Two crowns, two islands, one legacy

A royal family, torn apart by pride and its lust for power, reunited by purity and passion

The islands of Adamas have been torn into two rival kingdoms:

TWO CROWNS

The Stefani diamond has been split as a symbol of their feud

TWO ISLANDS

Gorgeous Greek princes reign supreme over glamorous Aristo Smouldering sheikhs rule the desert island of Calista

ONE LEGACY

Whoever reunites the diamonds will rule all.

THE ROYAL HOUSE OF KAREDES

Many years ago there were two islands ruled as one kingdom – Adamas. But bitter family feuds and rivalry caused the kingdom to be ripped in two. The islands were ruled separately, as Aristo and Calista, and the infamous Stefani coronation diamond was split as a symbol of the feud and placed in the two new crowns.

But when the king divided the islands between his son and daughter, he left them with these words:

“You will rule each island for the good of the people and bring out the best in your kingdom. But my wish is that eventually these two jewels, like the islands, will be reunited. Aristo and Calista are more successful, more beautiful and more powerful as one nation: Adamas.”

Now, King Aegeus Karedes of Aristo is dead, the island’s coronation diamond is missing! The Aristans will stop at nothing to get it back but the ruthless sheikh king of Calista is hot on their heels.

Whether by seduction, blackmail or marriage, the jewel must be found. As the stories unfold, secrets and sins from the past are revealed and desire, love and passion war with royal duty. But who will discover in time that it is innocence of body and purity of heart that can unite the islands of Adamas once again?

THE GREEK BILLIONAIRE’S INNOCENT PRINCESS

CHANTELLE SHAW

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For my husband, Adrian,

with love and thanks for all your support.

CHAPTER ONE

NIKOS ANGELAKI stood at the edge of the ballroom and surveyed the five hundred or so guests who were dancing or sipping champagne beneath the ornate chandeliers. The men were uniform in black tuxedos, while the women—dressed in couture gowns and flaunting a spectacular array of diamonds and precious gems—flitted about the dance floor like gaudy butterflies. He flicked back the cuff of his dinner jacket, glanced at his Rolex, and then began to make his way across the room—aware of the interested glances he received as he passed. At thirty-two he was used to the attention his looks and the rumours of his wealth attracted. An attractive blonde in a daringly low-cut dress caught his attention, and his gaze lingered on her fleetingly before he stepped into the lobby.

It was the first time he had attended the royal ball or visited the Aristan palace, and he was impressed by the elegant splendour of the rooms where the silk-covered walls were lined with priceless works of art. The ruling family of the House of Karedes was one of the wealthiest families in Europe, and the guest-list included members of the aristocracy and heads of state— grand people who had no idea that the Prince Regent’s honoured guest tonight had grown up in the slums of Athens.

Nikos wondered cynically if the butler who had escorted him to the state drawing room to greet Prince Sebastian would have been quite so obsequious if he’d known that Nikos’s mother had once worked as a lowly kitchen maid at the palace. However, that was something he hadn’t even revealed to Sebastian, despite the close friendship that had developed between them.

He strode across the hall, pushed open a door, and found himself in the banqueting suite, which was empty, apart from a waitress at the far end of the room who—unlike the other palace staff who seemed to be rushed off their feet tonight—was idly folding napkins.

The guests had eaten earlier, but Nikos’s delayed flight had meant that he had missed the buffet supper, and as he glanced at the mouth-watering selection of canapés he was aware of a hollow feeling in his stomach. Business first, he told himself firmly. It was evening in Aristo, but early afternoon on America’s east coast and he had arranged to call a client in New York. He strolled towards the waitress who had her back to him and was still oblivious to his presence.

‘Can you tell me if there is somewhere I can be uninterrupted? I need to make an urgent business call.’

The deep, gravelly voice was so innately sensual that the tiny hairs on Kitty’s body stood on end, and she turned her head, her heart crashing in her chest when she stared up at the man who had come silently into the room. She had recognised him instantly when he had walked into the ballroom earlier in the evening—Nikos Angelaki, billionaire shipping magnate, notorious playboy, and in recent months one of her brother’s closest confidants. Sebastian had explained that he had met Nikos at a business function in Greece, and since then the two men had discovered a mutual liking for poker and the roulette wheel in the nightclubs of Aristo and Athens.

The photographs Kitty had seen of him in the tabloids had triggered her interest, but nothing had prepared her for the impact of Nikos in the flesh. He was suave, sophisticated and spine-tinglingly sexy. Taller than average; his tapered black trousers emphasised his long legs and taut thighs, while his impeccably tailored dinner jacket cloaked formidably broad shoulders. But it was his face that captured her attention. Handsome was a barely adequate description of the chiselled perfection of his features: the slanting, razor-sharp cheekbones and square chin, the heavy brows arched above midnight-dark eyes, and a wide, sensual mouth.

In the silence that stretched between them Kitty sensed his arrogance and devil-may-care confidence, and she felt an unbidden and shockingly intense tug of sexual awareness that sent a quiver down her spine. He was gorgeous, but she suddenly realised that she was staring at him, and she blushed.

‘There is a small sitting room through there,’ she mumbled, indicating the door at the far end of the room.

‘Thank you.’

His eyes skimmed over her, making a brief inspection of her unexciting black cocktail dress, and Kitty wished fervently that she had bought a new outfit for the ball—something slinky and low-cut that would have made him look at her with male appreciation, rather than dismiss her without a second glance.

But she had never been very interested in clothes, preferring her research work for Aristo’s museum to shopping, and it had only been when she had flicked through her list of preparations for the ball and seen the words ‘buy dress’ that she’d realised she had nothing suitable to wear to the palace’s most prestigious social event.

She lacked the confidence to wear sexy outfits, anyway, she acknowledged dismally. And she certainly wouldn’t stand a chance with a man like Nikos. He had given no sign that he recognised her, but palace protocol dictated that she should make the first introduction. Immediately she felt tongue-tied by the crippling shyness that had afflicted her since childhood. Not for the first time she wished she shared her sister Princess Elissa’s self-confidence and sparkling personality. Liss always made socialising look so easy.

She was Princess Katarina Karedes, fourth in line to the throne of Aristo, Kitty reminded herself. She had been trained practically from birth to deal with social situations, but she had never found meeting new people easy, and she was still steeling herself to offer her hand to Nikos in formal greeting when he spoke again.

‘I’ve a feeling that you are needed to serve champagne in the ballroom. I understand from Prince Sebastian that a number of the catering staff have been taken ill, and I noticed that many of the guests have empty glasses.’ He gave her a faint, dismissive smile, as if he expected her to immediately scuttle off, and turned his attention to his phone.

Kitty gaped at him, overwhelmed by his powerful personality, and taken aback by his suggestion that she was needed to serve drinks. She was aware of the problem with the caterers she had booked to work alongside the palace staff, and, having spent the past month planning every detail of the ball like a military operation, she found it annoying that so many of the waiters had succumbed to a virulent sickness virus. Anxious to ensure that the evening ran smoothly she had come to the banqueting room to check over the buffet table, but the head butler had assured her that everything was under control, and she was sure it was not necessary for her to take on the role of waitress.

Usually she had little to do with the royal ball, but this year, with Queen Tia mourning the death of the king, Sebastian had asked her to oversee the arrangements. Seb had enough on his mind, Kitty thought ruefully. After their father’s unexpected death Sebastian should have immediately become the new king. But the shocking discovery that the Aristan half of the Stefani diamond, which was set in the Aristan Crown, was a fake, and that the real diamond was missing, had thrown the plans for his coronation into disarray. By royal tradition Sebastian could not be crowned if he did not have the jewel, and until it was found he could only assume the title of Prince Regent.

Lost in her thoughts, Kitty suddenly realised that Nikos Angelaki was watching her with unconcealed impatience. He moved away and began to punch numbers into his phone. ‘My client is expecting my call,’ he said as he walked towards the door leading to the sitting room. ‘And you had better get back to work.’ He paused, and looked back at her. ‘Actually, you could bring me some champagne—and while you’re about it something from the buffet. The dolmathakia looks good, and perhaps some bread and olives.’

