‘Try the phone.’
‘Oh, don’t be a grouch.’ She pouted up at him as she walked around his desk. Then she boldly pulled the cord that closed the sunblinds across the window and reached up to transform the pout into a kiss that wound its tentacles around him and left him wanting more.
I love this man, Eve thought, as she drew away again. I love him so much that I daren’t let myself think about Athens and the fact that we have only three days to go before we are expected there.
It was frightening. She held his cheek, looked deep into his eyes and wished she knew how much of what they relayed to her was just sexual desire and how much was still rooted in pretence. What she did know was that they had been so happy here. No spats, since the first day. No mention of anything likely to start a war.
Except for Grandfather, of course. He was discussed on a daily basis. But never in a way that could remind either of them of how this whole thing had started out.
‘Was that it?’ he prompted. ‘You wanted my advice on how well you kiss?’
Eve refocused her attention and saw one of his eyebrows had arched and his mouth was wearing a lazily amused smile. It would be the easiest thing in the world to say yes, and leave it at that, keep the rest until later when he came home.
But keeping Ethan on his toes was her aim in life. So, she said airily, ‘Oh, no. I already know what a great kisser I am.’
Stepping away from him, she applied her surprise tactics by unzipping her trousers and peeling them back from her hips. ‘What do you think?’ she asked innocently.
Innocent was not the word Ethan was thinking as he stared down at her silk-smooth abdomen. He was thinking, Minx, again. Outrageous and unpredictable minx. For there, nestling in the hollow of her groin, just above the tantalisingly brief panty line, and right on the spot of an erogenous zone he knew so well he could actually feel its response against the flat of his tongue, lay a heart. A small red painted heart.
‘It’s a tattoo,’ he announced.
‘What do you think?’ she repeated.
‘I think you’re not safe to be let out on your own,’ he replied. ‘What were you thinking of, marking your lovely skin with something like that?’
‘I thought you might like it.’ The pout was back, Ethan noticed, the one that begged to be soothed into something else.
Well, not this time. ‘You idiot,’ he snapped. ‘That’s going to hurt like blazes by tonight.’
‘No, it won’t,’ she denied. ‘Because it isn’t real. I found this amazing little shop down one of the back streets in San Estéban where they apply these temporary tattoos. It will disappear in about a month. I think its great.’ Eve looked down to view her latest impulse. ‘I might have it replaced with a permanent one next time.’
‘Over my dead body,’ he vowed, but he had to reach out to run his thumb pad over the painted heart. As he did so he heard her breath quiver in her throat and felt the sound replay itself in other parts of himself.
He knew that sound. He looked at her face and saw her innocent green eyes had darkened into those of an outright sinner. His body quickened; she saw it happen; her mouth stretched into a knowing smile. ‘It will be interesting to see if you change your mind about that,’ she taunted silkily.
It was no use, Ethan gave up—as he always seemed to do. Swinging his chair around, he sat himself down then drew her in between his spread thighs. ‘No,’ he refused, knowing exactly what she believed was going to come. Instead he tugged the zip shut on her trousers, then took a firm grip on both of her hips and brought her tumbling down on his lap. Kisses on the mouth were much less evocative than kisses elsewhere. This way at least he would manage to hang onto some of his dignity if anyone should happen to walk in here.
By the time the kissing stopped, her eyes were glazed—but then so were his. ‘I’m going to send you packing now,’ he told her huskily.
‘But you would rather come with me.’
It was no lie. ‘If that tattoo hurts later, we are going to have a row,’ he warned.
‘It won’t,’ she stated confidently.
The telephone on his desk began to ring. Maybe it was good timing on its part because it put a stop to what was still promising to develop into something else.
‘Up,’ he commanded, and used his hands to set her back on her feet, then urged her towards the door. ‘Now go and don’t come back.’ On that brisk dismissal he reached out for the phone. ‘And leave my labourers alone!’ he added as she was about to walk out of the door.
She turned, sent him a look that stirred his blood. Then she caught him off guard, yet again. ‘I did it for you, you know,’ she softly confided. ‘You’re going to love it, I p
romise you.’
‘Ethan Hayes,’ he announced into the telephone, as he stood up to open the blinds so he could watch Eve walk towards the car he had hired for her to use.
The whole site had come to a stop. He watched it happen, watched her take no notice of any of the remarks that flew her way. He also saw her pause, look back and wave to let him know that she knew he was watching her. By the time she’d turned away again he knew that his own departure wasn’t going to be that far away.
He was right, but for the wrong reasons. ‘Ethan—’ it was Victor ‘—you are not going to like this, but I need to ask you to do me a very big favour…’