Читать книгу In the Greek's Bed: The Greek Tycoon's Wife / The Greek Millionaire's Marriage / The Greek Surgeon - Ким Лоренс, Margaret Barker - Страница 11

CHAPTER EIGHT

KATIE sniffed a few of the luxury bath products provided and, selecting one that had a tang of rosemary, she poured it into the water.

She inhaled deeply, enjoying the scent from the pungent-smelling oil in the steamy air. She gave a deep sigh as she slid slowly into the hot water. It was bliss.

She lost track of time as she lay there, drifting in every sense of the word. The delightful idyll was only spoiled when there was a loud knock on the door.

Katie groaned and slid under the water to block out the noise; fronds of water-darkened hair floated on the surface like exotic petals above her head. When she emerged, wet hair plastered to her face, the knocking was louder and accompanied by a voice. She wiped the moisture from her face with her hand and grimaced.

‘Are you all right, Katerina? If you don’t answer me I shall be forced to come in!’

He would too.

This was a situation fraught with dangerous possibilities…which no doubt accounted for the dramatic increase in her pulse-rate.

Katie bit her lip and blew a section of frothy suds from her arm, watching as individual bubbles detached themselves and began to float across the room.

‘It’s locked!’ she shouted, hoping he’d go away.

If she hoped he’d go away, why then did she have this image in her head of being joined in the water by a sleekly muscled male body…? Why even as she spoke was she seeing water sliding over powerful shoulders…?

She almost certainly didn’t want answers to these questions.

There was a short silence. ‘A locked door is not an obstacle to a determined man,’ he told her, sounding irritated but a lot more relaxed than he had done before she’d spoken. ‘So if you are not unconscious answer me.’

Katie watched the bubble that had travelled the farthest ping on a mirrored surface. ‘What do you want?’ she called crossly.

‘Do you want anything from room service? I’m ordering some supper.’

Her stomach responded to the offer with a hungry growl. ‘No.’

‘You hardly ate anything at dinner.’

‘And whose fault is that…?’

‘You ought to have something,’ Nikos persisted, choosing to ignore her indignant accusation.

‘What are you going to do, force-feed me?’ She winced at the sound of her own voice. God, this is starting to sound more and more like a playground squabble. One of them had to start acting like a grown-up. ‘Actually…Nikos…’ she began tentatively. Why was it so hard for her to say his name? ‘I wouldn’t mind a sandwich? Nikos…?’ she called, but there was no response. She shrugged; he obviously hadn’t hung around.

Katie sank back down into the scented water but found it impossible to recapture her relaxed mood, so after washing her long hair until it was squeaky clean she climbed out of the roll-top bath. As she reached for a towel she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror—how could she not? The ceiling was about the only place in the bathroom that didn’t have a reflective surface.

She barely registered the fleeting image she had of the tall girl with long, slim legs, flat belly and firm, fairly full breasts with small pouting nipples that stood out darkly against pale honey skin. She picked a large soft towel from the pile on the vanity unit and was about to dry herself when an impulse made her turn and rub some of the condensation from the nearest mirror.

Towel still in her hands, she extended one leg in front of her and pointed her toes, watching the effect of her balletic pose in the mirror. Thoughtfully she replaced her foot on the tiled floor then turned, viewing her body critically from several angles. How, she wondered, would a stranger view this body? Would they notice that her hip bones were too bonily prominent or detect that, viewing from this angle, you could see that her right breast was just fractionally fuller than the left?

She ran her fingers slowly down the damp flat contours of her belly; the sensitised nerves in her abdomen quivered under her touch. She found herself staring into her own eyes…they were darkened, alien, the pupils dilated. She shivered, not from cold because her skin was hot to the touch.

‘Oh, my goodness!’ she gasped, wiping a shaking hand across her lips, which appeared pinker and fuller than usual—as if I’d just been kissed. Who am I kidding? It’s no stranger’s eyes I’m trying to see myself through, but a very specific pair of eyes—inky-dark fathomless eyes.

It was bad she was thinking about Nikos looking at her naked, but infinitely worse was the inescapable fact she was getting seriously aroused thinking about him doing so!

Shaking with reaction, she covered her shamefully engorged nipples with her crossed arms and stumbled towards the washbasin; gulping, she turned on the cold tap. The cold water she splashed on her face did clear her head but not her deeply troubled thoughts.

