‘I’m not much for pomp and ceremony,’ Tansy confided unevenly, still anxiously concerned about how she could possibly fit a ten-month-old baby into such elaborate arrangements.
Jude lifted his chin, a sudden, breathtakingly charismatic smile flashing his shapely, wilful mouth as he sprang upright without warning, that buzzing energy of his pronounced again. His smile turned the beauty of his eyes to pure glittering gold enticement. ‘Yes, I’ll do it!’ he proclaimed, utterly disconcerting her. ‘Disappointing my grandfather, Isidore, would come very naturally to me at the moment and us arriving already married will annoy the hell out of the old man. I’ll arrange a register office wedding here before we fly out, but courtesy demands that we’ll still have to go through the motions in Greece and suffer through a church ceremony and a party.’
Tansy nodded slowly, barely able to credit that she had succeeded in changing his mind about something, but relief was already overpowering her in a wave. At least, if he married her in London, she would be able to immediately gain custody of her little sister and she would not need to ask Calvin to put himself or his girlfriend to any extraordinary inconvenience.
‘Where will we be living?’ she pressed, belatedly forced to consider such facts on the back of the sudden realisation that her whole life was about to undergo a radical change.
Jude’s brow pleated. ‘I move between properties, as and when suits. Nothing’s set in stone, but much of the time we’ll be “abroad”, as you call it.’
Tansy lost colour, knowing she would have to get a passport for her sister as quickly as possible, realising that out of ignorance she had totally underestimated the practicalities of life with an Alexandris. A guy as rich as Jude owned more than one home and travelled whenever and wherever he wanted, probably in a private jet. The routine restrictions that limited the choices and movements of ordinary people were unknown to him.
‘You’ll need a wedding gown and a new wardrobe. I have a stylist waiting next door to take your measurements,’ Jude volunteered, startling her once again with that announcement. ‘You will be provided with appropriate clothing to wear.’
‘Provided? But—’
‘Don’t quibble about the unimportant details, Tansy,’ Jude urged silkily. ‘It’s all part of the same deal and you’re being paid to take on this role.’
No, Calvin was being paid, Tansy reflected angrily, compressing her lips on an outburst, keeping Posy’s welfare first and foremost in her mind every time Jude said something that set her teeth on edge. Future husband might be an absolute dream of a fantasy man to look at, but actually living with him struck her as likely to provide a much tougher challenge. It didn’t matter where or how she married him or what she wore in that temporary fake life, she reminded herself firmly. In that field Jude was undeniably right: those were insignificant details.
‘I’m also hoping to keep a lid on your identity until after the wedding,’ Jude informed her. ‘I don’t like the paparazzi. Don’t talk to anyone about this marriage…and I mean, anyone. From you I will expect total discretion with regard to every aspect of my private life and family.’
Gripped by the warning onslaught of those piercing dark eyes set hard as granite, Tansy swallowed with difficulty. ‘Yes, of course. You’ve got it.’
Jude wore doubt on his lean, darkly handsome features. ‘I’m well aware that a lot of women like to see themselves in print but, unless it’s a fashion shoot, you won’t be seeing yourself in print and you won’t be giving any interviews, either before or after our marriage. Is that clear?’ Jude intoned.
‘Crystal clear,’ Tansy parried stiffly. ‘Any other rules?’
‘Don’t tell me any lies. If you make a mistake, own it and tell me about it. I despise liars,’ he admitted with a ringing authority that chilled her to the bone. ‘The stylist is waiting for you through that door…’
Tansy rose unsteadily and moved forward, involuntarily intrigued by a man capable of arranging so much without input from anyone else. He had a strong eye for detail, she acknowledged, a knack for grasping potential problems in advance, even the little ones like what his fake wife might wear. And he hated liars. Her conscience twanged as she acknowledged guiltily that even he could not be expected to have guessed about the existence of a baby girl whom nobody had dared to mention. ‘How did you know what time I’d be arriving to arrange a stylist?’
