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One side was taken up by a rough sandstone wall dominated by a huge fireplace regulated by a computerised temperature monitor. Directly in front of the fireplace, large slate-coloured, square-shaped sofas were grouped around an enormous stark white rug, which was the only covering on the highly polished marble floors.
Beyond the seating area, on carefully selected pedestals and on the walls were displayed works of art ranging from an exquisite pair of katanas, said to have belonged to a notorious Samurai, to a post-impressionist painting by Rousseau that galleries around the world vied for the opportunity to exhibit.
Moving towards her own suite, her gaze was drawn outside to the gleaming infinity pool that stretched out beyond the gleaming windows. The first time she’d seen it, she’d gasped with awe and thanked her lucky stars that she didn’t suffer from vertigo when Sakis had shown her around the large deck where the only protection from the elements was a steel and glass railing.
From this high up, the Thames was a dark ribbon interspersed by centuries-old bridges, and from where she stood she could almost make out the Tube station where she caught the train to her flat.
Her flat. Her sanctuary. The place she hadn’t been for days. The place she could lose if Sakis ever found out who she really was.
Her spine straightened as she approached the large wooden swivel door that led to her suite.
As long as she had breath in her body she would fight for what she’d salvaged from the embers of her previous life. Greg wouldn’t be allowed to win a second time.
Entering the bedroom where Sakis had insisted she kept a fully furnished wardrobe in case he needed to travel with her at short notice, she changed into her pair of three-quarter-length Lycra training shorts and a cropped T-shirt.
She pounded the treadmill for half an hour, until endorphins pumped through her system and sweat poured off her skin. Next she tackled the elliptical trainer.
She was in the middle of stretching before hitting the weights when Sakis walked in.
He stopped at the sight of her. His hair was severely ruffled, the result of running his hands through the short strands several times, and he’d loosened his tie, along with a few buttons. Between the gaping cotton, she saw silky hairs that bisected his deep, chiselled chest.
Their eyes clashed through the mirrors lining two sides of the room, before his gaze left her to slowly traverse over her body.
Brianna froze, very much aware her breath was caught somewhere in her solar plexus. And that her leg was caught behind her, mid-stretch. The hand braced against the mirror trembled as his gaze visibly darkened with a hunger that echoed the sensation spiking up through her pelvis.
‘Don’t let me interrupt you,’ he drawled as he went to the cooler and plucked a bottle of water off the shelf. Leaning against the rung of bars holding the weights, he stared at her as he drank deeply straight from the bottle.
She tried not to let her eyes devour the sensual movement of his throat as he swallowed. With a deep breath that cost her every ounce of self-control she possessed, she lifted and grabbed her other foot behind her, extending her body into a taut stretch, while studiously avoiding his gaze.
She’d never been more aware of the tightness of her gym clothes or the sheen of sweat coating her skin. Thankfully, she’d secured her hair so tight it hadn’t escaped its bun...yet.
Sinking low, she extended in a sideways stretch that made her inner thigh muscles scream. Her heartbeat was hammering so loudly in her ears, she was sure she’d imagined Sakis’s sharp indrawn breath.
Silence grew around them until she couldn’t bear being the sole focus of his gaze. Rising after her last stretch, she contemplated the wisdom of approaching where he stood, right in front of the weights she needed.
Contemplated and abandoned the idea. Instead, she mimicked him and went to the well-stocked fridge for a bottle of water. ‘How did the rest of the board meeting go?’ she asked to fill the heavy silence.
Sakis tossed the empty bottle in the recycle bin, pulled his tie free, rolled it up and stuffed it in his trouser pocket. ‘I had no doubt we would find the relevant weak points. Everyone has skeletons in their closets, Moneypenny. Things they don’t want anyone else to discover. Growing up as a Pantelides taught me that.’ His voice was pure steel, but she caught the underlying thread of pain beneath it.
She wanted to offer comforting words but the mention of skeletons sliced her with apprehension, tightening her insides so she could barely breathe. ‘What sort of skeletons?’
‘The usual. In this case, less than stellar financial record-keeping; one or two shady dealings that deserve closer scrutiny.’
‘Are...are we talking about Landers Petroleum?’ She held her breath.
‘No.’ He dismissed them with a wave of his hand. ‘They’re small fry compared to Moorecroft Oil and were probably hitching their wagon to the big boys in hopes of a large pay-day. For now, I’m more interested in Moorecroft. They’re the ones who started this, but they should’ve cleaned up their own backyard before attempting to sully mine. Tomorrow morning, their CEO, Richard Moorecroft, will be receiving a call from the Financial Conduct Authority. He’ll need to answer a few hairy questions.’
She told herself it was too early to hope this was over but she allowed herself a tiny breath of relief. ‘And...you think that’s the end of it?’
His hand went to the next unopened button and slid it free. ‘If they know what’s good for them. If they don’t and they keep sabre-rattling, things will just get decidedly...dirtier.’
