Greek’s Shotgun Wedding (The Diamandis Heirs #1)

Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

J ACE THOUGHT UNUSUALLY hard about what he wore on the day he went to the rescue shelter. He ditched the designer business suits he invariably wore and picked jeans and a linen shirt, less formal, more approachable, he reasoned.

But she was all wrong for him, in any case, he reminded himself stubbornly. He had held a party the night before, a party attended by some very beautiful women, exquisitely dressed, flattering and polite women, and for the first time in his life, not one woman had appealed to his normally rampant libido. No, very weirdly, it was Gigi Campbell’s image that he couldn’t get out of his head. That truth was annoying the hell out of him. Was it the fact that she was a challenge? A challenge was something he had never met with in her sex. Could he possibly be that basic? He suppressed a cynical shudder at the suspicion.

At the rescue shelter, Gigi was attending to her usual duties without much concern. Ioanna might be champing at the bit for Jace Diamandis to come through the door for Mo’s appointment to be microchipped but Gigi was not. In fact, with the vet nurse hanging about as if she were awaiting a visitation from a god amongst men, Gigi was more inclined to pity Jace for the excitement he seemed to engender in those who recognised his name. All the poor guy was doing was trying to get his dog microchipped. He had seemed shocked when she had mentioned that that, after all, was Greek law and it was a perfectly normal response for the man to attend to that oversight as soon as possible.

Even so, the prospect of his imminent appearance did fluster her a little and that bothered her. After all, she was a woman who had given up on men. One broken heart had been quite enough for her. Rory had cheated on her, blaming her for it because she had refused to give him her body, having known him only a few weeks. But in so doing, he had taught her a good lesson. She would never trust a member of the male sex again. They were all obsessed with sex and the number of women they could get into their beds. She was well aware though that there were women of the same ilk because she had known a couple like that at university, but the majority of her sex were a little less crude and more emotion-based than men.

‘He’s... here !’ Ioanna squealed like a member of the Jace Diamandis fan club and Gigi said not a word, conscious that all the female shelter workers were equally enthralled and would be peering out of windows and hovering in doorways.

Gigi would not allow herself to look. For some peculiar reason, she wanted to look and that irritated her, particularly when his image was already stuck like glue inside her brain. The high sculpted cheekbones, the imperious ebony brows, the strong masculine nose, the wide sensual mouth. And the whole topped by the most gloriously cute glossy black curls, not to mention the unexpected eyes green as emeralds lighting up that lean dark face. Drop-dead gorgeous. Yes, Jace definitely had cornered the looks department with a meteoric score but, unfortunately, he knew that rather too well. As for his reputation? Well, that certainly didn’t add to his image as a plus. She had seen enough online to decide that he was way out of her league.

‘Good morning, Gigi,’ Jace murmured perfectly politely while she busied herself rearranging the equipment she used, and she heard the faint strand of amusement edging his dark, deep voice.

‘Good morning, Mr Diamandis...’ she contrived to say flatly before she was unceremoniously engulfed by an ecstatic wolfhound who knocked her off her feet with enthusiasm.

‘My apologies... I shouldn’t have let him off the leash.’ A lean strong hand closed over hers and virtually hauled her back upright from the floor, where she had fallen to her knees, while Mo tried to canter a circle round her in his excitement.

The warmth of his hand sent the most curious zing through her entire body and she glanced up at him, only to be consumed by the scorching flash effect of dancing emerald-green eyes. Her entire body heated up, her nipples prickling inside her bra, a sliding sensation tugging between her legs. Those feelings made her grit her teeth in annoyance and free her hand, which he was still holding, and drop back down to her knees again to give his dog her attention.

Jace wasn’t accustomed to being blanked but he took it like a man, like a thrown gauntlet, because at the moment she had collided with his eyes, he had read her response as clearly as a shrieking alarm. The flush on her cheeks, her dilated pupils? Neither spoke of indifference. Gigi Campbell wanted him but at the same time she didn’t want to want him, he recognised with satisfaction. He watched his dog fawn on her like a subservient slave. Indeed, he surveyed the delighted reunion with a curled lip of near disbelief because, in his experience, Mo was not that friendly an animal and rarely approached anyone else for attention. But Mo couldn’t get enough of Gigi.

