The Greek's Forgotten Wife (Boarding School #1) (4 page)

Sasha woke up and looked around, clinging to the soft sheets to hide her nakedness.  She was laying on her stomach but that was about all she could figure out at the moment.  Her body was tense as she tried to discern if Damon were here.  If so, she was going to pretend that she was still sleeping.

Not that sleeping had stopped him last night, she thought as she curled her body up into a ball.  The things he had done to her!  Oh goodness, the things he’d encouraged her to do to him!  She closed her eyes as embarrassment stole over her in a tidal wave of misery.  How could she have been so…passionate?  And with the man she’d just asked for a divorce!

She groaned, then froze, her eyes snapping open as she looked around the bedroom.  Was he here?  She wasn’t sure her body could take any more of Damon at the moment.  Even as she shifted so that she could sit up in the bed, she realized how tender her body was.  He’d made love to her so many times last night, she had lost count of the number of orgasms he’d brought her to.  Over and over again, he’d controlled her body to the point where she was screaming, begging him for release.  And when he gave it to her, she clung to him, her body shivering with reaction as she floated back down. 

Goodness, in all of her wildest imaginings, of all the times she’d fantasized about what it might be like to be in Damon’s arms, in his bed…her fantasies hadn’t even come close! 

Pushing her hair out of her eyes, she sat back against the headboard of the bed.  So many nights she’d lain in this bed thinking of Damon.  Why had he decided to come back and try to make their marriage real?  Why now of all times? 

Was it only because she’d asked for a divorce?  Was he the kind of man who only wanted what he couldn’t have? 

She shivered as she thought of how much he’d wanted her last night, how much he’d gotten her to want him. 

Snapping the sheet back with disgust, she pulled the shirt off of the floor and hurried into the bathroom.  She had things to do today and she didn’t have time to worry about her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s motives.  Sasha was determined to follow through on her plans despite what he might want.  He wasn’t in control of her! 

She showered and dressed in a pair of yellow capris and a white top, adding on a lemon yellow cardigan.  Brushing her hair, she pulled it up into a tight bun, making sure that none of the wisps came loose.  A touch of lipstick, a bit of mascara and…she stopped and added concealer to the dark shadows under her eyes because that man had kept her up most of the night. 

Taking a deep breath, she walked out of the bedroom.  She peered into the guest bedroom and checked on her luggage, relieved that it was still packed and ready to go.  She just had her meeting with the villagers and she could set her plans into action. 

Walking down the stairs, she found Chloe bustling about in the kitchen.  “Good morning, Chloe,” Sasha said, pouring herself a cup of coffee just as she usually did in the morning.

Chloe turned around and smiled.  “Good morning, dear.  How are you?  Everything go okay last night?” she asked even as she pulled out an egg casserole from the oven.  “Mr. Galanos is on the patio.  I’ll bring both of you some breakfast now that you’re awake.”

Sasha smiled but it felt stiff.  “Thank you.  And whatever that is, it smells delicious.”

Sasha moved towards the patio at the back of the house.  She knew that Damon preferred to have breakfast out there in the mornings.  He was generally a man of routine, which is why she was so startled when she’d received the news that he would be arriving yesterday. 

She stood on the stone patio, staring at the man.  She should walk over to the table and sit down casually, pretend that last night hadn’t really happened.  But her feet wouldn’t move.  She was so angry with him, furious that he’d come back and…done all those things to her.  With her.  She shivered once again from the memories as she watched his hand lift the coffee cup to his mouth.  Oh, the things he could do with that mouth!  And his fingers! 

“
Kalimera
,” he greeted her.  “Good morning.”

“
Kalimera sas, kathos kai
,” she replied.  “Good morning to you as well.”

She watched his eyes widen in surprise, her body stiff and offended. 

“You’ve learned to speak Greek,” he commented.  His eyes moved down her slender figure clad in sunny yellow.  “You look beautiful this morning,
gynaika mou
.”

Sasha cringed visibly when he said “my wife” with such a possessive tone of voice.  “I’m not your wife,” she stated emphatically. 

“Except for a wedding and legal marriage certificate that says you are,” he countered quickly.

She clenched her jaw.  “I’m not your wife, Damon.  I’m just the girl you wed six years ago.”

“And made love to many times last night,” he said and his eyes darkened as they moved down her figure once again.

Sasha clenched the coffee cup carefully, furious that it was rattling in the saucer with his intimate perusal.  “That was a mistake.”

Damon stood up and came over to her, taking the coffee cup out of her hands before she dropped it.  “Last night was not a mistake,
agape mou
.”  He took her hand and pulled her gently over to the patio chair next to his, setting her coffee down on the table.  “Last night was perfect,” and he bent low to kiss her lips.

If Sasha hadn’t been so nervous and flustered by his hands holding hers, she might have avoided that kiss.  But she was flustered and she’d been too distracted so when his lips touched hers, she gasped, giving him the opening he needed to invade her mouth.  This kiss was nothing like the tender kiss he’d started off their night with last night.  This kiss was overpowering, possessive and more of a branding. 

When he lifted his head again, that heated light was in his eyes and she was shaking so badly, she could barely stand.  She almost fell onto the chair as he moved over to his own, chuckling at how easily she could give in to him.

Sasha opened her mouth to tear into him about that kiss, but Chloe arrived at that moment with plates filled with that delicious smelling egg casserole as well as a large bowl of beautifully cut fruit. 

Sasha smiled her thanks up to Chloe.  “This smells wonderful, thank you.” 

While Chloe bustled off, back to the kitchen, Sasha shifted her food around on her plate, trying to think of how to start off the conversation again. 

“What’s on your mind?” he asked, flipping through the pages of his newspaper once again.

