The Greek's Christmas Bride

‘It was only a kiss,’ she framed shakily between tingling lips, even though her body was telling her different and reacting in all sorts of disappointed ways to that sudden severance from his.

‘I was ready to have you right here, right now!’ Apollo grated through clenched white teeth, his jaw line rigid because he was so furious that for a few wildly exciting moments he had forgotten who he was and who she was and that the very last thing he had been thinking of was the bottom line.

And the bottom line was business, he reminded himself grimly, the business of satisfying his father’s will and making the best he could out of being blackmailed into marriage and fatherhood.

‘Here in the car?’ Pixie gasped, looking ridiculously shocked by the concept. ‘Would you have done that?’

And the very slight widening of his gorgeous green eyes fringed by those outrageously lush black lashes of his told her that he would have and indeed had probably had sex in a limo before. That brought her down to earth again with a timely thump. She was a virgin and he was a man whore and of course he had greater expectations and fewer boundaries than the average person. She wondered how often a first kiss had led into full sex for him and a shudder of distaste rippled through her, chasing off the last of the sexual heat he had evoked.

Aware that he had overreacted and exposed a certain sensitivity he had never ever exposed to anyone before, particularly not a woman, Apollo forced himself to shrug a careless shoulder. ‘I suspect that you’re likely to find living with me rather shocking. I like sex and I like a lot of it. Considering our current situation it’s very positive that we light a fire together.’

Pixie shifted almost imperceptibly away from him to widen the gap between them. I like sex and I like a lot of it. It was quite an intimidating announcement for an inexperienced woman to absorb. Pixie’s biggest secret, kept even from Holly, was that she had never actually wanted a man before. She had always been too wary around men to shake off that inhibition by the time she grew up. Usually the minute a man started touching her she wanted him to stop and feared how far he would try to go. But somehow that instinctive recoil, that fear, had been absent with Apollo and that worried her even while she told herself that it was just as well because there was no way on earth that she could somehow avoid consummating a marriage in which she had to try and conceive a child.

They arrived at a very fancy modern glass office building and, before they got out of the limo, Apollo turned to her to say, ‘To all intents and purposes this has to seem like we’re planning a normal marriage,’ he warned her. ‘You must not mention your brother’s debt or anything of that nature.’

‘OK,’ Pixie muttered uncertainly.

‘All you have to sign is a pre-nuptial agreement with a confidentiality clause included,’ he revealed. ‘You will have your own legal team to advise you.’

‘My…own?’ she whispered shakily, her eyes wide.

‘To advise you of your best interests. You must’ve had access to legal advice to make the agreement stand up in court,’ he explained. ‘I know a lot about the subject because every one of my father’s wives signed one of these agreements and half of them tried to wriggle out of it during the divorce negotiations.’

‘I won’t be wriggling anywhere,’ Pixie mumbled.

‘So, act like a girlfriend, not someone I hired!’ Apollo advised in a warning aside.

‘How would a girlfriend behave?’ she whispered.

‘I don’t know. I’ve never had one, only sexual partners,’ Apollo admitted, grasping her hand to urge her out of the limo.

‘Never?’ Pixie repeated incredulously.

‘Just think about how a real bride-to-be would behave for this and behave accordingly.’

And an hour later, seated at a large conference table where the two sets of lawyers argued, often employing terms she didn’t understand, Pixie took Apollo’s advice and acted accordingly and accidentally brought the table to a standstill of silence.

‘You mean…’ she finally grasped ‘… I get financially punished if I’m unfaithful but Apollo doesn’t? How is that fair? I won’t accept that.’

That was the instant when Apollo appreciated once again that Pixie could take advice too literally and that characteristically she was seizing on something none of his father’s wives had even picked up on. Not only had he underestimated her intelligence, he had also seemingly overlooked what appeared to be a very moral take on infidelity and his heart sank because he had never planned to be faithful during his marriage. He had planned to be very discreet but not faithful because only once in his life had he been faithful to a woman and it brought back appalling memories of betrayal and stupidity.

‘Fidelity isn’t a negotiable concept,’ Pixie declared with even greater clarity.

And every man at the table studied Pixie as though she had landed on it wearing wings and carrying a flaming sword of justice.

‘If Apollo is unfaithful he has to suffer for it,’ Pixie completed with satisfaction, wondering why Apollo wasn’t looking impressed that she had finally spoken up and behaved as a real bride-to-be surely would have done.

Apollo compressed his firm sensual mouth and studied the table. In point of fact billionaires who married penniless women didn’t expect to suffer in any way when they finally got bored, least of all financially. Was this Pixie’s clever way of trying to increase her divorce settlement? It had to be the money she was thinking about, the profit, he reasoned and then he glanced up and Pixie nailed him with grey eyes like volcanic rock and he realised that the issue of actual fidelity was one he had completely forgotten to discuss. Breathing in deep, he suggested a break for coffee.

Shown into an empty office, he studied Pixie. ‘I wasn’t planning to be faithful,’ he admitted bluntly.

‘Then this arrangement dies now. I’m not willing to have sex with a man at the same time as he is having sex with other women!’ Pixie declared in a wrathful undertone of ringing disgust.

‘You’re forgetting that this is a business arrangement.’

‘Business arrangements don’t normally include sex!’ Pixie shot back at him defensively.

A faint line of colour accentuated Apollo’s supermodel cheekbones. ‘We have an extraordinary arrangement.’

‘But you don’t get to sleep with other women and me at the same time!’ Pixie told him doggedly. ‘That’s immoral and I refuse to be part of it.’

It was what was called an impasse and Apollo had very rarely met with anything similar. Just when he was within an ace of making the first move towards his goal of regaining his birthright too! He gritted his teeth. ‘I’ll try to be faithful,’ he framed in a roughened undertone of frustration.

But Pixie was seriously disappointed in Apollo. She hated cheats and had even less time for married men who played away. And Apollo might not love her and she might not love him but it was not unreasonable for her to expect him to treat her with respect.

‘It’s not going to look much like a real marriage if you’re still acting like the biggest man whore in Europe!’ Pixie flashed back at him, watching temper flare like burning flames in Apollo’s green eyes and watching him bite it back. And why had he bitten it back? Because she had only sta

ted the truth, she suspected.

And eventually they signed the pre-nuptial agreement with an addendum that stated that the bridegroom would ‘endeavour’ to remain faithful but relations were strained right round the table, both legal teams well aware that wedding fever was at a low ebb just at that moment. Apollo was merely relieved by the knowledge that he was flying out to Athens that evening. He was also reluctantly recalling that Vito had warned him that Pixie could be hot-headed and difficult and wondering if only his haste had persuaded him to overlook that distinct drawback. What else could it have been?

But how could she be so naïve and unreasonable as to demand fidelity from him? He knew what he was, hell, even she knew what he was! But he had promised to try and he would try because he stuck to his word, even if it choked him. And on some strange level he was conscious that her stance had made him respect her. She had standards and nothing he could offer would sway her from them.

CHAPTER FIVE

PIXIE TWIRLED IN front of the full-length mirror and smiled hesitantly because her glossy reflection was unfamiliar. Having enjoyed the attentions of a make-up artist and a grooming day at a salon recommended by Holly, Pixie had never before enjoyed such a level of sophisticated presentation.

‘I really did think you’d choose to wear white,’ Holly confided.

‘White would be wasted on Apollo,’ Pixie replied, wrinkling her nose and making Holly laugh. ‘If I ever get to have a real wedding, I’ll wear white.’

‘I still can’t believe you’re marrying him. I was really shocked when Vito told me.’