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‘Though it is an unnecessary precaution I will come with you if you give me a few moments to speak to my wife.’ Nikos gestured towards the solitary figure on the lawn and immediately regretted it because by no stretch of the imagination did she look in need of comfort. In fact she looked extraordinarily composed. ‘I think she’s in shock,’ he improvised.
Hopefully this would adequately explain away the fact that his wife had been able to contain her joy at his miraculous escape. His lips curled in a cynical smile, then he shrugged; at least she wasn’t a hypocrite.
‘Well, just a few minutes…’
Everyone, Nikos reflected, was a sucker for a couple in love.
Did the professionals think it strange his wife had not been part of his reception committee? That she hadn’t dashed to throw her arms about his neck, tears of joy running down her cheeks? Nikos did not ponder the question for long; he rarely worried about how his actions were viewed by strangers. Though the potent image did remain in his mind, not because he was thinking about the impact on others—no, it was the impact on himself that occupied his thoughts.
Smooth arms wrapped around his neck, a soft, pliant body pressed to his, a silky head close to his heart. As he closed the distance between them anyone noticing would have wrongly assumed that the dark bands of colour highlighting the slashing curve of his high cheekbones were a product of the inferno he had just escaped—they’d have been wrong.
This scenario in his head was not a displeasing one, so the primitive response of his body was not, Nikos reasoned, to be wondered at. It was an explanation he was content with, but his reluctance to release this image was less easily rationalised.
Katie levered her back from the tree trunk and pushed a large hank of heavy hair from her face. ‘You found me, then…’
Nikos nodded. Her question made him realise that even though she had made no push to attract his attention, some inner radar had located her the moment he’d emerged from the building.
If you ignored the dark film of grime covering his skin and clothes he looked quite remarkably unscathed by his recent brush with death. In fact, he radiated an almost indecent amount of edgy vitality. It occurred to Katie that this was probably the most natural and relaxed she’d seen him. Near-death experiences obviously did for him what a box of chocolates, a soppy romance and a glass of wine did for her.
One corner of his mouth lifted as their eyes touched. Katie felt a flare of indignation—it clearly hadn’t even occurred to him that she had been through hell and back during the last few minutes because of his ridiculous macho stunt.
She didn’t know if she wanted to hit him or kiss him. Not literally kiss him, of course, because that would involve…her stomach took a sharp dive and the flow of her thoughts skidded to an abrupt halt. Her wide eyes were drawn by an invisible but irresistible force to the sensual curve of Nikos’s mouth.
She swallowed convulsively, unable to prevent the image forming in her head of that sexy mouth claiming her own, parting her lips, his tongue invading her mouth, tasting…touching.
She shook her head and took a deep, tremulous breath. But it was too late, the chain reaction had already started.
Her eyelids fluttered as a rush of fluid warmth worked its way up swiftly from her shaking knees until her entire body was bathed in the golden glow. She held her breath and willed the flames consuming her to subside.
Katie couldn’t deny she had wanted to experience that kiss for real; for several moments she had been consumed by the wanting. Even now her bones ached with the raw desire that had swept through her with the ruthless force of a forest fire.
She was guiltily aware that she had never felt that way anticipating Tom’s kiss. She struggled to understand what had happened and more importantly why it was happening. It had to be her hormones; this was some sort of revenge attack because she’d neglected them.
Or maybe this wasn’t just hormones—it was conceivable that she was actually suffering from some post-traumatic thing? Her flashbacks just happened to be of something that hadn’t happened yet—yet! A grammatical error, nothing more, and she for one hated people who banged on about Freudian slips.
The more she considered it, the more she became convinced that the extraordinary things she was feeling were a result of the near-death thing. That sort of ‘we could have died but didn’t, let’s go to bed’ thing—it apparently happened in war situations all of the time. Her eyes widened in alarm as she realized she’d jumped from kissing to bed!
That was an alarming leap by anyone’s standards.
She realised that Nikos was waiting for her to say something.
‘You’re not dead,’ she heard herself blurt out stupidly. Stupid it might be, but it was a far safer option than begging him to kiss her.
‘Sorry. I’m a bit singed if that’s any help.’
Katie took a deep offended breath. ‘Don’t be facetious!’
Nikos inclined his head in meek acknowledgement of her censure. ‘It’s true, look at my eyelashes.’
