A Greek Escape(51)
‘I want us to finish what we started,’ he said, amazing her with his arrogance and yet making her go weak in spite of everything. But at least he wasn’t touching her any more.
‘Why? Did you fall madly in love with me in Greece and realise you can’t live without me?’ she suggested with bitter poignancy.
There was a far too lengthy pause before he answered.
‘Only fools and adolescents fall madly in love,’ he responded dismissively, and his cynicism was stinging even though it was no less than she would have expected from him. ‘But I have to admit to having acted entirely out of character with you. You think you know me, but you don’t, and I intend to show you exactly who Leonidas Vassalio is.’
‘And how do you propose to do that?’
‘By asking you to stay with me under my roof for a few weeks. In fact I’m insisting upon it.’
‘Insisting?’ He sounded so sure of himself, as though he wouldn’t take no for an answer, that Kayla viewed him with a guarded question in her eyes. ‘You’re joking, surely?’
‘On the contrary,’ he said. ‘I’ve never been more serious in my life. I think it would be a good idea if you move in tomorrow.’
‘And if I don’t?’ It was a breathless little challenge, and one that he didn’t take up immediately.
He didn’t know why it was so imperative to keep this girl in his life—only that he had to. And if bending her to his will was the only way to do it, then so be it, he determined grimly.
‘It would be a pity,’ he expressed now. ‘Especially as Josh and Lorna imagined we were all getting on so well. But starting a partnership of any kind without total harmony all round doesn’t augur very well for future business.’
What was he saying? She wasn’t sure, but she had a very good idea.
Though he wasn’t actually telling her to her face, she felt sure that he would use Josh and Lorna’s difficulties as a lever. The contract wasn’t signed yet, and he could use his influence on Havens to get them to withdraw from supplying Kendon Interiors with their greatly anticipated custom. And if that happened…
Mortified, she breathed, ‘You’d rescind that contract and see a business go down the drain if I don’t do exactly what you’re asking?’ For what other reason would he have so miraculously sought Josh and Lorna out—regardless of what he’d said—if it wasn’t to use their company’s problems to his advantage?
His eyes, as she finished speaking, were darkly reflective, giving nothing away.
‘Well, since you seem to know me so well…’
He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to, Kayla thought bitterly, staring with hurt, disbelieving eyes across a patch of manicured lawn to the vacant unit in front of which they were parked. A ‘TO LET’ sign was pinned to its rendered fascia. The place looked dark. Empty. Soulless.
Like he was, she thought achingly, and knew she had fallen in love with him back there on that island. In love with a man she hadn’t even known…
A bell rang in her mind, reminding her of something he had said that last day after they had made love, but she pushed the memory aside. She didn’t need anything that threatened to topple the barrier she had been forced to erect against him. Yet when he caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger and turned her head to look at him just the touch of that broad thumb sliding sensuously across her mouth almost broke her trembling resolve.
‘Open your eyes,’ he commanded softly.
When she did she saw something in his face that for a moment seemed to mirror her anguish—some emotion that burned with a dark and almost painful intensity. But then it was gone, like the extinguishing of a light, and his features seemed only to harden as he leaned forward, tilting her chin higher until there was just a hair’s breadth between his mouth and hers.
His scent and his nearness were killing her. She wanted…
Oh, dear heaven! She wanted him! Even knowing what he was like. Even after the way he had deceived her! All she could think about was being naked in his arms and making love with him until…
She pressed her eyes closed to try and blot him out. A traitorous sensual tension gripped her. His breath was warm against her mouth, and the heady spice of his shaven jaw was acting like a powerful drug, stripping her of her will and her power to resist, until without even being aware of it she was leaning into him, her lips parting involuntarily to receive his kiss.