What the Greek's Money Can't Buy

CHAPTER NINE


AN HOUR LATER, Sakis was pacing his office when he heard his head of security enter and exchange greetings with Brianna.

‘Get in here, both of you!’ he bellowed, the anger he was fighting to contain roiling just beneath his skin.

He turned from his desk as they entered. He tried to concentrate on his security chief. But, as if it acted independent of his control, his gaze strayed to Brianna.

She was as contained and self-assured as he’d always known her to be. There was no trace of the woman who’d writhed beneath him last night, screaming her pleasure as he’d taken her to the heights of ecstasy, or the gentle soul who’d listened to him spill his guts about his father in the car, her eyes haunted with pain for him.

He wanted to hate her for her poise and calm but he realised that he admired her for it—something else he admired about her. Theos, his list of things he admired about Brianna Moneypenny grew by the day. Anyone would think she meant more to him than—

His mind screeched to a halt but his legs were weakening with the force of the unknown emotion that smashed through him. Folding his arms, he gritted his teeth and perched on the edge of his desk.

‘What do you have for me?’ he demanded from Sheldon.

‘As you requested, we dug a little deeper into the financials of First Mate Isaacs and Deputy Captain Green. A deposit of one hundred thousand euros was made into each of their accounts seven days ago.’

Sakis’s hands tightened around his biceps as bitterness tightened like a vice around his chest. ‘Have we traced the source of the funds?’ Even now when he had the evidence, he didn’t want to believe his employees were guilty.

Only this morning, he would’ve believed the worst. But Brianna’s caution to give them the benefit of the doubt had settled deep within him. When he’d given her words further thought he’d realised how much he’d let cynicism rule his life. Letting go even a little had felt...liberating. He’d breathed easier for the first time in a very long time.

But now the hard ache was back full force along with memories he couldn’t seem to bury easily.

‘Moorecroft used about half a dozen shell companies to obfuscate his activities. Without his confession it’d have taken a few more days but knowing where to look helped. It also helped that the crew members did nothing to hide the money they received,’ Sheldon said.

‘Because they thought they were home free,’ Sakis rasped. The confirmation from Moorecroft that he’d paid his crew to deliberately crash his tanker to spark a hostile takeover made a tide of rage rise within him. Sakis could forgive the damage to his vessel—it was insured and he would be more than compensated for it once the investigation was over. But it was the senseless loss of lives he couldn’t stomach, along with the fact that the rest of his crew had been put at severe risk.

After his phone call with Moorecroft, with the pain-racked faces of his dead employees’ families fresh in his mind, he hadn’t hesitated to let his broken adversary know to expect full criminal charges against him.

He’d experienced a twinge when he’d looked up from the phone call and caught Brianna’s expression but he’d pushed the feeling away.

Greed had driven another man to put others’ lives at risk. There was no way he could forgive that.

‘What about Lowell’s account?’

‘We’re trying to access it but it’s a bit more complicated.’

Sakis frowned. ‘How complicated?’

‘His salary was wired to a routing account that went to a Swiss bank account. Those are a little tougher to crack.’

Surprise shot him upright. He turned to Brianna. ‘Did we flag that up in his HR details?’

She bit her lip. Heat flared in his groin, followed closely by another guilty twinge for his harsh tone. ‘No,’ she answered.

Sakis sucked in a deep breath. ‘That will be all, Sheldon. Let me know as soon as you have anything new.’

Sheldon nodded and left.

Silence reigned for several minutes. Then Brianna walked forward. ‘I’m expecting an “I told you so”.’

He settled his attention fully on her in a way he’d been reluctant to do with another person in the room. Even now he feared his features would betray the extent of the alien emotions roaring through him.

Theos, he needed a drink. Why the hell not?

‘There’s no point. It is what it is.’

‘Then why are you pouring yourself a drink in the middle of a work day?’

‘It’s not the middle of the day, it’s almost five o’clock.’

‘It’s five o’clock for most people but for you it’s not, since you work till midnight most nights.’