‘I don’t want to look at them,’ she snapped, turning her head away. In fact looking at any part of him was a bad idea, though unless she wanted to appear extremely odd she had no option. ‘This might be a joke to you,’ she remonstrated severely, ‘but how do you think I’d have felt if I’d had your death on my conscience? Huh, I don’t suppose you even thought of that, did you?’ The hot, impassioned words tumbled out of her. ‘No, of course not, you were too busy being Action Man. Talk about grandstanding!’ She gave a disgusted snort.
It was one of life’s injustices, she reflected bitterly, that men got to do all the glamorous action things and were then patted on the back and told what marvellous chaps they were. While women, because they were delicate and frail creatures, got to wait at home, look after the babies and go prematurely grey.
If Tom ever wanted to do something rash and life-threatening she was going to go with him. It didn’t seem likely her resolve would be put to the test; if anything like that came up Tom would most probably delegate someone else to take care of it—which was the sensible thing to do. You wouldn’t catch Tom rushing into burning buildings for a cat; he would have, quite correctly, left it to a properly qualified person.
Actually, when you thought about it, have-a-go heroes were a bit of a liability.
Katie was disturbed to discover Nikos was looking at her rather too intently. ‘You were scared for me?’ he said, in the shocked manner of someone who had just made an extraordinary discovery.
She strove to calm her laboured breathing. ‘I was…concerned, as I would have been about anyone in the circumstances. Though it seems my fears were groundless. You seem to lead a charmed life,’ she observed heavily.
Her resentful gaze had examined most aspects of his person and she could see no obvious signs of injury other than a bloody gash on his temple. Even if he had emerged unscathed she considered his composure after such an incident abnormal. What did it take to shake this man? Demanding to be kissed would most likely do it. It was almost worth putting the theory to the test…almost!
‘That has been said of me,’ Nikos conceded with one of his charming, high-voltage grins. ‘I’m touched by your concern, but it is unnecessary, I was in no serious danger.’
Katie had a sudden flashback to that awful moment the window had blown out. The metallic taste of fear was once more strong in her mouth as she again experienced that creeping paralysis of dread.
‘Are you all right?’
‘What could be wrong?’ She was beginning to think that maybe he was one of those peculiar men who indulged in extreme sports, the sort that got a kick from risking life and limb.
‘I managed to locate the fire escape,’ he went on to explain, ‘thanks to Alexander who was sitting at the top of it crying. That is, I’m assuming this is Alexander.’ He opened his shirt, revealing a good deal of bare chest in the process, and presented her with a large, dirty cat who, at the prospect of being clutched to his loving owner’s bosom, stopped purring like a steam engine and spat furiously before leaping into space and disappearing into some bushes.
Katie began to laugh a little hysterically. ‘Oh, that’s Alexander, all right, he’s one of a kind. I’m surprised he let you carry him.’
‘He was not too keen on the idea at first,’ Nikos conceded drily. ‘But he came around to it in the end.’ He rubbed his face and revealed in the process a long, nasty-looking scratch.
‘That’s a first, Alexander is not a very…pliable animal. The vet did say he might be a little less aggressive if I had him done, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.’ Nikos’s penetrating eyes held an expression that made her wonder if he didn’t have a hormone issue of his own? The introduction of this possibility made her lose the plot for a second. It was hard to concentrate when illicit thrills were fizzing through your body.
‘Done?’ Nikos echoed, looking puzzled.
Katie slowed her breathing and told herself that a man who had just escaped from the jaws of death was not likely to have sex on his mind. She mimed a snipping action with her fingers—an action guaranteed to pour cold water on the flame of the most persistent male lust—and Nikos gave a very predictable male gulp in response.
‘I don’t want to be responsible for an explosion in the local cat population so I keep him in at night,’ she told him matter-of-factly.
From Nikos’s glazed expression she had the feeling this was more information than he wanted. Not that he looked bored, precisely, more… A little shudder snaked its way down her spine. Perhaps she was way off beam, maybe the thoughts of a sizzling kiss were still on her mind. But while they were standing here talking about cats she felt as though there was a silent conversation going on that had nothing to do with words and everything to do with the way his dark eyes were eating her up.
‘Don’t you think you should do up your shirt? You might catch cold,’ she suggested huskily as her eyes returned for the umpteenth time to the expanse of hard-muscled torso. The olive-toned flesh looked silkily smooth and hard and was dusted across the widest part of his broad chest with a fine sprinkling of dark hair that thinned the nearer his waist it got. Her stomach gave a lazy somersault as she followed the directional arrows.
