Kidnapped by the Greek Billionaire (11 page)

With himself.

He had just about managed to calm down in the half hour since hurriedly leaving the bedroom. Kizzy’s vulnerability and innocence had threatened to render him irrationally emotional. Her revelations had crawled right under his skin, touched a raw spot, the deeply hidden wound within him that would never heal. He’d been just a few moments away from making a complete fool of himself. But now he had the situation in perspective. He was in control.

How on earth had he been supposed to know she was a virgin, anyway?

He shook his head and tapped iron on stone as he ran all possible arguments and defenses at his disposal through his mind, but it wasn’t looking good. Not only had he taken a helpless, vulnerable orphan away from her home, he had also made sure that she had nothing practical to return back to. But at least he intended to give her a job and a roof over her head.

Though he’d already offered her both, he reminded himself—and been soundly rejected.

He emitted a hollow laugh as he realized how ridiculous he must have appeared—he’d offered her the “job” of being his mistress and a home that involved sleeping in his bed. No wonder she’d told him where to go!

His stomach clenched at the thought that Kizzy must have told Angie what had happened back at Villa Madeline and begged for an escape route, hence the surprising offer of Liz’s room rent-free, with no strings attached.

The hormones racing around his body must have rendered him temporarily insane to have behaved in such a way. And then he’d practically kidnapped the woman to bring her to the island. He was certifiable.

A monster!

“Something smells good.”

Andreas twisted his head quickly to see Kizzy standing a few feet away with a broad and mischievous grin dancing on her face, her shiny, chestnut curls floating like bronzed feathers in the breeze.

He swallowed deeply and turned his attention back to the glowing charcoal.

Thee mou,
she was so beautiful…

“Orfeas got it started for us before we left this afternoon.”

“Orfeas?”

“An old friend. He lives over the other side of the island and takes care of the place when I’m not here.” He paused. “Which is pretty much most of the time.”

“And he lit all these candles as well?”

“No.” Slowly, Andreas laid the poker down on the hearth. He turned and leaned back against a low wall with his arms folded across his chest. A reluctant smile began to surface; he couldn’t help himself—she looked so mischievous. “I managed that all by myself.”

“It’s beautiful, like a hundred million fireflies dancing around just for us. I love it.” She took up the glass of chilled white wine that Andreas had already poured for her. “I hadn’t pegged you as the romantic type.”

“I’m not,” he replied sharply and straightened up, reaching for his own glass of wine. “It keeps the bloody mosquitoes at bay.”

“Well that’s a relief,” she said, seemingly oblivious to his brusque response. “Can’t have you going soft on me now, can we?”

Andreas’s eyes opened wider at her cheeky innuendo, but he resisted the urge to engage in further sexually charged banter in case he had misinterpreted her remark. This wasn’t the Kizzy Dean he was accustomed to sparring with; something had changed behind those mystic blue eyes. She seemed to be in an unaccountably high-spirited mood. Or maybe this was the prelude to a vicious fight. He could never tell with women—one minute they were sweet as honey and the next hissing and spitting at him like alley cats.

“Listen, about earlier—”

“About us falling into bed together like a couple of sex-starved teenagers, you mean?”

“If you want to put it like that—”

“I forgot to thank you,” Kizzy interrupted him again and took a quick swig of her wine. “I couldn’t have planned losing my virginity any better if I tried. A beautiful Greek island, a powerful and experienced lover—how much better could it have been?”

“Kizzy, about that. If I’d known—”

“You wouldn’t have done it?” Kizzy took a couple of steps closer, looking up at him. “I already know that, I’m not stupid. With all the women you could take your pick from, why on earth would you choose to take a chubby virgin like me to your bed?”

“That wasn’t what I was going to say,” he replied, with a distinct feeling of unease. “And you’re not chubby, you’re—you’re astonishingly beautiful.”

“Good enough to get the mistress job, then?”

“Ah.” Andreas edged cautiously away as she ran a slender finger up the length of his forearm. “Now, when I came up with that idea I wasn’t thinking things through clearly and—and I can understand perfectly why you turned me down. It was an undignified proposition. I don’t know what came over me, and I apologize.”

“I’d call it lust, Andreas,” she purred, and placed her wine glass carefully on the low wall behind him. “And you did start all this, didn’t you?”

She nudged the flat metal button that fastened his shorts with a knuckle.

“I rather like the idea now, so maybe I can make you a new proposition?”

“I’m listening,” he replied unsteadily and hissed in a breath as her fingers trailed lazily over the sudden bulge between his legs.

