‘Is it even worth asking why he dislikes me so much or should I save my breath?’ she asked Nelios once the doors had shut behind Andreas.
He paused in the wide, exquisitely decorated hallway. ‘We share a dislike for wilful blindness,’ he delivered, before striding deeper into the suite.
Ouch.
On slow feet, she followed him into the lavish suite past groupings of sofas and an extensive bar area, through an alcove to an elegant dining table set for two. It wasn’t lost on her at all that through the floor-to-ceiling windows, displayed in perfect lighting, was the Nelios XV.
At every turn he meant to remind her who he was, what their association meant. As if she could forget, when her every breath, her every erratic heartbeat, shrieked how far out of her comfort zone she was.
He pulled out her chair and she sat down. She startled a little and earned herself a narrow-eyed look when his hand brushed her bare skin.
‘Why so jumpy?’
She shrugged. ‘Guess I’m waiting for the hammer to fall. Or for the interrogation to resume.’
He took his own seat, his mouth turning down with mild derision. ‘Hardly a hammer when I let you roam freely in the streets earlier on, shopping without a care in the world.’
‘Let me…?’ she echoed, then frowned. ‘How do you know where I went? Are you having me followed?’
‘You’re here in my care. Besides the fact that I and anyone in my group are required to use a security team, and you traipsed out without so much as a whisper to anyone, you have already proven not to have the best judgement with your stowaway antics. Do you truly believe I’m not within my rights to keep tabs on you? Let’s not forget that you’re also in this country illegally and I will be culpable should you be discovered.’
‘Does it make you feel powerful to list everyone’s weaknesses or it a safeguarding crutch?’ she enquired softly, ignoring her sprinting pulse, which she was one hundred per cent confident was fully derived from anger, not hopelessness.
He stiffened so hard, he resembled marble. ‘Excuse me?’
She sighed. ‘My use of the word “hammer” before wasn’t an exaggeration, it seems. You Hulk-smash when a scalpel is needed.’
One dark brow arched, drawing her attention to the sinfully silky length of his sooty lashes. ‘Are you accusing me of lacking finesse, Vayle?’
‘Maybe I am… Nelios.’
His nostrils flared—because he was irritated, right? Not because he was reacting to the cursed breathlessness that had made her sound like a cheesy movie siren when she’d said his name. The live wire that seemed to need no encouragement at all to zing to life writhed through her. Fiercely combating it, she picked up her napkin and took her time spreading it over thighs that had grown far too hot, scaldingly aware he was staringat her. About to snap at his rudeness, her breath stalled as a door opened to the side and a man dressed in chef’s whites accompanied by a butler bearing wine pushed in a sterling-silver trolley.
‘Good evening, Mr Petralis, Miss Lancaster,’ they both greeted.
She blinked. Had Nelios bothered to tell the chef her name? She murmured a response then listened as the chef rattled off the mouthwatering menu he’d prepared. Spoilt for choice, she picked the first thing she remembered and was presented with a sumptuous Greek salad drizzled with olive oil. Then she proceeded to stifle moan after moan while she ate the most glorious melt-in-the-mouth empanadas she’d ever tasted, accompanied by sublime red wine.
Surprisingly, Nelios didn’t grill her over dinner. But she saw his gaze repeatedly linger on the phone she’d placed on the dining table. Etiquette-wise, it wasn’t strictly polite, but Vayle hadn’t wanted to miss a call.
He waited until she was done with her decadent dessert before he struck. ‘Have you been in touch with Agnes to report your progress?’
‘What progress? All you’ve done is threaten to have me thrown in jail.’ She bit the inside of her cheek, because that wasn’t strictly true. Yes he’d threatened her, but he’d also given her a choice. And she’d accepted. ‘What I mean is—’
‘I’m well aware of what you mean. You’re much more comfortable listing all the bad things perpetrated on you and blithely ignoring the good.’
She flushed, then was inexorably drawn to study him when she heard the underlying bleakness in his voice. But his face was shut tighter than Fort Knox. And, since she was swimming in a shallow pond of her own disingenuousness, she remained silent.
Until, ‘Answer the question, Vayle,’ he insisted firmly.
And, yes, this time she couldn’t deny that she shivered solely because of the way he said her name with a gravelly bite that seemed to rake over her jittery senses, sending waves of heat and awareness through her body.
‘No, I haven’t spoken to your…to Agnes. She texted. I tried calling back but there was no answer.’
His gaze bore into her. ‘What exactly did the text say?’
‘To find out how I am because she hadn’t heard from me and is worried,’ she answered unequivocally.
Something darted across his face, hot and fast as quicksilver. It was indecipherable then gone…but not forgotten. It was visceral enough to strike her hard in the middle.