Sakis barely glanced at the fifty-year-old single malt as he lifted it to his lips and drained it. ‘If you must know, I’m trying to understand what drives anyone to depths of betrayal such as this with little regard for how it’ll hurt their family and people who care about them.’

She started to come towards him and his senses leapt, but at the last moment she veered away and started straightening the papers on his desk. Sakis barely stopped himself from growling his frustration.

‘And are you getting any answers from the bottom of your glass?’

He slammed the glass down and strode to where she stood. ‘Are you trying to rile me? Because, trust me, you’re succeeding.’

‘I’m just trying to make you see that you can’t blame yourself for the choices other people make. You can either forgive them or...’

‘Or?’

For a single moment, her face creased with something similar to the bitterness and despair clawing through him. ‘Or you can cut them out of your life, I suppose.’

He frowned. ‘Who cut you out of their life, Brianna?’

Stark pain washed over her features before she tried to mask it. ‘This isn’t about me.’

He took her by the arms. ‘It most definitely is. What did she do to you?’

She made a sound that caught and tightened around his heart. The sort of sound a wounded animal made when they were frightened.

‘She...she chose drugs over me.’ She stopped and sucked in a gulping breath. ‘I don’t really want to talk about this.’

‘You encouraged me to bare my soul to you this morning. I think it’s only fair that you do the same.’

‘More therapy?’ She tried pull away but he held fast.

‘Tell me about her. Where is she? Is she still alive?’

A sad little shiver went through her. ‘Yes, she’s alive. But we’re not in touch. We haven’t been for a while.’

‘Why not?’

She cast a desperate glance around, anywhere but at him. ‘Sakis, this isn’t right. I’m your... You’re my boss.’

‘We went way beyond that last night. Answer my question, unless you wish me to demonstrate our revised positions?’

Her lips parted on a tiny gasp that made him want to plunge his tongue between them but he restrained himself. For once, the need to see beneath the surface of Brianna Moneypenny trumped everything else.

‘I...I’ve already told you I didn’t grow up in the best of circumstances. Because of her drug habit we...lived on the street from when I was about four until I was ten. Sometimes I went for days without a proper meal.’

Shock slammed through Sakis. For several moments he was unable to reconcile the woman who stood before him, poised and breathtakingly stunning, with the bedraggled, haunted image she portrayed.


‘How... Why?’ he demanded, cursing silently when he saw her pale face.

Bruised eyes finally met his. ‘She couldn’t hold down a job for longer than a couple of weeks but she was cunning enough to evade the authorities for the better part of six years. But finally her luck—if you can call it that—ran out. Social Services took me away from her when I was ten. I found her when I turned eighteen.’

Another bolt of shock went through him. ‘You found her? After what she did to you, you went to look for her?’

Her eyes darkened with pain. When his hands slid down her arms to hers, she gripped him tight. But he knew her mind was firmly in the past.

‘She was my mother. Don’t get me wrong, I hated her for a long time, but I had to eventually accept the fact that she was also a human being caught in the grip of an addiction that almost ruined her life,’ she said.

Sakis saw her raw pain, clenched his jaw and silently cursed the woman who’d done this to her. More than anything, he wanted to obliterate her pain.

Theos, what the hell was happening to him?

Wait... ‘Almost?’

She gave a jerky nod. ‘She got it together in the end. In the eight years we were apart, she beat her addiction and got her act together. I...can’t help but think I was the one who was holding her back.’

His growled curse made her jump. Leaning down, he kissed her hard and fast.

‘She never made an effort to kick her habit when I was around. And she would get this look in her eyes whenever she looked at me—like she hated me.’

Sakis wanted to swear again, but he bit his tongue. ‘No child should ever be blamed for being born. She had a duty to look after you. She failed. So she got herself better, then what?’

‘She remarried and had another child.’

‘So, it was a happy ending for her?’ He couldn’t stop a hint of bitterness from spilling out. He and his brothers hadn’t been granted a happy ending. And his mother continued to live a hollow existence, a shadow of the vibrant woman she’d been for the first decade of his life. ‘But she cut you from her life?’

‘Yes; I suppose she didn’t want the reminder,’ she answered lightly; a little too breezily.