I’m about to marry one man and I’m thinking this way about another.

‘What does that say about me?’ she demanded of the image in the mirror. The fact that she was actually married to the object of her lustful fancies was not, considering the exceptional circumstances, relevant.

Maybe it was time to admit what she had with Tom was not a basis for a lifelong commitment? She shook her head, rejecting the idea. Friendship and respect lasted longer than lust—this inevitably led her thoughts full circle back to Nikos.

‘I will not let him do this to me!’ she gritted out loud. Only an idiot would want a spectacular burst of showy fireworks when they could have a steady, slow-burning flame. But did she?

Shaking the excess moisture off her face, she took a deep breath and began to rub herself vigorously with a towel. Long before she’d finished her skin was pink and tingling.

When Katie went back through to her bedroom the door to the sitting room shared by the two bedrooms in the large, luxurious suite was open. She couldn’t hear any signs of life beyond it, but just in case she tiptoed quietly towards it with the intention of surreptitiously shutting it. She’d feel safer with a visible barrier between them…but would he, the sly voice in her head wondered…if he knew what you were thinking?

That was never going to happen!

Pretending she wasn’t attracted to him was not going to work any more—actually it never had worked particularly well to begin with—neither could she blame it on the heightened emotions surrounding the fire. The truth was every time she looked at him she was overwhelmed by a mindless hunger with an emphasis on the mindless. Lust was something she could deal with, she told herself without a great deal of conviction.

If only, she thought wistfully as she grasped the door handle, Nikos could be as easily shut out of her thoughts. As part of her new honesty policy she acknowledged it was going to take a lot more than two inches of polished mahogany to accomplish that—yes, that’s going to take a bit of good old-fashioned self-control, she told herself sternly, so stop acting as if you don’t have any choice about this!

‘There’s always a choice!’ Katie grimaced to hear the lack of conviction in her voice—once more with feeling, girl! ‘There’s always a choice…?’

She frowned and leaned her weight against the door, which, only half closed, had come to an abrupt halt. She grunted softly and gave a shove just as the obstacle revealed itself to be a six-feet-five-in-his-bare-feet obstacle!

Her stomach dipped dramatically as she angled a dismayed look up at his lean, imposing features.

Oh, heavens! Not only could she not get him out of her thoughts, her assumption she could physically shut him out was proving to be optimistic as well!

‘Sorry, I didn’t see you there.’ She smiled tensely as he opened the door fully, and tightened the belt on the calf-length hotel robe. As befitted an up-market hotel, the robe in question was as sumptuously rich as the décor; in fact it was so fluffy and comforting it was hard to tell she had a waist.

Only Katie didn’t feel particularly comforted wearing it; it wasn’t the provocative nature of this modest get-up that bothered her, but what she was—or rather what she wasn’t—wearing underneath!

Her glance skimmed over Nikos in what she hoped was a casual way, not likely to be misconstrued as an I-want-to-rip-your-clothes-off sort of way! It revealed that, like herself, he had used the time to bathe, but unlike her he did not have to rely on the robes the hotel supplied. He had changed into casual light-coloured jeans and a polo shirt in a slightly darker silky fabric.

This relaxed version of Nikos was equally devastatingly attractive as the formal one.

‘Were you talking to yourself…?’

Katie, lips clamped tight, shook her head vigorously.

One dark brow quirked. ‘I thought I heard something.’

‘I must have been thinking out loud…’

His lips quivered faintly. ‘But not talking to yourself.’

His mockery made her want to hit him, which was not a civilised response, but somehow civilised was hard to achieve around Nikos.

‘Sorry if it disturbed you. Goodnight?’ she added with more hope than expectation of him taking the hint. He was not big on taking hints.

‘You thought I was asleep, perhaps?’

A perfectly innocent question, but something about the gleam in his slightly narrowed eyes made Katie suspect some sort of trap in his seemingly innocuous words.

Nikos had found that many women with expertly applied make-up were almost unrecognisable when seen without it; this was not the case with Katerina. A searching scrutiny of her freshly scrubbed features had revealed a complexion that was flawless, her full, wide lips were a delightful deep pink, the only flaw in fact was the faint bruised bluish shadows beneath her wide-spaced, incredibly blue eyes. Did she not sleep enough? The thought of what she did when she should be sleeping brought a harsh, uncompromising frown to his brow.

