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‘What’s wrong?’
She surged to her feet and started gathering her things. ‘Nothing.’
‘Wait.’ He placed a halting hand on her waist and immediately felt her tense. Another stream of irritation rushed upward.
‘Y-yes?’ Her voice wasn’t quite steady and her head was bent, hiding her expression.
‘Brianna, what’s the hell is going on?’
‘Why should there be anything wrong? I’m merely returning to my office to get on with the rest of the day.’ Her words emerged in a rush.
Something was definitely wrong; something he’d said. He replayed his last words in his head, then his lips pursed.
‘You think my views are too harsh?’
Her mouth tightened but she still avoided eye contact. ‘What does it matter what I think?’
‘Tell me, what would you do?’ His hand curved firmly around her waist. When she moved, he felt the warm softness beneath his fingers. He wanted to pull her closer, glide his hand upward and cup her breast the way he had last night. It took every single ounce of willpower for him to hold himself still.
‘I...I would listen to them, find out the motive behind their actions first, before I throw them to the wolves.’
‘Greed is greed. Betrayal is betrayal. The reason for it ceases to matter once the act is done.’
Her soft lips pursed. Her nostrils flared and Sakis caught a sense of anger bubbling beneath her skin. ‘If you truly believe that, then I don’t see the point of you asking me.’
‘Under what circumstances would you forgive such an action?’
She gave a small shrug. The movement drew his attention to her breast. Sakis swallowed and cursed the heat flaring through his groin. ‘If the act was done to protect someone you cared about. Or perhaps it was done without the perpetrator knowing he was committing an act of betrayal.’
Sakis’s lips twisted. ‘My father’s betrayal was an active undertaking. So is Moorecroft’s.’
Her eyes clashed with his then she glanced away. ‘You can’t assign your father’s sins to every situation in your life, Mr Pantelides.’
This was getting personal again. But he couldn’t seem to stop himself from spilling the jagged pain in his chest. ‘My father actively cheated and bribed his way through his business dealings for decades. He betrayed his family over and over, letting us think he was one thing when he was in fact another. Even after he was found out, he was remorseless. Even jail didn’t change him. He went to his grave unrepentant.’ He sucked in a breath and forcibly steered his thoughts away from the bitterness of his past. ‘You’re deluding yourself if you think there’s such as a thing as blind, harmless betrayal.’
A shaft of pain and sympathy flitted through her eyes, just like it had back at Point Noire. She even started to move towards him before she visibly stopped herself.
Sakis felt curiously bereft that she succeeded.
‘I’m sorry for what happened to you. I...I have emails to catch up on so, if you don’t mind, I’ll get back to the office.’
‘No.’
She stared at him in surprise. ‘No?’
He glanced at his watch. ‘You haven’t had breakfast yet, have you?’
‘No, but I was going to order some fruit and cereal from the kitchen.’
‘Forget that. We’re going out.’
‘I don’t see why—’
‘I do. We’ve both been cooped up in here since yesterday. Some fresh air and a proper meal will do us some good. Come.’ He started to walk out and felt a hint of satisfaction when after several seconds he heard her footsteps behind him.
Sakis took her to a café on a quiet street in Cheapside. The manager greeted him with a smile and offered them a red high-backed booth set back from the doorway. One look at the menu and her eyes flew to collide with Sakis’s.
He was regarding her with a seriously sexy smile on his face.
‘All they serve here are pancakes,’ she blurted.
‘I know, which is why I brought you here. Time to indulge that weakness of yours.’ The way he stressed the word made a spike of heat shoot through her.
‘But...why?’ Frantically, she scrambled to gather her rapidly unravelling control. Far from being back on the professional footing she’d thought, the morning was turning into one huge, personal landmine. One she wasn’t sure she would survive.
‘Because it’s perfect ammunition.’ Again he smiled and her heart lurched.
‘You see my weakness for pancakes as ammunition?’ She felt her lips twitch and allowed herself a small smile. Just then, a waiter walked past with a steaming heap of blueberry pancakes dripping in honey. She barely managed to stifle her groan, but Sakis heard it.
A dark, hungry look entered his eyes that made her stomach muscles clench hard. ‘I’m not so sure whether to be pleased or irritated that I’ve uncovered this piece of information about you, Brianna. On the one hand, it could be the perfect weapon to get you to do whatever I want.’
