‘I’m just trying to point out that I’m nothing special, Mr Pantelides. I just try to be very good at my job.’
His gaze recaptured hers. ‘I beg to differ. I think you’re very special.’ He stepped closer and his scent filled her nostrils. ‘It’s also obvious no one has told you that enough.’ The hand that still rested at her waist slid away to cover the hand she’d gripped on the door. Using the pressure of hers, he turned the knob. ‘When this is all over, I’ll make a point to show you just how special you are.’
The door gave way behind her and she swayed backward, barely managing to catch herself before she stumbled. ‘You...don’t have to. Really, you don’t.’
His smile was a touch strained and he braced his hands on the doorjamb as if forcibly stopping himself from entering the room. ‘You say you’re not special and yet you refuse even the promise of a reward where most people would be making a list.’
‘I work for one of the most forward-thinking men in one of the best organisations in the world. That’s reward enough.’
‘Careful, there; you’re in danger of swelling my ego to unthinkable proportions.’
‘Is that a bad thing?’ She wasn’t sure where the need for banter came from but her breath caught when his sensual lips curved in a dangerously sexy smile.
‘At a time when everything around me seems to be falling apart, it could be a lethal thing.’ His gaze shot to the bed and his smile slipped a fraction, in proportion to the escalating strain on his face. ‘Time for you to hit the sack. Kalispera, Brianna,’ he murmured softly before, stepping back abruptly, he strode to his own door.
At the click of his door shutting, Brianna stumbled forward and sagged onto the bed, her knees turned to water.
She glanced down at her shaking hands as reality hit her square in the face.
Sakis Pantelides found her attractive. She wasn’t naïve enough to mistake the look in his eyes, nor was she going to waste time contemplating the why. It was there, like a ticking time bomb between them, one she needed to diffuse before the unthinkable happened.
Brianna could only hope that, once they were back on familiar ground, things would return to normal.
They had to. Because, frankly, she was terrified of what she would let happen if they didn’t.
* * *
Sakis stood under the cold shower and cursed fluidly. Theos. I seemed as if he’d spent the last forty-eight hours cursing in one form or the other. Right now, he cursed the rigid erection that seemed determined to defy the frigid temperature.
He wanted to have sex with Brianna Moneypenny. Wanted to shut off the shower, stride next door, strip the clothes off her body and drive into her with a grinding force that defied rhyme or reason.
He slapped his palm against the soaked tile and cursed some more. Gritting his teeth, his hand dropped to grip his erection. A single stroke made him groan out loud. Another stroke, and his knees threatened to buckle.
With an angry grunt, he dropped his hand and turned the shower off. He was damned if he was going to fondle himself like an over-eager teenager. Things were fraught for sure. That and the fact that he hadn’t had sex in months was messing with his mental faculties, making him contemplate paths he would never otherwise have done. For God’s sake, sex had no place in his immediate to-do list.
What he needed to do was focus on getting the threat of a takeover annihilated and the situation at Pointe Noire brought under control.