Page 65 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 1-4

‘I will look after you,’ Mr Katsaros interrupted unexpectedly, his voice like stone, heavy with authority.

Nell blinked.

He’d turned to look at her again, his dark grey eyes boring into hers, radiating that peculiar intensity that sent a hot, electric feeling through her. It was disturbing.Hewas disturbing.

Rattled, she dredged up a sunny yet impersonal smile. ‘Thank you. That’s a very kind offer, but I couldn’t possibly put you to the trouble.’

His gaze remained unblinking, making her feel as if she were a specimen on a slide put under a very powerful microscope. ‘It is no trouble.’

The electric feeling intensified, which disturbed her even more, so she smiled harder. ‘As I said, it’s very kind of you, but...well. You’re a complete stranger and I have no idea who you are.’

‘Aristophanes Katsaros,’ he said without hesitation, as if he’d been waiting hours for her to ask. ‘Google me.’

The doctor, who was checking her phone and now looking even more harried, glanced at Nell. ‘I need to do a few checks before we can let you go, Miss Underwood. But I can’t release you if you don’t have anyone to be with you.’

The pain in Nell’s head receded to a dull ache. ‘As I said, I have a neighbour who can—’

‘You will be in no danger,’ the preposterously named Aristophanes Katsaros interrupted yet again, that storm-grey gaze not moving from hers. ‘Not from me. I have a doctor on my staff who can keep an eye on you.’

At that moment an alarm sounded from somewhere beyond the curtain around her bed, and people began shouting. The doctor pulled a face, then vanished back out through the curtain without another word.

Clearly some emergency was happening.

Mr Katsaros didn’t move, making the confined space seem even smaller than it was already, filling it with a tense, kinetic energy that made her heart beat hard. And it wasn’t with fear. She didn’t know what it was.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, going into firm teacher mode automatically. ‘But I don’t know you from a bar of soap. And while I’m grateful for you coming to my rescue, I don’t understand why you’d suddenly want to spend the next twenty-four hours looking after me.’

He stared down at her from his great height, standing quite still and yet somehow making the air around him vibrate with that strange electricity. His gaze flicked along the length of her body stretched out on the bed then came back to her face, the dark storm grey turning to silver. ‘Do you have anyone else?’

Abruptly, she became conscious that her slinky black dress was damp and clinging to every single curve she had and that...oh, yes, she wasn’t wearing underwear.

Her cheeks burned. How bloody mortifying. Here she was in this stupid dress that she’d put on for Clayton, with no underwear, lying in hospital because she’d knocked herself out. And this man had rescued her. He likely already knew what she had on underneath, or rather what shedidn’thave on underneath. What must he think of her?

Nell wanted to grab a blanket and pull it over herself, hide away from this far too magnetic man’s gaze, but there wasn’t one. All she could do was brazen it out, pretend she was wearing a suit of armour instead of a layer of cheap black jersey.

She gave him a very direct, quelling look. ‘I’ve already said I have a neighbour.’

‘Will they be able to stay with you the entire time?’ he asked. ‘A head injury can be very dangerous.’

Nell gritted her teeth. He was being very...insistent and she couldn’t fathom why. The real problem, though, was that Mrs Martin, her neighbour, was eighty-five and had a bad hip. She used a walker, too, and, while Nell thought she could manage to pop in a couple of times over the course of twenty-four hours, Nell certainly couldn’t ask her to stay.

Which meant Nell was in a difficult position.

She stared at Aristophanes Katsaros, who stared back intently, silver glittering in his eyes. It made her skin feel tight, that look, made her feel restless in a way she couldn’t pinpoint. As if she were excited or thrilled by the way he looked at her, which couldn’t be right. Why would she be excited about that?

Clayton never looked at you that way.

No, he hadn’t. He’d been patient with her at first when she’d refused to sleep with him, telling her that it was fine, he’d wait. But then he’d been less patient, more irritated, making vague comments about his ‘needs’ and wasn’t she being a little selfish?

Anger flickered at the memory and, briefly, she thought about lying to the demanding Mr Katsaros, but a lie involving a head injury would be very stupid and she wasn’t stupid.

‘No,’ she said with a bit of bite in her tone. ‘No, they will not be able to stay with me the entire time.’

‘In that case you will come with me.’ He said it as if that were the most logical thing in the world.

‘I don’t know you from—’

‘Google me.’

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