He was a guest, Kitty reminded herself, and her duty as hostess of the ball was to ensure that the guests enjoyed the evening. But his haughty tone rankled. It was usual for people she did not know to address her as Your Highness, but Nikos was either unaware or unimpressed that he should use her royal title. Throughout her life Kitty had been treated with a deference suited to her royal status. She did not expect to be fawned over, but Nikos had spoken to her as if she were a lackey. Didn’t he know who she was?

‘You want me to serve you?’ she queried, taken aback by his arrogant demand.

Her sharp tone caught Nikos’s attention and he glanced across the room, his eyes narrowing when he noted the waitress’s mutinous expression. He had paid scant attention to her when he had first walked into the room, and had formed a vague impression of a dumpy, rather plain girl in a badly fitting dress. But now, as he studied her more closely, he realised that she was far from uninteresting.

She was unfashionably curvaceous, he mused idly, allowing his gaze to roam over the swell of her hips that flared below her neat waist. Her voluptuous breasts straining beneath her dress would make a generous handful. A vivid mental picture came into his mind of her wearing a strapless, low-cut couture gown that displayed her breasts like plump, round peaches. In his imagination he saw himself slowly removing the gown, drawing it down and feasting his eyes on her nakedness, and he felt his body tighten with unbidden sexual awareness.

She wasn’t his type, he reminded himself irritably. He liked tall, elegant blondes, and she was a short, curvy brunette. Her heavy-rimmed glasses were unflattering, but he noted that her skin was smooth and tinted a pale olive-gold, her slanting cheekbones highlighted by a flush of rose-pink, and her mouth was wide, her lips full and lush and eminently kissable.

Hell! He’d obviously been celibate for too long, he thought sardonically. He was a self-confessed workaholic, and under his leadership Petridis Angelaki Shipping’s profits had soared. He worked hard and played hard, but recently he hadn’t played enough. It was time he redressed the balance—but he doubted Prince Sebastian would be pleased if he seduced a member of the palace staff.

‘If it’s not too much trouble,’ he drawled sarcastically. ‘It is your job, after all.’

Kitty thought of the hours she’d spent organising the party, and felt a spurt of temper. She’d been run ragged for weeks, anxious to ensure the ball was a success for Sebastian’s sake, but her duties didn’t include acting as a personal attendant to one of her brother’s friends. Twin spots of colour burned on her cheeks, and she put her hands on her hips.

‘The idea of the buffet table is that guests can help themselves,’ she informed Nikos tightly.

She saw him frown as his eyes trailed over her, and it suddenly struck her that her high-necked, long-sleeved black dress—which she had bought two seasons ago in the hope that the starkly simple style would make her look slimmer—was almost identical to the uniform that the female serving staff were wearing. Her job! Understanding slowly dawned. Could it be that Nikos Angelaki had no idea of her identity? They had never met, and, unlike Liss, who was often pictured in the tabloids, she was rarely recognised by the paparazzi. Nikos clearly believed she was one of the palace staff, and she didn’t know whether to be amused or insulted by the mistake.

She opened her mouth to tell him that she was Princess Katarina, not a lowly servant, but something held her back. It was humiliating that he had mistaken her for a waitress. She wished now that she had made more effort with her appearance instead of blithely assuming that no one would take much notice of her. She was acting as the Prince Regent’s consort tonight, and people had noticed her, but for all the wrong reasons.

During the evening she had overheard various unflattering comments from the guests that she was the Plain Jane Princess who had missed out on her sister’s looks: ‘…twenty-six…oh, no, not married…must be hard to be in the shadow of lovely Liss. Apparently Princess Katarina is the brainy one, but she doesn’t share Princess Elissa’s beauty.’

Kitty wondered how Nikos would react when she told him she was a princess. Would he share the general consensus of the guests that she was the ugly duckling of the family? It didn’t help that he was so stunningly good-looking. She could feel her heart thudding erratically as she absorbed the masculine beauty of his face, and she was startled by a fierce longing to run her fingers through the lock of silky black hair that had fallen forwards onto his brow.

She was terrified that he could somehow read her mind, but she could not tear her eyes from his, and she sensed something indefinable pass between them that made her skin prickle and her breasts tingle. To her horror she felt her nipples swell beneath her dress and she hastily crossed her arms over her chest, her cheeks burning.

Nikos recognised the flare of sexual awareness in the waitress’s eyes and was infuriated by his own body’s involuntary reaction to it. He did not have time to waste dealing with a stroppy domestic, even though the chemistry between them was tangible. ‘I suggest you look up the word “servant”,’ he said coldly. ‘You’ll find it means “someone who is paid to serve”. I’m sure Prince Sebastian is a fair employer who pays you a generous wage, and I would be grateful if you could do as I’ve asked without further argument.’

He should walk through into the private sitting room and make his call—but for reasons he couldn’t explain, he hesitated. He could not dismiss the ridiculous urge to pull the girl into his arms and kiss her senseless. Not a girl, he corrected himself, his eyes drawn once again to the firm swell of her breasts. She was very much a woman, with a gorgeous hourglass figure that might not be ‘in’ with the fashion police but was incredibly sexy. He felt a fierce tug of sexual hunger in his groin and inhaled sharply, his nostrils flaring. ‘What is your name?’ he demanded harshly.

‘It’s…Rina.’ The words spilled from Kitty’s lips, and the moment they were out it was too late to retract them. She didn’t understand what had prompted her to withhold her true identity, but she knew that Nikos had previously met Liss at a party in Paris and, although it was stupid, she could not bear the idea of him comparing her with her beautiful, glamorous sister. ‘I’m new here,’ she mumbled, assuring herself that she had only lied to save him the embarrassment of learning that he had mistaken a member of the royal family for a servant.

‘I see.’ Nikos strolled back across the room towards her and Kitty felt her pulse-rate quicken with every step he took. He swamped her senses and she was tempted to turn and flee, but when he halted inches from her she saw the gleam of sexual curiosity in his eyes and shock held her immobile. Surely she was wrong? Nikos had dated some of the world’s most beautiful women and it was rumoured that he had been having a white-hot affair with the stunning Hollywood star, Shannon Marsh, for months. It was inconceivable that he could be attracted to a frump like her— wasn’t it? She licked her suddenly dry lips and was startled when the expression in his eyes hardened to a predatory gleam that caused her heart to pound.

‘Something tells me you have a lot to learn, Rina.’

The mockery in his voice was mixed with a blatant sensual message that sent a quiver of excitement down Kitty’s spine. She had led a sheltered life at the palace, and at twenty-six was painfully aware of her sexual inexperience, but the feral heat in Nikos’s eyes was unmistakable, even to a novice like her.

‘I’d better go…and bring you some champagne, Mr Angelaki,’ she said breathlessly, jerking away from him before she gave in to the temptation to close the space between them and press her soft body against the muscled hardness of his. Dangerous thoughts; and instinct warned her he was a man who was way out of her league.

‘Yes, you better had.’ Nikos laughed softly, self-derisively; breaking the web of sexual tension that curvy little waitress had somehow woven around him. ‘Out of interest, how do you know my name?’

‘I’ve seen your photograph, and read about you in the newspapers,’ Kitty admitted, although she did not add that she regularly scanned the tabloids for articles about him or that she was rarely disappointed by his absence in the gossip columns. Nikos Angelaki’s luck at the roulette table was as legendary as his business acumen. He was a gambler and a risk-taker, a high-flier who was frequently snapped by the paparazzi driving around Athens in his Lamborghini with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of beautiful women at his side. ‘You have a reputation as a millionaire playboy with a different blonde on your arm almost every week,’ she said stiffly.

Nikos shrugged carelessly. ‘You shouldn’t believe all you read in the papers, Rina. Some of my “blondes” have lasted much longer than a week, and a few have even made it to a month,’ he added sardonically. ‘But I think my private life is nobody’s business but my own—don’t you?’

‘Absolutely,’ Kitty replied tightly, stung by his rebuke. ‘It’s no concern of mine that you change your women as often as other men change their socks.’

