Marrying Her Royal Enemy by Jennifer Hayward

past it. I think it’s perfect timing.”
    The rebuke rippled across her skin. “All right,” she said, lifting a hand to slide her bag off her shoulder. “I will go and get changed. A power suit puts me in a particular frame of mind.”
    An amused glint entered his gaze. “So what will you change into, yineka mou ? Your agreeable, soft, feminine side? If so, I’m all for it.”
    “I’m not sure I have that.”
    “Oh, you do, Stella.” His sleek, sensual rejoinder slid down her spine like silk. “All it takes is the right mood to bring it out.”
    With that kiss that had brought her to her knees far too fresh in her mind still, she cocked her chin at a defiant angle. “Is that your specialty, Kostas, with all those women you collected? Wining and dining them so you unearthed their soft, agreeable sides ?”
    He lifted a shoulder. “Sometimes it required dinner, sometimes not. But since you are my fiancée, your presence at dinner is my pleasure.”
    Thee mou , but he was arrogant. It didn’t stop her head from going to that story Athamos had told her—of Kostas setting his attention on a particular woman in a bar near the base where they’d trained at Miramar. The rumor went that he’d had her outside against the back of the bar—no dinner needed there. The woman, according to Athamos, had returned to the bar with a very satisfied look on her face.
    “Stella?”
    She blinked. “Sorry?”
    “I’ll meet you in the dining room.”
    Mouth tight, she climbed the stairs to her room. Deliberately picking out the furthest thing from what could be considered sexy attire, she dressed in black leggings and a loose-fitting, gypsy-style blouse she loved. Kostas’s gaggle of women might have been easy targets, but she was not .
    * * *
    Kostas registered Stella’s reappearance with amusement. If she thought the outfit she had on less than agreeable , she was mistaken. The leggings emphasized the long sweep of her elegant legs to perfection, providing a tantalizing glimpse of firm, toned thighs and smooth hips, just enough to fill a man’s hands. The turquoise blouse, while covering her fully, was sheer enough to hint at the delectable curves beneath.
    Blood headed south fast, something that hadn’t happened since before he’d left for Tibet. In his quest to find himself, his guru had preached abstinence as the path to clarity. Having had no desire to have a woman, it had been an easy practice to follow. But not now. Not with his sexy fiancée baiting him at every turn.
    Right now, with the frustration and tension of the day throbbing through him, finding an empty room, backing her up against a wall, wrapping Stella’s beautiful legs around his waist and solving this friction between them exactly as she’d suggested that night in her suite held great appeal. Hot, hard and fast.
    Unfortunately, he conceded, as he picked up his fiancée’s wineglass and filled it as she sat down beside him, he couldn’t do that. Ensuring his fiancée thawed enough to make this partnership of theirs a viable proposition was his goal tonight. Figuring out what had made her so cynical, so brittle , was a big part of that. Hot sex was not.
    “So,” he said as she gave him a wary look, “tell me about your day.”
    She took a sip of her wine. Cradled the glass in her palms. “Almost all of the RSVPs for the wedding are in. I’m shocked at how many can make it, almost three-quarters of those we invited.”
    “They are curious. Curious to see if this Camelot they have invoked is the real thing.”
    Her mouth twisted in that sexy, slightly crooked smile that had always fascinated him. Turned him on. “Now to live up to such an ideal.”
    “Not possible—that’s why it’s a myth.”
    She lifted a shoulder. “This afternoon I met with Theda Demarchis. She offered to give me a tour of the various charities her organization runs. We saw two of them this afternoon.”
    “The system is not in good shape, I know. My father drove the