After the Greek Affair Read online

  Much of the ground floor of the Villa Elena was open-plan, creating a huge, airy living space broken up by furniture arranged in groups: pale leather sofas and chairs, a dining area with a long glass table, a corner dominated by a state-of-the-art plasma TV. It was bright and modern, minimalist chic, yet somehow it still managed to be homely and comfortable—an effect that Belle knew only the best and most expensive interior designers were capable of producing.

  The room she had been allocated was at the end of a long hallway on the second floor. Her heart leapt with pleasure when Loukas threw open the door to reveal a charming bedroom overlooking a grove of lemon trees, beyond which she could glimpse the sea.

  ‘I’ll send one of the maids up to help you unpack. From the size of your suitcase you must have brought enough clothes for a year,’ he commented, glancing at the two cases on the bed.

  ‘The bigger case contains all my material samples and design ideas,’ Belle told him, opening the lid to reveal layers of silks and satins in pure white, ivory and pastel pink. ‘I think Larissa will love this silk organza.’ She touched the material almost reverently. ‘Although she may want something heavier, like this satin—perhaps embellished with tiny crystals or pearls. I guess I’ll just have to be patient and wait until Larissa gets here,’ she murmured, when Loukas gave her a look that said she might as well be speaking in a foreign language for all the sense she was making to him.

  He picked up her portfolio and flicked through the pages, but he made no comment and his hard features gave no clue to his opinion of her work.

  Her enthusiasm was undeniable, Loukas brooded as he dragged his gaze from Belle’s animated face and stared down at the portfolio. He was no expert, but he could see instantly that she was a talented designer. The photographs of gowns from her collection were stunning, and he understood now why Larissa was so keen for Belle to make her dress.

  He glanced at her, his eyes drawn to her against his will, and felt something kick in his gut when she pushed her hair over her shoulder. She used her whole body when she spoke, tilting her head and moving her arms and hands with the grace of a ballerina.

  He tensed at the thought and slammed a mental door shut on memories he refused to dwell on—memories of another woman who had moved with the instinctive grace of a dancer. He would not waste a second of his life thinking about Sadie. Even the memory of her name was offensive to him.

  The room suddenly seemed claustrophobic—or was it his fascination with the dainty blonde he’d brought to Aura that was bothering him? He strode over to the door. ‘I have to get back to work. Please make yourself at home at the villa, Belle,’ he said coolly. ‘Would you like Maria to bring you another pot of tea?’

  Desperate to distract herself from the fact that Loukas’s sun-bleached jeans were stretched taut over his muscular thighs, Belle had wandered over to the window. ‘Actually, I think I’ll go for a walk and find the church.’

  She turned to find Loukas frowning. ‘That’s not a sensible idea. I’ve already explained that the sun is at its hottest in the late afternoon,’ he said, sounding impatient. ‘I suggest you relax for the rest of the day. You can swim in the pool if you want,’ he added, stepping into the hall and shutting the door without giving Belle the chance to respond.

  Irritating man, she fumed. Anyone would think she was five years old. His use of the word sensible was like a red rag to a bull. She was aware that she wasn’t used to the heat, but all she’d suggested was a short stroll—not to run a marathon.

  Inside her head she heard John shouting at her. ‘Don’t argue with me. Do as I say. It’s time you learned to obey orders, my girl.’

  Sergeant-Major John Townsend had treated his family in the same way that he’d treated the soldiers under his command and had expected obedience at all times—especially from Belle. But she had never been John’s girl, and since she had learned the truth she was determined to stand up for herself after a lifetime of having her self-confidence stripped from her. She was Loukas Christakis’s guest on his private island, but she would not stand for him bossing her around, she vowed fiercely.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  MUTTERING a curse beneath his breath, Loukas forced his gaze back to his computer screen and tried to ignore the sight of Belle, wearing a tiny green and gold bikini, stretched out on a sun lounger just outside his study window. The Japanese deal was almost secured; all he needed to do was finish checking through the final details. But to his intense annoyance he could not concentrate.

