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‘Mr Levakis—’
His voice was curt. ‘We’ve been through this before. I told you to call me Aristotle. I don’t want to tell you again.’
Lucy all but exploded. ‘I am resigning. There is nothing you can do or say to stop me. I will not stay and be subjected to the kind of treatment you just … just subjected me to.’
Aristotle was looking down, flicking through papers, and he said easily, ‘Lucy, I didn’t even have to touch you to turn you on, so when the time comes and I do touch you for real can you imagine how good it’s going to be? Why would you deny yourself that?’
For a million and one good reasons! Lucy saw red spots dance before her eyes. His words had impacted upon her so deep, and in a place so visceral, she nearly screamed with frustration. But she swallowed it down and said, as coolly and calmly as she could, ‘It’s clear that your arrogance is clouding your ability to assimilate this information. Perhaps it’ll become more clear once I’ve gone. I can send you another copy of my resignation. Good day, Mr Levakis.’
She turned on her heel and was almost at the door when she heard him, deadly soft. ‘If you walk through that door, Lucy Proctor, you’ll be hearing from my lawyers within the hour.’
Lucy stopped in her tracks, her hand still in the act of reaching for the doorknob. She turned around slowly and saw that hard green gaze spearing her on the spot. Her stomach felt as if she was in freefall off a huge cliff.
‘What are you talking about?’ But dread was already trickling through her as her professional brain went into overdrive and she had a sickening memory of signing that other contract along with the one for her job. She really hadn’t thought this through with her usual clear rationality at all.
‘Well, for a start, you’re obliged to give me at least four weeks’ notice, as per your standard work contract, and if you leave before the merger is completed you’ll be sued. It’s quite simple.’
And utterly devastating … Lucy realised with mounting horror.
He sat back in his chair. ‘We leave for Athens in a week. You know far too much, and have been privy to all the top secret discussions. Quite apart from that, if you left now you’d be leaving me without an assistant for the most important joining between two Greek companies in years. That is something I will not allow to happen. If it means I have to threaten you with legal action to get you to stay then so be it. I won’t hesitate to use the full force of my power.’
He sat forward then, and he had never looked so intimidating. ‘Lucy, I don’t think I need to tell you that your career would be comprehensively ruined if you insist on leaving. You could be crippled financially for years.’
Lucy wasn’t sure how she remained standing. She’d known all this—she’d known. She’d been smart enough to read the fine print of both contracts, and at the time it had given her a sense of security to know that Levakis wouldn’t be able to turn around and get rid of her at a moment’s notice. It was what had given her the confidence to put her mum in that home—the confidence to go to the bank and take out a loan which would assure her mother’s place in that home for at least a year. Lucy had known that as long as she could keep up the payments everything would be secure for the short term, and hopefully for the long-term future.
But now … if she walked out of here and incurred Aristotle Levakis’ wrath she’d be kissing all that goodbye. She could well imagine the loan from the bank being called in. Losing her job would quickly mean that she’d have no source of income with which to pay for her mum’s accommodation. She’d be back to square one, becoming the primary carer, and without a job that would be impossible.
She said now, in a small voice, ‘You would do that …’ It wasn’t a question.
‘Without a doubt,’ he answered grimly. ‘This merger and this company are too important to me. They are everything.’
So what am, I then? Lucy wondered a little wildly. Just a convenient plaything because you happen to be bored with all the usual sycophants?
He stood again then, but Lucy was in too much shock and distress to move as he came closer, hands in his pockets. He looked smug. He knew he had her effectively trapped. Suddenly she longed to have no responsibilities, so she could just disappear. But she did, and she couldn’t.
He stopped a few feet away and looked at her. Her world had been reduced to this room, this man and those eyes. And that voice.
‘Lucy, I don’t want to be ruthless about this, and I certainly don’t relish the thought of taking action against you. I want the merger, yes, and I’ll do whatever I need to to protect it and make it happen. But I also want you, and I will do whatever I need to in order to make that happen too.’
Lucy shook her head dumbly, even now fighting. It made something in Aristotle’s eyes flash dangerously. She had thought that someone like him would give up when faced with obstinate resistance, although that assertion was now fast losing ground. She had to acknowledge that he’d most likely rarely, if ever, faced resistance from any woman.
‘You’ve made it quite clear that it is impossible for me to leave.’
