Contractually Wed

Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

A POLLO STOOD IN his private office and watched as the junior architect team surrounded his wife, peering over her modifications to his initial designs for an eco-resort in one of the Aegean Islands. Her enthusiasm and wit made them swarm to her like bees to honey and it had been so since day one. His staff didn’t know he was watching them from within his office and never before had he felt the need to.

He was not a man given to impulses, detours and illogical actions but ever since he’d seen her snoring in his favorite armchair, every rule he’d lived by was suddenly moot.

In the weeks since they’d arrived in Athens, he still hadn’t told his family that he and his shiny new bride were here. It wasn’t a conscious decision or even the strangest thing he’d done either.

Jia had looked exhausted when they’d arrived at his penthouse in Athens late into the night. Without sparing him a glance, she had moved into the guest bedroom and closed the door.

He wasn’t used to having women in his personal space and while a part of him had been relieved that she wasn’t going to encroach on his, a part of him felt increasingly restless with each passing night, knowing she was under the same roof. He wanted her next to him, beneath him, where he could explore all those tattoos day and night.

Now that she’d taken it away, he realized how charming and addicting her easy honesty could be. He hadn’t slept well in days now, the fact that he’d hurt her sitting like a weight on his chest.

Which was illogical in itself.

He’d never once cared about how abrupt and aloof he came off to his partners. Work had always been his number one priority and it should be now too. And he was damned if he apologized for something he’d had to do. Better she learn that there were some things he wouldn’t tolerate.

To break the ice, he’d brought her into work that first morning, into the offices of his architect firm and introduced her as his latest hire and not his wife. He had a reputation for drawing talent from all over the world.

He’d been eager to see her in action, to see if she was truly as good as she’d painted herself to be. And in the meanwhile, she would thaw and realize that it was ridiculous to freeze him out when he was looking out for her. That he’d give her what she’d so brazenly demanded if only she admitted that he was right.

Now, three weeks later, Apollo had to concede that she was as stubborn as him, if not worse. Not once in three weeks had she smiled at him or let loose one of her sarcastic comments that put him on edge, or brought up their deal in any way.

If anything, watching her parade in his designer shirts—he’d no idea when she’d filched his stuff—and booty shorts that showcased her long legs and round ass as she cooked breakfast every morning, or those silk slips in the evenings while she played video games in his living room, was slowly driving him out of his mind.

He’d never before cohabitated with a woman, so the experience was unique enough. But wanting a woman’s attention and being treated as less than a dust mote was...something else.

Even the shopping spree he’d forced on her on day three by inviting a team of designers with their latest couture collection hadn’t thawed her. Usually, it was what he used when his sisters got upset with him. But, instead of enjoying the experience, Jia had simply chosen skinny jeans and lacy tops in different colors, added a couple of work jackets when the stylist commented that her lacy tops might not be suitable for work attire. The whole thing had been done in thirty minutes.

For a woman who wore the same thing over and over, her stuff took over his home. Hairpins, earrings, bottles of dark nail polish and chocolate wrappers...he couldn’t walk out of his bedroom without seeing her plastered all across his home.

At work though, she was polite and direct, forever calling him Mr. Galanis in a saccharine sweet tone that grated. With everyone else, her smiles, her words, her actions...were genuine. Enough to turn him into a grumpy bastard with his staff.

If there had been any doubts about her talent, she’d ground them into dust. She wasn’t just brilliant but innovative, with a fresh outlook toward how living and working spaces should and would look for a younger generation. She had not only fit in well with the team, but in the short time frame of three weeks, she’d made herself its locus.

Everyone swarmed to her—men and women, old and young—and Apollo knew she was an asset on many levels. And yet that word felt cheap and reductive. He wondered what it said that she had sold herself to him as such and that he had taken her on as such.

A sudden burst of laughter brought his head up. One of his brilliant young hires—though Jia was the youngest—a man named Paulo from Italy, had his hand on her shoulder and whispered something into her ear. The more he wanted to go out there and pull Paulo’s hand away from Jia, the more Apollo resisted the urge. It would only embarrass her and the team. Christos , he was thirty-nine years old. He should have a better handle on his baser instincts.

