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She saw the car first and Alekos watched as the colour fled her face, the sudden pallor of her skin accentuating the unusual sapphire-blue of her eyes.
Obviously she didn’t know any other men who drove a Ferrari, he thought grimly. The fact that she was shocked to see him increased his anger.
What had she expected, that he’d sit by and watch the ring—the ring he’d put on her finger—sold to the highest bidder?
Across that stretch of nondescript tarmac, that school playground that was no one’s idea of a romantic venue for a reunion, wide blue eyes met fierce black.
The sun came out from beyond a cloud, sending a spotlight of bright gold onto her shining head. It reminded him of the way she’d looked that afternoon on his beach in Corfu. She’d been wearing a miniscule, turquoise bikini and a pretty, unselfconscious smile.
With no desire to climb aboard that train of thought, Alekos dragged his mind back to the present.
‘Boys!’ Her voice was melting chocolate with hints of cinnamon—smooth with a hint of spice. ‘Don’t climb the fence! You know it’s dangerous.’
Alekos felt the thud of raw emotion in his gut. Four years ago she would have hurled herself across the playground with the enthusiasm of a puppy and thrown herself into his arms.
The fact that she was now looking at him as if he’d escaped from a tiger reserve added an extra boost to his rocketing tension-levels.
Alekos looked at the boy nearest to him, the need for information unlocking his tongue. ‘Is she your teacher?’
‘Yes, she’s our teacher.’ Despite the warning, the boy jammed the toe of his shoe in the wire fence and tried to climb up. ‘She doesn’t look strict, but if you do something wrong—pow!’ He slammed his fist into his palm and Alekos felt a stab of shock.
‘She hits you?’
‘Are you kidding?’ The boy collapsed with laughter at the thought. ‘She won’t even squash a spider. She catches them in a glass and lifts them out of the classroom. She never even shouts.’
‘You said “pow”.’
‘Miss Jenkins has a way of squashing you with a look. Pow!’ The boy shrugged. ‘She makes you feel bad if you’ve done something wrong. Like you’ve let her down. But she’d never hurt anyone. She’s non-violent.’
Non-violent. Miss Jenkins.
Alekos inhaled sharply; so, she wasn’t married. She didn’t yet have the four children she wanted.
Only now that the question was answered did he acknowledge that the possibility had been playing on his mind.
She crossed the playground towards him as if she were being dragged by an invisible rope. It was obvious that, given the chance, she would have run in the opposite direction. ‘Freddie, Kyle, Colin.’ She addressed the three boys in a firm tone that left no doubt about her abilities to manage a group of high-spirited children, ‘Come away from the fence.’
There was a clamour of conversation and he noticed that she answered their questions, instead of hushing them impatiently as so many adults did. And the children clearly adored her.
‘Have you seen the car, Miss Jenkins? It’s soo cool. I’ve only ever seen one in a picture.’
‘It’s just a car. Four wheels and an engine. Colin, I’m not telling you again.’ Turning her head, she looked at Alekos, her smile completely false. ‘How can I help you?’
She’d always been hopeless at hiding her feelings, and he read her as easily now as he had four years ago.
She was horrified to see him, and Alekos felt his temper burn like a jet engine.
‘Feeling guilty, agape mou?’
‘Guilty?’
‘You don’t seem pleased to see me,’ he said silkily. ‘I wonder why.’
Two bright spots of colour appeared on her cheeks and her eyes were suddenly suspiciously bright. ‘I have nothing to say to you.’
He should have greeted that ingenuous remark with the appropriate degree of contempt, but the ring had somehow faded in his mind, and now he was thinking something else entirely. Something hot, dangerous and primitive that only ever came into his head when he was with her.
Their eyes locked and he knew she was thinking the same thing. The moment held them both captive, and then she looked away, her cheeks as fiercely pink as they had been white a few moments earlier. She was treating him as if she didn’t know why he was here. As if they hadn’t once been intimately acquainted. As if there wasn’t a single part of her body that he didn’t know.
A tiny voice piped up. ‘Is he your boyfriend, miss?’
‘Freddie Harrison, that is an extremely personal question!’ Flustered, she urged the children away from the fence with a movement of her hand. ‘This is Alekos Zagorakis, and he is not my boyfriend. He is just someone I knew a long time ago.’
