deeply that their bodies imploded simultaneously. She gave a startled cry as she experienced wave after wave of ecstasy crashing through her, causing her entire body to tremble with the power of a storm, before slowly ebbing away to leave her spent and utterly replete in his arms.
Dear heaven, she had never known it would be so…so awesome, so astounding. She could not find the words. She curved her hands around Thanos’s back, loving the feel of his satiny sweat-slicked skin beneath her palms. He was lying on top of her, his body lax and heavy, but she did not want him to move. The erratic beat of his heart thundering in unison with hers was strangely comforting. Was it possible that in the shattering moments of his climax he had experienced the same feeling that had swamped her—a feeling that their souls had united and soared to a place that was uniquely theirs?
It was just sex, she told herself—awesome, amazing sex. Although admittedly she did not have any other experience to compare it with. But surely it was nothing more than the pairing of two people who were held in the thrall of a powerful sexual chemistry? It would be stupid to allow her emotions to become involved, yet she felt a bond with him that went far beyond the physical intimacy they had shared.
Thanos finally rolled onto his back and stared blindly up at the ceiling, more stunned than he cared to admit by the power of the passion they had just shared, the feeling of oneness that he had never experienced with any other woman. It made no sense. He despised Tahlia, and his contempt for her had intensified when she had agreed to sell herself to him. But instead of telling her what he thought of her he had succumbed to the temptation of her fragile beauty and taken her to bed. Lust had made a fool of him, and now his hatred of himself threatened to choke him. He was no better than his father, he acknowledged bitterly. Kosta Savakis had fallen for the charms of an immoral woman and had abandoned his family for his mistress. And now he, Thanos, had sacrificed his self-respect and had sex with the woman who had broken his sister’s heart.
He had bought her, he reminded himself grimly as he swung his legs over the side of the bed, not sparing her a glance as he strode into the en suite bathroom. Tahlia was a whore, and he was paying a fortune for her. It would have been damnably disappointing if the sex hadn’t been good. He stood beneath the shower, but the powerful spray did nothing to ease his tension. Sex with Tahlia hadn’t just been good, it had been the best he’d ever had, he conceded. He was already hardening again, anticipation licking through his veins as he snatched a towel and roughly dried his body.
But when he returned to the bedroom he discovered her curled up beneath the sheet, one hand beneath her cheek, her long gold lashes making crescents against her flushed skin. Once again he was struck by her air of innocence, and something indefinable tugged in his gut when he saw a single tear slip silently down her face. The sight of her vulnerability shook him to the core, and in moment of absolute clarity his brain finally accepted what his soul had instinctively known when he had joined his body with hers. He was aware of a curious drumming in his ears, and realised that it was the sound of his blood pounding through his veins. His logical mind grasped at straws, recalling all the tabloid stories he had read about her torrid love-life, but when she lifted her lashes and he saw the hurt in her eyes his heart accepted the truth.
‘You were a virgin, weren’t you?’ he said quietly.
She did not reply, but the sudden flare of colour on her pale cheeks filled him with guilt and remorse, and a whole host of other emotions he could not define.
Anger at his crass stupidity swept through him, and his throat felt as though he had swallowed glass as he rasped, ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me?’
THE look of fury on Thanos’s face inflamed Tahlia’s temper and she sat up, glaring at him as she dragged the sheet across her breasts and pushed her hair over her shoulders. ‘What would have been the point?’ she demanded bitterly. ‘You thought I was an immoral slut who had seduced your sister’s husband as well as half the male population of London. Would you have believed me if I’d admitted that I was completely inexperienced?’
Somehow her defiant tone, and the way she hastily dashed her tears away with the back of her hand, emphasised her innocence—an innocence he had taken with all the finesse of a boor, Thanos thought grimly, regret searing him as he recalled his impatience when he had made love to her.
‘Probably not,’ he conceded honestly. ‘But Theos mou…’ He raked his hand through his hair, his frustration palpable. ‘Melina found you in bed with James Hamilton.’
‘I told you I didn’t sleep with him.’
But he hadn’t believed her. He had assumed, as Melina had, that Tahlia and James were lovers, Thanos acknowledged. And during the long hours he had sat at Melina’s hospital bedside his hatred of Tahlia had made him determined to seek revenge for the pain he had thought she had caused his sister.
‘How do you explain all the stories written about you in the tabloids?’ he demanded. ‘For the past few months rarely a day has gone by without a picture in the British newspapers of you and one of your seemingly inexhaustible supply of boyfriends at yet another social event.’
‘I only went to the parties to promote Reynolds Gems,’ Tahlia defended herself. ‘My father persuaded me to front an advertising campaign, and then he thought it would give a personal touch if people saw me wearing the company’s products. Those men weren’t my boyfriends. They were male models hired from an agency. It was all part of the image,’ she explained, when Thanos looked sceptical. ‘I was photographed by the press wearing couture gowns that were loaned to me by design houses and fabulous jewellery from the Reynolds Gems collection, escorted by a handsome partner. But there was never any romance. Most of the models were too in love with themselves,’ she added with a grimace.
‘So your party princess image was just a PR stunt?’Thanos gave a harsh laugh. He had certainly been convinced that Tahlia was a good-time girl, and he was still struggling to accept that he had unwittingly stolen her virginity. ‘What about the other married actor, Damian Casson? Do you expect me to believe that the photos of the two of you leaving a hotel together were also to promote Reynolds Gems?’
‘I don’t give a damn what you believe,’ Tahlia snapped. ‘Damian set me up to make his wife jealous, and as I already told you my solicitor has threatened the papers involved with legal action unless they retract their story of our supposed affair. I hate being in the public eye,’ she admitted. ‘But I would have done anything to help my father. I just wish all those hours I spent on the PR campaign had done some good.’
‘It would have taken a miracle to turn around Reynolds’ fortunes,’ Thanos told her bluntly. ‘Your father had made a catalogue of terrible decisions in recent years, and with the current economic crisis bankruptcy was almost inevitable.
‘It wasn’t his fault.’ Tahlia sprang to her father’s defence. ‘My mother has been seriously ill, and Dad was so busy caring for her that he couldn’t concentrate on running the company. He was terrified he was going to lose her…we both were,’ she said huskily, emotion clogging her throat as she acknowledged how afraid she had been that her mother would die.
That fear had haunted her every day of the past two years, and it was only now her mother was well again that she realised how much of a strain it had been to keep smiling and encouraging her parents to think positively when inside she had been racked with worry. Tears stung her eyes and she blinked furiously to dispel them. She had cried on the day her mother had been diagnosed, but since then she had suppressed her emotions and focused on helping her mother through her treatment. Now it felt as though a dam inside her had burst, and
