“I beg your pardon?”
Andreas sighed and gave her a light push between the shoulder blades to encourage her on deck.
“Stephanos obviously assumed from your negative behavior that you weren’t a personal guest of mine. He would never have dared to proposition you otherwise. He must have deduced, quite rightly, that you were a new member of the Lazarides team. Only one with an attitude. And that you were available.”
Kizzy furiously bit back her indignation as she began to climb the steps.
“Well, aren’t I?” she whispered, for fear of being heard by Stephanos, who was now unloading boxes and shouting instructions to a crew decked out in crisp white shirts. “Or is there going to be a special Grecian clause built into my contract of employment that insists I’m a modern-day vestal virgin?”
Andreas paused momentarily on the steps.
“It’s not something I had considered,” he replied, and his eyes wandered lazily up to the curved peach of her behind. “But I could certainly have it drafted in, if you think it necessary. Although there would have to be certain medical niceties you would need to attend to on the issue of…your innocence, let us say.”
“That’s not something I would particularly welcome.”
She reached the top of the steps and walked shakily across the pale wooden deck, praying that the deep blush she now felt crawling up her throat would be gone before she had to face him again.
Why on earth had she been stupid enough to allude to her notable lack of experience with men?
“Besides,” she blurted out, a little too loudly for her own comfort, “such a contract would probably be illegal.”
Kizzy stared defiantly out to sea as she took off her jacket, her chin lifting with a burst of imaginary confidence.
“You may be correct.” Placing himself just millimeters away from her tense body, Andreas leaned against the glass and steel balcony of the deck with his back to the ocean. Sliding his hands into his trouser pockets, he tipped his head back to survey her. “But this conversation has gone to prove something quite important.”
“It has?”
Kizzy’s response was as brittle as a shard of ice, catching in her throat as her nerves throbbed. She felt the intimidating, pulsing warmth of his large frame, and her lungs shamelessly clawed in his scent—the leather and limes of an expensive cologne mingled with his own unique, masculine essence.
“It has highlighted the fact that I know too little about you, Kizzy. This is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue,” he murmured.
The rational side of Kizzy’s brain could barely comprehend what was happening as he leaned toward her. She had been inadvertently drawn to the captivating sight of his mouth as he had been speaking, and had wondered, just for a microsecond, what his lips would feel like on hers. Soft and tender? Or hard and plundering?
Well, now she knew. Every nerve ending thrilled beneath his mouth over hers, the velvet pressure of him becoming more intense as every second passed. Kizzy felt herself give in to the powerful circle of his arms, unable to resist the dance of his tongue with hers. Sensations she had never known, never even dreamed of, seared through her as she leaned into the heat of his torso. She became aware that her fingertips were skimming the edge of his leather belt, when suddenly she was being thrust away into a much colder place.
The distance between them was no more than a few inches, but it felt like miles as Kizzy’s eyes flickered open with bewilderment. She focused on the dark storm of Andreas’s features as he wrenched at the knot of his tie.
“Stephanos!” Andreas acknowledged the man’s sudden presence behind them with an irritated wave of the hand. “It’s been some weeks since we spoke, my friend. How are Loretta and the twins?”
“They are well, Kyrios,” Stephanos replied, his eyes flicking between Kizzy and Andreas with awkward curiosity. “My sister thanks you for the package you sent. It was unexpected.”
“I am pleased she has recovered, Stephanos.” Andreas turned abruptly toward the front of the yacht. “Please inform Captain Yiannis that I will be up shortly to speak with him.”
Kizzy watched Stephanos scuttle away. “I think he was embarrassed,” she said, remaining silent about her own newly emerging confusion.
“That was the idea,” Andreas replied sharply. “It saves me the unpleasantness of disciplining him. He won’t approach you again.”
“So you knew he was there?”
His expressionless eyes flickered disparagingly over her for an excruciating moment, and then he ripped his tie completely off.
“Of course. Why else would I have kissed you?”
Chapter Three
Andreas leaned wordlessly against the handrail, ignoring Kizzy’s awkward silence as he stared out across azure waves glinting with flashes of evening sunshine. His last remark had been cruel and dishonest, he admitted that much. But it had served a greater purpose in helping him see what made Kizzy Dean tick.
As his head began to clear from the drugging effect of their kiss, he noted with interest that Kizzy had seemed more embarrassed at being caught in a compromising situation than Stephanos had been in stumbling across them in the first place. Acutely so, in fact. Yet, at the same time, she had been so responsive to his kiss he would have sworn she was far more experienced than she appeared.
Was she a deeply practiced and artful man-eater perhaps? A gold digger with more brains than were good for her?
She certainly had the confused virgin act well rehearsed, he thought drily. But with all those qualifications behind her, why didn’t she have a proper graduate job with decent prospects? Living in a shabby room over a record-breaking loser of a restaurant certainly seemed beneath her capabilities—on paper anyway.
Nothing about Kizzy Dean seemed to add up; he couldn’t work her out at all, which was unusual. And infuriating.
But then she wouldn’t add up if she was an accomplished liar, would she? And there was no doubt that Kizzy was a liar; he’d had firsthand proof of that at the London Eye, hadn’t he?
Andreas suddenly realized that he had reached a point where he was compelled to find out more about this enticing creature or go mad with curiosity. It would be a professional quest, he reasoned with himself, and had absolutely nothing to do with the way the taste of her still danced upon his lips—his heart was beating much faster than normal.
Years of being a top lawyer had taught him how to read a person within minutes. If he couldn’t figure out the true motivation and character of this woman, then no one could. Yet one thing was for sure—Kizzy Dean was an enigma.