The Greek Boss's Demand (2 page)

A
BRIEF
knock on her door made her look up, only to find Nick filling the space where the door had been.

She swallowed.

‘What do you want?'

Nick took a step into her office, eyebrows raised.

‘Is that any way to greet an old friend? It's not as if we're strangers after all.'

‘It was a long time ago. You almost feel like a stranger.'

He hesitated. Tilted his head to one side.

‘You have no idea how I feel, Alexandra.'

His words, and the flat way in which he delivered them, made her swallow. But that was nothing to how she felt when he moved closer to the desk. Panic pooled in her every cell.

Then he suddenly turned. For just a second Alex felt relief, but only for a second. She heard Nick mutter, ‘Just wait—I'll be with you soon,' before closing the door. Alex caught a flash of black as Sofia, looking indignant, rushed by, then it swung shut and Nick wheeled and moved back across the office until he was standing just across the desk from her.

And then he was looking down at her—dark,
threatening and dangerous—and all Alex could think about was the pressure bearing down on top of her.

The pressure of being confronted by this man, her first love—
her first lover
—the pressure of knowing he was part of Aristos's world and had never been a real part of hers—the pressure of knowing the secret that lay between them like a chasm.

The chair-back pressed into her as she attempted, however fractionally, to increase the distance between them.

‘Alexandra—'

She squeezed her eyes shut. The way he still said her name, just as he had back then, squeezing out the syllables till they seemed to curl in his rich, Mediterranean accent. Nobody had ever said her name like Nick had those weeks in Crete. It had made her feel sexy back then.

Only now she couldn't let it affect her. She was all grown up and things like that were the stuff of teenagers and holidays and holding hands. She was over it.

‘Alexandra.'

She sucked in a breath, opened her eyes and forced what she hoped would pass as a businesslike expression onto her face.

‘I guess you'll need to check the accounts, find out how the company is going. Our tax position—all that stuff.'

He blinked slowly. ‘There's time for that later.'

‘Good,' Alex said, a little too fast. ‘I'm kind of
busy at the moment…' She shuffled a few papers on her desk for effect. ‘Maybe I could drop the accounts into you later? I imagine you want to get things sorted out here and head back to Greece as soon as you can.'

Nick's eyes narrowed as he propped himself down on the edge of her desk and leaned dangerously close to her.

‘I can see you're in the middle of something very important,' he whispered conspiratorially, nodding towards the computer. She followed his gesture and felt her cheeks heat till she was sure they matched the colour of the rosy-coloured pipe powering a cubic path around her computer screen.

Her hand reached out on impulse, but she snatched it back short of the keyboard. Better the screensaver right now than her desktop. Not with a photograph of Jason beaming out from it.

She looked up at him and grabbed a breath, anxious to steer the conversation to safe territory—wherever that might be.

‘I was thinking…'

Both his eyebrows went up this time and he leaned over to swipe a pen from right in front of her, getting so close as to fill her senses with the subtle scent of his cologne overlaying the unmistakable essence of man. For a second it took her breath away, her line of thought erased, and she had no choice but to sit and watch as he began to tap the pen against the fingers of his other hand.

‘Very reassuring to hear my uncle employed people
who can think.' He looked around, assessing the pale honey-coloured walls, the bookshelves and filing cabinets, as if taking an inventory. ‘But what do you actually do in this spacious office of yours?'

His jibe focused her attention once more, and she straightened her spine, forced her head up higher. ‘I imagine you've already discussed the staff and our responsibilities with Sofia.'

The pen kept tapping.

‘I want to hear it from you.'

It was impossible not to feel intimidated by the man. From the edge of her desk he dominated the space before her, looming large and much too close. She looked up at him, feeling her eyes narrow as she tried to work out where he was coming from. No doubt he already had plans in mind for the company. Where did she fit in with those plans?

She needed this job. With a brand-new mortgage to her name, the first chance she'd had to find a real home for her and Jason, now she needed it more than ever. Aristos hadn't been the easiest boss, but the chance to get out of their poky flat and into a real house with a real backyard was worth anything her former boss had been able to dish out. Now that Nick was the boss, what would he dish out?

‘All right. I'm Financial Administrator for the Xenophon Group. I've been here for almost two years, though I haven't been doing this job all that time.'

The pen stopped tapping. ‘No. That's what Sofia said. You started out on Reception—is that right?'

Before she could answer she noticed the beat of the pen start up again and felt herself frown. If he was trying to get on her nerves he was doing an excellent job.

‘But then the previous two accountants left…?' The query was apparent in his eyes. ‘They were no good?'

She shook her head. ‘I'm sorry, but your uncle wasn't the easiest person to get on with. He was a demanding boss.'

‘My uncle started out with nothing and built a fortune in property worth millions. Of course he would expect a lot from his employees.'

‘Of course he did. And he got that—and more. But he was difficult as a boss. Impossible at times. If he was in the office he was shouting. In both cases they were good accountants, but Aristos was always shouting at them for one thing or another—I don't think he trusted them to look after his affairs—and they just got sick of it. In the end they walked out, one after the other. The second one only lasted three months. Someone had to fill the gap immediately, and Sofia offered to look after Reception if I would do it. I'd been helping both of them out and it really wasn't such a big deal.'

‘And Aristos didn't employ another accountant? Why would he keep a receptionist in such a position of responsibility?'

Alex bristled. ‘Maybe because I do the job well.'

He didn't look convinced.

‘If it's any consolation, I think Aristos was surprised too. He was intending to advertise, but the employment agency didn't seem too confident they could find the right person for this job—word had got back to them, obviously—and things here were going well. I was already studying for a business diploma at night—so he was relieved not to have to find someone else.'

