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It was so like something she might have conjured up out of a fantasy that she blinked and blinked again. Was it a mirage? He was dressed more casually than she’d ever seen him. He moved, strolled towards her. Stopped in front of her. Her heart stopped and kick-started again with heavy thuds.
This was no mirage.
‘You’re…back.’ Despite the drink of water, Lucy’s mouth felt like a desert.
Ari smiled a hard smile and in that second Lucy knew it was him. Despite his hardness something melted inside her, all her good intentions of moments ago disappearing like pathetic wisps of cloud.
He lifted his glasses onto his head. ‘I left New York in the middle of the night.’
The shock of seeing him like this and the force of those eyes on hers made her brain feel fuzzy. ‘But you…you had to work.’
‘I sorted it out. I needed to get back here.’ I shouldn’t have left, he surprised himself thinking, as lust slammed into his gut.
‘You did?’ Lucy was mesmerised by his mouth, remembering what it had felt like on her skin. Heat bloomed between her legs. People jostled past them and Aristotle took her arm and led her to the side, to the wall. He pushed her back against it and stood close—far too close. She could feel him, smell him…God, she wanted to taste him.
‘Ari…’
He bent his head, feathering a kiss to her neck. ‘Yes, say that again. That’s why I came back.’
‘Ari.’
His hands rested on either side of her head, his pelvis was tight against hers, and she could feel how aroused he was—right here in the middle of the street, with people passing by.
‘I’m going insane for you, Lucy.’
Lucy opened her mouth, but her words were stolen by his lips coming down hard and swift, demanding and eliciting a flash-fire of response. After a long drugging moment Ari lifted his head, his eyes glittering down into hers. Amazingly, she could see herself reflected in his eyes, looking up, dazed, and that sent sanity rushing back. Somehow, with superhuman strength, Lucy found the will to put her hands against his broad chest and push.
He budged only minutely, a frown drawing those black brows together.
‘No.’ Lucy was starting to panic. The speed with which he’d appeared and made her conveniently forget all logic was making her burn inside.
He quirked a devilish smile. ‘You’re right. Here isn’t the place.’
He took her hand and started to pull her away, clearly misinterpreting her reasons for wanting to stop. Lucy dug her heels in and pulled her hand back. He didn’t let go, just looked back impatiently when she wasn’t moving.
‘What—?’
He took one look at Lucy’s mutinous face and it sent something cold through him. ‘I’m sorry—did I misunderstand? Maybe you want to be made love to in front of Athens strollers and their families?’
‘I don’t want to be made love to, full-stop,’ Lucy hissed, very conscious of the stares they were getting—primarily from admiring women.
Ari gripped her hand tight and Lucy, very reluctantly, let herself be pulled towards him.
Ari was frowning again slightly, something like ennui trickling through him, making him feel absurdly disappointed. ‘If this is about the way I left…’
Lucy emitted a sharp laugh that disguised the dart of pain and the surge of anger at how easily she’d given in to his charm and fallen into his bed the other night. Faced with him now, the fact that she desired him even more acutely was making her regret it all the more fiercely. ‘Of course it’s not. I’m well aware of how you conduct yourself…I guess—oh, I don’t know—I expected at least a bunch of flowers. After all, isn’t that what you give all your one-night stands?’
He stood stock still, staring down at her, the lines in his face tightening and growing harsher by the minute.
‘Well, let’s make this more than a one-night stand, and then you’ll get a priceless piece of jewellery. Is that what it’ll take, Lucy?’
He looked around for a moment and spotted something Lucy didn’t see. With that tight grip on her hand, he began hauling her away again. Trepidation slithered down her spine. He’d looked ready to throttle her.
He growled back, ‘Tell you what—why don’t we cover all bases now? That way we’re clear, left in no doubt as to where we stand, because to be perfectly honest I don’t think I’m going to be satisfied with just two nights.’
‘What—?’
Ari stopped abruptly at a flower stall and picked out the biggest bunch of flowers the man had. Then, to Lucy’s horror and the flower stall man’s delight, Ari presented it to her with a mocking flourish.
