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PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE FOUR months later, Ellie sat at her desk, settling into the precarious role as latest in a string of PAs to the most ruthless and exacting boss the Sirius Bank had ever known. It was twenty-six days since she’d landed the job, and how she’d done it she still wasn’t sure. But there was one thing she was sure of. Sam Stilakos had a very poor memory. Or a seriously overcrowded sex-life. How else could he have forgotten the night that blazed in her memory like an inferno? Not that she wanted him to remember, she hastened to reflect. If he did she’d be out on her twenty-nine-year-old ear with her life’s plan shot to pieces. Even so, it was distinctly lowering for a woman to discover how completely forgettable she was. For a while she’d wondered if he was just a very good actor, but she’d stopped thinking that now. Not once in the weeks of seeing him every day, working with him in the tense atmosphere of his office, meeting his deep, inscrutable gaze across the table at board mee
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO SAM at work was nothing like the Sam in a hotel bedroom. Usually when Ellie came in he would be at his desk, writing, or frowning at spreadsheets. He would look up and watch her approach with that brooding, inscrutable gaze, then return to his work, silently motioning her to be seated. This time she saw with foreboding that he was upright, his lean hips resting negligently against the massive rosewood desk, arms folded, waiting. He looked taller, his powerful shoulders wider. From across the room she saw his eyelids half lowered over watchful eyes as unreadable as the night. She waded across the rich crimson carpet to him, conscious that his deep gaze was measuring every centimetre of her progress. She came to a halt a few metres short, her heart thumping against her ribs. The silence thundered with her disgrace, though even in her suspense she couldn’t help noticing the outline of his long powerful thighs, highlighted as his posture tugged on the fabric of his trousers. ‘A
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE ‘I THINK you’ve been in this car, Eleanor, haven’t you?’ The lazy enquiry rocked Ellie on her heels just as she was about to get into Sam’s Porsche. Of course she’d been in it. He’d driven her in it to Circular Quay, and kissed her long and lingeringly as the first rays of dawn had ignited Sydney Harbour in a sunburst of molten ecstasy. It had been the highlight of her life to date. ‘Remind me again,’ he said, flashing her a glance through his black lashes, ‘which do you prefer? Roof open, or closed?’ Smiling, she indicated her hair. ‘What do you think?’ He strode around to the driver’s side and lowered his long frame into the seat next to hers. His hand moved to the gear stick, and she instinctively shifted her knees, although of course she knew he wouldn’t have touched them. Not this time. But it was far too reminiscent of the last time, when he’d driven her to the ferry terminal in the sweet haze of afterglow. Then, the city streets, the very air she’d breathed, had se
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR SAM ushered her into the marble lobby. The concierge, the porters—everyone greeted him by name. ‘Wait here a moment,’ he said, steering her towards a plush velvet sofa. Ellie stood still, besieged by doubts. Hadn’t he said he would take her to visit his mother? She watched him stride across to Reception, and lean over to murmur something to the receptionist, who picked up the phone, spoke briefly, then handed him something. Ellie’s pulse quickened. She thought she could guess what it was. In a second he was back, his eyes glinting when they lighted on her like a wolf with his prey in sight. With a light touch on her arm he guided her to the lifts. This was the time to call a halt. But what mature, twenty-nine year old woman would refuse to allow the most thrilling lover she’d ever known to escort her to the Honeymoon Suite of Sydney’s most salubrious hotel? In the lift they stood slightly apart, watching the floor count on the display panel, Ellie’s heart in a dilemma, rap
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE APARTMENT towers of steel and glass were hardly Ellie’s style, but she couldn’t deny the heady magnificence of Sam’s sensational views across the city to the horizon. If he’d wanted to train a high-powered telescope on Hornsby, he’d probably be able to see the front door of her flat. He parked her in his living area—although she wasn’t sure who could ever live in such clean, uncluttered surroundings—while he vanished through an archway. The all-white room she was in disappeared around a corner into the unknown. It was all soaring ceilings, white marble surfaces and spiral staircases. He’d lived here for three years, he’d told her casually. Which meant post-Natalie. Not the home of a man who wanted children in his life, was her first thought. She wandered out onto the terrace, thankful for its high balustrade. Vertigo wasn’t her favourite sensation. There was an inviting pool and spa, with lights glowing in their blue-green depths. A man attending to the Babylonian-style ha
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX WAS he drunk, Sam wondered, or was it the summer night that made him want to leap and spin about in some crazy dance? Strolling the uneven streets beside Ellie O’Dea, he pretended to catch his shoe, and lingered back a step to drink in the radiance of her heavy fall of hair, the subtle sway of her taut little edible behind. The image of her moonlit shape on the hotel balcony rushed back to him with its erotic power, and his blood stirred with the old enchantment. She cast him back an enquiring smile, a sparkle in her eyes as if she guessed his small subterfuge. He grinned and caught her up again. The chemistry was magic, he thought with escalating excitement, but still he sensed a tension in her, a restraint. How did she manage to remain so elusive? He could gaze into those clear, smiling eyes till he drowned, but why did it feel as if she were still wearing her mask? Since the first, every step he took with her was a tread on eggshells. Any false move, and she might vanish
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN SAM groaned and rolled over. A minute later he was on his feet, dragging on gym shoes, shorts and singlet. A brisk run through the dawn streets of the old city was often the most pleasant start to the day, but not this day. This day required a punishing routine in the basement gym, followed by a stiff workout in the pool. By the time he’d showered and shaved, donned an impeccably laundered shirt and tied his silk tie, he’d worked out a sane approach. He’d tell her succinctly that any personal association between them was in the past. He’d make it clear he had a bank to run and would not tolerate the distractions of feminine behaviour. He’d offer her a transfer… Though what if she took it up? No. He doubted she would. Where would she find conditions to equal what she had? But as for the personal front… In the Sirius basement he used his pass-key for the lift. As the lift drew closer to his floor the recollection of her astounding behaviour grew sharper and more stinging. E
