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“You’ve been busy the past couple of months.” She looked at him as the pieces started to fall into place. “Getting ready for the sale to Sebastian Hawk, right?”
Andreas grimaced. “You make it sound like I was sneaking around. I did nothing in secret.”
“Then why didn’t I know about it?”
“Because neither did I advertise the fact.”
Kayla just shook her head. “Sneaky.”
“No.” His phone buzzed, indicating a text message of low priority, but then it chimed with Bradley’s tone and Andreas looked at the screen, his face taking on a thunderous appearance as he read.
“What’s the matter?” Kayla asked.
He looked up at her, his jaw set. “I’ll explain in a moment.” Then he dialed a number on his phone.
The sound of a woman’s tones answering could be heard. If Kayla wasn’t mistaken it was Genevieve.
Andreas barely listened for a second before saying, “You are fired.”
Outraged squawks followed.
“I do not care what you saw on some social feed. I do not answer to you for my time and I will not have my instructions ignored or questioned by those who work for me. I expect a breach-of-contract portion refund of my retainer. Our business dealings are at an end.”
The woman was no longer yelling, clearly trying to cajole Andreas into changing his mind, but Kayla could have told her it was a waste of her breath. He had made up his mind before making the call. Whatever she’d done had pissed him off on a level that there was no coming back from.
Not in Andreas’s world.
“Goodbye, Genevieve.” He ended the call without any more words.
Kayla stared at him. “What was that all about?”
Andreas looked pained. “You sure you want to know?”
With that look on his face? “Definitely.”
“Genevieve wanted to come to New York to give me the infamous makeover, but I told her no. She decided this morning to ignore my wishes and come anyway. Bradley learned of her plans because my administrative assistant has ears everywhere and gave me a heads-up. Not that Genevieve hadn’t told me herself in a text.” Oh, Andreas sounded pissed.
“What would make her think that would be okay with you?”
“More like what made her think she might be losing a lucrative client?”
Kayla had a bad feeling. “And what was that?”
“Someone posted a picture of us kissing to one of those social media sites.”
“But how would she have seen that? Surely they didn’t know our names.”
“A stroke of bad luck, I think. First an enterprising social media paparazzo saw you with Jacob and made it her mission to find out who you were, which wasn’t hard after his sister apparently dissed you on Twitter for bailing on your date with him. The social media paparazzo happened to be on the cruise with us this morning. She decided to update the scandal of your botched date with Jacob by posting the picture of you and me kissing this morning.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Improbable. Ridiculous timing. But not impossible.”
“And Genevieve found out already?”
“She’s a shark and stuff like this is blood in the water to her.”
“Wow.”
“That is no excuse for her ignoring my instructions.”
“She was clearly worried about your commitment to finding a wife.”
“I’m not married yet. I’m not even dating any of her candidates.”
“Still.”
“Still nothing. I fired her and she’ll refund at least eighty percent of that retainer or she’ll learn why there are risks involved targeting my demographic as her clientele.”
“Okay, relax, Andreas. She told you all that just now?”
“She wanted me to know what a bad risk you are for involvement.”
“That wasn’t very nice of her.” Not that Kayla expected any different.
“She’s not a very nice person, but she is efficient.”
“That’s good I guess.”
“Don’t sound so enthusiastic.”
“You’re the one who fired her.”
“You know I don’t tolerate being ignored.”
“I ignore you, you’ve never fired me.”
“You are the exception to the rule.” He winked at her and was too darn sexy with it. “Don’t let that get out.”
“We can’t have anyone thinking you are a pushover.” Kayla couldn’t help the warmth that filled her at this reminder of her unique place in Andreas’s life.
“Because I am not.”
“No, you are not.” He was selling the company out from under her after all. Andreas was no sentimental pushover.
“Have you finished?” Andreas asked, indicating her mostly eaten plate that she hadn’t touched in over ten minutes.
“Yes.”
“Are you ready to do some more sightseeing?”
Funnily enough, she’d expected him to ask to go back to the hotel. The sexual tension in the air was thick enough it should be an opaque cloud around them, but it was as if he was intent on building the anticipation to maximum levels.
He used to do that, back in the day, when they’d been lovers.
It had driven her crazy, in the best possible way.
* * *
A new-model, dark sedan was waiting for them when they reached the street.
“Where to now?” she asked as he handed her into the back seat, her slacks sliding easily over the plush leather seats.
There was something odd in his expression, almost hesitant as he joined her. “I thought the Brooklyn Bridge. You were fascinated by it this morning on the tour.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“And you like bridges.”
Portland had its own fair share, and she’d spent enough time exploring them, photographing them, walking across the ones with pedestrian ways and lost in contemplation staring at the river from their heights.
She shrugged. “They’re like code, you know. They make a way between where you are and where you want to be.”
“Your mind is unique, Kay-love. You realize this?” His voice was warm with approval.
And she wasn’t sure what to do with that. “I know I don’t think like normal people.”
“What is normal?” His dark Greek brow creased. “Are we supposed to strive for average? I do not think so.”
“Your arrogance is showing again.” But she knew he absolutely believed what he said.
Andreas Kostas had never strived to be like other people. He’d forged his own path and taken Kayla down it with him.
He reached out and took her hand, his fingers warm and strong as they curled around hers, giving her a sense of reassurance and other feelings she did not want to examine right then.
It was too dangerous for her equilibrium.
His emerald gaze locked hers in place. “If honesty is arrogance, so be it, but you should never think less of yourself because you do not fit the mold of normal.”
“You’ve gotten very affectionate all of a sudden.” Not to mention complimentary.
Color slashed his masculine cheekbones.
“What?” she demanded.
He shook his head. “It is nothing.”
But it was clearly something.
“You’re losing your contractions again.” It was a funny quirk of his, when he was really worked up. She wasn’t sure if it was a speech pattern he’d gotten from his mother or something he’d picked up in Greece, but Kayla had always found it endearing.
“Do you think the way I dress makes me unapproachable?” he asked, apropos of nothing.
“Are you serious right now? Where did that come from?”
Andreas’s lips gave a sardonic twist. “You know.”
“Genevieve.” The shark matchmaker.
“Yes. You know she wanted to make me over.”
“Are you worried whatever matchmaker you hire to replace her will want the same thing?”
“There will be no replacement matchmaker.”
Kayla wasn’t sure how he was going to achieve his whole wife and two-point-five children with the white picket fence and billion-dollar bank account to rub into his father’s face that way, but she couldn’t deny a profound sense of relief.
“So, why ask?” Was he planning to go about this the old-fashioned way and date? Horror rolled over her. Did Andreas think Kayla wanted to be his advice buddy on this adventure?
“Why not answer?” Andreas pushed.
“I like the way you dress, whether it’s in your bespoke suits or the blue jeans you keep hidden in your bottom drawer. You’re just you, okay? If a woman needs you to dress like someone else to find you appealing, maybe she’s not the right fit for you long-term, what do you think, Andreas?” If she sounded slightly waspish, well, life went on. Seriously, the man needed to catch a clue.
Maybe she’d buy him a fishing pole.
And some bait.
Rather than looking offended by her blunt speech, Andreas looked entirely too pleased with Kayla’s answer. “I agree.”
Then, keeping with his whole today-let’s-shock-the-bananas-out-of-Kayla theme, he reached right out and ran his fingertip along the scooped neckline of her tank top. She gasped as his touch left all too familiar, if almost forgotten, static shocks of pleasure in its wake.
He smiled. “I like the way you dress as well, Kay-love. I always have.”