She hadn’t even asked him why he’d hidden the fact that they were married. Instead, she’d simply gone along with it and the lack of protest bothered him even more. Was this how Jay had treated her too and she’d simply given in to keep the peace?

The idea of her not fighting him and his dictates made Apollo’s stomach knot. As did the idea that she thought he was the same as her father.

Outside his office, Jia smiled at Paulo, replied in English and slipped out from under his hold. When Paulo would have insisted, she flashed her ring at him, a gentle rebuke on her lips. Paulo raised his palms, said something that made her blush and then with what looked like genuine regret, put distance between them.

Having had enough of gawking at her like some lovesick fool, Apollo reached for the door. Even the realization that she had somehow won this battle between them wasn’t enough to stop him. He would eventually win the war, he told himself.

Right now, what he wanted more than winning was to kiss his wife until she couldn’t ignore him anymore.

Summoned to his office, as if she was nothing more than one of his minions.

He’d never before singled her out during the day. Was he going to get rid of her already? Jia’s stomach swooped. Around her, smiles wavered and encouraging comments multiplied. He’d been a demanding, irrational beast for the past week and they didn’t even know the half of it.

With each step, Jia felt like a rabbit braving the lion’s den. Worse, a foolish, horny rabbit who was ready to beg the lion to consume her whole. Because, damn...living with the man while not claiming wifely rights was like being shown an array of specialty doughnuts but forbidden from tasting.

In the first week, she’d seen it as a reprieve from him, from their arrangement, from her own roller-coaster wants and emotions. Even as an opportunity to prove her worth to him, because that’s what this deal was about. Her work was the only reason she was Mrs. Apollo Galanis. His secrecy, while it had surprised her, had also been another reprieve, from his family, the media and the world.

In a way, he’d given her a gift she hadn’t wanted or known that she needed.

His Grumpy Assness would no doubt take it away if he knew how much she enjoyed the carefree anonymity of being completely herself. Of being only Jia , with a chance to prove her mettle, to find a place among her coworkers by her own merit, to be free of patterns and needs that had been cemented over a lifetime. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t her father’s unwanted daughter, or a resentful brother’s sister, or even a protective one, and didn’t have to pussyfoot at work or home.

It was only now, away from home and New York, that Jia understood how much her family took up space in her head and her heart. And it was a harsh reminder that Apollo was no different from any of them, except that he was up-front about her value to him.

She’d have even counted the last three weeks as some of the best of her life, if not for the tense evenings and rife mornings with Apollo. Seeing him walk into the kitchen at the crack of dawn, his hair disheveled from sleep, his muscled chest naked, his pajamas hanging low on his hips, made him even more appealing. As if she needed the reminder that the man was sexy in every dimension. If it was power that rolled off him in Armani suits, it was an earthy, easy masculinity that dripped from him in casual clothes.

But she’d found a way to use those awkward, charged encounters to her benefit too. Especially once the thought snuck into her mind that he was hiding her from the world because he was ashamed of her. It wasn’t quite a jump since he said he’d made a mistake in choosing her, straight to her face.

Their awareness of each other was bigger than either of them. So she flaunted herself in his oversize dress shirts—even after he’d bought her clothes—took over every inch of his precious penthouse and generally made herself impossible to ignore when he came home.

But she had no idea if any of her ploys to get under his skin had worked.

“Lock the door behind you,” he said now as she entered his office, his back to her.

It sounded ominous enough that Jia did so with a mounting heartbeat. But no, he wasn’t allowed to see how easy she was for him. Never again. She took a deep breath, and donned her armor before turning around. “Did I pass the test?”

He was leaning against the large mahogany desk, his long legs thrown out in front of him. His office was vast with two different sitting areas, and yet it was dwarfed by him. Tie and jacket gone, his unbuttoned shirt gave her a glimpse of a chest covered in whorls of hair. His hair looked like someone had run their fingers through it, messing it up. He looked like he could belong in a boardroom or a photoshoot, that easy grace radiating off him.

