Eleni sat back against the soft leather, struggling to hide her reaction. She had no inkling that Gabriel paid any attention to the things she said. And she couldn’t help the warmth that stole through her that he did.
He cleared his throat and looked up, a slight rasp in his throat. “Although I must admit I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite so sexy—” his eyes gleamed dark in the intimacy of the limo “—I would prefer my fiancée with her head intact for the wedding.” He leaned ahead on the seat, his long legs bracing hers on either side, crowding her with that masculinity of his. “Why, Eleni?”
She shrugged. “I felt like a change.”
He arrested her with his hands on her wrists when she would have retreated farther into the leather. “How do you think I will give you what you want if you flinch every time I touch you?”
Eleni forced herself to relax, knowing he was right. “I... I’m just not used to constantly being touched. And I wore the damn heels because I’m tired of feeling so short next to you. As if I could forget it, the media reminds me incessantly of how different I am from your usual type.”
“But I like how you feel against me, Princesa. So fragile and small. My masculinity feels stroked around you.”
She snorted. “Your masculinity hardly needs to be stroked, Gabriel.”
He threw his head back and laughed.
Like everything he did, even that was sexy. Crinkles spread out from his gray eyes, which danced with humor. “No, I don’t think so. But other parts, yes.”
Eleni blushed so profusely she felt like there should be flames coming out of her ears.
“Believe me, Princess. Not a single woman I’ve ever known could match that lovely blush of yours. This modern world of equality has made me unaware of how attractive a woman’s shy blushes and stammering denials are.”
“I don’t stammer,” she burst out, efficiently giving herself away.
Anything else she might have vehemently denied died on her lips when his outstretched hand held a small velvet box.
“Open it, Eleni,” he said with an edge of impatience after she’d stared it for several seconds.
Eleni slowly opened it and promptly lost her breath.
A sapphire sat in a princess setting surrounded by tiny diamonds that reflected the sun’s rays. It was the most exquisite ring she’d ever seen, and as a member of the House of Drakos, Eleni had seen her share.
It wasn’t ostentatious with the stone overpowering the setting. It wasn’t a status symbol. It wasn’t a ring she’d have expected a man like Gabriel Marquez, a man who proclaimed to the world what and who he was with every breath, to buy for his fiancée.
“You do not like the ring.”
Eleni closed her fingers over his wrist just as he was about to shut the box. Breath punched in and out of her throat at the graze of the hair on his wrists against her palm.
“It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.” Breathless and vulnerable. Desperate and so painfully hopeful. Despite every warning that this was just an arrangement, her heart drummed against her rib cage. “I’m trying to rack my brain as to whether I’ve ever mentioned to any media outlet that sapphires are my favorite.”
“I asked your sister-in-law.”
She jerked her gaze to his. “You asked Mia?”
He shrugged. “It was actually Angelina’s idea. That I get you something you’d like and appreciate. That women want to be given beautiful things. Apparently, I need relationship advice from my twelve-year-old daughter if I want to keep you happy.”
Eleni tried to bat away the warmth that immediately flooded her. “It is good that you two have something to discuss. Finally.”
“Oh, believe me, my twelve-year-old daughter is not only chock-full of advice but questions too. Even your brothers, I’d say, are not quite the champions of you that Angelina is.”
“What do you mean?”
“She demanded to know why I was marrying you while declaring that you deserve someone far better than an unfeeling, workaholic like me.”
When he stared at her pointedly, Eleni shook her head. “As much as I hate your guts sometimes, I would never say such a thing about you in front of her. But...”
“Nikandros has no such reservations and Angelina has such a crush on him that everything he says is the truth to her.” Eleni nodded with a smile, and he sighed.
“If you start talking about how she’s growing up, I’ll... I think our conversation about you is the first real one we’ve ever had. The longest too.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Angelina’s too smart to be deceived. So I told her one version of truth.”
“Which is?”
