whether you encourage it or not, there is no way your girlfriend is going to be happy if she finds out you've been…flirting with me.'

‘If it makes you any happier, there is no girlfriend at present.' And there hadn't been for three months, which might account for the difficulty he was having keeping his mind off the idea of kissing her again.

Her eyes flew wide.
‘Seriously?'
She shook her head, her brows twitching into a straight line. ‘Why?' His expression made her realise that she was trespassing in areas that were none of her business, though, in justification, he did not feel similarly inhibited when it came to delving into her personal affairs—such as they were.

‘Sorry, it's none of my business, it just seemed a bit—'

He regarded her with a satirical glint in his dark eyes and prompted, ‘A bit…?'

‘Well, if you must know—odd.'

‘Why would it be
odd
that I have no woman in my—'

As he was speaking, a distracting image drifted through
her head and, without thinking, Beth voiced the basic content, ‘Bed.'

His brows lifted towards his dark hairline. ‘Life.'

Beth flushed at the dry rebuttal and bit her lip.

There was a speculative gleam in his eyes as he watched her, running his hand back and forth across his short hair. ‘You appear a little fixated on my sex life, Elizabeth.'

An accusation that was hard for her to deny—though she fully intended to—maybe this sort of thing happened to any female who lingered too long this close to that aura of raw sex he projected, even when his hair was sticking up spikily.

Beth experienced a sudden strong urge to smooth down those dark strands. Instead, she picked up a glossy magazine from a holder and began to flick through it.

‘We are not talking platonic relationships or a meeting of minds.' The graphic images of his naked body were a product of a sick mind—
hers
! ‘And don't call me
Elizabeth
,' she added, a hint of desperation creeping into her voice.

‘It suits you,' he pronounced, studying her face as she caught her lower lip between her teeth. Her wide eyes were wary; the flush of colour along her cheekbones emphasised the delicate bone structure that had previously been hidden by the heavy curtain of hair she invariably let fall over her face. ‘And I like it.'

‘Oh,
you
like it,' she drawled. ‘That makes it all right then.'

Her acid sarcasm drew a smile from Theo.

Beth blinked and, heart beating too fast, lowered her eyelashes in a protective sweep. The smile softened the habitual hauteur of his expression, smoothing out some of the ingrained lines of cynicism bracketing his sternly sensual mouth; even she had to concede he was an incredible
looking man and when he smiled, like now… If he didn't have a girlfriend it was
definitely
out of choice, but the question in her mind still remained—‘Why?'

 

‘Why?'
Theo mused. She was posing a question he had asked himself on several occasions over the last three months. It was not from lack of opportunity. A man in his position would never lack offers of female companionship. This was an opinion formed more of cynicism than vanity. Women were attracted to position and power and he had no problem dating a woman who was more interested in what he represented than him.

In fact it suited him. He had no desire to be with a woman who
loved
him for himself, which would require that he gave more of himself than he had any desire to do.

Life was too short for the complications of emotional involvement and romantic love, if such a thing existed, was something he actively avoided, not aspired to.

Unconscious she had voiced the question for a second time until he echoed it, Beth stared at him blankly for a moment before lifting her chin. ‘It's a fair question,' she lied defensively. ‘You're the sort of man who has all the accessories—a flashy car, an expensive watch…' her eyes flickered to his wrist and she gave a smile; the watch was there, the dull metal gleaming against his dark skin ‘…and the obligatory blonde.'

Beth had to fight all the instincts that screamed retreat as Theo leaned towards her.

‘Tonight I have a brunette.' He closed his eyes and inhaled.

‘Mousey—' she corrected, adding, ‘—are you smelling my hair?'

‘No, I'm smelling you.'

Was that meant to make her feel better?

Theo grinned into her astonished face and got out of the car, leaving her to achieve as dignified an exit as she could muster before he placed a wrap around her shoulders.

‘You're on,' he whispered in her ear as he placed an arm around her waist.

Beth recognised the chef who emerged from the kitchen to greet Theo from the television. The two men spoke for a few minutes, drifting seamlessly from French, which Theo spoke fluently, to English before Theo drew her forward and introduced her.

The chef—apparently she was to call him Louis—kissed her hand with Gallic charm, saying some charming things that made Beth flush before he released her back to Theo.

‘Your party are already here, I think, Theo?'

Theo received the information in stony silence; he had seen Louis's charm offensive before and found it amusing, but he discovered that it had lost some of its entertainment value for him.

Considering the French chef's reputation for showing diners who offended him the door—though, admittedly, it was hard to imagine anyone pulling that sort of stunt with Theo—Beth just hoped she had smiled in the right places because her nervous anticipation of the ordeal ahead had made it difficult for her to focus on what the famous man was saying.

She felt Theo's fingers tighten on her elbow as the maître d' confirmed their party was indeed already here. He was right to be worried; had it been an option, she would have been running in the opposite direction about now but she was operating on autopilot, capable of doing very little other than hyperventilate and move in the direction the guiding hand on her arm steered her.

