It was a few seconds before the reality of the situation hit her and her first thoughts were of Ben. How would he feel, waking in a strange room? Last night he’d been too tired even to notice his surroundings, but this morning he might be afraid.
She leapt out of bed and without even bothering to pull on her dressing gown dashed out of her room—and catapulted straight into Andreas Papadakis.
His strong arms steadied her. ‘Whoa, there; what’s the rush?’ he asked in amusement.
‘I must go to Ben.’ Her voice came out strange and breathless. The heat of his body flamed her senses. She felt as though she was spinning out of control. It was an instant thing, one she could do without and one she needed to fight. ‘He might be frightened waking up in a strange place.’
Andreas smiled calmly, but it did nothing to steady her racing pulses. His hands still held her, his hard body grazing her own through the thin material of her night-dress, and his velvet-brown eyes looked down into hers.
He was enjoying it, she realised. Enjoying making her feel uncomfortable.
‘Ben and Nikos are having breakfast,’ he informed. ‘Bess is looking after them.’
‘What time is it?’ she demanded, finally wrestling herself free, conscious now that with space between them he could look at the way her breasts had peaked against the soft cotton.
‘Just turned eight.’
‘What?’ She was horrified. She was always up by seven on days she had to go to work. ‘He’ll be late for school. I’ll be late for work. And you’re usually at the office by this time.’ He hadn’t shaved yet, she noticed; he must have risen late as well. She liked the dark stubble on his strong square jaw. It made him less severe, more of an action man than a dark-suited tycoon.
‘I think you’re forgetting, Peta, that your job now is here. There’s plenty of time for you to get Ben to school. I’ll take Nikos today; I want a word with his teacher.’
She had forgotten. In the panic of waking up in a strange place she’d completely lost it. She was no longer his PA but Nikos’s nanny. And she’d already failed in her breakfast duty. Not that Andreas seemed to mind, which was a surprise. He was a different man here. More dangerous. More threatening to her sanity. And her body!
With a tiny cry of distress she swung away and returned to her bedroom.
The day went surprisingly quickly. Karen, her replacement, phoned a couple of times with queries about work, and Andreas himself phoned her once. Other than that she spent the day typing up notes from the conference. At Andreas’s suggestion she set herself up in his study, using the laptop that he had put at her disposal. It wasn’t an ideal arrangement as far as Peta was concerned because it was too easy to imagine him there. The room was eternally filled with his presence and the lingering smell of his cologne, so much so that she began to doubt her sanity in agreeing to his suggestion.
It was a relief when she left the house to pick up Nikos from his private school and then Ben from Marnie’s. Marnie had been sad to see her leave, but delighted that she still had the privilege of meeting Ben out of school and taking him to her house, if only for a short time, to await his mother’s arrival.
In the car on the way home the two boys chatted incessantly, making Peta realise how lonely Ben had been before. She’d always envisaged having two or three children quite close together—until fate had decreed otherwise.
Andreas didn’t get home until after the boys were in bed and Peta had already eaten. She was passing through the hall when he arrived. He was still in work mode; she could tell by the distant look in his eyes, the intense frown on his forehead. How had his day gone without her? she wondered. How had he got on with Karen? And how had Karen coped with his often unrealistic demands?
But it was not something she dared to ask. Theirs wasn’t the sort of relationship where they could sit and discuss the day’s events. She was still his employee. She had her own sitting room, and it was to this that she took herself now.
She flicked through the channels on the TV, but found nothing much there, so she curled into a corner of the sofa with a book. It was number one in the best-seller lists and she was lost in a world of espionage and double-dealing when Andreas came to find her.
At first she didn’t see him; it was not until he cleared his throat that she looked up and realised that he was standing watching her.
‘Must be a good book.’
‘It is.’ He had showered and shaved and changed into navy cotton trousers and a pale blue shirt. The worry lines had gone and in his hand was a tot of whisky. She felt her insides sear and shrivel as those chestnut eyes penetrated hers. Not with intent—there was nothing in his expression to suggest that he fancied her—but it was as though he was trying to look deep into her soul. To find out what made her tick, what her innermost secrets were.
She straightened her legs and put down the book.
‘Won’t you join me?’ he asked, raising his glass.
Peta shook her head. ‘I don’t drink.’
‘Not ever?’
‘Maybe occasionally,’ she said with a shrug. ‘A toast for a wedding, something like that, but in the main, no.’
‘Why’s that? I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t drink. May I?’ He indicated the chair opposite.
Peta couldn’t really say no when it was his own house, even if he had given her this room for her own private use, so she nodded, at the same time drawing in a deeply troubled breath. Her past history wasn’t something she wanted to share. It wasn’t something she was proud of. But at some time or another he would insist on knowing, so perhaps now was as good a time as any.
‘I used to,’ she confessed. ‘Like the rest of my student friends I used to hang around in pubs, but one day I had too much. So much that I didn’t know what I was doing.’ She paused as memories of that night vividly reclaimed her mind. ‘Ben is the result. I’m deeply ashamed of it, but I wouldn’t be without him for the world.’ She stuck her chin in the air as she spoke, challenging him to say something derogatory.
