Mediterranean Tycoons

She shrugged wearily. ‘What difference does it make? I heard enough to know my husband and stepbrother were plotting behind my back.’

‘Exactly what did you hear, Lisa? I need to know.’ His voice was flat, devoid of any emotion, only the tightening of his hands on hers told her he was nowhere near as calm as he appeared.

She stared unwaveringly for a moment into his taut face. Her teeth worried at her bottom lip. She remembered every word, they were carved on her brain but she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him.

‘Tell me, Lisa,’ he prompted curtly.

‘All right.’ And with complete honesty she told him. ‘I heard Nigel say that after three weeks with the ice amazon he didn’t blame you spending a night on your own. Then he asked you if the delectable Margot knew you were in town.’

‘It was Nigel who told Margot I was in town. She confessed as much before she left,’ Alex said flatly, and Lisa winced. She had misjudged him badly. ‘But I did not want to disillusion you about Nigel.’ He laced his fingers with hers, as if to give her some of his strength. ‘Go on.’

‘There was a comment about a computer nerd.’ It was Alex’s turn to wince. ‘Then he asked for your confirmation that the sale of Lawson’s would go through. You teased him about getting my shares for nothing. And finally you said Nigel would get what he wanted.’

‘What I actually said, Lisa, was that he would get his… And I did not mean it in a friendly way. But I was labouring under the impression you loved him like a brother, so I had to put up with him, while making sure he did not harm you. I was stringing him along that night because, thinking ahead, I realised if anything happened to Harold, Nigel would end up with a share in your business. There was no way I wanted Nigel to have anything to do with you, so I had to keep him sweet until I had done a deal with Harold.’

‘You still could have told me. I never thought Harold would ever sell without consulting me first. Until you came along.’ She glared at him, but her heart wasn’t in it. What Alex said made sense.

‘Blood is thicker than water, Lisa. Harold is always going to be weak where his son is concerned, and I realised it that night when I spoke to Nigel. Suffice to say, after Nigel left the apartment I had a long talk to Harold.’

‘Yes, you said so at the time.’ Lisa knew that was true. Was it possible Alex was telling the truth and he really was not the villain she had painted him?

‘I believe I did. Just before you seduced me.’ He stopped, an arrested expression on his handsome face. ‘Now I understand,’ he declared, a sensual, reminiscent smile lighting his brown eyes. ‘Your sudden aggression in bed last week was more fury than a fever of passion?’ he queried softly, lifting their joined hands to his mouth and kissing her fingers.

‘Never mind that.’ She wasn’t going there for anything! ‘What did you say to Harold to get him to sell his shares?’

‘I promised to pay off Nigel’s debts.’

‘What!’ Lisa exclaimed. ‘Are you mad?’ She pulled her hands free and eyed her husband with stunned disbelief.

‘I am now,’ Alex said with wry amusement. ‘When I learn he laid a hand on you. But it is too late. It is done. Harold loves his son, and would do anything for him, though he is not entirely blind to Nigel’s faults. Harold and I agreed that the money I paid him for his shares would go into a trust to give Nigel an income from the interest. But Nigel can’t get his hands on the capital.’

‘And you did this for me?’ Lisa said, feeling her way through what felt like a minefield. ‘You bought the Lee shares first, to protect the company from a hostile bid set up by Nigel?’

Alex gave her a considering look. ‘No,’ he said and, rising to his feet, he stared fixedly down at her.

‘No? But—’ She raised confused blue eyes to his, and suddenly she felt the strong grip of Alex’s hands on her arms, pulling her up against his body.

‘I bought the shares for you, and only you. I don’t give a damn about Lawson’s, except as it affects you. You’re my wife, my partner, and if you had shown a little more trust in me, talked to me, you could have spared us both a lot of unpleasantness,’ Alex declared, with a disturbing intensity in his voice that left Lisa in no doubt he was telling the truth.

‘I’m sorry, but it’s not that easy to trust a husband when you think he’s plotting behind your back, and then you’re confronted in the apartment you share by an almost naked ex-mistress all in the same night,’ Lisa retorted dryly. She believed his explanation; she had to. Alex was the majority stockholder now, whether she liked it or not, and did that matter if he was prepared to let her run the company as she wished? More than that, she loved him, and eventually she might persuade her cynical husband to fall in love with her.

