Page 23 of Virgin's Night with the Greek

‘Thatisshocking.’

‘I know.’

‘Have you acquired many new clients?’

‘Can you believe I’m booked up for the next twelve months?’

‘That doesn’t surprise me in the least.’

‘Really?’

‘Like I said, you’re very talented. Although once seen, this particular work of yours can’t be unseen,’ he mused, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans and rocking back on his heels, ‘which is something I’ll have to get used to.’

‘Then why come?’

‘I volunteered to take one for the team.’

‘The team?’

‘My siblings. Daphne’s still on honeymoon and strangely enough, the others discovered they had other engagements tonight.’

‘That’s noble.’

‘My motives aren’t that altruistic.’

She found that hard to believe. She didn’t know him well, but what little she did know suggested he had considered the welfare of those closest to him of paramount importance. ‘No?’

‘I figured gatecrashing this evening would be a surefire way of seeing you. After how I reacted the night of the wedding, I didn’t think you’d grant me an audience otherwise.’

Willow took no notice of the faint twinge of discomfort she felt at his referral to the night she’d worked hard to erase from her memory. Instead, she focused on the fact that he was probably right, although his reasoning was wrong. Her mortification, not his reaction, would have been behind her ignoring any calls he might have hypothetically made.

‘Why did you want to see me?’ she asked, puzzled by that because as far as she was concerned they were done. ‘Why did you want an audience?’

‘I have a proposition to put to you.’

He turned to look at her and the impact of his darkly brooding good looks stole the breath from her lungs and the wits from her head. She had to blink to snap the sizzling connection and refocus. ‘What sort of a proposition?’

‘The sort that changed the plan and would be best discussed somewhere more private,’ he said, the sudden gleam in his eye sending a shiver racing down her spine. ‘Follow me.’

Faintly unnerved by the gleam and the possible nature of this ‘proposition’, Willow nevertheless did as Leo instructed since apparently she found his innate authority absurdly attractive and impossible to resist.

Somewhere more private turned out to be the terrace, which was strung with festoon lights and featured glossy planting and intimate seating. It had a spectacular panoramic view of the Parthenon, behind which the sun was setting. Bathed in warm evening light, the two-and-a-half-thousand-year-old shrine to Athena was all soaring columns, golden stone and lengthening shadows, but it was Leo who held her attention. He was a man on a mission and by the time they’d sat down in a secluded booth in the corner at one end of the terrace, her curiosity was at fever pitch.

‘What’s this all about, Leo?’ she asked, the intensity with which he was looking at her electrifying her nerve endings and drying her mouth.

‘It’s occurred to me recently that we have unfinished business.’

Willow’s pulse skipped a beat and her entire body flushed with heat. So much for hoping he’d put the details of that night from his mind as she’d tried to. ‘We don’t,’ she said firmly, not wanting to revisit their so-called unfinished business for so many reasons. ‘We really don’t.’

‘I disagree,’ he countered, the set of his jaw suggesting he was not to be deterred. ‘I owe you an apology. For reacting to the situation badly and letting you walk out.’ He paused, frowned, then added, ‘Most of all, for hurting you in the first place.’

‘That’s not your fault,’ she assured him with an airy wave of her hand, as if she wasn’t curling up with embarrassment inside. ‘It’s all mine. Like I said at the time, I should have warned you it was a possibility.’

‘You weren’t to know.’

‘I was actually. There’s little about my condition Idon’tknow. I got carried away, which was stupid and naive, in hindsight. You certainly weren’t to know, though. I can’t imagine you’d ever hurt someone deliberately.’

‘I endeavour not to.’

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