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A tap on the door interrupted her. Suddenly the room was filled with the darkly powerful presence of Nikos, sucking the oxygen out of the air, making Kate’s heart pound.
She scrambled out of bed, instinctively starting to cross the room towards him, then stopped abruptly, asking herself what on earth she thought she was doing, rushing at him as if he would be pleased to see her—as if he was going to gather her in his arms, hold her close, whisper a greeting seductively in her ear. If only.
She took a couple of steps backwards.
‘Hi.’
‘Yassou.’
His eyes moved over her like the touch of his hands, taking in the skimpy satin slip nightie, the swell of her breasts, her bare legs, the way her chest rose and fell with a sudden shortness of breath.
‘I’m sorry—I have disturbed you?’
‘No.’ Not unless you count the way every nerve in my body has pulled taut, or how my heart is slamming in my chest. ‘I wasn’t asleep.’
‘I just wanted to make sure you have everything you need.’
‘Yes.’ Kate gazed back at him. ‘Agní was very attentive.’
‘I was taking a conference call when you arrived, otherwise I would have come to meet you myself.’
‘It’s fine, Nikos. You don’t need to explain.’ Kate was drinking in the sight of him. The hard perfection of him and the fluid grace as he came towards her was holding her captive, turning her bones to rubber.
‘Thank you for coming.’
He was right in front of her now, his expression strangely uncertain. Close up, Kate could see the tension in his muscles, could sense beneath the savage beauty an edgy energy that he seemed to be struggling to contain. She felt the knot inside her tighten. She longed to reach out to him, to run her fingertips along the shadow of stubble covering his jaw, to raise them to his mouth, to part his lips and wait for him to suck her fingers, the way he had the very first time they had made love.
She drank in his dark beauty. A black sleeveless vest emphasised the hard perfection of his biceps and faded khaki shorts revealed long, bronzed legs. His hair had grown, and was now curling at the nape of his neck, tousled, as if he had been worrying at it with an impatient hand.
Kate realised he looked more like the old Nikos than at any time since he had first walked back into her life. More Greek, more Cretan—as if he had come home. Which, of course, he had. She blinked down the lump in her throat.
‘After the way we parted I wasn’t sure you would come.’ His soft statement broke the silence.
‘After the way we parted I wasn’t sure you would want me.’ Her reply revealed more than she had meant it to. Even though that photograph in the paper hadn’t been her fault, she had still worried herself senseless over the past few weeks that it might have ruined Nikos’s chances of becoming Sofia’s guardian. ‘Do you know how the court case is progressing?’
‘My lawyers seem confident.’
She waited for him to elaborate, but it seemed Nikos intended to say no more on the subject. Kate let out a pent-up breath. She would take that for now. ‘Well, that’s good.’
‘Yes.’
Nikos inched a step further towards her, his dark eyes boring into her, raising her core temperature by several degrees.
‘Congratulations on securing the deal with Rosebury’s, by the way. I heard Charles Lewis was very impressed by you.’
‘Thanks.’ Kate swallowed hard. He was so close now she that was enveloped in Nikos’s warm, male scent, all her senses caught in his spell. ‘I think it will prove to be very profitable for Kandy Kate.’
‘I’m sure...’
He lowered his head so that his breath whispered across her upturned face. He radiated a hot sexual energy that sent her core throbbing with need. But still he didn’t touch her. Outwardly they were being so formal, so polite, but inside Kate was dying with longing. And, judging by the way he was gazing at her, his pupils dilated, his features harsh with lust, Nikos was feeling it too.
‘The court hearing is at ten a.m. tomorrow.’ He continued to talk practicalities. ‘I have arranged for us to meet with the lawyers an hour beforehand to go over a few things.’
