this through with her usual clear rationality at all.
‘Well, for a start, you’re obliged to give me at least four weeks’ notice, as per your standard work contract, and if you leave before the merger is completed you’ll be sued. It’s quite simple.’
And utterly devastating … Lucy realised with mounting horror.
He sat back in his chair. ‘We leave for Athens in a week. You know far too much, and have been privy to all the top secret discussions. Quite apart from that, if you left now you’d be leaving me without an assistant for the most important joining between two Greek companies in years. That is something I will not allow to happen. If it means I have to threaten you with legal action to get you to stay then so be it. I won’t hesitate to use the full force of my power.’
He sat forward then, and he had never looked so intimidating. ‘Lucy, I don’t think I need to tell you that your career would be comprehensively ruined if you insist on leaving. You could be crippled financially for years.’
Lucy wasn’t sure how she remained standing. She’d known all this—she’d known. She’d been smart enough to read the fine print of both contracts, and at the time it had given her a sense of security to know that Levakis wouldn’t be able to turn around and get rid of her at a moment’s notice. It was what had given her the confidence to put her mum in that home—the confidence to go to the bank and take out a loan which would assure her mother’s place in that home for at least a year. Lucy had known that as long as she could keep up the payments everything would be secure for the short term, and hopefully for the long-term future.
But now … if she walked out of here and incurred Aristotle Levakis’ wrath she’d be kissing all that goodbye. She could well imagine the loan from the bank being called in. Losing her job would quickly mean that she’d have no source of income with which to pay for her mum’s accommodation. She’d be back to square one, becoming the primary carer, and without a job that would be impossible.
She said now, in a small voice, ‘You would do that …’ It wasn’t a question.
‘Without a doubt,’ he answered grimly. ‘This merger and this company are too important to me. They are everything.’
So what am, I then? Lucy wondered a little wildly. Just a convenient plaything because you happen to be bored with all the usual sycophants?
He stood again then, but Lucy was in too much shock and distress to move as he came closer, hands in his pockets. He looked smug. He knew he had her effectively trapped. Suddenly she longed to have no responsibilities, so she could just disappear. But she did, and she couldn’t.
He stopped a few feet away and looked at her. Her world had been reduced to this room, this man and those eyes. And that voice.
‘Lucy, I don’t want to be ruthless about this, and I certainly don’t relish the thought of taking action against you. I want the merger, yes, and I’ll do whatever I need to to protect it and make it happen. But I also want you, and I will do whatever I need to in order to make that happen too.’
Lucy shook her head dumbly, even now fighting. It made something in Aristotle’s eyes flash dangerously. She had thought that someone like him would give up when faced with obstinate resistance, although that assertion was now fast losing ground. She had to acknowledge that he’d most likely rarely, if ever, faced resistance from any woman.
‘You’ve made it quite clear that it is impossible for me to leave.’
That was the understatement of the year. Her conscience mocked her. She should have realised all this at the weekend, but he’d had her head in such a tizzy all she’d been able to think of was getting away from him. She realised now that if she had thought it through she could have done her best to keep him at arm’s length for the duration of the merger and then given her notice—instead of these dramatics, which were so unlike her.
‘I’ll stay for the merger and then I’ll be giving you my notice.’
She would just have to worry about her mother when that happened. She hated the fact that she wasn’t strong enough to try and stay and resist this man indefinitely.
Aristotle just looked at her for a long, heated moment. Lucy saw a muscle throb in his temple and it made her insides quiver like jelly. He reached out a hand and cupped her jaw. Shock and instant heat paralysed her at his touch.
‘Say what you want, Lucy, if it makes you feel better, but know this: we will be lovers. It’s as inevitable as the inclement English weather. There’s something raw and singularly powerful between us and I’ve no intention of letting you go—either in the boardroom or in the bedroom.’
Lucy swallowed painfully. His hand still cupped her jaw, his thumb moving lazily against the sensitive skin under her chin. One thing was certain: if, in some parallel universe, she actually gave in to this man, she had no doubt that far from being given the luxury of giving notice he’d be the one saying goodbye—and so fast that her head would be spinning. Something like four weeks’ notice would be reduced to a mocking sham of a professional nicety.
She hated the fact that it was the thought of that right now that made her feel more vulnerable than even the prospect of the battle to come. One other thing was sure: with every bone and last breath in her body she would resist the seduction of this man. Yet, she had to ask herself inwardly, for someone who prided herself on being frigid, why did it suddenly seem like such an uphill struggle?
A week later.
Lucy sat opposite Aristotle on his private jet as it winged its way to Athens from a stormy London. She could almost believe for a moment that she’d imagined what had happened in his office last week, when he’d declared so implacably that he was determined to have her in his bed.
Since that day when she’d been so firmly put back in her place, her letter of resignation torn up, Aristotle had been utterly consumed with business and preparations for the merger. They’d worked late into the night almost every night, and she’d been in the office most mornings as the cleaners were still finishing up. She’d never been so tired, yet so contentedly exhausted. Despite her trepidation at the undercurrents flowing under the surface, professionally speaking she’d never worked at such a heady pace, nor been entrusted with so much responsibility. The sense of pitting her wits against Aristotle and keeping up with him was exhilarating. She blocked out the snide voice that mocked her with the assertion that work was the only exhilarating thing.
Thankfully she hadn’t had time for much more than falling into bed, snatching some food, and getting up again. The weekend had been a blur of last-minute visits to the office, packing, and a bittersweet visit to her mum, before she’d been collected by Aristotle’s driver that Sunday afternoon. The visit to her mother had been bittersweet because she’d had one of her brief lucid moments, recognising Lucy as soon she’d walked into the private room at the home.
‘Lucy, darling!’
Lucy had had to swallow back a lump as she’d watched her still beautifully elegant mother rise out of her chair by the window to greet her with her usual warm and tactile affection. Lucy had missed it so much. On Maxine’s good days, and obviously this was one, she took care of her appearance. On her bad days Lucy would come in and, if not for the care of the attentive staff, her mother could look as unkempt as a bag lady. It made her heart ache with sadness as her mother had always been so fastidious about her looks.
Lucy had been careful not to let the emotion
