Taken by the Greek Billionaire (15 page)

“So if they have the software…?”

Penny shook her head.
“Again no.
There’s
more to just plugging it in and letting it find the code. There are walls in
place that you have to get round first and it has to be someone with the
training to be able to do that.”

“Which you have.”

“Exactly.”

“Tell me how,” he said and she sighed because she’d known he was
going to ask that at some point. How much should she tell him? Nothing, she
thought, but knew in reality that she’d have to. Not least because if she
didn’t Sebastian would not only accuse her of breaking their bargain but
because he’d simply get it out of her in another way. In his arms, in his bed
she was like fucking putty!

“I didn’t have the best upbringing,” she began, running a finger
along the third sister. “I was on the wrong side of the law long before I
realized that maybe I shouldn’t be. It started small. I stole stuff because I
needed it. Food, clothes, stuff like that.”

“Stealing small things to this?” He waved at the nude portrait
covering the safe. “How did you possibly come to that?”

She shrugged. “I hooked up with this guy. He was a few years older
than me and he’d been a thief for years. He stole to order and he taught me a
bunch of stuff like how to cut the tags off clothes from shops, how not to trip
alarms and from there it kind of escalated. I started reading up, down the
library and I got computer access there. All
London
libraries have public use computers
these days and I could do some research. Fake name of course, but anyway that
was that.”

“Research would not teach you how to hack minicomputers.”

Another shrug.
“Well there was another guy I met who helped with that.”

He growled and Penny paused, shooting him a look. “Did you just
growl?”

“How many men have you fucked?” he demanded.

“Huh?”

“How many?”

“That’s none of your business.”

He lifted her away from the safe, his hands spanning her waist and
deposited her on the nearby table. “Everything about you is my business.”

His words, bitten out, sent a shiver racing along her spine. He was
just so possessive. It shouldn’t thrill her but it did. Of course it wasn’t
real possessiveness she reminded herself, as in a man who cares about a woman,
it was just sexual and she got that. The passion between the two of them was
ridiculous.
Flammable.
The smallest thing could set it
off.

“Less than a handful and no one in a long while,” she answered
honestly.

“And no one again.”

“What?” she said, sure she had misheard him. “You mean no one for
the moment.”

“Yes, you’re
mine
right now,
Kleftisa
,” he
said. “Now bend over.”

She did, complying immediately.

“Perhaps I will keep you as my sex slave forever,” he said, lifting
the tee shirt. “Lock you in my bedroom and keep you there.”

“You’d get bored.” The words were unsteady because even though he
was playing—obviously—with her Penny couldn’t help her heart racing a little.
Sebastian’s forever sex slave
. She
sighed. If everything else could just bleed away she’d jump right at the
chance. But life did not work like that and passion such as theirs burned out
as easily as it came into being. A week, two and that would be that.

“You are the least boring person I have ever met,” he said, burying
his hard on in her. “You intrigue me continually.”

“Because you’re surrounded by yes men.” she gasped. “I challenge
you.”

“That you do…now how would you like to be challenged?”

“Oh, God yes.”

He plunged in, plunged out and Penny splayed her hands on the table
to steady herself. Her tits were aching, desire already holding her in its
grip.

It all bleeds away
.

His cock was just so…right. It felt like it had been made to fit
her. His big hands gripped her hips, his balls slapping against her clit. Penny
loved it. Maybe she loved it too much? Just a few days and already she craved
it constantly. How, she wondered in a moment of clarity, was it actually going
to feel when it was no more?

He plunged back in, a hard edge to his motion and it shook the
thought from her, thankfully.

“A challenge?” he repeated.

She nodded, pushing her ass against him.
“Always,
Sebastian.”

“Then we need to find some lube.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

A week to the day of Penny’s break in Sebastian went to bed in the
early hours of the morning. He’d stayed up late to catch up on work, check his
emails, but most of all he stayed up to think. Thinking had won out over work
and he’d got hardly anything done. Every time he went to open a document or
check an email her face had intruded on his thoughts, prodding him.
To what he did not know.

Uncle
Gosta
had left several messages
wondering what on earth was happening. Missing Lady Williams’ party had been
bad enough but apparently he’d missed a family get together too. Sebastian
hadn’t even remembered it and he felt bad about that.

Gosta
had been his
staunchest supporter and ally since the moment he’d moved to
London
. The man ran several of his
departments and though he was in his late fifties he had the energy of a man
half his age.
Mellina
had also called more than once,
but he’d ignored her voicemails. Truth be told, he could barely envisage her
now. Her red hair, her reed-like figure, it was no match in any way to the
curves of his thief.

Penny consumed his thoughts and he needed to understand why, needed
to work out why after just a week he felt like he was drowning in her.
Fucking drowning.

Only when he walked into the bedroom to find Penny curled up asleep
on ‘her’ side of the bed it felt as though he hadn’t answered a single question.
He sat down next to her carefully and just looked. In sleep her face lost the
hard look he often saw on it. Why
hadn’t he
realized
that before now, he wondered. But yes looking closer he picked up on it
immediately.

Day to day she was playful, humorous, sexy. In sleep she just looked
vulnerable. She slept with one hand under her chin, the other curled across her
body in an oddly protective gesture. He’d taken to spooning her from behind. She’d
frowned about that, but he’d done it anyway. He couldn’t help himself. He
wanted her in his arms constantly, continually. To fuck her and lick her and
also to…he gulped…to hold her. Somehow the sex was getting confused with other
things.

