Finally it was done, and she gave the last ribbon one final curl with the edge of her scissors. With relief she reached for the snipped off tag and flashed it through the bar-code reader and got on with printing out the invoice. The cost of the scarves still astounded her — she could have bought an entire outfit for the price of one of these hand-painted silken works of art. But then everything about working in this luxury gift shop in this five-star hotel still astounded her — that people really existed who could afford what the shop stocked, who could afford to stay at the hotel in the first place.
This man certainly could. She had come to recognize money when it walked around the lobby, and this man was a walking gold mine. Everything about him shrieked it, from his superb tailored business suit to the tips of his Italian handmade shoes.
Just as everything about him shrieked that he was the most gorgeous male she'd ever seen.
And she was going to have to look at him again. She couldn't complete the transaction keeping her head bowed. With huge effort, as if she were lifting a great weight, she looked up at him.
"Would you prefer to pay here, sir, or shall I charge it to your room?"
As her gaze met his she felt her heart do that terrifying, enthralling swoop again, and a tiny gasp escaped her constricted throat.
For a second his eyes narrowed, as if focusing on her properly for the first time, and then, in the next instant, he smiled again.
That palpable aura of impatience vanished. Completely vanished. In its place his eyes washed over her.
Caressing her…
The swoop came again from a greater height, and she gave that little gasp again. Something changed in his eye — amusement, that was it.
And it devastated her even more.
"Charge it to my room," he instructed in that deep, accented voice. "1209."
"And the name, sir?" she asked, her voice still faint. She needed a name to countercheck against the reservations computer in case of fraud. He took the payment slip she offered him and scrawled across the signature line.
"Andreakos. Leon Andreakos." He picked up the gift-wrapped scarf. "Kalispera, thespinis," he murmured in his deep, accented voice and walked out.
Greek, she thought weakly. He's Greek.
Greek.
Rich.
Gorgeous.
And now, almost five years since she had first had her life turned upside down by Leon Andreakos, she was seeing him again.
Alanna went on standing, paralyzed, every muscle frozen.
And slowly, like in some hideous slow motion, she saw him reach the woman, saw his gaze flicker past her to head beyond the blonde toward her like some dire, deadly missile…where it came to rest.
For a moment, just a brief instant, he did not recognize her. Then, as the night-dark eyes focused, they hardened. Like steel. Like the blade of a knife ripping into her exposed, defenseless flesh.
She reeled. It was a like a blow to the heart — without mercy.
Ignoring his current mistress, he stalked across to his former mistress, his heavy tread silent over the thick, soft carpet. The blonde glared, irritated by his distraction by another woman — and such a woman. Wearing nothing but a jersey and trousers, not in the least fashionable, bought off the rack from a budget chain store. Utterly unworthy of the perfection that was Leon Andreakos.
Alanna stood there, waiting. Waiting for Leon Andreakos, who had once been all the world to her, and to whom she was now nothing, worse than nothing.
He stopped dead. His eyes were glittering obsidian. Full of loathing.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he snarled.
Chapter Three
His voice was the same — deep and accented, but filled now with a cold anger as Leon Andreakos demanded to know the reason why his cast-off mistress from five long years ago dared to be in his presence again. He had banished Alanna from his life — from his family — from further contaminating any Andreakos at all.
Alanna felt hysteria beading in her stricken throat. Dear God, did he think she had waylaid him here on purpose? A man she had never thought to set eyes on again for the rest of her life? As she stared at him, totally frozen, she saw him glance at an inconspicuous man standing some little ways away by the exit to the escalator lobby.