Nine Months to Tame the Tycoon
Auteur
Chantelle Shaw
Lezers
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Hoofdstukken
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HarlequinCHAPTER ONE
‘I DID NOT expect to find you out here alone in the dark.’
Lissa Buchanan tensed when a gravelly voice with a sexy Greek accent came from the shadows. She knew without turning her head that the voice belonged to Takis Samaras and her skin prickled.
‘I thought you would still be holding court in the marquee,’ he drawled. ‘The most beautiful woman on the dance floor attracting the attention of every man in the room.’
‘I wasn’t trying to attract attention.’ She was aware that she sounded defensive. She hated the party girl label the tabloids had given her. Her reputation in the media was not the real Lissa Buchanan, but she was not about to explain that to a stranger, even though he was the most intriguing man she had ever met. Her pulse rate had accelerated at Takis’s casual compliment. ‘Besides, my sister is the most beautiful woman at her wedding.’
‘Eleanor is a delightful bride, which I assume is the reason Jace chose her for his wife,’ Takis said drily.
‘You seem surprised about Jace’s marriage to my sister.’ Lissa finally dared to look at Takis and nothing could have prepared her for her reaction to his potent masculinity. Never before had she felt such an intense sexual attraction. Beneath her bridesmaid’s dress her nipples were hard, and the silk scraped across the sensitive peaks, creating a delicious friction.
The wedding ceremony had taken place at the town hall in Thessaloniki earlier in the day. Lissa’s heart had missed a beat when she’d set eyes on Jace Zagorakis’s best man. She had been conscious of his brooding presence and barely able to concentrate while Eleanor and Jace had made their vows.
Throughout the reception that was being held in a large marquee in the garden of Jace’s beachfront house, Lissa had found her gaze constantly drawn to Takis. He was not conventionally handsome. Tall and powerfully muscular, but his chiselled face bore a grimly forbidding expression. On the rare occasions when he smiled, his teeth were a flash of brilliant white against his olive-toned skin. His jet-black hair was cropped short and beneath heavy brows his eyes were the colour of cold steel.
There was something uncompromising and at the same time fascinating about his mouth, which was both sensual and cruel. He was sleek and in the prime of physical fitness and he reminded Lissa of a wolf.
He shrugged. ‘I confess I did not expect that Jace would marry. I have known him for a long time, and he has always been against marriage.’
‘Ah, but who can understand the mystery of love?’ she murmured.
‘You think love is the reason why Jace’s marriage to your sister took place at short notice?’
‘What other reason could there be?’ Lissa looked towards the main part of the garden, which was illuminated by hundreds of fairy lights, and saw Eleanor and her new husband emerge from the marquee. It was obvious that they only had eyes for each other. She sensed that Takis was about to say something, but he hesitated as his gaze followed hers over to the newlyweds.
‘Perhaps you are right. I am not an expert on love,’ he said in a cynical voice.
Lissa looked away from him, wondering why he disturbed her so strongly. She had sought a reprieve from socialising and taken refuge in a secluded corner of the garden where she could hear the soothing sound of the waves lapping against the shore on the other side of the wall.
She sensed that Takis had moved nearer to her, and he rested his elbow on the wall, trapping her against the old stones. She wasn’t really trapped, but her feet seemed to be welded to the ground. His close proximity increased her awareness of the heat emanating from his body. Her eyes were drawn to him of their own volition, and she noticed the shadow of dark chest hairs beneath his white silk shirt. The spicy scent of his aftershave evoked a tug of response in the pit of her stomach.
‘You have not told me why you left the party.’
She certainly wasn’t going to admit that she’d felt envious when she’d watched him dance with a voluptuous brunette who looked as though she had been poured into her scarlet dress. ‘I came outside because I want to be alone.’
‘Liar,’ he said softly. ‘Do you think I hadn’t noticed you staring at me at the reception?’
Had she been that obvious? Lissa’s insides squirmed with embarrassment. He was the sexiest man she had ever encountered. The men she knew were mostly good-looking models or wannabe actors, but compared to Takis they were boys. He would be an incredible lover. She did not know how she could be so certain, given her complete lack of sexual experience, but the ache low in her pelvis was a response to his smouldering sensuality.
She prayed that the darkness hid the blush she felt spread across her face. ‘Are you suggesting I came out here hoping you would follow me?’
‘Did you?’
‘Of course not. I didn’t realise you had noticed me. You were being eaten alive by the woman in the too-tight dress.’
Takis laughed and the husky sound was unexpected and utterly captivating. ‘I apologise for disturbing your solitude. I’ll go away if you wish.’ He spoke with the confidence of a man who was fully aware of his effect on the opposite sex, of his effect on her.
‘You can do what you want. I’m sure you will anyway.’ It would be a dangerous mistake to believe that a wolf could be tamed, Lissa decided. ‘Feel free to stay here and watch the moonlight on the sea. I’m going up to the house to wait for my taxi.’
‘I believe you are staying at the Pangalos Beach Resort tonight. I am also staying at the hotel and it makes sense for me to drive you.’