That was the understatement of the year. Her conscience mocked her. She should have realised all this at the weekend, but he’d had her head in such a tizzy all she’d been able to think of was getting away from him. She realised now that if she had thought it through she could have done her best to keep him at arm’s length for the duration of the merger and then given her notice—instead of these dramatics, which were so unlike her.
‘I’ll stay for the merger and then I’ll be giving you my notice.’
She would just have to worry about her mother when that happened. She hated the fact that she wasn’t strong enough to try and stay and resist this man indefinitely.
Aristotle just looked at her for a long, heated moment. Lucy saw a muscle throb in his temple and it made her insides quiver like jelly. He reached out a hand and cupped her jaw. Shock and instant heat paralysed her at his touch.
‘Say what you want, Lucy, if it makes you feel better, but know this: we will be lovers. It’s as inevitable as the inclement English weather. There’s something raw and singularly powerful between us and I’ve no intention of letting you go—either in the boardroom or in the bedroom.’
Lucy swallowed painfully. His hand still cupped her jaw, his thumb moving lazily against the sensitive skin under her chin. One thing was certain: if, in some parallel universe, she actually gave in to this man, she had no doubt that far from being given the luxury of giving notice he’d be the one saying goodbye—and so fast that her head would be spinning. Something like four weeks’ notice would be reduced to a mocking sham of a professional nicety.
She hated the fact that it was the thought of that right now that made her feel more vulnerable than even the prospect of the battle to come. One other thing was sure: with every bone and last breath in her body she would resist the seduction of this man. Yet, she had to ask herself inwardly, for someone who prided herself on being frigid, why did it suddenly seem like such an uphill struggle?
A week later.
Lucy sat opposite Aristotle on his private jet as it winged its way to Athens from a stormy London. She could almost believe for a moment that she’d imagined what had happened in his office last week, when he’d declared so implacably that he was determined to have her in his bed.
Since that day when she’d been so firmly put back in her place, her letter of resignation torn up, Aristotle had been utterly consumed with business and preparations for the merger. They’d worked late into the night almost every night, and she’d been in the office most mornings as the cleaners were still finishing up. She’d never been so tired, yet so contentedly exhausted. Despite her trepidation at the undercurrents flowing under the surface, professionally speaking she’d never worked at such a heady pace, nor been entrusted with so much responsibility. The sense of pitting her wits against Aristotle and keeping up with him was exhilarating. She blocked out the snide voice that mocked her with the assertion that work was the only exhilarating thing.
Thankfully she hadn’t had time for much more than falling into bed, snatching some food, and getting up again. The weekend had been a blur of last-minute visits to the office, packing, and a bittersweet visit to her mum, before she’d been collected by Aristotle’s driver that Sunday afternoon. The visit to her mother had been bittersweet because she’d had one of her brief lucid moments, recognising Lucy as soon she’d walked into the private room at the home.
‘Lucy, darling!’
Lucy had had to swallow back a lump as she’d watched her still beautifully elegant mother rise out of her chair by the window to greet her with her usual warm and tactile affection. Lucy had missed it so much. On Maxine’s good days, and obviously this was one, she took care of her appearance. On her bad days Lucy would come in and, if not for the care of the attentive staff, her mother could look as unkempt as a bag lady. It made her heart ache with sadness as her mother had always been so fastidious about her looks.
Lucy had been careful not to let the emotion overwhelm her; these moments of lucidity were growing further and further apart, and she’d have her mother with her for only ten minutes before the inevitable decline came. The sentences would stop and falter, her eyes grow opaque, until finally she’d come to look at Lucy with a completely blank expression and say, ‘I’m sorry, dear, who are you?’
It broke Lucy’s heart to know that there was no point in even trying to explain where she was going, or that she was going to be out of the country for a few weeks. At least she could give thanks for the sterling round-the-clock care she could now afford. It made her attempt to resign from her job seem all the more childishly impetuous now. How could she jeopardise her mother’s security? And yet how could she keep working for Aristotle once this merger was completed?
‘Lucy.’
Lucy’s head jerked round from where she’d been looking out of the window at the sea far below. Aristotle must have called her a couple of times; she could hear impatience lacing his voice. He was looking at her sternly, and at that moment Lucy realised how little space was between them—just a small table. Even as she thought that she felt Aristotle flex a leg and it brushed hers. She froze, all that heat and awareness rushing back, mocking her for believing it might have disappeared under a pile of work.
