‘That you allow me to buy dinner...for letting me stay with you.’
Sidonie had a mental image of her bank account and her already close to maxed-out credit card after the flights she’d had to take back and forth to Paris in recent months. She bit her lip.
‘Except I hope you like cheap Italian, because that’s about the best I can offer.’
Alexio stepped up to her and reached around to get her trolley, taking her small case off it as if it weighed nothing. He took her elbow in his hand and looked down at her, taking her breath away.
‘I’ll tell you what. We’ll eat in—that way we don’t have to worry about who’s paying.’
‘But...’ Sidonie spluttered ineffectually as he handed her into the back seat of his car.
He came around and got in the other side and then just looked at her, and it was so stern that she stopped.
‘Okay—fine. I get it,’ she said a little mutinously, ‘but I just don’t want you to think that I’m not grateful.’
Alexio issued a terse command in a guttural language and Sidonie saw the car’s privacy window slide up silently. Then he was reaching for her and pulling her sweatshirt up and over her head before she had the wits to stop him. When she emerged he had his hands in her hair, taking it out of its confines and making it fall down around her shoulders.
Then he plucked off her glasses—which weren’t doing much for her sight anyway.
She slapped at his hands ineffectually. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
Sidonie hated that her whole body sizzled at his masterful actions, knowing she should be objecting vociferously.
He took her face in his hands, holding her still. Sidonie’s heart skipped and her breath stopped.
‘Much better,’ Alexio breathed approvingly, just before his head bent and his mouth met hers.
Sidonie groaned deeply, because from the moment she’d pulled away from that first kiss she’d craved this again. In her mind she ordered herself to stop thinking and gave herself up to the dark fantasy of Alexio Christakos, who had just turned her world upside down and inside out.
By the time they pulled up outside a huge, impressive building Sidonie felt completely flustered, aching and undone. Alexio’s tie was loose and he looked as feverish as Sidonie felt.
‘Come in with me. Wait for me.’
Sidonie’s mouth felt swollen. She wasn’t sure if her vocal cords worked any more. She just nodded her head. It was as if in the space of the back of that car, in the space of the increasingly passionate kisses they’d shared, some indelible link had been forged between them. She was loath to let him out of her sight.
He held her hand walking in, but Sidonie caught sight of her reflection and balked. She jerked in his grip and he looked down at her and raised a brow.
Sidonie blushed. ‘I don’t look exactly corporate.’
His hot gaze swept her up and down and he said throatily, ‘You look perfect.’
But Sidonie knew she was out of place in her chainstore tops, jeans and sneakers the moment the immaculate blonde receptionist sent her a look that could have frozen the Sahara.