“The mistress thing was
a bad idea, Andreas, but not because I don’t want to sleep with you—I just don’t want to be paid for doing it. I want a job—a proper one. Independence is very important to me.”

“I understand, of course. I’m sorry—”

“I haven’t finished yet.” She moved close enough to lightly press herself against the thin fabric of his T-shirt. With a shock, he felt her erect nipples and looked down into seductive blue eyes. “I now know how incredible your body makes mine feel, and I want more. Lots more. I’m only talking about sex, Andreas. Hot, steamy, unrelenting sex until we’ve had enough of each other, really worked this thing out of our systems. No strings, no promises, no commitments.”

“No love?”

“No love.” Kizzy smiled up at him. “We don’t believe in that, do we?”

A slow, incredulous, answering smile began to spread across Andreas’s face too as she peppered small, delicate kisses along his jaw, lightly teasing the corner of his mouth with the tip of her tongue.

“Heaven help me, Kizzy, what have I done to you?”

He took her small waist firmly between his hands and looked down into the swirling dark blue of her eyes to see if part of the innocent girl he had first met was still in there. But all he could see was a fire, a burning, amethyst flame of desire that was drawing him closer and closer with its spell.

“You’ve brought the woman out in me, Andreas. For the first time in my life I feel truly alive, as if I could do anything I wanted in the world. It’s a wonderful feeling and I want to enjoy it while it lasts.” Her eyes flickered uncertainly over his face. “So what do you say?”

“I’m speechless,” he replied with a shrug and noticed immediately how her face suddenly dropped, as if believing she had just made a big mistake, as if sensing she was about to be rejected.

He’d seen that look many times before, just before dumping some overattentive lover who had become tedious and emotionally demanding. He’d always tried to do it in a gentle, sympathetic way, but breaking up a relationship was something he seemed incapable of handling delicately. The trouble was, once things had gotten to that stage he was so thoroughly sick of the situation that he became desperate to get it over and done with as quickly and ruthlessly as possible.

Perhaps he should take note and learn from his own experience to nip things in the bud much sooner in the future—to avoid such unpleasantness. He had to be sure, to be quite certain, what was expected of him.

“No strings, no promises, and no commitments—just sex?”

“Yes.”

“It’s as simple and uncomplicated as that?” Andreas rolled his thumbs over the bony part of her hips. “There has to be a catch.”

“Just one.” Kizzy drew herself up by standing on her bare tiptoes and playfully nipped his chin. “I need feeding at least three times a day.”

Chapter Ten

Andreas stroked Kizzy’s dark hair as she slept blissfully in the master bedroom, in his bed, tucked warmly into his body. He thought back to the afternoon before when she had given him her virginity. He was now regretting not having prolonged the experience of their first time together—it was a special moment they could never recapture, but he vowed there and then to make the most of every single second they had together.

He listened to the beating of his own heart for the first time in years as her breath feathered over his chest and a ripple of delirious pleasure zinged through him.

They had spent the previous star-spangled evening eating with their fingers, drinking, and swapping silly jokes into the early hours of the morning. It had been one of the most enjoyable nights he could ever remember and he had laughed, yes laughed, until his belly ached at some of the wild things Kizzy had come out with.

She was irreverent and insubordinate, fresh and intriguing. He’d sat opposite her tiny feet, propped up on the table and grubby from walking around barefoot, and listened as she chattered about nonsense into the night. She had delighted him in a way that he had never thought possible. The still, heady warmth of the night had been fragmented only by the whisper of the ocean and the gasps and cries of their urgent sex.

The hum of his worked muscles and a low nag at the very back of his mind were both trying to issue him with a timely warning. But he chose to ignore it and allowed his head to sink luxuriously back into the depths of the deep, cool pillows.

He breathed in extravagantly and reveled in the moment once more.

This small, rude, velvety, adorable creature was fun, but he resisted the urge to wake her up even though he was missing their playful, waking banter.

He was busy making plans.

So she insisted on having a boring old job? He could deal with that, but how he was going to let her out of his bed long enough to go to it was a problem he’d have to work around somehow. And he’d also have to make sure there weren’t any male colleagues around her, he thought with an uncomfortable burst of possessiveness.

He rubbed quietly at his brow. No, cheating wasn’t a possibility he was prepared to even consider—she was
his
woman now, but the nagging worry would not go away.

Would she be tempted? She had thanked him for taking her virginity, as if it was something she couldn’t wait to be rid of—maybe this was just the beginning for her, the start of some pioneering sexual adventure that didn’t necessarily involve him any further.

