Eva tensed at the idea of the intimacy of dressing in one of Markos’s shirts. ‘Er—no. I’ll be fine in the dress, thank you.’
Markos continued to look at her for several long seconds before giving an abrupt nod of his head. ‘In that case, that’s the bathroom over there.’ He nodded at the closed door to the left of the room.
Eva avoided meeting that piercing green gaze as she grabbed her dress up from the carpeted floor, where it had been dropped the night before; no doubt she was about to go home in a very crumpled black silk evening dress!
‘Thanks.’ Her chin was high as she hastily left the bedroom.
Markos remained laying in bed for several minutes longer, listening as Eva turned on the shower. A large part of him—that hard and rampant part of him!—wanted to get out of bed and join her in the shower to make love with her again, but the more cautious part of him warned that Eva needed a few minutes alone, that—incredibly—her embarrassed awkwardness earlier this morning, and again just now, gave every indication that spending the day in bed with him had been completely out of character.
Reading between the lines what Eva hadn’t said last night, Markos could well imagine that her marriage to Jack Cabot Grey hadn’t been what the English called ‘a bed of roses’. So much so that Eva had fought shy of becoming intimately involved with anyone since her divorce.
Markos frowned as the music of Mozart interrupted his train of thought. The sound was coming from inside Eva’s evening bag, where it lay on the bedside cabinet, and was obviously the ringtone of her mobile phone.
He glanced towards the bathroom door, wondering briefly if he should go and tell Eva that she had a phone call, and then dismissed the idea as he thought of how she had almost run from the bedroom—from him. The sound of water still running told him that Eva was still in the shower. If the call was important then whoever it was would either leave a message or ring back.
Markos’s thoughts came to an end as the music stopped just as abruptly. As he’d thought—whoever it was would call back.
Mozart began to play a second time.
The caller was either very persistent, or the call was an emergency. After Jack Cabot Grey’s parting comment to Eva last night Markos could easily guess who the persistent caller might be, and having Eva talk to her ex-husband now was guaranteed to hasten her departure. But if it was an emergency—
Damn it, he’d answer the call and take the flak from Eva later for doing so!
The name of the caller on the lit screen of Eva’s mobile phone made his eyes widen in surprise.
CHAPTER TEN
EVA felt more than a little awkward when she entered the kitchen half an hour later. Her hair was still damp from the shower and she wore no make-up, although she had accepted Markos’s invitation and borrowed one of his shirts from the dressing room—a cream silk. She felt less conspicuous wearing the shirt over her figure-hugging evening gown like a jacket, the sleeves turned up to just beneath her elbows.
Markos had obviously been busy in her absence. A salad and a selection of cheeses were laid out temptingly on the breakfast bar, and she could see from the dampness of his dark hair and clean-shaven jaw, as he turned to look at her from beneath hooded lids, that he had also taken a shower and freshened up in one of
the apartment’s many other bathrooms. He was wearing black denims and a fitted white T-shirt which emphasised both his muscled chest and the natural tan of his skin. Markos looked more edible than the food!
This was not what Eva wanted to feel after deciding earlier on today that she was going to be sophisticated and casual about all this, and not try to make it into something it wasn’t. As far as Markos was concerned, anyway. Eva would have time to sit and decide how she felt about it once she was safely back in her own apartment.
The guarded look in Markos’s expression as he put a basket of freshly baked bread on the breakfast bar before sitting down on one of the stools only served to confirm that Eva needed to act cool as well as sophisticated.
‘This all looks delicious!’ she complimented him brightly as she sat on the stool opposite him. ‘I’ll just eat a little something and then I really do have to leave.’
His expression was still guarded. ‘I thought we could talk
first.’
Eva avoided his piercing green gaze as she concentrated on breaking open a piece of the crispy bread. ‘I’m not really one for post-mortems, are you?’ she dismissed lightly. ‘We had fun together. Let’s just leave it at that.’
Markos looked across at her. ‘Can we do that?’
She gave him a startled look. ‘Sorry…?’
Markos leant his elbows on the breakfast bar and continued to stare across at her. ‘You had a telephone call earlier when you were in the shower.’
Her eyes widened, her thoughts racing at Markos’s continued aggression. ‘And you answered it…?’ If Jack had carried out his threat to ‘be in touch…’
‘No.’ His eyes glittered through narrowed lids. ‘I decided not to after seeing the identity of the caller on the display.’
Eva moistened suddenly dry lips. ‘And…?’
‘And it would seem that you forgot to mention we have a mutual acquaintance,’ he commented mildly. Too mildly.