Page 7 of Virgin's Night with the Greek

Yet even before his brother blew out a breath and murmured a low, admiring ‘Wow’, Leo registered the moment Willow arrived. His entire body tensed. His clothes suddenly felt too tight. His heart rate accelerated and he was aware of it drumming fast and hard everywhere.

‘Who’s that?’

Despite his every intention not to, he shifted slightly to look in the direction of Zander’s gaze, at the woman who was turning to the waiter standing at the door with a tray upon which stood a dozen glasses of champagne. In direct opposition to every effort he made to remain immune, the impact of her hit him like a kick in the chest.

He recognised the wide, stunning smile she gave the waiter as she accepted a glass. He could entirely sympathise with the poor guy, who was blushing and staring at her like a deer in the headlights. That smile had knocked him for six the first time he’d seen it, too.

On the other hand, maybe it was the dress—long, pale yellow, sequinned and just tight enough—that had rendered the waiter speechless. Or her hair. What colourwasit? Or should that be colours? Because it wasn’t just pink, as he assumed when it had been wet from the pool. The wavy predominantly blond tresses that were swept off her face and rippled down her back were also streaked with blue and green. She didn’t just paint in pastels...she wore them on her head.

‘That’s the artist,’ he said, running a finger around the inside of his collar and stretching his neck to ease his oddly laboured breathing.

‘A unicorn appears to be missing its mane.’

‘So it would seem.’

‘Want to bet that she’s the only one here with beads in her hair?’

‘No.’

‘She’s stunning.’

‘If you like that sort of thing.’ Which, to his irritation, apparently, he did, despite the offensive nature of pretty much everything about her.

While Zander continued to mutter appreciative inanities about Willow’s singular look, in raptures over her striking features and spectacular figure, Leo watched her enter the mêlée and introduce herself to a group of Italian socialites. As she chatted and laughed he thought darkly that it was no wonder she didn’t need business cards. She was unforgettable. Anything but subtle. And as for not noticing her, how on earth wouldthatever be possible?

As if aware he was watching her, she suddenly glanced up, her eyes locking with his. For a second she went still, then flashed him another of those incendiary smiles, which momentarily stole the breath from his lungs and fogged his head.

But he recovered swiftly enough. He was well accustomed to stamping out rogue flares of wildness that he’d occasionally experienced over the years when his guard slipped. So he offered her a brief nod—no smile—in return, switched his attention back to his mother, and they were done. His and Willow’s paths need never cross again. He had no reason to talk to her. No need to thank her for persuading Selene to see sense for once. He would not surrender to the demands of his body, however clamouring they were, and seek her out simply because he wanted to. He would not be that weak.

‘She has quite a smile.’

She did. ‘I hadn’t noticed.’

‘No, well, lucky for me, she’s my type, not yours.’

Once again, Zander was right. And that was fine. His brother could make Willow’s acquaintance and flirt with her all he liked. He wasn’t remotely bothered. It wasn’t as if she’d be around for long. The women his brother set his sights on never were. ‘Good luck.’

‘Thanks. Not that I’ll need it. You should try it some time.’

‘Try what?’

‘Lightening up. You know what they say about all work and no play.’

Leo stiffened. Yes, well,someonehad to keep the multibillion business he’d inherited from their father afloat. ‘You play enough for both of us.’

‘Only because you won’t let go of the reins and I have a lot of spare time to fill.’

‘You’re chief commercial officer.’

‘Which, thanks to your control issues, I do with one hand tied behind my back.’

Leo didn’t have the head space for his brother’s familiar grumblings. He’d turned his mind to strategising. Tomorrow he’d have a nice little chat with his mother and make her see the error of her ways in wanting to put the portrait on show. How he’d forgotten that he held her purse strings and therefore all the cards was a mystery. Within twenty-four hours, scandal would be averted. Willow and the havoc she wreaked on him would be gone and the compromise she’d negotiated out of him would be history. Once he’d stopped dreaming about her, he could forget he’d ever met her. Order would be restored and normality would resume.

In the meantime, there was an evening to get through, an unpredictable parent to keep an eye on and seven hundred guests to greet.

‘Where are you going?’ Zander murmured, not even bothering to take his gaze off the unicorn mermaid siren down below.

‘The net worth of this room runs into the hundreds of billions,’ said Leo, the irrational and inexplicable irritation he suddenly felt towards his brother as unnecessary as it was perplexing. ‘There’s business to be done. You and I, therefore, are going to mingle.’

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