Any hope that he’d reached the end of his tether died when she met his crystalline gray eyes. He looked as inscrutable and unshaken as ever.

“What test?” he said in a voice that rumbled down her spine. It was the first time in three weeks that they were alone together, addressing each other, making eye contact. All the reassurances Jia had tried to tell herself that he wasn’t all that irresistible melted away.

“These three weeks at work...you wanted to make sure I wasn’t lying.”

“I simply wanted to see how you work with a team.”

“And?” she said, eager for praise.

“You let everyone’s opinions into your head. A little more discernment and a little less people-pleasing would work better for your individual—”

“It’s called being a team player,” she cut in, ire dancing on her skin.

“Doesn’t mean you let all these narrow-minded people dilute your vision. You’re brilliant, Jia, and sometimes, you have to be ruthless to give it rein, to meet your full potential.”

Whatever protest she’d been about to offer on principle died on her lips. Warmth and a dizzy kind of joy fizzed through her. “That’s high praise from the enemy,” she said, when she felt his gaze move over her mouth with an intensity that scorched.

“Is that how you still see us?” he asked, straightening.

“Enemies who’ve made a deal, yes,” she said, pressing her palm to her belly, as if she could stop the flutters there. “Believe me, it’s better that way.”

“You’re still angry with me, then?”

What the hell did the man want from her? Why did he care if she was? He’d made it clear that she or her finer feelings didn’t matter to him in the big scheme of things.

He simply wanted the truth, Jia , whispered the soft, vulnerable underbelly she always tried to protect.

“Of course not.” When he raised a brow, she gave him the truth. At least a part of it. “Let’s say I’m not blinded by my attraction to you anymore.”

“Because I used it against you?”

“Why ask me when you know all the answers?”

He rubbed a long finger over his thick brow, sudden tension emanating from his broad frame. “I ask because I don’t have all the answers. And I don’t like not knowing.”

“I imagine that would bother the all-knowing Apollo Galanis.” Sarcasm dripped from every word. “What is it that you don’t get?”

“Why did it hurt you this much? By your own admission, chemistry is not a big deal.”

She looked away and then he was there, too close. Her nostrils filled with his cologne and sweat, the air around her suddenly warm with his body heat. His fingers landed on her cheek again. It took everything she had to not lean into the touch, to not give herself over into his hands.

Two fingers became his whole palm. He clasped her jaw and tilted her face up. Warm lights flickered in gray eyes, reminding her of her favorite lighthouse on the bay back home. “Why?”

Something about the way he said the one word got under her skin. She licked her lips, willing her body to stay strong. “Everything else between us is for others. You and my father and Rina and the company and that decades’ old revenge, all of it is tainted and twisted. But this attraction between us...it’s mine and real and it was the only thing that kept me going.”

Her breath became a balloon as she waited for him to push her away, to call her a sentimental fool, to remind her of the terms of their engagement.

Instead, his eyes searched hers, as if he wanted to plumb the very depths of her. His large hand spanned her jaw until the pad of his thumb rested against the pulse at her neck. She could feel its thrashing beat against his flesh, begging for something she shouldn’t want.

“I should very much like to kiss you, Tornado. Now.”

“To seal the deal now that you know I’m actually good? To keep me compliant enough so that I’ll give it my all? To give me just enough to keep me panting—”

His lips fused with hers, and a shuddering breath left her, leaving trails of agony in its wake.

“Because you’re right, and this is too good and too real to not celebrate,” he whispered against her mouth and there was no turning back.

Jia rubbed her lips against his, and his hands wandered from her neck to her shoulders to her hips. He pulled her flush against him, her arms went around his shoulders, her fingers sank into his hair and he was kissing her as if he meant to devour her whole.

It was different, this kiss, rough and heavy with three weeks of desperate wanting.

He was different, and it showed in how he licked and nipped at her lips, how he demanded access and swept his tongue through her mouth, how he lifted her until she wrapped her legs around his waist as if it was a move they’d performed for years.

