The Passionate Greek (4 page)

‘So, this is where you live,’ he said,
gazing around him.

Melanie bridled. She had bought her
apartment on a large mortgage as the moment her business had
started to make a small profit and had furnished it carefully with
a mixture of modern and antique furniture from markets and
salerooms. ‘If I catch as much as a hint of a sneer he’s out of
that door,’ thought Melanie savagely. But he surprised her, saying,
‘You have excellent taste.

He was gazing at her, his eyes over her
body, lingering on her breasts, his look predatory and frankly
appraising. Unsure of where he was taking her to dinner Melanie had
settled on a soft, floaty chiffon top over her only pair of
designer jeans paired with high-heeled sandals. The cut of the
jeans, she knew, flattered her long, slim legs. Even with her
three-inch heels she still barely came up to his shoulder. Under
his gaze sexual warmth coursed through her body, startling her with
its intensity.

‘Yes, a truly very beautiful woman.’ He had
spoken almost as if to himself.

Melanie felt herself color. To cover her
confusion offered him a drink.

‘Chivas Regal,’ he said, his manner
off-hand. ‘No ice.’

Melanie had only one brand of Scotch and it
wasn’t one of the most expensive on the supermarket shelf.
Indignation with him had risen inside her once more. He had to be
the most arrogant man she had ever met. ‘The ‘no ice’ bit I can
do,’ she had rejoined, her tone cool. ‘The Scotch will have to be a
little more downmarket.’ He smiled that lazy smile of his and said,
‘Then I will have to get you a supply of what I drink as I intend
to be a regular visitor.’

True to his word that is what he has become.
As the days and weeks past Melanie found herself falling more and
more under his spell. She discovered that underneath the arrogant
exterior he sometimes displayed there was a kind, caring man,
interested in everything and everybody.

She was amused that he took such an interest
in her catering business. ‘But it’s a minnow compared to the mega
deals your company does,’ she laughingly protested. ‘All businesses
start small,’ he’d said. ‘It takes nerve and courage and the will
to succeed. You have proved you have those qualities. But you must
be tough, too and sometimes in life we do things people don’t
always approve of.’

Melanie looked away disconcerted. She had
done something in her life very wrong, even though she had not done
it for herself but for someone else. It was still wrong and she
knew it. Would Nicos understand? She wanted very much to tell
him.

‘I want to tell you something about me.’ she
began. He interjected, ‘I want to know everything about you and if
we are going to spend the rest of our lives together I want you to
know everything about me.

Melanie’s heart sang. She had hardly dared
hope for a future with him. However hard she tried to keep her
emotions in check she could not help but know that she had fallen
deeply and dangerously in love with him. All thoughts of what she
was about to confess flew out of her head as he took her hand and
said ‘I want us to be together always.’ ‘I will tell him’ she told
herself. ‘When the moment is right.’

But somehow it never was. And as the days
and months turned into a year nothing seemed to matter but the love
they had for each other.

Wrapped in thoughts of the past Melanie gazed
unseeingly out of the train window as green fields gave way to
outer London suburbs. ‘Did I really know him or was I just blinded
by desire for him,’ she thought miserably. She wanted to hate him
for what he was doing to her now but she could still feel the heat
of him against her, the ease with which he had aroused her and she
knew in her heart that time had stopped for them both when Nicos
had pulled her into his arms and only the jarring telephone bell
had brought them back from the brink.

The train pulling into the London Station
pulled her back to the present along with it. ‘Tomorrow, when Nicos
tells them what I’ve done, I won’t have a job,’ she thought.

But Nicos had told them nothing. Her boss,
the formidable Lucy Chambers, had simply asked her if she was
feeling better and then dumped extra work on her desk. Among the
pile was a fax from the office of Tele-Sky Communications
confirming Mr Chalambrous’s telephone call to Ms Chambers of
yesterday afternoon and requesting Gabriella Hinckley be sent a
contract of employment forthwith.

Too relieved at first to wonder why Nicos
had said nothing Melanie worked her way through the morning,
surreptitiously returning Stephanie Brook’s file to its proper
place and resolving to do her best to get the girl the best
possible placing in return for the use of her name.

