‘Do I strike you as that easy?’ Tabby prompted tightly, outraged by the tone of his proposition. Did he think she was flattered by the idea of being his entertainment for a couple of hours? A quick and easy sexual convenience because there was no more appealing prospect available?
His stunning eyes narrowed. ‘I don’t make judgements like that about women. I’m not sexist. I enjoy sex. I’m sure you do as well.’
‘You’re wrong,’ she began heatedly, thinking he was little different from the men who, having bought her a drink, had assumed that they were entitled to her body and could not comprehend her reluctance. Sex as a leisure-time pursuit was not her style.
‘If you haven’t enjoyed sex before then you’ve been with the wrong men,’ Acheron assured her silkily, running a caressing finger along the ripe curve of her lower lip, and the breath feathered deliciously in her throat, a ripple of treacherous, unwelcome response quivering through her slender length.
‘You’re a class act in the persuasion stakes,’ Tabby told him very drily, stepping back out of reach, fighting the unexpected chill of separation from the allure of his warm, vital body. ‘But it’s wasted on me—though I’m a virgin, I’m well aware that a man will tell you practically anything to get you into bed.’
‘A...virgin?’ Ash echoed in an astonished undertone, disbelief clenching his taut dark features. ‘Seriously? Or is that a hook to pull me in deeper?’
Tabby slowly shook her head and then surrendered to laugh out loud. ‘You are so suspicious of women it’s not real. I don’t want to pull you into anything. In fact, I think it would be a very bad idea for us to get that involved.’
‘I wasn’t thinking of involvement...I was thinking of sex,’ Acheron traded smoothly. ‘A simple exchange of pleasure.’
Tabby noted the way he even had to separate involvement from the act of sex and registered that he was positively phobic when it came to the concept of commitment. He did not want her to misunderstand what was on offer: a bodily exchange of pleasure, nothing more, no strings whatsoever. ‘Goodnight,’ she said gruffly, turning on her heel.
‘A virgin...seriously?’ Acheron breathed in her wake, the dark deep richness of his accented drawl vibrating through her in the stillness of the silent apartment.
Tabby turned her head slowly back to him. ‘Seriously.’
Acheron frowned, dark brows drawing together, and stared at her, his eyes gleaming golden with curiosity and fascination in the overhead lights. ‘But why?’
‘I’ve never wanted to.’ Until now, a little voice piped up in her brain, for that passionate kiss and the carnal caress of his well-shaped hands had roused more hunger in Tabby than she had ever felt in her life. A fierce physical hunger that she sensed could easily get out of hand.
‘You wanted me, hara mou...’ Acheron murmured with assurance as she walked away from him, blonde hair streaming down her back like a pale flowing river highlighting the curve of her bottom.
Tabby knew she should say nothing, but she couldn’t resist the little devil inside herself that he provoked and she turned her head again, succumbing to temptation to murmur softly, ‘But obviously...not enough.’
That crack might have affected some men like a challenge, Acheron mused broodingly as he strode back to his room for a cold shower, but he was not one of those men because logic had always ruled his libido. If he slept with her it would clearly get messy, and he hated messy relationships and didn’t tolerate them for longer than it took to delete such women’s numbers from his phone.
He reminded himself of the dire consequences of his last reckless encounter, and it was even worse that Tabby was still a virgin. He found that hard to credit but could not see any advantage in her telling such a lie. A woman who was still a virgin at twenty-five had to have very high expectations of her first lover for why else would she have waited so long? He would not be that man, would never fit that framework or meet the demands she would make. He had been warned and from now on he would keep his distance....
* * *
Tabby screened a yawn and settled Amber down on the rug at her feet. So far, it had been a very boring morning. Acheron’s lawyer, Stevos, had arrived with a bundle of documents, which had been painstakingly filled in, and now he was engaged in explaining the pre-nuptial contract to her clause by painful clause. Naturally Acheron wanted to protect his wealth, and discussing the terms of divorce before they even got as far as the wedding would have been depressing had she been in love with him, but she wasn’t in love with him and couldn’t have cared less about his money.
‘But I don’t need anything like that amount of cash to live on after the divorce,’ Tabby protested worriedly. ‘I know how to live well on a small budget and even a quarter of that amount would be more than generous.’
‘You’re supposed to be out for all you can get,’ Acheron chipped in helpfully from his restive stance by the window. ‘Sign the contract and forget about it. Once you’ve lived in my world for a while, you’ll find your tastes have changed and that you want more.’
Tabby slung him a look of resentment. ‘I only want Amber out of this arrangement. I’m not going to turn into a greedy, grasping manipulator overnight either!’
‘Mr Dimitrakos simply wants you and the child to enjoy a secure and comfortable future,’ the lawyer interposed soothingly.
‘No, Mr Dimitrakos wants to buy my loyalty and my loyalty is not for sale!’ Tabby replied with spirit. ‘I very much appreciate what he is doing to help me keep Amber in my life and the very last thing I will do is take advantage of his generosity in any way. Please accept that.’
‘Sign,’ Acheron slotted with raw impatience. ‘This nonsense has taken up enough of my morning.’
‘You mustn’t forget to be present at the visit from the social worker this afternoon,’ Stevos reminded him doggedly.
Stevos planted another document in front of Tabby when she had signed the first. ‘It’s a standard confidentiality agreement, which will prevent you from talking about the terms of your marriage to anyone outside this office.’
‘That it’s a big fat fake has to stay a secret,’ Acheron interposed bluntly.
Suppressing a sigh, Tabby signed and then glanced up to watch Acheron as he talked to his lawyer in Greek. He was wearing a dark grey suit with a very subtle pinstripe and a purple shirt and he looked...absolutely amazing, as if he had stepped live out of a glossy magazine shoot. Sleek, sophisticated and breathtakingly handsome, he instantly commanded her gaze whenever he came within sight. There was no harm in looking at him and appreciating the view, she told herself ruefully. He was like a beautiful painting she could admire without needing to own, particularly as any woman with ideas of ownership where Acheron Dimitrakos was concerned was, in Tabby’s opinion, in for a very rough ride.
They had shared the breakfast table in his dining room earlier that morning but the table was literally all they had shared. He had read his newspaper while she tended to Amber and munched toast, struggling to eat as quietly as a mouse in a cat’s presence. It had proved neither sociable nor relaxed and she had already decided to eat her meals in the kitchen from now on.
‘One of my assistants is going to take you shopping now for a wedding dress,’ Acheron divulged as Tabby bent to lift Amber off the rug before she got her little hands on his shoelaces. ‘And we will have to engage a nanny to take care of Amber when we’re busy.’
Tabby straightened. ‘I don’t want a wedding dress...or a nanny.’
Scorching dark eyes assailed hers. ‘Did I ask for your opinion?’
‘No, but you’re getting it, no extra charge.’
‘A wedding dress is not negotiable.’
‘Nothing’s