A shimmering tendril raced up Helena’s spine both at the sudden unbidden image of Theo naked and at the feel of his stare from behind his shades.
He gazed right at her a moment longer before turning his stare back to the area of levelled ground where his bedroom would be situated. His voice dropped to a murmur. ‘Do you still find the thought of being pressed naked against a window while being taken from behind erotic?’
His question was so unexpected that it took a few moments for the words to sink in, but when they did and provoked the accompanying imagery...
Her whole being became suffused with sticky heat that sucked all the air from her lungs.
‘That,’ she hissed when she found her voice, ‘is completely inappropriate.’
And cruel. That was another thing whispered during those long nights: seductive discussions about where they wanted to make love in their imaginary future home. The prudish woman he’d met in the Agon palace garden had, under Theo’s tutelage, discovered her sensual side, one she’d never suspected existed. He’d opened her mind and set her imagination free and it had been headily joyous. In truth, they had tortured each other with those seductive talks, Helena because she’d been desperate for Theo to forgo his ridiculous pledge to wait until they were married before making love to her and Theo torturing himself in turn by his inability to allow anyone to best him at anything, even his fiancée at erotic fantasies.
The man who saw any woman with a pulse as fair game for bedding had been ruthless about keeping their genitalia apart, whereas she, the strait-laced, hard-working virgin, had been desperate to experience his lovemaking. His willpower had been stronger than her desperation.
Helena swallowed hard and forced the conversation back to the job at hand. ‘What about guest rooms? Are they all to be en suite?’
‘Of course. Each to have its own bath and walk-in shower.’
She nodded and unnecessarily wrote it in her notebook. She hadn’t needed to take any notes but would rather hurl herself into the sea than admit she remembered it all.
She forced her features to remain neutral just as she had a few hours ago when he’d finally deigned to return to the peninsula as lunch was being served, looking like a man about to embark on a yachting holiday. Helena, dressed in her usual uniform of A-line skirt and blouse, had resisted the impulse to throw her salad at him. Now she resisted the impulse to throw her notebook at him.
‘If you don’t mind, I’d like to return to the lodge,’ she said with all the politeness she could muster. She would keep her professionalism even if it killed her. Which it probably would.
‘You have enough to get going on the designs?’
‘I’ve enough to make a start but that’s not the reason I want to return to the lodge.’ She stared hard at him, trying to meet his eyes behind the double barrier of their shades, but failing. ‘I’m not used to such heat.’
‘You’re half-Greek.’
‘Born and raised in England, which I haven’t left in three years. It would be better if we make site visits early, rather than in the afternoon when the sun is at its highest.’
His wide lips twitched, the corners lifting in what could be regarded as a smirk. ‘Do I detect a rebuke?’
‘You’re the client. It’s not my place to rebuke you. I’m just pointing out that it’s easier to concentrate when my brain isn’t being boiled by the sun.’
More lip-twitching. ‘Point taken.’
‘Thank you. Can we come back after breakfast?’
‘If I’m back.’
‘Back?’ She didn’t mean for it to come out so sharply but Theo had, again, caught her off-guard.
‘I have a function to attend in Athens this evening.’ Even through his shades Theo could see the colour rise on Helena’s face. ‘A preview exhibition at an art gallery.’
‘Then you must want to get going,’ she said stiffly, striding away from him. Unfortunately for Helena, her legs were so short it took him only three of his own strides to catch up with her.
‘Come with me?’
She gave him a look that could strip paint.
‘Is that a no?’
‘I am not here for a social life, I’m here to work.’
‘You have been working all day.’
‘Actually, no. I couldn’t start work this morning as you didn’t get here until lunch.’
‘That must have been torture for you.’ Helena was nothing if not dedicated to her career. It had meant far more to her than he ever had. ‘How did you pass the time?’
Her nose rose. ‘By familiarising myself with the computers in my office.’
‘You had a morning to yourself on the most beautiful island on Earth and spent it playing with your computer?’
‘I wasn’t playing.’
‘How has your social life been?’ he asked pointedly, revelling in her growing fury. He could sense her clinging to her professionalism by a thread, using it as a cloak to hide behind. He wanted the Helena he remembered to throw the cloak and all its shackles aside and emerge in her full, seductive glory, and he had no qualms about using whatever weapons he had at his disposal to achieve it.
‘That is none of your business.’
‘I’m just making conversation. You’ve made friends?’ Helena was the only person he’d ever met who could count her friends on the fingers of one hand, the thumb surplus to requirements. This solitude was alien to him, a man who enjoyed a healthy social life with a vast network of friends.
‘Yes, Theo, I have friends.’
‘Any friends under the age of fifty? A boyfriend?’ He nudged her teasingly with his elbow. ‘A lover?’
She stepped out of his reach and accelerated her pace.
‘Definitely a lover,’ he said knowingly, then was unable to resist adding, ‘Does he turn you on as much as I do?’
She came to a sudden stop. Slowly, she twisted to face him and cast him with a look of pure disdain.
