Taken By Her Greek Boss

‘There’s no need to look so stunned,’ Rose said coldly.

‘We’re stepsisters actually,’ Lily explained, smiling. ‘Isn’t it amazing? I mean, you hear so many stories about step-siblings not getting along but Rose and I couldn’t be closer if we were proper sisters.’ She gave Rose an affectionate squeeze. Even without shoes, she was at least six inches taller. ‘Rosie, Nick’s just popped by for a nightcap…would you mind? I’ve got to go to the bathroom.’

Yes, actually, she would mind, but Lily was already vanishing up the stairs, still taking them two at a time, the way she always had even as a kid. Sweet, sunny-natured Lily who thought the best of everyone, even the ones who had Health Hazard written all over their faces. Like this one staring at her, still incredulously digesting the fact that the leggy blonde with the waist-length hair, the one whom he had probably expected to escort home to a suitably empty house, was related to someone who was physically as different from her as chalk from cheese.

Rose stared right back at him. He towered over her and was dangerously good-looking, with a strong, harshly sensual face and black, black hair to match the long black lashes and brooding eyes. It took a lot of will-power not to quail before that singularly unblinking stare. She told herself that he was probably nothing more than a B-grade actor who was accustomed to playing the lead role in hammy TV dramas and didn’t know when to drop the act. She didn’t know why she had originally assumed he was a model. Definitely not pretty enough.

‘So, stepsister Rose, do you always wait up for Lily when she goes out?’

Rose favoured him with a look of haughty disdain. She detected the sarcasm in his voice but she wasn’t going to rise to it. She spun round on her heel and headed for the kitchen.

‘I’m not going to apologise for being rude, Mr Papaeliou,’ she said, the minute they were in the kitchen and he had taken up position on one of the chairs by the pine kitchen table, ‘but Lily’s been messed around by too many shallow, good-looking men and I’m not going to allow it to happen again…’ She must have only just finished making a hot drink for herself because there was no need to boil the kettle. His nightcap, far from being a glass of port or a liqueur, was a mug of coffee handed to him in the manner of someone eager to see him off the premises. She stood in front of him, arms folded. ‘She may not think that she needs looking after, and, sure, she’s more than capable of running her own life, but when it comes to emotions my sister can be very trusting. She doesn’t need to get involved with a two-bit actor on the make.’

Nick, for the first time in his life, felt himself struggling to get a handle on the situation.

‘Two bit actor?’

‘What else? You might play the action hero in whatever third-rate movies you’ve been in, but you can drop the macho act. It doesn’t wash with me. All I know is that Lily is a sucker when it comes to a good-looking man with a few chat-up lines, but they never stay the course and she’s had her heart broken too many times…’

Two-bit actor? Action hero? The woman had the barefaced audacity to make him sound like a comic-book character! But he was certainly not going to allow himself to be dragged into a stand-up fight with a woman with the personality of a Rottweiler. ‘Hence you’re her self-appointed watchdog. That’s very noble of you,’ Nick said coolly. ‘Does Lily appreciate your over-zealous concern? Or do you save these little speeches for when her back’s turned?’ He placed the mug on the table without drinking any of the coffee. ‘I hate to burst your bubble, but I’m not an empty-headed male model out to sleep with the nearest attractive woman, nor am I a two bit actor with an identity problem.’

‘No? Well, it doesn’t matter. Model, actor…creative director with an empty casting couch…it’s all much of a muchness. Lily’s just emerged from a relationship that ended badly and I’m making sure that she doesn’t get taken in by another man with too much looks and too few scruples for his own good. I wish there were a more polite way of warning you off, but there isn’t.’

Nick was accustomed to women pandering to him, hanging onto his every word, courting him with their feminine wiles. Could his night go any more off course? From a showdown that, inevitably, would reach the gossip pages in some rag, to a confrontation with a perfect stranger who was either partially unhinged or just too plain bloody outspoken for her own good.

Before he could reply to that blazing, generalised condemnation, Lily burst into the kitchen, apologising profusely and winningly for taking so long, but she’d just had to have a quick shower because she’d felt hideously grubby and knew, just knew that she’d stunk of cigarette smoke because everybody, but everybody there had been smoking and not all of it the run-of-the-mill tobacco.

Even in the early hours of the morning and after a long day doing a tiring job, she still managed to look incredibly fresh and vital and hopelessly young. It was ludicrous that her sister could imply that he, Nick Papaeliou, who could have any woman he wanted, would be attracted to Lily.

‘Have you two been getting to know one another?’ Lily asked brightly and Nick, looking at Rose from under his lashes, saw her glance with muted antagonism at him. Lily helped herself to some water from the tap and then turned around and perched against the counter so that she could look at them both.

‘Oh, absolutely,’ Nick drawled smoothly, giving Rose a slow, meaningful smile. ‘Like a house on fire…’

‘Oh, great!’ She turned to Rose. ‘Poor Nick broke up with his girlfriend tonight and it’s always nice to be in company when you’re down in the dumps.’

The meaningful smile slowly disappeared as Rose raised her eyebrows and nodded her head slowly.

‘I was far from down in the dumps, Lily.’ He tried to smile that one off, but he was irritably conscious of her sister’s eyes fastened on his face. ‘In fact, our relationship was on its way out. Susanna only did what I myself would have done the following day.’ How was he now having an inappropriately private conversation with two women he had never seen in his life before tonight?