Sakis knew she was glossing over her pain. Wasn’t it the same way he’d glossed over his for years? But something else struck him, made him reel all over again.

She’d had a mother who had done her wrong in the most fundamental of ways—she’d failed to look after her daughter when she was young and helpless and needed her most. And yet, Brianna had gone out of her way to find her after she was grown and on her own two feet.

The depth of compassion behind such forgiveness rocked him to his soul. ‘I never forgave my father for what he did to us, and especially what he did to my mother. Hell, sometimes I think he purposefully died of a heart attack in her arms just to twist the knife in further, because she sure as hell almost died mourning him.’

She touched his cheek with fingers that trembled. ‘Don’t be too hard on her. She had her heart broken the same way yours was.’

But then he’d had his brothers and the myriad cousins, aunts and uncles who’d rallied round when the going had got tough. Even in his darkest days, there’d always been someone around and, although he’d never been one to reach out, deep down he’d known there was someone around.

Whereas, Brianna had had nobody.

His insides clenched with the same emotion he’d experienced earlier. Like a magnet drawn to her irresistible presence, he pulled her closer.

‘You’re amazing, do you know that?’ he murmured against her hair, satisfied for the moment to just hold her close like this.

‘I am?’ Her delicate eyelids fluttered as she looked up at him.

‘Yes. You have a unique way of holding up a mirror to some of my deeply held beliefs that make me question them.’

She gave a shaky laugh. ‘And that’s a good thing?’

‘Forcing me to examine them is a good thing. Learning to forgive is another...’ He felt her stiffen but she felt too good in his arms for him to question her reaction. ‘But perhaps I can try to understand the reason why people act the way they do.’

When she tried to pull away, he reluctantly let her place several inches between them.

‘I should get back to work.’

Sakis frowned. He didn’t want distance. He didn’t like the threat of tears in her eyes. But already he could feel her withdrawing.

Belatedly, he remembered where they were.

But so what? They were alone in his inner sanctum. No one would dare breach it without incurring his wrath. Besides, both his door and hers were shut. And all he wanted was a quick kiss. Well...he gave an inner grimace...he wanted way more than that but...

He focused to find her halfway to the door. What the hell...?

In swift strides he reached the door and slammed his hand against the heavy polished steel-and-timber frame, the feeling that he was missing something fundamental eating away at him. She jumped, her wide-eyed gaze swinging to his.

‘What’s the matter?’ he demanded.

‘Nothing. I’m just going back to my desk, Mr—’

‘Don’t you even dare think about calling me that!’

‘Okay.’ She licked her plump lower lip. ‘Sakis...can I go back to my desk?’

His ire grew along with his hard-on. He grasped her waist. ‘After what just happened? No way.’

She eyed the closed door with a longing he wanted transferred to him, preferably with single-minded devotion to the granite-hard part of his anatomy. ‘Please...’

He tracked back over their conversation and sighed. ‘I can’t change who I am overnight, Brianna. Forgiveness comes easily to you, but I’m going to need time.’

Her eyes widened even further with alarm. ‘I don’t want you to change...not unless you want to. I mean, I’m not invested in anything here...with you. Certainly not enough to warrant you going out of your way to make those sorts of reassurances.’

Those words spilling from her lips sent him into the stratosphere. With a snarl born of frustration, anxiety and piercing arousal, he locked the door, caught her around the waist and swung her up in his arms.

‘Sakis!’

‘Let’s just see how invested you are, shall we?’

‘Put me down!’

Ignoring her demand, he carried her to the desk she’d straightened so efficiently minutes ago. Setting her on the edge, he slashed one hand across the polished surface, sending the papers flying.

‘I seriously hope you don’t expect me to clean that up!’ Her colour was hectic, her breath coming out in pants as she glared at him.

Yes, this was what he wanted: her fire, her spirit. He hated the sad, frightened, achingly lonely Brianna. He hated cool, calm and distant Brianna even more, especially after last night. Not after seeing the generous heart and fiery passion that resided beneath the prim exterior.

‘If that’s what I desire, then you shall do it, no?’

