delicious smile he’d fallen in love with ten years back. ‘Do you need a hand up?’
He put out a hand without thinking. She tugged, he came up too fast and all of a sudden they were way too close. She staggered backwards, his hands came out to steady her and they were closer still.
She felt…fabulous. She felt like the Holly he’d remembered for all these years. The smell of her was reminiscent of citrus lemon; very faint. He’d always assumed it was her perfume but she’d hardly been given time to pack perfume.
And what was she wearing?
This was no cringing kidnap victim. Nor was it a woman dressed to calmly eat in her bedroom. She was wearing a dress that was beautiful enough to make his eyes water. It was a simple jade cocktail dress, sleek, closely fitting, its tiny shoestring straps holding it just barely above the lovely curve of her breasts. The soft silk clung to every gorgeous curve. A slit in the side revealed a flash of thigh so tantalizing that he felt his body respond in primeval need.
His hands tightened on hers involuntarily in a gesture of pure possession. He’d wanted this woman the first time he’d seen her, and he wanted her now.
But she didn’t want him. Her hands came up, they wedged against his chest and she shoved so hard that he let her go. Why had he done that? It felt like tearing part of himself away.
She looked…She looked…
‘You’re staring,’ she said, almost kindly. ‘Don’t.’
‘Why are you wearing that?’
‘What does it look like on me?’ she asked, seemingly determined to be casual, even though he could see she was fighting the mounting colour on her cheeks. She deliberately twirled so he could see it from all angles-or maybe so she had some breathing space where she wasn’t forced to meet his gaze head on. ‘Compared to every other woman who’s worn it?’ she demanded, cutting across his thoughts. The amusement had gone from her voice and anger had returned. ‘Dresses in every size, Andreas. Negligees, nightwear, even lingerie. How many women do you drag here against their will and then dress in your fancy outfits? This is some harem.’
‘It’s not a harem.’
‘Not?’
Well, maybe. He thought back a few months to when Christina had finally achieved her precious divorce. ‘You’re free, brother,’ Alex had told him. ‘You set that island up for seduction and you’re set for life. Fill it with things women love. Clothes that are worth a fortune. Seriously sexy stuff. The one thing you don’t have on that island is shopping, and you need to make up for it if you want hot women. I’ll tell you what-as a gift to celebrate your divorce to that harpy I’ll equip the wardrobes for you.’
He had. Six months ago Andreas had inspected the mass of clothes Alex-or, he suspected, one of Alex’s mistresses-had chosen for his imagined stream of women and he’d laughed. Maybe it’d even be fun to use them, he’d thought.
But it hadn’t worked out like that. Life outside marriage to Christina was infinitely easier, but seduction for seduction’s sake didn’t hold any appeal for Andreas.
Though seduction with Holly…He looked at her now, in her gorgeous dress, her eyes bright with anger, mocking him in a manner no woman had ever used in his presence…and he thought seduction was a definite possibility.
Not. He had a mission here. Fix it, Sebastian had said, and ravishing Holly against her will would fix nothing.
And, he suspected, his hand involuntarily fingering his cheek, it might even be dangerous. This woman had claws and she knew how to use them.
This woman was seriously sexy.
‘So you’re coming to dinner,’ he said, for want of anything better to say. When what he really wanted to say was, Let’s go to bed. Right here. Right now.
Thinking on, he didn’t want to say anything at all.
But Holly had herself under control, and was calmly accepting his dinner invitation. ‘If I must.’
‘You must.’
‘Fine,’ she said flatly and walked out the door before he could respond.
He was left to follow and to think about where he could take this from here.
CHAPTER FOUR
THEY ate in pregnant silence.
Andreas was accustomed to silence. He and Christina had barely been on speaking terms for years, but palace protocol decreed they eat together so silence had been the norm.
But this was a different silence. It was a silence charged with a tension that was palpable, with anger and with…desire?
Yes, desire, Andreas thought as the meal wore on. For he couldn’t keep his eyes from her.
She ate well; not selectively as Christina had done, but as if she was determined to enjoy every mouthful of the magnificent meal Sophia had put before them. Sophia beamed her pleasure as she served them, deeply appreciative of a woman who enjoyed her food. With Christina, Sophia had been absurdly formal, a servant who knew her place. Now, when Holly cracked a lobster claw too hard and the pincher sailed across the tiles, Sophia retrieved it and chuckled and Holly chuckled with her.
‘You need to fight harder,’ Sophia said, and was it Andreas’s imagination or did she cast a warning glance across at him? Holly smiled at her, a woman to woman smile of understanding. They were friends, he thought. In the few days Holly had been here, Holly and Sophia had forged an unlikely friendship.
And there it was again, that stab of desire going deep into his gut. He loved Holly’s smile. He loved that Sophia liked her.
Sophia was her friend.
Could he be her friend? No, he thought, revolted. He wanted far more from this woman than friendship.
Marriage.
Yes, but a formal marriage. Nothing more. For Sebastian’s words had been unequivocal.
‘The people need to know you’ve done the right thing, Andreas. But the marriage won’t be long term. You marry her-give the country the fairy-tale wedding. That’ll get us over our present crisis. You’ll be seen as being honourable-as soon as you found out about the baby you did what was expected. Afterwards, we can say she’s homesick for her country. She can return home quietly with the vague impression you’ll visit in between royal duties. The thing will die a natural death. Problem solved.’
But what had seemed logical back in Sebastian’s study seemed impossible here.
Maybe it had been a mistake to come here. How was he to propose a marriage of convenience when he knew she’d respond with anger? And what he really wanted…Well, that was impossible, too. There was no way he could ravish Holly against her will. He’d have Sophia after him with the branding iron. And to have her agree…The way she was reacting to him, pigs might fly.
Finally the meal was over. Sophia filled their wine glasses-though Holly had hardly touched her wine-and left them to it.
The night was truly lovely. There were fireflies flitting low over the pool, their tiny lights reflecting magically in the water’s smooth surface. Sophia had thrown open the gates at either end of the