An ominous pause followed her defiant statement, and then Nikos threw back his head and laughed. ‘I wonder if Prince Sebastian is aware that he has a rebel among his staff?’ he drawled, moving before Kitty had time to react, and capturing her chin between his strong fingers. ‘If you’re not careful that sassy mouth could get you into a lot of trouble, Rina.’

She was trapped by his closeness, and the heat from his body mingled with the sensual tang of his aftershave stole around her and held her prisoner. The gleam in his eyes sent a tremor through her, and for a few electrifying seconds she thought he was going to lower his head and kiss her. She held her breath, torn between fear and fascination, and felt a crushing sense of disappointment when he abruptly released her. Of course he hadn’t intended to kiss her; stupid of her to have thought it.

Nikos wondered if she knew how easily he could read her mind—or how tempted he was to accept her unspoken invitation and crush her soft mouth beneath his. It took every ounce of his will power to step away from her and retrace his steps back across the room. ‘Go back to the ballroom before I decide to tell the prince of your reluctance to do the job you are employed to do,’ he said tersely. ‘And, Rina—’ he paused in the doorway of the sitting room ‘—don’t forget my champagne, will you?’

His arrogance was breathtaking. It was on Kitty’s lips to tell him that under Aristo’s ancient laws his lack of respect for a member of the royal family was a serious offence. He was lucky she did not call for the palace guard, and have him thrown out, she thought angrily. She was renowned for her calm and peaceable nature, but she was infuriated by his insolence.

But it was her own idiotic fault that he believed she was a waitress, and, uttering a most unprincesslike curse, she swung on her heels and marched out of the banqueting hall.

CHAPTER TWO

KITTY spent the rest of the evening carefully avoiding Nikos Angelaki, but she could not forget him, or the electricity that had fizzed between them when they had been alone together. No man had ever looked at her the way Nikos had done—with a raw, sexual hunger in his eyes that had evoked a wild longing deep inside her and left her wishing that he had swept her into his arms and made passionate love to her on the banqueting table.

Unable to dismiss her shocking fantasy from her mind, she had been too embarrassed to face him again with the food and champagne he had requested, and had asked one of the staff to serve him. Later, she had hovered behind a pillar, and watched him partner a steady stream of beautiful women on the dance floor. If it hadn’t been for her stupid lie she could have asked Sebastian to introduce them, and maybe he would have asked her to dance. But if she revealed her identity to him now she would look a complete idiot in front of Nikos, and her brother.

She wouldn’t know what to say to him anyway, she acknowledged bleakly. She was hopeless with men. The few fledgling romances she’d had at university had been disastrous and she knew her family despaired of her ever finding a husband. Kitty sighed, weighted down by the familiar feeling that she was a failure. Her dress was uncomfortably tight and tendrils of her hair had come loose and curled about her hot face. She wished the ball were over. She’d spent so long fretting over it and she was glad it was a success but she longed for the quiet solitude of the palace library and her books.

The king had shared her fascination with the history of the Adamas Kingdom, and she treasured her memories of the evenings they had spent together researching their ancestors. Nothing was the same without her father, she thought bleakly. One day soon Sebastian would be crowned King and she would give him her full support, but she missed King Aegeus desperately.

Grief surged through her and she bit her lip, knowing that she must control it as Queen Tia managed to do when she was in public. She was tired of the party, and she stepped through the French doors leading onto the terrace. The night air was warm and heavy with the perfume of jasmine and honeysuckle, and the silence was blissful after the hubbub of voices in the ballroom, but her peace did not last long.

‘Well, well. Kitty Karedes! I didn’t realise it was you. I saw a woman slip furtively out of the ballroom, and assumed she was meeting a lover, but, unless the ice-princess has thawed considerably since we last met, that’s not likely, is it?’

‘Vasilis! I won’t lie and say it’s a pleasure to see you. But the idea of you sneaking out to spy on lovers is wholly believable,’ Kitty replied contemptuously. She glanced at Vasilis Sarondakos, felt the familiar wave of revulsion sweep over her and turned her back on him, hoping he would get the message and leave her alone. But Vasilis was not renowned for his sensitivity.

The Sarondakos family were leading members of Aristo’s aristocracy, and Vasilis’s father, Constantine, had been a close friend of the late king. At eighteen, Kitty had been painfully naïve, and had never had a boyfriend. With her father’s encouragement she had gone on a date with Vasilis, but she had been deeply traumatised when he had subjected her to a drunken assault. His taunts that her voluptuous body was designed for sex had been devastating, but she had been too ashamed to tell her family what had happened, believing Vasilis’s assertion that because she had worn a low-cut dress she had been—in his words— ‘gagging for it’.

The memory of his hot, alcohol-fuelled breath on her skin and his sweaty hands tearing her dress and touching her breasts still haunted her, and when her father had suggested a couple of years ago that he would be pleased if she married the son of his dear friend, Constantine Sarondakos, he had been taken aback by her fierce refusal.

‘So, still no sign of a husband on the horizon, then, Kitty?’ Vasilis taunted, coming to stand so close to her that she found herself trapped between him and the low stone wall that encircled the terrace. ‘You should have married me while you had the chance.’

‘I’d sooner swallow poison.’ Kitty tried to edge away from him and tension knotted her stomach when he leaned closer still and rested his hands on the wall on either side of her, effectively caging her in. Five hundred guests were packed into the ballroom less than six feet away, including her three overprotective brothers. She had nothing to fear from Vasilis but she detested his cocky smile and the way he was looking at her as if he was mentally undressing her.

‘Is that so?’ Vasilis gave a sneering laugh. ‘Perhaps you shouldn’t be so hasty, my prim little princess. I was talking to Sebastian just the other day and he confided his concern that you’ll end up on the shelf; a lonely spinster with only her books for company.’

‘I’m twenty-six, not ninety-six,’ Kitty snapped. ‘And I don’t believe for a minute that Sebastian would discuss my private affairs with you.’

‘He’d have great difficulty; you don’t have affairs.’ Vasilis laughed again, clearly proud of his wit. ‘I bet you’re still a virgin, aren’t you, Kitty? Of course, a lot of people think you’re a lesbian,’ he added conversationally. ‘Maybe that’s why Sebastian would like to see you married. With rumours that the Stefani diamond is a fake, and Sebastian delaying his coronation, the gossip is that your Calistan cousin Zakari is laying claim to the throne. The people of Aristo are already unsettled. The Karedes family don’t need another scandal.’

‘There is no scandal! Sebastian is the rightful king and he will be crowned as soon as possible,’ Kitty said fiercely. ‘Zakari Al’ Farisi is the King of Calista but he has no right to Aristo’s crown, or to be the one ruler of the Adamas Islands.’ Kitty wasn’t sure how Vasilis had heard the news the diamond was a fake, but she certainly wasn’t going to confirm the rumour. ‘The people of Aristo have nothing to worry about.

‘As for me ever marrying you—hell will freeze over first!’ Using all her strength, she pushed against Vasilis’s arm until she broke free. ‘Leave me alone, Vasilis. You sicken me. I never told my family about what happened between us out of respect for the affection my father felt for yours. But now Papa is dead and if you ever come near me again I’ll tell my brothers what kind of a man you are, and you will no longer be welcome at the palace.’

‘It’ll be your word against mine,’ Vasilis muttered, but his bravado was short-lived. The Karedeses were a tight-knit family who he knew would close ranks around one of their own. ‘Anyway, do you really think I’d want to marry a woman who’s as sexually responsive as a lump of ice?’ he demanded spitefully. ‘You’ve got some serious hang-ups about sex, Kitty. Maybe you should see a therapist.’

‘I don’t have any hang-ups…’ Kitty ground her teeth in impotent fury as Vasilis grinned and sauntered through the French doors. She stared after him, knowing she should return to the ballroom, but simply unable to face it. Vasilis’s cruel jibes played over and over in her head, compounding her misery that she was a hopeless failure.

She was a princess and she was supposed to be beautiful and glamorous. She was supposed to sparkle at social events and impress everyone with her sophistication and wit, but instead of being the belle of the royal ball tonight she had been mistaken for a waitress. She had never been any good at the whole royal thing, she thought drearily—the pomp and ceremony and waving at crowds—and it had been easier to leave the socialising that was a necessary part of royal life to Liss, and bury herself in the library with her books.

