Greek Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress

A thunderbolt of primeval rage roared through Atreus’s powerful frame like a sudden all-encompassing storm. It was so potent that as he dug his knees into the stallion to head for The Lodge he was not conscious of any thought at all. Every atom of his anger and frustration had found a fitting focus at last.

Lindy had slept badly on the lumpy sofa. When the doorbell sounded the dogs went bonkers, barking. She rolled off the sofa, ignoring her feeling of nausea, and was putting on her cotton wrap when Ben shouted downstairs. ‘Who the heck is that at this hour?’

‘Haven’t a clue,’ she called back.

‘It might be for me. Geoffrey Stillwood did say something about inviting me out for a day’s hunting,’ Ben reminded her. ‘Not something I’ve tried before, but I should show willing if the invite is issued by my boss’s father-in-law!’

Lindy’s nose wrinkled at the thought of deer being killed for sport. It had been a challenge for her to keep her views to herself while she’d listened to that conversation the night before. Tightening the sash of her wrap, she opened the front door. Her eyes opened very wide at the sight of Dino, Atreus’s black stallion, cropping the lawn. Atreus, sheathed in tight jodhpurs, polished boots and a black jerkin, was on her doorstep, and even his worst enemy would have been forced to admit that he looked drop-dead gorgeous in that get-up.

As Samson and Sausage charged out and careered round Atreus’s feet in rapturous doggy welcome, stunning dark golden eyes lanced into her. ‘It didn’t take you very long to take another man into your bed,’ Atreus condemned with seething scorn.

‘I’ll take care of this,’ Ben announced from behind Lindy, pushing her to one side to gain the space to step out. Unshaven, and in jeans, boots and a sweater, it was obvious he had got up in a hurry.

‘Do you think you can?’ Atreus sent him a contemptuous look of challenge. ‘I’m not in the habit of fighting over loose women.’

‘There’s not going to be any fighting,’ Lindy assured him indignantly, only to fall silent, her jaw dropping and her lips framing a silent ‘oh’ of shock and horror when Ben took a swing at Atreus and struck him on the chin.

‘Don’t talk about Lindy like that!’ Ben slung at the tall Greek, full blast.

‘How unexpected—a City trader who can put his money where his mouth is!’ With that sardonic quip, Atreus punched Ben so hard that the blond man hit the ground like a fallen tree.

Thirty seconds later, as a groaning Ben began clambering shakily upright for another bout, Lindy stepped between the two men and voiced outraged words of reproof. ‘No! Stop it right now!’

‘Stay out of this,’ Atreus urged, powerful arms closing round Lindy from behind to lift her bodily out of his path and set her out of harm’s way.

‘Don’t you dare tell me to stay out of it!’ Lindy raked back furiously at him, just as the sound of a perky mobile phone ring-tone cut through the tense atmosphere.

Atreus strode back to attack just as Ben dug out his phone and answered it, raising a hand palm first to Atreus in a ludicrous gesture that urged his Greek opponent to give him a moment’s breathing space.

‘Geoff? Hello, Geoff…No, of course it’s not too early for me,’ Ben was saying in a smarmy tone while checking his watch. ‘I would love to…When? Right, I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

Wearing a newly purposeful expression, Ben swung round to Lindy in haste. ‘Where’s the nearest country clothing shop?’

Somewhat taken aback by that sudden request, Lindy obliged with the information. Ben then raced back indoors to collect his stuff, all desire to continue his fight with Atreus in her defence evidently forgotten in his excitement at being invited out on a shoot by a member of the local gentry.

Atreus interpreted the expression of blank disbelief on Lindy’s face. ‘Financial traders have a reputation for being cold-blooded,’ he remarked. ‘No Greek male would ever stop to take a phone call in the middle of a fight.’

‘If that’s the best you can say for yourself it’s not a lot!’ Lindy fired back, unimpressed. ‘How dare you come here and suggest that I sleep around?’

Atreus lifted a broad shoulder in a slow mocking shrug, an ebony brow lifting. ‘I’m not cold-blooded. I didn’t think you’d get over me so quickly.’

Taken aback by the cruel comment that went too close to the bone for comfort, Lindy reddened but stayed silent on the score that she no longer owed him any explanations. She watched him take the lead rope hanging from the iron ring at the corner of the house and approach the black stallion. ‘What on earth are you doing?’ she asked.