were starting families and moving into a life cycle she couldn’t share. She hadn’t told anyone about this last desperate effort to conceive so there was no one to share her grief. But she did have all her cyber friends on her blog. She had to put on her fluffy-chick face and move on.
Without thinking any further, she picked up the house phone and called through to Alex Mikhalis’s room. She braced herself to leave a message and was shocked when he answered. Somehow she found the words to ask could she have a meeting with him. His tone was abrupt as he told her to be quick—he was packing to head back to Sydney.
Dell had no chance to change. Or apply make-up. Just pushed her hair into place in front of the mirror and slicked on some lip gloss. Yoga pants were de rigueur in a place like this anyway. He wouldn’t expect to see her in a business suit and heels.
He answered the door to his room. ‘Yes?’ he said, his voice deep and gruff and more than a touch forbidding.
For a long moment Dell hesitated on the threshold. He towered over her, in black trousers and a charcoal-grey shirt looking every inch the formidable tycoon. Half of the buttons on his shirt were left open, as if he’d been fastening them when she’d sounded the buzzer on his door. It left bare a triangle of olive skin and a hint of dark chest hair on an impressively muscled chest.
Her heart started to beat double-quick time and she felt so shaky at the knees she had to clutch at the doorframe for support. Not because she was nervous about approaching him. Or feared what kind of a boss he might be. No. It was because her long-dormant libido had flared suddenly back into life at the sight of him—those dark eyes, the proud nose, the strong jaw newly shaven but already shadowing with growth. He was hot.
Dell swallowed against a suddenly dry mouth. This unwelcome surge of sensual awareness could complicate things. She was beginning to rethink his devil incarnate status. But who knew if he was sincere about having changed? After all, she’d seen him at his intimidating worst on those courtroom steps. She had to take him on trust but be cautious. That did not mean fancying the pants off him.
Eyes off the gorgeous man, Dell.
He stepped back and she could see his bag half packed on his bed. Perhaps he was headed to Greece and she would never see him again. This could be her only chance.
She forced her lips into a smile, the wobble at the edge betraying her attempt to be both nonchalant and professional. And not let him guess the turmoil of her senses evoked by his half-dressed state. ‘Your job offer?’ she said.
He nodded.
‘Can...can a person change her mind?’
* * *
Alex stared at Dell. What had happened? Thinly disguised anguish showed in the set of her jaw, the pallor of her face, her red-rimmed eyes. The expression in her eyes was sad rather than sparkling. But as she met his gaze, her cheeks flushed pink high on her cheekbones, her chin rose resolutely and he wondered if he’d imagined it.
‘I’d like to accept the job.’ She hesitated. There was an edge to her voice that made him believe he had not imagined her distress. ‘That is, if the position is still on offer.’
Alex had been gutted when she’d turned him down. Disappointed out of all proportion. And stunned that he’d been so shaken. Because of course she’d been right. Whisper a word in a recruitment agent’s ear and he’d be inundated with qualified people ready to take up the job with him. Why Dell Hudson? Because it was her and only her he’d wanted. He’d had no intention of taking her ‘no’ as final. In fact he’d been planning strategies aimed at getting a ‘yes’ from her.
Once he’d made up his mind about something it was difficult to budge him. It was a trait he had inherited from his stubborn grandfather. No one else would do but her. Was it his tried and tested gut feel telling him that? Or something else? It was nothing to do with the fact he found her attractive. That was totally beside the point. He did not date employees. Never, ever after what had happened with Mia.
‘Why did you change your mind?’ he asked Dell.
She took a deep breath, which emphasised the curve of her breasts outlined by her tight-fitting tank top. How had he never noticed how sexy she was? He forced his eyes upward to catch the nuances of her expression rather than the curves of her shapely body.
‘A...sudden change of circumstances,’ she said. ‘Something...something personal.’
‘Problems with a guy?’ he asked. Over the years he’d learned to deal with the personal dramas of female staff. Not that it ever got easier.
She shook her head and again he caught that glimpse of sadness in her eyes. ‘No. I’m one hundred per cent single. And intending to stay that way. I’m free to devote my time entirely to my work with you.’
‘Good,’ he said. He didn’t want to hear the details of her marriage breakup. Or any bust-ups that came afterwards. That was none of his concern. This was about a job. Nothing more.
Although he found it very difficult to believe she was single by choice.
‘I don’t let my personal life impinge on my work,’ she said. ‘I want your job and I want to go to Greece.’
‘You’re sure about that? You’re not going to change your mind again?’
She took another distracting deep breath. ‘I’m very sure.’
He allowed himself a smile, knowing that it was tinged with triumph. Reached out to shake her hand. ‘When can you be ready to fly to Athens?’
SHE WAS IN GREECE, working for Alex Mikhalis!
It had all happened so fast Dell still felt a little dizzy that, just two weeks after her wobbly encounter with him in the yoga room, the man who had been her adversary—the man she had loathed—was her boss.
So far so good. It had been a long, tedious trip to get here even in the comfort of the business-class seats he had booked for her—twenty-three hours to Athens alone. Then another short flight to the small airport at Preveza in north-western Greece.
Too excited to be jet-lagged, she staggered out into the sunshine expecting to find a sign with her name on it held up by a taxi driver. But her new boss was there to meet her. Tall and imposing, he stood out among the people waiting for passengers. He waved to get her attention.
Dell’s breath caught and her heart started hammering. It was the first time she’d seen Alex since that meeting in his room at Bay Breeze. For a moment she was too stunned to say anything. Not just because her reawakened senses jumped to alert at how Greek-god-handsome he looked in stone linen trousers and a collarless white linen shirt. But because she wasn’t sure what rules applied to their changed status. It was quite a leap for her to take from enemy to employee.
‘Good flight?’ he asked.
‘Very good, thank you,’ she said, uncertain of what to call him. He was her employer now but they had history of a kind. ‘Er...thank you, Mr Mikhalis.’
His dark eyes widened as if she’d said something ridiculous, then he laughed. ‘That’s my father’s name,’ he said.
