was greeted by Henri’s wife, Marie, whose smiling eyes and lilting accent made Mina relax in spite of herself.
‘Alexei is eager to meet you but perhaps you’d like to freshen up first?’
Mina smiled and shook her head. The flight by private jet had been far from onerous. ‘Thank you, but no. I’m eager to meet my host.’
‘How...charming.’ The deep voice came from beyond Marie. Its cadence drew Mina’s skin tight, as if someone dragged a length of rich velvet across it. A shimmer of heat flared low in her body and she had to work to keep her expression bland.
Slowly, so slowly she seemed to feel each muscle and joint move, she turned her head towards the shadows.
Never had Mina been more grateful for her royal upbringing. She’d spent seventeen years learning to look composed and calm, even if she’d never quite mastered regal. At twelve she’d sat on podiums listening to interminable speeches. At fifteen she’d held her own at royal dinners. Her polite interest expression could fool everyone but her sister.
Which meant the man watching her through narrowed eyes had no idea she felt as if someone had sliced the tendons at the backs of her legs.
Mina’s knees shook for the merest instant before she stiffened them, but her cool smile remained steady. As for the sizzle in her blood, no one else knew about that.
She waited for him to frown and say she wasn’t Carissa Carter. Yet he simply stared down at her from his superior height. Could it really be that he didn’t know what Carissa looked like? That flaw in her plan had kept her awake on the flight from Europe. Yet, against the odds, it appeared he didn’t. So sure of himself. Arrogant enough to expect everyone to obey his every whim. So unquestioning.
Mina let her mouth curve slightly. ‘Mr Katsaros. How lovely to meet you at last.’
‘At last, Ms Carter? You’ve been waiting to meet me? Surely your trip was admirably quick?’ His hint of indolent surprise and the tilt of one slashing eyebrow gave him an air of smug superiority.
‘Oh, it was.’ Mina looked down and flicked lint from her sleeve. ‘Admirably so. Why, I didn’t even have time to check my diary for commitments that might clash before I was whisked away. Or to arrange for someone to keep an eye on my apartment.’
She let her brow pucker in a frown. ‘I hope the fruit I bought doesn’t spoil while I’m away. And the milk.’ She let her smile widen. ‘But I understand. I’m sure you’re used to wanting something and having it happen immediately. No time to waste on boring niceties like invitations or queries about whether the dates suited me.’
Below his rumpled black hair grooves corrugated that wide brow. Mina raised her hand. ‘Not that it matters. I know how terribly valuable your time is. After all, what could I possibly have scheduled that could be nearly as important?’
From behind her Mina heard a snuffle from Henri that sounded suspiciously like a stifled laugh. Then he excused himself, murmuring something about putting her luggage away and prudently followed his wife down a corridor.
Which left Mina alone with Alexei Katsaros.
He didn’t even seem to notice Marie and Henri leave. All his attention was on Mina.
If she were in the mood to feel fear it would have swamped her now, for the man watched her with the hyperawareness of a hunter. Then there was the sheer size of him, not only tall but well-built, all muscled strength beneath those straight shoulders. She’d caught a glimpse of a well-developed chest and taut abdominals that confirmed this man did far more than sit behind a desk, making money. His thighs beneath the faded jeans were those of a skier or a horseman, honed hard and strong.
Without taking his eyes off her, he slowly finished buttoning his white shirt. Then he tucked it into his faded jeans with a casual insouciance utterly at odds with the speculative gleam in his dark eyes.
Mina’s manufactured smile solidified as he took his time shoving the material down, his hand disappearing behind the denim. For reasons she couldn’t fathom the sight of him dressing made her pulse quicken. Her palm prickled as if her own hand slid down that flat abdomen.
‘I’m sorry, did my arrival wake you?’ The snap in her words betrayed her discomfort but Mina compensated for it by slowly taking stock of his tousled black hair and the dark shadow of beard growth across that solid jaw.
His hands fell to his sides and he stepped out of the shadows. The light hit sharply defined cheekbones, a well-shaped mouth and a stern blade of nose, down which he surveyed her. Mina was reminded of precious icons she’d seen. But whereas those old saints had looked flat and unreal, this man exuded raw energy and the glint in his dark eyes was anything but unworldly. Alexei Katsaros was too...physical for sainthood. With his imposing size and posture he could model for a cavalry officer from a previous century, supercilious and deadly in a bright uniform, with a sabre at his side.
Mina repressed the warm shiver that started at the base of her spine and threatened to crawl, vertebra by vertebra, up her back.
‘You know you didn’t wake me. We watched each other.’ His voice was both rough and dangerously soothing.
Mina couldn’t explain it but he made the simple words sound almost indecent. As if they’d been naked at the time, or as if she’d watched him doing something—
‘So, you’re concerned about your groceries, is that right?’ One dark eyebrow rose and it took a second for Mina to follow the change of subject. She was still lost in a hazy daydream of Alexei Katsaros stripping his shirt away and reaching for the button on his jeans. ‘I can have one of my staff deal with your apartment, Ms Carter, since I put you to such inconvenience.’
Mina wrenched her thoughts back to the man before her. The man whose satisfied smile told her he knew he’d unsettled her. Whose tone conveyed that she’d managed to needle him with her pointed comments about being dragged away.
‘That’s very kind, Mr Katsaros.’ She blinked up at him, mimicking Carissa, then thought better of it. She’d never batted her eyelashes in her life and wasn’t about to start.
‘Something in your eye, Ms Carter?’ Not by a whisker did he betray a smile yet Mina knew he laughed at her.
To her surprise, Mina had to stifle a smirk of her own. He was right. She couldn’t pull off such feminine wiles. She was better to stick at being herself.
‘Sand, probably.’ She blinked again. ‘My own fault. I insisted on driving with the window down to enjoy the breeze.’
Carissa would have shrieked at the thought of her hair getting messed up, but Alexei Katsaros didn’t know that. Mina would have to get by with pretending to be a Mina version of Carissa. Less fluttery and uncertain, less overtly feminine, less willing to be bullied.
‘Thank you for the offer to take care of my apartment but I prefer not to have my home taken over by strangers. I’m sure you understand.’
He understood all right. His smugness fled as he registered that she referred to his staff who’d politely yet inexorably ushered her from Carissa’s flat.
‘My staff disturbed you? You felt threatened in some way?’ His voice was sharp.
Had he really thought
