by Maya Blake
The need to breathe became dangerously imperative but not yet; a few more seconds, until she didn’t have to breathe the same air as him. ‘Yes?’ she managed.
‘It’s time to clock off.’
The tightness in her chest grew. ‘I just wanted to—’
‘Turn that tablet off and put it away. That’s an order.’
It was either argue with him, or breathe. The need for oxygen won out. She placed the tablet back on the table and stuffed her hands under her thighs.
Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes as he opened the bathroom door. ‘Good.’ His gaze darted to the bed. ‘You take the bed, I’ll take the sofa,’ he said. Then he entered the bathroom and shut the door behind him.
Brianna sucked in a long, sustaining breath, trying desperately to ignore the traces of Sakis’s scent that lingered in the air. She eyed the bed, then the sofa.
The logic was irrefutable. She pulled out and made up the sofa bed in record time. And she made damned sure she was in it and turned away from the bathroom door by the time she heard the shower go off.
The consequences of giving lust any room was much too great to contemplate. Because giving in to her emotions, trusting it would turn to more—perhaps even the love she’d been blindingly desperate for—was what had landed her in prison.
Being in prison had nearly killed her.
Brianna had no intention of failing. No intention of sinking again.
CHAPTER FOUR
SHE WOKE TO the smell of strong coffee and an empty room. Relief punched through her as she tossed the light sheet aside and rose from the sofa bed. A quick glance at the ruffled bed showed evidence of Sakis’s presence but, apart from that, every last trace of him had been wiped from the room, including his bag.
Before she could investigate further, her tablet pinged with an incoming message.
Grasping it, she tried to get into the zone—business as usual. Just the way she wanted her life to run. Turning the tablet on, she went through the messages as she poured her coffee.
Two of them were from Sakis, who’d taken up residence in the conference room downstairs. Several of them were from people interested in joining the salvage process or blogging about it. But there was still no word about the missing crew.
After answering Sakis’s message to join him downstairs as soon as she was ready, she tackled the most important emails, took a quick shower and dressed in a clean pair of khaki combat trousers and a cream T-shirt.
By the time she’d tied her hair into its usual French knot, the events of last night had been consigned a ‘temporary aberration’ status. Thankfully, she’d been asleep by the time he emerged from the bathroom and, even though she’d woken once and heard his light, even breathing, she’d managed to go back to sleep with no trouble.
Which meant she really didn’t have to fear that the rhythm of their relationship had changed.
It hadn’t. After this crisis was over, they would return to London and everything would go back to machine-smooth efficiency.
She shrugged on her dark-green jacket, grabbed her case and went downstairs to find Sakis on the phone in the conference room.
He indicated the extensive breakfast tray; she’d just bitten into a piece of honeyed toast when he hung up.
‘The salvage crew have contained the leak in the last compartment and the transport tanker for the undamaged oil will arrive in the next few hours.’
‘So the damaged tanker can be moved in the next few days?’
He nodded. ‘After the International Maritime Investigation Board has completed its investigation it will be tugged back to the ship-building facility in Piraeus. And, now we have a full salvage team in place, there’s no need for any remaining crew to stay. They can go home.’
Brianna nodded and brushed crumbs off her fingers. ‘I’ll arrange it.’
Even though she powered up her tablet ready to action his request, she felt the heat of his gaze on her face.
‘You do my bidding without question when it comes to matters of the boardroom. And yet you blatantly disobeyed me last night,’ he said in a low voice.
She paused mid-swallow and looked up. Arresting green eyes caught and locked onto hers. ‘I’m sorry?’
He twirled a pen in his hand. ‘I asked you to take the bed last night. You didn’t.’
She forced herself to swallow and tried to look away. She really tried. But it seemed as if he’d charged the very air with a magnetic field that held her captive. ‘I didn’t think your jump-when-I-say edict extended beyond the boardroom to the bedroom, Mr Pantelides.’
Too late, she realised the indelicacy of her words. His eyes gleamed with lazy green fire. But she wasn’t fooled for a second that it was harmless.
‘It doesn’t. When it comes to the bedroom, I like control, but I’m not averse to relinquishing it...on occasion.’
Noting that she was in serious danger of going up in flames at the torrid images that cascaded through her mind, she tried to move on. ‘Logic dictated that since I’m smaller in stature the sofa would be more suited to me. I didn’t see the need for chivalry to get in the way of a good night’s sleep for either of us.’
One brow shot up. ‘Chivalry? You think I did it out of chivalry?’ His amusement was unmistakeable.
A damning tide of heat swept up her face. But she couldn’t look away from those mesmerising eyes. ‘Well, I’m sure you had your own reasons... But I thought...’ She huffed. ‘It doesn’t really matter now, does it?’
‘I suggested it because it wouldn’t have been a hardship for me.’
‘I’m sure it wouldn’t, but you don’t have a monopoly on pain and discomfort, Mr Pantelides.’
He stiffened. ‘Excuse me?’
