Page 17 of The Billionaire's Last-Minute Marriage
‘Why is that?’ he whispered back, simultaneously amused and curious.
‘You’re too good-looking,’ she mumbled, sighing. ‘And you kissed me.’
He stilled, suddenly realising his own mistake as she relaxed fully into sleep and lazily slid one of her legs outwards, anchoring it under his. The sigh she let out was glorious torture as she drifted into what was most certainly a sound sleep. And he knew he was definitely not going to be getting any rest himself.
CHAPTER SEVEN
PANDORAAWOKEGROGGYand disorientated after what had possibly been the most peaceful few hours’ sleep of her life, only to find herself alone in a strange bedroom with Xander’s scent all over her skin. A quick peek through the doorway showed him reclined and sleeping peacefully on one of the large seats in the main cabin.
She had practically used him as a teddy bear, she thought with a grimace. A six-foot-four solidly muscled teddy bear who emanated a mind-fogging cloud of pure sex.
She exited the bedroom to her own chair in the cabin and readjusted herself in her seat, feeling a familiar discomfort creep over her body. Her clothes felt too tight, her shoes pinched and every tiny sound in the plane seemed to build together, forming an orchestra of minute micro irritations.
Her sensory system was overloaded and every sound and movement around her had all the impact of a pane of glass shattering against her skin.
New places and exciting experiences were something she absolutely adored but still had to work extra hard to participate in. That kind of mental exertion usually took a huge toll on her energy levels, even if she’d managed a full night’s sleep. This was something that she had figured out quite quickly as a child when she’d spent most of her time shouldering the burden of her parents’ busy travel and events schedules. She had unconsciously developed ways of hiding her own discomfort, coping silently through the pain so as not to be an extra burden.
But this wasn’t the same, she reminded herself. Here with Xander, she was consciously stepping into the temporary role of the billionaire’s bride with her eyes wide open. She wasn’t denying herself or breaking that silent vow she’d made with herself all those months ago. This was just business.
Xander awoke just as the pilot announced their descent just before midnight in Osaka.
The interior of the sleek car that came to pick them up on the tarmac bore the Tanaka emblem, confirming Pandora’s suspicions, but she nevertheless relished the opportunity to talk briefly to the chauffeur in his own language. Japanese had been the fourth language she’d learned but it was one of her favourites. Still, the effort of focusing on the flow of conversation was far more difficult than usual and when they finally slid into the passenger area, she almost groaned with relief. The modern car was dark and soothing and smelled of expensive leather. But most of all, it was incredibly quiet thanks to the modern engine, and for once she was immensely grateful for her husband’s stony silence as he tapped away on the screen on his lap.
She watched as the city lights came into view and Xander asked the driver to take the scenic route, though his eyes didn’t venture up to take it in himself. Pandora drank in the luminescent skyscrapers and impossibly bright displays that made up the modern city at night. Go-karts with colourful cartoon characters whizzed past them as they made their way along, tourists and locals lining the streets. Midnight in Osaka was evidently prime time for fun. She took in the chic mannequins lining the shopfronts in the fashion district, noting with interest that this seemed like a city of style. She looked down at her own simple black jeans and teal T-shirt combination and cringed.
Her eyes growing tired again, she turned in her seat slightly, allowing herself a fleeting glance upwards, and was rewarded with the sleek profile of Xander’s patrician nose and razor-sharp jawline. His long, lean frame took up most of his side of the car, a scant few inches separating their thighs from touching. He was distracted, catching up on whatever email correspondence he’d missed out on during his sleep. As his EA, her job would normally have been to prioritise those emails for him. Running a corporation with multiple global time zones was no joke, as she’d found out pretty quickly.
It wasn’t that she was lamenting the loss of working with Xander himself, but she had genuinely enjoyed her job. It had been the longest position she’d held, other than working with her mother, and she had just started to feel as if she was settling in. She’d had a reputation as a problem solver, despite her truly terrible organisational skills. She had felt a sense of purpose in her work. She had even begun to feel as if she was good at it, well, good at the translation side of things anyway.