  Out of the corner of his eye he could see the brilliant blue infinity pool sparkling invitingly in the bright sunshine. Usually he found the view from his study relaxing, but right now he felt tense and unable to focus on the latest deal for Christakis Holdings. He skimmed down the page of the document on his screen and realised he had not taken in any of the information.

  Outside the window Belle sat up and ran her fingers through her long blonde hair. Loukas gave up trying to work and watched her stand up and walk to the edge of the pool. She was petite, but perfectly in proportion, he noted, his gaze lingering on her slender thighs before moving up to her tiny waist and the surprisingly full breasts that were barely covered by the triangles of her bikini top.

  Desire jackknifed inside him, startling him with its ferocity. What was it about Belle Andersen that turned him on so hard? he wondered impatiently, shifting in his seat in an attempt to alleviate the discomfort of his arousal straining beneath his jeans. She was beautiful, but no more so than hundreds of other women he had met over the years. He could not understand why he was so attracted to her, but sexual chemistry defied logical explanation, he realised as he jerked to his feet and strode out of the study.

  The heat of the sun on her back was soporific. Belle wriggled her shoulders and gave a contented sigh. This was bliss, she thought sleepily. When she had first come down to the pool she had felt guilty—after all, she had come to Aura to work, not laze around in the sun. She’d recalled Dan’s teasing comments when she had announced that she would be spending a week in Greece. But until Larissa arrived she could not begin to design her wedding dress. There had seemed no point in sitting in her bedroom for the rest of the day, and so she had changed into her new bikini which, to her dismay, was rather more revealing than she’d realised when she had bought it, gathered up her towel and book, and made her way down to the terrace.

  Thankfully she had seen no sign of Loukas. Hopefully he would remain in his study for the rest of the day. Even though she was half asleep her muscles tensed when she pictured his arrogantly handsome features. Liquid heat flooded through every part of her body and pooled low in her pelvis. If she had known that Larissa’s brother was so drop-dead sexy she might have had second thoughts about coming to Aura, she acknowledged ruefully.

  The air was so still and quiet; only the occasional call of a cicada disturbed the silence. Belle’s eyelashes drifted down and her muscles relaxed once more as sleep washed over her.

  ‘Have you no common sense?’ A voice—deep, accented and laced with impatience—roused her, and she opened her eyes to find Loukas hunkered down beside her, his dark brows drawn into a frown. ‘Your fair skin will burn to a crisp if you lie out for much longer,’ he said tersely, ignoring her gasp as he poured something cold between her shoulderblades. ‘You should have applied sunscreen before you fell asleep,’ he told her, when Belle turned her head and gave him a startled look.

  ‘I did,’ she defended herself breathlessly, struggling to drag air into her lungs while Loukas was smoothing the cream onto her shoulders. There was nothing remotely intimate about his actions, she told herself frantically. The feel of his strong fingers stroking briskly across her skin had no right to feel this good.

  ‘Yes, but that was before you swam in the pool. You should have put more on when you got out of the water.’ The memory of watching her anointing her half-naked body with suncream when she had first stepped out onto the terrace caused Loukas to harden, and he inhaled sharply, glad tha
t she was lying on her front and hopefully could not see the evidence of his arousal.

  He was so damned bossy, Belle thought angrily. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him she could look after herself and didn’t need any help from him, but the glide of his fingertips across her shoulderblades was strangely relaxing, and seemed to be unlocking all the knots of tension. She swallowed when he smoothed more cream onto her back, and found herself wishing that he would continue to slide his hands all the way down her spine. Thank heavens she was lying face down, so he could not see that her nipples had hardened. Her breasts felt heavy, and she was conscious of a hot, aching sensation between her thighs as her treacherous mind imagined him pulling her bikini pants down and stroking his hand over her bare bottom.

  What had got into her? Her face burned with embarrassment and she felt a mixture of relief and sharp disappointment when he abruptly stood up.