‘Sorry about this,’ Gigi said, unselfconsciously rising to her feet again with a final pat of Mo’s head. ‘But he’s the most beautiful dog and so affectionate.’

‘Is this...er...procedure likely to hurt him?’ Jace enquired.

‘For a split second...’ Gigi wielded the tool and Mo stood like a statue for her, trying to lick at the knee that was all the skin he could reach below her lab coat. ‘Stop that, Mo...’

The sunlight coming through the window lit up the blonde streaks in her light brown hair, settled lovingly on the porcelain-perfect skin of her profile, her slender neck, the thrust of her small firm breasts. Jace gritted his teeth because his body reacted like an adolescent’s in her vicinity. That fast he was hard as a rock and it infuriated him, infuriated him in the only way it could a usually very controlled and reserved male. For the space of a timeless moment, he had been out of control, picturing her splayed across his bed like some kind of sexual sacrifice, picturing a fantasy . And Jace didn’t have fantasies about women, had never had the need, had never wanted any woman that he hadn’t had.

‘There...that’s done and, of course, you were a good boy,’ Gigi told Mo, fondling his silky ears. ‘Thank you for bringing him here so that I could see him again. I’m sure you could have sent him anywhere with an employee to have him microchipped.’

Yes, she knew who he was now, Jace savoured before it occurred to him that it had not changed her attitude one iota. She was rather more interested in his dog than she was in him.

‘He may only have been with you one night but he formed an attachment to you,’ Jace conceded.

‘He slept with me. That’s probably it. I didn’t have the heart to put him back downstairs because he’s so cuddly!’ Gigi stooped to give another hug to Mo.

‘You let him into your bed?’ Jace elevated an ebony brow. ‘I wouldn’t dream of allowing that. No wonder he got so attached!’

‘Sorry for teaching him a bad habit.’ Gigi laughed, a low husky laugh, animation skimming her lovely face, her blue eyes sparkling, her soft mouth smiling to reveal a slice of pearly teeth. For an instant, she simply took his breath away and all he wanted to do was kiss her. The strength of that impulse spooked him into swinging away to put some distance between them. It was as if she had shot him up with pure adrenaline.

‘Where do I pay?’ he asked her, turning back around to face her.

‘We charge the basic rate at Reception outside. I guess that won’t be a problem for you,’ Gigi framed awkwardly, striving hard not to stare at him. But he was so good-looking he kept on stealing her attention like a sneak thief. And never mind his beautiful face. He had an even more beautiful body. Tall, lean, fit, narrow waist, taut hips, powerful thighs and biceps, long, straight legs. Discomfiture relating to those reflections sent colour flying into her cheeks as she clashed with his amused green gaze. She stiffened at the intensity and the fire she saw in that scrutiny. He had watched her checking him out. Unnerved by that awareness, she dropped her head again.

‘When did you find out who I was?’ Jace asked carelessly.

‘My nurse recognised your name. I think there’s another patient waiting,’ she prompted him very quietly, too aware of his volatile nature to be as blunt as she had been at their first meeting.

Thee mou , she was trying to get rid of him again, Jake registered in consternation. ‘Why won’t you have dinner with me when you’re attracted to me?’

Utterly thrown by that confident assurance that she was attracted to him and by his unexpected candour, Gigi froze in her movement towards the door. ‘Maybe I don’t see what we would have in common...and I’m not the sort of woman who’s likely to sleep with you on a first date, so we’d both be wasting our time—’

Jace threw his handsome head back in disconcertion, surprised that she would be that blunt. ‘Doesn’t it occur to you that I may not be that predictable?’

‘Your reputation suggests that you’re very predictable.’

