The Demetrios Virgin

‘No!’ Saskia denied in panic. ‘There’s no need anyway. She’s in Bath at the moment, staying with her sister. She’s going to be there for the next few weeks. You can’t do this,’ she told him in agitation. ‘Your grandfather is bound to guess that we’re not...that we don’t... And...’

‘But he must not be allowed to guess any such thing,’ Andreas told her gently. ‘You are an excellent actress, as I have already seen for myself, and I’m sure you will be able to find a way of convincing him that we are and we do, and should you feel that you do need some assistance to that end...’ His eyes darkened and Saskia immediately took a step backwards, her face flaming with embarrassed colour as she saw the way he was looking at her.

‘Very nice,’ he told her softly, ‘But perhaps it might not be wise to overdo the shy, virginal bit. My grandfather is no fool. I doubt that he will expect a man of my age to have fallen passionately in love with a woman who is not equally sexually aware. I am, after all, half-Greek, and passion is very much a factor of the male Greek personality and psyche.’

Saskia wanted to turn and run away. The situation was becoming worse by the minute. What, she wondered fatalistically, would Andreas do if he ever learned that she was not ‘sexually aware’, as he had termed it, and that in fact her only experience of sex and passion was limited to a few chaste kisses and fumbled embraces? She had her parents to thank for her caution as a teenager where sexual experimentation had been concerned, of course. Their rash behaviour had led to her dreading that she might repeat their foolishness. But there was, of course, no way that Andreas could ever know that!

‘It’s now almost ten,’ Andreas informed her briskly, looking at his watch. ‘I suggest you go back to your office and at one o’clock. I’ll come down for you and take you out to lunch. The sooner we make our relationship public now, the better.’

As he spoke he was moving towards her. Immediately Saskia started to panic, gasping out loud in shock as the door opened to admit his PA in the same heartbeat as Andreas reached out and manacled Saskia’s fragile wrist-bone in the firm grip of his fingers and thumb.

His skin was dark, tanned, but not so much so that one would automatically guess at his Greek blood, Saskia recognised. His eyes were grey, she now saw, and not blue as she had so blush-makingly suggested last night, and they added to the confusion as to what nationality he might be, whilst his hair, though very, very dark, was thick and straight. There was, though, some whisper of his ancient lineage in his high cheekbones, classically sculptured jaw and aquiline nose. They definitely belonged to some arrogant, aristocratic ancient Greek nobleman, and he would, she suspected, be very much inclined to dominate those around him, to stamp his authority on everything he did—and everyone he met.

‘Oh, Andreas,’ the PA was exclaiming, looking in flustered disbelief at the way her boss was drawing Saskia closer to him, ‘I’m sorry to interrupt you but your grandfather has been on—twice!’

‘I shall ring my grandfather back shortly,’ Andreas responded smoothly, adding equally smoothly, ‘Oh, and I don’t want any appointments or any interruptions from one to two-thirty today. I shall be taking my fiancée to lunch.’

As he spoke he turned to Saskia and gave her such a look of melting tender sensuality, so completely redolent of an impatient lover barely able to control his desire for her, that for a breath of time she was almost taken in herself. She could only stare back at him as though she had been hypnotised. If he had given her a look like that last night... Stop it, she warned herself immediately, shaken by the unexpected thought.

But if his behaviour was shocking her it was shocking his PA even more, she recognised as the other woman gave a small choked gurgle and then shook her head when Andreas asked her urbanely if anything was wrong.

‘No. I was just... That is... No...not at all...’

‘Good. Oh, and one more thing. I want you to book an extra seat on my flight to Athens next week. Next to mine...for Saskia...’ Turning away from his PA he told Saskia huskily, ‘I can’t wait to introduce you to my family, especially my grandfather. But first...’