Perhaps it was because of her secrets? Though she’d shown him the
breaches in his security and talked to him about inane things, she was tight
lipped about the property he’d bought for her and her sisters.
The property that was going in the name of Penny Matthews.
She’d had no choice but to tell him for the deeds, and though he felt bad about
doing so, he’d already instructed Max to do a full investigation on both the
name and the address she’d taken him to.

Eventually he would get answers. He didn’t doubt it, only he wanted
them now and preferably from her sweet lips. He wanted to know everything now. Maybe
then the grip she seemed to have on him would ease slightly? Maybe then he
could start working out what the hell it all meant?

He thought of her explanation for her criminal training, about the
other men and wanted to growl a denial. The idea of another man possessing her
did not sit right with him. Those pale curves, the spark in those emerald eyes
should be for him only and yet they weren’t, or at least they wouldn’t be. This
was just a fling.

Why was that beginning to irk him? He reached out and ran a finger
along the curve of her jaw. She tensed slightly. He saw it happen but he spoke,
soothing her.
“
Shh
now, Penny.
It’s just me.”

Her brow scrunched and she wiggled a little but her eyes remained
closed. He picked up a lock of her hair, intrigued by how dark it was against
her pale skin. She was so beautiful, but he knew it wasn’t just that which
drove the attraction. Yes the looks were what had made his desire explode
initially but the more time he spent with her the more other things started to
occur to him.

She was smart.

She was filthy.

She was a worthy adversary.

What the fuck did it all mean?

He stroked along her jaw again and watched a slight smile curve her
lips. She sighed and snuggled deeper into the covers and he couldn’t help
himself. He stood up, stripped, and slid into bed next to her. It took only a
moment to pull her into his arms and though she muttered something or other he
held her firm.

She felt so soft next to him. Her skin was flushed and it warmed
his.

“Sebastian….”

He looked down but she slept still. “Right here,” he whispered, his
accent thickening despite himself.

“Sebastian…”

His name was soft on her lips. It felt right somehow and somewhere
within him he felt something stir. His thief and maybe, could it be
possible…his woman, too?

Chapter Twenty-Three

Thirteen days. How could so much change so quickly in just thirteen
days? As Penny pulled on her jeans she eyed Sebastian’s bedroom and frowned. At
exactly this time all those days ago she’d been stepping into her bodysuit
ready for the biggest heist of her life. It had all gone so wrong and yet so
right.

Pulling on a tee, she played their time over in her mind.
Day by agonizing day.
She’d completed her mission. She’d secured
the money and was waiting only for the deeds, which Sebastian said were due any
day.
 
But then…she shivered as she
replayed the sex from the night before. Once again Sebastian had tried to fuck
her tenderly and she’d had to pull out some pretty inventive moves to get him
back to how she liked him.
Fast and furious.
Because
what else could she do? It was like she was wearing a suit of armor, she
thought, and the tender, slow loving Sebastian seemed intent on sharing with
her was the chink. It was vital that she protected that, because Penny had a
nasty suspicion that if she didn’t everything would change. And that could not
be allowed to happen. No way.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the bedroom door and made her way
down the stairs. She had one more thing to ask Sebastian for, and she’d decided
honey was the best way to get what she wanted. He was waiting for her in his
study, finishing up whatever he was working on. He seemed to do a lot of his
work whilst she slept, which concerned her a little. He’d changed his schedule
to spend his time between her legs. Not a good sign, for her or him.

“Hey.”

He turned and gave her such a tender smile that Penny actually felt
her heart stutter a little. “
Kleftisa
, come sit here, I am almost done.” He pointed to
his lap.

“No that’s fine actually,” she said. “I just wanted to ask if you
have a laptop I can
use?
”

“For what?
Please
tell me you are not a mastermind hacker, too.”

“Nope, just
gonna
check my
Facebook
page.”

“Are you serious?”

She laughed, sat herself down on the edge of his desk, and ran her
fingers along his arm.
“Of course not.
I don’t have
Facebook
. In my line of work posting details online is
never a good idea. No….” She paused and then jumped in feet first. “I need to
check in with my sisters. It’s been almost two weeks and they might have come
home by now. It’s unlikely. I wasn’t expecting them for at least a fortnight,
maybe more, but it would ease my mind to check.”

“Ah, your criminal confederates. Every time I ask you about them you
give me half answers or shrugs.”

“They’re none of your business.”

“Everything about you is my business,” Sebastian said and the tender
smile was gone to be replaced with a steely sort of one. He reminded her in
that moment of the Sebastian she’d seen when he’d caught her in the safe room.
Hard.
Implacable.
How could she
have forgotten there was that side to him? The sex was going to her head,
making her forget. But you can’t let it, she reminded herself, not completely. Still,
maybe everything would be a whole lot easier if Sebastian was the hard hearted
billionaire she’d once thought him to be? Maybe then she wouldn’t need the suit
of armor.

“I’m not going to argue with you,” she said slowly. “But I do not
know why you want to know. I’ve helped you with all your procedures. Hell, you
told Max I was a security contractor—a blatant lie if there ever was one—but he
thinks I’m the bees knees now. Your place is practically impenetrable. I’ve
fulfilled that side of the bargain and I’ve fucked you every single night. What
more do you want from me?”