‘We’re not going to be married.’ She summoned all her courage and threw back the sheet, meeting his bluff with a fierce one of her own. ‘But you want me to spend the day naked?’
As he stared, she fought every instinct to curl her legs up and throw her arms around her knees. Instead she stayed still, utterly naked on the soft white linen.
His gaze travelled the length of her body—lingering on those places too private to mention. She gritted her teeth so she wouldn’t squirm. But as his focus trained on her breasts, she felt the reaction—the full, tight feeling as her nipples budded and that warmth surged low within. He looked for a long, long time—and then looked lower, rendering Eleni immobile in the burning ferocity of his attention. Her skin reddened as if she’d been whipped and the slightest of goosebumps lifted. It took everything she had not to curl her toes and die of frustration.
Finally, just when she’d felt she was about to explode, he moved. Wordlessly he pulled his tee shirt over his head and held it out to her.
Desire flooded impossibly hotter still as she stared at his bared chest. Her senses ravenously appreciated his warm tan, the ridged muscles, that light scattering of hair arrowing down to—
‘Put it on,’ he snapped.
She snatched it from him. But if she’d doubted whether he wanted her as much as she wanted him, she now knew.
Just sex.
She forced herself to remember that this was just sex to him. But a trickle of power flowed through her veins.
He didn’t move back as she got out of the bed—he just sat there, too close, his head about level with her breasts. So she stood in front of him—refusing to be intimidated.
The tee skimmed midway down her thighs and swamped her with a sense of intimacy as his scent and warmth enveloped her. Stupidly she felt as if she were more exposed than when she’d had nothing on. Her gaze collided with his—locked, and held fast in the hot blue intensity. She wanted him to touch her again. She wanted more of that pleasure he’d pulled so easily from her last night. She was almost mad with the need for it.
‘Stop looking at me like that, Princess,’ he said shortly.
The rejection stung. ‘Don’t call me Princess.’
‘Why not?’ he challenged almost angrily. ‘It’s who you are.’
‘It’s not all I am,’ she answered defiantly. ‘I don’t want that to be all I am.’
She just wanted to be Eleni. She didn’t want the reminder of who she ought to be all the time and of her failure to do her duty.
Hormones. It had to be the hormones. Here she was facing the biggest mess of her life, rupturing the royal connection of two nations, but all she wanted was for Damon to haul her close and kiss her again. She made herself walk to the door.
‘Take me back to Palisades,’ she said calmly, trying to sound in control.
‘So now that you’ve used me to hide from your brother’s wrath, you want to use your brother to protect you from me.’
She turned back and saw the bitterness of Damon’s smile. ‘That’s not—’
‘No?’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘Sorry, Eleni, I’m not a servant who you can order around and who’ll fulfil your every whim.’
‘No?’ she echoed at him angrily. His opinion inflamed her. She stalked back to where he still sat braced on the edge of her bed, his fists curled into the linen. ‘But that’s what you said I could do. You said I could take what I wanted from you.’
* * *
‘That’s what you really want, isn’t it?’ he asked roughly, reaching out to grab her waist and hold her in front of him. ‘You want me to make you feel good again.’
She wanted it so much—because she wanted it gone. But she knew what he wanted too. He might not like her much, but he still wanted her.
‘Actually,’ Eleni corrected him coolly, ‘now I’m offering that to you. Take what you want from me.’
If he did that, she was sure she’d be rid of this wretched, all-encompassing desire. It was too intense—she couldn’t think for wanting him.
His mouth tightened as he stared up at her, insolence in his expression. ‘Look at Princess Sophisticated,’ he jeered through gritted teeth. ‘What do you think you’re doing? Trying to soften me up with sex?’
She froze at the anger now darkening his eyes. ‘I just don’t think this needs to be that complicated.’
‘This couldn’t be more complicated. And sex only makes things worse.’ He laughed unkindly. ‘I’ll have you again, don’t you worry about that. But only once we’ve reached an agreement.’
He’d laughed that night too. When she’d had the most intense experience of her life, he’d chuckled. Her bold pretence fell, leaving angry vulnerability in its wake.
