The Wealthy Greek's Contract Wife(14)

Ilios surveyed them, noting that there were far more by the door than there were on the floor beside the bed.

‘They didn't fit? You didn't like the style?' His voice sharpened   slightly. He still didn't know why he had changed his mind at the last   minute and told the concierge service to select clothes for a woman who   preferred discreet stylishness to clothes that were sexy.

This wasn't the kind of man who liked being proved wrong-about anything,   Lizzie acknowledged, even when it was the dress size of a woman he had   only just met. Because he felt that he was being judged and found   wanting? Because it was important to him to prove himself as a success   in every aspect of his life? Because inside there was still a part of   him that had grown up knowing that his father had been sacrificed for a   building, with all the fear for his own safety and security that must   have caused? Stop feeling sympathetic towards him, she warned herself.   It will only make things worse.

‘No, they were perfect-both in fit and style,' she assured him.

‘So why are you sending them back?'

‘I don't need them, and … Well, they were far too expensive. The kind of   clothes I could never afford. I would have preferred it if the clothes   had been less expensive.'

It took Ilios several seconds to adjust his own thinking and judgement   to her words. A woman who genuinely did not want a man to spend money on   her? Who did she think she was kidding? Ilios didn't believe that such  a  woman existed.                       
       
           



       

‘You will not be living the kind of life you normally live. As my   fiancée and then my wife I expect you to dress and behave as the kind of   woman those who know me would expect me to marry. You must think of   yourself as an actress and these clothes as your props. You will not   feel confident amongst my friends if you are not dressed appropriately.'

‘Clothes are only window dressing. True confidence comes from a person's   belief in themselves as someone of value,' Lizzie felt bound to point   out gently.

‘I agree,' Ilios told her unexpectedly. ‘But we live in a society in   which we are judged by those who do not know us on our outward   appearance. For my wife to be seen in chainstore clothes could cause the   kind of gossip that might well ultimately lead to speculation in the   press that Manos Cosntruction is in financial difficulty. It isn't just   my own wealth that depends on the continued success of my business. It   is the jobs of all those who work for me. In business, a good  reputation  can be ninety per cent of one's success-lose that and you  stand to lose  everything. You must know that.'

There was enough truth in what he was saying for Lizzie to nod her head.

‘I have brought a selection of rings in different styles and sizes for   you to look at. Whichever one you choose can be sized properly for you.'

Recognising that Ilios was waiting for her to precede him out of the   room, Lizzie edged her way past the end of the bed, so desperate to   avoid accidentally coming into physical contact with him that she bumped   into the bed itself and half stumbled, provoking exactly what she had   feared. Ilios reached out to steady her, his hand resting firmly  against  her waist. His attention, though, was focussed on the floor.  Following  his gaze, Lizzie's heart sank. There, lying on the floor at  his feet,  was the corset she had been looking at earlier, which she  must have  dislodged as she stumbled. Still holding her waist, Ilios  bent down and  picked it up. He looked at it.

‘It's going back,' Lizzie told him immediately. ‘I couldn't possibly wear it.'

Ilios looked at her. ‘Why not?'

‘Well, for one thing it's not the type of thing I would wear, and for   another I'd need someone to fasten it for me-it laces up at the back,'   she explained. ‘And that means that I'd need … '

‘A man?' Ilios supplied for her.

‘Another pair of hands,' Lizzie corrected him. The warmth of his hand on   her waist was causing havoc inside her body. An entire quiverful of   tiny, fiery darts of sensual pleasure seemed to have been discharged   into her body, unleashing a thousand pinpoints of sensory   reaction-rivulets of female need that were speedily flowing into one   another to form a dangerously fast-flowing flood of physical desire.

Inside her head that desire was painting dangerous images. As though by   magic what she was wearing had been removed and she was reclothed in  the  satin underwear she had been admiring before Ilios had arrived. At  the  same time, equally magically, Ilios's hand was stroking from her  hip up  to her breast, whilst his lips caressed the equally eager curve  where  her shoulder met her neck and his free hand slid into the  silk-satin to  cup the rounded flesh of her bottom.

Frantically Lizzie wrenched her attention away from what was going on   inside her head. Ilios was a very attractive man, and it had been a very   long time since she had …  Well, it had been a very long time. But that   did not give her imagination carte blanche to indulge itself with those   kind of totally impossible scenarios-especially in view of what he had   said to her about what he did and didn't want from their relationship.

Lizzie pulled herself free of Ilios's hold and headed for the door,   leaving Ilios to look thoughtfully at the corset and then at her   disappearing back view, before dropping the corset onto the bed and   turning to follow her.


‘These are the rings. I asked the jeweller to send a variety for you to choose from.'

Lizzie's eyes widened as she looked down at the rings in the large leather case that Ilios had opened.

There were solitaires in a variety of shapes and cuts, coloured diamonds   surrounded by diamonds, diamonds surrounded by diamonds-so much, in   fact, that the light reflected from the rings almost dazzled her.

‘They're all beautiful,' she told Ilios. ‘But they're so … so eye-catching and big. Couldn't I have something smaller?'

‘How much smaller?' Ilios asked dryly.

Lizzie pointed to one of the rings and told him, ‘About a quarter of the size of that one. And plain. Just a solitaire.'                       
       
           



       

‘Something more like this, do you mean?' he asked, reaching into his   pocket and removing a small box which he opened to reveal a plain,   perfectly plain solitaire set in what Lizzie assumed must be platinum,   on a narrow platinum band.

Ilios didn't really know why he had noticed the ring, nor what it was   about it that had made him think of Lizzie, never mind why he had asked   for it to be boxed separately, but he could see from Lizzie's  expression  how she felt about it.

The ring was so simple and so perfect that Lizzie fell in love with it immediately.

‘Exactly like that,' she told him.

Ilios removed the ring from the box and held it out to her, and for some   reason-automatically, really, without thinking about what she was   doing-rather than take it from him Lizzie extended her finger towards   him instead.

Ilios looked at her, and she looked back at him, and a quiver of   something age-old and beyond logic shot through her. Neither of them   spoke. Instead Ilios curled his fingers round her wrist and then slowly   slid the ring onto her wedding ring finger.

It fitted her perfectly. It looked and felt as though it had been made for her-as though it had been meant for her.

‘It's perfect.'

Emotion choked her voice and stung her eyes. The ring was an age-old   symbol of human love and commitment, given to bind a couple together,   and suddenly it seemed to possess a significance that touched her far   more deeply than she had expected.

‘I wasn't expecting you back until later. You said you had a lunch   engagement.' How strained and vulnerable she sounded-like someone   desperately trying to make polite conversation as a means of covering up   the huge, yawning dangerous pit that had suddenly opened up in front  of  them.

‘The lunch was cancelled.' He was not going to tell her that he was the one who had done the cancelling.

‘This gallery-opening you said we'd be attending this evening, will it-?' Lizzie began

‘It will be a high-profile media event-lots of society faces and   photographers,' Ilios interrupted. ‘Lots of gossip and champagne-you   know the kind of thing. I have to go. I've got a site meeting in half an   hour.'