Irresistible Greeks: Red-Hot and Rich: His Reputation Precedes Him / An Offer She Can't Refuse / Pretender to the Throne

Eva lay on the bed for several minutes longer, luxuriating in a feeling of total physical satisfaction as she stretched, feeling the pleasurable ache of muscles long left unused.

Making love with Markos had been unlike anything Eva had ever felt or known before. More erotic, more pleasurable than anything she had ever experienced with any man.

There was no point in not being honest with herself at this point in her life. The only other man she’d ever had sex with was Jack. And sex with him had been more centred on his pleasure than hers. Whereas Markos—

She mustn’t allow herself to blow this time with Markos out of all proportion.

Not unless she wanted to be left as heartsick as her cousin Donna when whatever this was with Markos came to an end…

She was an independent, sophisticated twenty-nine-year-old woman. They were the things that had attracted Markos to her. No matter how wonderful their lovemaking, he certainly wouldn’t want that independent, sophisticated twenty-nine-year-old woman making a fool of herself over him!

Accept this for what it is, Eva told herself firmly as she finally got out of bed to go into the bathroom and tidy herself: wonderful sex, teasing banter and a good time had by all. For her to expect anything else from Markos was totally unacceptable.

Having feelings for Markos certainly wasn’t an option…

‘So as a child you spent most of your summers on the family’s private island in the Aegean?’

Markos nodded, having returned to the bedroom long enough to pull on faded denims and a black T-shirt, totally relaxed as he and Eva sat at the breakfast bar eating warmed croissants with honey and drinking coffee. ‘Drakon and Gemini are there now—on their honeymoon.’

Eva gave a wistful sigh. ‘It sounds idyllic.’ Markos quirked one dark brow. ‘I believe you mentioned your own childhood was less so?’

She shrugged narrow shoulders, the movement instantly drawing Markos’s gaze to the way the firm swell of her breasts was revealed as the black silk of his robe parted slightly. ‘My parents should never have married each other, and they probably wouldn’t have done if my mother hadn’t been expecting me.’ She grimaced. ‘Needless to say they didn’t make that mistake again, which is why I’m an only child.’

Markos frowned. ‘But you have other family…?’

Eva lowered her gaze as she began to crumble a croissant on her plate. ‘An aunt and uncle…a couple of cousins. And we aren’t exactly big on family reunions; I haven’t been back to England once in the last seven years.’

Unlike the Lyonedes family. There had been over three hundred guests at Drakon and Gemini’s wedding the previous month, and almost all of them had been related to the Lyonedes family in some way.

‘I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like not to have a huge extended family,’ he said.

‘It isn’t so bad.’ Eva gave another shrug. ‘Not enough people to have a big family fallout, for one thing!’

‘The Lyonedes family can certainly be volatile,’ Markos acknowledged dryly.

She smiled. ‘Must be all that hot Mediterranean blood!’ Her cheeks coloured hotly as she seemed to realise what she had just said. ‘I meant—’

‘I know what you meant, Eva.’ Markos chuckled at she blushed. It was an endearing and unexpected quality in a woman in her late twenties who had been married and divorced, had lived in New York for the last seven years, and ran her own very successful interior design company. ‘And I believe you once implied that you thought Drakon cold when you met him?’

Eva was beginning to wish she had never continued this particular conversation! ‘You must have realised after last night that my judgement of a man’s character isn’t all that good—oh, good Lord!’ She winced as Markos raised one mocking brow. ‘I obviously wasn’t referring to you when I said that—what I was really trying to say was—’ She broke off with an irritated frown as Markos began to chuckle. ‘It isn’t funny!’

‘I couldn’t agree more.’ He was still smiling as he stood up slowly to move around the breakfast bar until he stood beside her. ‘Obviously I need to take you back to bed and refresh your memory as to how un-cold my own character is…’

He held out his hand, very dark and handsome with his dark hair still slightly ruffled, his jaw unshaven, and the tight-fitting black T-shirt outlining the muscles of his chest and flat abdomen.

‘So soon…?’ Her eyes were wide.

Markos eyed her quizzically. ‘You would rather not…?’

‘I didn’t say that!’ she protested instantly, her nipples having noticeably tightened beneath the black silk robe, and that moist warmth once again heating between her thighs. ‘I just—I’m just surprised that you—well, that—’

‘That I would, or could, want you again so soon?’ Markos finished huskily, his eyes dark with intent. ‘Come back to bed, Eva, and let me show you how much and in what ways I want you!’

Eva felt slightly shy as she placed her hand in Markos’s and stood up to accompany him to the bedroom. A ridiculous feeling after the intimacies the two of them had shared earlier.

The intimacies they were about to share again…

‘You may just succeed in killing me with pleasure, Eva!’ Markos groaned as she collapsed on top of him a long, long time later.

‘Not intentionally, I assure you.’ Eva chuckled weakly as she lay against the dampness of his hair-roughened chest, having totally lost count of the number of times and in how many ways Markos had brought her to climax—before she had gently pushed him back against the pillow and made love to him, first kissing his chest and the flatness of his stomach, before moving lower to take him into her mouth. Her fingers had encircled him as she’d licked that responsive length, until Markos had begged her to stop and she’d moved up to straddle his hips, taking him deep inside her, inch by pleasurable inch, before riding him—riding them both—to explosive pleasure.

His arms encircled her as he rolled to one side and took her with him. ‘What are your intentions towards me?’ he prompted gruffly.

Eva’s heart gave a leap even as she opened one wary lid to look up at him. ‘Entirely dishonourable, I assure you,’ she said softly.

Markos felt a sense of disappointment in Eva’s answer, even though he held her in his arms and had every intention of doing so for the rest of the day. And tomorrow…? Tomorrow, as he had already stated, was another day…

‘Markos?’

He gave a relaxed smile. ‘We will sleep now and talk later,’ he encouraged huskily, and he rested her tousled head more comfortably against his shoulder before settling back against the pillows.

‘Talk about what?’ she prompted, that earlier wariness now back in her voice too.

‘Whatever needs to be talked about,’ Markos dismissed lightly, and he closed his eyes, Eva still held firmly in his arms.

Eva lay awake for a long time after she knew by the soft and even tenor of Markos’s breathing that he had fallen into an exhausted sleep—hardly surprising when he’d confessed to having had no sleep the night before, and then embarked on two athletic bouts of exquisite lovemaking.

Amazingly wonderful lovemaking, during which Eva knew she had lost all and every inhibition she had ever had as Markos touched and kissed her in places she had never been touched or kissed before…

She felt…wonderful. Deliciously satiated. Every part of worshipped. And for once in her life Eva intended to let tomorrow take care of itself.

She had no idea whether it was day or night when she woke up, although the brightness of the sun shining through the bedroom window would seem to indicate it was probably late on Sunday afternoon.

Amazing.

She had never ever spent the whole day in bed with a man. And this was not just any man, but Markos Lyonedes.

She turned her head sideways on the pillow to look at him, smiling warmly as she saw that Markos was doing exactly the same thing. Those green eyes gleamed appreciatively, and the stubble was darker on his square chin, his hair tousled on his forehead, his muscled shoulders bare above the bedcovers.

‘Good afternoon,’ she greeted him huskily.

His eyes crinkled at the corners as he returned her smile. ‘Did you know that you purr in your sleep?’ he asked.

‘You’re making that up!’ Eva refuted indignantly, her cheeks warming as she turned fully to face him.

‘No, I’m not,’ he assured her indulgently as he reached out to touch the hair at her temple. ‘You sounded like a contented kitten.’

That was probably because she felt like a contented kitten: warm, intensely satisfied and safe.