‘Okay, so there were mistakes on both sides,’ Alex conceded. ‘Mine being I should not have brought you back to this apartment in the first place. I know you don’t like it.’

Lisa had to smile. ‘Oh I don’t know.’ Placing a hand in the open vee of his robe, she felt his hot satin skin beneath her fingers. ‘I seem to remember our wedding night was not that bad.’ Rising up on her toes, she pressed her lips to his; his arms tightened around her and he took over the kiss with a passionate thoroughness that had her melting in his arms.

Suddenly Alex pulled back, his hands falling from her waist. ‘No, Lisa, I am not going to give you the chance again to accuse me of manipulating you with sex.’

‘I wasn’t going to,’ she teased, suddenly feeling lighthearted.

‘Good, then get dressed. We are leaving. We have to learn to communicate better and here is not the place to do it. Too many bad memories,’ Alex insisted.

‘I’ll send you an E-mail from my laptop. Is that communication enough for you? Though I do remember overhearing you tell Nigel something about your lap.’

Alex stiffened, and she watched with laughter in her eyes as his brow furrowed and he tried to remember, then he disconcerted her completely by roaring with laughter. Sweeping her up in his arms, he carried her to the bed.

‘You’re right. Who needs to talk when we have this?’ And, with a wolfish smile, he dropped her on the bed. Falling down beside her, he deftly eased her out of her robe, shed his own, and drew her in to the hard heat of him. Lisa trembled violently, and wondered how she had ever been dumb enough to even consider forgoing such pleasure.

A long time later she lay with her head resting on his broad chest.

‘Are you okay?’ Alex queried softly. She felt the vibration of his words against the wall of his chest.

‘I’m speechless,’ she sighed.

‘I’m surprised,’ Alex murmured. ‘You are usually such a verbal lover.’

‘Yes, well, for once I am struck dumb.’ But she knew what he was getting at.

Before she would have cried out in the throes of passion and declared her love in gushing terms. Not any more… She had accepted his reason for buying the shares in her company the same way she had accepted the fact that Alex did not believe in love. She told herself she didn’t care, that the pleasure she found in his arms was enough…

‘Good.’ He rolled her on to her back and, propping his head on one elbow, he grinned down at her. ‘How about a long weekend in Kos? Or perhaps you would prefer house-hunting again?’ he ended less than enthusiastically.

Lisa pretended to consider. ‘Well, a house is important…’ She saw the flash of disappointment in his dark eyes. It was time to take a chance, and her lips parted in a purely feminine smile. ‘But I doubt we’d find anything better than the first one we saw last week. So Kos it is.’

‘You little witch.’ Alex surveyed her with a disturbing light of understanding in his dark. ‘You wanted the house, but you had so little trust in me you could not admit it, hmm.’

‘Something like that,’ she agreed.

‘Hardly flattering, but understandable, I suppose.’ Slipping off the bed, Alex picked up his robe and put it on. ‘I have a few calls to make, so why not get up and get packed?’ He glanced down at where she lay on the bed, her blonde hair spread in a tangled mass over the pillow, her body relaxed in the aftermath of passion, and his firm lips curved back over his brilliant white teeth in a blatantly sexy grin. ‘And hurry, wife, or I might just change my mind!’

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE flight from London took a little over three hours and, allowing for the time difference, it was midnight when the jet touched down at Kos airport. They had travelled in the Solomos company jet, Alex explaining his father had been using it at the time of their wedding.

‘Are you sure your mother won’t mind our arriving in the middle of the night?’ Lisa asked Alex, as he helped her onto the Tarmac.

Alex gave her a surprised glance and tucked her hand under his arm. ‘You don’t know much about Greek custom if you think midnight is late. In my mother’s house we do not dine before ten, and quite often later.’

Two cars drew alongside them. In minutes, passport and customs details were accomplished, and Alex was ushering Lisa into the back seat of the second car, a chauffeur-driven limousine, and sliding in beside her.

‘You must be famous?’ She prompted. ‘Not for you the queue at Customs!’ She slanted him a sidelong glance. Dressed casually in jeans and a short-sleeved white shirt, he looked totally relaxed.

‘Famous no, but local, yes. The population of the island is only twenty-five thousand, and most people here know each other. Actually, I had forgotten the first weekend in July is one of the busiest of the year. For the next two months the island will be heaving with tourists and the population swells to more like a million. For which I should be grateful.’

