‘But there’s no point. I was just leaving anyway.’
The porter looked nervously from one to the other, Cleo tugging on the pack, knowing it was her hold on reality and on control, and Andreas glowering until finally the porter decided that discretion was the better part of valour and withdrew, uttering a rushed, ‘Call me if you need anything more,’ before making himself scarce.
Cleo heaved the backpack onto her shoulder.
‘I thought we had a deal.’
‘You thought wrong. I never agreed to anything. And I’m leaving.’
‘But you have no job, nowhere to go.’
‘I’ll find something. I’ll manage.’ She retrieved her Driza-Bone from the back of a chair and bundled it in front of her before being game enough to steal one last glance at him.
Impossibly good-looking. That was how she’d remember him. Eyes of midnight-black and hair that waved thick and dark to collar length, an imperious nose and a passionate slash of mouth it was almost a crime for any man to possess. And a face like slate, just like she’d thought in the hotel, until it heated up and the angles took on curves she’d never seen coming.
But so what? She was leaving. It might be a huge amount of money to give up and already she could hear the girls from her high school singing out a familiar chorus of “loser, loser, Cleo’s a loser”. But she’d been hearing that chorus a long time and she was used to it. She’d been an object of pity ever since her father had walked out on her pregnant mother, never to be seen again.
And besides, she knew she was doing the right thing. For Andreas’ proposal was flawed. She didn’t want the chance of ‘sex as a by-product’ of anything. She’d had sex that didn’t mean anything and she’d hated herself in the aftermath. It had made her feel cheap and disposable and had hurt her more than she wanted to admit. She didn’t care for the chance of more, no matter how much he might be paying.
‘I’ll see myself out.’
‘I need you,’ he said as she turned for the door.
She halted, her fingers around the door handle. ‘I get the impression Mr Xenides, that you don’t need anyone.’ She twisted and pulled. She didn’t belong here. Now she’d made up her mind, she couldn’t wait to get away. Had to get away.
The door was open just a few inches when his palm slammed it shut. ‘You’re wrong!’
She turned to protest but the words sizzled and burned in the heat she saw coming from his eyes. ‘How much will it take, then? How much do you want? I thought you didn’t care about money, but you’re just like the rest, one whiff and you want more. You’re just a better actress. Which tells me you’re exactly the woman I need.
‘So how much, sweet, talented Cleo? How much to secure your services for a month? One hundred thousand clearly isn’t enough, so let’s say we double it. Two hundred thousand pounds. Four hundred thousand of your dollars. Would that be enough?’
The numbers went whirling around her brain, so big they didn’t mean anything, so enormous she couldn’t get a grip on them. Four hundred thousand dollars for a month of pretending to be Andreas’ companion? Was she nuts to even think about giving that up? She could go home, pay back her nanna, pay for repairs to the farm’s leaking roof that her mother always complained about but there was never enough money to repair, and she’d still have enough left over to buy a place of her own.
More than that, she’d be able to go home and hold her head up high. And for once, just once in her life, she didn’t have to be a loser.
But could she do it? Could she pretend to be this man’s lover and all that entailed and simply walk away in the end?
She shook her head trying to work it all out. She truly didn’t know. If she just had some time to think it all out. ‘Andreas, I—’
‘Five hundred thousand pounds! One million of your dollars. Will that be enough to sway your mind?’
She gasped. ‘You have to be kidding. That’s an obscene amount of money.’
‘Not if it gets me what I want. And I want you, Cleo. Say yes.’
She couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, only one note of clarity spearing through the fog of her brain.
One million dollars.
How could she walk away from that? It was unthinkable, unimaginable, like winning the lottery or scooping the pools. And she’d even get to live on Santorini for a whole month, the island she’d longed to visit, the island Kurt had only talked about visiting for a day or two. Wasn’t that some kind of justice? She licked her lips, once more feeling her hold on the world slipping, swaying. ‘Just for a month, you say?’
The corners of his mouth turned up. ‘Maybe even less if you play your cards right.’
