and regretted the mistakes he had made.
Giannis understood what it was like to regret past actions and, to his surprise, he’d found himself feeling glad that he had given Ava’s brother a chance to turn his life around. While Ava had gone upstairs to look for her passport, Sam had shyly congratulated him on becoming engaged to his sister and had voiced his opinion that Ava deserved to be happy after her previous boyfriend had broken her heart.
The limousine drew up outside the hotel and Giannis glanced at his watch. His meeting had overrun but there was just enough time for him to shower and change before the evening’s function at the Louvre started. He hoped Ava would be ready on time. Theos, he hoped she hadn’t run out on him.
He was aware of a sinking sensation in his stomach as the possibility occurred to him. He acknowledged that he had struggled to concentrate during his business meeting because he had been anticipating spending the evening with Ava. If he hadn’t known himself better he might have been concerned by his fascination with her. But experience had taught him that desire was a transitory emotion.
‘I wouldn’t have thought that you would be interested in a fashion show,’ she had remarked when he’d told her about the evening’s event.
‘The show is for new designers to demonstrate their talent. I sponsor a young Greek designer called Kris Antoniadis. You may not have heard of him, but I predict that in a few years he will be highly regarded in the fashion world. At least I certainly hope so because I am Kris’s main financial sponsor and I have invested a lot of money in him.’
‘Is money the only thing you are interested in?’ she’d asked him in a snippy tone which gave the impression she thought that making money was immoral.
He had looked her up and down and allowed his eyes linger on the firm swell of her breasts beneath her cashmere sweater. ‘It’s not the only thing that interests me,’ he’d murmured, and she’d blushed.
There was no sign of her in their hotel suite, but Giannis heard the sound of a hairdryer from the en suite bathroom. Stripping off his jacket and tie as he went, he strode into the separate shower room and then headed to the dressing room to change into a tuxedo.
He returned to the sitting room just as Ava emerged from the bedroom, and Giannis felt a sudden tightness in his chest. His brain acknowledged that the personal shopper had fulfilled the brief he’d given her to find an evening gown that was both elegant and sexy. But as he stared at Ava he was conscious of the way another area of his anatomy reacted as his blood rushed to his groin.
‘You look stunning,’ he told her, and to his own ears his voice sounded huskier than usual as his customary sangfroid deserted him.
‘Thank you. So do you.’ Soft colour stained her cheeks. Giannis was surprised by how easily she blushed. It gave her an air of vulnerability that he chose to ignore.
‘The personal shopper said I should wear a statement dress tonight—whatever a statement dress is. But I don’t think you will approve when I tell you how many noughts were on the price tag,’ she said ruefully.
‘Whatever it cost it was worth it.’ Giannis could not tear his eyes off her. The dress was made of midnight-blue velvet, strapless and fitting tightly to her hips before the skirt flared out in a mermaid style down to the floor. Around her neck she wore a matching blue velvet choker with a diamanté decoration. Her hair was caught up at the sides with silver clasps and rippled down her back in silky waves.
He had a mental image of her lying on the bed wearing only the velvet choker, her creamy skin and luscious curves displayed for his delectation. Desire ran hot and urgent through his veins and he was tempted to turn his vision into reality.
Perhaps Ava could read his mind. ‘I don’t know why you booked a hotel suite with only one bedroom. The deal was for me to be your fake fiancée.’ She walked past him and picked up the phone. ‘I’m going to call reception and ask for a room of my own.’
Giannis crossed the room in two strides and snatched the receiver out of her hand. ‘If you do that, how long do you think it will take for a member of the hotel’s staff to reveal on social media that we don’t share a bed? We are supposed to be madly in love,’ he reminded her.
‘Did you assume I would be your convenient mistress for the next month? You’ve got a damned nerve,’ she snapped.
He considered proving to her that it had been a reasonable assumption to make. Sexual chemistry simmered between them and all it would take was one kiss, one touch, to cause a nuclear explosion. He watched her tongue dart out to moisten her lower lip and the beast inside him roared.
Somehow Giannis brought his raging hormones under control. What was important was that their ‘romance’ gained as much public exposure as possible so that Stefanos Markou believed he was a reformed character preparing to devote himself to marriage and family—the ideals that Stefanos believed in.
Throughout the day Giannis had asked himself why he was going to the lengths of pretending to be engaged, simply to tip a business opportunity in his favour. But the truth was that he needed Markou Shipping’s fleet of ships to enable him to expand his cruise line company into the river-cruising market. The ships could be refitted during the winter and be ready to take passengers early next summer, which would put TGE ahead of its main competitors.
‘We can sort out sleeping arrangements later,’ he told Ava. ‘The car is waiting to take us to the Louvre. Are you ready for our first performance, agápi mou?’
‘I am not your love.’
‘You are when we are out in public.’ He took hold of her arm and frowned when she flinched away from him. ‘You’ll have to do better than that if we are going to convince anyone that our relationship is genuine.’ Impatience flared in him at her mutinous expression. ‘We made a deal and I have carried out my side of it,’ he reminded her. ‘You told me that I would have to trust you, and I did. But perhaps I was a fool to believe your word?’
‘I am completely trustworthy,’ she said in a fierce voice. ‘I will pretend to be your fiancée. But why would anyone believe that you—a handsome billionaire playboy who has dated some of the world’s most beautiful women—have fallen in love with an ordinary, nothing special woman like me?’ She worried her bottom lip with her teeth. ‘What are we going to say if anyone asks how we met?’
He shrugged. ‘We’ll tell them the truth. We met at a dinner party and there was an immediate attraction between us. And, by the way, there is nothing ordinary about the way you look in that dress,’ he growled, his eyes fixed on her pert derrière encased in tight blue velvet when she turned around to check her appearance in the mirror.
‘Sexual attraction is not the same thing as falling in love,’ she muttered.
She was nervous, Giannis realised with a jolt of surprise. If he had been asked to describe Ava he would have said that she was determined and strong—he guessed she’d have to be in her job working with crime victims. But the faint tremor of her mouth revealed an unexpected vulnerability that he could not simply dismiss. For their fake engagement to be successful, he realised that he would have to win her confidence and earn her trust.
He lifted his hand to brush a stray tendril of hair off her face. ‘But mutual attraction is how all relationships begin, isn’t it?’ he said softly. ‘You meet someone and wham. At first there is a purely physical response, an alchemy which sparks desire. From those roots love might begin to grow and flourish.’ His
