JACQUELINE BAIRD - Mediterranean Tycoons - Masterful & Married - Marriage At His Convenience / Aristides' Convenient Wife / The Billionaire's Blackmailed Bride

Twenty minutes later she stood in the centre of the elegantly furnished sitting room, and looked around in wide-eyed awe. ‘It’s magnificent, Lucas.’ She turned her beautiful face towards him and grinned. ‘It’s bigger than my cottage. I could live in here.’ He had just given her a tour of the suite. From the long balcony with magnificent views over the bay, through the stylish bedroom with a king-sized bed, from which she had hastily dashed out into the bathroom, with double shower and whirlpool bath all in the finest marble.

‘I’m glad you like it. My only regret is I cannot stop and share it with you now. But have patience, tomorrow will be a different story,’ he declared with all the arrogance of a supremely confident man. ‘And the experience will be all the more erotic for the anticipation, I promise.’

Amber flinched. After her performance in the car it was hardly surprising; he thought she was a pushover. But then Lucas was a typical alpha male, strikingly handsome, lethally sexy, wealthy, sophisticated, and great in bed, and the combination was irresistible. She doubted he’d ever met a woman in his life that would not be happy to fall into his arms at the first opportunity. But it galled her to think he thought she was one, and that he had to apologise for leaving!

She straightened her shoulders, her proud gaze narrowing on his face. ‘Providing I am still here. After all, there is nothing to stop me changing my mind, a woman’s prerogative and all that,’ Amber pointed out. That should give the arrogant devil something to worry about.

Tall and powerful even in casual clothes, Lucas watched her, not a flicker of any emotion showing on his handsome, hard-boned face. ‘I’m sure you can leave,’ he said softly, moving swiftly across to where she stood. ‘But you won’t.’ Tilting her chin with one long finger, he added, ‘That is the second reason for your family’s attendance at the ceremony. You might want to walk out on me, but no way will you walk out on them…’ He shook his dark head. ‘Leaving them dependent on my hospitality. I know you too well, Amber.’

Amber squirmed at her own stupidity. She had actually bought his fairy story on the plane about her family. His second reason was much more believable. The devious devil—in that second she hated him. ‘You really are a swine,’ she hissed. The fact that his assumption was also correct did nothing for her temper.

His perfectly chiselled features froze into impassivity, but not before she saw the flare of anger in the depths of the hard black eyes that held hers.

‘It won’t work.’ Lucas’s fingers tightened slightly on her chin. ‘I told you earlier, I am not going to argue with you, so stop trying.’ His thumb traced along her full lower lip, and she could not repress the shiver that rippled through her.

‘You want me and I want you, so stop fighting it. With our history it is inevitable.’

‘No,’ she denied, but her body inexplicably swayed forward like a moth to a flame, her golden gaze captured by the simmering sensuality in his night-black eyes.

‘Yes.’ Lucas smiled a wry sexy twist to his firm lips. His hand dropped from her face. He ached for her with a hunger, a pain she had no knowledge of. But he dared not touch her again. Not yet! He’d made one mistake, and he was not about to risk making another until he had his ring safely on her finger. ‘But not now—I have some business to attend to in Athens, but I will be back to take you to dinner at nine. If you need anything, speak to Joe or Reception.’ Lucas bent and dropped a swift kiss on her full lips and left.

Tense and frustrated at her own inability to resist him, Amber paced the length of the room and back, her mind a seething mass of conflicting emotions. Was she a woman or a wimp? A few hours ago she’d been determined her marriage to Lucas would be in name only. But one touch and she melted like ice in a desert. And he, damn him, knew it!

By eight in the evening Amber was almost at boiling-point. The first shock had been Reception delivering a wedding dress to her room and a handful of bridesmaid dresses, closely followed by Julie and Mary and her daughters. Amber had stood in the middle of the room like a statue as the other two women had shoved the girls into masses of white froth while Julie had explained it had all been Lucas’s idea. He was such a considerate man, she had rhapsodised.

Apparently, he had explained, because it was a second marriage for him Amber was being stubborn and insisting on keeping it low-key—a simple suit had been mentioned. But he did not want to deprive Amber of a white wedding. So he’d asked Julie to choose the gowns for the occasion.

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