„So…you live in London, full-time. Do you?‟

„I live primarily in London, but I travel a lot.‟

„Oh, yes. Of course. To visit your parents in Greece, I expect.‟

„Among other things.‟

„What other things?‟

„Work, usually. New York, Paris. Just recently, the Middle East.‟

„Leading eventually to what? A global takeover?‟ She laughed a little nervously and sipped some more of the coffee. „It all sounds very high-powered. And what do you do when you want to relax? Nightclubs?‟

„When I want to relax, I usually go to the Cotswolds. I have a house there. If you perch any closer on the edge of that chair, you‟re going to fall off.‟

Mattie wriggled into a more comfortable position. „You have a house in the Cotswolds. A country retreat.‟

„Something like that.‟ The look he gave her was one of gleaming, devilish amusement.

„Now, aren‟t you going to attack me for the luxury?‟

She shrugged. „I wasn‟t attacking you earlier on, if that‟s what you‟re implying.‟

„No? What were you doing, in that case?‟

„I was reminding you why you don‟t stand a chance in hell of getting me into your bed, never mind your big-headed notion that whatever you want in life you get.‟

„Why don‟t you come and sit here next to me on this sofa and tell me that again?‟

It was like being shot through with a volt of electricity that ran from the tips of her toes to the hair on her scalp, but she made herself look at him with incredulity.

„Is that how you would address the women you go out with?‟ she fired scornfully.

„No, I don‟t suppose it is.‟

„I know that. Because I happen to work in a nightclub, you think that you can speak to me just as you want to and poor, awestruck little me would have no choice but to immediately fall to my feet!‟

„Because the women I go out with would already have taken the decision to sit right here next to me. If, of course, we were here in the first place.‟

The implication in his lazy statement rushed at her and reddened her face.

No, he wouldn‟t be sitting in the foyer here when his apartment was only an elevator ride away.

„Would you be as defensive as you are if we hadn‟t met in a nightclub?‟ he asked curiously. „If I didn‟t know what you did for a living?‟

„We wouldn‟t have met.‟

„You haven‟t answered my question.‟

„I‟m not defensive,‟ Mattie lied and prevaricated at the same time. „I‟m a realist. We come from opposite sides of the tracks. Look at the way you‟re dressed, for heaven‟s sake! I would bet my life that that suit of yours wasn‟t sitting on a peg in a department store on Oxford Street. Was it?‟

„This line of conversation isn‟t going to get us anywhere.‟

„I don‟t want to get anywhere with you!‟

„Then why are you here?‟

Mattie flushed. „Because I was manipulated into coming,‟ she said awkwardly.

„Don‟t be ridiculous. Now you‟re pretending to be a passive victim of circumstance. Is that how you feel? About being here? With me? About yourself?‟

„You don‟t understand.‟

„Try me.‟

„I want to go home now.‟

„No, you don‟t. Come upstairs to my apartment. It‟s more comfortable than being down here.‟

„More dangerous, you mean.‟

„Do you think I‟m dangerous?‟

„A girl can‟t be too careful.‟

„Do you?‟

„I wasn‟t born yesterday, Mr Drecos.‟

„Stop calling me that. The name is Dominic. And you still haven‟t answered my

question.‟

„You‟ve already told me what your intentions are.‟

„I‟ve never gone near a woman who didn‟t want me to be near her. Let‟s go upstairs.‟

„I‟ll stay half an hour then I‟m off. And this time, I don‟t want you coming back to the nightclub to see me! OK?‟

He didn‟t answer. Instead, he stood up, waiting for her, giving her time to consider what she had done. Going upstairs with him to his apartment! Another step towards the edge of a cliff, or that was how she felt.

Although, she told herself sternly, hadn‟t she made sure to tell him that, after tonight, no more?

She walked with him to the lift and concentrated hard on the control panel as they were whirred up and the doors opened to a lushly carpeted corridor.

She knew that his apartment was going to be luxurious. But she wasn‟t prepared for exactly how luxurious.

Rich wooden floors peppered with silky Persian rugs, an open-plan layout that

exaggerated the space and allowed the eye to roam freely over the beautiful spread of low, clean-lined furniture, glass-topped dining-table with a thick band of wood framing the glass, white walls interrupted with large, dramatic paintings. And the kitchen, to which he was now heading, was simply separated from the rest of the open space by a large semi-circular, granite-topped counter.

Mattie watched him, the way he dominated every inch of his surroundings, and felt another shiver of alarm that he had managed to get her this far.

„Like it?‟ he asked, fiddling with a high-tech coffee machine, and she licked her lips nervously and then sat on one of the chrome and wooden high stools at the kitchen counter.

„Who wouldn‟t?‟

„Where do you live?‟ He slid a plain, squat, white china mug over to her and then perched on a similar stool to face her across the counter.

This was what she had dreaded. The intimacy of being somewhere private with him, and it couldn‟t get more private than this, but his remark about her seeing herself as a passive victim had rankled and had been one of the reasons she had agreed to come up here with him. She could take control.

„Privileged information, I‟m afraid.‟ They were both leaning on the counter, holding their mugs to their lips, and their eyes met.

She had a face, he thought, looking at her, that he quite simply enjoyed watching. It wasn‟t just the beauty of the features or the luminosity of her green eyes or the way her silver-blonde hair cascaded down her back. It was the humour and intelligence he could see there which she tried so hard to conceal underneath an aggressive hostility that seemed at odds with the physical look she presented.