And it was about to get headier.
Achilles came close and pulled off his mask, revealing his face. He put hands either side of her on the wall, trapping her. ‘I’ve had enough...ready to go?’
Sofie’s heart thumped. ‘But we only arrived a short while ago. Don’t you need to talk to people? Network? Dance?’
‘I don’t need to do anything.’
Sofie rolled her eyes. ‘You said yourself you need to improve your reputation. If we leave now it’s hardly going to improve things.’
Achilles lifted her hand and raised it to his mouth, kissing her palm. It felt unbelievably erotic. As if he’d kissed a far more intimate part of her body.
‘Perhaps,’ he conceded. ‘But when we appear in public again and again people will see that I’m reforming.’
Sofie was about to ask, How many ‘agains’ will that be? But she held her tongue. That way lay brutal truths she wasn’t ready to face up to yet.
Weakly, she allowed Achilles to take her hand and lead her back through the throng.
People whispered as they passed by. Sofie tried not to be too self-conscious. She lifted her chin and thought to herself how exhausting it must be to be under this kind of scrutiny all the time.
The following day Achilles was working from the office in the apartment. Because he’d woken late. On account of indulging in a hedonistic night of sensual pleasure. It was something he was renowned for, but this time it was different.
Before, he would have walked away from the lover in question without a backward glance. Momentarily sated. He’d woken this morning to find the bed empty and had felt a gnawing sense of hunger. For Sofie. Again. Already.
He was insatiable. It had never been like this.
He’d found her eating breakfast and chatting to Elena, his housekeeper. As he’d come into the room Sofie had said, ‘Did you know that Elena’s son has just graduated with a law degree?’
Achilles had looked at the woman he’d only ever greeted in passing before, or issued instructions to. He had felt ashamed to admit in that moment that he’d had no idea if the woman was married, had family, or any other personal information.
Achilles had made an appropriate response, but it had been a reminder that Sofie came from another world, where a conversation between two people wasn’t a transaction but a pleasantry. It wasn’t an altogether unwelcome reminder.
She’d informed him that she intended to go sightseeing that day. ‘I don’t want to waste any time. There’s so much to see.’
Achilles had found himself curbing an urge to tell her he’d go with her. He had too much to do. He couldn’t afford to forget that he had a business that needed serious tending if it was to become even more successful.
He certainly couldn’t afford to let a woman make him forget that.
He saw movement on the street far below. As if conjured up out of his imaginings, Sofie appeared outside the hotel.
Her jet-black hair was pulled up into a knot on the top of her head. She was wearing a simple dark blue sundress with a ruched bodice. Thin straps. It fell to just below her knee. Perfectly regular attire for this part of the world. But all he could see was acres of pale bare flesh. The slender slope of her shoulders. The back of her neck. Top of her back. Her shapely legs. Feet bare, in a pair of wedge sandals.
She had a bag across her body and was looking at a map. The doorman of the hotel went over to her and said something, and Achilles saw her grin and turn the map the right way around. He saw the effect of her smile on the doorman—normally a taciturn man, he was grinning now too. And pointing to somewhere in the distance.
As she waved and started to walk away Achilles felt a spurt of panic. He shouldn’t let her go alone. Was she even wearing sunscreen?
A knock came on his door. He bit out a curt, ‘Yes?’
‘Your client is here for the meeting.’
Achilles had to battle for a long moment to restrain himself from throwing his schedule out and following Sofie into the streets of Athens. She would be fine. He’d already instructed his very discreet security guards to keep an eye on her in case she got lost.
She disappeared around a corner. Achilles turned away from the window. ‘Send him in.’
‘So where did you visit today?’
Sofie looked at Achilles, who was sitting to her right at a long dinner table on the open rooftop of a restaurant in the centre of Athens. Apparently the dinner tonight was in aid of a local charity. Thankfully it wasn’t that formal an event.
Achilles was just wearing a simple suit with no tie, yet he still managed to look as if he’d stepped out of the pages of a men’s magazine. She was wearing a black jumpsuit that was cut so low that she’d been in the process of taking it off again when Achilles had appeared in the bedroom and said, ‘No, leave it on.’
What he’d meant was that he would take it off her and then make love to her and then she could put it back on. Her skin still tingled from the lingering after-effects.
He’d cupped her face in his hands after their frantic coupling and said incredulously, almost angrily, ‘What do you do to me? You are like an unquenchable fire in my blood.’
She would have said the same thing to him if she’d been able to put two words together. It made her feel prickly now.
‘You know where I visited because you had me followed.’
‘By my security team.’
‘I didn’t even know you had security. They weren’t with you in Scotland. If they had been then you might have not fallen down the mountain.’
And she might not ever have met him.
‘That’s because I instructed them to stay behind.’ His gaze narrowed on her. ‘What’s wrong?’
Sofie sighed. Nothing. And everything. She was a million miles out of her comfort zone and yet she’d never been so exhilarated. Walking around Athens today and soaking in all the sights and sounds had been truly amazing. But she was ashamed to admit she’d felt a bit lonely. Missing Achilles. Wishing he was the one showing her around.
‘Nothing, I’m just a bit...out of my depth, I think.’
‘I heard you tried to get into the Acropolis.’
‘It was too busy. I can try again—it’s no big deal.’
‘We leave for the island tomorrow, where the art exhibition is being held.’
Sofie tried to hide her disappointment that she wouldn’t see one of the wonders of the world. ‘Oh...which island?’
‘It’s privately owned. It’s near Santorini.’