Lunchtime came and Melanie thankfully
gathered up her bag and made for the door. If Nicos had not exposed
her already then the chances are he wasn’t going to. She hurried
down the stairs and into the street heading for her favoite
sandwich bar. She was almost there when to her shock and fear a
hand clamped her wrist. Before she had time to scream she felt
herself swung round face to face with her attacker.

‘Nicos,’ she breathed. ‘What in hell do you
think you’re doing? You frightened the life out of me.’ He didn’t
apologise, nor did he release his grip. ‘Come with me,’ he ordered.
Melanie tried to snatch her wrist from his hold, but he was too
strong for her.

‘Stop struggling. People will think I’m
trying to mug you.’

‘Just what
are
you trying to do?’ she
hissed. He loosened his grip but didn’t release his hold. ‘I just
want to talk to you.’

Melanie with a determined pull succeeded in
wrenching her arm away. ‘Send me a legal letter. That’s your usual
form.’ Nicos ignored her jibe. Putting a firm hand under her elbow
he steered her along the pavement and through the swing doors of a
nearby five star hotel. She found herself seated opposite him at a
low table in the lounge. How had that happened? She’d been
determined to brush him off but he had taken control the way he
always had. He had that kind of command about him, she recognised
ruefully.

She looked across at him. Even in his dark
business suit and formal shirt he exuded animal grace and an innate
sexuality. His liquid brown eyes were fixed on her. She looked away
disconcerted.

‘I think I should apologise,’ he began.
‘Yes, you certainly should,’ she interrupted fiercely. ‘You
practically dragged me in here by my hair.’

‘That’s not what I was going to apologise
for,’ he said evenly. ‘And I didn’t drag you in. You walked in of
your own accord. And you’re hair looks perfectly fine.’ Melanie
looked daggers at him.

‘My behavior when you came to the house was
inappropriate,’ he continued.

‘Inappropriate!’ she exclaimed, her voice
rising. ‘Is that how you would describe it? How about unreasonable
and altogether pig headed.' She sat further back on the sofa, arms
folded and glared at him.

Inexplicably he started to laugh. ‘All
right,’ he concurred. ‘I will accept your so elegant description of
pig headed; but unreasonable? No, I was not unreasonable. It was
unreasonable of you to expect me to agree to such a scheme.’

Melanie opened her mouth to reply but he
stopped her with a raised hand. ‘I didn’t come here to discuss
that. I came to apologise for what I said to you. I am sorry.’

‘So you think saying you’re sorry makes
everything all right,’ said Melanie heatedly. ‘If you are really
sorry you would do as I asked.’

‘I am not in the least sorry that I turned
down your proposal. I am just sorry about the terms in which I
expressed it. His formal choice of words incensed Melanie even
further.

‘You wouldn’t know how to say sorry if you
tried.’

‘I am trying,’ he said. ‘but obviously not
doing very well. Perhaps you can give me a lesson. You could start
by apologising for barging into my office under false
pretences.’

Melanie sucked in her breath. Was that a
glint of amusement in his dark liquid eyes? ‘You’re making fun of
me. Don’t you dare.’ She glared at him.

‘I’m not, I’m really not,’ he protested,
throwing up his hands, but he was laughing. ‘It’s just those
beautiful green eyes of yours are flashing like laser beams at me.
You’re quite scary, you know.’ Melanie threw him a withering look.
‘You don’t look in the least scared.’

‘Oh, but I am,’ he said. ‘You look as if you
are going to throw something at me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen
you in such a rage.’

‘Perhaps you never did anything to cause it
before,’ she snapped.

As long as she stayed angry with him she was
safe. Safe from what? The way he was making her feel? She wanted to
touch him, run her hands over the width of his shoulders, feel his
demanding mouth on hers. She pulled herself up with a start. Where
were these treacherous thoughts coming from? This was the man who
was denying her access to her daughter.

‘You’re still so beautiful,’ he said
unexpectedly. He was looking at her with naked desire and Melanie
was thrown into turmoil. His eyes raked over her body. It was as if
without touching each other all their senses had fused together and
the atmosphere between them was suddenly charged with sexual
longing.

