‘This very second,’ put in Ariston silkily before adding, ‘Should he have checked with you first?’
Pavlos bent to brush a brief kiss over each of her cheeks before giving her a quick smile. ‘I’ll message you later. Okay?’
‘Sure.’ She stood and watched him leave, aware that Ariston was still standing behind her but not trusting herself even to look at him. Instead, she tried very hard to concentrate on the photo she’d been studying—a sheltered bay where you could just make out shapes of giant turtles swimming in the crystal-clear waters. Perhaps he might just take the hint and go away. Leave her alone so that she could get to work on forgetting him all over again.
‘I can’t quite work out whether you are completely oblivious to my presence,’ he said, in his dark, accented voice, ‘or whether you just get a kick out of ignoring me.’
He had moved closer to stand beside her and Keeley lifted her gaze to find herself caught in that piercing sapphire stare and the resulting rush of blood went straight to her head. And her breasts. She could feel them become heavy and aching as the slow beat of her blood engorged them. Her mouth dried. How did he do that? Her fingers had grown numb and she was feeling almost dizzy but somehow she managed to compose a cool sentence. ‘Why, do women always notice you whenever you walk into a room?’
‘What do you think?’
And it was then that Keeley realised that she didn’t have to play this game. Or any game. He was nothing to her. Nothing. So stop acting like he’s got some kind of power over you. Yes, she’d once made a stupid mistake—but so what? It was a long time ago. She’d been young and stupid and she’d paid her dues—not to him, but to the universe—and she didn’t owe him anything. Not even politeness.
‘Honestly?’ She gave a short laugh. ‘I think you’re unbelievably rude and arrogant, as well as having the most over-inflated ego of any man I’ve ever met.’
He raised his brows. ‘And I imagine you must have met quite a few in your time.’
‘Nowhere near the amount of women you must have notched up, if the papers are to be believed.’
‘I don’t deny it—but if you try to play the numbers game I’m afraid you’ll never win.’ His eyes glittered. ‘Didn’t anyone ever tell you that the rules for men and the rules for women are very different, koukla mou?’
‘Only in the outdated universe you seem to occupy.’
He gave a careless shrug. ‘It may not be fair but I’m afraid it’s a fact of life. And men are allowed to behave in a way which would be disapproved of in a woman.’
His voice had dipped into a velvety caress and it was having precisely the wrong effect on her. Keeley could feel a hot flush of colour flooding into her cheeks as she made to move away.
‘Let me pass, please,’ she said, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘I don’t have to stand here and listen to this kind of Neanderthal...rubbish.’
‘No, you’re right. You don’t.’ He placed a restraining hand on her forearm. ‘But before you go, maybe this is the ideal opportunity to get a few things straight between us.’
‘What kind of things?’
‘I think you know what I’m talking about, Keeley.’
‘I’m afraid you’ve lost me.’ She shrugged. ‘Mind-reading was never one of my talents.’
His gaze hardened. ‘Then let me give it to you in words of one syllable, just so there can be no misunderstanding.’ There was a pause. ‘Just stay away from my brother, okay?’
She stared at him in disbelief. ‘Excuse me?’
‘You heard. Leave him alone. Find someone else to dig your beautiful claws into—I’m sure there must be plenty of takers.’
His hand was still on her arm and to the outside world it must have looked like an affectionate gesture between two people who’d just bumped into one another, but to Keeley it felt nothing like that. She could feel the imprint of his fingers through her sweater and it was almost as if he were branding her with his touch—as if he were setting her skin on fire. Angrily, she shook herself free. ‘I can’t believe you have the nerve to come out and say something like that.’
‘Why not? I have his best interests at heart.’
‘You mean you regularly go around warning off Pavlos’s friends?’
‘Up until now I haven’t felt the need to do more than keep a watchful eye on them but today I do. Funny that.’ He gave a mirthless smile. ‘I have no idea of your success rate with men, though I imagine it must be high. But I feel I’d better crush any burgeoning hopes you may have by telling you that Pavlos already has a girlfriend. A beautiful, decent woman he cares for very much and wedding bells are in the air.’ His eyes glittered. ‘So I wouldn’t bother wasting any more time on him if I were you.’
It struck Keeley again how controlling he was. Even now. As if all he had to do was to snap his fingers and everyone would just jump to attention. ‘And does he have any say in the matter?’ she demanded. ‘Have you already chosen the engagement ring? Decided where the wedding is going to be and how many bridesmaids?’
‘Just stay away from him, Keeley,’ he snapped. ‘Understand?’
The irony was that Keeley had absolutely no romantic leanings towards Pavlos Kavakos and never had done. They’d once been close, yes—but in a purely platonic way and she hadn’t seen him in years. Their current friendship, if you could call it that, extended no further than her pressing the occasional ‘like’ button or smiley face whenever he posted a photo of himself with a crowd of beautiful young things revelling in the sunshine. Meeting him today had been comforting because she realised he didn’t care what had happened in the past, but she was aware that they moved in completely different worlds which never collided. He was rich and she was not. She didn’t know or care that he had a girlfriend, but hearing Ariston’s imperious order was like a red rag to a bull.
‘Nobody tells me what to do,’ she said quietly. ‘Not you. Not anyone. You can’t move people around like pawns. I’ll see who I want to see—and you can’t do a thing to stop me. If Pavlos wants to get in touch, I’m not going to turn him away just because you say so. Understand?’
She saw the disbelief on his face which was quickly followed by anger, as if nobody ever dared defy him so openly, and she tried to ignore the sudden sense of foreboding which made her body grow even more tense. But she’d said her piece and now she needed to get away. Get away quickly before she started thinking about how it had felt to have him touch her.
She turned away and walked straight out of the gallery, not noticing that her cream shawl had slipped from her nerveless fingers. All she was aware of was the burn of Ariston’s eyes on her back, which made each step feel like a slow walk to the gallows. The glass elevator arrived almost immediately but Keeley was shaking as it zoomed her down to ground level and her forehead was wet with sweat as she stepped out onto the busy London pavement.
THE JOURNEY BACK to her home in New Malden passed in a blur as Keeley kept remembering the way Ariston had spoken to her—with a contempt he’d made no attempt to disguise. But that hadn’t stopped her breasts from tightening beneath his arrogant scrutiny, had it? Nor that stupid yearning from whispering over her skin every time she’d looked into the blue blaze of his eyes. And now she was going to have to start forgetting him all over again.
A sudden spring shower emptied itself on her head as she emerged from the train station. The April weather was notoriously unpredictable but she was ill-prepared for the rain and hadn’t packed an umbrella. By the time she let herself into her tiny bedsit she was dripping wet and cold and her fingers were trembling as she shut the door. But