Chapter 2
The sun was her enemy. It burned through her eyes making her corneas sting. Her mouth was thick with fur and tasted of dirty socks. When she sat up and pushed her hair from her face, her brain gave an unparalleled screech of complaint.
“Ugh,” she moaned, blinking one eye shut as she scanned the room and tried to remember what the hell had happened in the last twenty-four hours.
And then, piece by piece, it began to hammer into her consciousness. Anita and Jordan. Her beautiful best friend and her stunning husband making love in Saphire’s picture-perfect room, destroying her picture-perfect, no-good marriage.
Then what? She’d got a cab to the airport and decided to come to …
to come to … Greece! It had been the first flight she could get onto.
A first class ticket had been available on a plane bound for Athens that had been leaving almost immediately and she had been desperate to get as far away from her staid life in Notting Hill as possible.
And then?
Mr Konstanides, her brain taunted, and she lifted a hand to her breast to feel the nipple that he’d tormented on the flight. It drifted higher, to her lips. He’d kissed them until she’d thought she might pass out from the strength of sensation.
Mr Konstanides.
She looked down at her body. She was still wearing the black dress. Which meant they hadn’t slept together after all, didn’t it?
His side of the bed was unrumpled. In fact, her shoes and her body were the only signs of life in this incredibly luxurious hotel suite. She stood up gingerly.
No.
They hadn’t slept together.
Saphire could tell that having sex with a man like Mr Konstanides would have been an invasion of all of her senses.
It would be life-altering, yet she felt very much as she had yesterday, except for the throbbing headache.
And as that was self-inflicted, she refused to allow that to cower her back to bed.
No, her body had only ever known one lover, and he had, she was beginning to suspect, treated her with kid gloves. Why? Had she bored him? Had she given him some silent, unknowing impression that she couldn’t handle being treated like a red-blooded, adult woman?
Flashes of their calm, missionary sex-life made her face pale now. She pushed them aside.
Possibly the sexiest man Saphire had ever met had wanted to sleep with her. And even if she couldn’t go through with it in broad daylight, his interest still meant something.
Hell, she could never go through with it, broad daylight or not. She’d be a huge disappointment to someone like him. He might have thought she was ready to jump into any willing man’s bed, but the truth was, she had no damned idea what to do when she got there.
Enormous windows behind her framed a stunning view of the beach.
Saphire squinted past her pain to give it a slow appraisal.
Despite the pounding headache, she couldn’t help but marvel at the pristine ocean and crisp white shore.
The sand stretched for about the same distance in both directions, forming a sweeping cove.
There were pale-cultured rocks at the cliff-face, and spiky green plants bursting from them.
There was no sign of other guests, though far, far in the distance she could make out the stately silhouette of an enormous cruise ship.
Where the heck in Athens was she? She tried to remember where they’d gone after the airport but it was mostly a blank.
She had a brief impression of a stunning hotel.
A boat? No. Surely not. It must have been a fast car.
And she remembered being cradled against his broad, strong chest; almost asleep but awake enough to register how capable he was, and how safe she felt.
She lifted her forefingers to her temples and pressed against them, willing her head to stop bleating noisily at her.
“How do you feel?”
She startled and spun around far faster than was wise for someone in her fragile state.
Mr Kostanides was reclined with easy relaxation against the door jamb.
He wasn’t wearing anything except a pair of black underpants.
Saphire’s heart was pounding hard into her rib cage.
He was so much better in the flesh than she’d dared to dream.
His cinnamon-coloured tan was all-over. The previous evening his body had been concealed by a corporate shirt and pants.
Now? Everything was on display. From the broad shoulders, to the rippling chest and strong, masculine legs.
But most importantly, a certain part of his anatomy that she was trying her hardest not to stare at.
Yet it was there and her cheeks flushed with a school-girl coyness.
“Oh, God,” she said softly and gripped the wall behind her. How had she ended up here?
“Just what I was thinking,” he murmured, his eyes doing an appraisal of their own.
Saphire shook her head, ignoring the sharp pain behind her eyes. “You’re hardly wearing anything.”
His smile was hot lava. “I’ve been for a run. And a swim. I’ve checked on you three times but you were snoring your little heart out.”