‘A friend, miss?’
‘Um, yes, a friend.’ The word was dragged from her and the children looked suddenly excited.
‘Miss Jenkins has a boyfriend, Miss Jenkins has a boyfriend…’ the chant increased the tension in her eyes.
‘Friend is not the same as boyfriend, Freddie.’
‘Of course it’s not the same thing.’ One of the boys snorted. ‘If it’s a boyfriend, you have sex, stupid.’
‘Miss, he said the sex word and he called me stupid. You said no one was to call anyone stupid!’
She dealt with the quarrel skilfully and dispatched the children to play before turning back to Alekos. Glancing quickly over her shoulder to check that she couldn’t be overheard, she stepped closer to the fence. ‘I cannot believe you had the nerve to come here after four years.’ Every part of her was shaking, her hands, her knees, her voice. ‘How could you be so horribly, hideously insensitive? If it weren’t for the fact the children are watching, I’d punch you—which is probably why you came here instead of somewhere private. You’re scared I’d hurt you. What are you doing here?’
‘You know why I’m here. And you’ve never punched anyone in your life, Kelly.’ It was one of the things that had drawn him to her. Her gentleness had been an antidote to the ruthless, cut-throat business-world he inhabited.
‘There’s always a first time, and this might well be it.’ She lifted her hand to her chest and pressed it there, as if she were checking that her heart was still beating. ‘Just get it over with, will you? Say what you have to say and go.’
Distracted by the press of her breasts against her plain white shirt, Alekos frowned. It was virtually buttoned to the throat; it was perfectly decent. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, about what she was wearing that could explain the volcanic response of his libido.
Infuriated with both himself and her, his tone was sharper than usual. ‘Don’t play games with me, because we both know who will win. I’ll eat you for breakfast.’ It was the wrong analogy. The moment the words left his mouth, he had an uncomfortably clear memory of her lying naked on his bed, the remains of breakfast scattered over the sheets as he took his pleasure in an entirely different way.
The hot colour in her cheeks told him that she was remembering exactly the same incident.
‘You don’t eat breakfast,’ she said hoarsely. ‘You just drink that vile, thick Greek coffee. And I don’t want to play anything with you. You don’t play by the same rules as anyone else. You—you’re a snake!’
Struggling with his physical reaction to her, Alekos stared down into her wide eyes and realised in a blinding flash that she genuinely didn’t know he was the one who had bought the ring.
With a cynical laugh at his own expense, he dragged his hand through his hair and swore softly to himself in Greek.
That was what happened, he reminded himself grimly, when he forgot that Kelly didn’t think like other people. His skill at thinking ahead, at second guessing people, was one of the reasons for his phenomenal business success, but with Kelly it was a skill that had failed him. She didn’t think the way other women thought. She’d surprised him, over and over again. And she was surprising him now. Seeing the sheen of tears in her eyes, he sucked in a breath, realising with a blinding flash of intuition that she hadn’t sold the ring to send him a message. She’d sold the ring because he’d hurt her.
In that single moment, Alekos knew that he’d made a grave error of judgement. He should not have come here in person. It wasn’t easy on him, and it wasn’t fair on her. ‘You have four-million dollars of my money in your bank account,’ he said calmly, resolving to get this finished as quickly as possible for both their sakes. He watched as shock turned her eyes a darker shade of blue. ‘I’ve come for my ring.’
Chapter Two
KELLY stood in the classroom, gulping in air.
Alekos had bought the ring?
No, no, no! That wasn’t possible. Was it? Thumping her fist to her forehead, she tried to think straight, wondering why it hadn’t occurred to her that it could be him.
Because billionaires didn’t trawl eBay, that was why. If she’d thought for a moment that he would find out about it, she would never have sold it.
As the full consequences of her actions hit her, Kelly gave a low moan.
Instead of purging him from her life, she’d brought him back into it.
When she’d seen him standing at the fence, she’d almost passed out. For one crazy moment she’d thought he was there to tell her he’d changed his mind. That he’d made a mistake. That he was sorry.
Sorry.
Kelly covered her hand with her mouth and stifled a hysterical laugh. When had Alekos ever said sorry? Had he even mentioned the tiny fact that he hadn’t turned up at the wedding? No. There hadn’t been a hint of apology in his indecently handsome face.
