Her pulse was fluttering and she shook her head in denial. ‘I never would even have spoken to you if I’d known who you were.’
He lifted a hand and touched her hair with gentle fingers, his touch making her tremble.
‘You couldn’t help yourself, Lauranne. And neither could I. It was stronger than both of us—’
And it was still stronger than both of them.
This close she was aware of every single inch of him. She could see the strong column of his throat, smell the tantalising male smell that she associated only with Zander, and she could feel the power of his sexuality with every traitorous bone in her body. He was just so wickedly attractive, she thought desperately, remembering the way he’d murmured huskily to her in Greek as he’d rolled her under him on a warm sandy beach.
She pushed the thought away, wondering why the brain remembered good when there was so much bad to choose from.
‘If I’d known who you were I would have known you were trouble. Your reputation alone would have made me run a mile.’
Dear God, how could she feel like this? Even after everything he’d done to her, she could feel the heat of desire burning inside her, the incessant throb of the blood in her veins.
It was as if her body were suddenly coming to life after five years of hibernation.
Only Zander had ever done this to her.
Only Zander drove her to a pitch of sexual excitement that eclipsed the workings of her brain.
And he hadn’t even touched her—
He was dangerous, deadly and thoroughly addictive.
‘You were a fascinating mixture of sparky and shy,’ he observed, totally ignoring her snappy response. ‘Nervous of me but excited and intrigued at the same time.’
Suddenly it was difficult to speak. ‘I was right to be nervous of you. I should have run a mile.’
‘Instead of which you married me.’
His cool statement sucked the breath from her lungs. Yes, she’d married him. Because she’d been so madly, crazily in love with him that from the day she’d met him the only word in her vocabulary had been ‘yes.’
‘Everyone makes mistakes, Zander.’ And she was still paying for hers. Every minute of every day. ‘You’re ruthless and cold-hearted and I truly don’t believe that you have a compassionate bone in your body.’
He stared at her for a long moment, a muscle working in his lean jaw. ‘There are plenty of people out there who would agree with you,’ he drawled, ‘which brings us back to the reason I’m here.’
Her brain did an emergency stop. She’d actually forgotten that there must be a reason for his visit.
‘You’re here because your people made a big mistake,’ she reminded him caustically. ‘You wouldn’t have come if you’d known it was me. And now you know, you can leave the same way you came in.’
‘I don’t think so.’ There was a strange light in his eyes. ‘You see, after five years I’ve finally found a use for you. You’re going to work for me again.’
CHAPTER TWO
LAURANNE stared at Zander in stunned silence.
He wanted her to work for him?
Was he mad?
Had he forgotten everything that had happened between them?
Had he forgotten the hideous details?
Her skin prickled and she suddenly felt hot. Terribly hot. ‘You must be joking. I will never work for you again.’
A smooth dark eyebrow lifted and he smiled, totally unperturbed by her passionate declaration. ‘You think not?’
She stared at him helplessly, realising too late that she’d said the wrong thing. A blatant refusal simply fuelled his ferociously competitive instinct. No one ever refused Zander Volakis anything. It just cemented his desire to win.
He was assuming she’d issued him a challenge, instead of which her refusal to work for him had originated from the most basic instinct for survival.
She resisted the impulse to slap the arrogant smile from his handsome face. ‘This isn’t one of your games, Zander. I wish you’d never come here but seeing as you have we might as well sort things out once and for all.’ Her heart was banging against her ribs as she came to an instant decision. ‘I—I want a divorce.’
There was a pulsing silence and he surveyed her with a maddening degree of cool.
‘You want a divorce?’ He sounded faintly amused. ‘This is very sudden, agape mou. After five years you suddenly want a divorce?’
Five years of utter misery. Five years of burying her past and trying to get on with her life. It was like ignoring an enormous wound and hoping that it would heal by itself.
But it hadn’t healed. Maybe a divorce was the answer.
‘We made a mistake, Zander,’ she croaked, wishing her insides didn’t feel so raw. ‘Let’s put it right.’
Then maybe she could finally let go and get on with her life.
There was a long silence and Zander watched her thoughtfully. ‘All right,’ he said finally. ‘Do this job for me, and I’ll consider it.’
‘No!’ She didn’t want him to turn it into one of his deals. She just wanted him to leave before she fell apart. ‘I don’t want to work for you again.’
It was just too painful. Seeing him again.
Being this close—
He paced slowly across the carpet, infuriatingly calm in the face of her growing anger. ‘You’re running a business, Lauranne. Can you afford to turn away wealthy clients?’
‘Whatever you offered would never be enough to even vaguely tempt me to work for you again,’ she said bitterly. ‘There’s more to a business than money.’
He laughed. ‘If you think that then it’s a wonder you’re still trading.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t expect you to understand what I mean,’ she flung back, her eyes blazing with the fire of past injuries. ‘You only ever look at the bottom line.’
‘Where else is there to look?’
‘At people! People matter, Zander. People have feelings—’ She broke off, horrified with herself for becoming so emotional. How could it still hurt so much? Whoever said that time heals had never been in love with Zander Volakis. She was rapidly discovering that time hadn’t healed anything at all. Trying to calm herself, she reached out and poured herself a glass of water with a shaking hand. ‘Believe it or not, when I refused to see you I was not issuing you with a challenge.’ She’d been protecting
