Expectant Bride (3 page)

He handed the blue dress and the shoes back to her. ‘Put them on,' he commanded with studied insolence.

Cheeks adorned with flags of outraged scarlet, Ellie stalked into a cubicle. He had no manners. He was incredibly confrontational, unnervingly uninhibited and outspoken. As for the way he reacted when he got a taste of his own medicine back—well, he went up in flames like a rocket! When she emerged again, the entire staff were engaged in wrapping the rest of the purchases. Never had Ellie been more grateful to leave a shop.

‘I suppose you want to go in there,' Dio condemned with unconcealed exasperation as he surveyed a busy outlet which sold cosmetics and toiletries.

‘No…no, I'll manage fine!' Ellie swore in haste. ‘Prehistoric man cleaned his teeth with a twig. Maybe I'll pick one up somewhere on the way.'

Dio dealt her an arrested glance. And then he really shocked her. He flung back his imperious dark head and laughed with spontaneous amusement. Ellie simply gaped, heart-rate speeding up, pulses jumping. His even white teeth flashed against bronzed skin, dark, deep-set eyes gleaming
with appreciation. Humour drove all brooding darkness from his lean, powerful face, leaving her bemusedly conscious of just how stunning he was in the looks department.

‘I'm not into shopping,' he confided huskily, as if she might not already be aware of that reality. ‘Other people usually do it for me.'

Her complexion uncomfortably warm, Ellie dragged her attention from him and studied the floor, but that Mediterranean dark and devastating face was still imprinted in her mind's eye. He really
was
spectacular. That stark acknowledgement, that very thought, seriously unsettled Ellie. Dio Alexiakis wasn't making the tiniest effort to impress or please her. Yet somehow he still made her effortlessly aware of his high-voltage male sexuality. She didn't like that sensation, didn't like the unease and tension he provoked inside her.

She might be only twenty-one, but it was over a year since Ellie had gone out on a date. Men, she had decided, were a waste of precious time and effort, and she hadn't once regretted that decision. She didn't consider herself a man-hater, but she did get a secret kick out of jokes that suggested the male sex was useless and increasingly surplus to female requirements. After all, by and large, that
had
been Ellie's experience from childhood.

As Dio urged Ellie at speed through the crowded terminal, he rested a lean hand lightly on her taut spine to keep her moving. She stiffened defensively. ‘Excuse me,' she heard herself say stiltedly, stepping back, suddenly determined to escape him, even if it could only be for a little while.

‘Where do you think you're going?' he demanded.

‘The ladies' cloakroom,' Ellie framed with frigid emphasis. ‘Are you planning to come with me?'

His aggressive jawline squared. ‘I'll give you two minutes.'

Pointedly dumping the carrier bags she was loaded down with at his feet, she began to walk away.

‘Ellie…' He extended a comb to her with a sardonic look. ‘Maybe you should do something with your hair while you're in there.'

Gritting her teeth at the realisation that she hadn't taken the time to check her appearance in the shop, and strongly resisting an unusually feminine urge to start smoothing her hair down, Ellie vanished into the cloakroom.

It was the work of a moment to tame her bright hair back into a straight heavy fall just below her shoulders. She frowned at her reflection, noticing the animated pink in her cheeks, the surprising sparkle in her eyes. The dress had a cool simplicity she liked, but it wasn't her style.

Her full pink mouth tightening, Ellie studied the expensive silver comb he had given her and recalled the ease with which he had accurately assessed her dress size. But then that had not been a surprise to her. At twenty-nine years of age, Dio Alexiakis was an unrepentant, totally unreconstructed womaniser. Naturally he was, Ellie reflected cynically. Men with money and power lived in a buyers' market of all too willing women. Dio was a real babe magnet, and he
knew
it. He had undoubtedly never had to worry too much about honing the rough edges from his less than presentable manners.

But, even so, she was to get a free trip to Greece. Private jet, five-star luxury all the way. The drawback? Dio Alexiakis breathing down her neck. An adventure, she told herself staunchly. Even with
him
around it ought to be more fun than polishing endless floors.

Heavens, she realised abruptly, she'd have to ring Mr Barry. Tomorrow morning her boss would be expecting her to open up as usual. He never turned in until noon, and when he found the shop still locked up he'd go straight upstairs to her bedsit and hammer on the door, thinking she had fallen
ill. Regardless of Dio's embargo, she
had
to phone Mr Barry, and as she could hardly tell the older man the truth, she would have to lie to excuse her absence.

