tried to pull away, but he held on until they stood before the guest-cabin bedroom opposite the plane’s master suite. He opened the door and set her bag down just inside it, then led her back to the seating area.
At Sakis’s signal, the pilot shut the door.
‘Buckle up. Right after we take off, we’re going to bed.’
Her mouth dropped open as her pulse shot sky-high. ‘I beg your pardon?’ she squeaked. Her whole body throbbed and she couldn’t glance away from his disturbingly direct gaze.
His grim smile held a wealth of masculine arrogance as he shoved a frustrated hand through his hair. Taking his seat opposite her, he set his phone—which had thankfully stopped pinging—on a nearby table. ‘A...poor choice of words, Moneypenny. What I mean is, it’s the middle of the night in London. Not much we can do from here.’
‘I can still pull up as much information as I can on the companies...’
He shook his head. ‘I already have people working on that. You need to get some sleep. I need you sharp and—’
‘You need to stop treating me like some fragile flower and let me do my job!’
Moss-green eyes narrowed. ‘Excuse me?’
Anger lent her voice desperation and she leaned forward, hands planted on the table separating them. The fact that this close she could almost touch the stubble layering his hard, chiselled jaw and see the darker, mesmerising flecks in his irises sparked another tingle of awareness through her. But the remotest possibility that Greg could be lurking in the periphery of her life, ready to expose her, made her stand her ground.
She’d gone through too much, sacrificing everything she had to prevent her debilitating weakness from being exposed. She no longer needed love. She’d learned that she could live without it. What she couldn’t live with was having her previous sins exposed to Sakis Pantelides.
‘You seem to think I need a full night’s sleep or a warm bed to function properly, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.’ Warning bells rang in her head, telling her seriously to apply brakes on her runaway mouth. But she couldn’t help herself. ‘I’ve slept in places where I had to keep one eye open or risk losing more than just the clothes on my back. So please don’t treat me like some pampered princess who needs her beauty sleep or she’ll go to pieces.’
His eyes narrowed, followed almost instantly by a keen speculation that screamed what was coming next. ‘When did you sleep rough?’ His voice was low, husky, full of unabashed curiosity.
Alarm bells shrieked harder, in tandem with the jet engines powering for take-off. Sharp memories rose, images of drug dens and foul-smelling narcotics bringing nausea she fought to keep down. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
He leaned forward on his elbows and stared her down. ‘Yes, it does. Answer me.’
‘It was a very long time ago, Mr Pantelides.’
‘Sakis,’ he commanded in that low, deep tone that sent a shiver through her.
Again she shook her head. ‘Let’s just say my childhood wasn’t as rosy as the average child’s, but I pulled through.’
‘You were an orphan?’ he probed.
‘No, I wasn’t, but I might as well have been.’ Because her junkie mother had been no use to herself, never mind the child she’d given birth to. The remembered pain bruised her insides and unshed tears burned the backs of her eyes. She blinked rapidly to stop them falling but a furtive glance showed Sakis had noticed the crack in her composure.
The plane lifted off the ground and shot into the starlit sky.
Sakis’s gaze remained on her for long minutes. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’ he asked gently.
Brianna’s heart hammered harder. ‘No.’ She’d already said too much, revealed far more than was wise. Deliberately unclenching her fists, she prayed he would let the matter rest.
The jet started to level out. Snatching his phone from the table, Sakis nodded and unbuckled his seatbelt. ‘Regardless of your protests, you need to sleep.’ He held out his hand to her. The look on his face told her nothing but her acquiescence would please him.
Immensely relieved that he wasn’t probing into her past any longer, she thought it wise to stifle further protest. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she placed her hand in his and stood. ‘If I do, then so do you.’
His smile was unexpected. And breath-stealing. Heat churned within her belly, sending an arrow of need straight between her thighs.
‘We’ve dovetailed right back to the very point I was trying to make. I have every intention of getting some sleep. Even super-humans like me deserve some down time.’
A smile tugged at her lips. ‘That’s a relief. You were beginning to show us mere mortals up.’
His smile turned into an outright laugh, his face transforming into such a spectacular vision of gorgeousness that her breath caught. Then her whole body threatened to spontaneously combust when his hand settled at her waist. With a firm nudge, he guided her back down the aisle.
‘No one in their right mind would call you a mere mortal, Moneypenny. You’ve proved beyond any doubt that you’re the real thing—an exceptionally gifted individual with a core of integrity that most ambitious people lose by the time they reach your age.’
At the door to her cabin, she turned to face him, her heart hammering hard enough to make her head hurt a little. ‘I think what you’ve done since the tanker crashed shows you’re willing to go above and beyond what most people would do in the same circumstances. That is integrity.’
His gaze dropped to her lips, lingered there in a way that turned her body furnace hot. ‘Hmm, is this the start of an exclusive mutual admiration society?’
The breath she’d never quite managed to recapture fractured even further. When his eyes dropped lower, her nipples tightened, stung into life by green fire that lurked in those depths. Reaching behind her, she grasped the doorknob, desperate for something to cling to.
‘I’m just trying to point out that I’m nothing special, Mr Pantelides. I just try to be very good at my job.’
His gaze recaptured hers. ‘I beg to differ. I think you’re very special.’ He stepped closer and his scent filled her nostrils. ‘It’s also obvious no one has told you that enough.’ The hand that still rested at her waist slid away to cover the hand she’d gripped on the door. Using the pressure of hers, he turned the knob. ‘When this is all over, I’ll make a point to show you just how special you are.’
The door gave way behind her and she swayed backward, barely managing to catch herself before she stumbled. ‘You...don’t have to. Really, you don’t.’
His smile was a touch strained and he braced his hands on the doorjamb as if forcibly stopping himself from entering the room. ‘You say you’re not special and yet you refuse even the promise of a reward where most people would be making a list.’
‘I work for one of the most forward-thinking men in one of the best organisations in the world. That’s reward enough.’
‘Careful,