The journey to Sithonia, a peninsula in northern Greece, took over an hour from Thessaloniki. The prospect of being alone with Takis shredded Lissa’s composure, but she could not think of an excuse to refuse to go with him. ‘Um...that’s kind of you.’ She did not recognise the husky voice as her own.
He shrugged. ‘Jace gave me the responsibility of ensuring that you reach your hotel safely.’
So he had only offered to drive her because it was his duty as best man and not because he was interested in her. Not that she wanted him to be, Lissa assured herself. But she hated the idea that she was a liability, which was exactly how her grandfather had made her feel when she’d been growing up.
‘I am not kind,’ Takis told her. ‘Do not confuse me with your boyfriends with rich daddies who you have fooled around with on a beach in the Maldives or on a yacht in St Tropez. Your love life is an endless source of entertainment for anyone who reads the tabloids.’ His jaw hardened. ‘I am a survivor. I dragged myself out of a gutter and fought every step of the way to build my successful hotel chain.’
Lissa was infuriated by his sarcastic comments. How dared he judge her, especially as he did not know the first thing about her. She was about to tell him that it was no business of his how she lived her life. But she did not owe him an explanation.
She’d had years of practice at hiding her true feelings and gave a languid shrug as she forced herself to meet Takis’s gaze. ‘Presumably, you read the gutter press as you seem to know so much about me.’
In fairness she could not blame him for thinking the worst of her. She had never denied the rumours and gossip about her private life, and in fact she had deliberately sought the attention of the media, knowing that reports of her alleged bad behaviour were bound to infuriate her grandfather. One way or another she had been determined to gain Pappoús’s attention.
Kostas Pangalos had become Lissa’s guardian after her parents had died when she was a child, but he had been too wrapped up in running his hotel business to have time for his orphaned and traumatised youngest granddaughter. He had died sixteen months ago and had left Eleanor, his favourite grandchild, in charge of Gilpin Leisure.
That final snub from her grandfather had been a bitter blow for Lissa, and her brother, Mark, had been furious at being overlooked. Eleanor had appointed him as manager of the Pangalos Beach Resort, but Mark was struggling with his own demons and he’d left the hotel’s finances in a perilous state before Jace had come along with a rescue package.
Lissa tore her gaze from Takis’s mesmerising face and stepped past him. ‘My brother-in-law is not responsible for me, and you are certainly not. I’ll make my own way to the Pangalos.’
‘Stop acting like a spoiled brat. Cancel your taxi and be ready to leave in five minutes.’
‘You are unbelievably arrogant,’ she snapped.
He did not deny it. His eyes were fixed on her face, and Lissa held her breath when he ran his finger lightly down her cheek. ‘You are unbelievably beautiful. But you must know that.’ His voice had deepened and rasped like rough velvet across her skin. ‘I recognised you from TV adverts and photos in magazines when you were a model for that famous beauty company.’
His face was so close to hers that she could feel his warm breath on her cheek. Her heart missed a beat as he stared at her with smouldering intensity in his eyes. Lissa understood that look. Desire.
Ever since she’d reached puberty and her slender, gymnast’s body had developed curves, men had wanted her. At first she had felt uncomfortable, but she’d discovered that the way she looked attracted male admiration, and it had been a heady feeling of power after she had been ignored by her grandfather. But although she had flirted with her admirers, she had never allowed or wanted things to go further.
The attention Takis was showing her filled her with trepidation as well as excitement. He was out of her league. Her brain urged her to step away from him as she would have done if he had been any other man. But there was something about Takis that made her want to respond to the sexual chemistry between them that was almost tangible.
He fascinated her in a way that no other man had ever done and made her wish she could throw off her inhibitions and insecurities. She wondered what it would be like to be kissed by him and was shocked to realise that she longed to find out.
His eyes glittered, and Lissa’s heart gave a jolt at the idea that he had read her thoughts. He slowly lowered his face towards her, and she held her breath, mesmerised by his sensual mouth. Unconsciously, she ran her tongue over her bottom lip. Takis stiffened and jerked his head away from her, leaving her torn between relief and disappointment.
‘Go and collect your things,’ he said in a voice that suggested he was unaffected by the electricity that had crackled between them. It probably happened to him every time he met a woman, Lissa thought ruefully.
But her heart was still thumping after he had nearly kissed her. Why had he changed his mind? Even more puzzling was why she had hoped he would kiss her. She did not know him, and she definitely did not like him. His commanding personality and rampant sex appeal were too much of a threat to her equilibrium.
She was about to insist that she did not want a lift to Sithonia, but the inflexibility in his hard expression warned her that this was a man who always got his own way. It occurred to her that her sister might have asked Jace to arrange for Takis to drive her back to the hotel at the Pangalos Resort. Eleanor had always been protective.
Lissa realised that she had no option but to accept Takis’s offer of a lift. She muttered something unladylike as she marched across the lawn towards the house and ground her teeth when his laughter followed her.
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