‘You think it’s fair to judge me on the stories other people tell about me?’ Jace lanced back at her a tinge harshly. ‘I live in a goldfish bowl—’

‘And you’re very visible in it,’ Gigi said in what she hoped was a soothing tone. ‘But I wasn’t judging you. Your life is none of my business—’

‘Maybe I want you to make it your business,’ Jace shot back at her without hesitation.

And Gigi almost laughed but dared not because he was acting defensively. But she was tempted to laugh at the concept of a guy with private jets, yachts and the like taking a genuine interest in a hard-working veterinary surgeon without an ounce of glamour. ‘OK. I need to get back to work, Jace. There’s a full waiting room out there.’

A stony aspect turned his carved jawline to granite. In silence he nodded, attached Mo’s leash again and strode out. Jace had never been so conscious that he wanted to smash something with violence. His temper had rocketed up like lava in a volcano but he refused to show it around her when she had already labelled him’ volatile’. And he wasn’t volatile, not remotely volatile, he assured himself fiercely. He wasn’t thinking that way because he wasn’t accustomed to criticism, either. He had excellent relationships with his staff... didn’t he ?

She had blown him off twice . On one level he couldn’t believe it, on another he was all the more determined to catch her. The investigation report hadn’t come back yet. He wanted to know what the name Gigi was short for. He wanted to know what age she was. He wanted to know every damned thing there was to know about her!

But wasn’t it a little unhinged to still be so interested in a woman after she had turned him down? An uneasy touch of ice trickled down Jace’s rigid spine at that lowering apprehension. He would put her behind him, forget about her. Some strange notion had brought him back to her again and now he regretted it. Although it went against the grain to admit it, Gigi had been right: what did they have in common? And he would’ve only spent one night with her, in any case. It was insane to rate one woman any higher than the rest of the female sex, crazy to believe there could be some more special woman out there for him, especially when he was the last guy alive to want that one special woman.

Inside the shelter, Gigi’s thoughts were travelling in the opposite direction. Possibly she had grown too rigid about protecting herself from predatory men, she was thinking abstractedly. And that very abstraction bothered her because no male had ever stuck around inside her head but Jace. Only wasn’t she being a bit juvenile and hysterical saying no to a mere dinner invitation because he attracted her? So, she had got hurt before but sooner or later everyone got hurt in affairs of the heart. One person wanted one thing, the other something else. That was simply life and she had already warned him in advance that she wouldn’t be inviting him into her bed.

Two days later, leash trailing again, Mo was sleeping on Gigi’s doorstep when she arrived home. ‘Oh, you bad dog,’ she said very softly, stroking a silky ear while she considered the awkward prospect of having to phone Jace to tell him that his dog was with her again. She dug out his card.

‘You’ve got him, haven’t you?’ Jace interrupted within seconds of her beginning to speak.

‘Yes, sorry about that. He was waiting at my front door when I got home—’

‘I wouldn’t have believed that he could have retraced his steps from the harbour to your house last week. I’ll collect him...or I’ll have him collected—’

‘Jace?’ she broke in. ‘I’ll agree to dinner.’

A stark little silence fell.

‘I’ll send a car for you—’

‘To go where?’

‘You are so distrustful,’ Jace complained.

‘Merely mindful of my safety.’

‘My yacht, Sea King —’

‘I’d prefer a public place,’ she said apologetically.

‘Would you also enjoy the paparazzi surrounding us? That’s what happens in public places when I’m visible,’ Jace told her drily.

‘OK, the yacht,’ she conceded reluctantly, definitely not wishing to appear in newsprint in his company because she took her anonymous life for granted.

‘Eight,’ he specified.

‘Eight-thirty,’ she told him. ‘I have to walk both dogs.’

And then the call ended without another word.

Well, did you expect him to turn verbal wheelies at the end of the line when you finally agreed? Blinking, already wondering if she had made an unwise decision, Gigi set down her phone.

