Kostas's Convenient Bride

She stubbornly clung to it, staring up at him, her gray gaze unreadable.

“We will both enjoy our shower more if you allow me to wash you.”

Her luscious lips twisted in an unhappy moue. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“Why be afraid?”

“You would not understand.”

It was she who did not understand. “There is nothing to fear here, Kayla. Trust me.”

Their gazes locked, hers weighing his, and he felt his very soul was being weighed in the balance. Finally, she released the loofa, but the wary expression on her beautiful face bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

Kayla had always trusted him. Why suddenly was she doubting his intentions?

He washed her body with infinite care, not being overtly sexual, but incapable of being purely platonic either. He stopped using the loofa and soaped his own hands to wash/caress every inch of her. No question. Her body was everything tempting to him.

It always had been, but now that he’d tasted her skin again, had lain between her legs and known the ultimate pleasure, there was no way he would ever look at her again without feeling at least a tinge of desire. He didn’t know how he’d managed the platonic relationship for six years, looking back on it.

When she gave a breathy little gasp and sagged against his body, he didn’t even try not to touch her intimately. She wanted more pleasure, it was in the very air around them. He could do nothing but give it to her.

He pulled her against him, nestling her bottom against his renewed erection, and cupped her generous curves. “You are so perfect here. I love your breasts, pethi mou.”

He tweaked her nipples and she cried out. The sounds of her pleasure went through him, setting off a chain reaction in his libido, telling his body to ready for claiming her body yet again. He had not been a teenager in years, but damn, he was hornier than a mindless adolescent getting his first taste of sex. He craved her like a drug.

“Again?” she asked breathlessly.

He let one hand slide down, his middle finger dipping between her legs, pressing against her clitoris, rubbing against the slick folds. “Yes, again. Say you want it.”

“I want it.” No hesitation. She didn’t demur or tease.

And he was damn grateful.

He spun her around and lifted her, pressing up into the warm, tight wetness of her body with as much eagerness as if they had not just made love twice already in his bed. Her arms and legs latched around him, the hot water cascading around them as once again their bodies joined in that ancient rhythm that brought forth primitive pleasure nothing else could duplicate.

Afterward, he carefully washed away the evidence of their lovemaking, cleaning both their bodies while she acquiesced with a sweetness born of sexual lethargy.

He nuzzled her neck as he reached around her to turn off the water. “We are perfection together.”

“Yes.” She didn’t sound particularly happy about that truth.

He did not understand why, but then he’d understood very little of her actions since she walked out of the meeting with him and Genevieve.

He tugged her from the glassed enclosure. “Come, let me dry you.”

“I can dry myself.” But she made no move to grab a towel.

He smiled, inviting her to join in the pleasant afterglow, rather than wherever her thoughts had taken her. “I know, but you know how much I enjoy this.”

“You don’t seem like the kind of guy who would enjoy pampering his lovers.”

“You are the only one.” He had never showered with another sex partner, much less dried her off afterward in an effort to care for her needs.

Kayla went still. “I am?”

“Yes.” He began drying her delectable body. “So beautiful.”

“So you keep saying.”

“Then I guess you should believe me.”

“We both know I’m not one of those supermodels you date.”

“You are you, which is far better.”

“If you say so.”

“I do.”

She shook her head.

Once he’d wrapped her in the large bath sheet, he made quick work of drying his own body. “I have a proposition for you.”

All the relaxed lethargy drained from Kayla’s countenance and body, her mouth setting in a firm line, her body going taut. “I don’t want to talk about business. I’m still on vacation.”

“It has almost nothing to do with the company.” He couldn’t say nothing because if she had fallen in with his plans to move on to his next venture with him, Andreas was not sure his eyes would have been opened to how their future was supposed to go.

“Almost nothing?” she asked with clear distrust. She shook her head again. “No. I told you, you wouldn’t sex me into your way of thinking.”

“Since when have I earned your suspicion like this?” he demanded, an unfamiliar feeling gripping at his impenetrable heart.

It might have been hurt.

“Don’t be disingenuous, Andreas.”

“I am not. We have always been able to trust each other, Kayla. That has not changed.”

Clear pain twisted her features. “Hasn’t it?”

“No.” Could she doubt it?

“We just made love.” She said it like an accusation. “Three times.”

“It was fantastic.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes.”

“Do not roll your eyes at me. How many people in the world do you think have sex as good as what happens when our bodies are joined?”

“You think what we have is so special?” she asked with patent disbelief.

“You don’t?” he demanded.

“Then how could you just turn it off six years ago?”

“I explained that.”

“Yes.”

“I made a mistake.” He’d been looking for the wrong kind of permanence with her, but then he hadn’t been ready for this step in his life then. Taking a wife wasn’t on his agenda six years ago, taking a business partner had been.

“What? What are you saying? You made a mistake?” She sounded and looked shocked.

“Come. We’ll have this discussion in the comfort of the bedroom.” He didn’t wait for her agreement, but led her to one of the armchairs by the window.

Once she sat, he knelt on the pristine white carpet beside her, unbothered by his own nakedness, but absurdly grateful her delectable body was covered by the bath sheet. They would never get this discussion off the ground if his libido didn’t take a break, and an entirely naked Kayla would be too much of a temptation to deal with.

“I’m not discussing business. I mean it, Andreas.” Oh, she sounded cranky.

He almost smiled. “I believe you. Now, will you believe me that what I wish to talk about is more personal than business?”

“Personal?” Her voice came out in a funny little very un-Kayla-like squeak.

“Yes, personal.”

Kayla pulled her legs up so her arms could wrap around her knees in the large armchair, a very self-protective pose, if she knew it. “Okay, I’ll listen.”

“That is all I can ask.”

She gave a bark of laughter. “Don’t kid yourself, Andreas. We both know whatever it is, you’re going to expect my cooperation. I’m just warning you, I’m done being a pushover where you are concerned.”

“I have never considered you all that malleable.” If anything, she was the one person who could check him, whom he would listen to criticism from.

She didn’t answer, just made a proceed motion with her hand, before clasping it with the other tightly around her curled legs once again. Oh, she might listen, but this wary Kayla was certainly in a different place than the friend he was used to.

“One of the reasons you were so upset about my hiring Genevieve was because you believed you would of necessity be pushed from my life. Is that correct?” Despite her actions of running off to New York to make some kind of subdeal with Sebastian Hawk, Andrea

s and Kayla’s friendship was important to her too.

Realization of that fact was very comforting to him.

Kayla’s lovely full lips twisted. “Yes.”

“You believe I should spend my off-hours with my wife.” If that wife was not his best friend, he still wasn’t sure he bought the premise, but it was clear Kayla did.

“Yes.” Definitely cranky again.

And why that should spark a renewal of his libido, he had no idea, but then Kayla had always affected him differently than other women. What he would normally have no patience for he found absolutely essential in her.

Kayla noticed, her eyes widening and then narrowing with a frown. “If we’re going to have this discussion of yours, could you put something on, please?”

“Of course.” He went to get one of the hotel’s lavish terry robes.

It did not bother him a bit that his nakedness was as distracting for her as hers would have been for him. It gave him hope.

Belting the robe, he said, “Even now you do not trust me not to allow you to be pushed aside.”

“You’ve got your plans.” Shrugging, Kayla looked away. “You’re on a schedule.”

“Plans that include marriage and a family.” Was she still not getting it?