chin and tilted her face so that she was forced to stare up at him. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Checking your pupils,’ he murmured, in a low, gravelly voice that brought her flesh out in goosebumps.
She felt as though time ceased to exist. The sounds and smells of the kitchen faded as her senses focused on the man in front of her.
‘Curious,’ he mused softly, after he had spent what seemed like a lifetime staring down at her.
Kezia fidgeted restlessly, wishing she could break free of the spell that seemed to have frozen her muscles. She wanted to turn her head, but found herself transfixed by his eyes that were the colour of rich sherry.
‘What is?’ she whispered breathlessly. His description of her as curious made her feel as though he was inspecting a specimen in a jar, and brought her hurtling back to earth.
‘I can’t decide if your eyes are green or grey, they’re an unusual mixture of both. Your pupils are slightly dilated. Why is that, do you suppose?’ His breath fanned her cheek, and she swallowed and tried to pull free of his grasp, but he merely tightened his hold.
‘I really don’t know. But I do know that I feel perfectly all right. It’s almost seven, Nik,’ she said on a note of desperation. ‘We should be upstairs, preparing to greet your guests.’
‘In a minute—I want a word with you first.’
A sudden nuance in his voice disturbed her, and she felt a flicker of apprehension. What had she done now? ‘I’m sorry about the caterers,’ she said quickly. ‘But it wasn’t my fault—and Mrs Jessop has dinner under control.’
‘I’m not concerned with domestic arrangements,’ he told her coolly. ‘My concern is of a personal nature—our relationship, to be specific, and your apparent desire to be involved in my intimate affairs.’
‘What?’ The room swayed so alarmingly that Kezia was forced to grip the edge of the table, and she wondered briefly whether she was suffering the effects of concussion after all. ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she mumbled, her face flaming.
How had he guessed her feelings for him? Had she inadvertently given some sign that revealed her awareness of his brooding sexuality? She couldn’t carry on working for him if that was the case. It would be unbearable. Drowning in humiliation, it took a few seconds for her to realise that he was speaking.
‘I mean your decision to invite Tania to dinner tonight. Your role as my PA does not give you the right to interfere in my private life.’
The amber flecks had disappeared from his eyes, leaving them dark and dispassionate. His concern of a few moments ago had also gone, and she confronted the sickening realisation that his friendliness had been a callous ploy to make her lower her defences while he prepared his attack.
‘I didn’t invite her. Well, I suppose I did,’ Kezia qualified. ‘But she knew about the dinner party, and she gave me the impression that you expected her to attend.’
‘Did I specify that she should be included on the guest list?’
‘No, but—’
‘Then why take matters into your own hands? Your job as my PA does not require you to organise my love-life.’
‘That’s not exactly true,’ Kezia snapped, irritated by his arrogance. ‘It was left to me to dispatch flowers to your last blonde when you ended the affair. And I had to pick out a piece of jewellery,’ she added, remembering the demeaning trip to the jewellers Nik had sent her on. ‘I thought that keeping your harem happy was very much part of my duties.’
‘Theos, you forget your position, Kezia,’ he growled furiously.
She swallowed, and wondered how he could switch from friend to foe so quickly.
‘Naturally there may be times when I need you to deal with private matters, but I assumed I could expect a certain amount of discretion. What do you think I pay you such a generous salary for?’
‘My staying power?’ Kezia suggested sweetly. ‘You can’t have it both ways, Nik. If Tania is suddenly off the menu, you should have said so.’ Her relief that she had misunderstood him earlier, and that he hadn’t guessed she was suffering from a massive case of hero-worship, was giving way to anger at his appallingly chauvinistic attitude. He might have the face and body of a Greek god, but he had a heart of stone. She should count herself lucky that he would never view her as anything other than his boring secretary.
‘You should be thankful that I had not invited another…companion for the weekend,’ Nik flung at her as he headed for the stairs leading up to the main floor. ‘It could have proved highly embarrassing for everyone.’
‘But that would have meant two-timing Miss Harvey,’ Kezia said slowly, frowning at the implication of his words. His long legs had already propelled him up the stairs, and she raced after him, following him into the drawing room. ‘That’s a despicable way to behave.’
For a moment she thought he hadn’t heard her. He was standing at the bar, his back towards her, but then he turned—and she quailed at the hardness of his expression.
‘Let’s get one thing straight, Kezia,’ he said softly, his tone revealing a degree of cynicism that made her wince. ‘How I choose to live my life is my business. In my world, affairs have little to do with the heart, and the women I date know the score. The pursuit of mutual sexual pleasure with no strings,’ he elaborated sardonically.
His words made her blush, but inside she felt chilled by his clinical detachment.
His smile was devoid of warmth as his eyes raked over her mercilessly. ‘I don’t know what Tania has hinted about our relationship, but she’s under a delusion if she thinks she is about to become a permanent feature in my life. I suggest you discount any romantic notions she might have put into your head,’ he advised. ‘In the unlikely event that I should ever need your advice on my private life, I’ll ask for it. Until then I expect you to follow my orders and abide by my decisions without question. Is that clear?’
‘As crystal,’ Kezia replied curtly.
Beneath his charm he possessed a ruthlessness that made her shiver, but even now she was agonisingly aware of him. Since that day when she had discovered him in her office she had been unable to put him out of her mind. He dominated her fantasies and haunted her dreams. She must have been mad to believe she could work for him, she thought grimly. When she’d learned that she had beaten the many other applicants for the job as his PA she had been filled with a mixture of fear and excitement. It was a dream job, and she had spent the past few months travelling to exotic locations aboard Nik’s private jet, but all the while she’d had to fight to hide her attraction to a man who barely noticed her while he worked his way through a variety of elegant blondes.
Voices from the hall warned her that his guests would soon join them, and she struggled for composure. She would rather die than allow him to see her misery—or, even worse, guess the reason for it.
‘I think we understand one another perfectly, Nik,’ she said coldly, pride giving her the courage to meet his gaze. ‘And I can’t tell you how glad I am that I’m not part of your world.’
CHAPTER TWO
NIK