‘I’m sorry. I was just thinking about something.’
He quirked a brow. ‘Something more interesting than me? Or this merger? Not possible, surely.’
Lucy froze even more, she couldn’t handle Aristotle when he was being like this … flirty. Yet with a steel edge. She couldn’t imagine him ever being truly light, free and easy. Smiling. He was too driven, intense.
She smiled brittlely, determined that he shouldn’t see his effect. ‘Of course not. How could I?’
At that moment the steward arrived to serve them lunch. Lucy automatically went to clear the table and her hands brushed against Aristotle’s. She flinched back but tried to mask her reaction, a flush rising up over her chest. It would appear their tenuous ‘work truce’ had ended. Tension was a tight cord between them.
Lucy studied her food, a delicious-looking Greek salad and fresh crusty bread.
‘Would you like some wine?’
She looked up to automatically shake her head. Wine on a plane with this man was a recipe for disaster.
‘Some water will be fine, thanks.’
She watched as Aristotle’s lean dark hand elegantly poured himself wine, and then water for her. She muttered thanks and took a deep gulp, hoping it might dampen the flames that were licking inside her.
They ate companionably in silence. It was one of the things that perplexed her about this man. They had moments like this when she could almost imagine that they might be friends. She’d noticed in general that he didn’t feel the need to fill silences with inane chatter, and neither did she. It surprised her to find that in common. In all honesty, if it wasn’t for the great hulking elephant in the room, Lucy had to admit that so far she’d enjoyed working for Aristotle and admired his work ethic.
She was finishing her final mouthful of salad when she sensed him leaning back in his chair. She could feel the brush of his leg against hers again and fought not to move it aside. She was aware of his regard and it made her self-conscious.
‘You really don’t approve of me, Lucy, do you?’
She looked up, surprised. It was the last thing she would have imagined hearing him say. She gulped and wiped her mouth with a napkin, a flare of guilt assailing her.
‘I … I don’t think one way or the other. I’m here as your assistant, not to form a personal opinion.’ She wondered wildly what had brought this on.
He folded his arms across his chest, supremely at ease.
‘I’ve seen those little looks you dart at me—those little looks that have me all summed up. And when I asked you to send a gift to Augustine Archer, you most certainly didn’t approve of that.’
Lucy was so tense now she thought she might crack. ‘Like I said before … it’s not my place to judge—’
‘And yet you do,’ he inserted silkily.
Lucy’s face flamed. Yes, she did. She had him wrapped up, parcelled and boxed as being exactly like the men she’d seen court her mother, and no matter how she’d seen him treat women, the inherently unfair judgement of that made her feel unaccountably guilty all of a sudden.
It goaded her into saying, ‘All right. Fine. I don’t think it was particularly professional of you to ask me to send a parting gift to your mistress. It’s not my business, it made me uncomfortable, and I felt that it crossed the boundaries.’ Not to mention that it made me feel angry and disappointed too. But Lucy held her tongue. She couldn’t go that far, and those revelations made her feel far too vulnerable.
She felt as prim as a mother superior, and couldn’t look Aristotle in the eye, sure he had to be laughing his head off at her.
‘You’re right. I won’t ask you to do that again.’
She looked at him in shock. His face wasn’t creased in hilarity, it was stone cold sober.
‘To be honest, Lucy, I did it to get a reaction out of you … and you gave it to me.’
She frowned and shook her head minutely. ‘But why?’
He shrugged one broad shoulder nonchalantly, not at all put out to be discussing this, his gaze on hers not wavering for a second. ‘Because I sensed something about you, under the surface …’ His gaze dropped to where she could feel her breasts rising and falling with her breath. He looked back up and her heart stopped. ‘And I suddenly realised that you were causing me an inordinate amount of … frustration.’ His mouth tightened. ‘I blamed you for the fact that it had become necessary to say goodbye to a perfectly good mistress.’
His words caused little short of an explosion of reaction within Lucy. She tried desperately to block it out—the realisation that even then—Her brain froze at that implication. Her hands clenched tight on the table and she hid them on her lap.
