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Sick to the stomach, he let his hand drop to his side.
‘What do you want?’ Her tone was weary. She stared at a point somewhere near his chin.
‘I need to apologise.’ The words were rough, dragged from him by the sight of her hurt.
Fleetingly her eyes met his and her lips curved in a surprised circle that tightened the curl of need deep in the pit of his stomach. He drew a long breath.
‘I was annoyed with my driver, not you,’ he said. ‘He should have known to keep in contact. In future you have only to ask and I’ll take you wherever you wish to go.’
Silence.
‘I’m sorry you thought I was implying—’ ‘What? That I was a tramp?’
She met his eyes now and the turbulent mix of emotions he saw there, the anguish and the shocked fury, seared his conscience.
She hurried on before he could formulate a response. ‘That because I’d decided not to go to bed with you last night, I must be eager for a little fun and games with someone else?’ Her voice was a searing, agonised whisper. ‘What do you think I am? A bitch on heat?’
‘Sophie, I—’
‘Keep away from me.’ She slapped away the hand he hadn’t even noticed he’d held out to her.
There were tears in her eyes and her lower lip trembled. Pain twisted deep inside him as he watched her obvious distress. He’d done that to her, damn his black soul. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her hurt away.
‘I said, stay away,’ she hissed, as he closed the distance between them, reaching out to bracket her with his hands, flat on the wall beside her head. The tantalising shimmer of liquid gold in her eyes ensnared him. Her delicate, fresh scent encompassed him, and the warmth of her luscious body drew him like a magnet.
He hefted one massive breath and struggled against the compulsion to reach out and claim her. To brand her as his own. ‘That’s the problem, Sophie. I can’t keep my distance. Not any more.’ He dragged in another juddering breath. ‘Don’t you understand?’
He stared down into her wide stunned eyes and knew he was lost. ‘Why do you think I was so furious with Yiorgos?’ ‘Because you thought I was seducing him,’ she said flatly. He shook his head.
She shifted her weight and shot a glance over his shoulder. ‘I need to go and—’
‘Why, Sophie?’ he demanded.
Slowly, as if she fought with every ounce of her strength, she lifted her eyes to his. She looked impossibly weary. ‘Because you don’t want me out of your sight,’ she whispered slowly then looked away.
He nodded, acknowledging the surge of ravening hunger that even now tore at the frayed remnants of his self-control. A good thing his hands were planted firmly against the plaster. It helped him resist the desire to use them to shape her face, her fragile neck, her delicate curves.
‘And why is that?’ he whispered, focusing on her convulsive swallow, on the way she tugged at her lower lip with her teeth.
‘Because I’m the only person who might be able to help Eleni,’ she murmured at last, still refusing to meet his gaze.
‘Wrong.’
Her gaze shot up again at the single word. The instant connection between them was like a jolt of electricity, charging the air with pulsing anticipation.
‘It’s because I’m jealous,’ he admitted, stripping his soul bare. His voice was a low animal growl that matched perfectly the savage possessiveness welling inside him. ‘I’m jealous of anyone who has you to themselves when I don’t.’
Her eyes widened and her mouth gaped and he wanted, more than anything, the ultimate luxury of taking her lush, enticing lips with his. His whole body trembled with barely repressed desire. Sweat hazed his skin at the effort it took to keep still, keep from sweeping her into his embrace and burying his face in her sweetly scented hair.
‘Do you understand, Sophie?’ His voice was raw, all pretence at civilised gloss scoured away by this elemental hunger. ‘I was jealous of my driver because he spent the day alone with you. I didn’t think for a minute you might be seducing him.’
He paused, gathering his courage.
‘I wanted you to be seducing me.’
The stark admission reverberated in the still air between them. Blatant. Inescapable. Overpowering.
He’d never felt so driven, so desperate for a woman’s touch. And even more, for her understanding.