Hell, he was getting carried away in his own head! He was becoming insanely jealous at the mere idea of Kizzy’s having another man in her life, and that wasn’t the deal they’d made. Not in the long term, anyway.

Andreas rubbed the back of his neck. Somehow she’d gotten under his skin.

His mind went blank for a moment as he tried to untangle his thoughts, and his eyes were beginning to hurt. He needed to get back on planet Lazarides quickly. He needed to keep Kizzy under his control—to protect her from opportunists and those who might hurt her; she seemed so naïve about people.

But before he could do that he needed to get a grip on himself.

When Andreas emerged from the shower ten minutes later, Kizzy was gone, just a crumpled pillow where her head had been. A sense of loss hit him, which was ridiculous as she had every right to get out of bed and wander off if she wanted to. There was no reason she should stay within a few feet every moment of the day.

But a persistent little voice in his head informed him that he wanted her to do exactly that.

Where had she gone?

He wrestled on his robe and shoved his way through the bedroom door, marching much more quickly than necessary down the silent corridor.

…

Kizzy jumped with fright as Andreas’s grimly set face appeared through the door, the force of his shoulder causing it to slam roughly into the stone wall.

“What on earth’s the matter?”

He shrugged himself upright, running a hand through his wet, unruly hair.

“Nothing,” he replied in stiff acknowledgement. “I need coffee that’s all.” He must have noticed the bemused look on her face as she stood motionless with a spoon drooping in her hand, because he added, “To wake myself up.”

“I thought we were being ambushed or something,” she half laughed. “Slow down!”

His eyes flickered around the kitchen and, if Kizzy wasn’t mistaken, he seemed to be struggling to say something.

“Are you all right?” she ventured gently, putting down the spoon and taking a step toward him.

He took her by the shoulders, closing his eyes as he buried his face in her hair and breathed in her spicy floral scent. “I just wondered where you were, that’s all,” he murmured.

“Well, it was probably reckless,” Kizzy replied as she wriggled in his embrace, “but I thought I’d make a start on breakfast—surprise you.”

Andreas smiled. “So what are we having, pethi mou?”

“Um, well, I’d gotten as far as
finding
the coffee.”

“Then let me take over,” he replied as he took the spoon from the table. “Your kitchen slave days are over now, and besides, I want to spoil you.”

“Wow.” Kizzy rewarded him with a wicked grin. “Do I pay for this later?”

“You most certainly do. In kind. You’re quite good at that but I can’t yet vouch for your coffee.” He shot her a look of admonishment. “And if we don’t stop getting distracted, madam, it’ll be lunchtime before either of us gets fed!”

He fended off her playful jab in the ribs with his elbow and felt laughter rising within him as she grabbed the belt of his robe and gave it a suggestive tug.

“I’m serious. If we don’t get out of the villa very quickly, I will be driven to taking you back to bed again.” He stroked a palm over the rounded swell of her bottom. “And that will be the entire day gone, won’t it?”

“It’s so beautiful here, so peaceful. I feel as if I could stay here forever,” Kizzy mused as she brushed breakfast crumbs off the robe she was wearing on to the stones of the outside terrace.

“You can if you like,” Andreas murmured.

Kizzy laughed uneasily as she noticed the serious expression on his face. He was astonishingly beautiful.

Their eyes locked for a few seconds before he lowered his gaze to his coffee cup.

She shouldn’t allow herself to imagine things that weren’t really there. It was just sex—a temporary, no-strings arrangement between consenting adults.

“No, I can’t stay, Andreas. You freed me from my ties in England, gave me my wings and now… When all this is over and I’ve paid back what I owe, I have to chase the dreams I never thought I could fulfill.”

“You don’t have to pay me back, Kizzy. I thought I’d made that clear.”

“But I
do
,” she replied with widened eyes. “It’s important to me, to stand on my own two feet—to be independent.”

Andreas ground his teeth silently before replying. “So what are these dreams, Kizzy? Tell me exactly what you want at this stage of your new life.”

Kizzy eyed him warily, unsure if she should open herself up fully to this beautiful man. He’d taken the body she had so eagerly offered up to him over and over again, but was she ready to give him a secret, tender slice of her soul as well?

“They’re all a bit low-key.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” he replied and placed his coffee cup down on the table with a look of intense purpose.

Kizzy took a deep breath. “Well, we never had a decent kitchen. I’d like an ultra-cozy one with enough room to have a long, wooden table and a bashed-up old sofa in the corner—with a fat cat sleeping on it. And copper pans.”

She shot him a sharp look to gauge his reaction, but his face gave nothing away.