She went for a shower before taking a simple electric-blue maxi, sleeveless dress from her wardrobe. Her first summer in Rhodes she had assumed she would have more of a social life with her Greek family and she had extended her very practical wardrobe. But in actuality she had received few invitations. Everybody had been keen to meet her once out of curiosity, but their interest hadn’t gone much deeper than that. Maybe if there had been a half-sister, she would have been more interested, only, knowing her luck, Gigi conceded ruefully, a potential half- sister would have been furious to discover that her father had a second daughter.

A limousine drew up at her door, paying no attention whatsoever to the ‘no parking’ lines. Gigi stepped out straight away, Mo walking by her side. She would’ve insisted on driving her own car to the harbour had it not occurred to her that trying to squeeze Mo into her tiny two-door car might make the big dog baulk. He stepped up onto the luxurious back seat beside her and flopped his head down on her lap for her to pat. ‘Life’s so much simpler for you,’ she sighed.

Either the huge yacht had an enormous crew or it seemed as though an awful lot of them were curious about Jace’s visitor because every direction Gigi looked in there seemed to be a face peering at her, and the captain, wearing his official uniform, greeted her as though she were arriving royalty when she stepped off the motor launch that had whisked her from the harbour. That welcome, along with the opulence surrounding Gigi, just about deprived her of breath. She emerged from a lift into a vast reception area.

Clearly designed for his parties.

She was offered a drink by a stewardess who could have featured in a Miss World competition.

Does he perve on his staff?

Stop it, Gigi warned herself, you’re being judgmental on nothing more than the headlines he attracts.

‘Gigi. Sorry not to be here to greet you,’ Jace intoned as he strode through an archway. ‘I was taking a call.’

For a split second, she felt as though her heart stopped beating and the world suddenly swam into sharper focus on his lean dark face. Green eyes flaring like fireworks, startlingly intense and potent. It shook her up. She stole a fast glance at him and then walked over to the windows as if she were examining the fabulous view of the harbour and the winding road beyond it. She spun back, her heart now beating at an accelerated rate, and watched Mo trot over to greet Jace as normally as if the dog had just entered the room rather than run off on his owner again.

‘I think, as far as he’s concerned, he was retrieving you ,’ Jace quipped as though he had been thinking the exact same thing.

‘Probably,’ she agreed with a slightly nervous laugh.

‘What do you like to eat?’

‘I eat virtually everything, and I have no allergies.’

‘Gigi...what’s that short for? Or is it only a nickname?’ he heard himself ask, startling himself with the level of his curiosity about her.

‘It says Giselle on my birth certificate, so it must be my mother who shortened it because I’ve never been called anything else...or maybe it was one of the nannies who looked after me.’

‘You were raised by nannies?’

‘Yes, until I went to boarding school.’ Gigi’s eyes stung on the thought that she knew very little about her earliest years because Nadine Wilson had never been a sentimental parent, delighted to recall her daughter’s babyhood. In the same way there were only a handful of photos of her between birth and starting school and some of them were on medical records.

‘And after that?’ Jace prompted, wondering why the hell he was still being so nosy.

‘My mother sometimes worked abroad so for term breaks I often went to friends’ houses or on study trips, which suited me the best. I was a nerd from day one at school,’ she admitted calmly. ‘There’s lots of programmes out there for nerdy kids. Occasionally a short-term nanny would be hired but usually the housekeeper was capable of looking out for me.’

‘There you are...we do have something in common,’ Jace declared with satisfaction. ‘Nannies and boarding schools. My parents were busy people too.’

A little uneasy below that shimmering emerald-green appraisal, Gigi parted her lips. ‘You mentioned food...’

Recalled by the reminder that she had only just arrived and he had been interrogating her, faint colour enhanced Jace’s high cheekbones. ‘You can literally have anything you like because I have a team of chefs in the galley.’

‘That’s good. I find cooking a chore,’ she confided lightly. ‘It’s a struggle to remind myself that I should eat a healthy meal when the easy options are often unhealthy. I’ll have a Greek salad and...er stuffed veggies?’

