Chapter Eight
Archimedes lay on Zoe’s soft, warm body, again completely unable to move.
Not that he wanted to even if he could. She smelled of that sweet, musky scent that drove him crazy, and her fingers were moving idly in his hair, soothing him.
And yet again, his brain was blissfully empty.
There was no restlessness, no desperation, no noise.
He’d made another mistake, his control failing him yet again, but in this moment he couldn’t bring himself to be angry about it. Perhaps it had even been a good thing. Perhaps having sex with her would even help, since it was clear she was more temptation than he could resist.
Besides, it was only sex. He’d been making it into much more of a big deal than it needed to be.
Sleeping with Zoe wouldn’t send him back down that dark path again, to the place where he’d lost both himself and his morality.
Anyway, he’d known the minute she’d stripped her bikini off and stood there on the edge of the pool, gloriously and beautifully naked, that his control wasn’t strong enough.
That he wouldn’t be able to resist her no matter how hard he tried, so what was the point in trying?
Better to sate this hunger to its fullest extent than to let it hollow him out inside.
He hadn’t resisted. He’d got out of the pool and taken her down onto the sun lounger, and she’d been as hungry for him as he’d been for her.
But this is Zoe, remember? She’s not like any of your other lovers and you can’t treat her as such.
Oh, he was well aware, and he had no intention of treating her as such. They were married, she was his wife and they had to live together for a year, so why not start as they meant to continue? Why not satisfy their physical curiosity about each other as much as they could?
Archimedes shifted so he wasn’t lying fully on top of her and lifted his head. She lay there with her black hair across the white linen of the cushions, her eyes glittering like the star he’d named her for, her cheeks beautifully and completely flushed.
He leaned one elbow on the cushion beside her, resting his head on his hand. ‘Two orgasms,’ he said, his voice still a little rough. ‘I’m very clearly the winner.’
A smile hovered around her mouth. ‘You’re really arrogant, you know that?’
‘Yes,’ he admitted. ‘I like to think it’s one of my strengths.’
She rolled her eyes and made a move as if to leave, but he stayed where he was.
‘Don’t,’ he murmured, feeling the subtle tension in her body. ‘Stay here.’
She let out a breath. ‘Why?’
‘Because I have a proposition for you.’
‘Isn’t it a little late for a proposition?’ The tension was still there, but he could feel her muscles starting to relax.
‘Zoe,’ he said quietly, holding her gaze. She had to know that he was serious about this, because the more he thought about it, the more he wanted it to happen, and she had to know that. ‘I think we should keep doing this.’
‘Doing what?’
‘Having sex.’
Colour was beginning to deepen in her cheeks again, and with the sparkle of her silver eyes, he’d never seen anything so lovely.
‘Why do you want to keep having sex?’
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ He gave a subtle shift of his hips, pressing his rapidly hardening cock against her. ‘Because I don’t think that once is enough.’
She swallowed, the pulse at the base of her throat racing. ‘This is the second time, if you recall.’
‘Star,’ he said. This was too important to him, and the little sarcastic comments were her way of distancing him, and he didn’t want any distance, not now.
‘I spent all day yesterday trying to resist you, and I couldn’t.
And today I fully expected to get in my jet and leave, but…
You turned up in that fucking bikini and I couldn’t think of anything else but you. ’
She searched his face for a moment, as if she was looking for the truth. As if even now, even after what they’d just done together, she was still unsure of him. So he let her see that he meant it, and more, that he still felt it.
Abruptly, her lashes came down, veiling her gaze. She lifted a finger and drew a little circle with it on his shoulder. ‘I just wanted to…torture you a bit,’ she said at last. ‘Because you walked away last night and—’
‘I shouldn’t have,’ he interrupted, because the time for lies and excuses was over. ‘I was trying to put some distance between us, because you were too great a temptation.’
Slowly her lashes lifted. ‘I don’t regret it,’ she said starkly. ‘Just so you know, I don’t regret last night at all.’
‘Neither do I.’ He stared down at her. ‘Which is why I think we should keep doing this. It’s good, Zoe. Better than I’ve had with any other woman ever.’
Her lashes fluttered, shock crossing her face. ‘Better?’
‘Yes.’ Again, she deserved the truth. ‘So this is my proposition. I will be travelling for the next few weeks, and I want you to come with me.’
‘Come with you?’ Her eyes had gone wide. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You always wanted to travel, Star. Don’t you remember?