Her chin rose and his senses roared. ‘In your dreams. My job description doesn’t include cleaning up after you. I’m not your chambermaid.’

He caught her hands and planted them on his chest. ‘As of last night, your job description includes doing whatever pleases me in the bedroom.’

Despite her protests, her fingers curled into his chest. He nearly shouted with triumph and relief. ‘We’re not in the bedroom. Besides, what about what I want?’

His hand fisted in her hair, sought and found the hidden clasp and tugged. Vibrant golden hair spilled over his arm. Using it, he pulled her close until his jaw grazed her soft cheek. ‘Call this mutually beneficial therapy. Besides, I’m a quick study, glikia mou. I know exactly what you want.’

Her breath caught, making him laugh. He pushed her back, using her slight imbalance to swiftly undo the single button of her jacket. It was off before she could take another surprised breath.

‘Sakis, for goodness’ sake! We’re in your office.’

‘My locked office. And it’s the end of the day for everyone else except us.’

‘I still think...’

He kissed her, the temptation too much to resist. That it effectively shut her up was a great bonus, as was her fractured moan that vibrated through him.

He made easy work of the zipper of her dress and slid it off with minimal protest. He didn’t notice what she wore beneath until he spread her backwards across his desk. A strangled choke made its way up his throat as he froze.

‘Theos, tell me you haven’t been wearing lingerie like these since you started working for me?’

A provocative smile dispelled the nervous apprehension on her face. ‘Fine. I won’t.’

She stretched under his gaze, arching her back in a sinuous move that made him think of a sleek cat. Over the top of the bustier bra that connected the garter to the top of her sheer stockings, the plump slopes of her breasts taunted him. His mouth watered and his fingers itched to touch with a need so strong he staggered forward. Roughly he pulled one cup down and circled a rosy nipple with his tongue.

Her ragged cry of delight was music to his ears, because the knowledge that he wasn’t in this insane feeling alone soothed a stunned and confused part of him.


He rolled the nub in his mouth and tugged with his teeth while he frantically undressed. Naked, he straightened and glanced down at her, spread across his desk like a decadent offering. Struck dumb, he just stared at her stunning perfection.

‘You’re about to tell me you’ve imagined me spread out like this across your desk, aren’t you?’ she asked huskily.

Surprisingly, this particular scenario had never once crossed his mind. ‘No, and it’s a good thing too. I don’t think I’d ever have got any work done if I had a picture such as this in my mind,’ he rasped, his voice thick and alien. ‘I’ve imagined you elsewhere though—in my shower, across the back seat of my car, in my lift...’

A shiver went through her. ‘Your lift?’

‘Ne. In my mind, my private lift has seen a lot of action featuring you in very many compromising ways. But this beats even my most fevered imaginings.’

He continued to stare at the vision before him. He must have stared for too long because she started to squirm. With one hand he held her down. With the other, he pulled down the skimpiest thong ever created and slid his hands between her thighs. Her wet heat coated his fingers and in that moment Sakis believed he’d never been so turned on. The next moment, he realised he was wrong.

Brianna laid her hand on his thigh and that simple action sent his heart rate soaring out of control. Then her hand moved upward...and her searching fingers boldly settled over his hard length.

‘Theos!’

‘Wrong deity,’ she responded saucily.

His laugh scraped his throat as she gripped him hard. From root to tip, she caressed him, over and over, until he was sure he’d lost his hold on reality. His altered state was why he didn’t read her intention when she moistened her lip and wriggled down his desk. Before he could admonish her for not staying put, she boldly took him in her perfect mouth.

‘Brianna!’ He slammed a hand on the desk to steady himself against the deep shudder powering through him. The sight of him in her mouth nearly unmanned him. His breath hissed out as he fought not to gush his climax like a hormonal teenager right then and there. He groaned deep and long as her tongue swirled over him and her hand pumped, teased, threatened to blow his mind to smithereens. ‘Yes! Just like that!’

He suffered the sweet torture until the tell-tale tightening forced him to pull back. When she clung and made a sound of protest, Sakis seriously considered giving in, but no...

