‘Take us to Lapland, somewhere remote. Get Maria to arrange the accommodation for the next couple of weeks. Tell her money is no object but itmustbe warm inside. And see if she can source a house with a sauna and a hot tub—so I won’t freeze to death.’
As the pilot disappeared, Freya couldn’t contain her laugh any longer. Which had to be her first laugh in weeks, probably even months.
‘A saunaanda hot tub?’ She chuckled. ‘Poor Theo.’
‘That’s just two of the three ways I plan to stave off frostbite.’
‘Oh yeah, what’s the other?’ she asked, falling neatly into his trap when his gaze darkened. And the hot stone in her abdomen pulsed.
‘That’s for me to know, and you to find out, Freya…’ he murmured with a wicked glint in his eyes, which made the hot stone sink between her thighs.
Suddenly, she wasn’t laughing any more.
She turned to the view out of the window, the darkness outside making her face visible in the glass… And had the thought that she might just have leapt out of the frying pan and straight into an inferno. Because Theo Caras didn’t play by any rules. For some reason that didn’t just unsettle her, it also excited her—which could not be good.
A hostess arrived to inform Theo the flight to Helsinki would take three and a half hours and then they would transfer to a helicopter. She then asked them both if they would like to eat.
Freya’s stomach flipped over. The last thing she needed was food.
Unclipping her belt, she stood. ‘I’m not hungry, thank you,’ she told the hostess.
It wasn’t a lie. Their escape from Galicos had been exhausting, not just physically but also mentally and emotionally. And the adrenaline was crashing now, leaving her stomach in freefall. She was safe for the time being. But the next couple of weeks was fraught with all kinds of new challenges. The biggest one of which towered over her as he unclipped his seat belt too and dismissed the hostess.
‘Would it…? Would it be okay if I returned to the bedroom?’ she asked, wondering why she was being so polite.
Theo looked surprised at her change of tone but masked it quickly.
He shrugged. ‘Sure,’ he said, searching her face with an intensity that made her certain he could see her anxiety and was figuring out a way to exploit it.
But as she nodded back, stupidly grateful for the chance to collapse in private, it occurred to her one of the most challenging things about this man was that he could hide his emotions so easily. She had no idea what he was thinking behind the confident charm…
He stepped towards her and snagged her wrist before she could make a clean getaway.
‘Hold up, Freya,’ he said, this thumb stroking the pulse point in her wrist.
She tugged her hand free, the connection as electric—and unsettling—as always.
‘There’s no need to be scared of me,’ he said. ‘I may be a former Athens street rat, but I’m not a brute… And I’ve never taken a woman without her consent.’
She stared at him, surprised by the assertion. She would never have considered him capable of such a thing, despite his kidnapping habit. The shadows that flickered in his eyes, the shadows that he had allowed her to see, and the slight edge to his tone surprised her more though.
She knew he and his brother had been born into poverty, her father had mentioned it often enough when berating Xander over the broken engagement, but Theo had always worn his tough background like a badge of honour. He had never seemed insecure—or apologetic—about his past.
But then she recalled what he had let slip earlier, about being powerless. The strange feeling of connection felt premature, and even more dangerous than the hot knot lodged between her thighs after that wrist stroke. But even so, she went with the urge to reassure him… She was not a snob like her father—who judged people on their birthright, and not their behaviour.
‘I’m not scared of you,’ she said, even though she knew it wasn’t entirely true. She feared him, but it was nothing to do with her personal safety and everything to do with the havoc he seemed to wreak on her self-control.
‘You sure about that?’ he asked, but then he ran a knuckle down her cheek. His touch was light, casual, but also possessive—and shockingly intimate. Instead of pulling away again, though, she leaned into his touch, drawn to him despite everything. But when she registered what she was doing, she jerked her head away.
A sensual smile spread across his handsome features and made her breath clog in her lungs.
‘We’ve got serious chemistry, Freya, and indulging it will make the next couple of weeks a lot more entertaining. It will also help keep us warm in fricking Lapland,’ he added ruefully.
The provocative statement reverberated in her sex, ripples of sensation fanning out to tighten her nipples and make her heart pulse painfully.
Entertaining wasn’t the word she would use. More like catastrophic. Because she had no idea how to manage a liaison with a man like him. She’d never made love before. He would be her first. While she understood sex didn’t have to involve emotional intimacy—and she doubted Theo would ever conflate the two—how did she know she would be able to do the same, when she had so little experience?
Letting him know how vulnerable she was, and how inexperienced, would be a mistake though—because it would give him more power, and he already had enough. So she swallowed heavily and sent him her best ‘whatever’ look, attempting to play it cool…
