Page 21 of Promoted to the Greek's Wife

‘So, not so totally casual, after all,’ Ari murmured in soft and sweet conclusion.

‘Why does everything have to get so complex? Why does everything have to have a label?’ Cleo lamented.

‘Does it matter as long as we’re both content with the status quo?’ Ari dropped her down on a big bed in a low-lit bedroom.

Cleo abandoned her crumpled pyjamas and curled up into a tight ball of anxiety. She didn’t want to get content with him or used to him. She didn’t want to get hurt again. Ari made demands and then got annoyed when she failed to deliver. If she had more backbone, she would return to her own room.

While she considered that defiant option, Ari ran a hand down over her hip and flipped her round and back into his arms. ‘Go to sleep. I can feel you stressing from here.’ He sighed. ‘What time do you start work? I’ll drop you off after we’ve seen Lucy.’

An hour later, aware that Ari had fallen asleep, Cleo crept out of bed to go back downstairs and tidy up the mess they had left behind in the kitchen. Ari hadn’t even switched off the lights. She stacked the plates in the dishwasher, restored the work surfaces to sanitised perfection, doused the lights and crept back upstairs. Now, at least, nobody would suspect the shenanigans that had taken place there. Her face burned at the X-rated images still locked in her memory banks. There was no need to advertise her total inability to resist Ari Stefanos.

As she slid back into bed, Ari murmured, ‘Where were you?’

‘Cleaning up the kitchen. You didn’t even switch the lights off!’ she told him in a scandalised whisper.

Ari laughed out loud and curved an arm round her. ‘Why are you worrying about that?’ he asked in wonderment.

Cleo marvelled at his masculine incomprehension.

The next morning, Lucy was very quiet when they arrived for the visit. Cleo got down on the floor and propped the baby up with cushions and began to roll the electronic toy she had persuaded Ari to purchase. As the coloured sections lit up and a nursery rhyme sounded, Lucy began to smile and show interest. Ari joined them, kept the flashing lights going and lifted Lucy’s little hand to press the button down to change the tune playing. The baby grinned and Cleo felt her heart clench at that smile and could no longer resist those bright brown eyes in that tiny face. She lifted her up for a cuddle and told her what a wonderful little girl she was, and the way the baby reacted, it was as if she knew that she was being praised to the skies.

Ari was fascinated by the warmth of Cleo’s cheerful interactions with his niece. She was so natural and confident with the child that a baby who did suffer from being rather timid and wary positively glowed in her presence, attracted by her sure handling and affection. Lucy, he registered, needed a loving mother figure like that to feel properly secure.

‘My turn...’ Ari gently eased Lucy into his arms and wondered how Lucy would handle being cared for by a nanny and how she would cope with his absences, practicalities he had not previously considered. His single status was not an automatic bar to adoption, but he also knew that it was not an advantage. And there was Cleo right in front of him: great with kids, fabulous in bed, absolutely not a gold digger. Could it get much better than that for him? He wanted to keep Cleo and what better way would there be?

The appointment passed unbelievably fast and another was arranged while Lucy yawned and yawned, exhausted by all the one-to-one attention and ready for another feed and a nap. Ari dropped Cleo off and she warned him that she would be working later to make up for her late start. He frowned but made no comment, and she looked at him and marvelled that Ari Stefanos was, however temporarily, hers. In jeans and a long-sleeved top in line with her suggestion that he dress more casually for his meetings with his niece, he was heading home again to put on a suit before he went into the office.

Hers, she savoured helplessly. The guy with the colour-coded wardrobe that had sent her into whoops of laughter only hours earlier. He was terrifyingly tidy and organised and...shewasn’t. He hadn’t learned yet how to be flexible, how to compromise. She had watched an expression of appalled disbelief freeze his lean, darkly handsome features when she emptied her capacious handbag to find something and he glimpsed the conglomeration of disparate articles she dragged around with her every day, everything from a mini first-aid kit to a bottle opener.

Hers?Of course, he wasn’t, not in any meaningful, durable sense, she acknowledged, only hers in a weird and incredible time-out-of-time way. She remembered him strolling out of his en suite first thing stark naked, like some glorious Greek god and infinitely more sexy. She had been tempted to pinch herself to check that she wasn’t dreaming, only the ache of her still humming body the evidence that she was not. And he had dragged her out of bed, displaying all the irritating characteristics of an energetic early riser who put punctuality on the same level as godliness. Yes, what they had, she reflected tautly, was very, very real, but it wasn’t likely to last and it would hurt when it ended. As long as she didn’t forget that she would be fine, she reasoned as he dropped her off at the bar and made yet another comment about finding her a more suitable job, which she totally ignored.

At lunchtime, Liam turned up and got chatting to her boss. Sam had a friend in need of a temporary bar manager at a Soho pub, and before Liam left again, he had secured an interview that afternoon. Cleo wasn’t surprised because her stepbrother had considerable experience in the bar trade. When he showed up at finishing time and pressed her to join him for a drink, she agreed because she could see that he was dying to talk about his interview.

Liam, convinced he had the job in the bag, was in an ebullient mood, and he was annoyed when she said she had to leave at seven.

‘Ari’s picking me up outside,’ Cleo protested when he endeavoured to persuade her to stay longer.

As she grabbed her coat to leave, Liam trailed out after her.

‘What’s this guy got apart from money and a big house?’ Liam demanded argumentatively.

‘I’m not with Ari because of his bank balance!’ Cleo told him angrily.

‘I looked him up online. He’s nothing but a womaniser, Cleo. He’ll use you and dump you again. He’s never had a serious relationship in his life!’ Liam proclaimed loudly. ‘He’s a Greek playboy, who doesn’t want to grow up like the rest of us—’

‘Will you stop raising your voice?’ Cleo hissed at her stepbrother, noting passing heads swivelling in their direction and wishing Liam would calm down. ‘And lay off Ari. You don’t know anything about him!’

‘Except that he dresses like some fancy-dancy model,’ Liam quipped nastily, his attention on the tall, dark male drawing level with them.

‘Keep your opinion to yourself,’ Ari told him curtly.

And without the smallest warning, her stepbrother swung a wild punch at Ari.

Ari ducked and was coming back up to return the attempted blow when Cleo caught his arm. ‘No, please... He’s drunk and jealous—’

His lean bronzed face taut, Ari stepped back. ‘The car’s parked round the corner,’ he murmured evenly while studying her swaying, pugnacious stepbrother grimly. ‘As you heard, Cleo’s very loyal to me. That’s why we’re getting engaged. I may have been labelled a playboy in the past, but Cleo has changed me for the better—’

‘Engaged?’Liam repeated in thunderous disbelief.

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