‘Are you all right, miss?’ A small voice cut through her panic. ‘You look sort of weird and you ran in here like someone was after you.’
‘After me?’ Kelly licked dry lips. ‘No.’
‘You look like you’re hiding.’
‘I’m not hiding.’ Her voice was high-pitched and she stared at her class without seeing them. Why, oh why, had she run away? Now it was going to look as though she really cared, and she didn’t want him thinking that. She wanted him to think that she was doing fine and that breaking up with him had done nothing but improve her life. That selling her ring had been part of de-cluttering, or something.
Kelly tried to breathe steadily. She’d spent four years dreaming about seeing him again. She’d lain in bed at night imagining bumping into him—a feat which had really challenged the imagination, given that he moved in a different stratosphere. But never, not once, had she actually thought it might happen. Certainly not here, without warning.
‘Is there a fire, Miss Jenkins?’ A pair of worried eyes stared at her—little Jessie Prince who always worried about everything, from spelling tests to terrorists. ‘You were running. You always tell us we’re not supposed to run unless there’s a fire, Miss Jenkins.’
‘That’s right.’ Fire, and men you never wanted to see again. ‘And I wasn’t running, I was, er, walking very quickly. Power walking. It’s good for fitness.’ Was he still outside the school? What if he waited for her? ‘Open your English books. Turn to page twelve and we’ll carry on where we left off. We’re writing our own poem about the summer holidays.’ Maybe she should have just handed him the ring, but that would have meant revealing the fact she was wearing it round her neck, and there was no way she was giving him the satisfaction of knowing what it meant to her. The only thing she had left was her pride.
There was a rustle of paper, a hum of low chatter and then a loud commotion at the back of the class.
‘Ow! He punched me, miss!’
Kelly lifted her hand to her forehead and breathed deeply. Not now. Discipline problems were the last thing she needed. Her head throbbed and she felt sick. She desperately needed space to think, but if there was one thing teaching didn’t give you it was space. ‘Tom, come to the front of the class, please.’ She waited patiently while he dragged his feet towards her sulkily, and then crouched down in front of the little boy. ‘You don’t just go around punching people. It’s wrong. I want you to say sorry.’
‘But I’m not sorry.’ He glared at her mutinously, his scarlet cheeks clashing with his vivid hair. ‘He called me a carrot-head, Miss Jenkins.’
Finding it almost impossible to focus, Kelly took a deep breath. ‘That wasn’t nice, and he’s going to apologise too. But that doesn’t change the fact you punched him. You should never punch anyone.’
Not even arrogant Greek men who left you on your wedding day.
‘S’not my fault I’ve got a temper. It’s cos of my red hair.’
‘It’s not your hair that punched Harry.’ How had she been supposed to know he was the one who had bought the ring?
A child behind her piped up. ‘My dad says if someone is mean to you, you should just thump them and then they’ll never been mean to you again.’
Kelly sighed. ‘Alternatively we could all just try and think more about each other’s feelings.’ Raising her voice slightly, she addressed the whole class. ‘We need to understand that not everyone is the same. We need to show tolerance: that’s going to be our word for the day.’ She stood and walked to the front of the class, feeling twenty-six pairs of eyes boring into her back. ‘T-o-l-e-r-a-n-c-e. Who can tell me what it means?’
Twenty-six hands shot up.
‘Miss, miss, I know—pick me, pick me.’
Kelly hid a smile. It didn’t matter how stressed she was, they always made her smile. ‘Jason?’
‘Miss, that man is at the door.’
Twenty-six little necks craned to get a better view of their visitor.
Kelly glanced up just as Alekos yanked open the door and strode into the room.
Mute with horror, she just stared at him, registering with numb despair the sudden increase in her pulse rate. Was this how her mother had felt about her father? Had she felt this same rush of excitement even though she knew the relationship was hopeless?
Alekos changed the atmosphere in a room, Kelly thought dizzily. His presence commanded attention.
There was a discordant scraping of chairs and desks as the children all stood up and Kelly felt a lump in her throat as she saw them looking at her for approval. When she’d first taken over the class, they’d been a disjointed rabble. Now they were a team.
‘Well done, class,’ she said huskily. ‘Lovely manners. Everyone gets two stars in their book.’ It comforted her, having them there. It gave her strength to turn and face Alekos as he strode towards her. ‘This isn’t a good time. I’m teaching.’
