Sheikh’s Fiancée (15 page)

Alexandros stepped in. “I'm going to make sure that Miss Bernado is settled and then get some shut-eye myself,” he said. “You and your little friends should go out, have a good time, and try to stay out of trouble.”

Marie rolled her eyes at her brother before going up on tiptoe to give him a kiss. “All right, big brother, we'll be good. Have a good night.”

Alexandros watched Tiana gather up her equipment, packing it into bags that held far more than it looked like they did while his sister and her friends headed off to enjoy the night.

Now that her work was over, he could see the toll that the travel had taken on her. A stab of guilt ran him through. She had been amazing through it all. He went to take her bags from her, but she shook her head.

“Sorry, this is my life folded up into these bags. I'll take them.”

Alexandros raised an eyebrow. “You're making me feel quite useless,” he said with a wry grin. “Is there anything I can help you with at all?”

She grinned at him. “Three things. First, I want to know where I'm staying so I can drop off my things. Second, I would like to know where the kitchen is because I haven't eaten since the plane.”

Alexandros nodded. “Those things can certainly be taken care of for you. What is the third?”

“Third, we're going to be working together for a while, so maybe start calling me Tiana instead of Ms. Bernado? I mean, if you want to stand on ceremony, I suppose I should be calling you Your Highness...”

Alexandros chuckled, putting up a hand to forestall the rest of her sentence. “Oh god, please no. Tiana and Alexandros are fine then. Come on, I'll show you to your room, and then we can get you fed.”

***

 Tiana stared at the room that they had provided to her. She had stayed in increasingly nice hotels as her work had gotten more prestige and more acclaim, but that was nothing compared to this room. It was small as far as the rooms in the villa went, but it was enormously tall with windows on two sides. The light curtains would let in the dawn light, and the bed was a four-poster monster that looked like she would sink deep into it when she lay down.

“It's the artist's suite,” Alexandros supplied as she put her things in the wardrobe. “Centuries ago, my family would host artists who were working on portraits or sculptures in this room. It seemed appropriate.”

“Very few people think of what I do as art,” Tiana said, a touch ruefully. “Too many think it's just point and click.”

Alexandros gave her the room's key before leading her to the kitchen. “I know that's not how it is,” he said. “I've seen your pictures before. That was why I chose you, because every picture I have seen from your work is a piece of art in and of itself.”

She blinked, startled by his insight. “If you want the best results, that's how you need to do it. Every part, every element must be weighed to get a result you can be proud of.”

“I feel much the same way about my home.”

“Oh, yes. Would you like to talk about that now? We can outline some of your expectations, some of the things you want from the photo shoot...”

“No, not at all.”

She blinked. “Really?”

He shot her a grin over his shoulder. “My family would be shocked to hear me say that. Ever since I started construction, I have wanted to talk about nothing besides my endeavor. However, right now, if we talked about my home, I think I would feel too guilty. After all, I have drastically changed what your work is, and I assume that you are tired to the bone from the last two days.”

Despite the antique charm of the house, the kitchen was a modern marvel with a fridge that looked big enough for her to hide in. Without saying a word, Alexandros pulled out a large plate and started putting small bits of everything onto it.

“Oh, don't do that, I don't want you to go to any trouble.”

“Nonsense, I'm just preparing some mezes for us. I am hungry as well, and it is healthy for you to get a wide variety of foods at every meal.”

She had to admit, the food being piled on the platter looked amazing. There was pale cheese, a few varieties of olives, spicy meat, slices of flat bread, and gorgeous black grapes, among other things.

Tiana had told herself that she would eat sparingly, but the food was simply too good. Alexandros encouraged her to try a little bit of everything, pointing out the local delicacies.

“The prosciutto actually comes from a butcher in the valley, and his family has been at its trade for almost two hundred years. I imagine that if anyone knows their trade, it's them.”

The meat was delicious, but she couldn't stop herself from going back to the enormous black grapes, each one bursting with juice when she bit into it.

