loads of men until she found someone else who knew how to do it properly. He couldn’t be the only person.
Noticing the neighbour’s curtains twitching, Kelly groaned. She was giving everyone enough to gossip about for at least two lifetimes. ‘Don’t you dare kiss me here. Mrs Hill is ninety-six and she watches from the window. You’ll give her a heart attack.’
Climbing out of the car, she glanced dubiously at Alekos, wondering how he always managed to look completely at home in his surroundings. Boardroom or beach, city or tiny village, he was confident in himself, and it showed. He stood outside her house, the early-evening sunlight glinting off his dark hair, his face so extraordinarily handsome that it took her breath away. Four years had simply added to his raw sex appeal, adding breadth to his shoulders and a hardness to his features that had been missing before.
‘This is where you live?’
Kelly bristled. ‘We’re not all millionaires,’ she muttered. ‘And it’s very bad-mannered of you to look down your nose.’
‘I’m not looking down my nose.’ He shot her an impatient look. ‘Stop being so sensitive and stop imagining what I’m thinking because, believe me, you don’t have a clue. I’m just surprised, that’s all. It’s really quiet here, and you are a very sociable person. I imagined you living in London and going to parties every night.’
Not wanting to flatter his ego by revealing what a mess she’d been after he’d left, Kelly fumbled in her bag for her keys. ‘I am out every night. You’d be surprised.’
He glanced around him, one eyebrow lifted. ‘You’re right. I’d be very surprised. Are you trying to tell me this place comes alive at midnight?’
Kelly thought of the badgers, foxes and hedgehogs that invaded her garden. ‘It’s really lively. There’s a sort of underground nightlife.’ It came to something, she thought gloomily, when badgers had a more interesting sex life than you did. But that was partly her fault, wasn’t it? After the press had torn her apart, she’d hidden away. ‘Wait there; I’ll bring you the ring.’
‘I’ll come in with you. I’d hate to give your neighbour a heart attack, and we’re attracting too much attention out here.’
Her eyes slid from his powerful shoulders to his hard jaw and she looked away quickly, her stomach churning. The thought of him in her little cottage made her heart-rate double. ‘I don’t want you in my home, Alekos.’
His answer to that was to remove the keys from her hand and stride towards her front door.
Enraged, Kelly sprinted after him. ‘Don’t you dare go into my house without invitation!’
‘There’s a simple solution to that: invite me.’
‘I will not. I only invite nice people into my home, and you—’ she stabbed his chest with her finger ‘—are definitely not a nice person.’
‘Why did you sell my ring?’
‘Why did you leave me on our wedding day?’
He inhaled sharply. ‘I’ve told you.’
‘You were doing me a favour—yes, I heard you. You have a warped sense of what constitutes generous behaviour.’
For once he seemed to be struggling to find the right words. ‘It was difficult for me.’
‘Tell me about it. On second thoughts, don’t bother. I don’t even want to know.’ Kelly decided that she couldn’t bear to hear him list all the reasons she was wrong for him. Couldn’t bear to hear him compare her to the skinny, sophisticated blonde she’d seen in the magazine. ‘Come in, if you must. I’ll get the ring and then you can go.’
He stood still, immovable. ‘I know I hurt you—’
‘Gosh, you’re quick, I’ll give you that.’ Kelly snatched the keys back from him and opened her door. She wished he’d just give up and go away, but Alekos didn’t give up, did he? It was that unstoppable tenacity that had made him into the rich, powerful man he was. He didn’t see obstacles; he had a goal and he pursued it, ploughing down everything in his path if necessary. Yet he was praised as a truly innovative businessman with inspirational leadership-skills. And as for his skills as a lover…
Refusing to think about that, Kelly pushed open her front door, wincing slightly as the door jammed on a pile of magazines. ‘Sorry.’ She shoved at the door. ‘I’ve been trying to throw them away.’
‘Trying?’
Kelly stiffened defensively. ‘I find it hard, throwing things away. I’m always scared I’ll get rid of something I might want.’ Stooping, she gathered the magazines, looked hesitantly at the recycling box and then put them back down on the floor. ‘And some of these magazines have some really interesting articles I might want to read again some day.’
Alekos was looking at her intently, as if she were a fascinating creature from another planet. ‘You always did drop everything where you stood.’ The faint amusement in his eyes was the final straw.
‘Yes, well, none of us are perfect, and at least I don’t deliberately try and hurt people,’ Kelly snapped—then gasped in horror as he smacked his forehead hard on the doorframe. ‘Oh—mind out! Poor you—are you OK? Are you hurt? I’ll get you some ice.’ Sympathy bubbled over until she remembered she wasn’t supposed to feel sympathy for this man. ‘These cottages are old. You need to bend your head coming through there.’
Rubbing his fingers over his bronzed forehead, he grimaced. ‘You need to warn people before they knock themselves unconscious.’
‘It’s not a problem for anyone under six foot.’
‘I’m six-three.’
She didn’t need reminding. He towered over her, all broad shoulders and pumping testosterone.
Unsettled, Kelly took a step backwards. ‘Yes, well, you should have been looking where you were going.’
‘I was looking at you.’ His irritable tone implied he was less than pleased about that fact, but for some reason his reluctant confession really cheered her up.
The fact that she could still make this man miss his step gave her a ridiculous sense of feminine satisfaction. Maybe she wasn’t thin and blonde, but he still noticed her whether he wanted to or not.
But satisfaction was short lived as she realised his wide shoulders virtually filled the hallway. Sexual awareness and a cloying, dangerous heat spread through her cosy cottage. Trapping a man like Alekos in this confined space was like putting a tiger in a small cage: fine if you were on the other side of the wire.
Frightened by how quickly her composure was deserting her, Kelly dumped her keys on a pile of unopened letters, wondering why being with him instantly made her think of sex. Their relationship hadn’t just been about sex, so why was she suddenly thinking about nothing but it?
Probably because her sex life had been so unfulfilling since they had parted, she thought wistfully. Suddenly she wished she hadn’t been so choosy over the last few years. If she’d had an active sex life, maybe she wouldn’t be feeling this way.
Maybe that nagging ache wouldn’t be present.
The truth was she’d poured her energies into her teaching, ignoring that other side of herself, pretending that it didn’t exist.
But it did exist.
It was as if just seeing him had flicked a switch inside her, reminded her what she was missing.
Too aware of his physical presence in her tiny hallway, Kelly walked through to the kitchen.
Alekos followed, this time bending his head to avoid the threat of the low beam. ‘This house is a death trap.’
‘For some, maybe. Perhaps it senses who is welcome and who isn’t. It presents no