He laid a hand against his firmly muscled midriff. ‘Actually I feel quite warm.’ For one awful moment Katie though he was going to invite her to feel for herself—an invitation she would obviously have rejected? ‘How about you?’
Katie dabbed her tongue to the tiny beads of sweat along her upper lip and drew a shaky sigh. This time there was no longer any doubt about the undertones in this innocent enquiry. If she’d felt more herself and less like a lustful stranger Katie would have confronted him about his inappropriate flirting…flirting, with its light, frivolous overtones, was actually far too light a term for the erotic verbal games he played.
‘I’m fine,’ she returned, throwing him a look that dared him to contradict her. ‘I’m really sorry about your face.’ Really sorry that it’s so damned beautiful, she thought weakly.
‘I’ll survive.’ He suddenly reached across and pulled a piece of blossom from her hair.
Like a hunted deer being stalked by a wolf, Katie backed up into the tree. Her heart was beating like a war drum as he placed a hand on the smooth trunk above her head. If he leaned any closer their bodies would be touching…the crushing pressure reached the point where her shallow, painful breaths were clearly audible.
‘You weren’t hurt or anything?’ It didn’t really matter what she said, she just had to speak, not only to demonstrate that he hadn’t disturbed or rattled her, but to banish the erotic images from her head.
It did neither; her weak, wispy voice sounded as though it came from a great distance away. As for being undisturbed, she was clearly insane! It was taking literally all of her will-power to prevent herself turning her cheek into the palm that remained close to her face.
‘Mr Lakis, I really must insist that you come with us now. You need to be checked over. Your wife too.’ The paramedic turned to Katie, who tried to gather her wits. ‘I understand from your friend that you too were inside the building earlier.’
It took Katie several seconds to register what he was saying and who he was saying it to. ‘Oh, yes, but I’m fine.’ Wife, he had definitely said wife. Her alarmed blue eyes flew accusingly to Nikos’s face; he returned an insouciant smile. ‘I’m perfectly fine,’ she gritted.
The sexual tension might have dissipated, but she sensed it was still there, waiting beneath the surface to bubble up given the right conditions… Katie resolved never to permit that to happen.
Dark eyes gleaming with mockery, Nikos continued to smile down into her wrathful features. ‘Let’s allow the doctors to decide that, shall we, yineka mou?’
‘Your husband’s right, it’s always best to be on the safe side, and that was quite a tumble you took. Did you do any damage?’
‘You fell?’ Nikos inserted, for all the world as if he actually was a concerned husband.
‘She went down like a stone,’ the other man confirmed. ‘It isn’t exactly a good idea to enter a burning building,’ he added, slanting Katie a wry look.
‘You went back into the building?’
Bemused by his anger, Katie shook her head. ‘No, I didn’t.’
‘She fell over before she could get there. That’s quite a turn of speed you have there, Mrs Lakis. I wouldn’t bet against you in the hundred metres,’ he teased.
Nikos, who was regarding her with total incredulity, did not appear to share his amusement.
‘I wasn’t thinking,’ Katie said in a small voice.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ the paramedic advised kindly. ‘People rarely do think when they know a loved one is trapped in a burning building. Ask any of the fire crew.’
Katie didn’t know where to look—except not at Nikos!
‘Katerina has always been an impulsive creature, haven’t you, yineka mou?’
The satiric bite in his voice made Katie wince. She did her best to disguise her limp, but evidently not well enough.
‘You’ve hurt yourself!’ the paramedic exclaimed in concern before she’d taken a couple of steps. ‘Hey,’ he hailed, ‘the lady here needs a stretcher.’
Katie laid a restraining hand on his arm. ‘Please, no stretcher,’ she appealed, shaking her head. ‘I’d much prefer to walk and it’s nothing serious.’
To her intense annoyance he looked towards Nikos, who presumably gave her request his husbandly seal of approval, because the guy walked away and left them to make their own way to the ambulance.
Unbelievable! If she had been his wife in the real sense of the word, admittedly a scenario about as likely as seeing a herd of flying pigs overhead, but had she been, she would definitely have challenged this outrageous sexist assumption that she needed permission…that she wasn’t capable of making her decisions.
Oh, my goodness, wouldn’t I just! she thought grimly.
