An Offer She Can't Refuse (16 page)

He wasn’t talking love. He was ticking off boxes. She could tick off the same boxes about him. A matchmaking agency would probably place them as a likely couple, especially since there was no lack of sexual chemistry between them. But there was one big factor missing.

Tina heaved a sigh as she remembered how Cass and George had acted towards each other yesterday. It hurt that she would never have that wonderful emotional security with Ari. What if she married him and he was bowled over by some other woman further down the track? It could happen. She had to be prepared for it, safeguard herself against it, be practical about what she could expect from him and what she couldn’t.

‘Tell me about your life, Ari,’ she said, needing to feel more informed about what a future with him would entail. ‘What are the business interests that take you travelling? I only know of your connection to the wine industry.’

He visibly relaxed, happy to have the Stephanie can of worms closed.

Tina listened carefully to the list of property investments the Zavros family had made in many countries as far apart as Spain and Dubai where Ari had so recently been checking up on an estate development. Mostly they were connected to the tourist industry—resorts and theme parks and specialty shops. They had also tapped into the food industry with olives, cheeses and wine.

‘You’re in charge of all this?’ she enquired.

He shook his head. ‘My father runs the ship. I report and advise. The decisions are ultimately his. Most of the family is involved in one capacity or another.’

It was big business—far more complex than managing a restaurant. Tina continued to question him about it over dinner which was as tasty as it had promised to be. The sunset was gorgeous, spreading a rosy hue over all the white buildings on the hillside that faced it. For real lovers this had to be a very romantic place, Tina thought, but she couldn’t feel it with Ari. As charming as he was, as good a lover as he was, no way could she bring herself to believe she was the light of his life.

Her own experience prompted her to ask, ‘Have you ever been in love, Ari? So in love that person mattered more than anything else? Wildly, passionately, out of your mind …
in love?’

As she’d been with him.

He frowned, obviously not liking the question. His jaw tightened as he swung his gaze away from hers, staring out to sea. She saw the corner of his mouth turn down into a grimace. He had experienced it, she thought, but not with her. A lead weight settled on her heart. He might very well experience it again with someone else.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I
N LOVE …

Ari hated that memory. It was the one and only time he’d completely lost his head over a woman. He’d been her fool, slavishly besotted with her while she had only been amusing herself with him.

He wished Christina hadn’t asked the question. Yet if he wasn’t honest with her she would probably sense it and that would be a black mark against him in her mind. Besides, he was a different person to the boy he was then. He just didn’t like dragging up that long-buried piece of the past and laying it out but he had to now. He’d left Christina too long without a reply.

He turned to her, the cynicism he’d learnt from that experience burning in his eyes and drawling through his voice. ‘Wildly, passionately in love … yes, that happened to me when I was eighteen. She was very beautiful, exotically glamorous, and incredibly erotic. I would have done anything for her and did do everything she asked.’

‘How long did it last?’

‘A month.’

Christina raised her eyebrows. ‘What made you fall out of love?’

‘Being faced with reality.’

‘Something you didn’t like?’

‘I hadn’t understood what I was to her. I knew she was years older than me. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but being with her. I thought she felt the same about me. It was so intense. But she was simply enjoying the intensity, revelling in her power to make me do whatever she wanted.’

‘How did you come to realise that?’

‘Because I was her Greek toy-boy, a last fling before she married her much more mature American millionaire.
It’s been fun,
she said as she kissed me goodbye.
Fun …
’

He snarled the word and immediately cursed himself for letting it get to him after all these years.

‘You were badly hurt,’ Christina murmured sympathetically.

He shrugged. ‘I’m not likely to fall in love again, if that’s what you’re worried about, Christina. Being someone’s fool does not appeal to me.’

‘You think your head will always rule your heart?’

‘It has since I was eighteen.’

Except with her and Theo. His heart was very much engaged with his son and according to his lawyer, he’d completely lost his head in proposing the prenuptial agreement to induce Christina to marry him, ensuring that Theo would be a constant in his life. But he did feel the fidelity clause was not so much of a risk now. And he did like and admire Christina. He would make the marriage work. They would have more children … a family …

‘I was eighteen when I fell in love with you.’

