the strange power he had over her. ‘I will be fine here.’
‘I am sure Xena wouldn’t want that,’ he insisted, his eyes dark and watchful, as if he was trying to tell her he wanted her there.
‘No, I should stay here.’
* * *
Lysandros took in Rio’s face, unusually bare of make-up, and along with the casual jeans she wore with a sweater, she had an air of complete innocence. What was it about this woman? Why did she affect him like this? Why did he want to take on the challenge she’d unwittingly issued when she’d stood him up and then told him it was over? Her response to his kiss after the piano recital had promised him so much. So what had changed that?
Xena stirred and he forced his mind from those questions. Instantly Rio was at his sister’s side, her attention focused completely on her friend. He should be giving Xena the same attention, but he couldn’t keep his eyes off Rio. Her hair, loosely pulled back, looked tousled, giving away the haste in which she’d obviously left her bed early this morning. She might well have been here for hours, but she looked beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful. His heart wrenched.
‘Lysandros is here,’ Rio said softly as Xena opened her eyes, a look of bewilderment on her pale face.
Xena winced as she tried to slide up the partially elevated bed. Rio fussed with her pillows, going to great lengths to make them right. Anything, it seemed, to avoid looking at him. Anything to avoid that sizzle of attraction that still sparked between them, despite the current situation.
‘Lysandros?’ Xena asked shakily as she turned to look up at him.
‘I came as soon as I heard,’ he said, taking her hand in his. He knew Rio was watching him. Every nerve in his body was tuned in to her.
‘But you only just returned to Greece,’ Xena said weakly as she looked at him, then at Rio. Lysandros’s heart sank. He’d been in Athens for the past six weeks. Xena obviously didn’t remember much at all.
‘Do you think I would stay there when I had just been told by Mother that you had been involved in an accident?’ He glanced up at Rio.
‘I was in an accident?’ The panic-laced question confirmed all Rio had just told him about Xena’s memory loss.
‘Yes,’ Rio added gently, and Xena looked at her. ‘A car accident.’
‘I don’t remember.’ Xena shook her head. Then her eyes widened. ‘I don’t remember anything.’
‘Don’t panic,’ Rio soothed, and Lysandros marvelled at her command in the face of Xena’s fear. ‘You’ve had a bump on the head. I’m sure it’s perfectly normal not to remember things straight away. I’ll go and find the doctor now, get him to come and reassure you.’
‘Don’t go yet,’ Xena pleaded, and Rio hesitated. ‘There is something else wrong, isn’t there? Something is wrong between you two. I can feel it.’
‘Don’t worry about us,’ Rio said soothingly, again fussing with the bedsheets.
Xena laughed softly. It was such an unexpected sound that Lysandros looked at his sister, not sure what was coming next. Tears maybe, as the shock of the accident set in.
‘Well, I hope you two haven’t fallen out.’ Xena rested her head back against the pillow, her face as pale as the white sheets. ‘Because you do realise you were meant for each other?’
Lysandros didn’t dare look at Rio. It wasn’t just the accident Xena didn’t remember; she didn’t remember he and Rio were no longer dating. ‘Of course we haven’t fallen out. Far from it.’
He looked at Rio across the bed, shocked to find how near they now were. Their concern for Xena had drawn them physically so close he only needed to lean forward a little to kiss Rio. And he wanted to. She still had that effect on him, still raised the desire in his blood until it almost boiled.
‘Fallen out?’ Rio frowned, her gaze locked with his, and he saw the moment she realised what he was doing, that he didn’t want to panic Xena or worry her by explaining they had done exactly that six weeks ago. He let out a breath of relief when she laughed softly, looking at Xena, apparently happy to conspire with him. ‘Of course we haven’t.’
Lysandros straightened away from the temptation of kissing Rio once more and looked at her. ‘You will, of course, come to Greece with Xena. I’m sure it’s what she will need to aid her recovery.’
Rio’s eyes snapped to his. ‘I don’t think that is necessary,’ she said firmly, a clear challenge in her voice.
Lysandros should be worried about Xena, should be anxious about her amnesia, but all he could think about was getting Rio to his Greek island. Getting her alone. Then he could convince her that what they’d had before she’d stood him up had been good, worth continuing. He wanted Rio. Couldn’t get her out of his mind. It was not just because she was the only woman to have stood him up. It was more than that. He couldn’t make sense of his reaction to her. All he knew was that this might be the only opportunity to discover the pleasure of making her his.
Rio took a step away from the bed, away from him. As if she sensed his ulterior motives. As if she knew the reason he wanted her in Greece was because he couldn’t accept that she didn’t want him.
He damn well couldn’t.
Not when desire had sparked within every smile she’d bestowed on him. Not when she had seductively let him know she was ready to take their relationship to a different level.
Even now, in the hospital, with his sister’s suspected amnesia looking ever more likely, the air was filled with sexual tension, pulling him and Rio together, invalidating her claim they were over. How could he turn his back on something so powerful, something that had promised to be amazing? The disaster of his engagement had loomed over him for ten years, but whatever it was between him and Rio, this was the first time that shadow had been eclipsed.
‘Xena, do you want Rio with you in Greece?’
‘Most definitely,’ Xena said, her voice still wobbly as she looked from one to the other, as if she couldn’t make out what was happening.
‘Then I will make arrangements immediately for you both to travel to Greece.’ He turned to leave. He couldn’t stand this close to Rio and not touch her, not try to convince her with a kiss that they needed to explore the attraction between them. They needed to extinguish the fire of desire and he knew exactly how. ‘I will speak to a doctor right now.’
He strode out of the room, not expecting Rio to follow him, but he knew she had. He sensed it with every taut muscle in his body. He continued to walk briskly down the hospital corridor, wanting to be completely out of Xena’s hearing before he turned to face the onslaught of Rio’s anger. Anger that radiated up the corridor after him.
‘Lysandros, will you wait?’ She was angry all right. He turned slowly to face her, keeping his expression devoid of emotion. ‘Why are you allowing Xena to think we are still together?’
‘Because I don’t wish to upset her.’
‘I can’t just go to Greece and pretend everything is right between us.’ The defiant tilt of her chin should have annoyed him, but instead it set light to the
