The Only Woman to Defy Him(6)

                                      CHAPTER TWO

                IT WAS A very long morning.

                Alina sat embarrassed and uncomfortable as the staff worked around them, picking up the pieces of a decadent night.

                Demyan didn’t appear embarrassed, not remotely so. He was clearly more than used to it and they worked on solidly.

                ‘Are there tenants in the other property?’ Alina asked.

                ‘No.’ Demyan didn’t even look over as he answered. ‘It is my private residence that I am selling. Do you see now my need for discretion?’

                Alina slowly nodded and ran a tongue over suddenly dry lips as she started to glimpse the enormity of Demyan’s revelation. ‘Am I to look for other—?’

                ‘I am not buying,’ Demyan said, and Alina blinked at the implication that he was leaving Australia. ‘It is going to be a busy month—unexpectedly so.’ He did look at her then—straight into her eyes. ‘Do you have any questions?’

                ‘No,’ Alina said, hoping to make it clear that she wasn’t about to pry, but again it was none too subtly pointed out that she was perhaps out of her league.

                ‘Surely you should have many questions. You are supposed to be running my diary and arranging the sale of two properties and yet there is nothing that you wish to ask me? As I said earlier, I have allocated today to bring you up to...’ His hand moved in a circle as he tried to place the word. Clearly irritated, his excellent English slipped and he repeated the start of the phrase. ‘Bring you up to...’

                Alina sat there, her lips tight, trying not to break in and give him the word that he was looking for. She didn’t want to annoy him further—in fact, she was expecting any minute now to be told to leave. And then the strangest thing happened. She watched as his arrogant, sullen features slipped into a smile, the first she had glimpsed from him, and, most surprisingly of all, it was aimed at her.

                ‘I don’t have a stutter,’ Demyan said.

                Alina swallowed; she had no idea where this was leading.

                ‘You don’t have to just sit there and pretend not to notice that I cannot find the right word.’ He was still smiling, just a little, but enough for Alina to realise why he so easily broke hearts. His smile was completely mesmerising. He had a very sensual mouth when it wasn’t scowling, full, deep red lips that moved incredibly slowly, so slowly they made Alina aware that her own lips were itching and she ran her nail over them.

                ‘Feel free to jump in,’ Demyan said, and her thoughts were so lost in his lips that for a bizarre second Alina thought it was an invitation to kiss, but she quickly dragged her mind back to the conversation.

                ‘Speed,’ Alina croaked. ‘You have today to bring me up to speed.’

                ‘So use it wisely.’

                Alina nodded.

                ‘In the future if there is something you are unsure of, or you have questions—’

                ‘Then I’ll ask you.’

                Wrong answer.

                Alina knew because she actually saw his jaw clamp and that gorgeous mouth harden.

                ‘If you would let me finish...’ There was no trace of a smile on his lips now. ‘I was about to say that you will liaise with Marianna, my regular PA in the States.’