But he didn’t. He looked at her thoughtfully instead. ‘So what happened to Ben’s father? Does he know about him?’
Peta nodded. ‘He was my boyfriend at the time, my first love. We were inseparable. I thought I would spend the rest of my life with him. But as soon as I told him I was pregnant he didn’t want to know me. In fact he refused to believe the baby was his.’
She clamped her lips. Joe had totally destroyed her trust in men. He’d even started going out with her best friend immediately afterwards, proving that he’d never really loved her, not the way she had loved him. And in the dark weeks that had followed she’d heard dozens of similar tales from sympathetic student friends, convincing her that she’d be far better off without a man in her life.
‘So you’ve not seen him since?’
‘No. Nor do I want to.’
‘Don’t you think that one day your son might want to know exactly who his father is?’
It was a logical question, one she had asked herself many times. ‘I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it,’ she declared, and, with a desperate need to change the subject, ‘I’ve finished the conference notes. They’re on your desk.’
‘Good girl. I could have done with you at the office today. Karen’s a quick typist but she goes to pieces in an emergency.’
All of his requests were emergencies, remembered Peta. ‘It could be that you make her nervous,’ she said with great daring, remembering how she had felt that first day.
Dark brows rode smoothly upwards. ‘If the girl can’t do the job, then—’
‘She gets her marching orders,’ finished Peta crisply. ‘You think that solves everything, don’t you?’
To her amazement he smiled, a warm lazy smile that sent her pulses into spasm. ‘Do you know, Peta, no other woman has ever tried to put me in my place?’
‘I hardly think I’ve done that,’ she said, taking a deep breath to try and regulate the uneven beating of her h
eart. That smile had done things to her which she’d rather not happen. ‘But I do believe in sticking up for myself. In my opinion, most men in official capacities think they can walk all over any woman who works for them. Lord knows why. It has to be an inbred thing.’
She watched the way his nostrils flared as she spoke and wondered whether she had gone too far, but then the white smile flashed again. ‘You’re probably right. Should I give her another chance?’
‘I think you should give her at least a month’s trial.’
‘A month?’ he queried sharply. ‘You were fully efficient in less than a week.’
‘I had a strong motive,’ she said.
He frowned.
‘Ben. I couldn’t afford to be thrown out on my ear. I had to learn quickly.’
‘And was I a hard taskmaster?’ He leaned back comfortably in his chair, legs outstretched, looking as though he was in for a long stay.
‘The worst,’ she admitted. ‘But the more difficult you were the more determined I was to stay the course.’
He suddenly leaned forward, elbows on his knees. ‘You’re some girl, Peta James.’
Her eyes were drawn to his and she could feel herself beginning to drown in their sensual, velvety depths. Her heart rate increased, her skin overheated, and without her realising it she inched closer to him. Any second now he was going to kiss her. She could sense it; was ready for it. The tip of her tongue moistened dry lips and her breathing grew shallow.
Then with a swift change of expression he rocked back in his seat. ‘I had a kidnap threat today,’ he said tensely. ‘My son’s life is in danger.’
Andreas was still reeling. The tersely worded note had shocked and horrified him, sent his senses spiralling endlessly in space. It had jolted him into the realisation of how very much Nikos meant to him. He had been too busy working to… No, he wouldn’t go down that path. His son was his entire universe. Without him life would have no meaning.
Be warned, the note had said, I’m going to kidnap your son. You will never see him again unless you pay me one million pounds.
It took Andreas’s mind back to another place, another time, when his younger brother, Christos, had been kidnapped and his own parents had nearly gone out of their minds with worry. After Nikos was born he had harboured the vague fear that the same thing might happen, but never really believed that it would. Until now…
Peta’s eyes were wide as she looked at him, her own shock mirrored in their amethyst depths. ‘Have you been to the police?’
His lips twisted in bitter irony. ‘They politely suggested it’s a practical joke. They said that if someone was going to kidnap Nikos they wouldn’t give me any warning; they’d simply snatch him.’
‘But you don’t believe them?’
‘Would you, if it were Ben?’
‘I’d be scared to let him out of my sight,’ she agreed, looking as worried as he felt. ‘Do you know who’s making the threat? And why?’
He silently thanked her for her concern. He needed someone at a time like this. ‘Money, of course,’ he admitted grimly, adding after a moment’s silence, ‘My main reason for telling you is because you’ll need to be extra-vigilant.’
Peta shook her head, both fear and distress in her eyes. ‘I’m not trained for this sort of thing; I don’t know how to cope; I can’t—’
‘I know it’s asking a lot of you,’ he interrupted gently, almost afraid that he would scare her away, ‘but I’m sure you’ll look after Nikos as much as you do your own son. Your dedication to Ben, the way you put him before yourself at all times, is what made me think you’d be the ideal person to replace Bronwen. And now I’m even surer of it. Besides, Nikos adores you already. He’ll do whatever you say. He doesn’t know about this, of course, and I’d prefer it to remain that way. He’s had all the usual warnings about going off with strangers, but nevertheless I still want you to be on your guard.’
