lost in thought and hadn’t noticed the car, giving Lucy the opportunity to study him unobserved. She thought that seeing him standing on the street made him seem even more of a stranger than he already was. She noticed a blonde wearing dark glasses and a fur coat do a double-take as she walked past him with a tiny white dog trotting on a red lead, though unfortunately the dog chose that precise moment to cock its little leg against a lamppost. Yet wasn’t that the type of sleek woman he should have selected as his wife? Lucy wondered painfully, trying and failing not to drink him in with her hungry gaze.
On the cold winter day, he was dressed entirely in black and the effect was to make him dominate his surroundings even more than usual. The inky overcoat echoed the dark gleam of his eyes but his mouth was hard and unsmiling. He’d had his hair cut and the rock-star strands were now neatly trimmed in a style which seemed to emphasise all his olive-skinned beauty. Suddenly she realised he could make her blood sing even from this distance away, although the day was so cold and wintry. Being around him was like having a fever, she thought, clasping her fingers together so tightly that the knuckles cracked.
Some sort of notification must have gone off, for he slid his phone from his inside pocket and glanced down at it, then narrowed his black eyes to focus on the approaching limousine. Had he been forewarned that she was on her way, perhaps by his taciturn driver? In desperation, Lucy glanced down to see that her hands were shaking and a sudden shiver of trepidation whispered over her skin before she dared lift her head to meet his gaze. Was she imagining the faint flash of disapproval in his eyes as the car purred to a halt and he moved forward to open the door for her?
A cold gust of wind whipped through her as she stepped onto the pavement, acutely aware of the fact that her best coat was looking decidedly threadbare and that, although she’d spent an hour last night buffing up her boots, their newfound shine didn’t hide the fact that they were old. She’d tried to do her best with her appearance but her resources were limited and even if they hadn’t been—what did a poor girl wear when she was about to move in with her billionaire fiancé? She felt like diving back into the car and begging the driver to take her home, but somehow she managed to scrabble together a memory—an important thing she’d learnt on her very first day on the wards as a student nurse. And afterwards, whenever her mother had sunk into one of her deep depressions and Lucy had attempted to help her spirits up. Keep it positive. Look on the bright side.
‘So,’ she said brightly, tilting her chin upwards and managing a faint reproduction of a smile. ‘Here I am.’
Yes. Here she was. Drakon tensed as he felt a rush of something he didn’t recognise. Was it incredulity that he’d selected this woman to be his bride when she couldn’t have looked like a more unlikely candidate if she’d tried? But he’d had no choice. And wasn’t that the story of his life? he reminded himself grimly. That unwanted responsibilities were always waiting in the shadows to grab at him and to direct his life onto a path he had never intended...
Her big blue eyes were looking at him uncertainly and something made him dip his head to brush his lips over hers in a fleeting kiss, amused by her instinctive intake of breath and the sudden confusion of her expression, as if she hadn’t been expecting him to embrace her so publicly. In truth, he hadn’t been expecting it himself, but he found himself turned on by the fact she wasn’t wearing any make-up and by the provocative tremble of her lips. Maybe he should take her inside and kiss her a little more thoroughly, so that she would lose that rather unflattering look of apprehension and replace it with one of passion instead.
‘Let’s go inside,’ he said abruptly. Drawing away, he ushered her into the luxury complex, past the security guard who was regarding her with open curiosity.
‘What about my suitcase?’ she was saying as they reached the elevator and the doors slid open.
‘What about it?’
‘I’ve left it in the car.’
‘The driver will bring it inside shortly. You don’t have to worry about things like that any more, Lucy.’ Rather impatiently, he pressed the button. ‘You’ll find my staff will deal with the more humdrum elements of your life from now on and you won’t have to bother with logistics. So why don’t you just concentrate on getting to know one of your new homes?’
‘One of them?’ she affirmed breathlessly.
The wave of his hand was careless. Sometimes he forgot that the extent of his wealth was remarkable to most people and he supposed he should be grateful that his new fiancée hadn’t already tallied up all his properties with greedy anticipation. ‘I have homes in New York and Athens as well as this one,’ he drawled. My Greek island villa you have already seen, of course.’
‘Of course,’ she said.
He watched as she fixed her eyes imploringly on the bright red arrow indicating their progress towards his penthouse apartment, as if she was finding the confined space in the elevator claustrophobic. You and me both, he thought unwillingly, his attention drawn to the curves of her body, which her thin grey coat couldn’t quite disguise. He could feel the pump of his heart and the throb at his groin and wondered whether he should rid himself of some of the frustration which had been building up inside him for days now. But thoughts of seduction were vanquished by the words which burst from her lips almost as if she hadn’t planned to say them, her blue eyes suddenly darkening so that they looked as blue as a Grecian sea.
‘I wasn’t...’ She drew in a deep breath. ‘To be honest I wasn’t expecting to see you until this evening. I thought you’d be working.’
Surely that wasn’t disappointment he could hear in her soft English voice? A flicker of a smile touched the edges of Drakon’s lips. Maybe there was more fire to Lucy Phillips than he had initially given her credit for. ‘I had a rare window in my diary and I thought it might be less daunting if I was here to greet you myself,’ he explained as the elevator reached the penthouse and the doors slid open.
‘That’s very kind of you.’
‘Make the most of it. I’m not usually known for my kindness,’ he informed her drily. ‘Come on in.’
Obediently, she followed him into the reception room, and he thought how much she resembled a new member of staff as she stood nervously in the centre of his modern London apartment with its bird’s-eye view over the park. But in a way, that was exactly what she was. As his wife, she would be fulfilling her prescribed role just as adequately as one of his chefs, or drivers, or housekeepers. And wasn’t her trepidation one of the reasons he had chosen to marry her? She was both compliant and inexperienced and because of that he could mould her into the kind of spouse he wanted her to be, just as he would train up a new assistant.
‘It’s huge,’ she commented.
‘But you’ve been here before. When you met Xander.’
‘Yes. That’s right. But I only saw the nursery areas. I had no idea there was this other huge section.’ She looked around, cocking her head to one side as if listening for something. ‘Where is Xander?’
Drakon still wasn’t used to having the baby around and he frowned, trying to remember. ‘Sofia has taken him to the doctor for some sort of routine check. At least, I think that’s what she said.’
She sucked in a deep breath. ‘You didn’t consider it might be better if I could have gone along as well? If I’m to be his, well, his...mother.’
Something unknown clutched at Drakon’s heart like a vice. Was it anger that his brother should have treated his son with such