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT ELLIE’S state of shock lasted until she got home. Once the front door was closed behind her she peeled off her dress, collapsed on her bed and gave way to the huge black hole that had opened in her chest. Afterwards, trying not to visualise Sam’s cold eyes, she hauled herself up, changed into jeans, washed her blotchy face and tied her hair behind with a ribbon. She threw herself into some therapeutic house-cleaning, until she felt in enough control of her emotions to phone Beth to tell her the catastrophic news. Shocked, Beth promised to come over after work for a full report. She drifted to the computer and half-heartedly keyed into a job-search site, but it was too painful. It only reminded her of how much she loved working at the bank. Surely she was a permanent fixture there. Wasn’t she famous throughout the departments? So many of her friends were there. He was there. She still couldn’t believe she’d thrown it all away. She stared miserably at the pile of things in
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE TILL hell freezes over, Sam thought. Still, he kept his cool. He opened his car door, slid into his seat, snapped on the seat belt, every movement measured. He inserted the key and fired the ignition, not a tremor in his fingers. With controlled precision he drove to the end of the street, slowed at the lights. A tidal wave of black emotion rose up to engulf him. His hands clenched the wheel. Women didn’t reject him. Not twice. He winced. Not once. The lights turned green and he slammed his foot to the floor. He would have her. He would have his fill of her and she would be grateful. She’d crawl to him for more. She’d be on her knees, sobbing for an affair with him. He sped through a small local shopping precinct and screamed the car to a halt at a street-crossing. A lone female pedestrian, paralysed in the middle of the crossing, turned an outraged glare into his headlights. He yanked at his tie and loosened his shirt collar. He had done the only possible thing. So why di
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN IT WAS shattering to find how soon she could be forgotten by friends, people she’d worked with for years. In the days following the crisis they phoned, dying to know what was behind her departure. Ellie sensed the avidness in some of the enquiries. People fishing for gossip, hoping to hear some juicy scandal about her and Sam. It was humiliating, but she put on a bright performance, and pretended to have decided on a change in career. All too soon, though, the calls began to drop off. With frightening speed her bank world started to recede, and she guessed the reverse would also be true. Even the most popular staff member could leave, with barely a ripple to disturb the daily functioning of the big machine. Sam didn’t recede. Not in her mind, at least. Night after night she agonised over her last scene with him, raw with pain that he’d put his personal honour and reputation ahead of her happiness and security. She didn’t care who was right. Or that she was the one who’d res
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN HOW the rich lived. There was no need to phone for a taxi. Irene said she would pick Ellie up on the way to the airport, and at the appointed time a limo drew up at her door. A uniformed chauffeur sprang out to help her with her bag, and she was ushered to join Irene in its plush interior like Princess Mary. It was clear now why Irene had seemed vague about reservations. The Stilakos family didn’t make reservations. They had their own private jet. She might have enjoyed it all more if she hadn’t felt like such an imposter. Irene had wanted her on the basis of her being connected to her son, and now the connection was broken. Should she explain, or did Irene know? she wondered, eyeing the bright-eyed older woman after they’d greeted each other with a warm hug. It didn’t take long for the sore point to come up. They were in the sky, with Sydney passing beneath them like a sequinned cloth. ‘What will Sam do without you?’ Irene said. A gleam of satisfaction lit the older wom
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE THERE were changes in the Principessa. The bed in the master suite looked as if it had been stripped and remade with fresh linen, and Ellie’s clothes had been hung there, her toiletries arrayed in the bathroom. Someone—Irene’s butler, she presumed—had been busy. Should she indulge herself by wallowing in that enormous spa bath before it was time to change for dinner? While the tub filled she undressed in the steamy atmosphere, then caught up her hair in a clip. Over the gushing water, she heard what could have been a knock. Probably another maid with towels. She turned off the taps and slipped on a luxurious Versace bathrobe. The knock came again, strong and unequivocal. Hang on, she frowned, tying the belt around her as she padded across the marble floors in her bare feet. She opened the door and her heart jolted in shock and an immediate deep, wild joy there was no repressing. Sam stood there, tall, dark and solidly real, his dark eyes glinting in instant connection wi
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN BEDS at the Palazzo Versace were exceptionally springy and comfortable. Just supposing a person had time to sleep and was in need of a pillow, there were seven varieties to choose from, each softer and more cushioning than the last. After her night of sheer heavenly bliss with the most tender and virile lover a woman could ever expect to know, Ellie faced the dawn feeling energised right through to her soul, with her every muscle supple and relaxed. She felt dreamily ready to embrace the day and take charge of her commitments. The first was the little matter of Natalie’s and Michael’s disagreement. When she informed Sam of Natalie’s wedding being in doubt, his first response was to yawn. ‘Oh, for God’s sake. Seriously?’ ‘I’m afraid so,’ she said, lounging beside him in the sumptuous bed, enjoying the warmth and support of his gorgeous bronzed chest. ‘Poor Natalie. After everyone’s gone to so much trouble. What a shame if, at the end of all this, she’s still Natalie Sti
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
EPILOGUE
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