‘You mean you’ll dig deeper,’ she murmured, unable to take her gaze off the hands slowly revealing more and more of his mouth-watering torso. ‘What are you doing?’ she gasped, her fist tightening around the plastic bottle as another bolt of heat drilled through her belly. It cracked under the force of her fist, echoing loudly through the room.
‘Taking a leaf out of your book.’ He shrugged out of his shirt, balled it up and threw it into the corner.
‘I... But...’
He paused, his hand on his belt. ‘Does my body make you uncomfortable, Moneypenny?’
Her tongue threatened to not work. ‘You’ve undressed in front of me many times.’
‘That wasn’t what I asked you.’ The belt slid free.
Arousal roared to life, tightening her nipples into deliciously painful points, weakening her knees, shooting fiery sensation between her legs. ‘W...what does it matter? I’m invisible, remember? You’ve never seen me in the past.’
He came forward, his long legs eating up the short distance between them until he stood in front of her.
‘Only because I’ve trained myself not to look...not to betray the slightest interest. Not since...’ He paused, lips pursed. Then, shaking off whatever thought he’d had, he shrugged. ‘You’re not invisible to me now. I see you. All of you.’ His gaze slid down, paused and caressed the valley between her breasts, before reaching out to boldly stroke the hard, pointed crests. Her needy gasp made him caress her more intimately, rolling her nipple between his fingers until she had to bite her lip hard to keep from crying out. ‘And just like I knew you would be like...a potent wine, promising intoxication even before the first sip.’
Reason tried to surge forth through the miasma of sensation shaking her very foundations. But her body had a mind of its own. It swayed towards him but she managed to stop herself from taking the fatal step.
‘I wouldn’t really know. I...I don’t drink.’ Another ruthless stance she’d taken since Greg. That last night before the police had crashed in and carted her away, he’d plied her with vintage champagne and caviar. She’d been so drunk she’d been barely coherent when her life had taken a nosedive into hell.
‘My, what a virtuous life you lead, Moneypenny. Do you have any vices at all? Apart from your pancakes, that is?’
‘None that I wish to divulge,’ she responded before she managed to stop herself.
Sakis gave a low, rich laugh that soaked into her senses before fizzing pleasure along her nerve endings. ‘I find that infinitely intriguing.’ His gaze dropped to her mouth in a blatant, heated caress. His lips parted and a slow rush of breath hissed through them. Slowly, almost leisurely, he stepped closer, bringing his body heat within singeing distance.
Move, Brianna!
Her feet finally heeded the frenzied warning fired by her brain but she’d barely taken a step when Sakis reached out. He caught her around the waist and brought her flush against him.
The contact fired through her, so powerful and potent, she lost her footing. One strong hand cupped her chin and raised her head to his merciless gaze. In his eyes, she read dangerous intent that made her stomach hollow with anticipation and feverish need, even as the last functioning brain cells shrieked for her to fight against the dangerous sensations.
‘I’m going to kiss you now, Moneypenny,’ Sakis breathed. ‘It’s not wise and it probably won’t be safe.’
‘Then you shouldn’t do it...’ She half-pleaded but already wet heat oozed between her thighs.
He gave a half-pained groan. ‘I can’t seem to stop myself.’
‘Mr Pantelides—’
‘Sakis. Say it. Say my name.’
She shook her head.
His head dropped another fraction. ‘You’re doing it again.’
‘D-doing what?’
‘Refusing to obey me.’
‘We’re no longer in the office.’
‘Which is all the more reason why we should drop formalities. Say my name, Brianna.’
The way he said her name, the soft stresses on the vowels, made her insides clench hard. She tried desperately to fight against the overwhelming sensation. ‘No.’
He walked her back until he had her pinned between the gym wall and the solid column of his hot body. The hard muscles of his bare chest were torture against her heavy breasts but it was the firm, unmistakeable imprint of his erection against her belly that made her stop breathing.
‘Luckily for you, the need to taste you overwhelms the need to command your obedience.’ His lips brushed hers in the fleetest of caresses. ‘But I will hear you say it before very long.’
Eyelids too heavy to sustain fluttered downwards. Drowsy with lust, she fought to answer him. ‘Don’t count on it. I have a few rules of my own. This is one of them.’
The very tip of his tongue traced her lower lip, again with the fleetest of touches, and the fiery blaze of need raged through her. ‘What’s another?’
‘Not to get involved with the boss.’
‘Hmm, that’s one I agree with.’
‘Then...what are you doing?’ she asked plaintively.
‘Proving that this isn’t more than temporary insanity.’ His voice reflected the dazed confusion she felt.
‘Won’t walking away prove the same thing? As you said, this might not be exactly wise.’
‘Or this is nothing but a no-big-deal kiss. It’ll only become a big deal if we aren’t able to handle what happens afterwards.’
No big deal. Was it really? And would it hurt to experience just a kiss? They were both clothed...well, he was technically only half-clothed...but she could put the brakes on this any time she wanted...couldn’t she?