Carefully concealing herself behind a pair of large, gossiping women, Ellie slipped out of the cloakroom and lunged breathlessly at the public phone only a few yards away. Dio Alexiakis was now standing in the centre of the busy concourse, talking on his mobile phone, his attention conveniently distracted.

Ellie dialled the operator. Since she had no cash on her at all, she would have to request a reverse-charge call. But just as the operator answered, Dio turned his dark, arrogant head. She crashed the receiver back on the hook, but she wasn't quick enough. Dio saw her before she could put some space between herself and the phone.

Ellie froze like a criminal as glittering black eyes locked to her in instantaneous judgement, his lean, strong face darkening as he strode towards her. And Ellie, who knew all too well what it felt like to be irritated or bored by a member of the male sex, discovered for the first time in her life what it felt like to be
scared
…

E
YES
as dangerous as black ice scanned Ellie's pale face. ‘The instant I allowed you out of my sight, you rushed to the phone to pass on the information you overheard. You have betrayed my trust!' Dio Alexiakis condemned with scantily suppressed savagery.

Even trembling, and with her stomach knotted light with apprehension, Ellie was fascinated by the volatile charge of that explosive Mediterranean temperament and that innate sense of drama. Both were so utterly foreign to her.

‘Mr. Alexiakis—' she began, keen to disabuse him of his eagerness to assume the worst.

‘You have made your choice. So be it.' Dio surveyed her with cold, lethal menace. ‘I will destroy you for this.'

Ellie's tummy performed an unpleasant somersault. ‘You've got it wrong,' she protested feverishly. ‘I only got as far as dialling the operator!'

With a look of thunderous derision, Dio swung on his heel and strode away, outrage etched in every line of his lean, tight, powerful body.

For an instant, disconcertion froze Ellie to the spot. Oh, yeah, just drag me out to the airport on your stupid helicopter and then dump me with no money and a very nasty threat! Only unfreezing as fear for her co-worker Meg's future job security assailed her, Ellie raced after Dio Alexiakis, hating him like poison.

‘Get out of my way,' he growled when she got in front of him.

‘That call I was trying to make wasn't what you thought it was either!' Ellie argued hotly.

He simply side-stepped her.

‘You are so
stubborn
!' Ellie flung wrathfully in his wake. ‘All I did was try to make a reverse-charge call to my boss at the bookshop…all right?'

Stilling, Dio swung back with stormy reluctance. ‘What bookshop?' he ground out.

Ellie stared at him with a frown, sensing something missing, and then she exclaimed, ‘What the heck have you done with the bags? For goodness' sake, you just walked off and left them lying on the floor, didn't you?'

Ellie went into automatic reverse, spinning round to retrace his steps. Her attention settled on the abandoned carrier bags with relief. Hurrying back, she grabbed them up.

‘What bookshop?' Dio repeated stonily when she'd made it back to his side, laden like a packhorse.

‘I work in one during the day. I also live above the shop…' Ellie paused to get her breath back. ‘I
have
to contact Mr Barry to warn him that I'll be taking time off. He'll call the police if I suddenly vanish—'

‘Rubbish! He'll assume that you've taken off with some boyfriend. Staff of your age are often unreliable,' Dio Alexiakis asserted, unimpressed.

Affronted by the response, Ellie breathed in very deep to control her temper, but it didn't work.

‘You know, I've had it up to here with you!' she told him bluntly, tipping back her silvery fair head to survey him with angry resentment. ‘I do not have a boyfriend and I am
not
unreliable. Don't underestimate me and don't talk down to me, Mr Alexiakis. I always turn in for work. I've been in the same job for five years, and for the past two I've virtually been running the business—'

‘So what are you doing slogging as a cleaner five nights a week?' he incised drily.

‘I need the money…OK?' she flared. ‘Is that really any of your business?'

‘Your insolence outrages me.' Shimmering dark, deep-set eyes raked over her, the lean, bronzed features hard as steel.

‘So I don't like you…what do you expect? I haven't done anything wrong. I made a silly mistake, but it's being treated like a major crime!' Ellie recounted in an accusing undertone. ‘You're blackmailing me into doing what I don't want to do…and I don't appreciate your conviction that because I'm poor I'm more likely to be dishonest!'

‘Are you quite finished?'

Feeling as if she had run smash-bang into a brick wall and bruised herself all over, Ellie reddened and compressed her lips.

