‘One of them?’ she affirmed breathlessly.
The wave of his hand was careless. Sometimes he forgot that the extent of his wealth was remarkable to most people and he supposed he should be grateful that his new fiancée hadn’t already tallied up all his properties with greedy anticipation. ‘I have homes in New York and Athens as well as this one,’ he drawled. My Greek island villa you have already seen, of course.’
‘Of course,’ she said.
He watched as she fixed her eyes imploringly on the bright red arrow indicating their progress towards his penthouse apartment, as if she was finding the confined space in the elevator claustrophobic. You and me both, he thought unwillingly, his attention drawn to the curves of her body, which her thin grey coat couldn’t quite disguise. He could feel the pump of his heart and the throb at his groin and wondered whether he should rid himself of some of the frustration which had been building up inside him for days now. But thoughts
of seduction were vanquished by the words which burst from her lips almost as if she hadn’t planned to say them, her blue eyes suddenly darkening so that they looked as blue as a Grecian sea.
‘I wasn’t...’ She drew in a deep breath. ‘To be honest I wasn’t expecting to see you until this evening. I thought you’d be working.’
Surely that wasn’t disappointment he could hear in her soft English voice? A flicker of a smile touched the edges of Drakon’s lips. Maybe there was more fire to Lucy Phillips than he had initially given her credit for. ‘I had a rare window in my diary and I thought it might be less daunting if I was here to greet you myself,’ he explained as the elevator reached the penthouse and the doors slid open.
‘That’s very kind of you.’
‘Make the most of it. I’m not usually known for my kindness,’ he informed her drily. ‘Come on in.’
Obediently, she followed him into the reception room, and he thought how much she resembled a new member of staff as she stood nervously in the centre of his modern London apartment with its bird’s-eye view over the park. But in a way, that was exactly what she was. As his wife, she would be fulfilling her prescribed role just as adequately as one of his chefs, or drivers, or housekeepers. And wasn’t her trepidation one of the reasons he had chosen to marry her? She was both compliant and inexperienced and because of that he could mould her into the kind of spouse he wanted her to be, just as he would train up a new assistant.
‘It’s huge,’ she commented.
‘But you’ve been here before. When you met Xander.’
‘Yes. That’s right. But I only saw the nursery areas. I had no idea there was this other huge section.’ She looked around, cocking her head to one side as if listening for something. ‘Where is Xander?’
Drakon still wasn’t used to having the baby around and he frowned, trying to remember. ‘Sofia has taken him to the doctor for some sort of routine check. At least, I think that’s what she said.’
She sucked in a deep breath. ‘You didn’t consider it might be better if I could have gone along as well? If I’m to be his, well, his...mother.’
Something unknown clutched at Drakon’s heart like a vice. Was it anger that his brother should have treated his son with such a failure of care and cast him into the unwanted role of father? Or fear that he would be incapable of giving this child any true affection, as his own father had been unable to give him? With an effort, he pushed the bitter memories away—for what good would they serve him now?
‘There will be plenty of time for you to play happy families, Lucy. First things first. Let me show you around properly and then I have a surprise for you.’
‘I’m not crazy about surprises,’ she warned him lightly.
‘I think you’ll like this one,’ he promised.
Lucy thought how arrogant he sounded. Did that mean she was going to have to pretend? To smooth the way for their future marriage by showing him gratitude at all times? Would that be the grown-up way to proceed?
She began to follow him through the huge apartment, trying and failing to remember the precise configuration of the rooms. But she would quickly learn where everything was, she reassured herself—despite the fact that the entire ground floor of her riverside cottage would have fitted into one of the en suite bathrooms! One of the vast reception rooms led into a book-lined study, which looked more like a public library and contained leather-bound volumes in both English and Greek. There was an enormous kitchen with an adjoining dining room, three big en suite bedrooms on one side of the wide corridor, as well as the nursery suite on the other, which was completely self-contained.
‘I’ve given you your own bedroom,’ he said as his footsteps halted. ‘I decided it would be more appropriate if we slept apart until the wedding. Something befitting the status of my relatively innocent fiancée.’ His black eyes gleamed. ‘That doesn’t mean we cannot be intimate or imaginative, of course.’
‘Oh?’
‘I’ll be right next door,’ he informed her. ‘It will be like a throwback to a different age. I cannot tell you how much the novelty of that appeals to me, Lucy.’
Lucy’s breasts had grown heavy at his provocative words but her erotic recall was forgotten the moment he pushed open the bedroom door. Her lips fell open but she barely noticed the amazing view or huge bed, or the superb painting of a tiny fishing village which looked suspiciously like the one on his private island. All she could see were the piles of clothes which were everywhere, making the room look more like the changing room of an upmarket department store than a bedroom. There were sleek dresses hanging in front of the built-in cupboards and a gorgeous plum-coloured coat with a velvet collar. One of the cupboards was open and inside she could see colour-coordinated lines of beautiful silky shirts, and skirts which varied from pencil to flounce. Further along the rail were more casual clothes—cashmere sweaters which bore little resemblance to her own hand-knits and denim jeans which she was doubtful she’d be able to slide over her curvy hips. This must be the surprise he’d been talking about.
‘I hope you like them,’ Drakon said as she continued to stare at it all in silence.
Lucy forced herself to say something dutiful which wouldn’t sound ungrateful, because there was no denying he must have gone to a lot of trouble. ‘They’re gorgeous. Did you—?’
‘Actually, my partner chose them.’
‘Your partner?’ she questioned blankly and, although it was unconscious sexism on her part, she instantly imagined some strapping Greek male walking into a store waving a charge card.
‘Amy,’ he supplied, clearly oblivious to the sudden uncertainty in her voice. ‘We’ve worked together for years.’