Page 11 of Forgotten Greek Proposal
She stepped into her knickers, her grumpiness melting away as Thanasis filled her mind again. Had he seen her in these knickers? Stripped them from her?
What had it been like between them? Disappointing like her past experience? Or had it been good? Even pleasurable?
Thanasis knew his way around a woman’s body enough to make it pleasurable, she decided as she removed the dreadful—her mother had been right about that—hospital gown. You could just tell. Although she didn’t know how she could just tell.
Letting the gown fall to the floor, she reached for her bra, searching as hard as she could in the void of her brain for any memory of sleeping with him.
What had his touch felt like? Had she burned for him? Remembering how the touch of his hand had sent her heart rate spiking and how the gentle kiss he’d placed on her mouth the night before had turned her belly into mush, she thought she must have. Closing her eyes, she made a silent plea for those particular memories to come back. Even if all the other memories stayed lost for ever, please bring those ones back to her. Please, please.
‘Lucie, we—’
Not having heard or even sensed the door opening, she whipped her head round and caught Thanasis frozen in mid-step at the door. Slamming her arms across her exposed breasts, she gripped her biceps, bra dangling from her fingers, embarrassment at being caught semi-naked scorching her in a white-hot flame.
A beat that seemed to last a lifetime passed between them, the dark pulse in his stare turning the flame of embarrassment into a different kind of burn, the kind of burn she’d been imagining only moments ago when wondering what it had felt like being made love to by him.
And then he blinked and the dark pulse vanished as he took a step back and a visible shutter came down in his eyes. ‘I apologise—I should have knocked.’
Realising her reaction must make her seem like the prude her mum had just accused her of being, a fresh batch of mortification enflamed her skin, and she lifted her chin with a bravado she absolutely did not feel inside and went into default jocular mode. ‘No, no, it’s fine. Not your fault. Of course you didn’t need to knock. I’m your fiancée and it’s not like you haven’t seen my boobs before… It’s just that I don’t remember the before.’
His jaw tightened a fraction before he gave a brief nod and took hold of the door handle. ‘Understood. I’ll leave you to dress.’
He closed the door with the same stealthy silence he’d opened it.
Her heart now threatening to explode out of her ribs, Lucie sank onto her bed and tried to catch her breath.
* * *
Thanasis stood beneath the air conditioning unit and blew out a long puff of air. A sheen of perspiration had broken out over his skin.
Closing his eyes, he clenched his fists and refilled his lungs.
Theos, that body.
It was perfect. That was the only word to describe it. Perfect. Perfection enhanced by the plainness of her black underwear, which created such a strong contrast with the lightness of her golden skin. Perfect gentle curves. Small but perfectly shaped breasts he knew with one look would sit perfectly cupped in the palm of his hands.
He expelled another long, tortured breath and pressed his head against the wall, closing his eyes even tighter to drive the image of semi-naked Lucie from his vision.
Theos, from the heavy thrumming in his veins, you would think it was the first time he’d seen a pair of naked breasts in the flesh.
What made the rush of arousal pulsing through him more intolerable was the beat that had passed between them before he’d found his voice to apologise.
In that beat, the filter had slipped off them both and the unwanted, unacknowledged desire that had always simmered between them had been a shimmering, living entity.
* * *
A violent blush crawled over Lucie’s face the second she heard the tap on the door. She had no idea how she was able to call out, ‘Come in,’ in a voice that sounded in any way normal, and when Thanasis stepped into the room, she felt the blush deepen and spread.
To her immense gratitude, he gave not a single sign that he’d walked in on her practically naked only minutes earlier, and she was beyond grateful that he accepted and understood so well that everything they’d shared together was lost to her.
‘My driver is here,’ he said in that glorious deep, honeyed tone. ‘Are you ready to go?’
She nodded, still unable to meet his stare. ‘Before we leave, have you seen my phone?’
He cast his gaze around the room. ‘It isn’t here?’
‘Not that we’ve found. Was it recovered from the accident?’ The accident she still only knew the barest details of, namely that she’d borrowed one of Thanasis’s cars and crashed it. She’d been too fuzzy of head to think of asking more questions about it, but one thing she didn’t need to question was that she would have had it on her. Lucie never went anywhere without her phone.
‘All the personal possessions you had at the time of the accident were put in the cupboard by your bed.’