‘Today of all days,' he breathed with harsh emphasis, ‘I am not in the mood for this nonsense. Come on. We have wasted enough time.'

‘You believe me, then…?' Ellie prompted a minute or two later as she struggled to keep up with his long, powerful stride.

‘All I believe is that I caught you
before
you contrived to disobey my explicit warning not to telephone anyone,' Dio contradicted with succinct bite. ‘You're little
and
sneaky. Why does that not surprise me?'

‘I am not sneaky!'

‘You could have explained that you had another employer. I'm not an unreasonable man,' Dio stated grimly. ‘But you chose to sneak instead of being open and honest.'

If he said ‘sneak' again, she swore she would slap him. Her cheeks flamed, but the threat of thirty lashes at dawn wouldn't have dragged an apology from her. Asking him permission to do anything would have choked her. And, whether he liked it or not, that call to Mr Barry still had to be made. Unfortunately the prospect of telling little white lies to Mr Barry in Dio Alexiakis's presence made her squirm.

Ellie didn't make a habit of lying. If anything, she tended to be too honest, too blunt. She knew her own failing well,
but some of her failings were also her strengths. She was fiercely independent and had never been a team player. She loved having the freedom to make her own decisions. As a result, both her jobs suited her perfectly. She preferred to work alone and without interference.

Almost an hour later, when Dio's brooding silence was fraying her nerves, her passport and her keys were handed over at a prearranged meeting point by an older man in a dark suit, whom Dio called Demitrios. Both men totally ignored her, and talked for what felt like a very long time in Greek.

‘I hope you didn't leave my place in a mess,' Ellie finally remarked, rather loudly.

When she spoke, Demitrios frowned in complete surprise, much as if a suitcase had suddenly opened its mouth and tried to chat.

‘And I hope you locked up properly again.' At that point a strangled groan erupted from Ellie. ‘For goodness' sake, how the heck did you get past the alarm system in the first place? And did you
reset
the—?'

‘My security staff are not stupid,' Dio interposed crushingly, openly aggravated by her interruptions. ‘The premises will have been left in order.'

Ellie tilted her chin. ‘It must be comforting to know that you have staff who can trespass as efficiently as burglars.'

Dio dealt her a thunderous glance from brilliant black eyes.

‘It's rude to ignore people,' she told him stubbornly, and spun away.

But then you're just a cleaner, she reminded herself in exasperation. The lowest of the low in any staff hierarchy. Even worse, she was stuck with a guy used to being waited on hand and foot by servants. Behaving as if she was the invisible woman didn't tax Dio in the slightest. He expected her to maintain a respectful silence unless first invited to
speak. But she had never been that good at keeping her tongue between her teeth, she acknowledged ruefully.

Feeling cold now that she was no longer being kept warm by carting heavy bags around, not to mention the need to walk at about five times her natural speed, Ellie took out the black coat, ripped off the sale label and put it on. The hem hit the floor. If she pulled up the collar she would look like a small moving blanket.

‘Here…' Dio Alexiakis extended his mobile phone to her.

Ellie blinked in complete disconcertion.

‘Your story checks out. Demitrios confirms it. You may call the owner of the bookshop.'

Ellie punched out the number. As soon as he heard her voice, Mr Barry asked anxiously if something had happened at the shop. Reassuring him, but resentfully conscious of Dio listening to every word, she explained that she would be off work for a couple of days, and apologised for the lack of warning she was giving him. She said a close friend was ill.

Ending the call with relief, she returned the phone to Dio Alexiakis.

He shot her a grim, measuring look. ‘You're a very convincing liar.'

 

Several hours later, Ellie was appreciatively conceding that the interior of the Alexiakis private jet was something else.

Her eyes roved with keen curiosity in every direction. Opulent cream leather seating, plush carpet and elegant dcor. The cabin was far more like a luxurious reception room than mere passenger space. And did Dio Alexiakis realise how lucky he was? Did he heck!

Ellie surveyed her reluctant host. While they had waited endlessly at the airport for a fresh take-off slot for the jet he had paced the VIP lounge, exuding frustration and wrathful impatience in enervating waves. Now they were finally air
borne, but from what she could see he was in no better a mood.