Was that going to be her life? she wondered desperately. Was she going to end up a spinster as Vasilis had prophesied—without love or passion, clinging to the memories of the night a gorgeous, sexy Greek tycoon had almost kissed her? Tears blurred her eyes and misted her glasses, and the sound of music and laughter from the ballroom made her feel lonelier than ever.

With a choked cry she raced down the terrace steps, away from the ballroom, and flew across the lawn. Tonight, when she’d stood at the edge of the ballroom and noted how everyone else seemed to be part of a couple she had faced the fact that she was a lonely, virgin princess, stifled by the formality of royal life. Her brothers and sister seemed to be moving on, but she felt as though she were trapped in a time warp. She had been born at the palace and had always loved it, but suddenly it felt like a prison and she was desperate to be free—to escape a life of duty and find out who Kitty Karedes really was.

She ran through the formal gardens, away from the lights spilling from the ballroom. The perimeter wall of the palace grounds was ten feet tall and built of impenetrable stone, but Kitty knew of the secret gate, half overgrown with climbing roses. In the moonlight she easily found the loose brick in the wall, and the hidden key, and seconds later she fled down a narrow path that led into a small cave at the base of the cliff.

Blow Vasilis Sarondakos and his spiteful tongue! she thought as she scrubbed her eyes. She wasn’t on the shelf; she didn’t have hang-ups about sex, and so what if she was still a virgin at twenty-six? It didn’t make her less of a woman! She kicked her shoes off and wandered down to the water’s edge, soothed by the gentle lap of the waves on the shore. She knew she would not be disturbed here. This little cove was a private beach, and the only way to it was along the path from the palace—a path that few people outside the family knew about.

Moonlight dappled the sea so that it shimmered like a flat silver pool. No one could see her here. She was completely alone, and impulsively she wrenched open the buttons on the hateful black dress and tugged it down over her hips until it dropped onto the sand. She placed her glasses carefully on a rock and pulled the pins from her hair, shaking her head so that her glossy dark chestnut tresses uncoiled and fell almost to her waist.

With each item of clothing she removed she felt as though she were discarding another hurtful jibe. So what if she didn’t have a model-thin figure? Women were meant to have breasts, and she wasn’t ashamed of hers. The silver sea beckoned her; she was already relishing the coolness of it on her skin, and in a moment of defiance against the restrictions of her life she unsnapped her bra, dropped it on top of her dress and stepped out of her knickers before running naked into the water with her hair streaming behind her.

Nikos was not sorry that the royal ball was drawing to an end. He had flown to Aristo from Dubai after a week of intense negotiations, and the eighteen-hour days he’d spent in the boardroom were catching up with him. He liked and admired Prince Sebastian, but he was bored of the other guests’ endless, inane chit-chat, the gossip about who was sleeping with whom, and the unsubtle hints from a number of women that they were willing to go to bed with him.

Maybe he was simply tired of blondes, he mused as he stepped out onto the terrace, a half-full bottle of champagne in one hand and his dinner jacket looped over his shoulder. All evening he had been frustrated by his inability to dismiss the waitress, Rina, from his mind. He hadn’t seen her again after their confrontation in the banqueting hall but he knew he hadn’t imagined the chemistry between them. She intrigued him more than any woman had done for a long time, and he had found himself scanning the ballroom for her, irritated by his disappointment that she seemed to have disappeared.

He strolled through the shadowy gardens. The palace was as amazing as his mother had led him to believe many years ago when she had recounted tales of the time she had worked here before he had been born. As a child he had listened in awe to her description of the huge rooms and opulent décor, and as he’d looked around the cramped, run-down apartment block where they had lived it had seemed impossible that such a grand place existed.

He walked to the far end of the garden and was about to turn back when he recalled a distant memory his mother had told him of a gate in the wall, and a path that led from the palace to the beach. With a faint, self-derisive smile on his lips at his curiosity Nikos took one of the Chinese lanterns that illuminated the path and held it aloft as he walked back to the wall. The gate was tucked into a corner, and well disguised by the rose bushes that grew around it. He pushed it, expecting it to be locked, but when it opened he was sufficiently intrigued to follow the path that led from it.

The ground sloped steeply down until it disappeared between an opening in the rocks. Nikos had to duck his head as he entered the cave. It was dry inside, he noted, when he swung the lantern from side to side. Obviously the tide never came up this far. The air smelled faintly of seaweed and through the cave he could see the sea shimmering silver in the moonlight, but as he emerged onto the beach he stopped abruptly, and his heart kicked in his chest. For a moment he wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him, but the woman standing a few feet away from him was undoubtedly real, and her hourglass figure was instantly recognisable—even without her clothes.

Kitty swam right across the bay and back again with clean, strong strokes and then flipped onto her back and stared up at the moon, and the crystal stars that studded the midnight sky. She felt bold and empowered—as unashamedly naked as Eve had been in the Garden of Eden. There was something wickedly sensuous about the silken slide of the water over her bare limbs. She loved swimming and in the water she felt as light and graceful as a water nymph—at peace with her body instead of hating it for not conforming to the model slender form she had tried, through numerous diets and exercise regimes, to acquire.

Vasilis wouldn’t be so ready to taunt her about her supposed sexual hang-ups if he could see her now, she thought as she turned onto her front and allowed the waves to carry her back to the shore. The beach was shadowed and mysterious in the moonlight. The huge boulders that stood guard at either end of the cove loomed like faceless giants, but despite the darkness and her short-sightedness Kitty could distinctly make out the figure of a man, and her heart almost leapt from her chest.

Dear God! Had Vasilis followed her? Fear uncoiled in the pit of her stomach, a wave caught her unawares and dragged her under, and she bobbed back to the surface gagging from the salt water she’d swallowed but desperate not to cough and attract the attention of the intruder. It had to be Vasilis. Few of the other guests at the ball were aware of the path leading from the palace to the beach, but Vasilis knew about it and had come here several times with her brothers.

The prospect of meeting her tormentor on the secluded beach sent a shiver of trepidation down Kitty’s spine. She had seen the way he’d looked at her on the terrace, his lecherous grin that had changed to anger when she’d made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him. Vasilis would not have dared lay a finger on her outside the ballroom, but here there was no one to help her— or hear her scream.

Clouds drifted across the moon, blotting out its brilliant gleam and plunging the beach into pitch blackness, and, seizing her chance, Kitty tore up the sand and crouched behind a rock. Her breath came in shallow gasps and her heart was pounding when the figure strolled down towards the water’s edge.

‘Hello, Rina,’ he drawled. ‘This is the second time tonight I’ve caught you playing hooky. Shouldn’t you be busy at work at the ball?’

For a few seconds shock rendered Kitty speechless. ‘You!’ she spluttered at last as the clouds above them parted and moonlight danced across Nikos Angelaki’s sculpted features. Attack seemed the best form of defence and although her nakedness forced her to remain behind the rock her voice was sharp when she snapped, ‘Do you know you’re trespassing? This is a private beach.’

‘Indeed it is. It belongs to the royal family, and I have express permission from Prince Sebastian to be here,’ Nikos replied coolly. ‘The only trespasser is you—unless the prince has suddenly opened up the beach for use by the palace staff. Do you have permission to be here, Rina?’

Kitty stared at him wordlessly, not knowing how to answer without revealing her true identity. She was agonisingly aware that she was naked, and she wished a hole would appear at her feet and swallow her up. ‘The party hasn’t finished yet. What are you doing here?’ she mumbled in a voice thick with embarrassment.

In the pearly light cast by the moon she saw Nikos shrug. ‘It was hot in the ballroom, and I decided to walk down to the beach for some fresh air. I could hardly believe my eyes when I came through the cave and caught sight of you.’

‘You should have said something. I believed I was alone,’ Kitty said miserably, burning up with mortification when she recalled how she had stripped out of her clothes. She prayed Nikos had arrived after she had run into the sea, but he swiftly shattered her tenuous hope.

‘I was afraid I’d startle you,’ he drawled. His voice dipped and the amusement in his tone was mixed with something else. ‘Besides, what red-blooded male would have spoken out and risked spoiling the show? I was so careful not to make a sound that I barely drew breath.’ He paused for a heartbeat and then said quietly, ‘Watching you slowly reveal your body was the most erotic experience I’ve ever had.’