‘No appetiser?’

‘Not for me. I’m not a big eater but feel free on your own behalf,’ she urged, a little flushed as she sipped at her orange juice and sat down at the side of the polished dining table in the indicated seat across from his.

‘I’m attempting to replicate the restaurant experience I denied you...and you won’t allow me to do it,’ Jace reproved.

‘I guess that’s because I’m really wondering what I’m doing here with you,’ Gigi admitted frankly.

Jace gritted his teeth. ‘Don’t start that again.’

He snapped his fingers and the stewardess appeared to take their order. Apart from an aside to check that she wasn’t vegetarian, he ordered food she hadn’t requested and wine.

‘I don’t really drink,’ she told him in a small voice.

Jace shot her a dazzling smile. ‘No worries. I do.’

That smile made every cell in her body sit up and take notice. She simply stared back at him for a moment, mesmerised by that outpouring of charm but distrusting him all the more.

‘What are you so scared of?’ Jace asked her almost lazily, his bright green eyes suddenly as shrewd as cutting knives. ‘Has some guy in the past assaulted you?’

‘No!’

‘That’s how you come across,’ Jace murmured. ‘I assure you that I have never laid a single finger on an unwilling woman.’

Gigi’s flush had spread as far as her hairline. Indeed she felt as if she were being boiled alive with mortification inside her own skin. ‘That’s...er good to know,’ she mumbled. ‘No, I don’t date or anything because I’ve rarely felt the need to do so. I did once a couple of years ago but he turned out to be a loser and that put me off—’

‘ Once? You’re that easily put off?’

‘You wouldn’t understand—’

‘Why wouldn’t I understand?’

‘You’re an extrovert. I’m an introvert. I internalise stuff. Socially I’m a wallflower. I’ve always been that way.’

A lean brown hand came down to where her smaller hand was trembling and covered it with sudden warmth. ‘It’s all right to be who you are. There’s nothing wrong with that. Stop apologising for it,’ he urged, startling her with both those words and that physical gesture. ‘Don’t overthink this. It’s only a meal—’

‘On a freaking yacht!’ she shot back at him with a choking giggle.

‘On a freaking yacht,’ conceded Jace, still smiling as he collided with those superb cornflower-blue eyes of hers. ‘And you want to know why you’re here? You’re absolutely beautiful and I can’t push you out of my head. It’s like you’ve taken up residence there and I can’t see anyone else and it’s driving me crazy!’

As his dark deep drawl rose a little at the end of that final, disconcerting admission, Gigi’s extreme tension gave and she suddenly smiled and relaxed. ‘Same here.’

Jace dealt her a mock-stunned appraisal, his forceful gaze flaming over her. ‘Are you seriously admitting that?’

Gigi nodded gravely. ‘But what’s the point—?’

‘No... no ,’ Jace cut in with ruthless cool. ‘Stop with the negatives. Slow that busy brain of yours. Enjoy the evening.’

Gigi knew that she suffered from a lot of negative self-talk but that underlying anxiety had always been with her. Her mother had been a very outgoing person and her daughter’s different nature had offended her expectations. ‘You talk sense,’ she said, ‘and that surprises me.’

Jace laughed out loud, amused by her ignorance. ‘Gigi... I’m the CEO of a very large group of companies. Of course I’ve got sense.’

‘Obviously I read the wrong stuff online when I looked you up.’ Gigi frowned on her own behalf. ‘I read the gossip. There’s no real excuse for that.’

‘In your position, I would probably have done the same. I came back onboard here and asked for a private investigator to check you out for me,’ Jace admitted. ‘And he still can’t get back to me. He can’t trace you, for some reason.’

Gigi was studying him wide-eyed and then she laughed with unmistakable amusement. ‘I had to change my surname to my grandmother’s to inherit her estate. That’s my mother’s mother. She never forgave my mother for falling pregnant outside marriage and she never asked to meet me, but she still put me in her will. That was a huge surprise. Growing up, my surname was Wilson because my mother was briefly married and divorced when she was quite young and she changed her name. Becoming a Campbell to match my grandmother meant that I could pay off my student loans, which was huge for me at the time.’