The buzz of conversation in the restaurant softened to a soft hum as they entered. Theo barely registered the curious
looks, at least the ones directed at him. ‘So what do you think of Louis?'

Concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, Beth searched for something to say. In truth, the man had made very little impression on her. ‘He's nice…shorter than he looks on the television.'

‘Don't take what he says too literally.' Theo warned as the maître d' led the way.

Even in her present state of abject gibbering terror, Beth registered the peculiar harshness in his voice. She angled a sideways glance at his face and found his expression correspondingly grim.

‘You mean I'm not stunningly beautiful—imagine my shock,' she intoned drily.

His eyes narrowed in annoyance at her deliberate misinterpretation of his comment. ‘I
mean
the man has a libido to match his ego and he has a reputation for…'

Astonished by the cold condemnation in his voice—since when did Theo Kyriakis become a member of the moral majority?—Beth gave a hoot of disbelief and cut across him. ‘I thought the man was your friend, though I admit when it comes to egos you are the expert.'

‘He is my friend, but that doesn't mean I would trust him with my sister.'

This piece of male logic drew a laugh of sheer disbelief from Beth. ‘I'm not your sister.'

Theo looked at the top of her glossy head and realised that if his plan worked there was a strong possibility that one day she could be.

It was not a prospect that filled him with joy because the more he got to know this woman the more he realised that she would not suit his brother at all. Under normal circumstances his interest in Andreas's love life was minimal, but the more he saw of Elizabeth Farley the less he could see
them suiting long-term. Maybe that was the problem—she was a long-term sort of female and also just about the most obstinate and opinionated woman he had ever met.

A thoughtful expression drifted across his face. It would be ironic if by solving one problem he might be creating another, but one problem at a time and right now saving his brother from Ariana's talons took priority.

The adrenaline rush generated by their heated, hissed interchange got her halfway across the large room, filled with well dressed diners, before the fear closed back in and her knees started to shake.

‘You're doing great,' Theo murmured in her ear.

At one level amazed and on another a little disturbed that he was so intuitive to her feelings, Beth shivered, aware of the tingling sensation where his warm breath had brushed her skin.

‘Either I'm paranoid or everyone is talking about us.' They were definitely looking—she could feel the critical pairs of eyes drilling into her back like knives.

‘Let them talk; why should you care what these people say? You do not need their approval.'

Beth watched his dark eyes sweep dismissively across the heads of the diners and wished she had his genuine indifference. She doubted if he knew how rare it was. She was positive he didn't begin to understand most people's need for the good opinion of others.

‘Why make their envy your problem?'

Responding to the pressure of the hand he placed in the small of her back, she walked a little ahead of him when the space between two tables made it impossible for them to walk side by side.

If she was in danger of forgetting just how arrogant and conceited Theo was, this comment acted as a timely reminder. ‘So they envy me because I'm with you.'

His brows twitched into a straight line. ‘They envy you because you are beautiful.'

There were a few other responses to her appearance washing around out there; it was not the first time that his female companion had attracted some lecherous stares, but it was the first time his female companion had been oblivious to the fact.

‘Very funny.'

She flashed a resentful scowl up at his face and encountered an expression in Theo's compelling deep-set eyes that made her almost lose her footing.

Beth looked quickly away, her heart beating uncomfortably fast. ‘I didn't know you had a sense of humour,' she muttered, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other—anything but the hard predatory expression she had seen in his eyes.

‘Relax, Elizabeth.'

Conscious that his eyes were watching the erratic rise and fall of her breasts, Theo struggled to follow his own advice. It seemed to him that every lecherous male in the room was similarly fixated.

Relax! Easy for him to say, she thought, sliding an aggrieved sideways glance at Theo's patrician profile. He had a lifetime's experience of people staring at him; he probably enjoyed being the centre of attention.

Though, actually, she mused, risking a second surreptitious glance at his lean face, Theo did not look the picture of cool; she thought, her glance sliding from the clenched angle of his jaw to the muscle throbbing in his cheek, he looked furious.

Before she could speculate further on the cause of his displeasure, the maître d' opened a door at the far end of the room and stood to one side while he waited for them to go through.

Beth held back, quivering from head to toe like a thoroughbred about to enter the slips.

To Theo, who had recently extended his interest in the equestrian world with the acquisition of a racehorse, the analogy seemed apt; she had the same innate elegance and grace of those highly strung, fascinating creatures.

‘You look like you're going to the dentist. Smile, Elizabeth.'

‘I
like
the dentist,' Beth hissed. She put up a moment's token resistance before responding to the light pressure on her shoulder. ‘He is a charming man and I have excellent teeth,' she revealed, flashing the set in question at him in an insincere smile.

He didn't look at her as, pitching his voice to a low intimate rasp, he bent his head to hers. ‘You have an excellent body also.'

Having successfully reduced her to angry blushing with the added bonus of pliant confusion, Theo casually looped an arm around her waist.