‘Asleep?’ she repeated, wary and resentful of the stern look of disapproval he was giving her. ‘I hadn’t really thought about it.’

‘Then I really can’t account for it.’

‘Account for what?’

Still frowning, Katie turned, her eyes following the direction the sharp tilt of his dark head indicated. She almost groaned out loud when she saw what he was showing her. The large gilt-framed mirror above the queen-sized bed was clearly visible from the other room through the door. It must have given him a perfect view of her approaching the door.

‘You looked as if you were trying not to disturb anyone, like a little mouse.’

Katie, recalling the furtive way she’d crept across the room, felt a hot tide of mortification wash over her skin.

‘One would be excused,’ he continued, ‘for thinking you didn’t want me to hear you.’

Katie bit her lip; the rat was enjoying her discomfort, she could see it in his eyes. Just so long as he doesn’t find mine equally revealing. The thought sent a shudder slithering down her spine. She swallowed.

‘I said you wouldn’t know I was here,’ she reminded him.

‘So you did. You are so considerate,’ he murmured with palpable insincerity. He nudged the door wider with his shoulder and his features hardened. ‘Except when you let me think you’ve passed out in the bath.’

She was startled by the unexpected comment and her eyes flew to his face. ‘You didn’t think that.’ Her scornful smile faded as their eyes locked, her own widened. ‘Did you? But I don’t faint…’

A swift mental review of the events in question left her uneasily conscious that her refusal to respond to his calls just might have been interpreted that way by someone who was totally over-cautious.

‘It was not such a great leap to make. Consider,’ he suggested. ‘You are obviously totally exhausted, you have had a traumatic experience…and of course I did not have that one vital piece of information which would have made me realise that my fears were groundless—you don’t faint,’ he observed with heavy sarcasm.

Katie tossed her head back and gave a combative smile, she’d show him that a totally exhausted—which in her book translated as ‘you look like hell’—person was not going to meekly accept his lectures.

‘Who do you think you are?’

‘Your husband.’

For a moment Katie thought he really could read her mind until common sense intervened and she reasoned that she must have spoken out loud.

‘I take it the traumatic experience you are referring to is you showing up?’ Her defiant shrug had a hint of desperation about it; though pitting her wits against Nikos was stimulating in a sticking-your-finger-in-an-electric-socket sort of way, it was also deeply exhausting and Katie felt she was losing momentum. Not to mention her mind.

The problem was she wasn’t a naturally aggressive person, normally, and she was extremely hampered by the fact she knew she was behaving extremely badly. Nikos, on the other hand, obviously lacked any form of self-awareness; the man had autocratic leanings, which unless someone took him in hand soon would turn him into a fully fledged despot before long.

Nikos released a strangled expletive. ‘It had not occurred to me,’ he revealed coldly, ‘that you would be stupid enough to lock the door.’

If he carries on talking to me as if I’m a silly child caught in misdemeanour I’ll… She stopped mid furious thought as her mind produced an image to match his words.

‘You mean if it hadn’t been locked you’d have come barging in?’ she yelped as a remarkably vivid image of Nikos exploding into the bathroom danced across her vision. For some reason her imagination had taken some poetic licence when it came to what he was wearing—very little! And as for having him leap energetically into the bath with her—that was a totally unnecessary sequel!

‘If you were ill or in need of assistance, yes, I would have, but if you mean do I get my thrills from entering bathrooms uninvited? No, I do not.’ Though his facial expression did not alter his abrupt shift of mood was evident in the smouldering gaze that rested on her face. ‘If I get invited in…’ he gave an expressive shrug ‘…that changes things.’

‘The picture that conjures up makes me queasy.’ For all the wrong reasons, she thought. Jealousy was all she needed!

‘I didn’t realise that you had such prudish tendencies. Though I should have guessed when you said you and Tom do not talk about sex.’

‘I am not a prude,’ she denied angrily. Aware that her reaction was a bit OTT, she moderated her voice but couldn’t prevent her distaste creeping in. ‘I just think what goes on between a man and woman in private should remain that way and should not become the subject of crude jokes.’

