her no choice, either she take the job or… No, if he did that he’d risk losing out both ways. ‘You hate having to leave Ben every day, don’t you?’ he asked quietly.
She nodded. ‘More than you’ll ever know.’
‘Oh, I do; you underestimate me. This is the perfect solution. It will solve your dilemma as well as mine. You and Ben would move into my house, you’d be there for him whenever he needed you, and you could also do some work for me from home.’ To him it was the simplest solution, the obvious one.
The look on her face spoke a thousand words. ‘Mr Papadakis, living with you is the last thing I want. Ben and I are happy as we are. I love my little house. Why should I give it up? And, for that matter, where’s your wife? Why can’t she bring up her own child?’
Andreas’s eyes shadowed as his thoughts raced back to the blackest days of his life. ‘My wife’s dead,’ he told her bluntly, ‘and you wouldn’t need to give up your house; you could let it.’ He saw the uncertainty in her eyes and pressed home his faint advantage. ‘Sit down. Think again about the benefits.’
Reluctantly she perched herself on the edge of a chair, crossing her legs so that her skirt rode up. Not for the first time he felt a stirring in his loins. But that sort of thing had to be put to one side. He needed her to feel safe, not threatened. He hadn’t failed to notice in the car last night how she had drawn back from him when he kissed her cheek. Someone, somewhere along the line, had destroyed her trust in men, and he had no intention of adding to it.
‘I desperately need someone to look after Nikos. You know how much time I put in here—the poor little guy hardly sees me.’
‘So why don’t you work from home?’
It was a logical question and he grimaced. ‘I’d love to, but if I’m to turn this company around I need to keep my finger on the pulse.’
‘How long would you expect me to do the job?’
‘I don’t know. Until I find someone else, perhaps, maybe even indefinitely if it works as well as I hope it will. You won’t lose out, I assure you.’
‘What if Nikos doesn’t like me?’
‘He will.’ How could he not? Peta James was good with children, he’d seen that for himself. She was also exciting and provocative. He’d noticed at the conference how easily she talked to other people. In fact she had seemed far more at ease with some of them than with him. He hadn’t liked it. He’d fancied her that night more than he’d ever expected.
‘In fact,’ he went on, ‘it might be a good idea to take you to see him before we finally sign the deal.’
‘Sign the deal?’ she repeated with a frown.
‘Figuratively speaking, of course,’ he said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Smiling didn’t come easy to him these days. There were too many pressures, too much to do, too many sad memories, and Nikos was the one who suffered. If he could persuade Peta to take this job it would be the best thing that had happened to his son in a long time. It might not be so good for him, here, because she was incredibly efficient, but his son’s well-being meant more to him than anything else.
‘We’ll finish work early tonight and I’ll take you to meet him,’ he said decisively.
‘I can’t,’ Peta said with the now familiar toss of her head. ‘Ben’s playing football. I try never to miss a match.’
It was Andreas’s turn to frown. ‘Bronwen leaves at the end of the week. I need to have everything sorted well before then. How about after the football match? Bring Ben with you. It will be good for the boys to meet.’
‘How old is Nikos?’ she asked, and he could see her mind turning over the situation.
‘Seven,’ he answered, ‘though he’s very grown-up for his age.’
‘Does he have a Scalextric?’
‘You bet.’
‘Then I’m sure Ben will get on with him,’ she said with a faint smile.
And the way she said it reassured him that her answer would ultimately be yes.
Peta’s mind was in a whirl. Her first instinct had been to turn Andreas down. She still might, because would it be wise, feeling as she did about him? It was scary the way he’d managed to set her feelings alight last night. Scary and undesirable. She’d been hurt too much in the past to want to get involved. It was far better to keep things on a purely professional level. But would she be able to do that living in the same house?
She placed the last lot of post on his desk for signing. ‘How do I get to your house?’ She had no idea where he lived. Again the rumour machine had him living in a fantastic mansion overlooking Southampton Water with a whole host of servants at his beck and call.
‘No need to drive; I’ll pick you up. What time does the match finish?’
About to say he didn’t have to put himself out, Peta decided against it. She was the one doing the favour so why should she do the running?
Peta clapped and yelled enthusiastically every time Ben’s team scored a goal. And when Ben himself scored she went wild with delight. ‘Well done, Ben!’ she shouted, jumping up and down, clapping her hands. ‘Go for it!’
Another much louder voice echoed her words from behind. ‘Well done, Ben!’
She turned and there was an instant’s sizzling reaction as she met the eyes of Andreas Papadakis. She was the first to look away, praying fervently that he wasn’t able to read her mind. It was all so wrong, this physical attraction. Despite her telling her body to behave itself, it had gone into involuntary spasm and there was nothing she could do about it.
At his side was a boy roughly Ben’s height, dark-haired and dark-eyed, but with a much rounder face than his father’s and a thinner mouth. ‘How did you find us?’ she asked. They’d arranged for him to pick her up at her house, which was a five-minute walk away.
‘I followed the noise. It sounds an exciting match.’
‘It is,’ she agreed. ‘And this is Nikos, I take it?’
‘It is, indeed. Nikos, this is the lady I told you about, the one who’s going to look after you when Bronwen leaves.’
Nikos looked up at her with serious brown eyes. ‘I don’t like Bronwen. She shouts a lot.’
Peta wondered whether he deserved it, whether he played her up when his father was absent. ‘Ben’s dying to meet you,’ she said with a warm smile.
When she’d told Ben they might be moving he’d been at first upset and then excited, especially when he learned that there’d be someone his own age to play with, and they’d probably be living in a much bigger house.
‘It will be good to have some company,’ said Nikos. ‘I get bored on my own. Which one is Ben? I like football. I’d like to play with them.’
Peta’s eyes met Andreas’s and she smiled, remembering him telling her how grown-up Nikos was for his age. And she was amazed at how good his English was,