In a corner of her mind Kitty registered that the teasing note had disappeared from his voice, and the undisguised sensuality in his deep tone sent a quiver of reaction down her spine. But the idea that she had unwittingly revealed her curvy figure, which she so despised, to him, made her want to weep with shame. ‘You are disgusting!’ she choked. ‘I can just about swallow the line that you didn’t want to scare me, but if you were a gentleman you’d have shut your eyes.’

Nikos’s rich laughter swirled around the empty beach. ‘Ah, but I have never professed to be a gentleman, Rina. I am a pirate, an opportunist who answers to no one, and I do what I please.’ His voice lowered to a sexy growl, ‘And I promise you, agape, you pleased me very much.’

Kitty did not know how to react to that startling statement, and she hugged her arms around herself and peeped warily over the top of the rock.

She was as tempting as a siren from Greek mythology, Nikos owned as he stared at bare shoulders and her mass of dark hair that fell in damp tendrils down her back. But he was not about to admit that he’d been so turned on when he had watched her remove her clothes that he’d almost embarrassed himself.

When he had first seen her, he had assumed that she must have come down to the beach for an assignation with a lover. But no one else had appeared, and if he was honest he’d been so stunned by the sight of her stepping out of her dress and running down to the sea that he had been struck dumb.

Before his eyes Rina had emerged from her cocoon of drab clothes, and he had been riveted by her beauty. Pale fingers of moonlight had illuminated every dip and curve of her body, and tinted her satiny skin with silver brushstrokes. He had held his breath when she’d released her hair and it had tumbled down her back like a river of pure silk, and exhaled sharply when she had unfastened her bra and bared the creamy mounds of her full breasts to his hungry gaze.

His arousal had been instant and uncomfortably hard and his urgency to pillow himself between her soft thighs was still so acute that he was glad of the all concealing dark. It didn’t seem to matter how much he tried to rationalise his reaction to her or remind himself that he liked slim, graceful blondes—and preferably the comfort of a large bed when he made love.

Rina had intrigued him in the banqueting hall earlier, when he had recognised the sizzling chemistry between them. Now, he desired her with a stark, primitive hunger that sent his blood thundering through his veins. He wanted to make love to her here on the sand, beneath the stars, and with a passion that was as wild and elemental as the untamed beach.

CHAPTER THREE

DESPITE the warmth of the night air Kitty was shivering—as much from the shock of Nikos’s sudden appearance on the beach as from her swim. Her hair was hanging in wet coils and her skin was covered in goose-bumps but she reassured herself that her nipples had hardened into tight, tingling peaks because she was cold, not because of her overwhelming awareness of the sexiest man she had ever met.

She gritted her teeth to prevent them from chattering, and wished he would go back to the palace. Her dress was somewhere on the other side of the beach, but she would rather stay behind her rock all night and risk hypothermia than parade naked in front of him. She had already done so once, she acknowledged, blushing furiously again at the memory, but she had been unaware of his presence in the cave. No way was she going to make an exhibition of herself again.

‘Here, put this on while I go and find your clothes.’ Nikos stepped closer and dropped his jacket over the rock, and Kitty seized it gratefully and slipped it on. It was immense on her; the arms were several inches too long and to her relief the hem of the jacket reached to her mid-thighs. The silk lining felt deliciously sensuous against her skin; still warm from the heat of Nikos’s body and carrying the faint musk of his aftershave. She burrowed deeper into the folds and inhaled deeply. She had been short-sighted for most of her life, but, as if to compensate for her poor vision, her other senses were particularly acute and she could detect his clean, male scent.

Molten heat stole through her veins as she imagined him wrapping his arms around her rather than his jacket. She remembered the fantasy she’d had earlier of him making love to her on the banqueting table, and pictured with shocking clarity him stripping out of his own clothes and tumbling her down on the sand. What was the matter with her? Scarlet-cheeked, she lifted her eyes to his, and caught her breath at the flash of fire she glimpsed before his lashes fell and hid his expression. But she had seen the desire in his gaze, and despite her inexperience she had recognised his need and found that it evoked an answering ache inside her.

She shivered again, and this time her whole body trembled—with reaction to Nikos rather than cold. She saw him tense, saw his eyes narrow, and knew that the wildfire awareness between them was terrifyingly real. Incredible though it seemed, Nikos Angelaki—playboy and serial womaniser—found her attractive. For the first time ever in her twenty-six years she felt as though she was a desirable woman, and she wanted to savour the moment—certain that any second now he would blink and realise that she was too short, too plump and too plain to hold his attention for long.

‘You had better wait in the cave, you’ll be warmer there,’ he said, suddenly breaking the silence. His voice sounded so harsh that Kitty wondered what had angered him. He turned and strode away, and Kitty hesitated, her heart hammering, before she stepped from behind her rock and hurried up the beach. Almost instantly he reappeared at her side and caught hold of her arm to swing her round to him. ‘I assume you need these,’ he murmured as he unfolded her glasses and placed them on her nose.

‘Thank you.’ Kitty stared transfixed at his features, which were now sharply defined rather than blurred. Moonbeams highlighted the angles and planes of his incredible bone-structure, and she could not tear her eyes from the firm line of his mouth.

She heard him draw a sharp breath, and she gasped when he slid his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face to his. ‘Hasn’t anyone ever told you it’s dangerous to swim in the sea alone?’ he demanded impatiently. ‘You could have got into trouble in the current, and no one would have known.’ His eyes dropped to her small frame enveloped by his jacket, and he tried unsuccessfully to dismiss the image of her running naked across the sand. ‘Tell me, do you often swim naked in the moonlight?’

‘No, of course not,’ Kitty replied quickly, squirming. It was not entirely the truth, she acknowledged silently. She loathed the sight of her body in a bikini and often came to swim alone in the dark when no one would see her. ‘I know this is a private beach, and I thought I would be undisturbed here,’ she said pointedly. ‘Like you, I came down for some fresh air, but the sea looked so inviting that I was overcome with a mad impulse to…strip off and dive in.’

‘Is that so?’ Nikos’s voice was no longer harsh, but velvet soft, stroking over Kitty’s skin so that each tiny hair on her body stood on end. The chemistry that had been simmering between them since he had appeared on the beach was at combustion point, and her head spun with a dizzying mixture of trepidation and breathless excitement.

‘What are you doing?’ she mumbled when he removed her glasses and put them back in his jacket pocket.

‘Following my own mad impulse,’ he growled, ignoring her shocked gasp when he suddenly jerked her up against his chest. ‘The same impulse we both felt in the banqueting hall. Don’t deny it, Rina,’ he warned silkily when she frantically shook her head from side to side. ‘I saw what was in your mind.’

Recalling her shamefully erotic fantasy, which had involved him sliding his hand beneath her skirt, and touching her where no man had ever touched her before, Kitty prayed he hadn’t. But Nikos was lowering his head towards her, and it seemed to her shell-shocked brain as if everything were happening in slow motion. She tensed, torn between wanting to pull out of his arms and race back to the palace, and another, shocking need to stay and allow him to fulfil the determined intent in his dark gaze.

She moistened her suddenly dry lips with the tip of her tongue—and, watching her, Nikos felt his stomach muscles clench. This had been building since she had stood up to him earlier in the evening. He hadn’t felt such a searing sexual attraction to a woman for a long time, and he dipped his head slowly, savouring the anticipation, and exploring the shape of her lips with his tongue before he claimed her mouth with a hunger he could no longer control.

Until the split second before Nikos slanted his mouth over hers, Kitty hadn’t really believed he would kiss her, but her little gasp of shock was smothered beneath the pressure of his lips firmly coaxing hers apart. He was totally in control and he let her know it with the determined sweep of his tongue as he probed between her lips, demanding access to the moistness within. And she was powerless to stop him; lost from the moment he’d first touched her and caught up in a maelstrom of emotions as she felt the piercing sweetness of intense sexual desire for the first time in her life.