Even so, she still found herself studying him. The dense blue-black hair so perfectly styled to his well-shaped head. The spectacular eyes enhanced by luxuriant ebony lashes. Eyes the colour of midnight that could glint like diamond stars. The hard planes and hollows of his fabulous bone structure. Strong cheekbones added character. His arrogant nose gave warning. And that wide, perfect mouth? Passion and sensuality. She pondered on the mystery of how a particular set of features could add up to such a devastating whole.

And by the time she surprised herself at that stage, she'd got distinctly hot and bothered, and acknowledged a truth she would sooner have denied. She fancied the socks off Dio Alexiakis! Who had she been trying to kid when she'd told herself he revolted her? But it had been such a very long time since Ellie had been physically attracted to a man that she was sincerely stunned by the revelation. Just hormones playing a trick on her to remind her that she could be as foolish and fallible as any other woman, she told herself. Urgently.

But even in a filthy mood, Dio Alexiakis
was
incredibly sexy. If she had noticed, he
had
to be! Possessed of that rare fluidity of a male totally in touch with his own body, he moved like a big cat prowling on velvet paws. And he was beautifully built. Broad shoulders, taut, flat stomach, slim hips, long, lean powerful thighs, she assessed, taking individual note of each attribute.
Fantasy man
…well, until he opened his mouth, she conceded, or left her carting the bags, or looked through her with supreme disdain while never once enquiring if she was hungry or thirsty. Not a feeling guy. Tough, selfish, single-minded and utterly ruthless in attaining his own ends…

Caught staring, Ellie clashed in shock with Dio's narrowed intent gaze. Eyes that could turn to the glowing gold of topaz
in sunlight, she registered, suddenly running alarmingly short of breath. But it was a kind of alarm new to Ellie's experience. Edge-of-the-seat excitement, she labelled in disbelief, finding it impossible to break free of that smouldering golden appraisal. Feverish tension held her fast, the thunder of her accelerated heartbeat pounding in her ears like surf as her mouth ran dry. An arrow of twisting heat coiled up through her and warm colour stained her face.

‘It's three in the morning Greek time. You should lie down for a while and try and get some sleep,' Dio murmured thickly.

The very sound of that deep, dark drawl was like honey drenching her every straining sense, sending a delicious little shiver through her taut frame.

Ellie blinked like a sleepwalker waking up. ‘Lie down?' she mumbled.

A dark line of blood now accentuated the hard arc of his cheekbones. He reached out and pressed a service button. His astonishing eyes were semi-veiled by his lush lashes. The raw tension churning up the atmosphere turned her stomach over. Complete bewilderment assailed her, followed by a sudden stark flood of intense embarrassment.

As Ellie rose jerkily upright, looking everywhere but at Dio Alexiakis, the female flight attendant appeared. Ellie was shown into a sleeping compartment. She sank down on the edge of the surprisingly large bed, powerfully disconcerted by the lingering ache in her swollen breasts and the still urgent tautness of her nipples. Never before had a man simply looked at Ellie and made her feel a hunger so powerful it hurt. But Dio Alexiakis had.

Ellie was shattered by that discovery, and ashamed of a physical reaction she had been quite unable to control. Had
he
realised what was happening to her? Had
he
recognised the effect he was having on her? She shut her eyes tight. She was appalled by the suspicion that Dio had not only recog
nised her helpless sexual response to him but banished her from his sight because of it.

 

A couple of hours later, a quiet but insistent voice roused Ellie from her uneasy doze. ‘Miss Morgan…?'

Ellie came up slowly on one elbow. The flight attendant was hovering with a tray and a look of uncertainty. Ellie reached up with a grateful smile to accept the food finally being offered to her. ‘Thanks…yes?'

‘We…well, the cabin staff wondered if perhaps
you
would like to wake Mr Alexiakis,' she confided tautly. ‘We'll be landing in fifty minutes, and naturally we're all anxious not to intrude any more than we have to—'

‘Intrude?' Ellie queried, all at sea and wondering why on earth such a strange request should be made of her. Was Dio a grizzly bear when he was woken up? Had she qualified for the short straw? Did she look like cannon fodder?

The other woman sighed. ‘Someone has to wake Mr Alexiakis up now so that he can dress for the funeral.'

‘The funeral…' Ellie echoed, her voice just fading out altogether.

‘I'm afraid this flight is very late, Miss Morgan. The delay back in London and the further delay in landing means that you'll have to travel to the funeral direct. I hope you won't think I'm being too personal, but we all think it's wonderful that Mr Alexiakis has brought someone with him for support,' she shared, and slipped out again.