‘I thought you’d be angry when I told you about the investigation I ordered on you—’

Below his arrested gaze, Gigi shrugged a slight shoulder. ‘I guess that’s your equivalent of the online snooping session that I did. I’m not annoyed but then I’ve got nothing I feel the need to hide.’

The first course arrived at the table. She ate with unusual appetite, savouring every tiny bite. Somehow, and she had completely no idea how , Jace had enabled her to relax in his presence for the first time. He made easy conversation. He was very polite. He was amazingly comfortable to be with. An enigma, she decided, seemingly quite unlike his glitzy playboy image. Or was she falling for an act? She suppressed that suspicion, scolding herself for that less than positive thought. Why would someone as rich and good-looking as Jace Diamandis go to so much trouble for someone like her if he weren’t genuinely interested?

Jace whipped his hand from Gigi’s only when he realised that he had retained his hold on those slender fingers. He was still recovering from the shock value of having told her that he couldn’t get her out of his head. Never before had he been guilty of going in keen with a woman, because it handed out the wrong message and it wasn’t fair...even if it was true? Every glimpse he got of her stuck to him like superglue.

Possibly that was the challenge she seemed to be for him. His intentions were wholly basic as usual, he reassured himself. A good time would be enjoyed by both of them; however, it wouldn’t be heading beyond the bedroom door in any direction. No offence intended, no harm done, surely? So, why was he feeling like a bastard all of a sudden? Admittedly she was a sensitive woman and he didn’t have a sensitive bone in his entire body. At least, he never had with anyone else. Why the hell was he even thinking along such complex lines?

‘You seem preoccupied,’ Gigi remarked, because he had been staring at her with brooding intensity.

‘It’s you...you preoccupy me.’

‘That’s a compliment, isn’t it ?’

‘A foe worthy of my mettle,’ Jace teased helplessly, because he could scarcely tell her the truth that being so drawn to her made him feel slightly on the edge of insane.

The main course arrived. He asked her about her animals and she worked through them one by one.

‘How on earth could that little tortoise be too large for its owner?’ Jace demanded.

‘Because they got him when he was teeny-tiny and probably put him in an aquarium or something to keep him and he outgrew his space. I’m planning to let Humphrey go free when I find the right setting for him,’ she explained. ‘But he has to learn how to forage for himself before I can do that and he’s pretty hopeless at the minute. He’s very lazy—’

‘Give him a break. Maybe the aquarium was very small,’ Jace suggested seriously.

And Gigi laughed. ‘You know, looking at your fancy suit, I would never have guessed it, but you genuinely do like animals.’

‘Yes. Mo the defector who wants to exchange me for you isn’t much of an advertisement in that line.’

‘No, he loves you. I just think he’s not used to female attention—’

‘I’d like to think that, but there are several female crew members who like him and he’s never gone missing to find them.’

Jace thrust back his chair with sudden restiveness. ‘Let me give you a tour of the yacht and when we come back the last course will be waiting. Do you want coffee?’

‘Tea’s more my speed at this hour but I always sleep like a log anyway,’ she conceded absently.

Not in my bed, you won’t, Jace promised himself soothingly because he knew she was a very poor bet from his point of view.

She was clever but there was not the smallest attempt to hook him in her appearance or her behaviour and he wasn’t stupid. The modest dress, the lack of cosmetics, the absence of flirtation. Right now, Gigi was merely tolerating him. He would probably have to fill out a thirty-page questionnaire before she would consider sliding between those sheets with him. She wasn’t a woman likely to take a risk on him or one likely to succumb to temptation. She liked security, familiarity, safe bets and he offered none of those things. And yet it was strangely relaxing to be in her company, regardless of the reality that sex wasn’t on the immediate agenda, possibly even because of that fact. Her lack of expectations and her sheer honesty were soothing.

