When Christakos Meets His Match

Sidonie opened her eyes again and glanced left. Alexio was looking stern, but with a twitch of a smile playing around his mouth. Lord, oh, Lord. She said, a little breathlessly, ‘I think somehow that your armrests can withstand my feeble attempts to bend them out of shape.’

‘Nevertheless,’ Alexio replied easily, ‘I won’t let it be said that I couldn’t offer support to a valued customer in her hour of need.’

CHAPTER TWO

SOMETHING HOT AND shivery went through Sidonie’s body. He was flirting with her. She felt as if she was teetering on the edge of a huge canyon, with the exhilaration of the fall reaching out to beckon her into the unknown. He was so utterly gorgeous, and so charming when he turned it on. It was smooth, practised. And she was no match for a man like him.

With her body screaming resistance, Sidonie pulled her hand free from his grip and smiled tightly. ‘I’ll be fine. But, thanks.’

His eyes flashed for a second, as if he were taken aback or surprised. The regret in Sidonie’s body was like a sharp pang.

She clasped her hands in her lap, well out of reach, and turned her head, closing her eyes so that she didn’t have to look out of the window. Her battle with fear as the plane took off was being eclipsed by her need not to show it to the man beside her.

More than once she wished that he’d take her hand again. His palm had felt ever so slightly callused. The hands of a working man, not a pampered man.

‘You can open your eyes now. The seatbelt sign is about to go off.’

Sidonie took a deep breath and opened her eyes, releasing her hands from their death grip on each other. Alexio was looking at her. She had the impression that he’d been looking at her the whole time. She felt clammy. Hot.

He held out his hand then, and said, ‘I believe you already know who I am, but I don’t know who you are...’

He wasn’t backing off. Butterflies erupted in Sidonie’s belly again. She couldn’t ignore him. She put her hand in his, unable to help a small smile which was only in part to do with the trauma of take-off being over.

‘Sidonie Fitzgerald—pleased to meet you.’

He clasped her hand and once again an electric current seemed to thrum through her blood.

‘Sidonie...’ he mused. ‘It sounds French.’

‘It is. My mother chose it. I told you she was French.’

‘That’s right...you did.’

He was still holding her hand and Sidonie felt as if she was overheating. ‘Did they just turn the heating up?’

‘You do look hot. Maybe you should take your sweatshirt off.’

He finally released her hand and it tingled. Faintly, Sidonie said, ‘I’m sure I’ll be fine...’ She had no intention of baring herself to this man’s far too assessing gaze.

It was then that Sidonie remembered what they’d been talking about. The fact that they’d both lost their mothers recently. That feeling of kinship. Feeling exposed now, she looked away and reached for her book. She held it for a minute and then turned to Alexio again. He had put his head back against the seat, closed his eyes. She felt ridiculously deflated for a moment.

But then she realised she could drink him in unobserved. His profile was patrician. His eyes deep-set, with long dark lashes. His cheekbones would have made a woman weep with envy, but the stark lines of his face took away any pretty edges.

His jaw was firm, even in repose, and she could see the faint stubbling of fresh beard growth. A spasm of lust gripped her between her legs, taking her by surprise. She’d never experienced such raw desire. She’d had a couple of boyfriends at college and had had sex, but it had all been a bit...bland. A lot of fuss over nothing. Mildly excruciating. The guys had certainly seemed to enjoy it more than she had.

She could imagine, though, that this man knew exactly what to do...how to make a woman feel exactly as she should. Especially a man with a mouth like his...sensual and wicked. Hard lines but soft contours... Sidonie pressed her legs together to stop the betraying throb between them. She hadn’t even known she had a pulse there, but she could feel it now, like a beacon.

‘It’s rude to stare, you know.’

Sidonie sprang back. Cheeks flaming. One lazy eye had opened and was focused on her, seeing her mortification.

She spluttered, ‘How did you know?’

Before she could feel any more embarrassed he bent down and his head of thick dark hair, closely cropped to his skull, came dangerously near to her thighs. Heat bloomed from Sidonie’s groin.

Then he straightened up, holding her book in his hand. He took a quick glance at the title before handing it back to her and commenting dryly, ‘Techniques for Analysing Successful Business Structures? That’s bound to send you to sleep.’

Sidonie scowled and took the book from him jerkily. ‘I’m trying to keep up with my course so that when I go back I won’t be too rusty.’

Alexio dipped his head. ‘Very commendable.’

Sidonie felt defensive and wasn’t even sure why. ‘Some of us have to study the subject. We don’t have the natural ability or the support to be able to launch a stratospherically successful business first time.’

His mouth tightened and Sidonie knew she’d raised his hackles.

‘I didn’t have any support—or did your case study not cover that?’

Sidonie flushed and looked down, inspecting a spot of dirt on her jeans. She looked up again. ‘I didn’t mean it to sound like that... It’s common knowledge that you turned your back on your inheritance... However, you can’t deny that your background must have given you confidence and an anticipation of success that most mere mortals mightn’t feel or experience.’

His face relaxed somewhat and Sidonie felt herself relax too. Weird.

‘You’re right,’ he surprised her by admitting. ‘After all, I grew up absorbing my father’s business nous whether I want to admit it or not. And I had the best education money could buy... My brother is also a successful entrepreneur, so I learnt from him too.’

Sidonie was itching to ask him why he’d turned his back on his inheritance, but just then the stewardess turned up with a trolley, smiling winsomely at Alexio. Sidonie felt the most bizarre rise of something hot and visceral. Possessiveness. It shocked her so much that she shrank back.

Her sweatshirt felt hot and constricting, even more so now, and Sidonie longed to feel cool. While Alexio was distracted, ordering some coffee from the woman, Sidonie whipped it over her head—only to emerge seconds later to find two pairs of eyes on her. The distinctly cold blue of the stewardess and a green gaze, intent and disturbing.

‘What...?’ She looked from Alexio to the woman, who now spoke to her in tones even cooler than her arctic gaze.

‘Would you like some tea or coffee, madam?’

In fluent French Sidonie replied that she would love some tea. She could sense the small smile playing around Alexio’s mouth without even looking. Her skin prickled as she put down her table and accepted the steaming tea. She felt exposed now, in her loose singlet top, even though it was layered over another one.

Before she could reach for her purse Alexio had paid for her drink as well as his. Not a welcome move, according to the pursed lips of the stewardess who moved on with barely disguised huffiness.

Alexio seemed oblivious, though.

‘Thank you,’ Sidonie said. ‘You didn’t have to do that.’

He shrugged. ‘It’s nothing—my pleasure.’

Sidonie shivered a little to think of his pleasure.

To get away from such carnal imaginings, she remarked, ‘How is it beneficial to do a spot-check on one of your planes if everyone knows who you are?’ He quirked a brow at her as he took a sip of coffee and Sidonie blustered a bit. ‘Well, you know what I mean. That stewardess will obviously be doing her best to impress.’

‘True,’ he conceded, and put his cup down.

Sidonie was acutely aware of how dark his hands looked against the cup, how large.