But Xander had told her he’d already hired her replacement, so evidently she wasn’t as necessary or valuable to Mytikas Holdings as she might have liked to imagine. What exactly was she expected to do while they were here, if Xander was going to work?
Of course, he chose that moment to look up, capturing her with his icy gaze.
‘Problem?’ he asked normally enough, but in his deep baritone the word jolted her sensitive nerves and she tensed a little, frozen like a deer in the headlights.
‘No, no problem,’ she said quickly, lowering her gaze as she fidgeted in her seat.
She had hoped her obvious rebuttal would be enough to close down the interaction and take them back to the pleasant silence that had engulfed them before, but in her peripheral vision she’d seen him place his screen face down on the seat, his gaze still pointedly in her direction.
‘You seemed deep in thought.’
‘I’m always deep in thought.’ She looked up at him briefly, forcing a tight smile to her lips and hoping he didn’t see through it. Of course, Xander Mytikas saw everything, a fact she should well know by now.
The silence was back again, only this was not the comfortable one that usually lay between them. This one was filled with a strange tension. When the car finally came to a stop in the wealthy upscale district of Umeda, he exited the car first and offered her his hand, escorting her out into the warm midnight air. Even for early October, the city was still far from the frigid New York autumnal air they had left. But Pandora shivered and stared up at the giant skyscraper where Xander had explained he owned a number of luxury apartments. The interior of the building was rather cold and disappointing, nothing at all like the traditional Japanese décor she’d been expecting.
A doorman escorted them up to the fortieth floor, where Pandora found her bags had already been delivered and unpacked. A light meal sat waiting for them in a modern dining area that boasted a spectacular view of the city lights. The sea of sparkling colours was mesmerising, demanding her full attention. So much so that she didn’t hear Xander leave the room until she heard the unmistakeable sound of the shower running.
She was still painfully jet-lagged and disorientated but feeling a mad urge to go and explore the wild urban jungle. This was what she’d promised herself, wasn’t it? When she’d accepted Zeus’s deal and moved to Manhattan, she’d promised herself more adventures. Surely a billionaire’s convenient wife would still be allowed to have fun? Tomorrow, she’d begin her bravery, she assured herself.
The sound of running water came from the larger of the two bedrooms in the sprawling luxury unit, each wall more sleek and polished than the next. She entered the smaller bedroom, frowning to find her things weren’t put away in the closets there. They must be in the other room. The water was still running but no way was she risking traipsing into Xander’s room to retrieve her things. She had already practically wrapped herself around him on the plane, the last thing she needed was for him to have more reasons to be suspicious of her.
Kicking off her shoes and jeans, Pandora flopped back in the centre of the large four-poster bed in just her T-shirt and underwear and wondered why on earth she had agreed to any of this. It was one thing to find herself married to her boss in twenty-four hours, but it was entirely another to have found herself sharing a bed with him in the sky. Was that something to do with the mile-high club?
The sound of the shower running elicited all kinds of visions in her mind of expensive soap being lathered upon toned muscles and the scent of lemon verbena in the air. There would be steam, she imagined. So much steam and heat and a teasing expanse of slick, freshly scrubbed olive-toned skin...
A door in her own room opened suddenly, making her jump. There must be connecting doorways between the bathroom and both bedrooms, and he’d opened the wrong one. Xander strode out on a cloud of steam, his broad shoulders seeming to fill the doorway.
The towel he had wrapped around his hips was slung so low she gulped. She knew what his workout regimen was like; she had often commented on the predictability of his schedule after all. And yet seeing the deliciously sculpted results of that daily routine was another matter entirely. The definition of his pectorals and the lean dips in his hips, the bulging muscles of his thighs, well, the part of his thighs that she could see. It was too much and yet somehow not enough. She licked her lower lip, feeling suddenly parched.
