No business coup had ever been as satisfying as initiating Tessa into the delights of sex. Even the piquancy of knowing he was her first and only lover was eclipsed by the ever-present passion between them.
No lover had ever been so unstinting in her passion.
No one had ever made him feel so…happy.
He dropped his cuff-links in a drawer and went in search of her, rolling up his sleeves as he went.
Nearing the stairs, he caught the rich scent of orchids and paused. He glanced at the floral display on a nearby table. The fragile, spectacularly beautiful blooms instantly reminded him of Tessa. He reached out and touched a petal, soft as velvet. Just like her skin, especially the spot behind her ear. That sensitive place where just the graze of his teeth could send her wild.
He smiled. He’d never really noticed the flowers in his home before. But there was a sensuality about these, a seductive, exotic quality that triggered thoughts of Tessa, his exquisite, intriguing conundrum.
For even after weeks of fantastic sex and, to his surprise, of genuine companionship, she was still a puzzle. A secret that lay just beyond his understanding.
He loped down the stairs and headed for the kitchen.
He knew much more about her character now, but not enough. He knew she didn’t fake her responses to him, knew she enjoyed being with him, knew that she even, for reasons that escaped him, had a soft spot for his father.
His employees liked her too. In his experience that was telling. His stepmothers had, to a woman, been abrupt and dismissive with the staff. Nor had she tried to milk him for expensive trinkets. She’d only accepted a few paltry clothes. How did that fit with the money-hungry woman who’d raced round the globe to extort money?
He tried to match the clever, avaricious schemer with the woman of simple tastes. The woman who’d flowered before his eyes with just a little care and attention.
Then finally it struck him.
Unlike that of so many women he’d known, and even bedded, her aim wasn’t a lifestyle of conspicuous consumption. Instead she wanted simple financial security. That had to be it.
Given her unsettled childhood, the lack of funds that she’d skated over when describing her youth, the low-paying jobs, her time in South America, was it any wonder?
He remembered the horror on her face when she’d thrown his settlement offer in his face. Because she hadn’t realised quite how enormously wealthy he was?
Or was he kidding himself? He paused, frowning, just outside the kitchen. Was she simply angling for more?
Yet every instinct told him she was genuine.
He pulled the door open and stepped forward. Then stopped in his tracks.
He’d found Tessa. And she wasn’t alone.
Automatically he moved further into the room as the door swung shut behind him, bumping his hip. But his eyes remained fixed on her.
She’d never looked more beautiful. She was wearing the plainest of the outfits he’d bought her: light fitted trousers that showed off her trim figure to perfection and a top that almost matched the bright gleam of her eyes.
It wasn’t her clothes that grabbed his attention, it was the sheer joy that radiated from her.
The impact of it warmed him where he stood.
In her arms she held a toddler. Stavros recognised him as his housekeeper Melina’s grandson. The child was gurgling with laughter, trying to grab a brightly coloured ball from Tessa’s hand. When he couldn’t catch it he reached out and instead grasped a lock of her midnight silk hair that had escaped her pony-tail.
‘Ow! Adoni, that’s not fair.’ But there was no real censure in her indulgent tone.
At the sight of her, face flushed, eyes brimming with laughter, something slammed into Stavros’ chest and lodged here, immovable.
Was it the way she smiled at the child, as if nothing in the whole world was more important than him? Or was it the prospect of Tessa playing with her own baby, a few years from now? With a child given to her by another man.
A strange, achy sensation twisted inside him. A shudder rippled through him and he planted his feet wider against its impact.
The force of what he felt rocked him, drawing his brows together in a frown. Yet he refused to analyse these disturbing feelings. To define what they meant. He worked on logic only, never on emotions.
‘Stavros!’ The sound of her breathless voice drew his attention. Good. This hollow sensation in his chest was no doubt something best ignored.
‘I see I have a rival.’ He forced a smile, only too glad to concentrate on his lover rather than on indefinable, unsettling emotions.
Tessa hugged Adoni closer in her arms as the impact of Stavros’ smile hit her full-force. As always she felt it like a physical caress, one that rippled right through her, even making her toes curl. This time she felt relief too.