‘Haven’t you ever heard of global warming? We’re supposed to be turning lights off. Anyway, never mind that. I’m not inhibited, but that doesn’t mean I’ve turned into an exhibitionist. And, actually, I just don’t want to kiss you. The thought of kissing you revolts me.’
Without taking his eyes off the road, he smiled. ‘Right.’
It was the smile that flipped her over the edge—that and the fact that her pulse rate still hadn’t returned to normal. ‘How dare you just barge in here after four years and not even offer so much as an explanation? You’re not even sorry, are you? You don’t have a conscience. I could never hurt anyone the way you hurt me, but you just don’t care.’
For a moment she thought he wasn’t going to answer. His hands whitened on the wheel and his mouth compressed. ‘I do have a conscience,’ he said harshly. ‘That’s why I didn’t marry you. It would have been wrong.’
‘What? What sort of twisted logic is that? Oh, never mind.’ Kelly closed her eyes, completely humiliated. She’d kissed him back—hungrily, desperately, foolishly. ‘Why did you kiss me, anyway?’
He shifted gears again, his hand strong and steady. ‘Because you wouldn’t stop talking.’
Kelly’s ego shrivelled still further; it was not because she was irresistible or because he just couldn’t help himself. He’d kissed her as a method of shutting her up. ‘Slow down. I get car sick.’ Not for anything would she admit that the kiss had made her dizzy. Alekos knew everything there was to know about kissing a woman, which was just her bad luck, she thought gloomily. Staring out of the window as trees flashed past, she wondered what he’d meant by that comment. Why had his conscience stopped him from marrying her—because it wouldn’t have been fair to deprive all those other women of great sex?
She swallowed down a hysterical laugh.
It was almost worth tearing the ring from round her neck just to make this whole thing end. What did she have left to lose? Only her pride. And Alekos wasn’t stupid. He probably knew exactly how she felt about him.
She wished now she hadn’t given him the address of her cottage, but she’d been so embarrassed by the exhibition he’d created at the school that she’d just wanted to escape.
Her heart pounding, her mouth dry, Kelly tried to think clearly, but it was impossible to think, jammed into this enclosed space with him. The length of his powerful thigh was too close to hers, and every time she risked looking at him the memories came flooding back: his firm, sensual mouth brushing hers, proving to her that she’d never properly been kissed before; his strong, clever hands teaching her what her body could do, stripping away her inhibitions, everything so shockingly intense and exquisitely perfect that she’d felt like the luckiest woman on the planet.
But their relationship had been more than just incredible sex.
It had been laughter and an astonishing chemistry. It had been fun.
It had been the most stimulating relationship she’d ever had, before or since.
And the most painful.
There had been moments when she’d thought that losing him would be the end of her—standing there, waiting for a man who didn’t turn up. Trying to pretend it didn’t matter.
Transported straight back to her childhood, Kelly closed her eyes and reminded herself that it was different. The trouble was that rejection felt pretty much the same, no matter who was responsible.
‘Take the next left,’ she said huskily. ‘I live in the pink cottage with the rusty gate. You can park outside. I’ll get you the ring and you can go.’
This was a good test of how she was doing, she told herself. If the only way she could handle her feelings for Alekos was by not seeing him, then what had the past four years been about? Why invest so much time on rebuilding a life so carefully if it could be that vulnerable?
She’d got over him, hadn’t she? She’d moved on. Apart from the occasionally disturbing dream involving a virile Greek man and incredible sex, she no longer ached and yearned. Yes, she wore the ring around her neck, but that was going to change. Once she handed it over she was going to do something radical, like joining a project to build a school in Africa or something. And she was going to kiss loads of men until she found someone else who knew how to do it properly. He couldn’t be the only person.
Noticing the neighbour’s curtains twitching, Kelly groaned. She was giving everyone enough to gossip about for at least two lifetimes. ‘Don’t you dare kiss me here. Mrs Hill is ninety-six and she watches from the window. You’ll give her a heart attack.’
Climbing out of the car, she glanced dubiously at Alekos, wondering how he always managed to look completely at home in his surroundings. Boardroom or beach, city or tiny village, he was confident in himself, and it showed. He stood outside her house, the early-evening sunlight glinting off his dark hair, his face so extraordinarily handsome that it took her breath away. Four years had simply added to his raw sex appeal, adding breadth to his shoulders and a hardness to his features that had been missing before.
‘This is where you live?’
Kelly bristled. ‘We’re not all millionaires,’ she muttered. ‘And it’s very bad-mannered of you to look down your nose.’
‘I’m not looking down my nose.’ He shot her an impatient look. ‘Stop being so sensitive and stop imagining what I’m thinking because, believe me, you don’t have a clue. I’m just surprised, that’s all. It’s really quiet here, and you are a very sociable person. I imagined you living in London and going to parties every night.’
Not wanting to flatter his ego by revealing what a mess she’d been after he’d left, Kelly fumbled in her bag for her keys. ‘I am out every night. You’d be surprised.’
He glanced around him, one eyebrow lifted. ‘You’re right. I’d be very surprised. Are you trying to tell me this place comes alive at midnight?’
Kelly thought of the badgers, foxes and hedgehogs that invaded her garden. ‘It’s really lively. There’s a sort of underground nightlife.’ It came to something, she thought gloomily, when badgers had a more interesting sex life than you did. But that was partly her fault, wasn’t it? After the press had torn her apart, she’d hidden away. ‘Wait there; I’ll bring you the ring.’
‘I’ll come in with you. I’d hate to give your neighbour a heart attack, and we’re attracting too much attention out here.’
Her eyes slid from his powerful shoulders to his hard jaw and she looked away quickly, her stomach churning. The thought of him in her little cottage made her heart-rate double. ‘I don’t want you in my home, Alekos.’
His answer to that was to remove the keys from her hand and stride towards her front door.
Enraged, Kelly sprinted after him. ‘Don’t you dare go into my house without invitation!’
‘There’s a simple solution to that: invite me.’
‘I will not. I only invite nice people into my home, and you—’ she stabbed his chest with her finger ‘—are definitely not a nice person.’
‘Why did you sell my ring?’
‘Why
