The Greek Tycoon's Unexpected Wife. Annie West

devil was baiting her! Deliberately toying with her, testing her limits with the unspoken threat of his big body. He wanted her to panic.

      ‘This has gone far enough.’ She struggled to sound calm, knowing that was the best way to end this torment. ‘I wasn’t questioning your masculinity. I was simply observing that the circumstances of our…wedding would support us when we said it was a marriage in name only.’

      There, she sounded reasonable. Only a little breathless.

      He scrutinised her as if he could read her every secret in her face.

      ‘So you believe the circumstances prove we didn’t have sex?’

      Her eyes widened. ‘It was hardly the time or the place. A civil war had just broken out around us!’

      ‘And yet it’s a proven fact that in situations of extreme danger, people find comfort in the sexual act. I believe it can be quite a compulsion.’

      Had he leaned closer? Or had she swayed towards him? She couldn’t be that unsteady on her feet.

      ‘But we didn’t even know each other!’ Any logical person would see that theirs had been a paper formality, not a real marriage.

      ‘Interesting.’ He spoke unhurriedly and she watched his mouth form the word. Despite her uneasiness there was something almost hypnotic about the way those firm lips moved. ‘So your contention is that strangers don’t have sex? I don’t find that particularly convincing. Or are you arguing that you would never do such a thing?’

      Again, that interrogatory tilt of an eyebrow. It reinforced the imposing, dominant angles of his face, reminding her irresistibly of a fallen angel, beautiful and oh-so-dangerous.

      Tessa’s hands balled into fists as she repressed the panicky need to try to force him away from her. She knew it would be futile. He was larger, stronger and far nastier than she was. He’d probably enjoy watching her flail against his superior strength. But she wouldn’t give him that cheap satisfaction.

      Instead she’d be calm, reasonable, in control. She’d ignore his provocation. No way would she rise to his baiting about her morality.

      It was on the tip of her tongue to blurt out that, contrary to his sneering assumption, she could provide the evidence to prove their marriage had never been consummated. It was something she’d far rather avoid. It would be a last resort, but if that was what it took to be free of this man then she’d do it.

      In the meantime there was no way she’d reveal anything so personal to Stavros Denakis. She didn’t even want to think about his derision if he realised her experience was so limited. The mood he was in, he wouldn’t believe her.

      ‘My contention,’ she responded, looking at a point over his shoulder, ‘is that the authorities will have no reason to doubt our story when we explain it to them.’