‘You’re so different from me—’

‘Stop building more walls between us,’ Jace urged, exasperated at the manner in which she continually stepped further away from him, reinforcing her apparent conviction that they could never be together in any way. He swore to himself that he would teach her otherwise.

‘Is that what I’m doing?’

Shimmering green eyes as bright as jewels in sunshine assailed her. ‘You know you are.’

Gigi went pink and felt exposed as the unexciting woman she believed she was.

Jace wondered when he had last, if ever, been with a woman who blushed. Next time he met a woman who blushed he should walk the other way fast, he instructed himself. ‘You haven’t mentioned a father yet—’

‘And you haven’t mentioned a single word about your background,’ she reminded him as he flung open the door on a plush cinema room and moved on to show her a gym.

‘Most people already know all about me,’ he declared. ‘My mother died when I was six and when she was in the act of leaving my father for another man. She crashed her car with her lover. Both of them died. Thankfully she hadn’t taken me with her.’

But his lean, strong features were taut as elastic pulled too tight and she grasped that it wasn’t that simple for him. He might be grateful that he hadn’t died in the same crash but he was still hurt that his mother had left him behind.

By instinct, in the same way she absently fondled Mo’s ears as he walked with them, she closed a hand over Jace’s fist. No, sophisticated he might be, but he wasn’t good at hiding his emotions. But then few hot-blooded temperaments were, she reflected. ‘That must’ve been tough.’

‘No,’ he disagreed. ‘It got tough when my father decided that he couldn’t stand the sight of me because I looked so like my mother and sent me and the nanny to live with my grandparents. And my grandfather was too ill to want to take on the burden of a young child.’

Her heart smote her for him. Gigi had always had a very soft heart and what had been done to Jace when he was a young child drove a compassionate knife through her chest. He had been rejected by his family and to some degree the same thing had happened to her. Her mother had raised her, feeding, clothing and educating her, but she had not loved her or looked for her when she wasn’t there.

‘What?’ Jace chided. ‘No words of wisdom now?’

‘You don’t like talking about it and I perfectly understand that and won’t mention it again. However, don’t get sarky,’ Gigi warned him, removing her fingers from his.

‘There was a happy ending,’ Jace heard himself expand, missing that innocent physical contact with her and furious about the fact. ‘My father’s youngest brother and his husband offered me a home a few weeks later at a family meeting. Everyone was very grateful for that solution because my father was king in the family and nobody wanted me in the same household lest he stop visiting or favouring them.’

‘And your father’s brother?’

‘He wasn’t financially dependent on my father while the others were. He and Marcus are partners in a chain of very successful European art galleries. I was very lucky that they wanted me,’ he breathed stiffly as she looked up at him, her wonderful eyes intent, her entire posture leaning in towards him in what he interpreted as an invitation.

Jace trailed a lean forefinger slowly up her arm, savouring the goose bumps that followed in the wake of his touch. He reached her delicate collarbone and traced it as well. Unlike him, she was slight in build, shockingly fragile to the feel.

‘Jace...?’ she whispered shakily.

And, like a male going for a gold medal, he tasted her soft, pouting lips gently and her head swam as if she had taken alcohol, a strange breathless weakness engulfing her as butterflies unfurled low in her tummy. He deepened the pressure and closed his arms round her without warning and just as quickly he was devouring her mouth as if he couldn’t get enough of her.

And that was fine, she acknowledged dimly in the very midst of that hot, explosive kiss, because she couldn’t get enough of him either. Her arms came up and closed on his broad shoulders as she stretched herself up to him, wishing she had worn heels. His tongue delved in her mouth and she shivered against him with sensation. It was like standing in a force ten gale. It was dynamite, everything she had ever hoped to feel and never found. There was no fumbling, no unease. It was as though her body had been waiting for Jace Diamandis all her life...

Both of them breathless, he pulled back from her and continued the tour, only this time around he kept a hold of her hand, reinstating that connection even when she had to step away.