And pay them accountant's wages.
If there was one thing Aristos loved more than bellowing his commands it had been a bargain, and with her he'd got a cheap accountant—even with the extra he'd reluctantly agreed to pay over her former receptionist's salary.

‘Funny, but I don't remember the young Alexandra looking forward to spending her life as some bean-counter.'

Alex went rigid. She'd relaxed a little, talking about her job, thinking about things present. He'd just transported her slap-bang into the past. A past she'd rather steer clear of now.

‘Funny, but I don't think of myself as a “bean-counter”.' She ploughed on, ignoring the black look he threw her. ‘Besides, I don't think I knew what I wanted back then.'

She certainly hadn't known what she'd
need
back then. Had had no idea she'd have a son to support with no chance of finishing school for years. Had
never realised how hard it would be to try and manage time with her son when she had a full-time job and night school study. Hadn't known how hard it would be to earn enough money to put a deposit on an ageing two-bedroom bungalow in the suburbs.

He tapped the pen loudly once more, this time on her desk, snapping her out of her thoughts. ‘And Aristos didn't shout at you?'

She laughed a little, relieved he was talking about the more recent past once more. ‘Sure, he shouted. He shouted at everyone—including Sofia. But as a property investor, he wrote the book. I learned a lot working for him.'

It was true. It might have been unbearable, just as it had proved for the former employees, except she'd needed the money and the experience more. A few years in this job and she'd be finished with her diploma and could get a decent job with better pay. Aristos had given her a chance and she'd grasped it. For all his faults, he'd at least given her this opportunity, and she owed him for that.

But Aristos was gone, and it was his nephew now sitting in front of her. And yet still she hadn't even offered the merest of condolences.

‘The news about your uncle must have come as quite a shock. I'm sorry…'

He watched her for a second, but it was as if his eyes were shuttered. Then he slammed the pen down on the desk in the same instant as he heaved
himself away. He took a few steps, one hand rubbing his nape.

‘It was a shock—but nothing compared to what Sofia is contending with. To have lost her mother to cancer a decade ago, and now to lose her father so suddenly…' He sighed, and for a moment looked so lost in his own thoughts that she sensed there was more to his statement than just compassion for his cousin.

He turned suddenly to face her, his eyes dark and fathomless. ‘My mother, Helena, was step-sister to Aristos. She died some six years back herself. Aristos and my father were as close as brothers while they were both alive, even though I didn't know him that well.'

Alex swallowed. She'd never met Nick's parents—but she'd heard enough about his father way back then to scare her socks off. It came as no surprise that he was related, even by marriage, to Aristos.

Even so, they had been Nick's parents.
Jason's grandparents.
And now he would never have the opportunity to meet them. Guilt stabbed deeper inside her.

When would she stop paying for the decision she'd made so long ago? The decision she knew was the right one.

‘Your parents…I didn't know…' She shook her head. ‘What happened to your father?'

‘Why should you know?' he asked sharply, as if she had no right. Then his voice softened. ‘About two
years ago now he drove off a bridge. Drowned before he could be rescued.'

‘That's awful,' said Alex. When they'd been on Crete both Nick's and her own parents had been alive. It had been less than nine years ago and now Nick's parents had gone. How long before hers too were no longer here?

She'd see them at Christmas, when they were planning to travel across the country from Perth to visit. But that was still weeks away. She'd call them tonight. The thought that they wouldn't be there for ever…it was unimaginable.

To be so alone… She sucked in a breath. As she had countless times before, she thanked her lucky stars her sister Tilly had also chosen to make her home in Sydney, to pursue her growing wedding planner career. At least she had some family close by. For all that she was struggling to make ends meet, at least she had someone to turn to, someone to give her moral support when things got too bad. Sofia had no one. And nor, it seemed, did Nick.

‘I really am sorry. I had no idea.'

Nick stopped pacing and stood, propping his arms on the back of the visitor's chair. His exhale came out like a sigh. ‘In a way it was a release for my father. I think he'd stopped living years before, when Stavros died.' His eyes bore the pain of loss and tragedy, and as they sought and found hers something connected between them.

He remembered.
She could tell.

It was the last time they'd spoken. She'd rung, flushed with excitement at her news. After months of hiding the truth she'd finally held her baby—
their baby
—and known that in spite of all the powerful reasons why she shouldn't tell him she simply had to. He had a right to know he was a father. That he had a son.

Only when she'd finally made the connection to Nick's house it had been to find the family in mourning for the eldest son.

How did you say,
I'm sorry your brother is dead and congratulations—today you became a father
in the same sentence? How did you drop a bombshell like that into a grieving family and expect them to embrace a new branch of the family they didn't know existed and wouldn't want to know? Not after what had happened to Stavros.

Realising that no one in his family would ever believe her, let alone welcome her news, Alex had hung up the phone, keeping her secret and knowing she'd never speak to Nick again.

Stavros had been killed, Nick had become the new heir to the family fortune, and it had been obvious there could never be a future with Nick—neither for her nor their newborn child.

Alex rubbed her arms. It was cold in here. She'd have to check the wall thermostat. But not now. Not until Nick had left her office and there was no chance of getting anywhere near him.

His eyes narrowed until they glinted and he straightened behind the chair.

‘Something frightened you away. Is that it? Is that why you never returned my calls after that?' His words speared through her consciousness to places she'd rather not go. It was one thing to know she'd done the right thing. It was another thing entirely to have to explain it.

‘Nick, I don't think we need to rehash all that. It's in the past. Let it stay there.'

‘No. I think the least you can do is offer me an explanation.'

Alex stiffened in her chair. What relationship they'd had had been over for the better part of nine years, and here he was, larger than life, insisting on the whys and wherefores. Talk about inflated male ego! As if it mattered now.