  ‘That should do,’ he growled, stepping away from her. Something in his voice caused her to dart him a quick glance, and another wave of heat swept through her veins when her eyes met his and she saw undisguised feral hunger gleaming in his steel-grey gaze. For a few seconds the air seemed to tremble with a tangible tension, and only when he turned away and dived into the pool did Belle release her breath.

  She sat up and reached for the pretty sarong that matched her bikini, hastily wrapping it around her body. Loukas was powering up and down the pool in a fast front crawl. Belle was tempted to hurry back into the house and escape from him before she made a complete fool of herself, but would it look too obvious that she was running away from him? While she was silently debating what to do he climbed up the steps out of the pool, water streaming from him, and she found herself rooted to her lounger.

  Fully dressed, he was impossibly handsome, but in a pair of wet, black swim-shorts that clung to his powerful thigh muscles he was devastating. His skin gleamed like polished bronze and water droplets glistened on the whorls of dark hair that covered his chest and arrowed down over his flat abdomen. Belle’s eyes strayed lower, but the sight of a distinct bulge beneath his shorts caused her to jerk her head upright, her face flaming.

  Her heart pounded when he dragged a sun lounger closer to hers and sat down so that he was facing her. He lifted a hand to rake his wet hair back from his brow, and she hastily tore her eyes from his sculpted features, so acutely conscious of him that her skin prickled.

  ‘So, Belle, tell me about yourself.’ The request sounded more like an order than an invitation. ‘Larissa told me you work mainly from a studio in west London?’

  ‘Yes, Wedding Belle is based in Putney. My studio is in an old warehouse by the Thames, not far from where I live.’

  ‘Do you own a house by the river?’

  ‘I wish! Riverside properties are hugely expensive,’ Belle told him ruefully. ‘Dan and I rent an old houseboat.’

  ‘Dan Townsend is your brother—the photographer—is that right?’ Loukas recalled her telling him that she and her brother had different surnames. ‘Do just the two of you live on the boat?’

  Belle nodded, thinking of the cramped home she shared with Dan. ‘Believe me, there’s no room to swing a cat, let alone for anyone else to live on board.’

  Why on earth was he pleased that she did not live with a boyfriend? It did not matter to him where Belle lived, or who she lived with, Loukas reminded himself. But he could not stop looking at her, and couldn’t help imagining how soft her lips would feel beneath his. His body stirred. Clearly ten laps of the pool had not been enough to bring his libido under control, he thought grimly.

  ‘What made you decide to be a fashion designer?’ he queried—not because he cared about her choice of career, but because he needed to keep the conversation flowing so that he did not give in to the urge to push her onto her back on the sun lounger and settle his aroused body between her slender thighs.

  ‘Art was the only subject I was any good at when I was at school,’ Belle admitted. ‘I was a terrible day-dreamer, but I loved drawing, and from a young age I used to make clothes for my dolls. Being a fashion designer was the only thing I felt I might have a chance of succeeding at.’

  She bit her lip, remembering how she had struggled with subjects like math and science. John’s biting sarcasm every time he read out her end of term reports had added to her belief that she was a failure, but her mother had encouraged her talent, and had supported her decision to go to art college.

  ‘When I graduated, I worked briefly for a big wedding company. I found that I loved designing wedding dresses, but many of my ideas were deemed too unconventional by the head of the company, and so I decided to set up my own business.’

  She fell silent, her eyes drawn to Loukas, and her heart lurched when she discovered that he was watching her intently. His gaze narrowed and focused on her mouth. His kiss would be no gentle seduction. The thought pushed into her head and sent a little shiver of reaction down her spine. Unconsciously she leaned towards him and moistened her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue, enslaved by his virile magnetism and a mystical alchemy she had no control over.

  ‘Inconvenient, isn’t it?’ Loukas drawled softly. The sound of his voice snapped her to her senses and she jerked back from him, blushing fiercely.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The sexual attraction between us,’ he said calmly.

  The matter-of-fact tone with which he delivered the statement shook Belle as much as his words. She gaped at him, but even as her mind fiercely rejected his outrageous statement she felt a tightening sensation deep in her pelvis.