‘Well, at least you recognise it was a joke. Perhaps some food will help you gain some sense of proportion?’

If he wanted plain talking she’d show him she could do that too! ‘And for your information we don’t talk about sex, we do it!’ She smiled triumphantly as she flaunted her non-existent sex life under his superior nose.

For a moment Nikos looked startled, then a deep laugh was wrenched from the depths of his throat. ‘Thank you for sharing that with me,’ he said solemnly.

Katie had never felt so humiliated in her life. She didn’t know how she’d allowed herself to be goaded into making such a childish retort.

‘Why shouldn’t I have a healthy sex life? What’s so funny about that?’ she demanded.

‘You talk about sex with the same swaggering bravado as a boy who has not yet lost his virginity.’

‘I am not a boy.’

‘Nor a v—’

‘You know, I think I am a little hungry,’ she cut in brightly.

This attempt to change the subject was so blatant that Nikos smiled. His smile guttered as an incredible thought occurred to him. He shook his head, dismissing it almost instantly; it was amazing what crazy ideas a man could get into his head when he hadn’t eaten or slept.

Being an honest man, he couldn’t be totally sure if his diminished mental acuity didn’t lie at the door of a quite different basic need that was not being met. A basic need that he was conscious of every time he looked at his friend’s lover…his own wife.

Nikos frowned. He had all the complications and surprises he needed in his business life; he made sure his personal life was unstressed and uncomplicated. It seemed if he wanted a return to that desirable status quo it would be necessary to remove Katerina Forsythe from his life as soon as possible. Which was the reason he’d come here, but somehow in between rescuing cats from burning buildings and being hospitalised he had been losing track of that detail.

‘Fortunately I ordered enough for two in case you changed your mind.’

Katie looked beyond him and saw the glass-topped table set with a tempting array of light refreshments. Her stomach growled softly, reminding her of how little she’d eaten during the past twenty-four hours.

‘Oh…’ She gave a last wistful look at the spread. ‘Actually I think I’m fine after all,’ she explained unconvincingly.

‘This sudden loss of appetite—is it a case of…cutting off your nose to spite your face? Have I got that right?’ he asked innocently.

‘Don’t be cute!’ she accused. ‘Your English is a damned sight better than mine and we both know it,’ she growled.

‘Nobody has ever called me cute before. I’m touched.’

She found she couldn’t carry on acting as though she were unaware of the malicious mockery in his lean face. ‘So must I be…in the head!’ She banged a hand against the side of the area in question. ‘Just being here makes me certifiable.’ Her expansive gesture took in the luxurious surroundings.

‘Are you crying?’

Katie heard the wary quiver in his deep voice and remembered he didn’t like women’s tears.

‘No, but it would serve you right if I was,’ she told him, sniffing loudly.

Nikos’s expression softened; she talked so tough but looked so vulnerable. The combination affected him strongly.

‘It’s true I don’t like women’s tears, but if anyone has reason to weep it is you. You have been very brave…but now you are tired and hungry. Come and eat. Let’s call a truce.’

Though she was highly sceptical of his offer of a truce, quite irrationally his unexpected kindness cut through Katie’s defences where all his clever taunts had not.

‘What’s on the sandwiches?’ If she persisted in being stubborn, he might jump to the totally wrong conclusion—namely that she was scared to be in the same room as him!

Nikos had the good sense not to act as if he had won. ‘Smoked salmon and cream cheese, beef and horseradish and cucumber?’

Katie found it hard not to drool. ‘I am hungry.’ As if to back up her words her stomach chose that moment to growl again—this time extremely loudly. Her glare dared him to laugh. ‘And I hate to see good food go to waste.’

‘Indeed,’ he agreed, maintaining his gravity. ‘Especially just to prove a point.’

‘So much for a truce. I knew you couldn’t do it!’ she crowed.

‘It doesn’t start until we start eating.’

‘Well, if you’re going to make the rules up as we go along…’

‘I surrender, you win,’ he conceded, holding up his hands in mock submission.

‘I’m not the one scoring points, I’m hungry.’

Nikos stepped aside to let her pass. ‘So am I,’ he murmured.

Katie took his enigmatic words at face value—she wasn’t going somewhere that anybody with an ounce of sense would fear to tread!

Nikos led her to a long cream sofa piled high with plump cushions.

