Billionaire Heirs: The Kyriakos Virgin Bride. Tessa Radley

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      Seven

      “A kiss?”

      Zac didn’t answer. But the teasing glint in his eyes challenged Pandora. He expected her to refuse. He was laughing at her, darn him.

      Recklessly, she blew out the nearest candles, leaving only one fat white candle burning on the sideboard, then she rose and leaned over the table toward him. “All right.”

      Placing her hands on his shoulders, Pandora pressed her lips against his … and waited. He stayed motionless. Yet her own response flared wild and primal in her belly, and her breath came more quickly. The velvety darkness surrounding them intensified the sensual mood of the candlelight. Beneath her palms, his Polo shirt had become a barrier that prevented her from caressing his sleek skin. She moved her hands in urgent little circles against the fabric.

      Under her mouth, his lips moved. A sigh. His? Or hers? She didn’t know … and didn’t care.

      His body heat rose through his shirt, warming her hands, and his scent was intoxicating.

      Pandora’s breathing became ragged. Parting her lips, her tongue stroked across the seal of his lips in a bold caress.

      Zac’s body tensed, coiling into a tight, expectant mass of bone and muscle and man.

      She repeated the soft stroke.

      He groaned and his mouth gave under hers. The only sound in the room was their ragged breathing. Her fingers tightened on his shoulders.

      At last Zac pulled away. “You are so beautiful.” The hand that stroked her hair away from her face shook. “You are kind to Maria—yes, she told me you gave her a silk scarf you valued. You think of your father worrying about you. Your heart is pure.”

      She thought of the lie she’d told him and her hands slipped from his shoulders. She forced a smile. “You’re embarrassing me. I’m far from perfect. And I did consider asking my father for help. But I decided against it.” And she squirmed inside.

      “Pandora.” Holding her a little distance away from him, he said, “Zeus, this is hard for me, but I’m not going to break my promise to give you time. I’m not going to make love to you.”

      His eyes were clear of everything except an intensity that drew her in, making her aware that he was male and she was his mate … and nothing else mattered.

      “I’m not going to rush you into something that might be a mistake. I want you to be very, very sure. Understand one thing—I want this marriage to work, okay?”

      Slowly she nodded.

      The next week passed in a daze of sun and sea and sleep. As part of their two-week truce, they’d fallen into meeting before breakfast for a run along the footpath that wound past the pebbled beach in front of the villa and then curved away from the beach, between the olive trees up to the headland, before descending to a sandy cove on the other side. The sand in the secret cove was soft and silky, so different from the pebbled beach. Zac would strip off his singlet and charge into the water, and Pandora would drop her towel and follow at a more sedate pace.

      Since kissing him at dinner, Pandora found it increasingly difficult to ignore the effect Zac’s briefly clad body had on her. She seemed to have developed an inner sensitivity to his closeness. Each morning when they swam out and around the tall rock that jutted out from the sea, she was intensely aware of the smooth, easy stroke of his arms cutting through the water beside her.

      Once back in the shallows, she struggled not to gawk at Zac as the droplets streamed off him, his broad muscled chest sheened by moisture and his skin golden in the sunlight. She was tempted to kiss that full, smiling and deliciously sensual mouth, but she didn’t dare in case she unleashed a force that she could not control.

      Instead, she would run up the beach, pull on her sneakers and grab her towel before tearing down the pathway. Zac would laugh, then she would hear the thud of his footsteps behind her. Eventually she would slow her pace to a jog through the olive grove, absorbing the clatter of the cicadas as the heat started to rise.

      Back at the villa, she would veer off to her room for a cool shower, so that by the time she joined Zac for breakfast she was composed enough to face him with no sign of her craving hunger for him. After breakfast, Zac would disappear into his study, leaving Pandora to amuse herself for the rest of the day by listening to music, reading or sunbathing at the beach or watching DVDs from the huge collection Zac owned, while inside her the glow of desire smouldered unslaked.

      By Friday Pandora had exhausted Zac’s library of DVDs. It was after watching Zorba that afternoon that Pandora said rashly after dinner, while they were drinking strong Greek coffee in the glassed room, “Teach me to dance.”

      Zac got the reference instantly. “You’ve been watching Zorba.”

      “Yes, and that’s not all. Although, I gave the soap operas a miss. Maria said she watches them.”

      “That’s where she’s learned the little English she knows. She loves them.” Zac’s eyes smiled as he spoke about the old woman. “So what else have you watched?”

      “Strictly Ballroom, Take the Lead and Shall We Dance? You have an interesting selection.”

      “Katy loves dance movies.” His gaze turned watchful. “Are you bored?”

      “I’m not used to doing nothing,” she said honestly.

      “We’ll remedy that. When we get back to Athens I’ll introduce you to Pano, the CEO of Kyriakos Cruises, and perhaps you can develop an active role in the South Pacific region of our tourist-cruise program.”

      Pandora shot him a sideways look. He made it sound as if her agreement at the end of the two weeks was a foregone conclusion. Did Zac know how tempted she was to stay married to him? Even though he didn’t love her?

      But she wasn’t ready to surrender quite yet. So she tracked the conversation back to dancing. “Remember at our wedding … you said you’d teach me to dance some of the more complicated dances?”

      Zac pushed the coffee table back and moved to the bank of stereo equipment, and a few seconds later the sound of music filled the air.

      “Come,” he said.

      Pandora rose. For a moment fear rode her and she wondered if she’d gone too far too fast. Then she stepped forward to where Zac waited and lifted her arms.

      “The hassipikos is not like a lot of other Greek dances. We start slowly. Once the music speeds up do we change over to a faster, spiralling dance. Now, stand beside me. Here.”

      Pandora obeyed.

      “Get ready to take a step forward. Left foot this time—not right, like most other Greek dances.” The music changed. “Now.”

      Confidently, she stepped forward.

      “Good,” said Zac. “Two more steps, then we’re going to move sideways. Watch my feet.”

      Pandora was laughing by the time they got through the next section of music, the sweeping arm movements, the complicated crossover steps.

      “Let’s СКАЧАТЬ