‘Why?’ Lisa tipped her head back to look up at him, intrigued.

‘Because my father came here on holiday, met and married my mother, an island girl, and for the next few years built many of the hotels and apartments. In fact—’ he looked down at her warily ‘—we are in the process of constructing a large holiday complex at the other end of the island, beside Paradise Beach. I thought I might take a look at it while we are here, see how it is going.’

‘I might have guessed, you con-man,’ she mocked. ‘This is no holiday, but a business trip.’

‘And who slipped their laptop in the side pocket of their holdall?’ He asked drolly.

‘Force of habit.’ Lisa grinned at being caught out.

His dark eyes gleamed appreciatively down at her. She was a vision of loveliness, her blonde hair loose and curling around her bare shoulders. Her dress was a simple pale cream sheath in knitted cotton, the strapless bodice moulding her high, full breasts like the hands of a lover, the skirt ending a few inches above her knees. She had no idea how desirable she looked. Alex bent and placed a swift, hard kiss on her parted lips. ‘So was that,’ he said huskily.

At one in the morning, sitting on the terrace of the villa, sharing a soft-cushioned sofa with Alex and content in the curve of his arm, Lisa sighed blissfully. With the warm night air caressing her skin, the blue-black sky showered with sparkling stars above, and below, in the distance, the brilliantly lit shoreline and the sea beyond, she had rarely felt so relaxed.

‘If you two young ones don’t mind, I will say goodnight. I am so glad you are here, but at my age I need my beauty sleep.’

‘So do we, Mamma.’ Alex grinned and, rising to his feet, took Lisa with him. Without releasing her he bent and kissed his mother’s cheek. ‘Goodnight.’

‘Your mother is a lovely lady; I’m surprised Leo ever left her,’ Lisa murmured as they watched the older woman enter the house.

‘He didn’t; she threw him out,’ Alex said bluntly.

‘Well, I can’t say I blame her from what I’ve heard and seen of Leo. He can’t keep his hands off women.’

‘Life is never that cut and dried, Lisa,’ Alex remarked, and, placing his other arm around her, he linked his hands lightly at her back. ‘Women have a tendency to jump to conclusions, as you know,’ he mocked her lightly, but the expression in his brown eyes was strangely reflective. ‘I suppose nowadays medical science would have solved my parents’ problem, but on an island like this thirty-five years ago, postnatal depression wasn’t always recognised.’

‘All the more reason for your father to stand by her, if she was ill,’ Lisa argued.

Alex sighed. ‘That is how I thought until a few years ago, when I had a fight with my father about his third divorce, and what it was costing, and he told me his side of the story. I don’t condone his behaviour, but I do feel sorry for him.’

‘I wouldn’t,’ Lisa murmured.

‘No, but then you are not a man, thank God!’ He gave her a quick squeeze that set her heart beating a little faster before continuing. ‘Apparently, for two years after I was born, my mother would not let him anywhere near her. He loved her quite desperately and he was nearly out of his mind. He went to Athens on a construction project and while he was there my mother finally got over her depression. For the first time in her life she travelled to Athens by herself. Unfortunately, when she got to my father’s hotel, he wasn’t in. She waited in the foyer and saw him return, drunk and with a lady in tow. He swears it was the first time he had ever picked up a girl. I am inclined to believe him. My mother wasn’t. She confronted him, threw her wedding ring at him, and got the next boat back to Kos. She has never left this island since.’ Alex let go of her and, turning abruptly, caught her hand in his. ‘End of story. Time for bed.’

She cast a sidelong glance at his harsh face as they walked into the house. ‘And she never forgave him?’ Lisa asked.

‘No. One betrayal was one too many in her book.’

Lisa wondered if the same applied to Alex. In character was he like his mother or his father? She didn’t know. But for her own sake she hoped it was the former.

Walking upstairs with her hand in his, Lisa wondered how Alex had felt as a small boy about the break-up of his parents’ marriage.

They had reached the door of his bedroom suite, and, opening the door, Alex curved an arm around her shoulders and drew her inside, closing the door behind them.

She looked around the comfortable sitting room, and, suddenly nervous, she slipped from under his arms and walked out on to the balcony that ran the length of the building. ‘It’s hot.’

She felt Alex’s hands close around her waist and his breath stir her hair. ‘And it’s going to get a lot hotter,’ he husked. Awareness flared as his hands moved up to cup her breasts. ‘This dress has tormented me all night.’