‘I just meant...whatever the circumstances of your past, at least you had a mother who loved you, so it couldn’t have been all bad.’ She couldn’t stem the vein of bitterness from bleeding into her voice, nor could she fail to realise she’d strayed dangerously far from an innocuous subject. But short of blurting out her own past this was the only way she could stop the slippery slope towards believing Sakis cared about her wellbeing.
She’d suffered a childhood hopelessly devoid of love and comfort, and the threat of a life of drugs had been an ever-present reality. Sleeping on a sofa bed was heaven in comparison.
His narrowed eyes speared into her. ‘Don’t mistake guilt for love, Moneypenny. I’ve learned over the years that this so-called love is a convenient blanket that’s thrown over most feelings.’
She sucked in a breath. ‘You don’t think that your mother loves you?’
His jaw tightened. ‘A weak love is worse than no love. When it crumbles under the weight of adversity it might as well not be present.’
Brianna’s fingers tightened around her tablet as shock roiled through her. For the second time in two days, she was glimpsing a whole new facet of Sakis Pantelides.
This was a man who had hidden, painful depths that she’d barely glimpsed in all the time she’d worked for him.
‘What adversity?’
He shrugged. ‘My mother believed the man she loved could do no wrong. When the reality hit her, she chose to give up and leave her children to fend for themselves.’ Casually, he flipped his pen in his hand. ‘I’ve been taking care of myself for a very long time, Moneypenny.’
She believed him. She’d always known he possessed a hardened core of steel beneath that urbane façade, but now she knew how it’d been honed, she felt that wave of sympathy and connection again.
Ruthlessly, she tried to reel back the unravelling happening inside her.
‘Thanks for sharing that with me. But the sofa was really no hardship for me either and, as long as we’re both rested, that should be the end of the subject, surely?’
His eyes r
emained inscrutable. ‘Indeed. I know when to pick my battles, Moneypenny, and I will let this one go.’
The notion that there would be other heated battles between them disturbed her in an altogether too excited way. Before she could respond, he carried on.
‘You’ll also be happy to know there won’t be any need for me to crowd your personal space any longer. Another room has become available. I’ve taken it.’
Expecting strong relief, she floundered when all she felt was a hard bite of disappointment.
‘Great. That’s good to know.’
Her tablet pinged a message. Grateful beyond words, she jumped on it.
* * *
After breakfast they returned to the site, suited up, and joined the clean-up process. Towards mid-afternoon, she was working alongside Sakis when she felt him tense.
The pithy Greek curse he uttered didn’t need translating. ‘What the hell are they doing here?’
Her heart sank when she saw the TV crew. ‘This is one wave we’re just going to have to ride. Nothing I can do to send them away, but I may be able to get them to play nice. You just have to trust me.’ The moment the words left her lips, she froze.
So did he. Trust was an issue they both had problems with. She had no business asking for his when she hid a past that could end their relationship in a heartbeat.
But slowly, the look in his eyes changed from hard-edged displeasure to appreciative gleaming. ‘Efkharisto. I have no idea what I’d do without you, Moneypenny,’ he said in a low, rumbling voice.
Her heart lurched, then hammered with a force that made her fear for the integrity of her internal organs. ‘That’s good, because I’ve devised this cunning plan to make sure that you don’t have to.’
A corner of his mouth rose and fell in a swift smile. His gaze dropped to her lips, then rose to recapture hers. ‘When Ari threatened to poach you, I nearly knocked him out with my oar,’ he said, his voice rumbling in that gravel-rough pitch that made the muscles in her stomach flutter and tighten.
‘I wouldn’t have gone.’ Not in a million years. She loved working with Sakis, even if the last two days had sent her on a knuckle-rattling emotional rollercoaster.
‘Good. You belong to me and I have no intention of letting you go. I’ll personally annihilate anyone who tries to take you away from me.’
Her pulse raced faster. Work. He’s talking about your professional relationship. Not making a statement of personal intent. Brianna forced that reminder on her erratic senses and tried to breathe normally. When her belly continued to roil, she sucked in air through her mouth.
Sakis made a small, hoarse sound in his throat. Heat arched between them, making her skin tingle and the flesh between her legs ache with desperate need.
Hastily she took a step back. ‘I...I’ll go and speak to the TV crew.’
She turned and fled. And with every step she prayed desperately for her equilibrium to return.
The TV crew refused to leave but agreed not to interview any member of the crew. For that she had to be content.
Sakis’s meeting with the maritime disaster investigators went smoothly because he had already admitted liability and agreed to make reparations, and he barely blinked at the mind-bogglingly heavy fine they imposed on Pantelides Inc.
But his behaviour with her was anything but smooth. Throughout the meeting, Sakis would turn to her for her opinion, touch her arm to draw her attention to something he needed written down or shoot her a question. Fear coursed through her as she realised that the almost staid, rigidly professional team they’d been seventy-two hours ago had all but disappeared.
By the time the meeting concluded, she knew she was in trouble.
* * *
Sakis pushed a frustrated hand through his hair and paced the conference room, anger beating beneath his skin. The investigators had just confirmed the accident was human error.
Striding to his desk, he threw himself in the chair.
‘Has Morgan Lowell’s file arrived yet?’ he asked Brianna.
