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It couldn’t be. No. It had to be pure coincidence that the petroleum company shared the same name with Greg, her ex-boyfriend. Landers was a fairly common name...wasn’t it? Besides, Greg’s company when she’d been a part of it before he’d struck the deal that had doomed her, had been a gas-brokering company; a company that had since declared bankruptcy. And certainly not one large enough to take on the juggernaut that was Pantelides Shipping.
‘I’d like to get out of here this side of— Brianna? What’s wrong?’
For goodness’ sake, pull yourself together!
Dry-mouthed and heart thumping, Brianna forced herself to breathe. ‘Nothing; it’s the heat, I think.’
Keen eyes scoured her face and gentled a fraction as he pocketed his phone. ‘Not to mention the lack of sleep. My apologies for dragging you off like this. You can sleep on the plane.’
Stepping forward, he held out his hand for her bag. Their fingers touched, lingered. Heat shot through her and she hastily pulled back from the scorching contact. Swallowing, she followed him out and shut the door behind her. ‘I’ll be fine. And you’ll need me to find out everything we can about the two companies.’ Not to mention she needed to know whether Greg had anything to do with Landers Petroleum.
The thought that he might have started another company, might be cultivating another patsy the same way he’d cultivated her, made her stomach lurch sickeningly.
Could she alert Sakis without drawing attention to herself? Out herself as the needy woman, so desperate for love she hadn’t seen the trap set for her until it’d been too late?
Her belly churned with fear and anxiety as they left the hotel and rode the short helicopter journey to the private hangar at Agostinho Neto airport.
Dear God. She could lose everything.
The thought sent a shudder so strong, she stumbled over her own feet a few steps from the airplane.
Sakis caught her arm and steadied her. Then his fingers dropped to encircle her wrist, keeping a firm hold on her as he mounted the steps into the plane.
She swallowed down the wholly different trepidation that stemmed from having Sakis’s hand on her. She tried to pull away, but he held on until they stood before the guest-cabin bedroom opposite the plane’s master suite. He opened the door and set her bag down just inside it, then led her back to the seating area.
At Sakis’s signal, the pilot shut the door.
‘Buckle up. Right after we take off, we’re going to bed.’
Her mouth dropped open as her pulse shot sky-high. ‘I beg your pardon?’ she squeaked. Her whole body throbbed and she couldn’t glance away from his disturbingly direct gaze.
His grim smile held a wealth of masculine arrogance as he shoved a frustrated hand through his hair. Taking his seat opposite her, he set his phone—which had thankfully stopped pinging—on a nearby table. ‘A...poor choice of words, Moneypenny. What I mean is, it’s the middle of the night in London. Not much we can do from here.’
‘I can still pull up as much information as I can on the companies...’
He shook his head. ‘I already have people working on that. You need to get some sleep. I need you sharp and—’
‘You need to stop treating me like some fragile flower and let me do my job!’
Moss-green eyes narrowed. ‘Excuse me?’
Anger lent her voice desperation and she leaned forward, hands planted on the table separating them. The fact that this close she could almost touch the stubble layering his hard, chiselled jaw and see the darker, mesmerising flecks in his irises sparked another tingle of awareness through her. But the remotest possibility that Greg could be lurking in the periphery of her life, ready to expose her, made her stand her ground.
She’d gone through too much, sacrificing everything she had to prevent her debilitating weakness from being exposed. She no longer needed love. She’d learned that she could live without it. What she couldn’t live with was having her previous sins exposed to Sakis Pantelides.
‘You seem to think I need a full night’s sleep or a warm bed to function properly, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.’ Warning bells rang in her head, telling her seriously to apply brakes on her runaway mouth. But she couldn’t help herself. ‘I’ve slept in places where I had to keep one eye open or risk losing more than just the clothes on my back. So please don’t treat me like some pampered princess who needs her beauty sleep or she’ll go to pieces.’
His eyes narrowed, followed almost instantly by a keen speculation that screamed what was coming next. ‘When did you sleep rough?’ His voice was low, husky, full of unabashed curiosity.
Alarm bells shrieked harder, in tandem with the jet engines powering for take-off. Sharp memories rose, images of drug dens and foul-smelling narcotics bringing nausea she fought to keep down. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
He leaned forward on his elbows and stared her down. ‘Yes, it does. Answer me.’
‘It was a very long time ago, Mr Pantelides.’
‘Sakis,’ he commanded in that low, deep tone that sent a shiver through her.
Again she shook her head. ‘Let’s just say my childhood wasn’t as rosy as the average child’s, but I pulled through.’