“I love these,” she said, breaking off another bunch. “I don't think I recognize them from back in the States.”

“You wouldn't,” Alexandros said with a chuckle. “This is a local variety, bred for my family by a vineyard that has traded with us for a very long time. I don't think it has a name, but after you have tried it once, you will always recognize it.”

“There's so much history here,” Tiana said, shaking her head. “Everywhere I look, I see your family and what it has done.”

She wondered if the topic made Alexandros a little uncomfortable. He shifted, and a slightly dark look flickered across his face. “What of your family, and its history?” he asked. “Do you come from a long line of artists?”

She chuckled at the idea of thinking of her family as artists. “Oh no, not at all. I'm from New York, but not the fashionable city. I was from a tiny town that hadn't even gotten the suburban treatment. My mom was a nurse, and my dad worked at a trucking firm doing dispatches.”

Alexandros tilted his head at her comment.

“Was?”

Tiana was a little surprised at herself. Too often, discussions of her family made other people uncomfortable. The fact that she had brought it up so quickly with this man told her exactly how sleep deprived she was. She wondered if it would be better to suspend the conversation where it was, but some part of her wanted to keep going.

“They died,” she said, the words coming with a little more difficulty than she thought they would. “When I was a teenager. Winters in New York are nasty; roads were slick.”

Alexandros reached for her hand on the table. She further surprised herself by accepting his touch. His hand was warm, and she wrapped her fingers gently around his.

“I was seventeen, and I was waiting for them at home. They never came.”

“I'm sorry for your pain,” he said, and somehow, she knew that he meant it.

“So am I,” she said with a slight smile. “It's an old pain that gives me trouble sometimes, but I think that while they wouldn't necessarily have understood what I was doing, they would have been proud of me.”

“I think any parent would be,” he said. “You do amazing work.”

“Amazing enough for you to notice it, anyway,” she said, changing the subject. “Are you looking forward to having good pictures to send to the magazines?”

To Tiana's surprise, he frowned before shaking his head.

“Honestly, no. It is the only thing that I could think of that would make them stop buzzing my secretary for invitations and interviews. At the moment, it is mine, completely mine. When it comes open for the world's consumption... well, perhaps that will change. Is that a ridiculous thing to think?”

 Tiana tapped Alexandros' hand softly as she thought. “Not at all,” she said. “When cameras were first developed, people were downright frightened of them. I'm not talking about the sociologically unlikely 'tribes afraid that their souls were going to be stolen,' I mean everyone. People were unsettled to have something that belonged just to them, their faces, put on a piece of glass plate and carried around by anyone who could pick it up.”

“The same thing happened with the great painters,” Alexandros said with a smile. “The people thought they had made some pact to put something essential on the painting, something that the subject lost.”

“So it's a view that goes back quite some ways,” she said with a laugh. “You're definitely not alone. However, you know, you have complete control over the process. We can shoot only in certain areas, we can limit the number of shots, lots of things.”

Alexandros held up a finger warningly. “I said that you were not going to work tonight,” he said. “Look at you sneaking around that edict. Though, honestly, I'm a little surprised. From what I know of your trip, I'm frankly shocked that you are still sitting and not dreaming into the fontina.”

“It
is
quite good cheese,” she said, “but honestly, it's not too bad. I'm as surprised as you are, but I think I might have picked up a second wind. That or all of the coffee I drank is still in my system.”

“Ah, yes, Xerxes was very impressed that you put away that much coffee.”

“And you?” She was going to blame the flirtatious tone on the fact that she was in a new country on very little sleep and a lot of coffee.

Alexandros raised an eyebrow at her. “I was a little concerned that Xerxes had allowed you to have that much Greek coffee. It's powerful stuff, and I am glad that your heart did not simply stop beating out of self-defense.”

“I love it,” she said happily. “If I could get it in a concentrated form, that would be amazing.”

“That would be a special kind of suicide,” Alexandros retorted. “No.”

