He pressed the knob to close the car’s roof while Helena undid her seatbelt and then smoothed her hair.
He turned to face her. His throat caught. Her golden skin was flushed from the drive, her eyes alight, a soft expression on her face he hadn’t seen for a long time. She still wasn’t wearing her glasses...
Neither of them spoke. For the longest time, all they did was gaze into each other’s eyes, their individual breaths falling into rhythm together, becoming shallow as the chemistry that had always bound them so tightly coiled around them.
He brought his face to hers and captured a lock of her hair in his fingers.
She shivered lightly and raised her chin. Her lips parted. He brushed his mouth against them then pulled back an inch.
‘Do I tell the captain to take us back to Sidiro now or in the morning?’ he whispered.
Her eyes flickered with confusion then darkened. She bit her bottom lip, all the while staring deep into his eyes...
And then she wound an arm around his neck and pulled him down into a hot, passionate kiss that answered for her.
Helena stared out of her office window, sipping absently at her coffee. She’d had a chat with Stanley for advice on certain aspects of the plans that had been concerning her. Her mind now at ease, she should be busy working on the plans she hadn’t touched in three days, and yet...
She felt Theo’s absence acutely. An early morning call from his PA about some business crisis had seen him fly from Agon to Athens with a promise to meet her back at Sidiro later.
She’d spent the sail back to Sidiro with her laptop open but her finger pressed in the exact spot on her lips where his mouth had lingered when he’d kissed her goodbye.
She squeezed her eyes shut. There would be no more kisses. They’d had two nights together. That had to be enough. She’d made it perfectly clear that their return to Sidiro meant a return to their professional relationship.
Scolding herself firmly, she drained her coffee and returned to her stool at the large table, where she was working on the physical blueprint. If she continued at the pace she’d set, she should have the first plans ready to present to him in a fortnight. They would then go through it in detail together and anything Theo wasn’t happy with would—
Distinct footsteps snatched her attention away from her work.
The pen in her hand slipped from her fingers. She snatched it back up and wiped her suddenly clammy hands on her skirt.
‘You’ve put your uniform back on, I see.’ Theo’s voice, as distinct as his footsteps and his scent, soaked into her skin.
Changing into a skirt and blouse had been the first thing she’d done when she’d arrived back on the peninsula. Dressing professionally was like mental armour.
She took a moment to compose herself before twisting her stool round to face him.
Theo was still dressed in the same shirt and tailored trousers he’d left the villa in that morning but had ditched the jacket and tie. Dressed or undressed, her body didn’t care. It sang for him regardless. Her heart sang for him too...
She pressed her bottom more firmly into the stool to prevent her legs running over to him.
‘Everything sorted?’ she asked, relieved her voice sounded relatively normal and not all throaty and breathless.
He shrugged. ‘As much as it can be.’
‘Oh?’
‘Minor problems with a new government directive. We thought we were prepared but one of the legal team discovered not all our systems are equipped to cope with it.’
She had no idea what he was talking about.
Theo must have noticed her expression, for he burst into laughter. Strolling to the coffee pot and grabbing a clean cup, he said, ‘Don’t worry, matia mou, it is every bit as boring as it sounds. Did you miss me?’
How she loved the way matia mou rolled off his tongue. That had been his pet name for her before. She’d had no idea how much she hated him calling her agapi mou until he’d switched back to the old endearment. It sounded right. It sounded exactly as things should be...
‘Helena?’
She blinked, aware she’d fallen into yet another trance. ‘Sorry?’
His eyes sparkled and, cup of coffee in hand, he propped himself against the wall. ‘I asked if you missed me.’
‘You were only gone for a few hours.’
He looked at his watch. ‘Eight hours.’
‘I never noticed,’ she lied, averting her gaze from his. She twisted her stool back around and straightened the blueprint. ‘I’m glad you got the directive thing sorted. I know what a pain it can be keeping up with new legislation. I’m lucky I don’t have to enforce anything, just implement it where necessary.’
‘Still avoiding my question?’
He read her so easily. Like no one else. But then, he’d been witness to a side of her no one else had seen. She’d let that side slip out a little on Agon, but now they were back she had to return it to where it belonged. To allow anything else would be madness.
‘Things are always quiet without you,’ she finally answered. After she’d spent forty-eight hours glued to his hip...and groin...the silence had felt more acute than ever. Where there was Theo, there was life. Whatever she was feeling, she would never regret agreeing to a second night with him.
‘Excellent avoidance. I’m not ashamed to say I missed you.’
She bowed her head and kept her eyes on the blueprints. The lines she’d drawn thickened and blurred...
‘All I could think about was getting back to you and sweeping you off to bed,’ he continued with a sensuous purr. ‘But I can’t sweep you off to bed, can I? Because it’s against your rules.’
She closed her eyes and tried to hold back the wave of heat crashing through her, but it would have been easier for Theo to lasso the moon.
‘Do you know what I think about rules?’ he whispered into the stark silence that followed.
She