‘You can seduce me until I scream,’ she said furiously. ‘But you can’t make me say yes to marrying you.’
He stood, slamming her body against his as he did.
She gasped at the intense wave of longing that flooded her. But it roused her rage with it.
‘You’ll never get my total surrender.’ She glared up at him, even as tremors racked her traitorous body as he pressed her against his rock-hard heat.
‘And I don’t want it,’ he growled back, rolling his hips against hers in a demonstration of pure, sensual power. ‘Lust passes.’
She hoped to heaven he was right. But his smug superiority galled her. ‘You just have to know it all, don’t you?’
But she didn’t need another overprotective male trying to control every aspect of her life.
His gaze narrowed. ‘I only want what’s best for my baby.’ He released her and stalked to the door, turning to hit her with his parting shot. ‘We will marry. The baby will be born legitimately. And ultimately my child will live a safe, free life. With me.’
He slammed the door, leaving her recoiling at his cold-hearted plan. Shame slithered at her lame attempt to seduce him, suffocating the remnants of the heat he’d stirred too easily. He was too strong, too clinical when she’d been confused with desire. She was such a fool.
But that he truly planned to take her child horrified her. She had to fight him on that. She had to win.
Eleni snatched up her skirt. She marched out to the lounge to confront Damon again, only to catch sight of the large screen revealed on the wall. The sound was muted, but she recognised the image. Stunned, she stepped forward to look more closely.
Bunches and bunches of flowers and cards from well-wishers were placed at the gates of Palisades palace. The camera zoomed in on one of the bunches and she read the ‘get well soon’ message written—to her. Giorgos had taken her idea literally and told the world she was too unwell to embark on her tour with Prince Xander.
‘There are so many.’ She sank onto the nearest sofa.
‘Why are you so surprised?’ Damon walked forward and sat in the chair at an angle to her sofa, his voice cool. ‘You’re their perfect Princess.’
She rubbed her forehead. She was an absolute fraud and all those people were being kind when she didn’t deserve it.
‘It’s not a total lie. You don’t feel well,’ he added gruffly.
‘I’ve made a mess of everything.’
‘So marry me. We’ll live together away from Palisades until the baby is born.’
And then he was going to take her child from her.
Suddenly she broke; tears stung her eyes even as she laughed hopelessly. ‘The stupid thing is, I don’t even know for sure that I am pregnant.’
‘Pardon?’
Of course she was pregnant. She knew it. She was late and there were all those other signs—morning sickness, tender breasts...
‘Eleni?’ Damon prompted sharply.
She sighed. ‘I haven’t done a test.’
He gazed at her, astounded. ‘How can you not have done a test?’
‘How could I?’ She exploded, leaping back to her feet because she couldn’t contain her frustration a second longer. ‘How would I get a test without everyone finding out?’ She paced, railing a
t the confines of the luxurious room and of the life she was bound by. ‘I don’t even do my own personal shopping—how can I when I don’t even carry my own damn money?’ She’d never shopped alone in all her life. She registered the dumbfounded amazement on Damon’s face.
‘I don’t have any income,’ she explained furiously. ‘If I want anything I just ask someone and it arrives. Is that someone now you?’ She gestured wildly at him. ‘I don’t have a money card, Damon. Or any cash. I’ve never needed it. I know that makes me spoilt. But it also makes me helpless.’ It was beyond humiliating to be so dependent. ‘It makes me useless.’
She flopped back down on the sofa and buried her face in her hands, mortified at the sting of fresh tears. So much for controlling her emotional outbursts.
‘All this effort you’ve gone to, to steal me away might be based on one massive mistake.’ She laughed bitterly at the irony. Wouldn’t that just serve him right?
Damon hunched down in front of her, his hands on her knees. ‘Eleni.’
His voice was too soft. Too calm.
‘What?’ She peered at him.
He studied her, his expression uncharacteristically solemn. ‘Even if you’re not pregnant, could you really marry him now?’
‘Because I’ve spent the night on board a boat with another man and no chaperone?’ She glared at him, hating that old-school reasoning and the expectation that she’d stay ‘pure’—when no prince, no man, ever had to.