“You really like telling people what to do, don't you?” she asked. The question was less sharp than it might have been if he were someone else, someone less handsome.

He gave her a slightly abashed look. “Honestly, I don't really make a habit of it. It's been a problem, but right now, it doesn't seem to be a problem with you at all.”

“Ordinarily, I think it would be,” she mused. “Right now, though, with you? I have absolutely no problem with it at all. Even if you are keeping me from tapping into some kind of purely caffeinated state of nirvana.”

“You are a brat,” he said teasingly. She found herself captivated by his eyes. They were a gorgeous shade of green that she wasn't sure she had ever captured on film before. Suddenly she wanted very much to try.

“What are you going to do about it?”

Tiana's voice came out husky and sweet. She watched, her eyes wide as his hand came up slowly, giving her plenty of time to back away if she wished to. It settled on the side of her face, cupping her cheek gently. She leaned into it without thinking twice. The man was so warm, his touch so lovely.

“Well, there are many things I could do about it, I suppose,” he said softly. “I suppose I could kiss you.”

Her eyes fluttered closed, and she nodded.

“I wish you would,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.

She felt him shift and lean into her. Suddenly, it was as if she were hyperaware of everything that was happening. She could smell his cologne, and underneath that was the scent of clean skin that made her hungry for more. She could feel her heart beating in her chest. She could feel the warmth of his breath against her cheek, and then his lips caught hers, kissing her with a deliberation that made her heart beat faster.

It was a chaste kiss at first, and then she made a slight soft sound when he brushed his teeth across her lips. The slight sharpness sent a spike of arousal through her. When she opened her mouth, he pressed his tongue between her lips. She could feel the warmth and the heat of his tongue sliding against hers.

With his hand on her wrist, he drew her gently out of her chair and into his lap. Underneath her, she could feel how muscular his thighs were, and she could tell how aroused he was getting.

“Undo my hair,” she whispered into his mouth, sliding her hands along his flanks. “Please...”

“Nothing would please me more,” he purred.

He pulled out the elastic holding the end of her braid. With slow and gentle motions, he smoothed his fingers through the woven strands, working them out until her dark hair curled down her back like a dark river.

“I thought your hair was black when I first saw it,” he murmured wonderingly. “Now that I'm close, I see that it's a beautiful dark brown, with red and gold woven through it... It's beautiful.”

“You're a romantic,” she said softly, pressing her face to his neck. She was playing with fire. There were so many reasons why this was a bad idea, and the fact that he was actually her employer was just the first reason that came to mind.

“Not really. I think most people would be surprised to hear you say that. However, I do believe in telling the truth, and the truth is that your hair is beautiful. You're beautiful.”

She laughed a little, pulling herself up from his lap and stepping away. She missed the warmth of his body immediately. It took everything that she had not stumble into his arms again.

“I don't know what we're doing here,” she said.

“I do.”

She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Care to enlighten me?”

His smile was faint, but there was a kind of heat to it that she could not ignore. She could feel his green eyes focus on her with extraordinary determination.

“I want to do whatever you like,” he said. “No matter what it is. If you want me to make you more food, I will. If you want to go to bed, I'll walk you there. If you want to do something else... well, that would be wonderful.”

“Just like that, anything I want?” She knew there was a kind of wonder in her voice, and it made her laugh.

His laugh was dark and rich. He stood, and she had to look up and up at him. He took her chin in his hands, holding her still as he kissed her again. This kiss was a little different. There was a slow burn to it, an increase of heat and need. The last kiss had been about what she wanted. This one showed her what he wanted. The reality of his hunger and his restraint made her shiver a little. Without thinking of what she was doing, she leaned toward him before she remembered and pulled away.

“No?” he asked.

“I don't know,” she said. “I'm not... exactly in my right mind right now, I guess you could say. You have been very kind...”

“I want to keep being kind to you,” he said, “but I would be a fool not to see that you are a beautiful woman. At the end of it, I want to give you exactly what you want. I think you have not received that nearly enough in your life, and that is something it would please me to give you.”