‘Elevate your foot,’ he suggested, pushing the cushions into a pile one end.

She had sat down at the opposite end before the extent of his inside knowledge struck her. ‘How did you know I’m supposed to?’

Nikos slid a hand under her knees and neatly swivelled her round. ‘I asked the doctor,’ he divulged, placing her feet on the pile of cushions.

Katie’s toes curled; she was astounded and indignant. ‘And he told you?’ So much for patient confidentiality.

‘You are my wife.’

‘Will you stop saying that?’ she begged.

‘Even if I do it will not change anything. I doubt the doctor saw any reason not to tell me. Now where is this bandage?’

‘In my pocket.’

‘It should be on your foot.’

‘Well, I couldn’t get it on, it’s too tight. I tried.’

He held out his hand. ‘Let me.’

Katie shook her head. ‘Don’t be silly.’ She scooted her feet up the sofa and tucked them protectively under the hem of her robe.

A nerve began to pulse in his lean cheek. ‘My touch offends you?’

‘Don’t be silly, of course not!’ she scoffed.

Telling him what his touch actually did was naturally not an option.

‘You are hyperventilating.’

‘I am not and there really is no need for a bandage; my ankle feels perfectly fine after the bath.’ Her voice rose to a shrill squeak in her frantic efforts to convince him.

‘No, it is not, I saw you limping.’

Katie closed her eyes in frustration. ‘Go on, have it your way,’ she gritted, untucking her leg and stretching it out stiff-kneed.

She could hardly tell him the idea of him placing his hands on her skin for any length of time made her hot with excitement and cold with dread. What if she got turned on? Who was she kidding? There was no if about it! Hell, he only had to look at her and she felt emotionally mugged. What if when he touched her she did or said something really stupid?

Nikos silently looked at the ankle extended towards him but he made no attempt to touch it or her. The moment stretched on…

He remained motionless so long the muscles in her thigh started to quiver. The silence between them was heavy with tension; finally Katie could bear it no longer.

‘Are you going to do this or not?’ she demanded peevishly. Not would be good.

Nikos rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, revealing the sinewy strength of his forearms. Katie was engulfed by a wave of longing that filled her with despair.

‘Then for goodness’ sake get it over and done with!’ she snapped.

When he did take her ankle between his big hands, they felt cool and capable. His attitude as he gently examined the tender bruised area was detached but sympathetic.

‘It is badly swollen and the bruising is coming out.’ His dark brows met in a frowning line as he examined her injury with strong, sensitive fingers. ‘It looks extremely painful.’

It was, but this wasn’t the reason Katie evaded his questioning glance. When she looked at him she saw his fingers touching, stroking areas on her body other than her ankle. The dangerous fantasy fuelled the pulse of inappropriate excitement that throbbed through her.

She took out her self-disgust on her innocent ankle. ‘You didn’t mention ugly,’ she told him with a disconsolate sniff. With a frown she compared the injured ankle with her sound one; it was at least three times the size.

‘I’m sure Tom will still love you if you had ankles as thick as tree trunks.’

She supposed it was the thought of Tom’s uncritical adoration that brought the thin sneer to his lips. As far as Nikos was concerned she would never be good enough for his friend or him.

‘I’m not so sure,’ she mused half to herself as her thoughts turned to Tom’s love of all things beautiful and perfect.

It was only his way of talking but sometimes, when Tom referred to her as his most precious possession, it made her uncomfortable. Tom liked his possessions in mint condition; if anything fell below the high standards he demanded he got rid of it. He had laughed and called Katie hopelessly sentimental when, after dropping a valuable vase, she hadn’t let him throw it away.

‘You bought it for me that day we went to an antique fair, and if I turn it like this,’ she explained, ‘you won’t be able to see the crack at all.

‘It’s not worth anything now. I’ll buy you another one.’ He looked perplexed when she told him a new one wouldn’t be the same.

‘No, because then it won’t have a flaw,’ he replied drily.

Would he buy another wife just as easily when the old one got too worn? Katie was immediately ashamed of the unbidden thought.

‘You place a high value on your looks and a low one on yourself.’

The stinging contempt in Nikos’s voice brought Katie’s attention swinging back to his face. She discovered he was angry. Inexplicably and impressively furious.