The quietly spoken words jolted Ari out of his confident mood and sent an instant chill down his spine. Her dark eyes were flat, expressionless, steadily watching whether he understood the parallel of what had been done to him—not only the hurt, the rejection of any lasting value in the love offered, but also the shadow it cast over any deep trust in a relationship. Giving oneself completely to another was not on. He’d never done it again.

Was this how Christina felt about him? Had he just ruined every bit of progress he’d made with her, bringing the past back instead of focussing her mind on the future they could have? Was this why he couldn’t reach what he wanted to reach in her? He had to fix this. It was intolerable that she cast him in the same mould as the woman who’d taken him for a ride.

Before he could find the words to defend himself she spoke again, cocking her head to one side, her eyes alert to weighing up his reply. ‘Did you think it was
fun
at the time?’

‘Not like that!’ he denied vehemently. He leaned towards her, gesturing an appeal for fairness. ‘There was no one else in my life, Christina. I wasn’t having a fling with you, cheating on a woman I intended to marry. The thought of having a little fun with you never crossed my mind. That was not part of it, I swear. I was enchanted by you.’

‘For a while.’ Her mouth twisted with irony. ‘I can imagine an older woman being enchanted by you when you were eighteen, Ari. You would have been absolutely beautiful. But her head ruled her heart, just as yours did with me. Too young … wasn’t that how you explained leaving me behind?’

‘You’re not too young now.’ The urgent need to stop this treacherous trawling through the past pushed Ari to his feet. He took Christina’s hands, pulling her out of her chair and into his embrace, speaking with a violence of feeling that exploded off his tongue. ‘I wanted you beyond any common sense then. And God knows I’ve lost any common sense since I’ve met you again. I want you so much it’s been burning me up from the moment I saw you in Dubai. So forget everything else, Christina. Forget everything but this.’

He forgot about being gentle with her. The fierce emotion welling up in him demanded that he obliterate any bad thoughts from her mind and fill it with the same all-consuming desire he felt. He kissed her hard, storming her mouth with intense passion. A wild exultation ran through him as she responded with her own fierce drive to take what he was doing and give it right back.

No hesitation.

No holding back.

Frenzied kisses.

Frenzied touching.

Mutual desire riding high, her body pressed yearningly to his, making him even more on fire for her. Primitive instincts kicked in. He needed, wanted, had to have total possession of this woman. He swept her off her feet, crushed her to his chest as he strode to the bed. Even as he laid her down she was pushing her kimono apart, opening her legs wide for him, not wanting to wait, eagerly inviting instant intimacy.

He tore his own robe off, hating the thought of it getting in the way. Then he was with her, swiftly positioning himself. She was slick and hot, exciting him even further with her readiness. Her legs locked around him, heels digging into his buttocks, urging him on. He pushed in hard and fast and barely stopped himself from climaxing at the very first thrust, just like a teenage boy experiencing the ultimate sex fit.

He sucked in a quick breath, savagely telling himself to maintain control. He tried to set up a slow, voluptuous rhythm with his hips but she wouldn’t have it, her body rocking his to go faster, faster. He felt her flesh clenching and unclenching around his and her throat emitted an incredibly sexy groan.

His head was spinning, excitement at an intense level. Her fingers dug into the nape of his neck. Her back arched from the bed. He felt the first spasm of her coming and was unable to hold off his own release any longer. He cried out as it burst from him in violent shudders, and the flood of heat from both of them was so ecstatically satisfying he was totally dazed by the depth of feeling.

He’d collapsed on top of her. She held him in a tightly possessive hug. Was she feeling the same? He had to know. Had to know if all the bad stuff from the past had been wiped out of her mind. He levered himself up on his elbows to see her face. Her eyes were closed, her head thrown back, her lips slightly apart, sucking in air and slowly releasing it.

‘Look at me, Christina,’ he gruffly commanded.

