In a zoo.
Theos. She had never spoken a truer word to him. How do you approach a woman who saw you like that?
How did you look her in the face when you’d just bludgeoned her with the ugly truth about her father?
You don’t, came the tough but true answer. You back right off if you have a drop left of civilised blood. You put your stupid, juvenile burn of jealousy over the bloody Frenchman back under wraps, then take up the happy task of slowly and painfully trying to rebuild trust.
He turned his face to the side-window. Everything inside him felt as if it was carved in stone. One minute more of this God-awful silence and he was going to explode!
Relief arrived when he saw the front of his super-modern smoked-glass office building loom up beside the car. Rico got out and opened his door for him. Xander climbed out then moved round the car with the civilised intention of assisting Nell to alight, but she did that on her own.
He said nothing, took her arm, she flinched then settled. In a strained way he thanked her for that, and kept his own flinching contained inside. As they walked together through the smoked-glass doors into the vaulted foyer he saw the zoo analogy come up and hit him in the face like a bloody great tank.
Glass everywhere, cold tungsten
steel. People—employees, for God’s sake—stopping what they should be doing to turn and stare. He felt Nell quiver, his fingers twitched on her slender arm. Behind his grim lips his teeth were biting together so tightly they hurt as he walked her across the foyer and into the executive lift. The doors closed. They were transported upwards with ultimate speed. She stared at the floor, he stared at the wall half an inch to the side of her head.
And the hell of it was that he was willing her to look at him, willing her to make that slow, sensual journey up from his polished shoes to his face.
It didn’t happen. He’d never felt so bloody bereft.
The doors swished open. Nell had to steel herself to accept the return of his hand on her arm. Inherent Greek manners demanded that he hold her like this but she wished he were walking ten feet away.
She had never been inside this building before, definitely never been up here in his spacious and plush executive domain. More glass and steel met her gaze, interspersed now with panels of rich walnut and yet more curious faces that kept her eyes glued to her shoes.
The murmured greetings delivered with respect echoed the length of the long walk down the corridor. Xander said nothing. He was like a mechanical machine delivering a package.
Then his hand moved from her arm to the centre of her back as he leant forward to open a pair of huge walnut doors. She felt his fingers slide into the weight of her hair and for a moment—a brief, sense-grabbing moment—his fingertips curled then straightened on a sharply compulsive sensual stroke.
Her breathing froze. She looked up at him. She hadn’t wanted to do it but now it was too late and he was looking down. Everything stopped—everything! The door, only half pushed out of its housing, the sea of faces they’d left in their wake. He stood at least six inches taller than her and she wished—wished—wished she hated that handsome dark face!
Her eyes began to blur with stupid tears, her mouth started to quiver.
‘Nell, don’t,’ he murmured thickly then turned like a whip on the sea of faces. ‘Have you nothing better to do than to watch me make love to my wife?’
Shocked by the sudden outburst, Nell drew in a sharp breath. Muffled sounds erupted behind them. Xander bit out a curse then pushed the door wide and propelled her inside.
She found herself standing in a huge walnut-panelled office with a wall of glass, a steel-legged desk and a vast expanse of polished floor. The door shut with a controlled thud. As soon as it happened Nell spun around.
‘What made you shout that out?’ she demanded shrilly.
‘Even zoo animals get sick of being stared at,’ he rasped.
He had a grip on her hand now and was trailing her behind him across the room towards another set of double doors while, in a near-dizzy state of too many shocks in a single day, Nell found herself struggling with pangs of remorse.
‘Look, I’m sorry I said that,’ she said stiffly.
‘It was only the truth. I do live in a zoo.’
A telephone started ringing somewhere. In a state of complete disorientation, Nell found herself being trailed in a different direction, towards the desk, where whole rows of paperwork stood lined up in thick, neat stacks. In amongst the stacks was the ringing telephone. Xander hooked it up with his free hand and began a clipped conversation in Greek.
She tried to slip her hand free but he refused to let go of it. The moment he replaced the receiver it started ringing again. Keeping her firmly anchored to him, Xander embarked on a series of conversations as one call led to another then another.
As one call stopped and before another started, Nell drew in a deep breath. ‘Look, you’re busy. And I need …’ to lie down, she had been going to say but changed her mind because lying down meant a bed, and she didn’t want to think about beds. ‘If you’ll let me use the limo, I’ll go down to Rose—’
‘You stay with me.’ It was not up for argument. ‘We are not—’
The phone shrilled out its demand for his attention. On a growl of annoyance Xander snatched it up. ‘Hold the calls until I say otherwise!’ he instructed, the bark of his voice rattling the windows.