‘Look, Aristotle …’ She knew she was all but begging. ‘I’ve already told you, I’m not interested in anything … like that. Really, I’m not. If I’ve given you that impression I’m really sorry.’
His eyes flashed and he leaned forward, hands on the table, starkly brown against the surface. ‘Don’t patronise me. You give me that impression every time you look at me. It’s there right now. You’re desperately aware of where my leg is—how close it is to yours under this table—’
‘Stop it,’ Lucy all but cried out. ‘Don’t do that words thing again.’ She wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Triumph lit Aristotle’s eyes. ‘See? You want me, Lucy. I can smell it from here. But don’t worry. I’m not some lecherous boss who is going to force you into some compromising position. You’ll come to me. It’s just a matter of time before we see how long you can hold out against it.’
Between Lucy’s thighs she felt indecently damp. She coloured even more hotly. Could he really smell that? Did desire have a smell? And since when had she admitted it was desire and not just sheer banal human reaction? The thought made her squirm, but also made her feel weak and achy. She scrambled out of her seat. She had to get away.
As she pushed past his chair he snaked out a hand and caught her wrist. She looked down, and he was looking right up at her, trapping her. She watched as he took her wrist and brought it to his mouth. He pressed his lips against the sensitive skin on the underside. And then she felt his tongue flick out to taste her there, right against her pulse. With a strangled cry that spoke more of desire than disgust, she yanked her hand away and ran, aiming for the toilet at the back, his mocking chuckle following her all the way. Any complacency she’d felt in the past week was blown sky-high to smithereens. He’d just been biding his time.
She locked herself in with shaking hands and looked at herself in the small, unforgiving mirror. She had to fatally and finally accept the knowledge that she desired this man. It wasn’t just his indisputable charisma, it was him. And his effect on her. She wanted him with a hunger that she’d always intellectualised as something she’d never experience. Except now she was. And it was ten million times worse than anything she could have ever imagined.
This was nothing short of catastrophic when she’d happily devoted herself to a life that had promised to offer up only the sort of passion she could handle. Safe, staid, unexciting. She hadn’t committed herself to being celibate—she did hope to one day meet someone and settle down, perhaps even have children—but at no point had she ever hoped for the kind of fulfilment that was a deep throbbing ache within her right now.
She’d unconsciously left her hair loose, and now she bundled it up again, tight, digging out some hairpins from her pocket to hold it in place. Then she searched for and found the comforting frames of her glasses. She’d kept them close by but hadn’t worn them all week, as she’d been genuinely afraid of what Aristotle might do, but now she needed to send him a message once and for all. Lucy Proctor was not available and not interested. And never would be. If she told herself that enough, she might actually believe it.
Even though Aristotle might be laughing at Lucy’s reaction, his body most certainly wasn’t laughing. His body had never felt so serious and intent on one thing: carnal satisfaction, and with that woman. He burned from head to toe with it. The past week had been pure torture. They’d worked in such close proximity that it had taken all of his strength and will-power not to sweep aside the paperwork, throw her across his desk and take her there and then.
The only thing holding him back—apart from the very real need to prepare for the merger, and it irked him that that hadn’t been enough—had been Lucy’s own reaction. Any other woman, knowing that he desired her would have happily laid herself bare for his delectation. But not Lucy. She’d avoided his eye—she’d avoided him at all costs. She’d scurried out every night and been there quietly, studiously working every morning. Buttoned up and covered up to within an inch of her life in shapeless boxy suits.
It inflamed him and perplexed him. He’d genuinely never had to deal with this before. But what it was doing was raising the stakes, and raising his blood pressure. He was too proud to force her, even though he knew she wasn’t far from tipping over the edge, but damned if he’d do it.
No, she would come to him, just as he’d declared. When she was weak with longing and stir crazy with desire she’d come to him, and this build-up would finally explode in a blaze of mutual satisfaction. He heard the bathroom door click open behind him and shifted in his seat to ease the constriction of his trousers. He picked up some work papers resignedly and it chafed—because he was not a man used to resigning himself to things.
For now, though, he’d use work to drown out his clamouring pulse. He would not let her see the roiling waves of frustration that gripped him and tossed him like a tiny boat in a thundering storm. When she came and sat down opposite him, and that sensual womanly smell that was so at odds with her prim appearance teased his nostrils and made his arousal even more acute, he almost groaned.