‘I already do whatever you want.’ The loaded answer made heat crawl up her neck. His keen gaze followed it then scoured her face before locking on hers.
‘Do you? I distinctly recall a few times when you’ve refused to do my bidding.’
‘I wouldn’t have lasted two minutes if I’d pandered to you in any shape or form.’
‘No, you wouldn’t have. I told Ari you were my Rottweiler.’
She gave a shocked gasp. ‘You compared me to a dog?’
He grimaced and had the grace to look uncomfortable. ‘It was a metaphor but, in hindsight, I should’ve used a more...flattering description.’ He beckoned the waiter who’d been hovering a booth away.
Her curiosity got the better of her. ‘How would you describe me?’
He didn’t answer immediately. Instead he gave the waiter their order—coffee and two helpings of blueberry pancakes.
Brianna stopped the waiter with a hand on his arm. ‘Can I have a side-helping of blueberries, please? And a bowl of honey? Oh, and some icing sugar and fresh cream...and two wedges of lemon...and some butter...’ She stopped when she saw Sakis’s eyebrow quirk in deep amusement. She dropped her arm and this time was unable to stop her blush from suffusing her face as their waiter walked away. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like a complete glutton.’
‘Don’t apologise for your desires. Indulging every now and then is completely human.’
‘Until I have to pay for it with hours in the gym. Then I’ll hate every single mouthful I’m about to take.’
Immediately her mind homed in on what had happened between them last night. From the way his green eyes darkened, he was remembering too. God, what was wrong with her? Or maybe that was the wrong question. She knew what was wrong. Despite cautioning herself against it, she was attracted to Sakis with a fierce compulsion that defied reason. She accepted that now. What she needed was a cure for this insanity before it raged out of control.
‘If you regret the act before it’s happened, you take away the enjoyment of it.’
‘So you’re saying I should just ignore what will come afterwards and just live in the moment?’
His gaze dropped to her lips, the heat of it almost a caress that made her want to moan. ‘Exactly.’ He breathed the word then said nothing else.
Silence grew between them, the only sound the distant clatter of plates and cutlery from other diners.
She could only stand it for a few minutes until she felt as if she’d combust from the sizzling tension in the air. Forcefully, she cleared her throat and searched for a neutral subject, one that would defuse the stressful atmosphere. ‘You were going to tell me what your description of me would be.’ Oh, nice one, Brianna.
He sat back in his seat, extended his arm along the back of the booth. Her eyes fell on rippling muscle beneath his shirt and she barely managed to swallow.
‘Perhaps now is not the time, or the place.’
Leave it, Brianna...leave it. ‘Oh, is it that bad?’
‘No, it’s that good.’
She breathed deeply and opted for silence. When their food arrived, she pounced on it, feeding her culinary appetite the way she couldn’t let herself feed on the dark, carnal promise in Sakis’s eyes.
She looked up several minutes later to find him watching her with an expression of mingled shock and amusement.
‘Sorry, it’s your fault. Now you’ve unleashed my innermost craving, there’s no stopping me.’ She took another sinful bite and barely managed to stop her eyes rolling in pleasure.
‘On the contrary, seeing you eat something other than a salad and with such...relish is a pleasurable experience in itself.’
‘Don’t worry; I’m not going to re-enact a When Harry Met Sally moment.’
A puzzled frown marred his forehead. ‘A what?’
She laughed. ‘You’ve never seen that clip where the actress simulates an orgasm in a restaurant?’
He swallowed. ‘No, I haven’t. But I prefer my orgasmic experiences not to be simulated. When it comes to orgasms, only the real thing will do. Do you not agree?’
Dear Lord, was she really having breakfast with her boss, discussing orgasms? ‘I wasn’t... This was...’ She stopped, silently willing her racing pulse to quieten. ‘I was merely making conversation. I don’t have an opinion on orgasms one way or another.’
His low laugh caressed her senses like soft butterfly wings. ‘Everyone has an opinion on orgasms, Brianna. Some of us may have stronger opinions than others, but we all have them.’
She was not going to think about Sakis and orgasms together. She was not. ‘Um...okay; point taken. But I’d rather not discuss it any longer, if that’s okay with you?’
He finished the last of his pancakes and picked up his black coffee. ‘Certainly. But some subjects have a habit of lingering until they’re dealt with.’
‘And other subjects deserve more attention than others. What was your other point?’
‘Sorry?’
