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‘Neh, me,’ he agreed a little tersely. ‘You were expecting me, I think. Did not my assistant warn you I was coming?’
‘Warn me?’ Green eyes sparkled and a look of amusement crossed her face. ‘Are you a dangerous man, Mr Souvakis?’
‘No, just an impatient one.’ Demetri scowled, annoyed that she’d already put him on the defensive. ‘The sculpture— it is ready?’
Her sigh was telling and he felt like an oaf for being so illmannered. ‘It’s ready,’ she conceded, gesturing towards the office behind her. ‘It’s through here. If you’d like to come with me, I’ll get your receipt.
‘Efkaristo.’
He was unnecessarily brusque and he didn’t know why. It wasn’t as if she’d been particularly flippant. He knew she’d only been trying to be friendly, and he couldn’t understand what it was about her that was causing him to behave so badly.
The office was small, just a couple of filing cabinets against the far wall, a computer and a printer, and a desk that was pre-sently covered with black plastic bags.
‘Sorry about this,’ she said, indicating the bags. ‘I’ve been having a clear-out and I haven’t had time to dump these out the back yet.’ She shoved some papers off a chair. ‘Why don’t you sit down? While I try and locate that receipt.’
Demetri paused in the doorway. She was obviously run off her feet and he wasn’t making life any easier for her by treating her like an inferior.
Coming to an impulsive decision, he came into the room and hefted half a dozen of the plastic bags. ‘Why don’t you show me where you want these putting and then you’ll have room to move around, neh?’
Her eyes widened in surprise and, when she smiled, he was struck by her sudden beauty. He’d already acknowledged that she was an attractive young woman, but, with faint colour giving her cheeks a dusky glow and her mouth with its fuller lower lip parted to reveal the pink tip of her tongue, she was stunning.
‘Oh—that’s very kind of you,’ she began. ‘But those bags are dusty. You might stain your suit.’
‘Don’t worry about it, thespinis,’ he said, oblivious to the fact that his suit was pale grey and anArmani. ‘Out the back, you said?’
‘Yes.’
She stared at him for a moment longer, and then, apparently deciding he meant what he said, she came round the desk again and brushed past him on her way to the door.
It was just the briefest of contacts, but he was aware of her in a way he’d never been aware of a woman before. The slenderness of her body enchanted him and, in the somewhat humid confines of the office, her womanly scent caused a sharp rush of heat to his groin.
But then she was past him and out in the narrow passage-way that led to the back of the building. She opened the door and he saw other bags already stacked outside.
‘Just leave them here,’ she said, stepping out of the way so he could drop his burden. ‘They’ll be collected later.’ She smiled again. ‘Thanks. I do appreciate it.’
‘Efkaristisi mou,’ he said. And when she looked blank, he translated, ‘My pleasure.’
Jane waited until he’d passed through the door again, before shutting and locking it. ‘Well, you must be very strong,’ she murmured, and for the first time she made him smile.
‘Ineh poli evyeniko,’ he told her drily. ‘You’re very kind. I don’t often get compliments like that.’
He could have added that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d done any manual labour, but that would have sounded like boasting. Instead, he contented himself with brushing a hand down the front of his suit, pulling a wry face at the smear of dirt that resisted all his efforts to remove it.
‘I’m sure you get plenty of compliments,’ she retorted, apparently not convinced by his denial, going ahead of him along the hall, giving him an uninterrupted view of her back.
Firm shoulders, a narrow waist, a slim yet shapely rear. And long legs, shown to advantage in the short-skirted mini-dress she was wearing. Her hair, which she’d had secured in a ponytail the first time he’d seen her, now hung in honey-streaked waves to her shoulder blades, and he knew a sudden urge to grab a handful and bury his face in its silky mass.
Forcing such thoughts aside, he found himself wondering if she had a date with some man this evening. Was that why she was wearing a dress that was so obviously unsuitable for the job she was doing? The last time he’d seen her, she’d been severely attired in a white blouse and a tailored skirt, and, although he’d noticed her legs, he couldn’t remember seeing so much of them…