‘Why would you go to a party with someone you wanted to ditch?’ Rose asked innocently and Nick gritted his teeth together. ‘I mean, the poor woman probably thought that you really cared about her.’

‘If you knew Susanna, the very last word you would use to describe her would be poor.’

‘Still…’ Rose allowed that one little word to drop into the silence.

Looking at her, Nick momentarily forgot Lily’s presence. ‘Still…what?’

‘Must be awful to break up with someone you care about in front of other people. I always think that when I open the newspapers and they’re full of some poor celebrity couple who end up being forced to wash all their dirty linen in public. And in a way, that’s not even as bad as the dirty linen being washed in front of friends…she must have been feeling pretty desperate…’

Lily was watching this interchange with a certain amount of bewilderment.

‘And on that note…’ Nick stood up. Surprisingly, exchanging barbs with Rose had so completely absorbed his attention that nothing else had occupied his mind. Not Susanna, not work, and he had completely forgotten Lily’s presence even though she had been standing in his direct line of vision.

‘Oh, dear…leaving so soon? Well, shall I call a cab for you? You won’t find one here, you know. It’s not central enough. Lily…’ Rose looked at her sister ‘…you look done in. Why don’t you hit the sack and I’ll wait up until Nick leaves?’

‘Don’t be silly, Rose.’ She yawned widely. ‘How can I invite Nick here for a nightcap and then disappear off to bed?’

‘I have already given him a nightcap. It was called a cup of coffee.’

‘Rose doesn’t do an awful lot of drinking…’ Lily smiled at Nick ‘…do you, Rosie?’

‘I’m sure Mr Papaeliou isn’t interested in my alcohol consumption.’ Lord, but she sounded prim and proper.

‘The name’s Nick,’ Nick said irritably.

Rose ignored him. ‘There. You’re falling asleep on your feet, Lily. Go to bed. I’ll see Mr Pa…Nick…out.’

‘Well…’

‘I can lie in in the morning,’ Rose insisted. ‘You know you always go to the gym first thing.’

‘S’pose…’

Rose guided her sister in the direction of the staircase so that the temptation of bed was just a little more irresistible. ‘Well nothing. You’ve been on your feet for the better part of the day while I’ve been here, just lolling around and taking it easy.’

‘If you’re sure…’

Oh, boy, Rose was absolutely sure. She gave Nick a gimlet-eyed stare, but as soon as Lily had vanished up the stairs he removed his jacket and lounged against the wall, looking at her.

Rose, all at once and unbidden, became acutely conscious of her inappropriate garb. Something about the subdued lighting in the hall, the knowledge that Lily was upstairs, probably about to crawl into bed, the way he was looking at her in that perfectly still way…She tightened her dressing gown around her and clung onto her virtuous sense of authority. Revealing even a glimpse of her nightwear, namely pyjamas patterned with prancing reindeer, which had been given to her as a Christmas present by a friend who specialised in silly gifts, would undermine everything she now wanted to convey.

‘Don’t tell me,’ he said, moving towards her, which, for some reason, she found horribly disconcerting, ‘you’re about to resume your attack, having frogmarched Lily to bed.’

‘I did not frogmarch her.’

‘As good as. So come on, then, let’s call a taxi and get it over and done with.’ He followed her into the kitchen, watched as she sat down and scrolled through the address book on her mobile phone, then made the call. While she did, she looked at Nick and tried not to let his presence overwhelm her, because even after such a brief spell in his company she knew, could just sense, that he was the sort of man who could inspire abject fear should he want to. Not exactly a people person, she thought nastily. The sort of man who picked up women and dropped them without a backward glance or a twinge of guilt. Like the poor Susanna who had been fired up enough to make a fool of herself in front of her friends.

They had fifteen minutes to talk and Rose wasn’t going to waste a single one of those minutes, but before she could utter a word Nick strolled towards her, cornering her in her chair so that she could feel the full, undiluted power of his personality.

‘But before you say anything, I think it’s my turn, don’t you?’ He smiled.

Rose refused to be intimidated. Just who did he think he was anyway? She made herself breathe evenly. Up close like this, his eyes were the deepest of greens, the colour of the fathomless sea. Right now the fathomless sea was revealing some very icy depths.

‘I think you should get a life,’ Nick said grimly, ‘and let your sister lead her own. Is it natural for you to wait up for her like a mother hen? Making sure she gets home safe and sound? You may think it natural. I, on the other hand, consider it sad, as would most people.’ He couldn’t believe he was having this conversation. Did he care what this woman thought of him? Did he care what anyone thought of him? True freedom, he had always thought, was the freedom from caring about other people’s opinions. So why the hell was a pair of defiant blue eyes making him want to justify himself?

Rose blushed and for a few seconds was lost for words. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she knew that he was making sense, but looking out for Lily was a habit born of time and one that she couldn’t seem to let go. Their parents, her mother and stepfather, had died when they were still very young and they had gone to live with their aunt and uncle who were, as they were fond of saying, travellers in search of the meaning of life. Rose had discovered that this basically meant that they moved from pillar to post at a whim, with the practical concerns of two young people being only a minor technical hitch.

Nearly seven years older than her stepsister, Rose had been the sensible one who had made sure that Lily had someone grounded to whom she could turn and so, from the age of ten, she had become accustomed to looking out for her sister. But now Lily was twenty-two. Did she really still need the sensible older sister to wait up for her?