Obeying another of those unwise impulses, Katie lifted her head and for a split second her eyes meshed with midnight-dark orbs. It was long enough to reveal Nikos seemed to be really steamed up. This struck Katie as particularly perverse; she was the one who’d been made to feel a total fool. How dared he go around telling everyone she was his wife? As for the image the guy had drawn so vividly of a woman pushed beyond reason by an overriding compulsion to save her man, she had thought she would die from sheer embarrassment!
‘Lean on me,’ Nikos wanted to throttle the woman, but felt obliged to put aside his natural inclinations and offer his assistance having watched her painfully hobble a few steps while maintaining the pretence every one didn’t hurt her like hell.
‘I’d prefer to crawl on my hands and knees.’
The air hissed through his clenched teeth as he exhaled. ‘As you wish,’ he replied stiffly.
He made no concessions to her injury as he strode off, not that Katie wanted or expected any, but the grim smile pinned on her lips got harder and harder to maintain with each step.
‘So were you so frightened for me that you were willing to risk your life in a futile attempt to rescue me?’ Nikos’s dark, sardonic voice observed somewhere above her head.
Katie’s spirits, already badly mauled, sank to knee-level. Her worst fears were confirmed. This was exactly what she’d been dreading—he’d thought about her crazy rescue bid and come to the conclusion she’d acted that way because she was nursing some burning passion for him. Maybe he half expected women to fall in love with him? And maybe that expectation was usually justified, an ironic voice in her skull suggested.
Actually, when you thought about it, it was quite funny.
Despite recognising the humorous potential of the situation Katie found herself unable to laugh or even smile. She was, however, seized by a desperate need to establish that she was not one of the worshipping masses.
‘It wasn’t like that…’ She paused and gave a frustrated sigh; how could you explain away why you did something when you didn’t know yourself? ‘I didn’t think…’ she revealed lamely.
‘That I never doubted,’ he incised grimly. ‘For the past seven years when I have thought of you at all it has been as a shrewd, hard-headed young woman who, despite an extraordinarily innocent exterior, is capable of bending the rules ruthlessly to get what she wants. In short, a woman well able to take care of herself.’
He exhaled and dragged a hand roughly through his dark hair. ‘That is what I expected, you understand? A woman like you should know how to negotiate. But what do I get?’ His revolted gaze came to rest on the top of her head, which had she been able to stand upright would have just topped his shoulder. ‘You…!’ He shook his head and, with an expression of rampant exasperation, began to list the traits he had discovered her to possess. ‘Not only are you opinionated to the point of derangement…’ he choked.
Good grief, she thought, lifting her astonished eyes to his furious face. I needn’t have worried—he doesn’t think I’m in love with him, he just thinks I’m crazy! Could be he’s not far out, she thought, contemplating the firm contours of his mouth with an expression of dreamy speculation.
‘Do not interrupt!’ he thundered, holding up his hand. ‘You are sentimental and you possess no sense of self-preservation whatever. I am a patient man…’ he revealed without a trace of irony.
Too late, Katie clamped her hand over her lips to prevent the gurgle of laughter escaping.
Nikos gave her a thunderous look as he visibly fought to retain control of his extremely volatile temper—only he didn’t have a volatile temper. ‘I have humoured you too long,’ he announced forcefully.
‘That’s a laugh—’ she began. She let out a strangled shriek when without warning he swept her up into his arms and strode off without a single word.
‘Put me down this instant!’ she hissed. His arms were muscular and extremely strong because, although Katie was slim, she was not a small woman and he barely seemed to register the burden he carried.
‘What, and see you stagger along in that ridiculous manner?’
Silently seething and reduced to winding her arms around his neck to anchor herself, Katie allowed herself to be carried to the ambulance with as much dignity as she could muster—what choice did have?
Sadie was waiting at the steps. ‘Why did you tell them I had been in the flat?’ Katie demanded of her friend in a trembling undertone.
Sadie looked startled at her vehemence and followed them up the stairs. ‘Sorry, but they asked.’
Katie felt a wave of remorse. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to take it out on you. That man,’ she explained, glaring at Nikos’s ear, ‘is a manipulative snake.’ Even his hair curled perfectly into the nape of his neck.
She held herself rigid while, apparently oblivious to her insult, Nikos deposited her on a seat and straightened with sensible caution considering the limited headroom.
‘I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him—less, in fact!’ she declared loudly.
Sadie shot a wary look in Nikos’s direction and he in his turn returned her look with a smile of spectacular charm, which much to Katie’s disgust had an immediate effect on Sadie. She melted like an ice cream on a warm day.
‘A sexy snake.’