Nikos slid his hand round to Kitty’s nape, tangled his fingers in her hair and tugged gently, angling her head so that he could deepen the kiss. Her response was instant and had a devastating affect on his libido so that he closed his other arm around her waist and dragged her hard up against the solid length of his arousal straining urgently beneath his trousers.

Rina was small and soft, and through his jacket he could feel the outline of her ripe curves that had proved such an unbearable temptation when she had stripped in the moonlight. She smelled of the sea; tasted of it too, he noted when he moved his mouth to her throat and stroked his tongue along her collarbone. He was used to women who wore designer clothes and drenched their skin in expensive perfumes, but there was something earthy, almost pagan, about this woman that struck a chord deep inside him. She was naturally sensual and totally in tune with her femininity, and instinct told him she would be a generous and adventurous lover.

His eyes were drawn to the deep valley of her cleavage and with a tortured groan he claimed her mouth once more, crushing her soft lips beneath his while he slid his hand into the front of his jacket and stroked his fingers lightly over one of her full, firm breasts.

He must have startled her because her whole body jerked with reaction, and, sensing her hesitation, he withdrew his hand, feeling a sharp tug of regret that he was denied the pleasure of caressing the erect point of her nipple. Theos, she was a sorceress; a sea-witch enticing him to forget everything but his desperation to sink his swollen shaft deep within her and possess her, but he could feel the sudden tension that gripped her, and calling on all his will power, he tore his mouth from hers and stared down at her, fighting for breath. ‘This is madness,’ he grated harshly. ‘If either of us had any sense we should return to the palace. But my sanity seems to have deserted me, Rina, so the choice is yours. Will you end this now and go back? Or stay and drink champagne with me in the moonlight?’

It felt like a defining moment in her life, but Nikos had only asked her to drink champagne with him, Kitty reassured herself as she snatched oxygen into her lungs and tried to control the frantic thudding of her heart. He was watching her intently, waiting for her answer, and she gave a little shiver. No man had ever asked her to drink champagne on a beach in the moonlight; no man had ever kissed her the way Nikos had, or stirred the passion that had been locked deep inside her for so long.

After a life spent adhering to duty and protocol Nikos Angelaki was like a breath of fresh air. He was dark and sexy and dangerous to know, but he made her feel daring—and the heat in his eyes made her feel desirable for the first time in her life.

She swallowed and forced herself to meet his gaze, feeling as though she were about to cast herself over the edge of a precipice. ‘I love champagne,’ she whispered shyly, shocked by her temerity.

He made no reply, and for a few agonising seconds she thought he had changed his mind and was going to send her away. But then he relaxed, and his slow smile stole her breath.

‘Come, then,’ he said, holding out his hand. His fingers closed around hers and even that tiny gesture was wonderfully new. She was twenty-six and she had never walked along a beach hand in hand with a lover, she thought despairingly. She didn’t know where the years had gone, but it seemed as though one minute she had been a child and suddenly she was a grown woman who had been so absorbed with her studies and her work for the museum that romance and boyfriends had bypassed her.

She had taken on her share of royal commitments uncomplainingly because that was how she had been brought up: dutiful, obedient, always conscious of her position and grateful for the privileges that came with being a member of the royal family. But Nikos did not know she was a princess; he thought she was a waitress called Rina, and for a few hours she could be normal— just a woman who had met a man and was free to respond to the chemistry that smouldered between them.

The cave was illuminated by a lamp that he must have brought from the garden. The pale beam of light that spilled from it highlighted the sculpted beauty of his face, and Kitty felt a fluttering sensation in her chest as her eyes focused on the sensual curve of his mouth. She hovered uncertainly while he dropped down onto the dry sand, the common sense for which she was famed telling her to go—now—before she did something she would later regret. But her feet seemed to be melded to the floor of the cave, and when he patted the sand next to him she walked slowly forwards.

He held out a bottle of champagne. ‘Here, have some. You’re shivering again. It’s a pity it isn’t brandy, but I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with vintage Bollinger.’ He stretched out so that his lean, hard body was spread temptingly before her. His white silk shirt was open at the throat revealing the tanned column of his throat and a mass of dark body hair that she’d noticed also covered his forearms. He was so male, so overwhelmingly virile, Kitty thought shakily as she sank onto her knees beside him and took the bottle.

‘It doesn’t seem right to drink champagne from the bottle,’ she murmured. ‘It’s very…decadent.’

‘Decadent?’ Nikos’s low rumble of laughter echoed around the cave. ‘What a curious mix of contradictions you are, Rina. You sound as prim as a Victorian governess, and yet you’re happy to go skinny-dipping in the moonlight. Do I need to remind you that you are naked beneath my jacket?’

He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen a woman blush, Nikos mused idly. The sexually confident women he dated were sophisticated game-players long past the first flush of virginal innocence. The thought caused him to frown as he watched Kitty take a sip of champagne. She seemed to be a curious mixture: shy one minute and eagerly responsive to him the next. When he had first kissed her he’d gained the impression that it was a new experience for her, but after her initial hesitation she had parted her mouth beneath his and kissed him back with such fiery passion that he had dismissed the idea.

He didn’t need to remind himself that she was wearing nothing, he acknowledged grimly when she handed him the champagne bottle and he took a long draught. The dinner jacket was far too big for her and fastened so low that he could see the rounded contours of her breasts. He did not know what crazy impulse had made him ask her to stay, and he was already regretting it. He never made rash decisions. Even when he gambled he carefully weighed up the odds before he threw the dice. But for some reason Rina disturbed his cool, logical brain—and disturbed other areas of his body too. He wanted to kiss her again and never stop, but instead he forced himself to relax and tried to ignore the temptation of tasting champagne from her lips.

‘So, Rina,’ he queried lightly, ‘what made you decide to become a waitress?’

Oh, Lord—how did she answer that? ‘I…um, I need to work,’ Kitty mumbled awkwardly, thinking that now might be a good time to bid him goodnight. ‘Like most people, I have to earn a living, and I’m not trained to do anything else.’ She thought of the years she’d spent studying for her degree, and her absorbing work at Aristo’s museum, and tried to imagine what life would be like if she hadn’t had the benefit of an excellent education, and really did have to work in some menial job. She had little idea of life outside her gilded cage, and although she supported various charities she couldn’t imagine what it must be like to be poor. The only experience she’d had of life in the real world was when she had worked as a volunteer at Aristo’s hospital, but, although she had found the work rewarding, her father had disapproved—citing concerns for her safety— and forbidden her from going.

‘Have you always lived on Aristo?’

That was easier to answer, and Kitty nodded. ‘I was born here, and I never want to live anywhere else. Aristo is the most beautiful place on earth.’

Nikos laughed. ‘Have you visited many other places, then—on a waitress’s pay?’

‘Well…no,’ Kitty faltered. She could hardly tell him that she had spent a year travelling around Europe and had visited Paris, Rome, cosmopolitan London, Venice and Florence, followed by six months at an exclusive finishing school in Switzerland. She had been a guest at royal palaces and country mansions, had wandered around fabulous art galleries and been taken on tours of all the famous sights, but nowhere compared to Aristo, the jewel of the Mediterranean. ‘Aristo is my home and I love it here,’ she told Nikos firmly.

Her passion for the island intrigued him, and he wondered why she felt so strongly about it. Was it the place or people that held her heart? ‘Do you have a family here?’ he asked curiously.

What would he say if she revealed that her family had ruled Aristo for generations? Kitty felt as though she were falling deeper and deeper into a mire. She wasn’t lying exactly, she told herself. She just wasn’t telling the whole truth. ‘I have a mother, sister, brothers…’ She faltered, thinking of the person who was missing from the list, and her heart contracted. ‘My father died a few months ago.’

‘I’m sorry.’

It wasn’t a throwaway remark—Kitty heard the note of compassion in Nikos’s voice, and tears, sudden and unbidden, stung her eyes. ‘I miss him so much,’ she admitted thickly. ‘Sometimes I see his face in my mind, hear his voice, and I can’t believe he isn’t here any more.’ She brushed her hand across her wet eyes, and was startled when Nikos captured her fingers in one of his strong hands and traced his thumb pad down her cheek, following the damp trail.

