He kissed her on the tip of her nose. ‘Then a swim it is.’
‘I don’t believe I’m capable of moving the tip of my smallest finger,’ she whispered, cautious.
‘But you’d like a swim?’
‘Maybe a soak?’ she whispered, tugging him back down to her.
‘Then a soak you shall have,’ he said, and before she knew what he was about he’d rolled off the bed and swung her up into his arms. She gave a squeak of surprise and he grinned down at her, his smile pure mischief. And then he was striding towards the door and she was too stunned to even struggle.
‘We’re naked,’ she managed and her voice came out an even higher squeak.
‘Are we?’ He stopped dead, as if such a thought hadn’t occurred to him. He looked down at her, and his dark eyes gleamed with laughter. ‘So we are,’ he said on a note of wonder. ‘How wonderful.’ He kissed her on the top of her head and then as she twisted he found her lips and kissed her more deeply still. But he’d reached the door and pushed the handle down with his elbow, and was striding out. Past the pool. Through the entrance hall. Out into daylight, to the open world where the beach lay before them in gold and turquoise wonder.
‘Andreas, we’re naked,’ she squeaked again, half laughing, half shocked. The feel of his bare skin against hers in the warm morning wind was almost unbearably erotic. But she had to be sensible. Someone had to be sensible. Dear God, he was gorgeous. Her big, naked prince. Her Andreas.
Her husband.
But: ‘Sophia…’ she whispered desperately. ‘Georgiou…’
‘Sophia will have the others carefully on the other side of the pavilion,’ he said, not breaking stride.
‘She has instructions for when you bring your women here?’
He stopped at that. Stopped dead and his brow snapped down into a frown. ‘No,’ he said, and his tone was suddenly harsh. ‘I’ve told you. I’ve brought no other women here.’
‘Like I believe that.’
‘You can believe it,’ he whispered and kissed her again, so deeply there was no room for argument; there was no room for anything but heat and want and now. ‘I’ve brought you here, my woman. My wife. It was time to bring you home.’
And then he didn’t stop until he reached the shallows. He laid her down, almost reverently, on the soft sand, where the tiny waves rippled in and out. She gasped as her overheated body met the cool of the water, but then Andreas was following her down, gathering her to him, taking her to him with a desire that said this was to be no gentle soak.
‘I thought…’
‘You think what you like,’ he growled and pulled her to him, under him, his knees sinking into the soft sand, his hands holding her face as he tugged her closer, closer until once more their bodies met, fused, merged. ‘I can’t think at all. My Holly.
CHAPTER NINE
THE following days were a dream. A honeymoon. Six condoms? There were more where they came from and it was just as well.
For once started it was impossible to stop. Holly was just as crazy as she’d been when she was seventeen, and just as helpless. She was just as hopelessly in love.
Andreas just had to look at her and she melted. He just had to touch her and every fibre of her being responded with pure, white want.
‘My hot woman,’ he called her, tugging her into his arms over and over. ‘My captive wife. I have a mind to keep you here for ever.’
That was fine by her, she thought dreamily as the days wore on. Her time with Andreas in the past had been stolen moments, passion laced with guilt. Caution had made her hesitate on her wedding night, but having abandoned caution she discovered there was nothing more to worry about. There was nothing but the love she felt for this man.
He could take her in any way he pleased, and he did, he did. In turn she took him. He might be aristocratically demanding, but so too could she be. He could be tender in turn and he brought out a gentleness in her she didn’t know she had.
Sophia appeared again, and Nikos and Georgiou, but they stayed in the background. This was their own desert island, their own paradise, just for them.
Deefer was a part of their world, a bouncing ball of fun, flying along the beach, rounding up gulls, following them bravely into the surf, but collapsing in true puppy fashion, exhausted and happy while his master and mistress took their pleasure until they, too, felt the same.
Paradise, just for them.
Only of course it couldn’t last. They were given three days and then the fairy tale ended.
It ended with a knock on the bedroom door. It was eleven in the morning. They’d swum and made love lazily in the shallows, then wandered back hand in hand for a late breakfast by the pool. While Deefer slept the sleep of a truly contented pup, Andreas and Holly had showered with the intent of dressing. But that was as far as they’d got. Their bed was too inviting.
Now they lay coiled together in the aftermath of loving, hazy with heat and spent passion. But the knock sounded urgent. Andreas swore, shifted Holly in his arms and called, ‘What is it?’
‘His Majesty, Prince Sebastian, is on the phone for you.’ It was Georgiou, sounding, for Georgiou, apologetic.
‘Damn.’ Andreas moved Holly gently away from him, kissing her lightly on the forehead. ‘If I go will you promise to stay?’
‘You think I have energy to move? Don’t be long.’
‘If my brother calls…’ He didn’t finish. He hauled on his clothes and disappeared and Holly was left with vague forebodings.
Her forebodings were right. Andreas was gone for half an hour. She showered again and this time she dressed, simply in a soft sarong. She tugged her hair back into a coil and fastened it and slipped her feet into sandals. She was about to emerge when he reappeared.
One look at his face told her their idyll was over.
‘We need to go,’ he told her and her heart sank. His face was set and hard, already moving forward.
‘Back to the mainland?’
‘I need to go to Greece,’ he told her. ‘There are rumours that the missing diamond’s been sold to a private buyer. The royals from Calista are sniffing around already. If they find it before we do…’ He left the sentence unfinished but he was already moving towards the bathroom. ‘Georgiou’s checking the helicopter now. We’re leaving in half an hour.’
And that was that. No ‘can you be ready?’ No ‘I’m sorry the honeymoon’s been interrupted.’ Andreas was moving on.
Back to being a royal. And that left her…where?
He was stripping, stepping into the shower again. He wouldn’t want to smell of lovemaking when he met his family, she thought dully. He’d need to be royal again.
She swallowed. Maybe she could stay here.
She couldn’t. She knew that. She needed to go back to the mainland. For a start. To see…If there a future there was for her?
But Andreas had never said there was a future for her as a princess. As his wife.