The breath caught in the back of her throat as he reached for the zip fastening and freed it. Lisa let her head fall back against him and made no protest as with deceptive ease he turned her to face him, the dress falling at her feet. Something vital leapt in his eyes and Lisa responded. Willingly she moved into his arms, and the kiss they shared was like no other. It was passionate, but tender, saying without words promises of hope, happiness, and need. Was it love? Lisa didn’t know about Alex, but on her part it was, so why fight it?

‘Bed, I think,’ Alex opined huskily. His dark eyes gleamed down into hers. ‘And I can guarantee no other woman but you has ever shared this bed.’ Swinging her up in his arms, he carried her the short distance to the bedroom.

With an arm around his neck, her eyes level with his, Lisa’s lips curved in a sympathetic smile. ‘Poor Alex,’ she mocked, ‘would your mummy not let you?’

‘Cheeky! But true.’ And, sliding her slowly down the long length of his hard body, he let his hands drop to her hips, his fingers curling round the top of her briefs, her last remaining garment. He dropped to his knees on the floor, and with slow, delicate deliberation he slid her briefs down over her hips, at the same time covering her navel with his mouth. Lisa jerked and tried to pull back, but his hands would not let her. He pressed a kiss into the hollow of her hipbone She looked down and the trembling started in the pit of her stomach. Never had she seen anything so erotic as Alex’s dark head against her thighs. He flicked a brief upward glance from beneath his thick lashes.

‘I used to think I was a breast man,’ he husked as he trailed his hands down the back of her thighs and followed with his mouth, pressing tiny kisses on her heated flesh. His hands continued their downward journey, curving her calves. ‘But since meeting you, my sweet wife, I’ve decided I am a leg man.’

Lisa almost tumbled over when his hand lifted one foot, the trembling in her limbs was so great.

‘Steady.’ Alex chuckled as he helped her step out of her briefs. Slowly straightening up, a primitive glitter in his dark eyes, he let his hands sweep up her thighs and hips adding throatily, ‘But then again…’ his hands stroked up to her breasts ‘…your breasts are perfection.’ His long fingers teased the sensitive peaks. ‘I am spoilt for choice.’

Lisa groaned deep in her throat and focused on his darkly handsome face. She was shivering with excitement and involuntarily swayed towards him. He stopped her with the flat of his hand across her collarbone.

‘No, Lisa, now it is your turn to undress me,’ Alex declared roughly, but the fire in his dark eyes belied his apparent control.

Her heart thudding in her chest, Lisa raised her hands and slowly unfastened his shirt. She put both hands on his flat stomach and stroked up over his chest, her fingers tangling in his crisp curling body hair and grazing his taut male nipples. She eased the shirt off his broad shoulders, leaning forward to do so, deliberately brushing her breasts against his muscular chest. A secret smile curved her lips as she felt him shiver. It was an empowering feeling, knowing Alex was as susceptible as she was.

She let one hand drop to the fastening of his pants, and unclasped the top. Slipping her hand beneath the material, she was instantly aware of the strength of his arousal. Lisa glanced up at him through lowered lashes; his eyes were half closed, his lips pulled back across his teeth, and she had a daring idea. ‘I’m not very good at this,’ she said quietly, and turned guileless eyes up to his.

‘I wouldn’t say that,’ Alex almost groaned. ‘Go on.’

Her fingers finding the zipper, Lisa very slowly began to free it, pressing against his aroused flesh with her knuckles. ‘I don’t want to damage you,’ she said breathlessly, and with both hands she slid his pants and briefs halfway over his hips and stopped. ‘You’re so powerful.’ She edged one hand across his belly, her blue eyes gleaming with devilment and desire as they met his. Her fingers curved around him and gently squeezed, her thumb stroking the velvet tip.

Alex groaned for real. ‘You little tease, Lisa.’ And, pushing her hands away, he stripped off his pants in a second and tumbled her on to the bed. He caught her wrists above her head and, his lips, gentle as wild silk against her skin, trailed kisses over her eyelids, the soft curve of her cheek and finally her lips.

His tongue stroked the roof of her mouth, and then her own tongue curled around his in a welcome caress. Lisa ached to put her arms around him but he wouldn’t let her.

‘No, Lisa.’ Alex raised his head; his night-black eyes met hers, a glint of mockery in their depths. ‘Take turns—it’s only fair.’