‘Before the subject went...sideways you said “on the one hand”. I was wondering what the other was.’
It was a purely diversionary tactic, but she wanted—no, needed—to get off the subject that was making desire dredge through her pelvis like a pervasive drug, threatening to fool her into thinking she could taste the forbidden and come out whole.
There would be no coming out whole once she gave in to the hunger that burned within her, that burned relentlessly in Sakis’s eyes. Wanting—or, God forbid, needing—a man like Sakis would destroy her eventually. Their conversation in the boardroom had reiterated the fact that he was emotionally scarred from what his father had done to him. He would never allow himself to trust anyone, never mind reaching the point of needing another human being to the extent she suspected she would crave if she didn’t control her feelings.
‘On the other hand, I’m glad I know this weakness. Because I have a feeling you don’t give yourself permission enough to enjoy the simple things in life.’
Her heart hammered with something suspiciously like elation. ‘And you...you want to give me that?’
‘I want to give you that. I want to indulge you like you’ve never been indulged before.’
Simple words. But oh, so dangerous to her current state of mind.
‘Why?’ she blurted before she could stop herself.
Her question seemed to surprise him. His lashes swept down and veiled his eyes. ‘For starters, I’m hoping to be rewarded with one of those rare smiles of yours.’ He looked back up and his expression stopped her breath. There was a solemn kinship, a gentleness in their depths, that made her heart flip. ‘And because I had my brothers while I dealt with my daddy issues. But you, as far as I know, are an only child, correct?’
Emotion clogged her throat. ‘Correct,’ she croaked, battling the threat of tears.
That weird connection tightened, latched and embedded deeply, frightening but soothing at the same time. ‘Let’s call this therapy, then.’ He glanced down at her plate where one last square of honey-soaked pancake was poised on her fork. ‘Are you finished?’
She hadn’t but the thought of putting that last morsel in her mouth while he watched with those all-seeing eyes was too much to bear. ‘Yes, I’m done. And thank you...for this, I mean. And for...’ She stumbled to a halt, alien feelings rushing through her at dizzying speed.
He nodded, stood and held out his hand. ‘It was my pleasure, agapita.’
* * *
By the time they returned to the office, Brianna knew something had fundamentally changed between them. She didn’t even bother to figure out a way back to equanimity; she couldn’t. Curiously, she didn’t feel as devastated at losing that particular battle.
It helped that they were barely in the door when Sakis threw out a list of things he wanted her to do but, despite the breakneck speed of dealing with his demands, they were soon both plugged into events at Point Noire, especially the clean-up process and the still missing Pantelides Six crewmembers.
After speaking to Morgan Lowell’s wife Perla for the fifth time at six o’clock, Sakis threw his pen on his desk and ran both hands over his stubbled jaw.
‘Are you okay?’
Tired eyes trained on her with breath-stopping intensity.
‘I need to get out of here,’ he rasped as he strode to the door and shrugged into his designer overcoat.
She swallowed and nodded. ‘Do you want me to book a restaurant table for you? Or call a friend to...um...’ She stopped, purely because the thought of arranging a date for Sakis with one of the many women who graced his electronic diary stuck in her gut like a sharp knife.
‘I’m not in the mood to listen to inane conversation about the latest Hollywood gossip or who is screwing whom in my circle of friends.’
His response pleased her way more than it should have. ‘Okay, what can I do?’
His eyes gleamed for a moment, before he looked away and headed towards the door. ‘Nothing.’ He stopped with a hand on the door. ‘I’m meeting Ari for a drink. And you’re logging off for the night. Is that clear, Moneypenny?’
She nodded slowly and watched him walk out, hollowness in her stomach that made her hate herself. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to be the one who wiped away that look of weariness she’d seen in his eyes. And all through today, every time he’d called her ‘Moneypenny’, she’d wanted to beg him to call her ‘Brianna’. Because she loved the way he said her name.
She glanced down at the fingers resting on her keyboard and wasn’t surprised to see them trembling. Her whole being trembled with the depth of the feelings that had been coursing through her all day. Frankly, it scared the hell out of her.
Hurriedly, she shut down the computer and gathered her tablet, phone and handbag. She’d just slid her chair neatly into the space beneath her desk when the phone rang. Thinking it was Sakis—because who else would ring her at seven-thirty on a work night?—she pounced on the handset.
‘Hello?’
‘May I speak to Anna Simpson?’