The chance to take her again, stamp his possession on her, was paramount. He needed to obliterate that distance he’d sensed her trying to put between them. The reason for it was irrelevant. The need was too strong to question.

He trailed hot kisses down her body, making her squirm anew for him. The seconds it took to locate and put on the condom felt like decades. But at last he parted her thighs and positioned himself at her entrance. She lifted her head and looked at him, her expression one of rapt hunger that almost equalled his own.

‘Are you invested in this?’ he rasped.

A glimmer of alarm skittered through her eyes. ‘Sakis...’

‘Are you? Because I am, Brianna.’

Her mouth parted on a shocked exhalation. ‘Please, Sakis, don’t say that.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because you don’t mean it.’

‘Yes, I do. I fought it for as long as I could, but in the end it was no use. I want you. I want this. Do you want it too?’

Her breath shivered out of her. ‘Y-yes. I want this.’

He plunged into her, perhaps a little more roughly than he’d intended, but his need was too great. Watching her breasts bounce with each thrust, Sakis wondered if a heart had ever burst from too much excitement, too much need.

Because, even as he took her to the brink, he realised it wasn’t enough. He’d never get enough of Brianna. But this... Theos, this was a brilliant start. Later he would pause to examine his feelings a little bit more, reassure himself exactly what he was dealing with and how best to handle the strange feelings inside him. Because something was happening to him. Something he couldn’t define.

As his brain melted from pleasure overload, he let his hands drift upward in a slow caress. His fingers grazed her scar and a feeling of primitive rage rose through him at the person who’d done this to her. If he hadn’t received Brianna’s reassurance that justice had been done, he’d have hunted the culprit down and torn him apart with his bare hands.

Overwhelming protectiveness—another alien feeling he had to grapple with. Gripping her nape, he forced her up to receive his kiss as he surged one last time inside her, felt her spasm around him and let go.

The rush was the best yet. With a groan that stemmed from his soul, he shut his eyes and gave in to it. It was a long time before reality descended on him again.

* * *

Brianna’s arms tightened around Sakis as their breaths returned to normal, fear clutching her heart.

She’d spilled her guts to him about her mother. He’d been outraged on her behalf. He’d shown her sympathy that had touched her soul and made her realise that, while she’d forgiven her mother for an addiction she hadn’t been able to conquer, it was the pain of her abandonment when she was clean that hurt the most.

But Sakis had readily admitted forgiveness was a rare commodity to him.

She tried to tell herself it didn’t matter. Come Friday, when her time ran out, she would be out of here. Greg had taken to sending her hourly reminders of her deadline. To stop Sakis from getting suspicious, she’d put her phone on silent and zipped it out of sight in her jacket pocket.

But her imminent departure wasn’t the reason she’d given Sakis a glimpse into her past.

It was because she’d desperately wanted him to see her—not the ruthlessly efficient personal assistant but her, Brianna Moneypenny, the person who’d started life as Anna Simpson, daughter of a crackhead, and then had taken her grandmother’s maiden name and forged a new identity for herself.

She’d bared herself to Sakis, and now she felt more vulnerable than ever.

His stance on betrayal remained rigid. If he ever found out about her past, he would never forgive her for bringing her soiled reputation to his company.

‘I can hear you thinking,’ he said, his voice a husky muffle against her neck.

‘I’ve just had sex with you on your desk. That merits a little bit of thinking time, don’t you think?’

‘Perhaps. But, since it’s going to be a familiar feature in our relationship, I suggest you get used to it.’

He heard her sudden intake of breath. Rearing up, he rested on his elbows and speared her with a probing look. One she couldn’t meet for long before she settled her gaze on the pulse beating in his neck. ‘The word “relationship” frightens you?’

She willed her pulse to slow, forcing the hope that had no business fluttering in her chest to die a swift death. There could be no future between them. None.

‘Not the word, no, but I think this is going a little too...fast. We only started sleeping together last night.’

‘After eighteen months of holding back. I think asking for restraint right now is asking for the impossible. I’ll need several weeks at least to take the edge off.’