‘I’m sorry.’ She didn’t want to cry in front of him. Her grief was a private matter that she shared with no one, not even her family. She had been especially close to the king, and he had called her his gentle dove, but she had been taught never to display her emotions. One of the golden rules of the royal family was to exert self-control at all times. Embarrassed by her weakness, she tried to draw away from Nikos but he curled his arm around her shoulders and tugged her towards him.

‘Don’t be sorry,’ he said quietly. ‘I know how devastating it is to lose a parent. My mother died many years ago, but I will never forget her. You won’t forget your father, Rina, but the memories will become easier, and eventually you will think of him without the sadness you feel now.’

He smoothed her hair back from her face, and Kitty closed her eyes, soothed by the rhythmic stroking of his fingers. She felt his warm breath on her face and when she lifted her lashes she drowned in the depths of his midnight-dark gaze. He was so strong, so alive, and she wanted to absorb some of his strength because she felt weak and lost and achingly lonely inside.

Tentatively she rested her hand on his chest and felt the steady thud of his heart beneath her fingertips. It was utterly silent in the cave, as if they were cut off from the outside world and were the only two people in the universe. She could hear the sound of Nikos breathing—no longer steady but quicker, like his heartbeat; and she lifted her eyes to his face and stared at him, mesmerised by his masculine beauty.

Nikos knew he should move and break the spell that had been cast on him in the witching hour, but his muscles were locked. In the lamplight the tears that spiked Rina’s lashes glittered like tiny diamonds and the shadow of pain in her eyes moved him. It was more than fifteen years since his mother had died. He had been sixteen, a boy suddenly forced to be a man, but he still remembered the pain in his gut, the feeling that his insides had been ripped out, and the dull acceptance that the only person who had ever loved him had gone.

Rina’s loss was clearly still raw, the unspoken plea in her eyes asked for comfort, and that was all Nikos intended to give when he lowered his head and brushed his mouth softly over hers. For a moment she did not respond, but neither did she pull away and he tasted her again, delicately, offering her the warmth of his body and silently letting her know that he understood the agony of grief. Even when she parted her mouth beneath his and tilted her head back a fraction for him to deepen the kiss he was sure he was in control. But her lips were so beguilingly soft and the temptation to dip his tongue between them and drink the lingering nectar of champagne became overwhelming.

Slowly he tightened his arm around her and slid his hand into her hair. It felt like silk against his skin and his heart began to pound with a thudding drumbeat of desire as he tangled his fingers in the chestnut strands and drew her closer still so that her breasts pushed against the wall of his chest.

Kitty couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment when Nikos’s kiss changed from a gentle caress that soothed her fragile emotions to one of hungry passion that stirred her soul and sent molten heat flooding through her veins. All she knew was that the pressure of his mouth increased and slid over hers with increasing urgency, and his tongue no longer traced the shape of her lips but thrust between them with a fierce demand that made her tremble.

The voice in her head warned her that she was heading into dangerous waters and she should pull back now, before she was swept away. But she did not want to move out of his arms and feel cold and alone again. She wanted him to hold her even closer so that she could absorb the warmth of his body, and she curled her hands around his neck and pressed herself against him, making no protest when he drew her down so that they were stretched out on the sand.

Now they were lying hip to hip, and the unmistakable evidence of Nikos’s arousal jutting against her thighs caused her muscles to tense. This was wrong, very wrong, and it had to stop—now. But when he found her mouth once more in a slow, drugging kiss, she could not help but respond. Just a few more minutes in his arms, and then she would draw away from him, she promised herself. Surely it wasn’t too much to ask—a few passionate kisses with the sexiest man she had ever met before she returned to her lonely life. But now she no longer felt relaxed, she was aware of a restless ache deep in her pelvis, and when he lifted his mouth from hers she gave a little murmur of protest.

‘Theos, Rina!’ Nikos’s ragged voice echoed harshly in the cloistered quiet of the cave. ‘This is insanity. You should leave while I still have some measure of control.’ He stared down at her, his blood thundering in his veins when he saw the dazed passion in her eyes, and said slowly, ‘Because if you do not, I can’t guarantee that I will be able to stop.’

CHAPTER FOUR

NIKOS’S words were an unwelcome intrusion, slicing through the fog that clouded Kitty’s brain. She didn’t want to think, she wanted to feel and touch and lose herself in the world of sensory pleasure that his kisses evoked. She felt as though she were standing on the threshold of some new and wonderful place and Nikos was giving her the choice of stepping through the door, or closing it and turning back. Her mind flew to the royal ball and the loneliness she’d felt as she’d watched the couples on the dance floor. Everyone seemed to have a partner except her. All her friends were getting married and starting families but she had never even had a proper boyfriend. She recalled Vasilis Sarondakos’s cruel taunts that she would end up a virgin spinster, and despair tugged her heart. She didn’t want to be alone any more, and the flames of desire in Nikos’s eyes told her that tonight she didn’t have to be.

Tentatively she touched his face, and traced her finger across his mouth. She could hardly believe she was lying in the dark cave with the sexiest man she had ever met, and that sense of unreality numbed her to everything but her longing for him to kiss her again. Her innate shyness trapped her tongue, but the silent message in her eyes was enough for Nikos, and his chest heaved as he drew a harsh breath. The flare of feral hunger in his dark gaze sent a frisson of trepidation through Kitty, but then she forgot everything but the feel and touch and taste of him as he kissed her with an unrestrained hunger that warned her she had opened Pandora’s box and had better be prepared for the consequences.

The feel of Nikos’s hands brushing lightly against her skin as he unfastened the buttons on his jacket caused Kitty’s heart to jerk frantically beneath her ribs, and doubt flooded through her. The memory of Vasilis roughly pawing her breasts filled her mind, and she tensed, her breath coming in sharp little gasps of panic. But Nikos was not rough, and the glitter of male appreciation in his eyes as he slowly pushed the edges of the jacket apart and revealed the pouting fullness of her breasts sent a shiver of another kind through Kitty. Her panic gradually receded as he gently cupped each breast in his palms and felt their weight and softness.

He muttered something indistinct beneath his breath and colour flared briefly along his cheekbones. ‘Beautiful,’ he said thickly, and stroked his fingertip across one nipple in a feather-light caress. The sensation was so exquisite that Kitty gasped and then closed her eyes and felt the pleasure build when he brushed his thumb pad lightly over the crest of her other breast.

Nikos guided her hands to the front of his shirt and aided her in freeing the buttons. Hands shaking, Kitty pushed the material aside to reveal his broad, muscular chest; olive-gold satin covered with whorls of dark hair that arrowed down over his taut abdomen. He drew her to him and she caught her breath at that very first contact of a hard male chest pressed against the softness of her breasts. It felt so good, so right, and so very seductive that she burrowed closer still, loving the strength of his arms around her as he found her mouth once more and kissed her until she was breathless.

Nikos had convinced himself that he was in control and that he would only allow things to go so far before he called a halt. He had occasionally had one-night stands: brief, mutually satisfying encounters with sexually confident women who, like him, wanted to answer a basic need without the complication of emotions. But those occasions had always been on his terms and, although the sex had invariably been enjoyable, he had never been driven by uncontrollable desire. For reasons he did not understand Rina was different. The raging need he felt to make love to her had never happened before and he was shocked to realise that he couldn’t fight it.

Perhaps it was because she was so amazingly responsive and so unguarded in her pleasure when he caressed her? Frustrated by his inability to resist her, he gave her a hard, almost angry kiss, but she responded with such sweet passion that he gave up battling with himself and eased the pressure of his lips until the kiss evolved into a sensual tasting that became increasingly erotic. When she was utterly pliant in his arms he trailed his mouth lower, following the path of his hands to her breasts and drew lazy circles with his tongue around one nipple until it hardened to a taut peak.

The sensation of Nikos’s mouth on her breast was indescribable, and when he drew her nipple fully into his mouth Kitty instinctively arched her back. She curled her fingers into his hair and gave a soft cry, shifting her hips restlessly beneath him as the tugging sensation on her breast became unbearably exquisite.

‘Nikos…’ His name left her lips as a whimpered plea and she tossed her head from side to side when he transferred his mouth to her other swollen crest and metered the same delicious torture.