‘But definitely no sex. Just pretending. Is that right?’
A shadow passed across his eyes and was just as quickly gone. ‘If that’s the way you want it.’
‘That’s exactly the way I want it. No sex. And in one month I go home.’
‘No questions asked. First class. All expenses paid.’ She swallowed against a throat that felt tight and dry and against a fear that he might soon discover he was making the mistake of his life and she’d be booted out with the week. ‘I don’t know if I’m the right person for the job.’
He slipped the pack from her shoulder and dropped it on the ground beside them before she’d noticed, relieving her of the weight on her back, but not even touching the fear in her gut. ‘You’ll be perfect. Any other questions?’
She shook her head. How could she expect him to make sense of anything going on in her mind when she couldn’t unscramble it herself? ‘No. Um, at least…No, I don’t think so.’
He smiled then, as he curved one hand around her neck, his fingers warm and gentle on her skin and yet setting her flesh alight. ‘Then what say we seal this deal with a kiss?’
She gasped and looked up at him in shock. That message cleared a way through the fog in her brain as if it had been shot from a cannon. ‘We could always just shake hands.’
‘We could,’ he agreed, both hands weaving their magic behind her head, his thumbs tracing the line of her jaw while he studied her face. ‘But given we will no doubt have to get used to at least this, we might as well start now.’
And he angled her upturned face and dipped his own until his lips met hers. Fear held her rigid, that and a heart that had taken on a life of its own and threatened to jump out of her chest. But as his lips moved over hers, gentler than she’d imagined possible, gentle but, oh, so sure, she sighed into the kiss, participating, matching him.
One hand scooped down her back, pressing her to him from chest to thigh, her nipples exquisitely sensitive to the chest that met hers, heat pooling low down between her thighs, making her more aware than she’d ever been of her own physical needs. They called to her now, announcing their presence with logic-numbing desperation until her knees, once stiff with shock, threatened to buckle under her. She trembled, reaching for him, needing something to steady herself as his mouth wove some kind of magic upon her own.
It was just a kiss. Tender almost, more gentle than she would ever expect this man to give, but, oh, so thorough in its impact. Her fingers tangled in his shirt, her fingertips drinking in the feel of the firm flesh beneath and she was sure she felt him shudder. Was this how a man felt, rock-hard and solid, as opposed to a boy? Kurt had claimed to be twenty-six and told her he worked out regularly, but his body had been white-bread soft and just as unsatisfying.
But Andreas felt as if he’d been sculpted from marble, firm flesh over muscle and skin that felt like satin and her fingers itched to feel more. Ached to feel more.
Then just as suddenly the kiss was over, his lips departing, and she was left bereft and breathless blinking up at him. He said nothing, just looked down at her, his dark eyes swirling with questions until a bubble of panic rose up inside her.
Had he spotted her lack of experience? Would he change his mind and toss her out, now that she’d finally agreed to his terms?
‘I guess we have a deal,’ he surprised her by saying, before letting her go. ‘You might want to settle in. I have some work to do with the lawyers and I’ll arrange for the necessary papers to be drawn up.’
‘The papers?’ She’d just been kissed senseless and he expected her to suddenly know what he was talking about. ‘What papers?’
‘The contract. This is a business arrangement. I think we both need the assurance it will stay that way.’
‘Oh, of course.’ She nodded as if she understood completely. When what she knew about business law would fit through the eye of a needle. Which was what had got her into her mess with Kurt. A gentlemen’s agreement, he’d told her, and she’d been fool enough to believe he was gentleman enough to honour the terms. So much for trust.
Andreas clearly wasn’t into trust or gentlemen’s agreements for which she should be thankful, even if it rubbed that he might not trust her. But if a contract meant she’d get her money and not get ripped off this time, she could live with it.
A wave of exhaustion suddenly washed over her, the adrenaline rush of the last half-hour, the events of the last twenty-four hours, especially the emotional upheaval of the last four when she’d been wrenched from her bed, catching up with her. She needed sleep and she needed it badly. ‘Which way to my room?’