She looked into intense green eyes. ‘You warned me at my interview, conducted across this very desk, not to even dream of getting involved with you.’

He had the grace to look shamefaced, but even that look held a lethal charm that doomed her. ‘It was so soon after Giselle; I was still angry. Everyone I’d interviewed reminded me of her. You were the first one who didn’t. When I found myself getting attracted to you, I fought it with everything I had because I didn’t want that nasty business repeating itself.’

Unable to resist, she slid her fingers through his thick hair. ‘She really did a number on you, didn’t she?’

His smile was wry. ‘I’m not beyond admitting I was blinded to her true nature until it was much too late.’

‘Wow, I’m not sure whether to be pleased or disappointed that you’re fallible.’

He straightened and picked her up from his desk as if she weighed nothing. ‘I never claimed to be perfect, except when it comes to winning rowing championships. Then I’m unequalled,’ he boasted as he started to stride across the office.

‘Modesty is such a rare and beautiful thing, Sakis.’

His deep, unfettered laugh made her heart swell with pleasure. ‘Yes, so is the ability to state things as they are.’

‘No one will accuse you of being a wallflower. Wait, where are you taking me?’

‘Upstairs, to get you therapeutically wet and soapy in my shower.’

‘I think you’re taking this therapy thing a bit far. Sakis, put me down. Our clothes!’ She wriggled until he let her slide down his body to stand upright.

‘Leave them.’ He keyed in the code for his turbo lift.

‘Absolutely not. No way am I letting the cleaner find my knickers and stuff all over your office floor!’ She ran back and started gathering them. ‘And don’t just stand there, pick up your own damn clothes.’

With a husky laugh, Sakis followed and picked up his discarded clothes. Then, because she really couldn’t stand to leave them, she gathered the strewn papers and placed them back on the desk. When his mocking laugh deepened, she rounded on him.


‘Next time, you pick them up yourself.’

He caught her to him and smacked her lightly on the bottom. When she yelped, he kissed her. ‘That’s for disobeying me again. But I like that you admit there’ll be a next time.’

She looked up and her gaze caught his. For the first time, she glimpsed a vulnerability she’d never seen before in his eyes. As if he hadn’t been sure she would let anything like what had happened occur between them again.

Desolation caught at her heart. She would pay a steep price for letting this thing continue but the need to be with him in every way until she left was too strong. Going closer, she raised herself on tiptoe and kissed along his jaw.

‘There’ll be a next time only if I get to go on top.’

* * *

Sakis jerked awake to the sound of a phone buzzing. Beside him Brianna was out cold, worn out from the relentless demands he’d made of her body. The same lethargy swirled through him, making him toy with the idea of ignoring the phone.

The buzzing increased.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he started to reach for his phone, but realised the ringing was from Brianna’s.

Getting off the bed, he hunted through their discarded clothes until he located the phone in her jacket pocket.

Palming it, Sakis hesitated again. Relief coursed through him when it stopped ringing. But, almost immediately, it started to buzz again. With an impatient sigh, he pressed the button.

‘Anna?’ A man’s impatient voice, one he didn’t recognise. Not that he had first-hand knowledge of the men who called Brianna, of course... A spike of intense dislike filled him at the thought of anyone who’d been given the permission to call her...Anna?

Sakis frowned. ‘You’ve got the wrong number. This is Brianna’s phone. Who is this?’

And why the hell are you calling at three a.m.?

Silence greeted his demand. A moment later, the line went dead.

Sakis pulled the phone away and searched for the number. It was blocked.

Dropping her jacket, he went back to bed and set the phone down on the bedside table. He tucked his arms beneath his head, unable to stem the unease that spiralled through his gut.

He had no grounds to suspect anything other than a wrongly dialled number. It could be pure coincidence that another man had called his lover demanding to speak to Anna.

And yet, Sakis was still awake two hours later, unable to shake the mild dread. When the phone pinged with an incoming message, he snatched it up before it could wake her.

With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he slid his thumb across the interactive surface. Again the number was blocked but the words on the screen iced his spine:





Just a friendly reminder that you have three days to get me what I need. G.