“I want to ride a stallion across New Forest heathland at dusk.” Not even a twitch. “And I want to see what it’s like to get my hair done in a proper salon.”

Andreas swallowed. “I can give you all that, Kizzy. Won’t you let me do that for you?”

“I can’t,” she replied sadly and bit down on her bottom lip.

“Why not? Why not let me look after you? I have the means, you know that.” He glanced briefly toward the ocean, toward the sound of waves crashing against the rocks, and then switched his gaze back to her. “And I’d like to.”

She was almost too scared to continue as she looked into the dark, forbidding depths of his eyes, searching for the chip of ice she knew was in there. It was as if she were standing on a cliff edge over a deep, untested pool, balanced precariously as the wind buffeted her. One foot poised. Jump in? Or jump back?

“Because it’s not enough.”

“What’s not enough?”

She dived.

“One day I might want a baby, a family of my own, and I want to make a proper life for that family—better than the miserable one I had. I can’t bring my mum back, but I can try to keep the promise I made not to follow in her footsteps. But that’s a step too far on the wish list as far as you and I are concerned, isn’t it? “

His brooding silence told Kizzy all she needed to know and for some reason she was allowing it to slice her heart into tiny little pieces as she felt the flutter of something new, fragile, and beautiful die within her. She knew the score and had to stop herself from wanting to change the rules now their little game was under way.

“So, much as I love your kitchen and your island, and know you can buy all those other material things for me, I haven’t got much time to fit everything in.”

Her heart was pounding with sickening force and she was beginning to feel horribly light-headed. This was terrible, but she had to finish what she’d started. She couldn’t back out now. Straightening her back as if erecting an impenetrable shield around herself, she lunged in with a quick conclusion.

“So before I settle down I’d like to see some of the world. Move on, get that Gypsy wanderlust out of my system once and for all—I can’t do that with a mortgage and a fat, old cat relying on me, can I?”

Her breath quickened as Andreas tapped a coffee spoon on the table and let out a long, slow breath—the sound of his agreeing with her presumably, and not wishing to continue with this awkward conversation.

“
Now
look,” Kizzy announced and waved her hand in the air. “I’ve gone and spoiled our lovely breakfast.”

“Not at all.” He put the spoon down with a profound click, and a muscle worked in his jaw as he stared at the table. “Planning for the future is natural and sensible. Your hopes and wishes just go to show that you’re a normal human being. It’s a good job one of us is.”

Before Kizzy could ask him what he meant by that odd comment, the frantic rasping sound of a horn outside made her jump.

“What the—?”

“That’ll be Orfeas with our luggage. He always was a noisy little beggar and I’m sure he makes such a racket just to annoy me!” Andreas abruptly stood and raised a hand to stop Kizzy joining him. “Wait here while I sort him out.”

It was an order, not a request, Kizzy realized, as he strode quickly off through a tunnel of bougainvillea.

She let out a long sigh as she refocused her attention on the endless, sparkling blue of the sea instead of the broad shoulders she longed to cling to. She’d gone too far, stepped over an invisible line as far as their relationship was concerned.

Relationship
.

It was laughable; they’d met only a short while ago, fallen into bed almost straightaway, and here she was, daring to use the word “relationship” in the privacy of her head. No wonder Andreas had been so keen to distance himself from her suppressed desires—he’d leaped up at the first opportunity and disappeared quicker than a scalded cat. This was supposed to be an exciting affair, a week of sizzling, passionate sex—not a depressing rerun of her inadequate childhood.

She had a lot to learn, especially about when to keep quiet.

But it was done now, she’d blurted out her secret wants and desires to him, and there was nothing more to say on the matter. She just needed to remember not to do anything so stupid again, and then maybe they’d be able to enjoy this luxurious time together—if it wasn’t already too late.

…

Andreas stood with his hands on his hips in the middle of Kizzy’s bedroom and stared silently at the boutique boxes that Orfeas had piled up on the floor and stripped bed.

Andreas had quickly taken the crumpled bed linen that had been left in one corner and hidden it in the bathroom before Orfeas could notice. The bare mattress had taken him by surprise when he’d first gone in; the room looked like a bomb had hit it and blown everything toward the edges of the room. Something dramatic had clearly been going on in her head when all this had happened.

Had she been angry, keen to remove all traces of their lovemaking? Was she ashamed of what they’d done?

Yet he too had hidden the sheets in case Orfeas saw them. Why had he felt the need to do that?

So many questions he didn’t have answers to. He shook his head to chase the thoughts away.