‘Where’s your furry loincloth? You’re behaving like a guy who just walked out of a Stone Age cave!’ Pixie snapped back at him.
‘I need to understand the problem before I can fix it,’ Tor breathed in a raw undertone.
‘I don’t need you to fix everything in my life,’ Pixie muttered. ‘I mean, you’ve already spent a fortune trying to sort out Jordan. Isn’t that enough?’
‘That was our agreement and I haven’t spent a fortune. You wouldn’t let me buy the house for him.’
‘No, because that would have cost too much and Jordan needs to rebuild his life somewhere new,’ Pixie reasoned. ‘He has to become self-sufficient again and he shouldn’t be rewarded for what he’s done. You don’t need all of us hanging on your sleeve like scroungers.’
Tor gave up the ghost and groaned out loud in frustration, sinking down on the edge of the bed and raking impatient fingers through his cropped black hair. ‘Why would you think for one moment that I would look on the mother of my child as a scrounger? Have I done or said anything to give you that impression?’
‘Well, no,’ she conceded grudgingly. ‘But it’s how I feel... Why is the clothes thing so important to you?’
‘I want you to feel comfortable with my family and friends. I don’t want you to feel inappropriately dressed or out of place.’
‘Are you afraid my appearance is going to embarrass you?’ she whispered, thinking that if she flew out with her well-worn winter wardrobe there was a good chance that it would, and that there was an even stronger chance that she might be mistaken for one of the cleaners that came into the town house to clean several times a week. And that would definitely embarrass everybody, not just her. He was winning the argument, she thought ruefully—he was winning without even trying.
Tor closed a large hand over hers. ‘Nothing you could do would embarrass me. I’m thinking of your comfort, your ability to relax.’
‘Maybe it would help if you told me about where you’re taking me.’
‘An island called Milnos. I bought it a few years ago. The property I built is large enough to house my family when they come to visit. They live on Corfu. One of my brothers, Kristo, is still at school. Dimitri is at university and the eldest, Nikolaos, works for my father in his shipping company.’
‘No sisters?’
‘None. And so far I’m the only son who has married. Sofia was my parents’ first grandchild and her death hit my family as hard as it hit me,’ Tor confided tautly, trying to ignore the small fingers gently smoothing over his thigh in a gesture that he knew was intended to offer comfort but which was, instead, travelling straight to his groin and winding him up. ‘That’s why I want them to meet Alfie. My family are overdue for a glimpse of a brighter future.’
‘Yes, I’m pretty sure you haven’t been a bundle of laughs to be around,’ Pixie mumbled, and then flushed at having made that tactless comment. ‘Sorry—’
Tor grinned down at her, relishing the flushed triangle of her animated face beneath the tousled curls. ‘You could be right... I’ve been all about work and nothing else for a long time, but I’m lighter-hearted around you...when we’re not arguing, of course.’
‘OK. I’ll see the stylist and pick clothes,’ Pixie muttered with a slight grimace. ‘But I’d much prefer not to have to let you pay.’
Tor stared down at her, dark golden eyes unashamedly hungry. ‘Do you think you could include some sexy underthings in the selection?’ he murmured thickly.
Her cheeks burned. ‘What would be the point?’
‘My imagination thrives on fuel,’ Tor husked, bending down slowly.
Her fingers skimmed up from his wide shoulders into his luxuriant black hair. He smelt amazing to her, fresh and earthy and male, a faint hint of citrus fruit in his designer cologne, that scent achingly familiar to her, achingly evocative. It was the same cologne he had worn that night. Her brain was telling her with increasing urgency to push him away, to sit up, to stop touching him, but her body was rebelling against common sense with Tor that close. She could feel the heat of his big body through the towel she was wrapped in, the stinging sensation of her nipples snapping taut, the warm damp ache making her feel hollow between her thighs. Every nerve ending was sitting up and taking screaming notice. It was like a wave of physical insanity taking her over.
‘I like your fingers on me,’ Tor muttered raggedly as he lowered his mouth to hers, let those sensual lips play across hers in a wildly arousing fashion that brought her out in a fever of awareness and damp heat. ‘I’d like them all over me, your mouth as well—’
‘We said we weren’t doing this.’
‘You said. I didn’t make any promises,’ Tor said urgently against her parted lips before his tongue delved between, and suddenly speech of any kind was beyond her. And she was bargaining shamelessly with herself: a few kisses. Where was the harm in that? And he was such an amazing kisser, it would be foolish to deny herself the experience.
Her hand slid off his thigh over his crotch, tracing the hard thrust of his erection, and he shuddered against her, his mouth hotter and harder than ever on hers, and she wanted nothing so much as for him to whip off the towel, lay her back and sate the unbearable longing as he had once before. She wanted him and he wanted her, no denying that. But when it went wrong, she thought frantically, Alfie would be caught up in the fallout and her relationship with Tor would become fatally toxic. Having sex with Tor again would come with a price tag attached and a series of risks. One or both of them would ultimately be disappointed and that would lead to discord.
‘We can’t do this,’ she groaned against the urgency of his mouth.
‘I can do this fine,’ Tor contradicted.
And discomfiture washed over her because she had encouraged him, given him expectations, and she didn’t like to be provocative. ‘You shouldn’t touch me,’ she told him.
‘You shouldn’t touch me either.’
Her face burned so hot she was afraid that she would spontaneously combust. ‘I’m acting like a tease and that’s not me.’
‘No, you need time to decide what you want and I’m not giving you space the way I promised because you’re too damn tempting,’ Tor growled, setting her back from him, scorching golden eyes smouldering over her discomfited face. ‘I’m just naturally impatient and assertive when I want something. You need to push
back hard to handle me when I get too enthusiastic.’
‘But how does that work when I’m enthusiastic too?’
‘You marry me,’ Tor said simply.
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘NOT WITHOUT LOVE,’ Pixie protested.
‘I’ve got lust covered,’ Tor said almost insouciantly as he reclined back on her bed, completely unashamed of the arousal tenting his tailored trousers. ‘I’ve got lust in spades.’
And Pixie thought about it in that moment—seriously thought about marrying a man because she couldn’t keep her hands off him—until all her common sense stood up and screamed at her to get her brain back in gear.
‘We need more,’ she told him heavily.
‘We’ve got Alfie, and Alfie will benefit from having an equal share of both of us. Two parents together, united.’
‘You’re still hung up on Katerina.’
‘No. I’ve taken the ring off. That’s behind me. I can’t promise love because that’s an emotional state and I don’t know if I’m capable of feeling like that again,’ Tor told her frankly. ‘But I can tell you that I’ll be faithful and trustworthy and secure.’
And she wanted him, dear heaven, Pixie had never wanted anything as she wanted Tor at that moment because she saw that he was willing to try, she saw that he had moved himself on, indeed that the eruption of her and Alfie into his life had fundamentally changed his outlook. But was it enough?
‘I’d be taking a chance on you...and I don’t do that,’ she whispered honestly. ‘I always play safe.’
‘I’ll make it work. You marry me and I’ll make it work,’ Tor intoned fiercely. ‘We can be married within a couple of days and you can meet my family as my wife.’
And that offer had undeniable power because she had naturally been nervous of meeting his family. Being a wife would give her more status than merely being his illegitimate son’s mother, a position that would only leave his family questioning exactly what their relationship encompassed. If she went to Greece with him, the two of them would be very much under scrutiny, which made her uneasy. She had watched Tor with Alfie, watched him being patient and caring. She could look for no more than that in the father of her son.