‘I didn’t.’ Jude shot her an amused look. ‘For the kind of money I’m prepared to spend the woman was willing to practise patience and wait until you showed up.’
As Tansy drew level with him to head towards the door he had indicated, he caught her hand in one of his to bring her to a halt. ‘Let the stylist be your guide. I don’t want a bride who dresses like a teenager.’
Shaken to find herself that close to him and in actual physical contact with the warmth of his big hand engulfing hers, Tansy gazed up uneasily into tawny gold eyes that were as primal to her in that moment as a lion’s tracking prey. ‘I only look like a teenager because I’m so skinny,’ she muttered awkwardly. ‘I just never rounded out like my friends. I kept on waiting for it to happen but…it didn’t…’
As Tansy heard those unnecessarily frank words fall from her lips scarlet heat rushed into her cheeks and she wanted to bite her tongue off. But there it was: she was indisputably tiny in the places women were supposed to be curvy and feminine, more boyish than lush in shape. On the plus side she could eat whatever she liked and burn it off again without much effort, but she had always longed for the curves she lacked.
‘You’re not skinny, you’re…slender,’ Jude contradicted soft and low, something in that dark purring drawl sending a tide of awareness currenting through her from head to toe. ‘Some men prefer that. Personally, I put a higher value on a more natural appearance.’
‘So you say,’ Tansy breathed, unimpressed by that claim, which she had heard before and found not to be true. ‘But it’s my bet that you wouldn’t be too impressed if you got treated to natural all the time. Men always think they don’t like make-up on a woman but I’m not sure that’s the case.’
‘You do have opinions,’ Jude noted.
‘Didn’t think you wanted to hear them.’
‘I do and I don’t,’ Jude confided. ‘I prefer to keep this relationship impersonal.’
Tickled by that unlikely possibility and the sheer ignorance of human interaction with which he made that admission, Tansy shot him an amused glance. ‘Well, you will have to work very, very hard at making sure that you don’t fall madly in love with me because, I’m telling you now, you’re not my type,’ she heard herself tease.
Jude gazed down in visible surprise at those clear almond-shaped green eyes sparkling with laughter and the pulse at his groin kicked up a storm of interest, disconcerting him. He rested a hand down on her slight shoulder, wondering what sort of sexual chemistry it was that felled him where he stood with a totally ordinary young woman. Gold-digger, he reminded himself darkly, but inexplicably it didn’t quell the desire and, with a sudden fierce impatience new to his experience, he stopped holding back and he bent his arrogant dark head and kissed her.
Tansy hadn’t been prepared for that move. Later she thought that she should have been, when they were standing so close and alone and supposedly on the brink of what he in his insanity saw as a normal marriage. But the sensual, seeking brush of his mouth over hers made her stop breathing and freeze in astonishment. For a split second, he owned her with that kiss, owned her as no other man ever had because it was so exciting. Sensation burst low in her tummy and stabbed an arrow of heat down into her throbbing core. She pressed her thighs tightly together, struggling to kill that surge of awareness. And that fast, she was drinking in the unfamiliar but ridiculously arousing scent of him, discovering that that was an added aphrodisiac. He smelled good enough to eat, she found herself thinking as his arms came around her and her knees wobbled, and that all-pervasive heat spread like a traitor up through her entire body. Her hands closed on to his sleeves to steady herself.
She felt alive and blazing with energy in a way she never had before and his lips were parting hers and hers were still clinging to his, her slight frame jerking in a shocking spasm of electrified pleasure as his tongue pierced the sensitive interior of her mouth. It was like a burning torch bursting into flame inside her and every skin cell was urging her to get closer to him. Her head swam with the dizzy intensity of it, every thought overpowered by physical reaction.
Fully aroused and tense, Jude set Tansy back from him and dealt her a sizzling smile of appreciation. ‘Getting to know you better promises to be especially entertaining,’ he quipped as he tugged open the door that led into the room beyond.