His unfiltered need stoked hers. His mouth at her neck, trailing down to the valley between her breasts, made her breath shallow out. Jia writhed herself against his growing shaft, her mouth dry, her head dizzy with pleasure. He was hard and thick and she wanted more.

Pressing her back into the wall, Apollo rocked his erection into the cradle of her thighs, hitting the exact spot where she needed it. How she needed it. Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head at the pressure building, roiling. God, she might come just dry humping him like this and she didn’t even care and...

Suddenly, the door to his private office flew open and four women of varying ages stood in the entryway, eyes wide in their faces.

“ Apollo! Shame on you,” said the oldest woman, and Jia wanted to sob because her release was flying away and her lower belly felt empty and abandoned and she thought she might never get the one thing she’d given herself permission to want from her husband.

Apollo released her legs from around his hips with a muttered curse, and still holding her, straightened her top and jacket with gentle care. Jia hid her face in his chest. His quick buss at her temple and harshly whispered reassurances made warmth curl through her. And she wondered, in that lust-heavy haze, if protecting her wasn’t simply protecting his asset but something more.

Just a sliver more.

Just a teensy bit particularly-about-her more.

Her knees trembled when her feet hit the floor, but he held on, and Jia had the craziest thought that he would always catch her, no matter what. And the thought was both exciting and terrifying.

“Apollo! Explain this! At once!” the older woman repeated in fractured English.

Jia snuck a quick look at him and was bemused to see a strip of dark color streak his cheeks.

She turned but remained behind him, reluctant to meet people who’d hate her on sight, just when she was getting used to him. There was no doubt who these women were.

“Hello, Mama. Hello, Christina, Chiara, Camilla.”

When it became clear that Apollo wasn’t going to budge from his place—he couldn’t even if he wanted to for Jia was clinging to him like a jellyfish—his mother advanced into the room while one of his sisters closed the door.

“You arrive in Athens three weeks ago and don’t even tell your family. You don’t bring your new bride to meet us. And when I come into your office to give you a piece of my mind, I find you kissing some teenage...”

“Floozy,” one of the sisters supplied helpfully.

Apollo’s mother shook her head, and Jia’s respect for the women grew, along with the hysterical chuckle in her chest.

“Kissing a work colleague, while already neglecting your bride?”

Jia giggled. Loudly and disgracefully, and even muffled into Apollo’s muscled back, it sounded alarmingly flippant.

“The floozy dares to laugh at us, Mama,” the one who seemed to be the oldest sister supplied in flawless English, looking truly angry. “This is what your son has reduced us to, our family to, in his pursuit of revenge, and what he has turned—”

“You were always one for drama, Camilla.” Apollo finally spoke. He didn’t desert Jia though. No, he pulled her from behind him, and wrapped an arm around her waist. “Mama, this is my wife, Jia. Jia, this is Mama and my sisters—all older than me. The one who held judgment is the middle one, Christina. The one giggling at us both is Chiara and the one spewing fury is the oldest, Camilla.”

For long, awkward moments, Jia could do nothing but stare at them. They were all tall, with distinct, almost overpowering features, all cut in the same mold as their brother. And yet, where they all missed the mark of true beauty, something had come together just a little differently in his case, and the result was a stunning, gorgeous man.

Her man , if she let herself believe him.

“Very nice to meet you all,” she said, “though I wish it was under different circumstances. That’s why the inappropriate giggling.”

His mother sighed while Camilla didn’t look one bit mollified.

Jia tried not to crumple under her refreshed glare, which meant she was remembering who she was.

“Hello, Jia,” his mother said. Kindness shone from her eyes as she moved forward, her gaze eating her up as intensely as Apollo’s did. “I’m sorry for barging in and yelling at you. I didn’t realize Apollo’s wife was—”

“Barely older than a teenager,” the one called Chiara supplied, mischief in her eyes. “All these years, Mama, we keep pushing mature, sophisticated women toward him and turns out Apollo has a taste for young—”

“I admit he’s of a different generation than me,” Jia rushed in, wanting to shake them as much as they were doing to her world, “but your brother’s like...a stud and I’ve always been into that whole age-gap, smoldering alpha-hole thing, so it works.”

