A battered suitcase, two boxes of files and a pile of books now littered the hall. Matt insisted on helping them transport Grace’s possessions out to the waiting limousine and Leo’s driver climbed out in consternation to whisk the case out of his employer’s grip while two of his bodyguards grabbed up the boxes.
‘Look after her...don’t hurt her,’ Matt breathed in a charged and warning undertone before Leo could climb into his limousine.
‘I won’t,’ Leo countered, his accented drawl curt and cool, his ego challenged by the tone of that advice.
‘I can’t believe I’m doing this,’ Grace lamented, because she was already suffering second thoughts. Leo had extracted her from Matt’s flat at the speed of light.
‘Right now, you need time out to decide what you want to do next,’ Leo told her levelly. ‘A few days...a few weeks, whatever it takes. You shouldn’t be trying to make life-changing decisions virtually overnight.’
‘You don’t want me to go for adoption?’ Grace said, her slim frame tensing, her fingers folding together tightly on her lap.
‘Adoption entails you cutting me out of the situation entirely. Why would you want to do that?’ Leo queried softly. ‘I am willing to help in every way possible. There are other options and I think you should consider them.’
Grace breathed in slow and deep, fighting the sense that he was putting her on the spot because she knew that was unjust. She was in a highly stressful situation and any decision she made would put her under pressure. ‘This year of my degree I have to spend a lot of time working long unsocial hours in hospitals. Coping with that while pregnant will be a challenge.’
‘We can find some way to work around the problems. I’ve made an appointment for you with a doctor, who’s a friend of mine,’ Leo told her quietly. ‘We’re calling in with him first—’
‘A doctor? Why, for goodness’ sake?’ Grace demanded impatiently.
‘I want confirmation of your pregnancy and the reassurance that you are in good health,’ he admitted quietly.
Grace breathed in deep, suppressing her frustration. He had a right to that official endorsement, she reasoned ruefully.
Leo’s friend was in private practice and her pregnancy test was processed at supersonic speed before the suave, smoothly spoken doctor gave her a brief physical check-up and the usual advice offered to pregnant women.
Having satisfied Leo’s request, Grace was quiet when she slid back into his limousine and thinking about her baby. Possibly she had been a little too quick to consider the avenue of adoption, a solution that would enable her to continue her life after the birth as though she had never been pregnant. Obviously the idea of reclaiming normality had appeal but what sort of normality would it be when she had to live for ever after with the awareness that she had given up her baby? A cold chill clenched Grace’s spine at the prospect of that ultimate consequence. Adoption was final and could well sentence her to live with a secret heartbreak and sense of loss for the rest of her days. Suddenly, the chance to think at her leisure, while not having to worry about where or how she lived or what other people thought, shone like the most luxurious indulgence in front of her. Leo, she dimly appreciated, could talk a lot of good sense when it suited him to do so.
When they arrived at the block of exclusive apartments where Leo lived, his guards and her luggage went in the service lift, imprisoning her with Leo in the opulent confines of a far smaller and less utilitarian lift. She met his stunning eyes once and her heart stuttered as she immediately turned her head away, only to be greeted with a mirrored reflection of him instead: the luxuriant blue-black hair she wanted to tousle with her fingers, the arrogant angle of his head and the firm jut of his jaw, the sheer blazing confidence that inexplicably drew her like a magnet. Her mouth drying, she swallowed with difficulty. She felt out of step with herself, challenged to recognise the stranger she became in Leo’s presence, a stranger with random, often inappropriate thoughts and no control over her own body.
‘Stop fighting it,’ Leo growled soft and low, his abrasive accent purring along the syllables.
Grace glanced up. ‘Fighting what?’
‘This...’
And he reached for her, pulling her up against his big powerful frame with easy strength. In unmistakeable contact with the long, hard length of his erection Grace’s tummy flipped and her knees turned to water. Dangerous heat shimmied between her legs.
‘It’s crazy—’
‘The most powerful craving I’ve ever felt,’ Leo sliced in. ‘I felt it the first time I saw you. I fought it to let you walk away. But I’m done being sensible.’
Completely disconcerted by that blunt admission, Grace parted dry lips. ‘But—’
‘No...buts, meli mou,’ Leo husked against her cheek, his breath fanning her parted lips. ‘The words you’re looking for are Yes, Leo.’
A strangled little sound of amusement escaped Grace. ‘I hope you’re the patient type?’
‘Not even remotely.’ Strong arms banding round her, Leo lifted her up against him and claimed her mouth with a voracious driving passion that curled her toes and made her nails dig into his shoulder. When she made a half-hearted attempt to evade him his arms merely clamped tighter round her while he delved deeper into her mouth to send a current of fire arrowing through her quivering length. He tasted spicy and sweet and so unbelievably good she couldn’t get enough of him. She was barely aware of the lift doors whirring open or of the momentary separation of their mouths as he cannoned into a doorway with a muffled Greek expletive. Indeed the entire experience was like a time out from her brain because a hunger she couldn’t fight had taken control.
LEO LAID HER down on a wide bed. ‘I want you to know that I didn’t bring you here for this,’ he breathed rawly. ‘I didn’t plan it.’
His lean, darkly handsome features were taut with hungry frustration and the strangest hint of vulnerability, and for a split second Grace almost raised her fingers to trace the compressed line of his lips. Instead she got a grip of herself and let her hand fall back from his shoulder to lie by her side. Her body was singing a very different message, all revved up like a racing car at the starting line. She was startlingly aware of every erogenous zone she possessed and his pronounced effect on her. Her breasts felt swollen while a hollow ache throbbed at the very centre of her. It was sexual need, plain sexual need, she repeated carefully to herself, as if by acknowledging that she could minimise the effects and suppress them.
‘I intended for us to sit down over a civilised dinner and talk,’ Leo grated impatiently, stepping back from the bed as if he didn’t trust himself that close to her. ‘But I can’t keep my hands off you!’
He made Grace feel totally irresistible and she marvelled at the sensation and the new buoyancy it gave to her sadly depleted ego, battered by her aunt’s abuse, her cousin’s scorn and Matt’s heartfelt and apologetic, ‘How could you be so stupid?’ There Leo stood, breathtakingly beautiful, rich and charismatic and he still wanted her when she was