Sasha looked up, irritated that he was barely even paying attention to her.  As usual.  So she decided that, if he wasn’t going to be considerate of her feelings, she had no need to spare his own.  “I’m still getting a divorce,” she told him, setting her fork down carefully.  They were bold words, strong words, but she was still quaking inside.  Damon Galanos was not a man to trifle with.  Her research had shown her that he was an extremely wealthy and powerful man and she shouldn’t take him lightly. 

The newspaper flipped again.  “No.  There will be no divorce,” he told her firmly, barely even glancing up from the paper. 

Sasha thought about throwing her water at him but pulled herself back from the brink of fury.  Calm, she reminded herself.  Remain calm and state her case clearly. 

“This marriage has been a farce since the beginning,” she said to him.  “I told you last night that I was going to move on, start a new life.  And there is nothing you can do to stop me.”

The newspaper flipped closed and she realized that he wasn’t as calm as he was trying to appear.  “Divorce is out of the question.  If you want to start a new chapter in your life, fine.  But you will do it as my wife.”

She shook her head. “No Damon.  I’m going back to London and I’m going to get a job…”

“No wife of mine is going to work,” he told her emphatically.  “No fake jewels and no job.  I will give you what you need.”  With that, he decided that the conversation was over and he flipped his newspaper open again. 

Sasha was finished being ignored.  She stood up, ignoring his look of fury at her daring.  “I’m getting a divorce, Damon.  And I have plenty of ammunition to justify a divorce.  I don’t want any money from you.  I have my own money.  As for a job, well, I’ve already been working so I have enough experience to start looking for a job on my own.  There’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

“Where are you going?” he demanded when she started to walk away from him.  “This discussion is not over.”

Sasha swung around, her eyes daring him to stop her.  She was feeling more powerful today than she had in years and it felt wonderful!  “No Damon.  I’m not waiting for permission.  Not any longer.  I have a meeting down at the church in,” she glanced at her watch, “fifteen minutes.  After that, my bags are already packed and I have a flight booked for later today.  I will be leaving.  Don’t try to stop me because there is nothing you can say to change my mind.”

“Are you meeting a man at the church?  Do you have another lover?”

Sasha swung around again, almost laughing at his silly question.  “Yes, Damon.  I have a lover and we meet over at the village church.  We have wild, crazy sex in the church!”  Her eyes flashed at him.  “Oh, and he’s such a great lover that I remained a…” she couldn’t say the word and felt her face flare with color once more, but she clamped her mouth shut, refusing to even say it.  She’d been married for six years and she had been a virgin until last night.  It wasn’t something she liked to think about. 

“I have to go,” she told him and spun around on her heel, furious that he’d reduced her to sarcasm.

Damon watched his sexy wife disappear into the villa, stunned by the fire he’d seen in her eyes and more turned on by her temper than he wanted to admit.  She looked beautiful all fired up and putting him in his place!  He should go after her, he thought. 

But for a long moment, he was too stunned to do anything.

Then her words struck him and, now that she was no longer in sight, his mind could function a bit more.  She’d said there was nothing he could do and he almost chuckled at that challenge.  There was always something he could do.  He hadn’t gotten to this point in his business life without knowing how to get what he wanted. 

Carefully folding the paper, he laid it on the table.  Ignoring the breakfast that had been completely untouched by both of them, he moved into the villa, determined to find out what his wife had been up to for the past six years.  She’d said some interesting things during her little tirade.  Time to do a bit of investigating.

The first thing he found were her bags all packed up in the guest room.  He called for one of the maids who was almost running down the hallway.  “Unpack these suitcases,” he ordered of the timid woman.  “They should all be hanging in the master bedroom by the time I look again.”

Dismissing the woman, he started opening drawers but found nothing.  He knew that she had been sleeping in the master bedroom so he moved into that room next.  There was nothing there but the lingering scent of her, which he realized he liked.  A lot. 

There was only one drawer in her closet that contained anything at all.  And he was stunned by this discovery.  Some of the boxes were still wrapped, some had been opened and the wrapping paper gone but the gift it contained was neatly tucked into the box.  And even further down, was the loose jewelry that had obviously been worn at some point.  His initial thought was that she’d been receiving gifts from some admirer.  But as he looked at the tags from the unwrapped gifts, the notes were all professionally written in very precise calligraphy, wishing her a happy birthday or indicating they were a Christmas present or some gift that had been sent to imply that he was thinking of her. 

The boxes weren’t even neatly stacked into the drawer.  The way they were haphazardly laying in the drawer indicated that his little wife had simply tossed them in and slammed the drawer shut. 

He didn’t pull them out, and he started to get angry about her dismissal of his gifts but then he forced his mind to simply use that detail as another piece of the puzzle that defined his wife, another clue into her character.

Since there was nothing else of hers in the master bedroom, he moved down to the lower level.  He searched through each of the rooms and was even more startled to discover that she’d set up an office for herself in the back of the house.  In the room farthest away from all the other rooms, where there were windows that would allow the sunshine through, he discovered a desk neatly stacked with papers, news articles, clippings of various companies.  On the wall in front of the desk was a chart and his analytical mind instantly recognized the chart to show progress of income.  Where the hell had his little wife gained an income? 

Sitting down in her dainty chair that barely held his weight, he flipped on the computer.  Sifting through her files, he discovered that his wife, his naïve, young wife who he’d thought was sitting at the villa waiting eagerly for his arrival, was actually a damn good investor! 

His fingers flipped through the information, his mind taking it all in and quickly understanding her investment strategy.  He had to be impressed because she’d taken a small amount of money and worked it into a tidy nest egg.  He didn’t recognize the names of the investors, but his agile mind was forming a plan.  One that, if his assumptions were correct, would keep his fiery, sexy wife by his side.