One Night...Nine-Month Scandal

She had no idea what to do, which decision to make.

Alekos drew his thumb slowly over her lower lip. ‘You’re never wearing shoes again? How about clothes?’ His voice was husky. ‘Perhaps you’d better not wear those, either.’

‘Don’t. I can’t think when you do that.’ Kelly tried to pull away but he held her firmly, his hand warm against her back. ‘I’m completely and utterly confused now. I always thought you were a totally together, sorted-out person.’

‘I am in my business life,’ Alekos drawled, sliding his hand into her hair and trailing his mouth along her jaw. ‘It’s just in my personal life I manage to mess up in spectacular fashion.’ This surprisingly honest admission disabled her pathetic attempt to resist him.

She felt impossibly torn.

‘We can’t get back together for the sake of a baby you never wanted.’

He cupped her face in his hands and brought his mouth down on hers.

‘I brought you here before I

knew you were pregnant.’

‘If you were that keen on mending fences, why didn’t you come back to England?’

‘Because in England it rains even in July, and here in Corfu I can guarantee that you will be walking round in a bikini.’ His eyes gleamed dark with the promise of seduction. ‘Or less. I’m that shallow.’

‘It can’t be all about the sex, Alekos!’ Her hand slid to the hard muscle of his shoulders and she pushed him away. ‘Having sex is the easy part. It’s the relationship bit that’s the hard bit.’

‘I know that.’

‘You don’t want a baby. I don’t see a solution.’ But she wanted one badly. So badly.

‘We’ll find one together.’ He took her mouth then, plundering the depths with skilled strokes of his tongue, stirring up emotions she’d struggled to keep under control. His hard body pressed against hers and the flat of his hand kept them welded together while his mouth created a storm of passion.

Kelly melted into him.

He was the only man who’d ever been able to do this to her. The only man who could make her act against her better judgement.

He groaned something in Greek against her mouth, then switched to English. ‘For weeks I have wanted to do this—since that time in your kitchen I have thought of nothing else. You have been driving me wild, erota mou.’

Kelly lifted her hands, speared his hair with her fingers and let herself go. The taste of him was so dangerously good that she gave a low moan. The sun beat down on their heads and the birds flew playfully across the surface of the pool, but neither of them noticed, so intent were they on each other.

It was the sound of a door slamming close by that caused them to break apart.

Kelly gasped. ‘Y-you’re just confusing me.’

‘There’s nothing confusing about it.’ Alekos had his hand behind her head and he drew her mouth to his again. ‘You want this as much as I do.’ The air was humid, thick with sexual tension, and like a drowning person being swept downstream Kelly struggled to keep her head above the water.

‘Four years ago you really hurt me.’

‘I know.’

‘You didn’t even explain.’ She was looking at his mouth so close to hers, at the sensual curve of his lips and the dark shadow of his jaw. ‘You were really horrid.’

‘I know that too; I was a real bleep.’ His voice was husky and his black lashes shielded eyes that smouldered with the promise of sex. ‘I can make it up to you. I can make this work. We can find a way.’

‘I don’t see how. Don’t you dare kiss me again, Alekos—don’t you dare—not until I tell you it’s OK.’ Kelly tried to pull away but he was stronger than her and he wasn’t afraid to use that strength when it suited him.

His kiss was a devastating reminder of what they shared: power play. ‘You are going to forgive me, agape mou,’ he murmured, taking her lower lip gently between his teeth. ‘You are angry, I know, but that is good because it shows you still care.’

‘It shows that I have more sense than to let you back into my life again.’ But the words lacked conviction, not just because that brief kiss had left her weak and shaking, but also because of the baby. She didn’t want to just walk away, did she? It wasn’t that simple. But if she stayed there was a strong chance that he’d hurt her again, and this time he’d be hurting their baby too. ‘I can’t do this, Alekos. I can’t put myself through that again. I can’t risk it.’

He cupped her face in his hands. ‘You want me, you know you do.’