Who could blame a guy for having a curious streak? Curiosity had got him where he was today. Sure, he had inherited the family empire and, with that, all the kudos and wealth that came with it. He could have stuck to what he knew and carried on the shipping tradition. Lord knew, his own father had had his work cut out when he had been forced to steer it into safe waters after his brother’s reckless handling of the asset base. So it should have been in his nature not to take risks, but he had because there were other worlds out there to be explored and shipping was just one of them.
If he hadn’t been curious enough to have a look and then to have a go, he would have remained in Athens to take over the reins of the family business. He would have followed in his father’s footsteps. He would have had his youthful drama, learnt his lessons and then married a good Greek girl, just as his father had, and stayed put to toe the family line.
He had wanted more than that and he had explored and mastered so many fields in technology and communication that staying close to home had never been an option. He had made sure that the family business was in robust health, but he had moved on. His own private companies were worth their own individual fortunes.
So curious? It was in his DNA and his efficient and dependable secretary roused all kinds of curiosity inside him. He was hanging onto common sense by a thread but when he thought of her in that dress and the way it cupped her high, small breasts...his libido took off at supersonic speed.
Nico could enjoy the novelty of it, could be tempted by thoughts of going beyond what common sense was dictating and yet know, in his gut, that those temptations were indulgences he would be very wise not to explore. He’d had his brush with adventure. He’d been a fool once, had taken his eye off the ball, and it wasn’t going to happen again. Fun was temporary. He would eventually marry and that would be to a suitable woman, one whose status equalled his and who came from a tradition of work first.
Inappropriate thoughts about his secretary made him uneasy because it was outside known territory. He enjoyed the company of women, treated them like queens and was utterly monogamous, but he always let them know what they could and couldn’t expect from him. Boundary lines were always in place.Thatwas known territory. Sudden idle thoughts about his secretary were not.
He sauntered thoughtfully back to his desk and, when he sat back down, he pushed the chair back at an angle and leaned back, hands folded behind his head, and looked at her for a few seconds.
‘Let’s forget about work for ten minutes, Grace,’ he said quietly. ‘I know you want to pretend that Saturday night never happened, but it did.’
‘I don’t want topretendanything, Nico.’
‘When I got to that club and spotted you, I was shocked.’
‘I don’t know why, Nico. Believe it or not, I do actually have a life that happens when I leave this office.’
‘I’m not disputing that, but it’s been hard to envisage because you’ve spent the past four and a half years making sure you never breathed a word to me about what you do when you leave here.’
‘Because it’s none of your business!’
‘You’re my business, because you work for me and because I’d like to think that we’re a bit more than a couple of strangers who happen to be together because of work.’
Nico watched her fidget. He noted the hectic colour in her cheeks. He’d shocked himself when he’d flown to her rescue two days before and he was astonished that he was now pursuing this in the face of common sense telling him that detachment was what he did best.
‘I was worried on your behalf, Grace.’
‘And like I said, there was no need to be!’
‘Because you can look after yourself?’
‘That’s right.’
Nico looked at her coolly defiant face—so remote and so oddly alluring. Was he only noticing this for the first time or was it something he had unconsciously noted all along but had chosen to ignore until he had seen her in a different light?
‘Look—’ Grace leapt to her feet, her cheeks flushed ‘—let’s get something straight, Nico. I made it clear when I joined your company, when I started working for you, that I wasn’t interested in putting my private life in the public arena. Nothing’s changed on that front.’
‘We have very different definitions of private life in the public arena,’ Nico returned with a thread of amusement. ‘And sit back down, for God’s sake. You’re not being cross-examined in the witness box with the threat of jail if you don’t supply the correct answers. We’re having a conversation.’ He looked at her with brooding intensity. Every bit of her screamed discomfort. He’d never seen her so agitated in his life before but, then again, he concluded that he’d only ever seen the parts of her she had been willing to put on show. Under that smooth, composed exterior, there obviously lurked a complex, fiery woman.
Grace sat back down.
She was rattled. How to play this? What to do? How far could she insist on being secretive without him wondering why? How long before he began to wonder whether she singled him out because she wasn’t relaxed around him? And once he started asking himself questions like that, how long before he found his unexpected answers? That he got under her skin? That she was attracted to him?
‘I’m not hiding anything,’ she said reluctantly. She raised her eyes to his and forced herself to relax. Also to accept that digging her heels in was only going to make him more and more curious about her. She couldn’t kid herself that bumping into him in the most unlikely of venues wasn’t going to make him curious, and the more she tried to stuff the genie back in the bottle, the more curious he was going to become. Human nature.
But caution was so deeply ingrained that she didn’t know where to begin when it came to sharing, least of all with Nico, and the silence stretched between them.
‘Grace...’ Nico eventually broke the silence, raking his fingers through his dark hair in a gesture that was both elegant and sexy and one that she was accustomed to seeing because he did it often. ‘Okay.’ He sighed. ‘I get it that you and I are on a different page when it comes to being upfront. I get it that you’re tight-lipped on every single aspect of your private life, for reasons that are frankly mystifying, but you work for me, have worked for me for a very long time, and I like to think that we’re...we’refriends.Wouldn’t you agree?’
‘Yes!’ Grace thought of all those forbidden thoughts over the years. None could be described as in thefriendlycategory. ‘Of course we are. Of course I consider you my friend as well as my boss. Good heavens, we see enough of one another!’
‘I’m glad you agree! Which is why I felt compelled to join you on Saturday. Naturally I would never have intruded had I not got the distinct impression that the man was bugging you. And it’s because I care about your welfare that I felt the need to offer you advice rather than sit back and watch you wander into situations that you may find you can’t handle.’
Grace gritted her teeth in something resembling a smile. So they were here again, were they?