He growled something she did not catch, but his intention became clear when he unfastened the last button of his jacket and spread the material to reveal the faint curve of her stomach and the triangle of dark curls clustered at the junction between her thighs. He moved so that he was kneeling above her, and Kitty blushed when he trailed his eyes deliberately down her body. The knowledge that he had watched her undress earlier was no help. She had been unaware of his presence, and even beneath the bright moon she must have been partly in shadow. Now she was completely exposed to him. No man had ever seen her body before, and desperate shyness, combined with her insecurities about her figure, caused her to try and shield herself with her hands.

It was time to end this craziness, Nikos acknowledged, trying to ignore the stomach-dipping sense of disappointment that clawed at his insides. He couldn’t quite comprehend how they had got to this point. He’d had no intention of actually having sex with the waitress he’d met only hours before, but she was so sexy she would tempt a saint, let alone a mortal man who was burning up with sexual frustration.

But Rina had tensed, he could sense her uncertainty, and it would be unfair of him to try and persuade her to take their passion to its ultimate conclusion—even though he was certain that with patience and restraint he could arouse her to a level where she would willingly make love with him. Another moment and he would refasten the jacket and bring them both back down to reality, he told himself. He took a deep breath, nostrils flaring as he fought for control, but he could not resist stroking his hand lightly over her stomach, and then lower.

Her thighs were silky smooth, and he caught her faint gasp when he brushed his fingers through her silky curls. ‘Why do you want to hide yourself from me?’ he murmured huskily. ‘You have a beautiful body, Rina. I’m sure you can be in no doubt that I’m massively turned on by you,’ he added self-derisively, knowing that she could hardly miss the throbbing hardness of his erection pressed against her thigh.

‘Are you?’ her breathy little voice whispered in the silent cave and Nikos stiffened, thinking that she was taunting him. But there was no hint of teasing in the big brown eyes that were focused on him. She reminded him of a timid deer that was poised for flight, and yet, with gentle handling, might stay and allow him closer.

‘What do you think?’ he said quietly as he took her hand and laid it over the bulge beneath his trousers. He watched her eyes widen, her pupils hugely dilated, and could not resist lowering his head and kissing her softly swollen mouth. The feel of her lips parting beneath his threatened to shatter his self-control, and, tempted beyond bearing, he slid his hand between her legs and delicately probed the tightly closed edge of her femininity. Her whole body jerked with reaction, and he thought for a moment that she would reject him, but then she slowly relaxed, and his blood thundered in his veins when he gently parted her and discovered the unmistakable evidence of her arousal.

Kitty’s heart was beating so fast that she was sure it would burst through her chest as she felt Nikos part her, and she caught her breath when he slowly inserted a finger between her silken folds. She could feel the betraying dampness between her legs and was embarrassed that he would know she was aroused, but he gave a low growl of satisfaction and eased deeper inside her while his thumb pad found the tight little nub of her clitoris and tenderly stroked across it with devastating effect.

‘Oh…’ The shock of experiencing her first intimate male caress caused Kitty to cry out. The feel of Nikos’s finger moving inside her was bliss, rapture beyond anything she had ever imagined, and she trembled as intense sensations rippled through her. To her untutored body it seemed impossible that there could be more, that she wasn’t already at the peak, but the ache deep inside her was growing ever more demanding, and following an instinct as old as time she tried clumsily to pull him down on top of her.

‘Wait, agape.’ His voice was hoarse, as if he too was no longer in control of himself and was driven by a deeply ingrained, basic need that could no longer be denied. Kitty did not know how he divested himself of his clothes without her being aware of it, but suddenly he was naked and he spread the edges of his jacket that she was still wearing wide open and came down on her, the rough hairs that covered his thighs and abdomen feeling slightly abrasive against her skin. She felt the jutting length of his penis press into her belly—so shockingly rigid and alien to her that her eyes flew open and she stared up at him as he loomed over her, and swallowed at the hard gleam in his eyes.

What on earth was she doing? Was she really going to allow Nikos—a man she had never met until tonight—to make love to her? A tremor ran through her. She shouldn’t be here, should never have allowed the fiery attraction between them to burst into flame. Nikos was a notorious playboy and she was a princess from the royal house of Karedes—yet even knowing that it was wrong, she acknowledged with searing honesty that she didn’t want Nikos to stop.

‘I bet you’re still a virgin.’ Vasilis’s sneering voice echoed in her head, and rebellion flared in her heart. She was twenty-six, and it was time she became a woman, but out of fairness to Nikos she knew she must confess her inexperience.

‘Nikos,’ she whispered faintly, ‘I think I should tell you…’ But the rest of her words were lost beneath his mouth as he claimed her lips in a searing, soul-shattering kiss that dismantled the last of her doubts and fears.

‘Tell me what?’ he muttered. ‘You’re not on the Pill—is that it? Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.’ The sensual smokiness of his voice wrapped around Kitty like a cocoon, and she was only dimly conscious of him reaching into his jacket pocket and donning protection with a swift efficiency that spoke of plenty of practice. Then he came down on her once more, settled his hard, muscular body between her thighs, and she could feel the pulsing thickness of his shaft press impatiently against her opening.

This was it, the moment she had wondered about all of her adult life, and she still couldn’t quite believe that it was going to happen. Her heart was galloping, her breath coming in short, shallow pants, and suddenly her nerve deserted her and she tried to bring her legs together. But she was too late, Nikos was already surging forwards, and he gently but firmly pushed her thighs apart and entered her with one deep, powerful thrust that brought a shocked cry from Kitty’s lips.

‘Theos!’ He stilled instantly and stared down at her, his brows lowering in a harsh frown. ‘Your first time? How can it be?’ Nikos demanded in stunned incomprehension. He began to withdraw from her, but now that Kitty was over the first shock of penetration her muscles were stretching around him and the brief pain was fading. She loved the new and wondrous sensation of having him fill her completely, and the restless ache inside her was once again clamouring to be assuaged.

‘Don’t stop…please.’ She clung to his shoulders, urging him down again, and, sensing his indecision, she wrapped her legs around him, inviting him to push into her once more. It was an invitation he couldn’t refuse and with a muttered imprecation he surged forward, taking it slower this time, but the power of each ensuing thrust was no less intense and Kitty arched beneath him and gave herself up to the pleasure of feeling him move within her.

Deeper, harder, Nikos was aware that he was losing control, and he slipped his hands under her and cupped her bottom, lifting her so that he could plunge deeper still, setting a rhythm that was fast and frantic as he took them both to the edge.

The burning ache in her pelvis was unbearable now, and Kitty felt as if something inside her were being stretched until it could be stretched no more and it would snap at any second. ‘Please…’ She couldn’t stand it any longer. It had to happen, now. She curled her fingers into the sweat-dampened hair at Nikos’s nape and clung to him while he drove into her again and again, taking her higher and increasing her excitement with every stroke.

And suddenly, when she was trembling and desperate, he gave one more devastating thrust, and the dam burst. A tidal wave of pleasure swept through her as her muscles contracted in pulse after pulse of exquisite sensation, and the ripples radiated out until every inch of her body was suffused in ecstasy. Almost simultaneously she heard the low groan that seemed to be ripped from his throat and felt the great shudders that tore through him as he reached his own release. He slumped on top of her and she felt his heart slamming in his chest.

In a protective gesture as old as womankind she crossed her arms over his back and cradled him on her breasts, holding him tight for those few moments while he was at his most vulnerable. Tears filled her eyes and tenderness swamped her heart. He had just given her the most incredible experience of her life and in the aftermath she felt as though their souls as well as their bodies had been as one. It seemed impossible that he did not feel it too. But too soon he raised himself onto his elbows and stared down at her, the gleam in his eyes no longer caused by passion, but anger, as he demanded, ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?’

Kitty took one look at Nikos’s grim expression and swiftly dismissed the idea that the intense passion they had just shared had meant anything more to him than a physical release of lust. This feeling that their souls had meshed and were now inextricably entwined was an illusion brought on by the intensity of her first sexual experience, and the coldness in his eyes warned her he did not share her fantasy.

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