Greek Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress

‘It was done with such little grace that it was a waste of your breath,’ Atreus conceded, in a far from conciliatory way.

Provoked even more by his cold-blooded calm and scrupulous civility, Lindy was so wound up she was trembling with temper. ‘There are times when you can really make me hate you, Atreus, and this is one of them. I was jealous of Krista—there I’ve told you. Are you happy now?’ she demanded fiercely, resenting him for dragging that demeaning truth out of her. ‘When you admitted you’d been with her here in this house, and presumably in that same bed, I was scared you’d be comparing us, that you really wanted her and not me…I freaked out, all right?’

Atreus viewed her with steady narrowed eyes and a strong air of frowning disbelief. ‘You pushed me away because you were jealous of Krista?’ he pressed.

‘Of course I was jealous of her!’ Lindy slammed back, blue eyes very bright as she lifted and dropped her arms in speaking emphasis of the point. ‘How could I not have been jealous? You took her straight to visit your family. I was with you eighteen months and you never took me anywhere near them. Your family love her. She’s everything I’m not. You said you wanted a rich wife from the same background as you, and who fits that description more perfectly than Krista Perris?’

‘Only on paper.’ Atreus was still staring fixedly at her, and in a sudden movement he closed the space between them and pulled her to him, hugging her close to his lean, powerful body in an embrace that left her breathless. He pushed her hair back off her brow in an almost clumsy movement. ‘You crazy, crazy woman,’ he censured. ‘You had no need to be jealous.’

‘She’s really beautiful,’ Lindy reasoned, pain rather than resentment tugging at her uneven voice.

‘But it’s you I want, agapi mou,’ he whispered raggedly, brilliant eyes of hot liquid gold scanning her upturned face. ‘It’s always been you.’

Lindy leant into his strong supportive frame, wanting to believe what he was telling her yet not daring to do so. ‘That’s so hard to believe.’

Atreus hauled her up against him and tasted her mouth with a burning, driving hunger that left her shivering in delicious quivering surprise. ‘Day by day, hour by hour, you’ve been killing me with your happy smiles and cheerful conversation. I thought you didn’t care if we were no longer lovers,’ he ground out. ‘How was I supposed to work out that you were jealous of Krista?’

‘At the wedding Krista told me that I was the wrong bride and that you’d never stay with me,’ Lindy shared in a shamed undertone, for even repeating that melodramatic warning mortified her.

Atreus frowned, and swore long and low in Greek. ‘You never tell me anything,’ he condemned afresh, throwing the ball back in her court.

‘I didn’t want to run to you and tell tales about Krista…that’s so juvenile,’ she groaned.

‘But if you’re juvenile enough to believe that kind of silly nonsense,’ Atreus reasoned, with an incredulity he couldn’t hide, ‘telling me would have been more sensible.’

‘For goodness’ sake,’ Lindy interrupted vehemently. ‘I felt guilty about Krista so I didn’t want to make a fuss. After all, if I hadn’t fallen pregnant you’d still be with her!’

His lean, strong face clenched. ‘No, I wouldn’t be.’

Silencing her with that unexpected contradiction, Atreus lifted her up into his arms and carried her down to the master bedroom at the end of the corridor.

‘Sometimes you drive me insane,’ he admitted quietly. ‘I didn’t know why you behaved that way on our wedding night but I was reluctant to force the issue. I was aware that your main reason for marrying me was Theo. You made that very clear. And I understood. Our marriage was the best solution to his birth—but what about us?’

What about us? It was a question that neither one of them had tackled in advance of their marriage, although they had examined what it would mean for their unborn child from every possible angle. Somehow Lindy had been guilty of just blindly assuming that everything would come right without any specific input from her.

As Atreus settled her down on the wide divan bed, Lindy compressed lips still tingling pleasurably from the pressure of his. ‘It’s your fault I felt so insecure. You kept me at arm’s length before the wedding.’

‘You turned me down when I asked you to marry me. How was I supposed to behave?’ Atreus framed grimly. ‘I didn’t know where I stood with you, and the bond we had left felt too fragile to risk for the sake of sex.’