realise he had unzipped her dress until he tugged the bodice down and cradled her breasts in his big hands.
Her sensible head reminded her that it was shockingly decadent to be half naked in the back of a car and her wanton behaviour was not what she expected of herself. But her thoughts scattered when Giannis bent his head and his warm breath teased one nipple before he closed his mouth around the rosy peak and sucked, hard. Ava could not repress a moan of pleasure, and when he transferred his attention to her other nipple she ran her fingers through his silky dark hair and prayed that he would never stop what he was doing to her.
‘I have no intention of stopping, glykiá mou,’ he said in an amused voice. Colour flared on her face as she realised that she had spoken her plea aloud. But when he returned his mouth to her breasts she tipped her head back and gasped as lightning bolts of sensation shot down to her molten core between her thighs.
Giannis yanked up her long flared skirt and skimmed his hand over one stocking-clad leg, but the dress was designed to fit tightly over her hips and he could not go any further. He swore. ‘I hope the other clothes you bought are more accessible.’
Ava shared his frustration but while she was wondering if she could possibly wriggle out of her dress the car came to a halt and Giannis shifted her off his knees. ‘We’ve arrived at the hotel,’ he said coolly, straightening his tie and running a hand through his hair. ‘You had better tidy yourself up.’
His words catapulted her back to reality and she frantically pulled the top of her dress into place. ‘Will you zip me up?’
He refastened her dress seconds before the driver opened the rear door. Giannis stepped onto the pavement and offered Ava his hand. She blinked in the glare of camera flashes going off around them. Photographers were gathered outside the entrance to the hotel and she felt mortified as she imagined how dishevelled she must look as she emerged from the car.
‘Here, have this.’ Giannis slipped off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders. Glancing down, Ava saw that she had failed to pull the top of her dress up high enough, and her breasts were in danger of spilling out. Hot-faced, she huddled into his jacket as he escorted her into the hotel.
They entered the lift and Ava’s reflection in the mirrored walls confirmed the worst. ‘I look like a harlot,’ she choked, running her finger over her swollen mouth. ‘The photographers must have guessed we were making out on the back seat of the car. If the pictures they took just now appear in tomorrow’s newspapers, everyone will think that we can’t keep our hands off each other.’
Giannis was leaning against the lift wall, one ankle crossed over the other and his hands shoved into his trouser pockets. His bow tie was dangling loose and Ava flushed as she remembered how she had frenziedly torn off his tie and undone several of his shirt buttons. He looked calm and unruffled, the exact opposite of how she felt.
‘The point of tonight was to advertise the news of our engagement to the press.’ He dropped his gaze to where her breasts were partially exposed above the top of her dress. ‘Thanks to your wardrobe malfunction we certainly got maximum exposure,’ he drawled.
He sounded amused, and Ava felt sick as she realised what a fool she was. ‘I suppose you knew that the paparazzi would be at our hotel,’ she said stiffly. ‘Is that why you made love to me in the car?’
‘Actually I didn’t know. But I should have guessed that they would find out which hotel we are staying at.’ His eyes narrowed on her flushed face. ‘I’m sorry if the photographers upset you.’
‘I’m sorry that I ever agreed to be your fake fiancée.’ The lift stopped at the top floor and she preceded Giannis along the corridor, despising herself for her fierce awareness of him even now, after he had humiliated her.
‘But you are not sorry that your brother has avoided a prison sentence,’ he said drily as he opened the door of their suite and ushered her inside. He caught hold of her arm and spun her round to face him. ‘I kissed you because you have driven me insane all evening and I couldn’t help myself. I have never wanted any woman as badly as I want you.’
With an effort Ava resisted the lure of his husky, accented voice that almost fooled her into believing he meant it. ‘You can stop acting now that there is no audience to deceive. We’re alone, in case you hadn’t noticed.’
His dark eyes gleamed. ‘I am very aware of that fact, glykiá mou.’
SOMETHING IN GIANNIS’S voice sent a shiver of apprehension—if she was honest it was anticipation—across Ava’s skin. She did not fear him. It was her inability to resist his charisma that made her fearful, she admitted. She broke free from him and marched into the suite’s only bedroom, intending to lock herself in. But he was right behind her and his soft laughter followed her as she fled into the en suite bathroom.
Splashing cold water onto her face cooled her heated skin, and she removed the silver clips that were hanging from her tangled hair. But she could not disguise her reddened mouth or the hectic glitter in her eyes. She felt undone, out of control, and it scared the hell out of her. If she was going to survive the next month pretending to be Giannis’s fiancée, she would have to make it clear that she would not allow him to manipulate her.
Taking a deep breath, she returned to the bedroom but the sight of him in bed, leaning against the pillows, made her want to retreat back to the bathroom. His arms were folded behind his head and his chest was bare. Her heart lurched at the thought that he might be naked beneath the sheet that was draped dangerously low over his hips. She was fascinated by the fuzz of black hairs that arrowed over his flat stomach and disappeared beneath the sheet. Her eyes were drawn to the obvious bulge of his arousal beneath the fine cotton.
‘Feel free to stare,’ he drawled.
Blushing hotly, she jerked her eyes back to his face and his expression of arrogant amusement infuriated her. ‘When you said we would discuss the sleeping arrangements, I assumed that you would spend the night on the sofa,’ she snapped.
‘The replica eighteenth-century chaise longue looks beautiful but it is extremely uncomfortable.’ He picked up the big bolster cushions that he’d piled up behind his shoulders and laid them down the centre of the bed. ‘It’s a big bed and I won’t encroach on your half—unless you invite me to.’ He grinned at her outraged expression. ‘I must say that I am encouraged by your choice of nightwear.’
It was only then that she noticed the confection of black silk and lace arranged on the pillow next to Giannis. She remembered the personal shopper had picked out several items of sexy lingerie, but Ava hadn’t explained that her engagement to Giannis was fake and she would not need them. She guessed that the hotel chambermaid who had unpacked her clothes must have laid out the nightgown. Although gown was an exaggeration, she thought darkly as she snatched the tiny garment off the pillow and stalked into the dressing room.
The clothes she had brought with her from London were still in her suitcase. She found her grey flannel pyjamas and changed into them before she hung the velvet evening dress in the wardrobe. That was the last time she would dare to wear a strapless dress, she vowed, wincing as she remembered how her breasts had almost been exposed to the photographers until Giannis had covered her with his jacket.
She had been grateful for his protective gesture. And he’d insisted that he had not expected the paparazzi to be outside the hotel. Ava bit her lip. Perhaps she was
