Mediterranean Tycoons

‘Well, sorry you missed breakfast, Marcus,’ Harry cut in. ‘But we do have to dash. Not to worry, though, Eloise is staying the rest of the week, and she can fill you in on anything you need to know.’

‘I’m sure she can,’ Marcus drawled, with a long lingering look at Eloise.

Katy’s gaze flicked between Eloise and the man holding her, a frown pleating her brow. ‘It’s okay, Harry, you stay and have a coffee with Marcus. Eloise can come upstairs and help me. I know she wants to say goodbye to her favourite godson,’ she informed. ‘We will meet you down here in twenty minutes.’

Marcus had to let Eloise go. But not before he had deliberately dropped another kiss on the top of her head with a murmured, ‘Don’t be long.’

‘Right! What is going on?’ Katy demanded as soon as they got in the elevator. ‘Marcus is all over you like a rash, and I’ve never seen you so flustered.’ She appraised Eloise with sharp eyes. ‘Three months ago you had a dinner date with him and told me it was nothing, a meeting between old friends. Now the man is our partner and he can’t keep his hands off you.’

Thankful for her escape from the blasted man for a while, Eloise looked into the slightly worried eyes of Katy. Her friend knew her past history far too well to be fooled into thinking Eloise would indulge in a casual affair, and she knew what she had to do.

‘I think I’m in love.’ She saw Katy’s mouth fall open in shock. ‘And I think Marcus feels the same.’ Katy knew her too well to believe anything less. She had been Eloise’s rock and support after the savage attack she’d suffered, and all through the horror of the court case and publicity that followed. She knew Eloise had never looked at a man since. But Katy was a romantic and Eloise knew nothing less than true love would do for Katy to believe her.

‘And have you two, last night…well, I mean, did you?’

‘Yes and it was fine,’ Eloise said telling the truth at least partially, with a scarlet face.

‘Oh, Eloise, I am so happy for you.’ And suddenly Eloise was wrapped in Katy’s arms. ‘I knew one day everything would work out for you.’

Watching the happy family group bundle into the waiting cab, and drive away, all the energy drained out of Eloise. She had done it. She’d smiled and convinced Katy she was happy in her new relationship with Marcus. She’d listened while Katy had fantasised of course Marcus must have loved her all along, and that was why he’d invested in their small company. He’d done it for Eloise.

Eloise did not disillusion her, though it did cross her mind for one mad moment to tell Katy the truth, as they were all leaving and she was struck with the most horrendous feeling of being deserted. The safe, successful world she had built for herself was never going to be the same again. But hugging baby Benjamin to her breast and kissing him goodbye had convinced her she couldn’t. There was no way on earth she would jeopardise Katy’s happy family unit.

Pale and strained, she threw a bitterly resentful glance at Marcus. ‘You certainly didn’t waste any time publicising our sordid affair.’ He’d turned and was walking back towards the bank of elevators on one wall, his hand apparently glued to her waist, urging her along. ‘If you think your behaviour this morning was being discreet, then God help me.’

‘Smile,’ Marcus suggested silkily, his dark eyes absorbing the tense pallor of her beautiful face. ‘Or people might think we’re fighting.’

‘Since when did you care what other people think?’ she flung back, her nostrils flaring at the disturbingly familiar scent of him as he ushered her into the elevator and wrapped his arms around her. Stiff as a board, she glared up at him. ‘You promised we would keep it private until they had left Paris.’

‘So I lied. A man will promise anything to a woman to get her into bed. You are not that naïve, Eloise,’ he opined sardonically. ‘You’ve done the same yourself countless times, I have no doubt.’ He shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘After all, you lied to me about the time of the breakfast meeting.’

She went from red to as white as death. Being caught out in a lie was embarrassing, but realising he thought her capable of using her body to get what she wanted and it didn’t actually bother him told her how little he truly thought of her. Anger and humiliation turned her stomach and she tore herself free from his restraining hold just as the elevator stopped.

‘You slimy snake, why don’t you take a hike?’ she spat and, marching straight to her room, she slid the card in the lock and pushed the door. Nothing happened!

A flash of anger stayed Marcus’s step for a moment. He was not in the habit of taking insults from a lady, and certainly not one he had thoroughly bedded only hours earlier. But then, she was no lady, he reminded himself. A liar—yes, and a very sexy one at that, and not worth getting angry over. But with a great rear, he thought as he followed her down the hallway. He wanted her in his bed, nothing more he told himself.

Marcus watched her futile attempt to open the door. Her face was pink, she was angry; no, angry didn’t cut it. From the set of her jaw and the tension in every inch of her luscious body, he realised she was nervous, her small hand shaking.

‘Allow me.’ Marcus took the card from her trembling fingers, and opened the door and followed her inside.

‘I told you to go.’ Eloise turned on him.

Marcus reached out and held her by the shoulders. ‘Is that really what you want?’ His brown eyes darkened as they skimmed over her, lingering on the swift rise and fall of her breasts, clearly discernible beneath the fine silk blouse she wore, before returning to her face. He caught a brief glimpse of something very much like fear in her gorgeous green eyes, and inexplicably he felt a twinge of guilt.

He’d accused her of being a thief, and with all the subtlety of a tank he’d told her he wanted her in his bed. Then, while she was still trying to come to terms with the passion they’d shared last night, he’d strolled in on her this morning. Angry at her lie about the time, he’d deliberately embarrassed her in front of her friends, making it plain they were an item.