Mouths fell open and hit their chests. Again.

Jia bit her lip, regrets flooding in. God, she’d always gone on offense when she felt cornered.

Chiara and Christina burst out laughing while Camilla’s glare intensified. His mother’s eyes twinkled. With pleasant surprise, Jia hoped.

“You are different from what we expected,” she finally said.

“She’s full of surprises,” Apollo said, his eyes full of that wicked humor and a sliver of something that sounded like pride. No one had ever shown that emotion on her behalf. Jia felt like grabbing his face and kissing him all over again. Audience be damned.

“Why didn’t you tell the staff that she’s your wife?” Camilla said, clearly still spoiling for a fight.

Whether her ire was directed at her brother or Jia, she had no idea. But Jia didn’t want the whole story about how their marriage was nothing but a deal to be exposed in front of these women. Clearly, they cared about Apollo and didn’t understand his actions after all these years, any more than she did.

It wasn’t that she wanted a good start with Apollo’s family, not when she was going to leave, sooner or later. But she couldn’t take more taunting, on top of everything her own family had doled out at the mere idea of this relationship. And that kiss, before they had been rudely interrupted, was as real as anything Jia had ever known in her life. Or more, even. She didn’t want it tainted by everything else that surrounded it.

“That was my idea,” she said, riding the impulsive train all the way. “I wanted to start work and bond with Apollo’s team without any preferential treatment. Also, there’s the fact that your brother’s too much of a workaholic to take me on a honeymoon. This way, our first few weeks of marriage are both secretive and spicy. And just for ourselves.”

They stared at her, as if she were an exhibit Apollo had checked out of a museum. It wasn’t just that she was the enemy’s daughter, but how she dressed and her tattoos and everything about her, Jia realized. She didn’t doubt she was as different as possible from Apollo’s previous...interests. The mere thought of them made her stomach knot.

“That kiss we interrupted was definitely something,” Chiara added.

Jia blushed. Their mother shushed her.

“So you work here, Jia? And you plan to continue working with my brother?” It was the middle sister, Christina, this time. There was genuine curiosity in her question.

“I’m an architect, and, yeah, I plan to continue working with Apollo. It’s one of the reasons he was so...moved to steal me for himself. On top of our crazy chemistry, I mean. We understand each other even in our work.”

The words left her of their own accord and Jia realized the truth of them only then.

For all their age gap and enemy vibes, Apollo and she shared the same kind of vision for their work, for how they wanted to shape the world around them. For how they changed it.

Flushing, she turned to look at Apollo, who was frowning. As if she was putting out main character energy when she should be in the back with chorus.

She pinched his side, which was all rock-hard musculature and didn’t really give into pinching, and then winked at Christina. “To be honest, I’m trying to make sure he doesn’t forget what a delight I’m to be around twenty-four hours, seven days a week.”

Christina stared at her brother and Jia for long moments. After a while, she extended her hands to Jia. “Welcome to the family, Jia. I have a feeling you’re exactly what my brother needs.”

She kissed Jia’s cheeks even as her statement rang hollowly through Jia’s gut. If she let herself, she would see romantic crap in everything. Just as she was forever searching for the slightest hint of approval in her father’s words and gestures.

Apollo’s mother and other sisters followed suit, air-kissing Jia’s cheeks. Talk moved slowly to their non-wedding in New York, the hurry for it, and inevitably to Jia’s family and how Apollo was taking over the family company.

On that front, Jia couldn’t summon even a fake smile. Around her, English morphed into Greek and determined to wait them out, she stood there, like a statue frozen amidst life.

But when her father’s name came up and a flash of such intense hurt crossed Apollo’s mother’s face, all the armor Jia had cloaked herself in fell away. The sisters watched as the son and mother argued in rapid Greek and then joined in. Only Christina seemed to be arguing on his side. Finally, his mouth set into that arrogant tilt that no one could budge, Apollo stepped away.