Her face paled. “Snoring!?” It was mortifying. She squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed. Her thirst was extreme.
“Beautiful, perfect snores that made your beautiful, perfect breasts lift and fall in a way that made me ache to wake you with far more than a kiss.”
Butterflies flipped her stomach on its side. “Mr Konstanides …”
He laughed. “This is what you would like to call me?”
Her cheeks flushed and she dropped her gaze. “I didn’t catch your name.”
There was something so incredibly sexy about her formal address that he didn’t supply it. “How do you feel?” He repeated his initial question and strolled with a lithe athleticism towards her.
“Crap,” she said honestly. “Like I drank a bar.”
“Not quite,” he consoled, lifting a hand to cup her cheek. “Though not for want of trying.”
“I’m so embarrassed,” she whispered, dropping those eyes so her long, fan-like lashes once again caressed her soft cheeks.
“Of what?” He prompted.
“I don’t usually, um, drink like that. Or talk to men. Men like you. Any men.” She furrowed her brow and a crinkle formed in the middle of her forehead. “Did you book this room for me?”
His smile told her nothing. He stared at her, and her tummy continued to flip and flop from side to side until she thought she was going to be sick.
“Because I don’t remember giving my card over.
” A hot sweat broke over her skin. She had booked her ticket using the emergency credit card her parents had provided her with when she’d started at university.
Saphire had intended to keep all expenditure out of the bank accounts she shared with Jordan.
All the better for him to have no freaking clue where she was.
“You didn’t,” he assured her. “You were in no condition to do any such business.”
Her face blanched. “Please don’t remind me. I’m so ashamed. I was … I was stupid yesterday.”
“You were running from something.”
Her eyes widened. “Did I say that?”
He had been right! The satisfaction was dwarfed by curiosity. He dropped his hand from her cheek to her waist. “You did not need to. It was obvious to me.”
She swallowed. His fingers were burning through her dress. “I was upset,” she said factually. “But that’s no excuse. You could have … I mean … we didn’t …”
“Have sex?” He prompted, a smile tickling the corners of his lips.
She nodded jerkily.
“No.” The word was dragged from deep within his soul. “We didn’t sleep together.” He dropped his lips and pressed them to her neck. She startled and then moaned. It felt so good. It was so wrong, but so right. “Not yet, anyway.”
Pleasure was a fire bursting just beneath her skin. She lifted a hand to his chest, intending to push him aside, but her fingers splayed wide and then her other hand wrapped around his waist to grip his back. He was so warm, and so firm.
“I don’t know if I can,” she whimpered, but her body was weakening against his and they both knew that there was no denial she was capable nor inclined to give.
“Saphire,” he murmured, lifting his lips to take her earlobe between his teeth. He stroked it with his tongue and she felt her insides turn to a huge puddle of passion. “You can. I think you will. But today, you should recover.”
“Recover?” Her heart turned over again. How much had she revealed to him?
“You had a fair amount to drink last night. I didn’t see you eat on the flight. You are in no state to enjoy what I’d like to do with you.”
Pleasurable anticipation warred with disappointment. He was completely right. She felt dreadful. And yet … she suspected he could obliterate all of that.
“The thing is,” she murmured, boldly running her hands down his back and slipping them into the waistband of what she now realized was his swimmers.
“I think I’m still just a tiny bit drunk.
” Her eyes were heavy with desire when they clicked with his.
“Not so drunk that you need to worry you’re taking advantage of me.
But drunk enough to have the confidence to say …
to say something I wouldn’t normally.” She swallowed. “I want to sleep with you.”
I need to sleep with you.
It was a blinding stroke of comprehension for Saphire.
Jordan had slept with Anita and God only knew how many times, and for how long, the affair had been going on.
Since before they’d married? Saphire wasn’t sure she’d ever forgive either of them, but she did know that it would be impossible unless she did something similarly treacherous to her husband.
Jordan, always with a fragile ego, would never cope with the knowledge that his wife had been with a guy like this. Some handsome, Mediterranean hunk.
It went beyond a petty desire to hurt Jordan though. It was a need to level the playing field so that maybe, just maybe, she could think about forgiving and forgetting. After all, ten years of happiness shouldn’t be obliterated by a few stupid decisions. Right?