  ‘The…there isn’t anything between us,’ she faltered, desperately denying the suggestion. ‘I don’t…’

  He cut her off by placing a finger across her lips, his steel-grey eyes trapping her gaze. ‘There is, and you feel it—just as I do. The sexual chemistry was white-hot from the minute we laid eyes on each other,’ he stated with supreme self-assurance.

  Loukas could no longer deny his rampant desire for Belle. He had given up trying to rationalise why he wanted her so badly. Some things were beyond explanation or reasoning. Some things were purely instinctive. And his instincts now were demanding that he should taste her soft, moist lips.

  This time he was going to kiss her. Belle read the message in Loukas’s eyes and her heart stopped beating—suspended, as time was suspended, as he leaned forward and slowly lowered his head.

  It was madness. She had only met him a few hours ago, her brain pointed out. She was here to work for his sister. Loukas had been opposed to her making Larissa’s wedding dress. Maybe he was playing a game with her, trying to distract her so that he could then accuse her of not being focused on the job he had brought her to Aura to do?

  Her mind whirled. The sensible part of her told her to push him away. But she could feel the warmth that emanated from his body, her senses were seduced by the musky scent of his cologne, and she was trapped by a desperate yearning to feel his mouth on hers. Her heart slammed against her ribs as his mouth hovered above hers and she felt his warm breath whisper against her lips.

  The thwump-thwump of helicopter rotorblades above their heads shattered the silence and jerked Loukas to his senses. ‘That’ll be Larissa,’ he said tersely. And just in time, he thought grimly. What the hell was he playing at? He had brought Belle to Aura to design his sister’s wedding dress, not to seduce her into his bed. ‘She phoned earlier to say she was on her way back to Aura.’

  Belle snatched oxygen into her lungs, stunned that Loukas had not kissed her after all, and mortified by how much she had wanted him to. ‘I hope she didn’t rush back on my account,’ she muttered, jumping to her feet at the same moment that he stood up, and catching her breath when their bodies touched briefly.

  She sprang away from him as if the fleeting contact had burned her. The air seemed to vibrate with tension. This was crazy, taunted a little voice inside her. How could she be so drawn to a man she had only met that day? How could she wish that he would push her dow
n onto the sun lounger and strip off her bikini to expose her naked body to his hungry gaze? She simply didn’t do things like that. Her only sexual encounter had been with a fellow art student whom she had dated briefly at university. It had been a fumbling, unsatisfactory experience after they’d both had too much to drink, and she had never felt any desire to repeat the experience with him or anyone else—until now.

  She cleared her throat and forced herself to speak. ‘Do you know how her fiancé’s father is?’

  ‘I understand that Constantine is stable. Lissa would have remained at the hospital with Georgios if she was at all worried.’

  Loukas needed to get away from Belle and clear his head. He felt out of control when he was around her, and he hated the feeling. Clearly the past month that he’d gone without sex was a month too long, he thought sardonically. There were several women in Athens he could call—casual relationships, with no expectations on either side. But although his mistresses were sophisticated and beautiful, none of them excited him as much as the elfin blonde who was watching him with a hungry expression in her eyes that made him wish his sister had remained in Athens for a few more hours.

  ‘I suggest you go and get some clothes on,’ he said over his shoulder as he strode towards the house. ‘I’m sure Larissa will be eager to discuss your ideas for her dress.’

  Five minutes after Belle had returned to her room there was a knock on her door and Larissa Christakis burst in.

  ‘Belle! I’m so sorry I wasn’t here when you arrived. It’s been a mad day, with Georgios’s father being rushed into hospital.’ The young Greek woman gave Belle an apologetic smile. ‘Luckily, Loukas offered to collect you from Kea. I hope he’s been looking after you?’

  Fortunately Belle was spared having to make a response when Larissa spied the suitcase of sample materials on the bed. ‘As you can see, I’m all ready to get started on designing your dress,’ she murmured.