On her way back from another dead-end corridor that had led to that incredible pool he’d mentioned, a sleekly attired man met her.
‘May I help you, miss?’
‘I’m just looking for the King.’
The man’s eyes widened slightly as he glanced down and noticed her bare feet. ‘If you’d like to wait, I can tell him you’re looking for him.’
She saw she’d missed a corridor off to the left, and from there she could hear soft music playing. ‘There’s no need—I can tell him myself. He’s down there?’
The man didn’t deny it, and didn’t stop her, but he did look alarmed.
‘Don’t worry.’ She smiled at him.
She didn’t bother knocking—just opened the door and walked in.
‘You’ve been prowling around?’
Giorgos was sprawled back on a large sofa, his tie askew, his shirtsleeves rolled up and a dangerous gleam in his eyes. A silver platter of delicacies sat on a low table in front of him—olives, meats, breads—all untouched as far as she could tell. The bottle of whisky next to the platter, however, had definitely been touched, and the amber liquid more than half filled the crustal tumbler he was holding.
‘Looking for your private lair.’ She nodded. ‘It seems I’ve finally found it.’
‘I like the door shut.’ His hot gaze lingered on the dampened ends of her braid and he took a long sip of his drink.
Kassie held her breath as she closed the door and turned back to face him. Playing with fire was for fools, and she was afraid she might be the biggest fool of them all. And yet she couldn’t quite walk away.
‘Is your room to your satisfaction?’ he asked in a mockery of civility.
‘I suppose it will do,’ she mused slowly as she perched on the distant arm of the sofa he was sitting on.
‘Maintaining your reputation of being difficult to please?’ He quirked an eyebrow at her. But his hint of a smile faded the longer he gazed at her. ‘I’m tired, Kassie,’ he suddenly blurted out roughly. ‘I don’t want to do the right thing. I want to do everything I shouldn’t. If you don’t want me to do that then you need to walk away right now. Please.’
She cocked her head and looked at him closely, realising that beneath that in-control demeanour there was a man who was tired and hurting. And alone.
‘You’re upset.’
‘I’m hard,’ he argued bluntly. ‘I’m tired and I want to lose myself in sex. I want to kiss you until you sigh and spread your legs and let me plunge as deep as I can into you. And I’m not sorry if I’m shocking you. I’m being honest about why you need to leave the room. Now.’
She almost fell from her perch. His harshly expelled words did shock her. But she realised he’d intended them to. He wanted to scare her away because he didn’t want to be seen like this. Because he was feeling vulnerable.
Too bad.
‘As if you can’t control yourself... I know you can.’
‘But I don’t want to,’ he ground out. ‘And that’s when things get tricky. I’m ordering you to leave.’
‘You were the one who dragged me here.’ She smiled serenely at him and let herself slip down off the wide arm onto the seat of the sofa.
He growled again and took another sip of his whisky.
‘What will you do if I leave the room?’ she asked.
He studied the contents of his glass. ‘Continue to get drunk.’
‘Is that your secret vice? How boring.’
‘Are you calling me boring?’ He leaned forward and set the glass on the low table in front of him. ‘You’re right, I am. I haven’t got drunk in a decade.’
‘So it won’t take much, then, will it? Perhaps I’ll need to save the kingdom from a king with a hangover? We don’t want your legendary impartiality to be impaired. Perhaps I should stay and talk to you for a while.’
‘You’re determined to torment me,’ he groaned and pressed his hands to his eyes. ‘What did I do to deserve this fate?’ He winced and muttered beneath his breath. ‘Don’t answer that—I already know.’
‘You’re the one who brought me here.’
He opened his eyes. ‘And I’m going to regret it.’
‘You think?’ She laughed. ‘We all want things we can’t have.’
‘Of course. There are many things I can’t have. Many things Eleni didn’t have. And that was my fault.’
‘Are you wallowing in guilt and self-pity?’
‘Utterly.’ He picked up his glass again. ‘I failed her.’
She heard the serious thread beneath that mocking tone and couldn’t help but respond honestly. ‘She’s an adult. She’s made her own choices. You have to let her get on with it.’
‘I’m trying.’
‘I know.’ She smiled shyly at him. ‘I also know it isn’t easy when you’re used to being in complete control.’
He looked at her sombrely. ‘You would know.’ There was no irony in his tone, no sarcasm.
But she shook her head and laughed. ‘So not the same. I can’t get the career track I want. I can’t—’
‘I mean complete control of your emotions,’ he interrupted. ‘Of your body. You don’t want distractions.’ He reached out and took her hand. ‘Yet you respond to me,’ he said quietly.
She curled her fingers into a fist, but she couldn’t lie to him. ‘Apparently so.’
‘Why do you think that is?’
She turned her gaze on the glass. ‘Perhaps it’s the power. Perhaps in that way I’m as weak as my mother.’
‘She was attracted to a powerful man?’
‘The most powerful she’d met. John Gale was handsome, intelligent. He promised the world and delivered nothing.’
‘What happened?’
‘Nothing. That was the point.’ Her chuckle was bitter. ‘He lied. He was greedy. He kept her enamoured for years. She put her life on hold for h
im. She jumped when he called. She always jumped...’ Kassie trailed off, embarrassed.
‘She loved him,’ Giorgos said.
‘It wasn’t love.’ Kassie frowned. ‘She didn’t love herself. She accepted too little from him.’
‘And now you don’t accept anything from any man?’
She shot him a look, but he shrugged and continued.
‘You live alone...you’re fiercely independent. And you don’t date...’
‘You’ve changed your view. You thought I’d slept with all the doctors,’ she said pointedly.
‘I’m sorry about that. I was worried about Eleni and I wasn’t thinking clearly.’
‘But you took one look at me and made up your mind.’ She shook her head. ‘Don’t worry—you’re not the first guy to do that.’
He sighed and reached forward to put his glass on the table again. He turned to face her. ‘I’m sorry for that too. Is that part of why you don’t want any kind of relationship?’
His apologies mollified her—and his honesty encouraged her own. ‘It’s not that I don’t want a relationship—doesn’t everyone want that special person? To be in love and be loved? It’s that I don’t feel any attraction. There’s a difference.’
‘Yet you feel attraction to me?’
She nodded. ‘Isn’t fate cruel?’
‘Because I’m powerful?’ He watched her. ‘What if I had no power?’ he asked softly. ‘What if there was no crown, no palace, no Summer House...just an average man in a tee shirt and jeans. Would you still respond to me?’
Of course. Because his power wasn’t to do with all those external things, it was an intrinsic part of him. And she responded on an equally intrinsic level.
‘There is no point wondering “what if?” The fact is you are the King, you have a crown and palaces and all the power.’
‘So there can be nothing?’
‘Exactly.’
‘There could be this moment,’ he tempted.
‘Don’t...’ she whispered.
‘There’s no reason why we can’t we enjoy each other’s company.’
‘There’s every reason.’
She should have left when he’d told her to, but she’d thought she could remain immune to him and keep herself at a distance.