‘I want to make love to you,’ he said
huskily. Melanie couldn’t speak. Her throat was dry. She wanted to
stay angry with him but his words had conjured up a mind picture of
his powerful body arched over hers, his sensuous mouth closing on
her own. She wanted him, she always had.

A waiter bore down on them, silver tray held
aloft, and broke the sexual spell that held them. Melanie shook her
head in disbelief. How had she let him get to her like that? The
waiter was placing wine glasses and bowls of nuts on the low table
in front of them she made the most of the diversion to collect her
thoughts. This unplanned meeting was not going at all the way it
should.

The drinks served the waiter departed and
Melanie groped for something that would discharge the atmosphere.
‘I believe you were about to apologise to me,’ she said more coolly
than she felt.

‘For saying I want to make love to you? I
would never apologise for that.’

‘That’s not what I meant and you know it.’
Crossly, she felt herself blush.

Nicos flashed her a mocked contrite look.
‘Let me see. I was going to say sorry for being pigheaded, wasn’t
I? Although I prefer to think of it as sticking to my guns.’

‘’Uuurghhh,’ went Melanie. ‘If I had a gun
now I’d shoot you with it.’

‘I knew you were a dangerous woman,’ he
said. . ‘It goes with the titian hair and the green eyes. It’s your
war like ancestry. Unlike my placid and equable Greek roots.’ He
looked smug. Melanie snorted. ‘Placid! You practically had me
thrown out of your office.
And
you sexually assaulted
me.’

‘I seem to remember you were quite a willing
participant,’ he countered.

Melanie almost immediately regretted her
outburst. What was she doing bringing that encounter up? It seemed
she couldn’t look at Nicos without being reminded of sex with him.
‘Changing the subject…’ she began severely.

‘Why change the subject from sex? he said
with pretend innocence. ‘As you know, it’s one of my favorite
subjects.’

‘Changing the subject, she went on
determinedly, ‘why did you accost me in the street like that?’

‘I didn’t want to come to the agency, and I
figured you’d come out around lunch so I waited outside till I saw
you’ he said.

‘Why didn’t you just telephone?’

‘I thought after what I said to you that you
might hang up on me?’

Melanie considered this. ‘I might have
done,’ she said.

He was smiling at her now. ‘You were very
brave the other day – bearding the lion in his den.’

‘The lion has a very nasty roar,’ she said
feelingly. He laughed. ‘You kept me awake all night wondering how
you had pulled off your little subterfuge. I had no idea you were
working at that agency. If I had I might have chosen another,’ he
said, banteringly.

‘How did you find out?’ she had to ask ‘I
wasn’t thinking very clearly. I forgot you had no idea I worked
there. I spent the morning dreading you would complain to my
boss

‘I went to the file my London PA had sent
me. She had enclosed all copies of correspondence. Your name was on
one of the letters.’ He didn’t add that seeing it had been a stab
to his heart.

‘What I said to you was more than
inappropriate, it was unforgivable. My only excuse is that I was in
shock.

He looked down as if unable to meet her eyes
and Melanie realised that his apology was costing him. Nicos didn’t
do ‘sorry’. She couldn’t help feeling for him. ‘Thank you,’ she
said. ‘I accept your apology.’ And to lighten the atmosphere adding
in mock reproof, ‘don’t let it happen again’.

He looked almost gratefully at her. ‘Forgive
me, then?

‘Sort of,’ she replied, unwilling to make
too great a concession. Nicos was very used to getting his own way.
But somehow she sensed he was sincere.

He went on in a quiet voice, ‘My only excuse
is that seeing you again was very painful.’

‘Don’t you think it was for me?’ Melanie
sounded sharper than she intended.

He raised his head. ‘Was it?’ he queried,
disbelief evident in his tone.

‘How can you ask that,’ she said sadly.
‘Perhaps you shouldn’t have engineered this meeting. We can’t seem
to be together without quarrelling and you don’t want to hear the
truth.’

‘Our truths might be very different.’ His
voice had an edge to it. ‘I was true to you. You were not true to
me.’

Melanie sighed. ‘I should leave before we
both say things we shouldn’t.’

‘Don’t go,’ he said. ‘Don’t leave like this.
We may never see each other again. Don’t let this be our last
memory.’