‘It’s a perfectly good time for me.’ His eyes clashed with hers; Kelly felt her face turn scarlet and her legs tremble violently as she remembered the passion they’d shared.
She held onto her composure for the benefit of the twenty-six pairs of watching eyes. ‘We have a visitor—what didn’t he do?’
‘He didn’t knock, Miss Jenkins.’
‘That’s right.’ Kelly conjured a bright smile, like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat. ‘He didn’t knock. He forgot his manners and he broke the rules. So he and I are just going to pop outside so that I can give him a little lesson on the behaviour we expect in our classroom, and you’re going to finish writing your poem.’
She turned to leave the room but Alekos closed his hand around her wrist, dragging her against his side as he faced the goggle-eyed children.
‘Let me teach you all a really important life lesson, children.’ His Greek accent was more pronounced than usual, his eyes dark, as he surveyed the class with the same concentration and focus that he undoubtedly brought to his own boardroom. ‘When something is important to you, you go for it. You don’t let someone walk away from you, and you don’t stand outside a door waiting for permission to enter. You just do it.’
This unusually radical approach was greeted with stunned, fascinated silence. Then several little arms shot into the air.
Alekos blinked. ‘Yes, you?’ Rising to the challenge, he pointed to a boy in the front row.
‘But what if there are rules?’
‘If they’re not sensible, then you break them,’ Alekos said immediately and Kelly gasped.
‘No! You do not break them. Rules are there to—’
‘Be questioned,’ Alekos said with arrogant assurance, his deep male voice holding the children transfixed. ‘Always you must question and ask yourself “why?” Sometimes rules must be broken for progress to be made. Sometimes people will tell you that you can’t do something. Are you going to listen?’
Twenty-six heads moved from side to side doubtfully and Kelly tugged at her wrist, trying to disengage herself so that she could take control.
A choked laugh bubbled up in her throat. Who was she kidding? She was never going to be able to gain control in the classroom again.
Alekos didn’t release her. ‘Take now, for example. I need to talk to Miss Jenkins, and she doesn’t want to listen. What am I going to do? Am I going to walk away?’
A hand shot up. ‘It depends how important it is to speak to her.’
‘It is very important.’ Alekos emphasised each word carefully as he addressed the captivated class. ‘But it’s also important to make the other person feel they are having a say in what happens, so I am willing to concede a point. I will let her choose where we have the conversation. Kelly?’ He turned to face her, his eyes glittering dark. ‘Here or outside?’
‘Outside.’ Kelly spoke through clenched teeth and Alekos smiled and turned back to the children.
‘This is an example of a successful negotiation: it should be a win-win situation. We both have something we want. And now I am going to take Miss Jenkins outside and you are going to—to write one-hundred words on why rules should always be questioned.’
‘No, they’re not!’ Kelly made a choked sound in her throat. ‘They’re going to write their poem.’
‘Fine.’ His eyes lingered on her mouth for a moment before sliding back to the enraptured class. ‘You can write a poem—about the benefit of breaking rules. It was very nice to meet you all. Work hard and you will succeed in life. Remember—it’s not where you come from that matters, it’s where you’re going.’ His hand still locked around Kelly’s wrist, he strode back out of the classroom giving her no choice but to follow him.
Outside the classroom, she leaned against the wall, shaking. ‘I can’t believe you just did that.’
‘You’re welcome,’ he drawled. ‘My going rate for motivational speaking on the international circuit is half a million dollars, but in this case I’m willing to waive my fee for the benefit of the next generation.’
Kelly’s mouth opened and shut. ‘I wasn’t thanking you!’
‘Well, you should be. Tomorrow’s entrepreneurs won’t emerge from a group of rule enslaved robots.’ Studying her face, he gave a sardonic smile. ‘Something tells me I’m not going to be given two stars in my book.’
Almost exploding with frustration, Kelly curled her hands into fists. ‘Don’t you know anything about children?’
The smile disappeared along with the mockery. Without it his face was cold, hard and handsome. ‘No.’ His voice was taut and his expression suddenly guarded. ‘Nothing. I spoke to them as adults, not children.’