Her long lashes flicked up. Her eyes were dilated, out of focus. A thrill of triumph ran riot through Ari’s mind. She was still feeling him inside her, revelling in the sheer depth of sensation. It gave him a surge of confidence that she wouldn’t walk away from this—what they could have together. The glazed look slowly cleared. Her tongue slid out and licked her lips. He was tempted to flick his own tongue over them, but that would start them kissing again and this moment would be swallowed up and he wouldn’t know what it meant to her.

‘This is now, Christina,’ he said with passionate fervour. ‘The past is gone. This is now and you’re feeling good with me. Tell me that you are.’

‘Yes.’ The word hissed out on a long sigh. She half-smiled as she added, ‘I’m feeling good.’

He nodded. ‘So am I. And I truly believe we can always make each other feel good if the will is there to do it.’ He lifted a hand to stroke the soft black bangs of hair away from her forehead, his eyes boring into hers to enforce direct mental contact with her. ‘We can be great partners in every sense there is, starting now, Christina. We look ahead, not back. Okay?’

There was no instant response but her eyes didn’t disengage from his. Their focus sharpened and he had the feeling she was trying to search his soul. He had nothing to hide, yet he was acutely conscious of tension building inside him as he waited for her answer.

He’d hurt her in the past and she’d nursed that hurt for years. It had erupted in his face tonight and he was asking her to let it go, leave it behind them. It was a big ask. He recalled the look of heart-piercing vulnerability he’d seen after they’d made the sex-deal last night. But he’d just proved she had nothing to fear from an intimate connection with him. She’d conceded he’d made her feel good.

He willed her to grasp what could be grasped and take it into the future with them. It was best for their son, best for their lives, too. Surely she could see that.

‘Have you had the prenuptial agreement you offered me drawn up, Ari?’

It wasn’t what he wanted to hear from her. It meant that it didn’t matter what he said or did, she still had a basic mistrust of how he would deal with her in the future. He could pleasure her all night but that verbal kick in the gut told him it would make no difference.

‘Yes. It’s in my backpack,’ he said flatly.

‘Have you signed it?’

‘Not yet.’

‘Will you do so in the morning if … if you’re still feeling good with me?’

‘Yes,’ he said unequivocally, though hating the fact it was still necessary in her mind.

She hadn’t faked her response to him. There was nothing fake about Christina Savalas and it was clear that she needed a guarantee that if there was anything fake about him, she would not lose her son by marrying him.

She reached up and gently stroked his cheek. ‘I’m sorry I can’t feel more secure with you, Ari. I promise you to do my best to be a partner to you in every sense. If I fail and you end up finding someone else who suits you better, I won’t deny you a fair share of Theo. I just need protection against your taking him from me.’

‘I’d never do that,’ he protested vehemently. ‘You’re his mother. He loves you.’

She heaved a deep sigh as though that claim meant little in the bigger scheme of things. ‘It’s impossible to know how things will turn out along the track,’ she said in a fatalistic tone. ‘As sincere as your commitment might be to me now, as sincere as mine is to you, it’s in our minds, Ari, not our hearts, and you might not think so now, but hearts can over-rule minds. I know. It’s why I never told you about Theo when I should have. My heart wouldn’t let me.’

There was sadness in her eyes—the sadness of betrayed innocence—and Ari knew he’d done that to her. Determination welled up in him to replace it with joy—joy in him and the children they would have together.

‘Our marriage will be fine, Christina,’ he promised her. ‘I don’t mind signing the prenuptial agreement. I want you to feel secure, not frightened of anything. And given more time, I hope you’ll come to trust me, knowing without a doubt that I mean you well and want you to be happy with me.’

It brought a smile back to her face. ‘That would be good, Ari.’ Her hand slid up and curled around his head. ‘I could do with some more of feeling good.’

He laughed and kissed her.

The night was still young. They proceeded to a more languorous love-making for a while, pleasuring each other with kisses and caresses. It delighted Ari that Christina had no inhibitions about her sexuality and no hesitation in exploring his. He hoped it would always be like this, no holding back on anything.