She wouldn’t find anything like them. This was all the finest quality, as befitted his lover. He didn’t settle for second best and nor would she while she was with him.
She’d find him more than generous, with his time and his wallet. This relationship might be short, and unusual, since Tessa was technically his wife, but he always treated his women well. It was only if they tried to manipulate him, to barter sham affection for cash, that he objected.
He had no problem with honest lust and, for all her previous schemes, Tessa couldn’t hide that. Her passion was genuine, every bit as real as the desire he felt for her. She didn’t have the artifice to hide that, at least.
Besides, he wanted to see her dressed beautifully. His mouth had watered as soon as he’d seen the green silk dress, imagining Tessa wearing it for him. Its cut demanded a lithe, perfect body, which she had, and an almost total absence of underwear. That he could imagine only too well.
Heat flared under his skin as he pictured himself standing behind her, stroking his palms down the sensuous silk of that bodice, over her proud, ripe breasts, across her flat stomach, and lower, bunching the fabric in his hands higher and higher until…
‘Stavros?’ She’d turned towards him and was frowning. Obviously she’d been trying to get his attention.
In one hand she held a black one-piece swimsuit. ‘I’ll try this on. The others wouldn’t suit me.’
He flicked a glance at the array of bright, minuscule bikinis she hadn’t touched. His lips twitched and he repressed the urge to smile. One thing he’d learned about Tessa Marlowe was that, for all her delightful physical responsiveness, her natural sensuality, once out of bed she was deliciously shy about revealing her delectable body.
It was a challenge he looked forward to, persuading her to dress to please him, rather than to cover up.
She was naïve if she thought that little black number was anything like demure. He cast a connoisseur’s eye over the scrap of Lycra, cut high at the hip and deceptively plain. It would fit her like a second skin, enhancing her delicate femininity.
‘Put it on,’ he said, ‘and we’ll swim. But when we come back you’ll choose some other clothes as well. Or I’ll choose them for you.’
‘But—’
‘No arguments, Tessa. I’ve been patient about this long enough. If you don’t do it willingly I’ll have those rags you currently own burned. Then what would you wear?’
Her eyes widened in astonishment. He paced slowly towards her, stifling a grin as she automatically backed away from him. Heat sizzled through his bloodstream at the thought of making good his threat.
‘You know I won’t mind at all if you live here completely naked.’ He almost wished she’d continue to fight him on this. There’d be definite benefits.
‘All right,’ she murmured at last, capitulating as he knew she would. ‘I’ll find something else later.’ With one swift glance at him, she ducked her head and hurried into the bathroom to change.
Stavros turned to the house phone. The pool was in a private courtyard, but still…
‘Security?’ he said, watching the en-suite door close behind Tessa. ‘I want complete privacy this afternoon. No one is to go near the pool yard. Understood?’
Stavros smiled as he severed the connection. There were definite benefits to having his current lover living in his home. He intended to take full advantage of every one.
Stavros took the stairs two at a time, eager to see if Tessa was waiting for him in the bedroom. All the way back from his meeting in Athens he’d been unable to concentrate on business. Even the final arrangements for the Shanghai showrooms had failed to hold his attention because he was fantasising about her. Waiting for him. Naked.
Naked, or maybe in one of the sexy, barely there negligées he’d bought her. A surge of heat filled him as he walked towards the bedroom.
He pushed open the door. Empty. Putting his laptop down, he strode to the bathroom to make sure she wasn’t there, a slick, perfumed water nymph awaiting his pleasure.
No sign of her.
He grinned ruefully as he yanked off his tie and slipped his jacket from his shoulders. He needed to have a word with Tessa about how best to please an impatient lover.
He’d never yet found her here waiting for him. Instead she’d been in the kitchen, making pastries under his housekeeper’s approving eye, or swimming, or even helping his reluctant groundsman in the kitchen garden!
Yet Stavros had no complaints. Her response when she looked up and saw him was always the same: that sweet smile of welcome, the passionate kiss of surrender that never failed to make his body harden and his breath seize.