‘But they’re not adults, Alekos. Do you know how much trouble we have with discipline?’ She was desperately aware of his fingers on her wrist and the sexy look in his eyes as he looked down at her. ‘When I took over that class they couldn’t even sit still on a chair for five minutes.’
‘Sitting still is an overrated pastime. Even in board meetings I often walk around. It helps me think. You should be encouraging them to question, not trying to churn out obedient clones all doing as they’re told. Why did you sell my ring?’
Kelly studiously ignored his question. ‘Without rules, society would fall apart.’
‘And without people bold enough to break rules, society would never progress,’ he purred. ‘And I’m not here to—’ Before he finished his sentence, hysterical shrieks came from along the corridor and there was the sound of feet running.
‘Miss Jenkins, there’s a flood! There’s water every-where!’
Alekos gave a driven sigh. ‘Where do you go for peace and quiet in this place?’
‘I can’t have peace and quiet—this is a school.’
A group of children ran towards them, Vivien close behind them.
‘Oh, Kelly.’ She looked hugely stressed and there were huge wet patches on her skirt. ‘There’s a flood in the girls’ changing rooms. Water everywhere. It’s pouring out of somewhere. Can this lot go in your room while I go to the office? We’re going to have to find a plumber, or a—’ she gave a helpless shrug ‘—I don’t know who to ring. Any ideas? The whole school is going to be under water soon; maybe I should phone for a submarine. We need someone who knows about pipes and water.’
‘I know about pipes and water.’ Clearly exasperated, Alekos inhaled deeply. ‘Where is this flood? Show me. The sooner it is solved, the sooner I can have you to myself.’
Suddenly noticing him, Vivien’s eyes widened and she looked slightly stunned.
Accustomed to that reaction from women seeing Alekos for the first time, Kelly bowed to the inevitable. ‘This is Alekos. Alekos, my friend and colleague, Vivien Mason.’
‘Alekos?’ Vivien’s eyes slid questioningly to Kelly, who gave a helpless shrug.
‘He’s the one who bought the ring.’
‘Ring?’ Vivien adopted a vacant expression which might have been convincing if it hadn’t been so exaggerated. ‘Oh, that old thing you keep in the back of your underwear drawer? I remember it—vaguely.’
Kelly’s face turned as red as a traffic light and she was horribly aware of Alekos’s interested stare.
‘Anyway, about this flood.’ Vivien glanced over her shoulder. ‘I’ll call a plumber, shall I?’
Alekos was looking at the water trickling into the corridor. ‘Unless he has super powers, your school will be under water before he arrives. Get me a tool box—something—whatever you have in this school,’ he ordered. ‘And turn off the water at the mains.’ With that, he strode along the corridor, leaving Kelly gaping after him.
‘Alekos, you can’t.’ Her eyes slid over his shockingly expensive suit and handmade shoes, and he turned his head and gave a mocking smile, reading her mind in a single glance.
‘Don’t judge a book by its cover—isn’t that what you English say? I flew straight from meetings in Athens. Just because I’m wearing a suit, doesn’t mean I can’t weld a pipe. Get me something to work with, Kelly.’
‘He can look that good and weld a pipe? Colour me bright green with envy,’ Vivien murmured faintly and Kelly gave her a shove.
‘Go and turn the water off.’
By the time the water was turned off and they’d located a rusty metal box of tools hidden in the caretaker’s cupboard, Alekos had discovered the fault.
‘The joint in this pipe has corroded.’ He’d removed his jacket and his shirt was soaked, sticking to his lean, muscled torso like another skin. ‘What’s in that box?’
‘I have no idea.’ Distracted by the sheer power of his body, Kelly struggled to open the box, staggering under the weight and Alekos frowned down at the assortment of tools.
‘Give me that one—no, the one underneath it; that’s it.’ He proceeded to remove the offending pipe and examine it closely. ‘Here is your problem.’ He ran his finger over a section of ancient pipe. ‘I doubt it’s been replaced since the school was built. Doesn’t anyone maintain this place?’
Vivien was gazing at his shoulders. ‘I don’t think our caretaker possesses your skills. And we’re a bit short of money.’
‘It doesn’t need much money, just regular maintenance. Kelly, my phone is in my back pocket—get it out.’
‘But—’
‘I have my hands rather full at the moment,’ he gritted. ‘Not to mention being soaking wet. If you could not choose this moment to argue, that would be appreciated.’