She came towards him and he tried not to let his gaze drop to the sway of her hips. All damned day, he’d found himself checking her out. He’d even stopped asking himself what the hell was wrong with him because he knew.
Lust.
Untrammelled, bloody, lust. From the easily controlled attraction he’d felt when he’d first met her, it now threatened to drown him with every single breath he took in her presence.
She held out the information he’d asked for and he tried not to stare at the delicate bones of her wrist.
‘What do we know about him?’ he asked briskly.
‘He’s married; no children; his wife lives with his parents. As far as we can tell, he’s the sole provider for his family. And he’s been with the company the last four years. He came straight from the navy, where he was a commander.’
‘I know all of that.’ He flicked past the personal details to the work history and paused, a tingle of unease whispering down his spine. ‘It says here he’s refused to take leave in the last three years. And he’s been married...just over three years. Why would a newly wedded man not want to be with his wife?’
‘Perhaps he had something to prove, or something to hide,’ came the stark, terse response.
Surprised, he glanced up. Unease slid through her blue eyes before she lowered them. He continued to stare, and right before his eyes his normally serenely professional PA became increasingly...flustered. The intrigue that had dogged him since seeing that damned tattoo on her ankle rose even higher.
He sat back in his chair. ‘Interesting observation, Moneypenny. What makes you say that?’
She bit her lip and blood roared through his veins. ‘I...didn’t mean anything by it. Certainly nothing based on solid fact.’
‘But you said it anyway. Instinctive or not, you suspect there’s something else going on here, no?’
She shrugged. ‘It was just a general comment, gleaned from observing natural human behaviour. Most people fall into one of those two categories. It could be that Captain Lowell falls into both.’ She firmed her lips as if she wanted to prevent any more words from spilling out.
‘What do you mean?’ he asked. Impatience grew when she just shook her head. ‘Come on, you have a theory. Let’s hear it.’
‘I just think the fact that both Lowell and his two deputies are missing is highly questionable. I can’t think why all three would be away from the bridge and not respond when the alarm was raised.’
Ice slammed into his chest. ‘The investigators think it was human error but you think it was deliberate?’ Reactivating the tablet, he flicked through the rest of Morgan Lowell’s work history but nothing in there threw up any red flags.
On paper, his missing captain was an extremely competent leader with solid credentials who’d piloted the Pantelides tanker efficiently for the last four years.
On paper.
Sakis knew first-hand that ‘on paper’ meant nothing when it came right down to it.
On paper Alexandrou Pantelides, his father, had been an honourable, hard-working and generous father to those who hadn’t known better. Only Sakis, his brothers and mother had known it was a façade he presented to the world. It was only when a scorned lover had tipped off a hungry journalist who’d chosen to dig a little deeper that the truth had emerged. A truth that had unearthed a rotten trough full of discarded mistresses and shady business dealings that had overnight heaped humiliation and devastation on the innocent.
On paper Giselle had seemed an efficient, healthily ambitious executive assistant, until Sakis’s rejection of her one late-night advance had unearthed a spiteful, cold-blooded, psychopathic nature that had threatened to destabilise his company’s very foundation.
‘On paper’ meant nothing if he couldn’t look into Lowell�
�s eyes, ask what had happened and get a satisfactory answer.
‘We need to find him, Moneypenny,’ he bit out, bitterness replacing the ice in his chest. ‘There’s too much at stake here to leave this unresolved for much longer.’ For one thing, the media would spin itself out of control if word of this got out. ‘Contact the head of security. Tell them to dig deeper into Lowell’s background.’
Sakis looked up in time to see Brianna pale a little. ‘Is something wrong?’ he asked.
Her mouth showed the tiniest hint of a twist. ‘No.’
His gaze dropped to hands that would normally be flying over her tablet as she rushed to do his bidding. They were clasped together, unmoving. ‘Something obviously is.’
Darkened eyes met his and he saw rebellion lurking in their depths. ‘I don’t think it’s fair to dig into someone’s life just because you have a hunch.’
Her words held brevity that made Sakis frown. ‘Did you not suggest minutes ago that Lowell could be hiding something?’
She gave a reluctant nod.
‘Then shouldn’t we try and find out what that something is?’
‘I suppose.’
‘But?’
‘I think he deserves for his life not to be turned inside out on a hunch. And I’m sorry if I gave you the impression that was what I wanted, because it’s not.’
A tic throbbed in his temple. Restlessness made him shove away from the desk. His stride carried him to the window and back to the desk next to where she sat, unmoving fingers resting on her tablet.
‘Sometimes we have to bear the consequences of unwanted scrutiny for the greater good.’ As much as he’d detested the hideous fallout, having his father’s true colours exposed had ultimately been to his benefit. He’d learned to look beneath the surface. Always.
She looked at him. ‘You’re advocating something that you hated having done to you. How did you feel when your family’s secrets were exposed to the whole world?’
Shock slammed into him at her sheer audacity. Planting his hands on the desk, he lowered his head until his gaze was level with hers. ‘Excuse me? What the hell do you think you know about my family?’ he rasped.