He looked up for a second. Predictably, she was looking down, immersed in papers. He saw what she’d done to her hair and the firmly reinstated glasses. He felt a surge of adrenalin and thought to himself, Fine, if that’s the way you want it.
He pulled out his laptop and fired off a curt but informative e-mail to his assistant in Athens, instructing her to have everything ready by the time they landed in two hours. For someone with his wealth and resources, what he’d just asked for shouldn’t be hard to pull off, and as he sat back he realised with a jolt that once again he felt more alive than he’d done in months.
The fact that the merger was once again relegated to second place raised just the dimmest clanging bell in his consciousness.
CHAPTER FIVE
A fEW hours later, Lucy sat on the bed of a palatial suite in one of the most expensive hotels in Athens. She’d never seen such opulence and luxury in her life. Everyone here seemed to talk in hushed tones. She’d even found herself almost whispering thank you to the concierge who’d shown her to her room.
Her mouth quirked dryly. Needless to say, the manager himself had shown Aristotle to his room. She’d seen that they were more or less next door to each other, he in the Royal Suite and she in a smaller adjoining one, although she had no intention of using the interconnecting door that had been pointed out to her. She was already far too close to her boss for comfort.
Feeling antsy, she got up and wandered about the room for a bit, looking out of the window, taking in the view of Syntagma Square and its elegant lines and trees. She hadn’t expected Athens to be so … elegant. She’d seen the Acropolis in the distance and felt a lurch of joy; even though she’d travelled extensively due to her peripatetic childhood, she never tired of seeing famous monuments.
Her thoughts went inward. She hadn’t failed to notice that the closer they’d got to Athens, the more tense Aristotle had grown—until by the time they’d been walking through the airport, his hand tight on her elbow, he’d been positively radioactive. She knew it had nothing to do with her. She suspected it had something to do with the way that, whenever he had to deal with his stepmother or half-brother, he always seemed to go inwards and become monosyllabic. Clearly there was no love lost between him and his family or his ancestral home, and it made Lucy wonder about that—before she realised what she was doing and put a halt to her wayward thoughts.
She checked her watch. They were due to have informal drinks with Parnassus and his team in one hour and she had to wash and change, but there was still no sign of her luggage. Lucy called down to Reception, and what the girl said made her frown.
‘I’m sorry? You say my clothes are here? But I’m still waiting for my case.’
The hotel receptionist’s tone was smooth, as if she was used to dealing with recalcitrant hotel guests. ‘I think if you check your wardrobe, Miss Proctor you’ll find everything hanging up and ready for your use. The chest of drawers is also full.’
Lucy thanked her faintly and put the phone down. She knew that Aristotle’s wealth could just about do anything, but surely it couldn’t magically conjure up her suitcase, unpack and store all her clothes without her even noticing? With a snaking feeling of something slithering down her spine, Lucy threw open the ornate door of the wardrobe in the corner and gasped.
It was full, heaving with a myriad assortment of every piece of clothing any one woman could possibly hope for. Day-wear, casual wear, evening-wear. Lucy flicked past dresses and suits and trousers and shirts and wraps and capes, feeling more and more dizzy as she did so. All sorts of shoes were lined up below the hanging clothes.
She backed away from the wardrobe with something like horror in her chest, and went to open the drawers of the chest beside the wardrobe. She pulled out T-shirts, shorts, casual trousers, capri pants … They all fell from nerveless fingers. There was thousands of euros’ worth of clothes in front of her and not one stitch was hers. A deeply scooped-neck T-shirt fell from her hands and she looked at it and shuddered at the thought of how much cleavage that would expose. Suddenly realisation struck. Aristotle.
Without thinking, galvanised by pure anger, she marched over to that adjoining door between their rooms and yanked it open. To her surprise his own door was already open, leading into a room that made her own opulent one look like a prefab.
He strolled out at that moment from what she presumed must be his bedroom, naked except for a small towel around lean hips. All Lucy could see was a magnificently bronzed muscled chest, a light smattering of dark hair and long, long muscled legs. His hair was wet and slicked back, making him look somehow more approachable, vulnerable.
Seeing him like this completely scrambled her brain and defused her anger.
‘I …’ She realised she was breathing hard.
He stopped and looked at her enquiringly, and then she watched him lift his wrist to look at the heavy platinum watch.