“That I was thirty-six years old and settling down with a wife wasn’t a bad idea, especially if it made her feel secure and loved. That a marriage with shared goals is the only one I could tolerate. That your alleged saintly nature made you the best candidate for the position.”
“Saintly nature?”
“Apparently, you’re not only a wonderful friend, but also a model sister, daughter, a patroness of children’s charities and a superb equestrian.” His mouth snarled into a cynical curve that twisted the truth of his words. As if she was somehow cheating the world into believing an illusion. “I was hard-pressed to accept that I deserved to marry such a model of righteousness.”
“I’m neither dull nor a saint, Gabriel. The urges I feel when I’m with you will attest to that.”
“Like wanting to climb atop me right this minute and ravish me with that lush mouth of yours?”
She sputtered and stammered, not getting one lucid word out for a few seconds. The man was such an inveterate rogue. “Like wanting to thump you every time you use the attraction between us to gain the upper hand.”
His languid mouth twitching, he took her hand in his and slipped the ring onto her finger. Eleni’s throat felt like it was made of glass as the sapphire winked at her in the low lights of the limousine.
It was for show, she told herself, for the world, for the media, for outward appearances. Yet, it was the first time a man had made a commitment to her and the moment stole what breath was left in her lungs. She gathered her buffeted emotions together as he rubbed her knuckle with his finger, a thoughtful look on his face.
She left her hand in his through sheer effort, her heart racing in her chest. “Thank you, Gabriel. The ring...even if it was Angelina’s idea, it’s very thoughtful. I know that I’m dragging you to the altar.”
“In business, we adhere to the strictest standards because customer satisfaction is the primary goal. Not a profit margin, not whether the next contract lands in your pile. I will do everything in my power to give you everything you want and need, and that will ensure that you will do your best with Angelina. Simple common sense. So tell me, are you dragging me, Princesa, or am I dragging you to the altar in two weeks?”
“Two weeks? I’m not even sure whether Andreas got the message I sent. I can’t marry without him present.”
“I’m a businessman first and foremost. I can’t let deals wait for anyone. And you do not need Andreas’s blessing when you’re the one who’s saving Drakon from the big bad wolf. I’m aware how much work there is to be done with Angelina and me, and I will not give you a chance to back out. Andreas is busy chasing a ghost. And anyway, once we marry, Angelina will be your priority, not your brothers.”
The ring cold on her finger, Eleni stared at him. Why did she keep forgetting that this was a transaction for him, albeit an important one? He didn’t think of her as a woman to woo, only a mother for his daughter.
His cold analysis pinched like the tiniest shard of glass stuck in one’s hand. “Will I be asked to give you a review once you hold up your end of the deal too? Because I would like some kind of scale and advance notice if I’m to rate your...performance.”
This time, his laughter only made her feel cold and alone.
She needed to remember that, despite the soft edges she’d seen in him, Gabriel had as much heart as her cold and controlling father. He saw her only as the means to an end.
If she’d been a romantic, then her hopes and dreams would have turned to so much dust by now. Good thing that between her father’s cruelty and Spiros’s desertion, Eleni had long ago squashed any such hopes.
CHAPTER FIVE
THEIR WEDDING FEAST was held in the Rose room at the Drakon Palace, hosted by his now brother-in-law, Nikandros, and his wife, Mia.
Gabriel took a champagne flute and raised it in a gesture toward him. Nothing, however, could shake that creeping sense that his life was a little less in his control since he and the Princess had come to their neat little arrangement.
In two weeks, she’d made sure he and Angelina had had dinner every night, forced them to at least look at each other. The Princess herself had, of course, been the perfect buffer.
Angelina still had to be dragged to these dinners, he knew, but at least when she got there, she participated in the conversation, especially if Eleni asked her something.
He, who had never believed in anything that defied logic, had to admit that there was something of magic in his bride’s eyes when she joined hands with him and smiled up at him with those beautiful brown eyes.