And I have offices and meetings I have to attend in the States, Japan and China, so why not come with me?
You can do your own thing wherever we go, I won’t stop you.
I’ll be working anyway.’ He pushed a lock of hair back from her forehead.
‘We have to live together for a year, if you remember, and we’re married, so why not actually be husband and wife? ’
She blinked again, her expression still one of surprise. ‘But… I was going to stay here.’
‘You didn’t really want to be here anyway,’ he reminded her, not above using a little emotional blackmail. ‘Remember?’
She looked down at her finger still tracing circles on his skin. Her light touch was sending shivers through him, and it wasn’t going to be long before his patience with it would be at an end.
‘I know, but I don’t think that being dragged around the world is great either.’
He gripped her chin gently, raising her gaze to his. ‘Dragged? Really? Is that how you’d feel?’
The familiar spark of her temper flared briefly. ‘All of this has been your choice, Archimedes. Not mine.’
He firmed his grip, because things were getting murky now and he couldn’t have that. ‘So this? Us together right now, that wasn’t your choice?’
A soft breath escaped her. ‘Okay, yes. Apart from this.’
A small knot of tension that had tightened inside him abruptly unravelled.
‘This isn’t an order,’ he said. ‘It’s a request. I would like you to come with me, but if you don’t, I won’t force you.’
‘Gee, thanks.’
‘Zoe,’ he said flatly, and her gaze came to his again. ‘I mean it. I want you to come, make no mistake. But it will be your choice.’
She stared at him for a moment then sighed. ‘So what exactly will I be doing while you’re working? Playing the little woman at home?’
He snorted, letting go of her chin. ‘As if you’d ever do that.’
‘You know what I mean.’
‘You can do whatever you want. Work, sightsee, read, whatever you want. But at night you’ll be in my bed and in my arms.’
Her gaze narrowed. ‘So essentially I’ll be your unpaid escort.’
Archimedes’s temper shifted, his patience fraying. ‘Stop doing this, Zoe. Stop swiping at me. That’s not what I said, and you know it. If you don’t want to come, just say so.’
She turned her head away at that, looking out at the ocean, the lines of her face tight, and again he felt that unfamiliar regret twist inside him.
He was tired of her hostility and he was tired of reacting to it, too.
This, lying together here all tangled up, was so good. It felt right, and he wanted it.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said abruptly, her gaze still on the ocean. ‘I guess I was just hoping for…more.’
‘More? More of what?’
She kept her head turned away for a moment longer, then she turned back, her grey eyes full of a sudden determination.
‘I don’t want this to be only about sex, Archimedes.
I want to know why you left. I want to know where you went.
And I want to know why you’re really agreeing to do this for Banks, including having a child for him. ’
No one ever gets anything for free, remember?
Oh, he remembered. Everything came with a price, though why this price should feel so dangerous, he had no idea.
All it meant was answering a few questions, nothing more than that.
Yet something inside him was telling him that he had to be careful, that a few questions might lead to something else, though what else, he didn’t know.
Still, in return for this? For having her soft, curvy body against his and her hunger his to feed? It seemed a decent trade.
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I can do that.’
‘You wanted dinner every night,’ she said, ‘and I see no reason why we couldn’t keep doing that wherever we are.’
Oh, fuck. The dinner. He’d forgotten entirely about his insistence on dinner. Well, he could hardly back down about that now. Besides, would it be so bad having dinner with her every night? He had his own curiosity about her too.
‘Yes,’ he acknowledged. ‘We can keep doing that too.’
‘Great, and I—’
‘But I have functions to go to as well, and I think I’m going to insist on you accompanying me to all of them.’ He wasn’t going to let her drive all the bargains. He had a few of his own, apart from sex. ‘And you’ll wear whichever gown I decide on.’
Her dark brows drew down. ‘Functions? Really?’
‘Yes, functions. I want a trophy wife on my arm and you more than fit the bill.’
She scowled. ‘I don’t like parties.’
He smiled back. ‘I don’t care.’
A sigh escaped her. ‘Okay, fine. But I’m terrible with people so it’ll be your own fault if I accidentally make your company stocks plunge in value.’
An odd feeling wound through him then, something that he normally only permitted to feel when it came to hacking particularly challenging online defences.
Excitement, and along with it, anticipation.
In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt either of those things, especially since he didn’t do much hands-on hacking these days.
Dangerous to feel that. Especially about her.