‘Fine.’ Alice’s smile was completely relaxed. She was clearly an excellent actress—better even than he’d suspected. ‘I’d like that. Thanos?’
‘We’ll come as soon as we can,’ Thanos murmured.
‘Shall we say a week?’
‘A week?’ Thanos balked at that, for no reason he could think of. ‘Make it three.’
Beside him Alice stiffened, and lifted her face to his. ‘Don’t be silly, Thanos. A week is fine.’ Her smile was encouraging, and he couldn’t have said why but he felt annoyed. Impatient.
‘Good,’ Kosta rolled on, their acquiescence now apparently something he took for granted. But he sobered, his expression growing serious as he looked up at Thanos. ‘She is your family now. All that you do is for her.’
* * *
The wedding dress on Alice had been bad enough. But it was somehow so much worse when he stepped into the luxurious bathroom of the hotel penthouse to see it carefully arranged over a coat hanger, suspended from the gold frame of the shower screen.
He ran his fingers over the lace bodice, as he’d been aching to do all day, his gut tightening with memories of how Alice had looked in the dress. And imagining how she looked out of it.
He stifled a groan, washing his face and unbuttoning his own shirt, discarding it considerably less carefully, in a pile on the floor. He braced his palms on the marble counter and stared at his reflection, a haunted look in his eyes as he noted the detail of the gold band on his wedding finger.
He was married.
And it didn’t matter that it was just a sham, he felt a panicking constriction in his chest, rising to his throat, making breathing momentarily difficult.
Married.
Just as he’d sworn he’d never be.
He swept his eyes shut for a moment, inhaling, exhaling, ignoring the panic, focussing on the end result of this.
Petó. The company that would be his.
It didn’t matter that he’d got way more than he’d bargained for with Alice Smart. It didn’t matter that he’d suggested this when he’d thought her efficiency outstripped any other quality she possessed, when he’d thought she’d be a convenient bride—convenient in that he’d barely notice she was around.
How wrong he’d been!
He was noticing her, noticing her in all the ways he didn’t want to.
The brief kiss at the nightclub had been bad, but he’d been able to tame it. The kiss at their wedding? It had pulled at every single one of his senses and even now his body was on fire, wanting to know how that kiss would end if they gave it free rein.
A noise from beyond the bathroom had him moving to the door, and when he stepped out, it was to see Alice in the kitchen, filling a kettle with water.
And desire throbbed low in his abdomen, refusing to be quelled. Because the wedding dress had been impressive, but even now, with her face wiped of make-up, her dark hair loose around her face, dressed in a simple T-shirt and pants that looked to be stretchy yoga tights, she was working her way into his mind, so he couldn’t look away, and couldn’t think of anything else.
He must have made a noise without realising it, because she lifted her face, her eyes locking to his in surprise, her lips parting a little.
‘I didn’t know you were in here.’
The kiss had been fascinating.
He hadn’t expected such a depth of response from her, nor had he expected to want her in a way that had robbed him of any common sense.
Thanos stood on a precipice now. Common sense and safety were on one side, and on the other, something far more dangerous and infinitely more pleasing.
‘I...’ A furrow developed between her brows. ‘I thought I’d go to bed. With a cup of tea. And a book.’ Her breath moved quickly, her chest lifting with each huff, so her nipples strained against the flimsy cotton material of her shirt and he wondered what she’d feel like. If he reached his hands out and curved them over her breasts...
He banished the thought from his mind and waited for her to make her tea and leave.
Except she didn’t. She poured the water into a cup and stayed right where she was, her eyes roaming his face slowly, hungrily, as though she too was reluctant to put distance and sleep between them. As if this day—their wedding day—was somehow magical and apart from regular time.