He smiled down at her.
‘Do you doubt it?’ he asked, still in that caressing voice.
She shook her head, gazing up at him. ‘No. Never. Oh, Markos!’ She wrapped her arms around his back, holding him close to her.
They lay in each other’s arms, wound about each other. A deep contentment filled him. Softly, he stroked her hair.
‘Did you miss me?’ he asked.
‘Every minute!’
‘Good.’ He settled her more comfortably in the crook of his arm, feeling her head heavy on his chest. She fitted against him so well, he found himself thinking. Idly he splayed his hand over the sleek smoothness of her belly. Did she feel riper, rounder? He did not object. Skinny women did nothing for him, and Vanessa was definitely not skinny. Oh, no, she was all woman, all right…
And she was his—devotedly, absolutely.
The best mistress I’ve ever had.
Satisfaction eased through him again. The unpleasant scene with his aunt faded. It was so pointless, her and his father and Constantia Dimistris and the whole damn lot of them, scheming and plotting, going on and on at him—he was not going to marry and that was that. Nothing could get him to the altar.
He felt Vanessa shift her head very slightly on his chest.
‘Markos?’
‘Yes?’ he murmured.
‘Did—did you miss me?’ There was the slightest hesitation in her voice as she asked the question.
He smiled, brushing her hair with his mouth.
‘Didn’t I just show you how much I missed you?’
She was silent a moment.
‘Yes. But, I mean, was it…was it the sex you missed?’
He gave a low laugh. ‘Well, I certainly didn’t join the Mile High Club without you, I promise,’ he answered lightly.
She was silent again.
‘Markos?’
‘Yes?’ His encircling arm, cupping her shoulder, felt warm. Idly he twisted his fingers into her hair.
‘What—what do you think is going to happen?’
He smiled. ‘That’s a pretty open-ended question. Care to narrow it down a bit? Are we talking about tomorrow’s weather or the state of geopolitics?’
He could hear her swallow.
‘I mean—about us.’
‘Us?’
He felt her breath warm on his chest.
‘Yes.’
‘Well, like I said, as soon as I can get away we’ll head for the Caribbean. Unless something comes up, of course,’ he qualified. Business life could be unpredictable, and he didn’t want to make promises he couldn’t keep.