no need to overdo the devoted fiancé act. All that staring into my eyes as if I was the only woman in the world was unnecessary.’
He grinned at her uptight expression. ‘I need to convince Stefanos Markou that our engagement is genuine and I am serious about settling down. The woman in the blue dress who we were talking to is a journalist with a popular gossip magazine. No doubt the next edition will include several pages devoted to discussing our imminent wedding.’
Ava bit her lip. ‘More deception,’ she muttered. ‘One lie always leads to another. I realise it’s just a game to you, but when our fake engagement ends I will face public humiliation as the woman who nearly married Giannis Gekas.’
‘It will cost my company in the region of one hundred million pounds to buy Markou’s fleet of ships. An investment of that size is hardly a game,’ Giannis told her curtly. ‘Once I’ve secured the deal with Stefanos I will give a press statement explaining that you broke off our engagement because you fell out of love with me.’
It wouldn’t be the first time it had happened, he brooded. His jaw clenched as he thought of Caroline. At least he’d discovered before he’d made an utter fool of himself that Caroline had been more in love with his money than with him.
Giannis sensed that Ava sent him a few curious glances during the journey back to his apartment block. He parked in the underground car park and when they rode the lift up to the top floor he could not take his eyes off her. She was a temptress in her scarlet dress and vertiginous heels and he had been in a state of semi-arousal all evening as he’d imagined her slender legs wrapped around his back.
His desire for her showed no sign of lessening—yet. But he had no doubt that it would fade and he’d grow bored of her. His mistresses never held his interest for long. Perhaps if he sought some sort of counselling, a psychologist would suggest that his guilt over his father’s death was the reason he avoided close relationships. But Giannis had no intention of allowing anyone access to his soul.
After ushering Ava into the penthouse, he crossed the huge open-plan living room and opened the doors leading to his private roof garden. ‘Would you like a drink?’ he asked her.
‘Just fruit juice, please.’
He headed for the kitchen, and returned to find her out on the terrace, standing by the pool. The water appeared black beneath the night sky and reflected the silver stars. ‘Is that how you keep in such great physical shape?’ she murmured, indicating the pool.
His heart lurched at her compliment. Theos, she made him feel like a teenager with all the uncertainty and confusion brought on by surging hormones, he acknowledged with savage self-derision. ‘I complete fifty lengths every morning. But I prefer to swim in the sea when I am at my house on Spetses.’
Ava sipped her fruit juice and glanced at the bottle of beer in his hand. ‘You don’t need to keep a clear head tonight?’ She obviously remembered the reason he had given her for why he hadn’t drunk champagne at the fashion show in Paris.
‘It’s non-alcoholic beer,’ he admitted.
‘Why are you afraid of not being in control?’
Rattled by her perception, his eyes narrowed. ‘I’ll ask you the same question.’
‘Touché.’ She smiled ruefully. ‘I don’t like surprises.’
‘Not even nice ones?’
‘I’ve never had a nice surprise.’ She looked at the city skyline. ‘The Acropolis looks wonderful lit up at night. Have you always lived in Athens?’
Giannis could not understand why he felt frustrated by her determination to turn the conversation away from herself. In his experience women were only too happy to talk about themselves, but Ava, he was beginning to realise, was not like any other woman.
He shrugged. ‘I grew up just along the coast at Faliron and I am proud to call myself an Athenian.’
‘Perhaps I could do some sightseeing while you are at work? I know you have arranged for us to attend various social functions in the evenings so that we are seen together, but you have a business to run during the day.’
‘I’ll show you around the city. One of the perks of owning my own company is that I can delegate.’ As Giannis spoke he wondered what the hell had got into him. He’d never delegated in his life and his work schedule was by his own admittance brutal. Driven by his need to succeed, he regularly worked fourteen-hour days and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d spent more than a couple of hours away from his computer or phone.
The more time he spent with Ava, the quicker his inexplicable fascination with her would lead to familiarity and, by definition, boredom, he assured himself. He put down his drink and walked towards her, noting with satisfaction how her eyes widened and her tongue flicked over her lips, issuing an unconscious invitation that he had every intention of accepting.
‘There is an even better view of the Acropolis from the bedroom,’ he said softly.
She hesitated for a few seconds and when she put her hand in his and let him lead her through the apartment to the master suite he was aware of the hard thud of his heart beneath his ribs. He stood behind her and turned her to face the floor-to-ceiling windows which overlooked Greece’s most iconic citadel, situated atop a vast outcrop of rock. ‘There.’
‘It’s so beautiful,’ she said in an awed voice. ‘What an incredible view. You can just lie in bed and stare at a piece of ancient history.’
‘Mmm...’ He nuzzled her neck and slid his arms around her to test the weight of her breasts in his hands. ‘I can think of rather more energetic things I’d like to do in bed, agápi mou.’
She pulled the pink sapphire ring from her finger and dropped it onto the bedside table. ‘I’m not your love now that we are alone,’ she reminded him.
‘But you are my lover.’ He unzipped her dress and when it fell to the floor she stepped out of it before she turned and wound her arms around his neck.
‘Yes,’ she whispered against his mouth. ‘For one month I will be your lover.’
As he scooped her up and laid her down on the bed, Giannis knew he should be relieved that Ava understood the rules. But perversely he felt irritated. Perhaps it was because her words had sounded like a challenge that provoked him to murmur, ‘You might want our affair to last longer than a month.’
‘I won’t.’ She watched him undress and reached behind her shoulders to unclip her bra, letting it fall away from her breasts. ‘But you might fall in love with me.’
‘Impossible,’ he promised her. ‘I already told you I don’t have a heart.’ He pushed her back against the mattress and covered her body with his, watching her eyes widen when he pushed between her thighs.
‘However, I do have this, glykiá mou,’ he murmured before he possessed her with one fierce thrust followed by another and another, taking them higher until they arrived at the pinnacle and tumbled over the edge together.
Afterwards, he shifted across the bed and tucked his hands behind his head, determined to emphasise to Ava that sex was all he was prepared to offer. Too many people mistook lust for love, Giannis brooded. He’d made that mistake himself once, when he had fallen for Caroline. But
