The Demetrios Virgin

It must be a combination of heat and shock that was sending that melting liquid sensation of weakness swooshing through her, Saskia decided dizzily. It certainly couldn’t be the feel of Andreas’s skin against her lips, nor the dangerous gleam she could see in his narrowed eyes as they glittered down into hers. The arm he had around her moved fractionally, so that the hand that had been resting on her waist was now somehow just beneath the curve of her breast, his fingertips splaying against its soft curve and making her...making her...

‘Saskia will be sharing your room!’ Pia was breathing, verbalising the shock that Saskia herself felt and that she suspected his mother was too embarrassed to voice.

‘We are engaged...and soon to be married...’ Andreas told his sister smoothly, adding in a much rougher, rawer, spine-tinglingly possessive voice, ‘Saskia is mine and I intend to make sure that everyone knows it.’

‘Especially Aristotle,’ Pia guessed. ‘I don’t know how Athena can endure him,’ she continued shuddering. ‘He’s like a snake, Saskia. All cold and slimy, with horrid little eyes and clammy hands...’

‘Athena endures him because of his skill at “creative” accounting,’ Andreas informed his sister dryly.

‘You mean he’s dishonest,’ Pia translated pithily.

‘You didn’t hear that from me,’ Andreas warned her as he started to shepherd all three of them towards the waiting Land Rover.

Whilst they had been talking the driver had loaded their luggage, and as he held the door open for his mother, sister and Saskia to get in Saskia heard Andreas asking him about his family, listening interestedly whilst the driver told him with pride about his son who was at university.

‘Grandfather was not very pleased at all when Andreas said that he wanted to use the money our father had left him to help pay for the education of our personal household staff,’ Pia told Saskia.

‘Pia, you aren’t being very fair to your grandfather,’ her mother objected.

Andreas had done that? Stubbornly Saskia refused to acknowledge that she was impressed by his philanthropy.

Had he really meant what he had said about them sharing a room? He couldn’t have done—could he? Personally she didn’t care where she slept, even if it was a normally unused bedless room, just so long as she occupied it on her own.

‘We have both had a long day and I imagine that Saskia is going to want to have a rest before dinner,’ Andreas was saying as the Land Rover pulled up in a cool paved courtyard with a central fountain that sent a musical plume of water up into the air to shower back to earth in millions of tiny teardrops.

‘I’ll make sure everyone knows that you aren’t to be disturbed,’ his mother responded. ‘But perhaps Saskia would like something light to eat and drink...’

Before Saskia could say anything Andreas was answering for her, telling his mother, ‘I’ll see to that,’ before placing his hand beneath Saskia’s elbow and telling her in a soft voice in which she suspected only she could hear the underlying threat, ‘This way, Saskia...’

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘I CAN’T SLEEP in this room with you!’

Saskia had been able to feel herself trembling as Andreas had whisked her down a confusing maze of corridors. She had known that he must be able to feel her nervousness as well, but somehow she had managed to keep her feelings under control until they were both inside the huge elegant bedroom with the door firmly shut behind them.

Right now, though, she was in no mood to appreciate the cool elegance of her surroundings. Whirling round, she confronted Andreas determinedly. ‘No way was that part of the deal.’

‘The “deal” was that you would act as my fiancée, and that includes doing whatever has to be done to ensure that the act is believable,’ he told her angrily.

‘I won’t sleep here with you,’ Saskia protested wildly. ‘I don’t... I haven’t...’ She could hardly bear to look at the large king-sized bed as panic filled her, flooding out rationality. She had gone through so much, and now she was hot and tired and very, very afraid. Her emotions threatened to overwhelm her.