that had sizzled through his mind. And that had been from only seeing her from the back.
He had taken one look at the tall, slender frame of the woman in front of him, gaze lingering on the swell of her hips, the pert bottom under the clinging navy blue skirt. The contrast between the very feminine curves and the surprisingly matronly clothing, the soft flesh pushing against the restricting material, had had a sensual kick that had made his head spin and he had known that he was resolved to get to know this Sandie Carter well—very well—as swiftly as possible.
But then she had turned and he had seen that she was not Sandie Carter at all but Sadie Carteret, the woman who had torn his world apart five years before and was now, it seemed, back in his life.
For what?
‘I suppose things will be more private there,’ she added now, smoothing a hand over her hair and then, more revealingly, down the sides of her hips, as if wiping away some nervous perspiration from her palms and fingers.
She was not as much in control as she wanted to appear and that suited him fine. He wanted her off balance, on edge with her guard down. That way she might let slip the truth about what she was after. Because she was after something—she had to be.
‘And you’d prefer to continue this interview in private?’
‘Wouldn’t you?’
It was another challenge, one that brought her head up, green eyes flashing, her neat chin lifting high.
‘That is why you want to continue things in your office, isn’t it?’
‘I prefer not to have the whole world knowing my business.’
He’d had enough of that when she’d swept into his life like a whirlwind and stormed out again, leaving everything turned upside down and inside out. It had been bad enough that the financial newspapers had delighted in reporting the downfall of the Konstantos business empire with barely disguised glee, but the memory of his personal humiliation at the hands of the gossip columns and the paparazzi made acid burn in his stomach as the bitter taste of hatred filled his mouth.
‘Me too.’
Something in his words or his tone had hit home, making her change her stance and drop her eyes suddenly, looking down at the floor.
So did she have something to hide? Something she would prefer the papers never got their hands on? Something he could use to bring her down as low as she had brought him? A rich sense of satisfaction ran darkly through his blood at the thought.
‘Then in this at least we are in agreement.’
And he would have to control his need to know more, to understand just why she was here. To stamp down on the sudden rush of anticipation that was almost like an electrical charge along his senses. A call to battle and a challenge to be met. Once they were inside his office things would be different. Then he would get the truth from her.
Although the fact was that he already largely suspected he knew what that truth would be. Deep down he knew just why she was here because there really could only be one answer to that question.
She had to be here for money.
What else would bring her here, knocking at his door? That was what she would have most need of after all. When he’d brought her father down, he’d destroyed her luxurious way of life too. And now that Edwin Carteret was dead, there was no one else she could turn to.
But she must be desperate to think of asking him for help. Just how desperate she’d shown by lying about her name. She’d known that there was no way that Sadie Carteret would ever have been allowed to set foot over the threshold.
So why was he taking her up to his office instead of having Security eject her—forcibly, if needed—from the building?
He wasn’t prepared to admit even to himself that the decision had anything to do with the instant physical response he’d felt in the first moments when he’d seen her. And now, in this small compartment, with the tall, slender lines of her body, the sleek, shining mane of dark hair and the porcelain smooth pallor of her skin repeated over and over in the multitude of reflections in the walled mirrors, it was so much worse to handle. The scent of her skin came to him on a waft of air with each movement she made, and when she shook back that smooth bell of hair it was mixed with a soft, herbal essence that made his head and his thoughts spin. Primitive hunger clawed at him deep inside, and the clutch of desire that twisted low down made him shift uncomfortably, needing to ease the discomfort.
Thankfully at that moment the lift came to a halt and the heavy metal doors slid open on to the grey carpeted corridor that led to his office. Deliberately Nikos stood back and gestured to indicate that Sadie should precede him, refusing to allow himself to look anywhere but at the top of her shining dark-haired head as she moved past.
‘Left,’ he said sharply, then swallowed down the rest of the directions as to how to reach his office. Because of course she didn’t need them. She knew the way to what had once been her father’s office probably better than he did, and she was already heading in that direction without any help from him.
She’d made a faux pas there, Sadie admitted to herself. She’d probably infuriated him by not standing back and waiting for directions but setting out at once in the right direction. But she’d just turned to the left automatically, following her path from so many other times in the past. She could only be grateful for the fact that walking ahead of Nikos gave her a moment or two to adjust her expression unseen, to control the sudden waver in her composure, the instinctive tightening of her mouth at the faint shiver that ran down her spine.
She had to remember that she no longer belonged here. That she wasn’t on her home territory but in Nikos’s domain. This was where he belonged now, where he ruled like some king of ancient Greece, absolute monarch of all he surveyed.
Absolute monarch—and possibly a tyrant too? She didn’t know what Nikos was like as a boss, but he had to be a ruthless and highly efficient one. It had only taken him five short years to turn round the fortunes of the Konstantos Corporation from the weakened position in which his father’s wild gambling on the stock exchange had left it. He’d turned the tables on her father, exacting a brutal revenge for the way Edwin had treated him in the past.
‘I’m sorry…’
Carefully she adjusted her pace so that she was no longer leading but had made space for Nikos to walk alongside her, take the lead if he preferred. But he didn’t take advantage of the change. Instead he stayed just behind her, a dark, looming shape at her right shoulder. Impossible to see. Impossible to judge his mood.
He was so close that she could almost feel the heat of his body reaching out to her. The scent of some cool, crisp aftershave tantalised her nostrils with thoughts of the ozone tang of the clear blue sea off the shores of the private island that the Konstantos family had once owned. That island had been part of the property empire Edwin had taken from them, so she supposed that it must now be once more back in Nikos’s hands—unless her father had sold it on to someone else.
Her conscience gave an uncomfortable little twist at the thought, knowing how much Nikos had loved that island. It had meant as much to him as Thorn Trees, the old house that had been part of her family for so long, meant to her mother. So surely he would understand why she had come here today.
‘Here…’
The