‘If people can’t see beyond your beautiful face and attractive figure, don’t you see that that is their problem, not yours?’

Katie blinked in bewilderment at the harsh reproach in his voice. He thought she had a beautiful face…?

‘I…’ She bit back a cry of pain as his lean fingers tightened painfully around her bruised ankle.

Nikos immediately loosened his grip. ‘I’m sorry I hurt you.’

‘Not really,’ she lied.

He grunted and slid her a look of irritation. Supporting her ankle against his own knee, he proceeded to roll the tubular bandage into a manageable shape.

‘I would ask you to tell me if it hurts, but—’ he raised his dark head from his task and there was an ironic gleam in his eyes ‘—I’d be wasting my time, wouldn’t I?’

Katie doubted any pain could be worse than that sharp but sweet pleasure of having his fingers brush lightly against her skin.

‘Thank you,’ she said quietly when the support was back in place.

Nikos finished smoothing invisible wrinkles from the bandage over the curve of her calf and lifted his head; there was a faint flush along his high cheekbones. ‘It was hardly brain surgery. Sit there,’ he added. ‘I’ll bring you some food.’

‘Oh! I thought I’d just take something to my room.’

One side of his mobile lips dropped. ‘Running away?’

‘I can’t run.’

‘That’s true. I don’t like to eat alone; stay.’

Not likely. ‘All right, I’ll stay,’ she heard herself reply. ‘It seems a strange time of night to be eating.’ But then it had been a strange day.

‘You eat when you are hungry.’

Katie smiled at this simplistic philosophy; it was very Nikos.

‘People have far too many hang-ups about food,’ he revealed. ‘How’s this?’ he added, passing her a laden plate.

‘If I had any hang-ups about food I’d faint, but it looks great.’ Her enthusiasm sounded false and hollow to her own ears; it was the fault of his slow-burning smile, the one that crinkled the corners of his eyes.

‘We can pretend we’re having a midnight feast, is that not what they do in English schools?’

‘Not the one I went to,’ Katie replied, thinking of the local comprehensive she had attended. She imagined it was a far cry from the sort of school Nikos had gone to. In fact her life was a far cry from his.

‘Were you clever at school?’

‘Not particularly,’ she replied, suspicious of his interest. ‘But I was very popular.’ She gave a sudden impish grin that gave him a glimpse of the dry sense of humour that she had not had much opportunity to display in his company. ‘But only because I had an extraordinarily handsome twin brother. You’d be amazed at how many girls wanted to come home for tea with me.’

‘You were a twin?’

Katie, her mouth full of sandwich, nodded.

‘It must have been especially hard for you to lose him,’ he mused. Katie didn’t reply; talking about Peter was still hard. ‘What sort of man was your brother?’

Katie considered the question.

‘He was handsome, impetuous, funny…’ She stopped and flicked a wry look towards Nikos—best to beat him to the punchline. ‘In short he was the exact opposite of me.’

He didn’t dispute her assessment. ‘You were the sensible twin?’

His perception was spooky; Peter had been the creative, impulsive twin and she had been the practical, grounded one.

‘Peter was very special,’ she said quietly.

‘My brother was older, and we were not particularly close. It was hard on my father when he died—Dimitri was his favourite.’

It was impossible to tell from his impassive expression whether he had minded this. Katie, seeing him as a little boy trying to gain parental approval, discovered that she had enough indignation for them both.

‘He was groomed to take over virtually from birth. When we lost him my father literally almost worked himself to death because he didn’t think I could fill my brother’s shoes.’

And psychologists wondered why children went off the rails! With fathers around like the insensitive clot Nikos was describing it was a wonder any children ever turned out normal!

‘That’s so unfair!’ she blurted out angrily. She flushed as he shot her a strange look. ‘I just hope,’ she added stiffly, ‘I never make any child of mine feel inadequate,’ she declared fiercely.

If Nikos had ever had any inadequacies he had obviously worked through them long ago—it was hard to imagine anyone more assured and confident than he was.

‘And do you plan on having any children soon?’

Katie sighed. ‘Tom doesn’t think it would be a good idea to start a family for a few years yet.’

Nikos suspected she was unaware of how wistful she sounded. ‘And you?’ he probed gently.

‘You shouldn’t have a baby to fill a gap in your life.’