The Mills & Boon Ultimate Christmas Collection. Kate Hardy

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      Apollo groaned his appreciation into her hair and she wrapped her arms round him. It was automatic, instinctive, something of a shock when he broke immediately free and imposed space between them. His lean, darkly handsome face had shuttered. ‘I can’t do that stuff,’ he muttered semi-apologetically, his beautifully shaped mouth momentarily rigid with tension.

      And Pixie forced a smile she didn’t feel and shifted back in turn because she got it, she really did get it after what he had explained the night before. A child crying out for maternal affection, initially given it only to discover that it was an evil deception being utilised to gain his trust and love.

      She swallowed the thickness in her throat and fought a very strong urge to hug him. He was the only man who had ever had that much power over her and momentarily it scared her. Sometimes Apollo made her want to kick him very hard and then equally suddenly she wanted to put her arms round him instead, even though she knew he didn’t want that, couldn’t handle that… It wasn’t only her body he could make fly out of control: somehow he was reaching her emotions as well, and she knew that was dangerous and she tensed.

      Apollo was intensely uncomfortable for a male accustomed to feeling at home in virtually every situation. He very rarely drank to excess and when he did he could still control his tongue, yet inexplicably he had lost control the night before and confided his deepest secrets. He understood that her experiences had reanimated memories he had suppressed and that that had destabilised him but that didn’t mean he had to like his own weakness. He really didn’t like that sudden feeling of being exposed and vulnerable because it reminded him too much of his lost childhood. For that reason it felt good to have a distraction available.

      ‘I’ve got something for you,’ he told her, reaching into the drawer by the bed to produce the jewellery case he had stashed there several days before. Apollo always thought out everything well in advance, preparing for every eventuality if he could. And she deserved a gift much more than the women who usually shared his bed.

      The wedding night, after all, had been pretty much disastrous and his getting drunk and telling all in such a girly fashion, Apollo reflected grimly, had crowned the disaster. She had tolerated it all and in spite of everything that had gone wrong she had still lain back trustingly for him to claim her body even though she had feared that consummation.

      Taken aback, Pixie stared down in astonishment at the case and then carefully opened it. A breathtaking bracelet ran in a river of glittering diamonds across the velvet inset. ‘For me?’

      ‘Wedding present,’ Apollo pronounced with relief as he leapt out of bed with alacrity and headed for the shower, convinced that he had done the very best that he could to be thoughtful and decent.

      ‘It’s gorgeous and I suppose I need some jewellery to make me look like a proper rich wife,’ Pixie murmured uncertainly, battling to rise above hurt feelings she knew she had no right to experience. ‘But this was a bad time to give it to me.’

      Apollo’s long lashes fanned down in disbelief and he gritted his white teeth before he swung back to her. ‘How so?’

      Pixie contemplated him as he stood there, buck naked, bronzed and very Greek godlike in his physique. He was without a doubt the most physically beautiful male she would ever be with but, time and time again, he confounded her and wounded her. ‘I’m not some whore you have to pay for a one-night stand.’

      ‘I’ve never been with a professional,’ Apollo said icily. ‘I gave you a gift. Thanks would have been the appropriate response.’

      ‘It’s just the way this makes me feel,’ Pixie began, struggling to verbalise what she didn’t quite understand herself.

      ‘We have a business arrangement,’ Apollo shot back at her unapologetically. ‘Think of it as business.’

      ‘I can’t think of my body as business. I’m not sure what that would make me,’ Pixie admitted unhappily. ‘But I need more respect than you’re giving me if we’re going to be stuck together like this for months. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. Obviously you can’t even bring yourself to put your arms round me after sex. I’m not going to turn clingy or needy, Apollo. I’m not about to fall in love with you or the things you can buy me either. I know this marriage isn’t real.’

      A whine sounded from below the bed.

      ‘Shush, dog,’ Apollo groaned in raw frustration. ‘You’ve been walked, you’ve been fed and watered. Stay out of this…she’s enough to handle without your input.’

      Pixie had to bite her tongue not to comment on the reality that she had overlooked her beloved pet’s needs and Apollo had not. Instead she forced herself to continue. ‘Couldn’t we try friendship if we can’t have anything else that might make you feel threatened?’

      Apollo flung back his arrogant dark head and green eyes radiated emerald fire in the sunlight. ‘You do not make me feel threatened.’

      Pixie surrendered and said exactly what was on her mind. ‘Don’t punish me because you talked too much for your own comfort last night.’

      And there it was in a nutshell, what Apollo Metraxis absolutely couldn’t stand about Pixie. Somehow, Thee mou, she saw beyond the surface and saw right through him and it was the most unnerving experience he had had in many years. Without another word, Apollo strode into the shower, hit every dial, turned up the pressure and refused to think by blanking out everything, a trick he had learned as a child to stay in control. He held himself straight and taut until the confusion and bewilderment and seething frustration drained fully away with the swirling water.

      Suppressing a groan of equal frustration, Pixie tunnelled back down into the bed and made no objection when Hector jumped up to tuck himself in next to her body. Hopefully Apollo would think she was sleeping in. Instead of sleeping, however, she was counting pluses, a habit she had formed as a child to make a grey day look sunnier. Number one, she enumerated, they had done the sex thing and it had been…amazing. Number two, Apollo was damaged but at least he had explained why, even if he did regret it. Number three, he was trying to make the marriage work but he hadn’t a clue how to meet such a challenge. Female partners who whooped over his financial generosity and who only lasted for a two-week session of nightly sex didn’t provide a man with much of an education on how to make a woman feel happy, respected and secure. Was she expecting too much from him? This was supposed to be a business arrangement, she reminded herself ruefully. Maybe she was being unreasonable…

      Pixie breakfasted alone on the polished deck with Hector at her feet: Apollo was working. He had phoned her to make that announcement in a very detached voice that suggested he suspected he could be dealing with a potential screaming shrew. As far as avoidance techniques went, Apollo had nothing whatsoever to learn. When her phone went off again she answered it unhurriedly, assuming there was something he wished to tell her, but this time it wasn’t Apollo, it was Holly.

      ‘Vito and I are flying out to join you this afternoon!’ Holly exclaimed excitedly. ‘What do you think?’

      Pixie rolled her eyes. ‘The more the merrier,’ she quipped, oddly hurt that Apollo had to bring in other people to create yet another barrier between them within a day of the wedding. Was she really that unbearable? She flexed her fingers against her flat stomach and prayed to get pregnant fast. The sooner she and Apollo escaped the situation they were in and separated, the better it would be. If they weren’t living together and sharing a bed, it would be easier to stick to a businesslike attitude, she reasoned, wondering why her heart now felt as heavy as lead.

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