'Good.' Theo stopped and looked down at her, his expression oddly serious. "This party. . .' He gestured with his free hand to the brilliantly fit rooms and the crowd of people spilling out onto the terrace. 'You don't need to worry-— these people will very quickly accept your sudden appearance in my fife. Any who don't will have me to deal with, I promise you.'
She lifted smiling eyes to his. Even when he was trying to be serious his inbuilt arrogance very quickly surfaced, she thought with wry amusement. 'From kidnapper to white knight in four days, Theo,' she quipped with a chuckle. 'That is some going, even for you, but amazingly I think I believe you. None of this lot would dare argue with you.'
The hand holding hers slid around her waist and he drew her closer. 'So I amuse you, do I?' His dark eyes lit with laughter and a deepening sexual gleam that promised retribution of the most basic kind. 'You would dare laugh at me,' he drawled huskily, and his dark head lowered, his warm breath brushing her cheek, 'when all I am trying to do. . .'
'I know very well what you are trying to do,' she responded with a sharp intake of breath, and her whole body trembled as his grip tightened around her waist. He was going to kiss her, she knew it, and she swayed towards him.
'Willow Blain, that's it!' A very English voice broke the simmering sexual tension between them. 'I have been racking my brains all evening, trying to remember where I had seen you before. I never forget a face, and then it suddenly struck me.'
Theo's head jerked up and he looked at the fair-haired Englishman, standing not two paces away, grinning at Willow like a Cheshire cat, and he suddenly wished he could strike him again, in the physical sense. Instead he steadied Willow, withdrew his hand from hers and took a step aside. 'Charles, nice to see you,' he said blandly. 'Enjoying the party, I hope.'
'I am now,' he said, not taking his eyes from Willow. 'It is you, isn't it? Your picture was in a British tabloid last week; we get them all at the embassy. J. W. Paxton the crime writer revealed as a woman. I am right, aren't I? And to think I have read all his books and never guessed, I mean your books—they are brilliant,' he ended, blushing.
With ingrained politeness Willow acknowledged the fair, lanky man's compliments, and discovered he was First Secretary to the British Ambassador in Athens. He finally left only after Willow promised to give him a signed copy of her latest book.
'Another conquest, I see,' Theo remarked as Charles vanished back inside. 'And no doubt within minutes everyone will know who you are. Do you want to go back inside and face your public?' he asked noncommittally.
'Hardly my public. My first book only came out in Greek a month or so ago so no one will know me.'
'Believe me they will once Charles has spread the news. If there is one thing that appeals more than money to a Greek, it is the Arts, and specifically the perceived intellectual pursuits like writing.'
'Well, you are Greek so I bow to your superior judgment,' she conceded and half turned to face him. 'But if you don't mind I won't go back inside. I have had enough of people for one evening.'
His hand closed around her bare arm. "Then come with me.' She wasn't prepared when he bent his head and kissed her firmly but sweetly.
He had not touched her in a sexual way in two days. Willow had decided in her own head it was because he had already got her agreement to marry him and he was no longer interested. But now, reefing from the unexpected warmth of his kiss, she wondered if she was wrong, and unthinkingly followed him down the steps into the garden. Five minutes later she was standing in a small circular patio surrounded with sweet-scented blossoming shrubs with the sound of water tinkling over the centrepiece of the fountain that occupied the middle.
'It is like a secret garden.' She grinned, spinning around. 'Quite magical and beautiful.'
'So are you,' Theo murmured in a deep, husky drawl. 'Unbelievably so.'
Willow stilled, his unexpected compliment taking her breath away. She looked at him standing in a patch of golden light created by strategically placed lamps, and he looked so good she could not take her eyes off him. Tall, dark and handsome did not do him justice. He was a feast of all the senses. The sound of his voice, the masculine scent of him. The taste and strength of him, and every magnificent inch of his six-foot-four frame, naked or clothed, delighted her eye. She felt her breasts harden and swell, and her tongue flicked out to lick her suddenly dry lips. She needed him in the most wanton, basic way, and her blue eyes widened in shock at the realisation.
'Willow. What is it?' He stepped forward, his gleaming dark eyes fixed on her. The air between them was heavy with sexual tension.
She shook her head and strands of her silken hair were flying free from the precariously placed pins to fall in soft rippling waves around her face. She didn't recognise the purely sensual being she appeared to become whenever she was alone with Theo, and she wasn't sure she liked it. It smacked of weakness, but she was utterly helpless to deny her feelings. 'Nothing. . .' she murmured unsteadily.
But there was nothing unsteady about the arms that reached out and enfolded her or the way he kissed her. She wound her arms around his neck at the first taste of his tongue on hers and her legs went weak.
He broke the kiss and she groaned and then sighed her pleasure as she felt the hot warmth of his mouth trail down her throat. With a primitive growl he pulled down the front of her dress and found her breasts. His tongue flicked the engorged nipples and her back arched in a curve of incredible excitement.
She raked one hand through his hair and the other reached for the buttons of his shirt. She tore one free and slipped her hand beneath the silk, and let her palm stroke up over the hard wall of his chest. She could feel the thundering beat of his heart beneath her palm, and she rejoiced in the discovery that he was as helpless as her to control the wild, wonderful urge that kept them locked together. But she was wrong. . .
His dark head lifted. 'You have the most amazingly sensiti ve breasts,' he breathed, his smouldering eyes gleaming down into hers as he adjusted her gown, 'but here is not the place.' And he brushed her hand from his chest.
Willow stared at him in shock, every nerve in her body vibrating with raw sensation, and then shame hit her. He had led her on deliberately.
'No, no, Willow.' As if reading her mind, he swiftly denied her assumption, and enfolded her into his arms, holding her firmly against him. 'Anyone might find us here,' he murmured against her ear. 'That is all I meant.' And with his strong hands stroking soothingly up and down her spine Willow began to relax. 'Believe me, this is as hard for me as it is for you.' He slowly eased her away from him, and, resting his hands on her shoulders, he added, 'More so for me,' and he smiled ruefully down into her flushed face. 'But we are getting married on Thursday, and even if I have to spend the next three days in a cold shower, I am determined to do it right this time and we are going to wait until our wedding night.'
CHAPTER TEN
They were married in a civil ceremony three days later in the garden of Judy's home. To Willow's amazement Tess and her husband Bob appeared, as did Stephen's young friend Tommy, courtesy of Theo's private jet.
In a strapless cream satin dress that moulded her figure to perfection and with her hair swept off her face by two diamond clips, a wedding gift from Theo, Willow stood like a tall, beautiful statue posing for photographs with her new husband in the hot summer sun.
The professional photographer called to them, 'Okay, one more, with all the family, and that should be enough to show the grandchildren.' With his use of the plural Willow wondered anxiously what would happen if she did become pregnant again. On her lunch date with Anna a couple of days ago, the talk had got around to children, and with Anna's help Willow had visited her doctor. A simple test had confirmed that she was not already pregnant and she was now equipped with the pill. The first month was not guaranteed but hope
fully it would never happen.