For a moment he thought that Peta was going to refuse, that she was going to walk away; he could see by her scared expression that she felt her life would be in danger, too, and he saw the faint shudder that ran through her. ‘I’m trusting you, Peta,’ he said quietly but determinedly. ‘Don’t let me down.’ To his disgust there was a break in his voice.
‘It’s a huge responsibility,’ she whispered, ‘I’m not sure I’m prepared to handle it, not even sure that I’m capable.’
He leaned forward again and took her hands into his. ‘Let’s hope it all comes to nothing,’ he said gruffly, and, pulling her gently to her feet, he held her close.
Sensation ricocheted through Peta’s body with the force of a speeding missile. Even the shock of hearing that Nikos was in danger had done nothing to diminish the feelings Andreas managed to arouse. It took every ounce of will-power and several deep breaths to calm herself and hide her catapulting emotions.
For a while he held her still, appearing to draw comfort, but then one hand began to slowly stroke the back of her head while the other, low on her back, urged her closer. His arousal was sudden and shocking.
She seemed to be living life on a seesaw. One moment believing herself safe, convinced that Andreas had no ulterior motives. The next fearful that he wanted her for only one thing. She couldn’t let it happen.
‘Let me go!’ she muttered through her teeth. ‘If you’re after a lover as well as a child-minder and protector then you’ve made a grave mistake.’
‘But you want me,’ he murmured, his voice a low, sensual growl. ‘Deny it if you can.’
How could she when he’d read her body signals so accurately? Not only today but last night as well. ‘You’re the sort of man most women would willingly go to bed with,’ she admitted. ‘You must be aware of that. But it doesn’t mean that I will. I’m not in the market for an affair. I’ve vowed never to give my body freely again. The next time will be to the man I’m going to marry.’
‘Honourable sentiments,’ he said with a faint smile, ‘but are you sure you can stick to them?’
In other words he was asking whether she was capable of ignoring her needs. Whether she was capable of ignoring him. Peta stiffened and pushed her hands against his chest, desperately trying to break free. But Andreas had other ideas.
His arm tightened; his hand slid from her hair to the side of her face to gently stroke, to send even deeper shivers of sensation through her. And then he tilted her chin and made her look up at him. Her first thought was that she must hide her emotions, make out that she was unaffected by his touch, until she saw the raw need mirrored in his eyes.
Quite how it happened she didn’t know, but the next moment his mouth was on hers.
What had started off as a need to reassure Peta, to bolster his own spirits, was quickly snowballing out of control. The kiss was truly exciting, even more exciting than Andreas had imagined kissing Peta would be, yet he wasn’t sure that he was doing the right thing. Peta James wasn’t your average girl. She was as likely to slap him across the face as she was to kiss him back.
It was a risk he was prepared to take. For the last twenty-four hours she’d been driving him crazy. There was still the problem with Nikos, but this little minx even had the power to take his mind off that.
From the moment he’d caught her looking at him he had not stopped thinking about what it would be like to make love to her. And the fact that she had instantly denied her feelings had intrigued him even further. Despite the image she portrayed of being coolly in control of her life there burned beneath that outer shell a woman with a very real need.
Her mouth was as soft and sensual as he had imagined it would be. She tasted like the sweetest nectar, engaging every one of his senses, sending his mind whirling into orbit. He moved his lips gently at first, slowly increasing the pressure until he felt the early stirring of response.
Even heard it! Very softly, from somewhere deep in her throat, he heard a slight sound, a satisfied sound! Encouraged, he touched her sensitive lips with his tongue, felt the ripple that ra
n through her, and when her mouth moved restlessly beneath his he urged it open.
It was his turn to groan this time. He wanted to rush, he wanted to plunder her mouth and take everything she had to offer. He wanted to crush her to him; feel the shape of her, explore, incite, demand. But even as these urges burnt into him he knew that to do so would lose him the one woman he trusted with his son’s life.
He forced himself to slow down, to lessen the urgency, to reluctantly end the kiss. And when he put her from him he sensed that she was disappointed, too, though none of it showed on her face.
Instead her beautiful sapphire eyes shot daggers across the divide which a few minutes ago had been nonexistent and now felt a mile wide. She shivered and hugged her arms across her body. ‘What did you do that for?’ she asked crossly.
‘Do what?’ There was harshness in his voice also. She made him feel as though he’d ravaged her against her will and this didn’t sit well on his shoulders.
‘You know what,’ she tossed. ‘I need a promise from you, Andreas. If I’m to stay on there will be no more kisses. I don’t want you to even touch me. It will completely ruin our working relationship—and that’s all I’m here for. Please remember that.’
She looked so fired-up and beautiful that it was all he could do not to grab her and kiss her again. He hid his desire behind hard, narrowed eyes. ‘You didn’t put up much resistance.’
‘Would it have done any good?’ she questioned.
‘I have never, in my life, taken anything from a woman that she didn’t want to give,’ he declared shortly. ‘You enjoyed it, Peta. Deny it if you like, but the proof was there. I don’t take kindly to being accused of using force. If I were you I’d choose my words very carefully the next time you feel like flinging accusations.’
The Mediterranean Tycoon Page 5