‘Why don’t we both take a hike, as you so eloquently put it?’ Marcus prompted with a wry smile. ‘We could spend the day sight-seeing, having fun.’ He looked into her eyes, saw the angry puzzlement there, and felt a pang of conscience, but not enough to stop him drawing her against him and covering her mouth with his own.

‘Stop it,’ Eloise gasped. She fought him at first, twisting her head from side to side. But he was so persistent and oddly tender; his mouth moved gently against hers, not stopping until, with a little moan, she surrendered and kissed him back.

Marcus broke the kiss, put his hand under her chin, and tilted her head back. ‘Spend the day with me.’ Amused dark eyes rested assessingly on her beautiful if flushed face. ‘You know you want to.’

She did… But catching the hint of mockery in his expression was enough to bring her back to reality with a bump.

‘I have to go to work.’ Jerkily, Eloise pulled away from him. ‘That’s why I am here.’ And, crossing to the bed, she picked up her purse from the bedside cabinet. Once out of his reach, she took a few deep steadying breaths, managed to get her racing pulse under control and recovered some of her formidable strength of will. Turning, she tossed her head, her red hair flying around her lovely face, determination in every taut line of her slender body.

‘After all, you do have an interest now in KHE, and the harder I work the more profit for you,’ she said curtly.

Marcus gave a sardonic laugh. ‘I’m glad you realise that,’ he mocked. ‘But, as I’m the boss in this affair, I decide which tasks you perform first.’ He cast a provocative glance at the bed before his dark gaze returned to her shocked green.

The implication in his hooded eyes as she took a step in the direction of the door filled her with disgust and, to her shame, a secret thrill. Her heartbeat leapt at the thickening of the atmosphere; fingers clutching her purse, she stepped hurriedly past him. ‘I have to go… I have an appointment with the new sales assistant.’

‘I’ll come with you.’

Sharply disconcerted, she swung back around, and collided with gleaming black eyes. ‘You, but…’

‘As you so succinctly pointed out, I have a vested interest in the business.’

Two hours later, Eloise walked out of their new shop, silently fuming. She’d thought she was doing quite well with her schoolgirl French, explaining to the new manageress—a very elegant French lady—and a younger female assistant what was expected of them. Then Marcus had cut in and introduced himself as a partner and wouldn’t you just know it? Eloise thought, simmering with resentment. The man spoke fluent French, and charmed the two women so completely Eloise might as well not have been there, for all the notice they took of her.

‘Did you have to be so damned interfering?’ Eloise snapped, as they stood on the pavement in the summer sunshine. ‘I’m perfectly capable of instructing the staff. You didn’t have to fawn all over the women.’

Marcus caught the anger in her emerald eyes. A hectic flush coloured her cheeks, and he let his eyes wander with sensual intensity over her, lingering deliberately on the proud thrust of her breasts against the silk shirt. His sensuous mouth quirked at the corners in a knowing grin and he chuckled.

She felt her nipples tighten, and his chuckle simply enraged her further. ‘What’s so funny?’ she snarled.

Throwing an arm around her stiff shoulders, he drew her into his side. ‘You’re jealous, Eloise.’

It wasn’t what Eloise had expected, and she spluttered, ‘I am not, you egotistical baboon!’

After a second’s pause Marcus threw his dark head back and laughed out loud. ‘Well, I suppose a baboon is a step up from a snake. But you are jealous?’ His amusement lingered in the narrowed eyes that studied her face. He brushed back a stray tendril of red hair curving her cheekbone. ‘Why not admit the truth, Eloise?’ he demanded huskily. ‘It’s the same for me.’

Marcus knew as soon as he said it, he had made a mistake. The man he had been five years ago when they first met, and he had thought her innocent, might have admitted to jealousy. But not the man he was today, with the evidence of her perfidiousness always at the back of his mind. He prided himself on being a sophisticated lover who delighted in women, and always brought them pleasure, but never, ever lost control or revealed his own emotions. Somehow Eloise had the damnable ability to make him forget what she really was, and he didn’t like it.

What the hell? he told himself. For one day he was going to forget everything and just enjoy…

Eloise’s heart skipped a beat. Marcus, jealous? The notion was balm to her battered pride and she was wretchedly aware of how much she wanted to believe him.

His dark head bent and he kissed her briefly on her lips. His arm dropped from her shoulders and he waved his hand in an expansive arc.

‘Look around you, Eloise. The sun is shining, we are in Paris, a city designed for lovers and, whatever else is between us, we are lovers. Indulge me and let me show you around.’

She looked at him. The dark vitality of his masculinity was a potent temptation to any woman, and she was no exception. Why he wanted her didn’t seem that important all of a sudden. The sun gilded his black hair in golden highlights. Eloise’s admiring emerald eyes clashed with smouldering black, and his starkly handsome features darkened, a slow sensual smile curving his beautiful mouth. Her heart missed a beat and resumed at a faster pace.

He extended an elegant tanned hand towards her. ‘Go with the flow, Eloise. Isn’t that your English expression?’ His accent thickened in his husky-voiced question and she allowed him to tuck her slender hand in his.

‘Yes.’ His glittering gaze mesmerised her. ‘Yes, it is,’ she agreed, and felt the flow of electricity from his touch through every nerve in her body.