just hear me out?’
‘You’re the one who seems to be tongue-tied, Miss Preston. While my precious time bleeds away. So let me make this easy for you. You have one minute to state your business. I advise you to make it worthwhile, for both our sakes.’
Or what?
For a single moment I feared I’d blurted the words, the volatile mix of annoyance and trepidation having finally broken me. But he didn’t seem any more incandescent. Simply terribly hacked off at my continued delay in spilling the beans.
‘I was fired this morning because...’ pause, deep breath ‘...because I accidentally destroyed your...’ I squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them, he was still there, breathtaking and immovable as a marble statue.
Firm, sensually curved lips flattened. ‘My what?’ he demanded tersely.
Tension vibrated through me as I forced my vocal cords to work. ‘I destroyed...your...your stored sperm sample.’
For a horribly tense minute he simply stared at me with utter confusion—as if he couldn’t quite comprehend my words—and then that face that defied description tautened into a mask of pure, cold disbelief.
‘You. Did. What?’
It wasn’t shouted. Or whispered. It was even toned. And absolutely deadly.
I shivered from head to toe, severely doubting my ability ever to speak again as I opened my mouth and words failed to emerge.
Terrifying seconds ticked away as we stood in rigid silence, gazes locked.
‘Speak,’ he commanded, again without so much as any inflexion in his voice. His lips had gone white with grim fury and he was barely breathing.
I prised my tongue from the roof of my mouth. To do what I’d come here to do. Appeal to his better nature.
Taking a hesitant step towards him, I tried a small smile. ‘Mr Xenakis—’
One hand erupted from his pocket in a halting motion. ‘Do not attempt to cajole. Do not attempt to prevaricate. I want the facts. Bare and immediate.’
This time his voice had altered. It was a primordial rumble. Like the nape-tingling premonition before a cataclysmic event.
My smile evaporated. ‘When I arrived at work this morning...’ late because of my mother and another futile attempt to get through to her ‘... I was given a list of samples to dispose of. I... It’s not part of my job description, but—’
‘What is your actual job at the Phoenix Clinic?’ The barest hint of an accent had thickened his voice, making him impossibly sexier.
‘I’m a receptionist.’
It was the only half-decent paying job I could find that would support my mother and me until I figured out a way to help her out of her dark tunnel of despair and resume the marketing degree I’d suspended so I could care for her.
‘And what business does a receptionist have handling patient samples?’
His tone was a chilling blade of reason. He wasn’t furious. Not yet, anyway. Right now Neo Xenakis was on a cold, fact-finding mission.
I managed to answer. ‘It’s not the usual procedure, but we were severely short-staffed today and the list I was given stated that the samples had already been triple-checked.’
‘Obviously not. Or you wouldn’t be here, would you?’ he rasped.
A wave of shame hit me. My error could have been avoided if I hadn’t been so frazzled. If I hadn’t been worried that my mother and I were about to lose the roof over our heads. If my boss’s medical secretary hadn’t called in sick, leaving me as temporary—and infinitely unlucky—cover.
About to attempt another pleading of my case, I froze when a loud buzz sounded from his desk.
For the longest time he stared at me, as if trying to decipher whether or not everything I’d told him was some sort of hoax.
When the intercom sounded again, he strode to his desk with unbridled impatience. ‘Yes?’ he grated.
‘There’s a Spencer Donnelly on the line for you, sir. He says it’s urgent.’
My breath caught. He heard it and speared me with narrow-eyed speculation. To his assistant, he said, ‘I don’t believe I know a Spencer Donnelly. Who is he?’
I stepped forward, earning myself more intense scrutiny. ‘That’s my boss. My ex-boss, I mean. I think he’s calling you to explain.’
And most likely to ensure the blame stayed squarely on my shoulders.
Neo hit the mute button. ‘Is he responsible for what happened?’ he demanded from me.
‘Not...not directly. But he’s the head of the clinic—’
‘I don’t care what his role is. I care about who’s directly responsible. Are you saying it was you and you alone?’
My nape heated at the imminent fall of the axe, but seeing as there was nothing more I could do but admit my total culpability, I nodded. ‘Yes. It was my fault.’
His nostrils flared as he unmuted the line. ‘Take a message,’ he informed his assistant, then sauntered back to where I stood.
For another stomach-churning minute he pinned me beneath his gaze. ‘Tell me what your intention was in coming here, Miss Preston,’ he invited silkily.
His even voice did not soothe me for one second. Whatever his reason for depositing a sperm sample at a fertility clinic, the consequences of my mistake would be brutal.
Alternate heat and cold flashed through my veins. I would have given everything I owned to be able to flee from his presence. But, seeing as fate and circumstance had already taken everything from me, leaving me with very little of value...
‘I thought you deserved to hear the truth from me. And also my a-apology,’ I said, my throat threatening to close up at the look on his face.
He said nothing, simply waited for several seconds before he elevated that characterful eyebrow, his silent sarcasm announcing that I hadn’t actually proffered any apology.
I cursed the heat rushing gleefully into my face at his icy mockery as he saw what he was doing to me. ‘I...I’m sorry, Mr Xenakis. I didn’t mean to destroy your property. If there was a way to undo it, I would...’ I stopped, knowing the words were useless. There was no reversing what I’d done.
‘And I’m simply to let you off the hook, am I? Based on you doing the honourable thing by coming here to throw yourself on my mercy?’
What could I say to that? ‘I know it’s a lot to ask, but I promise I didn’t mean to.’
His gaze dropped and I caught the faintest shake of his head as a wave of disbelief flared over his face again. For the longest time he stared at the carpet, his jaw clenching and unclenching as he fought whatever emotion gripped him so tightly.
In that moment, my senses wanted to do the unthinkable and put myself in his shoes—but, no. I couldn’t afford to get emotionally carried away.
If, by some cruel twist of fate, there was something wrong with Neo Xenakis’s reproductive equipment, wouldn’t he have seemed a little...desolate, somehow, instead of looking as if he could go toe to toe with Zeus? And win?
Several expressions flitted across his features, too fast to decipher. But when he lifted his gaze to mine once more, chilling premonition swept over me.
Mr Donnelly had known I wouldn’t be let off scot-free, which was why he’d insisted I be the first in the line of fire in admitting culpability. The hurried internet search I’d done on the bus ride into the city had left me reeling at the enormity of the adversary I’d unwittingly created with one fatalistic click of the mouse.
Neo