“If that were true, I would have worked out something was going on much sooner.”
She sighed heavily, lifting fingertips to her brow. “So what’s your plan? Where are you taking me?”
The heavy doors slid shut and a stewardess appeared. “We’ll be pushing back within ten minutes, sir. May I bring you some refreshments before take-off?”
He looked at Phoebe then turned back to the attendant. “A beer, and, for my guest?”
She shot him daggers but offered a polite smile to the woman with the striking red hair. “Just a water, please.”
The woman turned and left; they were alone again.
“Sit down,” he gestured to the wide, armchairs that formed a row up each side of the aisle.
“Where are you sitting?”
“Does it matter?”
“I just wanted to be sure I’m as far away as is humanly possible.”
“But not out of an airlock at cruising altitude,” he responded drily and to her chagrin, a smile teased the corners of Phoebe’s mouth.
“Not on this occasion, no.”
“And why do you want to sit so far away from me? Is it perhaps that you can’t trust yourself to be across the aisle without wanting to reach out and touch me?”
Her lips parted at his brazen observation. “Or might it be that I don’t want to so much as breathe the same air as you?” She responded acerbically.
He took a step closer. “You must take care not to throw such obvious challenges at my feet,agape mou.”
“Oh? I’d say it’s more of a warning.”
“Is that so?”
He was right up against her now, his own challenge passed back to her. Her breath was ragged, her chest hurting with the force of regular exhalations.
“Because to me, it sounded as though you were goading me to touch you again.”
“But we both know that’s not the case.”
“Do we?” His eyes probed hers, mocking, showing her he knew she was lying. Damn him to hell. Was she so easy to read?
“I wonder if you’ve been thinking about me since that night?” He asked, leaning closer still, lifting a hand now and pressing his fingers into her hair, loosening it at the nape at the same time he shifted her face closer to his, holding her tightly, just beneath his face. “Have you been wondering what would have happened if we hadn’t stopped? Have you been wishing we didn’t?”
His last words were uttered right against the flesh beneath her ear and a moment later, his tongue darted out, teasing her, so she trembled against him, a moan parting her lips involuntarily.
She hated this man.Hatedhim. She was here by necessity alone, out of loyalty to Kon and an affection for Maggie, whom she’d never met but felt she knew so well courtesy of Kon’s stories.
“Don’t pretend you don’t desire me, Phoebe, or I’ll show that for the lie it is.”
Chapter4
UNLIKE COMMERCIAL AIRLINES, THERE was no announcement as they came into land, proclaiming their location, and Phoebe was too filled with stubborn pride to demean herself by asking. Instead, she kept her gaze resolutely averted, eyes focused on the sparkling, glistening water that shimmered from every angle as they descended, and then, on the blast of heat that entered the plane the moment the doors were opened.
“The car’s waiting, sir,” the hostess said, from the top of the stairs.
Anastasios put a hand in the small of Phoebe’s back, as if to propel her forward, and she shot him a warning glance then moved quickly, cutting off the need for any further physical contact between them.
The heat only intensified as she stepped onto the landing, then moved down the metallic stairs, onto the tarmac. A man in an official uniform stood at the bottom, aviator sunglasses reflecting a harried looking Phoebe right back at her.