She arched against the hard heat of him as his lips blazed a trail of fire down her throat, lingering where the pulse beat wildly in her neck. Then he went lower, until his mouth closed over the tip of her breast.

‘Alex.’ She groaned his name as he suckled hungrily at her aching breasts, first one and then the other. Her skin tingled as if a million nerve-ends had suddenly come alive at his caress. ‘Alex, please!’

He released her wrists and immediately she reached for him, her slender arms moving around his broad back. He captured her mouth again, and kissed her with an ever deepening hunger, and she kissed him back, one hand slipping around his neck, her fingers tangling in his hair to hold him to her, a fierce hunger, a need so great, exploding inside her. But Alex was not about to be rushed. With incredible control he led her to the brink of fulfilment over and over again. Soothing and enflaming her pliant body even as he fought to withstand her feverish intimate tactile exploration of his magnificent form. His strong features were taut and intent in passion, his black eyes flaring triumphant at her husky plea for release, and when she thought she could take no more he tipped her over the edge, and with a deep, rasping growl of release he followed her there.

Locked in his arms, his skin hot and damp against her own, Lisa stroked her hands lovingly over his shoulders and down his broad back. What did it matter if Alex didn’t believe in love as long as they had this? He had shown her he wanted and needed her with a fierce and tender passion that touched her soul. Turning her head slightly, she pressed a soft kiss against the hard line of his jaw.

He eased his large frame to one side, and, leaning over her, he gently stroked a few strands of hair from her wet brow. ‘All right?’

Her lips parted in a slow, wide smile. ‘Never better.’ She sighed, her brilliant blue eyes lingering on his darkly flushed face.

‘Lisa, I…’ Alex hesitated, his eyes widening on her delicate features almost in surprise. ‘Meeting you was the luckiest day of my life,’ he said huskily, and she had the distinct impression he had meant to say something else.

Midday Saturday, Lisa, hot and tired, gratefully took the hard hat off her head and handed it to Alex. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was wearing the minimum of clothing—brief white shorts and a sleeveless shirt knotted under her breasts—but still she had to wipe the perspiration from her brow. ‘Do you visit all the construction sites your company is involved in?’ she asked. ‘It must take an awful lot of your time.’

‘No.’ Alex handed the hats to his site manager and said something in Greek, then, catching Lisa’s hand in his, he added, as they walked off the building site, ‘I employ a very efficient staff to do it for me. But as I was born here I do take a particular interest.’ They had reached where he had parked the car and after opening the passenger door for her he walked around to the driver’s side, and stopped when he saw she had not got in the car. ‘Something wrong?’ Not waiting for her answer, he tagged on, ‘Sorry if you were bored.’

‘Not bored. The view alone is incredible; the complex is bound to be a success.’ She glanced at Alex. The blue cotton shirt fitted tautly across his broad shoulders, the first few buttons open to mid-chest. His black hair shone sleek as a raven’s wing in the brilliant sun, and somehow, over the past few hours, he’d seemed more Greek to her than before. Looking at him, so cool while she was melting, she decided to get her own back.

‘But you did promise we could go for a swim, Alex.’ The maid had woken them that morning with a breakfast tray. She had set it on the table on the balcony and quickly withdrawn. They had made love for the fourth time. Then, when Lisa had been trying to get dressed, with a lot of interference from Alex, he had suggested she put her bikini on under her clothes and they could go for a swim later.

‘So I did,’ Alex drawled, a reminiscent smile curving his firm lips. ‘But do you really want to join the tourists on the beach?’ She eyed the wide sweep of Paradise Beach and the sparkling sea, a smile curving her generous mouth, her eyes gleaming with mischief as they met his over the top of the car. Sophisticated, arrogant Alex on Paradise Beach with hordes of tourists held great appeal. ‘Yes, why not? It’s so hot I’ll melt.’

They spent the next half-hour playing like children in the warm clear waters, and then they dried off in the sun. Later still they returned to the villa and went to bed for a siesta, at Alex’s instigation, insisting it was the Greek thing to do!

A sigh of pure pleasure left Lisa’s lips as she sat down on a comfortable padded chair, one of two, set either side of a small table on the balcony of their suite and looked around her. Alex was downstairs talking with his mother. Apparently his mother had arranged a party for them tonight—a delayed wedding reception and a chance for Lisa to meet friends from his boyhood, she had said.