Oh, why had he insisted on marrying one of the Shetty daughters knowing it would hurt his mother to even have the shadow of Jia’s father touch her family? What did he hope to accomplish except fill them with doubts about her and himself? Would having control over her fate go such a long way toward appeasing his thirst for revenge? Why had Jia thought this would be as simple as bearing undeserved judgment and anger from his family?

Pain was something she was familiar with and it danced in his mother’s eyes.

Impulsively, Jia reached out and took the older woman’s hands. “I’m sorry that my very presence causes you such...anguish. For what it’s worth, I apologize for all the pain my father caused your family. It was inexcusable and if I could change it, I would.”

Stunned silence met her foolish declaration. Even the fiery Camilla, it seemed, had nothing to counter it with.

Jia tried hard not to look at Apollo. She couldn’t bear it if he thought her statement was pandering to them or if he mocked and dismissed the sentiment itself.

Apollo’s mother shook her head, one rogue tear running down her cheek. “Children are not responsible for their father’s sins. Or their failures,” she bit out.

Out of the periphery of her vision, Jia saw Apollo flinch.

The older woman gently clasped Jia’s cheek and a soft exhale left her. “Christina was always the smartest of my children.” The other three protested loudly. She laughed, wiped her cheek and, leaning toward Jia, whispered, “You’re exactly what Apollo needs. Let’s hope he doesn’t realize it or he will...” She sighed.

Leaving Jia to wonder what she meant by it and why it felt so unbelievably good to be welcomed by his family when they should hate her on sight.

When they finally left—nothing short of Apollo’s promises that they would be at the family home that very night had achieved it—Jia made to follow them.

Hand at her elbow, Apollo stopped her.

Pressing her forehead to the cool door, Jia refused to turn. She was feeling emotional, and the last thing she wanted was to betray something he’d consider ammunition in this battle of theirs. God, who’d have thought being married to the enemy would be this hard on her heart?

For a man who didn’t deal in feelings, Apollo seemed to understand her reluctance to face him. His arms came around her waist gently and pulled her until she was plastered to him, chest to thigh. It wasn’t a sexual embrace but neither did it feel like a transactional kindness. It was something in between, like their relationship itself, teetering between labels.

“I didn’t marry you to punish you.”

“No? Because from where I stand—”

She didn’t finish her statement because his mouth was at her neck. He nibbled at her fluttering pulse and Jia melted into his arms, her muscles instantly loosening and tightening of their own accord.

“You were right. Whatever this started as, there’s this very real thing between us, ne ?”

“Is there?” she asked, arching her neck to give him better access. Dampness bloomed between her legs when he gently nipped the spot.

“Yes, Jia. Maybe I should have said this that very night you begged me to marry you and—”

Jia knocked her elbow into his gut and grinned at his surprised grunt.

“Or maybe at our wedding,” he said, turning her to face him. His gaze held hers, something shimmering in it.

“Said what to me?” she said, hanging at the edge of a rope, desperately aching for something.

“I see you, Jia, and everything you are. And a little more that you hide.”

Gratitude and something more joined the arousal in her limbs, making her dizzy.

Bending, Apollo pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth, his large hand cupping her hip, as if he already knew all the nooks and corners of her body. “So, let’s celebrate this with a real wedding night. Whenever you’re ready.”

His promise reverberated through her as Jia went back to her open cubicle and tried not to hear the frenzied whispers around her. For the next couple of hours that she lingered at work, no one would meet her eyes, or respond to her without looking at her as if she’d suddenly turned into a bug-eyed monster. Paulo, when she forced him to respond, couldn’t get away from her fast enough.

The reprieve was over. His family knew, her coworkers knew and now, the whole world would know that she was Jia Galanis. And yet, as she repeated to herself a thousand times, and relived the moment when Apollo had looked into her eyes and admitted that he saw her, Jia didn’t feel trepidation at all. If anything, she felt excited about this new, temporary relationship more than she ever had about a real one.