Somehow she’d managed to convince herself that this whole thing could be a relatively straightforward arrangement. He could live his life. She could live hers. The issue of a sexual relationship had crossed her mind briefly, of course, but somehow the notion of sex with a man she’d never met had seemed abstract. Unreal.
But face to face there was nothing unreal about Sebastien Fiorukis. He was six foot two of full-on, sexual, adult male.
Suddenly the sex aspect of their agreement didn’t seem quite so straightforward as she’d previously imagined it to be.
For a moment she forgot about the sea and her grandfather and focused on the appalling reality of sliding between the sheets with this hot-blooded volatile Greek.
‘Not a briefcase.’ Struggling to pull herself together, she answered his sardonic question as calmly as she could, ignoring the kick of her heart and the strange buzz in the pit of her stomach. ‘But clearly there will be no emotional involvement between us. I will have sex with you because that is what the contract demands, but nowhere does it say that I am required to enjoy the experience.’ She caught his incredulous gaze. ‘And that’s fine,’ she added hastily, suddenly extremely anxious to reassure him that her enjoyment was not on his list of objectives.
‘You’ll “have sex” with me?’ Sebastien stared at her in fascination, night-black eyes raking her face as he repeated her words.
Alesia closed her eyes. The problem was, he was used to women who expected to be seduced. She didn’t. In fact she couldn’t think of anything worse. She wasn’t remotely interested in sex and never had been. Once she’d discovered that she’d never be able to have children, she’d buried that part of herself away. And it no longer mattered to her. The few kisses she’d experienced since reaching adolescence had proved to her that she just wasn’t interested.
Realising that the situation was rapidly sliding out of control, she gave a frustrated sigh and tried one more time to make him see logic. ‘Look—this isn’t about you.’ She tried clumsily to rescue his ego from any damage inflicted by her remark. ‘This isn’t personal. We just won’t have that sort of marriage. And that’s fine. I mean really—’ she spread her hands in a nervous gesture, wondering how on earth this conversation had begun ‘—it’s how I want it.’
He stirred, his gaze still fixed on her face. ‘Clearly you have always had lousy sex.’
Hot colour flooded her cheeks and she looked away quickly, trying to regain some semblance of control.
Perhaps this was the point where she was supposed to tell him that she’d never had sex before but there was no way she was doing that! It was too embarrassing to have reached the grand old age of twenty-two and still be a virgin and she was totally confident that when the time came she could successfully hide her massive lack of experience in that department.
‘So you’re prepared to marry me and have “businesslike sex”—’ his tone was dangerously casual ‘—and I pay you for the privilege. Interesting concept and one that I confess I’m unfamiliar with. I’ve never before found myself in a position where I had to pay for sex.’
‘Of course you have.’ She responded without thinking. ‘Women hang round you hoping that you’ll spend your billions on them and in return they fawn over you and pretend to find you attractive—if that’s not paying for sex, I don’t know what is. And in this case you’re not paying for sex, you’re paying for my grandfather’s company.’
He looked totally stunned by this less than flattering interpretation of his love life and Alesia struggled not to roll her eyes in exasperation. His ego was positively monumental! He obviously thought that women wanted to be with him because he was completely irresistible. He was so sad!
‘You’re a rich man, Sebastien,’ she said impatiently, using his given name as he had used hers. ‘You can’t be telling me that I’m the first woman to be interested in your money.’
His dark eyes narrowed and he finally found his voice. ‘Let’s just say that you’re the first seriously rich woman to be interested in my money. Why would you need it so much, I wonder?’
If only he knew.
Alesia dangled the shoes under his nose, her gaze intentionally provocative. ‘Perhaps I just have enormous spending powers.’
She almost laughed as she listened to herself. The truth was that she wouldn’t have a clue how to spend money if she had it. Apart from her time at boarding school, she’d lived in virtual poverty for her entire life and economizing came as naturally to her as breathing. If she was pointed in the direction of a designer boutique, she’d probably just drop to her knees and start scrubbing the floor.