‘Afterwards?’ she blurted.
‘Yes, when we go back to what we are. You’ll continue to be the aficionado who runs my business life and I’ll be the boss who demands too much of you.’
‘Or we could stop this right now. Pretend it never happened?’
A hard gleam entered his eyes. ‘Pretence has never been my style. I leave that to people who wish to hide their true colours; who want the world to perceive them as something other than what they are. I detest people like that, Moneypenny.’ His mouth dropped another centimetre closer, his hands tightening around her waist as his eyes darkened with hot promise. ‘It’s why I won’t pretend that the thought of kissing you, of being inside you, hasn’t been eating me alive these past few days. It’s also why I know neither of us will misconstrue this. Because you’re above pretence. You’re exactly who you say you are. Which is why I appreciate you so much.’
He kissed her then, his mouth devouring hers with a hunger so wild, so ferocious, it melted every single thought from her head.
Which was fortunate. Because otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to stop herself from showing her reaction to his stark words; from blurting out that she was not even remotely who he thought she was.
CHAPTER SIX (#u92907484-af35-5d5e-9473-9686b63013ed)
SAKIS FELT HER moan of desire shudder through her sexy body and groaned in return. Theos, he’d been so determined not to be seen by another woman in the work environment in the way that Giselle had portrayed him in court and in the media that he’d deliberately blinded himself to just how sexy, how utterly feminine and incredibly gorgeous, Brianna was. Now he let his reeling senses register her attributes—the hands’ span soft but firm curve of her bare waist underneath his fingers; the saucy shape of her bottom and the way the supple globes felt in his hands.
And Theos, her mouth! Delicious and silky soft, it was pure torture just imagining it around the hard, stiff part of his anatomy. Sure enough, the image slammed into his brain, firing the mother lode of all sex bombs straight to his groin.
He wanted her with a depth that seriously disturbed him. He wanted her spread underneath him, naked and needy, in endless positions...
She gave a hitched cry as his tongue breached her sweet plump lips and mercilessly plunged in. He was being too rough. His brain fired at him to slow down but he couldn’t pull back. He’d had a taste of her but somehow that first taste had demanded a second, a third...
He pressed down harder, demanding more of her. His hips ground into her lower body until he was fully cradled between her thighs but even that wasn’t enough. His hands cupped her breasts and another shudder raked through her as his fingers tweaked her nipples. Blood roared through his ears at the thought of tasting them, of suckling them, tugging on them with his teeth.
When her hands finally rose to clutch his bare shoulders, when her nails dug into his skin, the rush of lust was so potent he feared he’d pass out there and then.
What the hell was happening here?
He’d never been this swept away by lust, even when he’d been in the clutches of his hormones as a young adult. Sex was great. He was a healthy, virile male who was rich and powerful enough to command the best female attention whether he wanted it or not. When he wanted it, he went all in for the enjoyment of it.
But never had he experienced this urgency, this slightly crazed need that threatened to take him out at the knees.
And they hadn’t even left first base yet!
Brianna opened her mouth wider to accommodate his rough demand. One hand left his shoulder and plunged into his hair, scraping his scalp as her fingers tightened.
He welcomed the mild pain with a glee that seriously worried him.
He’d never gone for kinky but with every scrape of her fingers his erection grew harder, more painful. God, he was so turned on, he couldn’t see straight.
Which was why it took a full minute to realise the fingers in his hair were pulling him back, not egging him on; that the hand on his shoulder was pushing him away with more than a little desperation.
‘No!’ The force of his kiss smothered the word but it finally penetrated his lust-engorged senses.
With a shocked groan, he lifted his head and staggered back.
Brianna stared up at him, her ragged breath rushing through lips swollen with the force of his kisses. But it was the expression in her turquoise eyes that froze his insides. Besides the shock mingled with arousal, the apprehension was back again.
Self-loathing ripped through him like a tornado. He might not have understood why she’d been terrified the first time, but this time he knew the blame lay squarely with him. He’d fallen on her like a horny barbarian.
He clenched his fists and took another step back. His chest rose and fell like a felon in the heat of pursuit and he dimly registered that he hadn’t bothered to breathe since he’d first tasted her.
‘I...think this has gone far enough,’ she said, her eyes darkening as they fell to his chest and skittered away.
Sakis wanted to refute that, to growl that it hadn’t gone far enough. But he would be speaking from the depths of whatever insanity gripped him.
Insanity...
Was that what he’d scornfully professed he wanted to test?
Well, now he knew. His gaze dropped to her mouth again and fresh need slammed into him.
Damn it...He knew, and yet he wanted more. Of course, ‘more’ was out of the question. Brianna held far more value to him as his assistant than she would as his lover.
Potential lovers were a dime a dozen. He only had to scroll through his diary...
The thought of doing just that for the sake of slaking the lust-monkey riding him made his mouth curl with distaste. He wasn’t his father, taking and discarding women with barely a thought between incidents, not caring about who bore the brunt of his actions.
