Ким Лоренс – In the Greek's Bed: The Greek Tycoon's Wife / The Greek Millionaire's Marriage / The Greek Surgeon (страница 13)
‘There’s more than one person?’ he queried sharply.
‘Alexander is a cat,’ Sadie explained for the second time. ‘Katie, he’ll be fine. He didn’t look like an easy man to kill to me.’ Sadie smiled at the fire-fighter. ‘I’m the owner, officer.’
‘Hello. Is there any means of access other than the stairs?’
‘There is a fire escape around the side of the house.’
Katie, not placated, shrugged off the comforting arm that slid around her shoulders. ‘I’m a selfish cow, I sent him back in there for a…’ Her lips began to tremble as she fearfully contemplated the consequences of her actions.
Before she could reveal to the fireman what Nikos had gone back in for there was an almighty deafening explosion as her bedroom window exploded. The fireman, his arms outstretched, shielded the two women as glass from above showered on the garden below.
‘It would be better, ladies, if you waited a little farther back until the ambulance arrives.’
Katie saw his mouth move, she heard the words, but she felt as though she were in a black hole; she felt numb.
Sadie nodded, getting a firmer grip on the box containing family photos and treasures that she had automatically snatched up before they’d left the house. She urged Katie backwards while the burly fire-fighter, shouting instructions to his crew, strode off purposefully.
Katie resisted and Sadie looked with concern as the slim figure who was standing gazing with horror-filled eyes at the wicked tongues of orange flames shooting out of the window pushed her away.
‘Come on, Katie, we should get out of their way,’ Sadie suggested gently. ‘Mrs James next door has put the kettle on.’
Katie, her arms wrapped tightly about herself, continued to rock back and forth. Under the layer of grime her skin was paper-white. ‘He’s dead, isn’t he? I mean, if he was in there he has to be, doesn’t he? Nobody could survive that.’
Sadie shrugged helplessly. ‘I really don’t know.’ The muffled keening sound that suddenly emerged from Katie’s bloodless lips before she choked it back made the hairs on the back of Sadie’s neck stand on end.
The next sequence of events occurred with such bewildering speed that Sadie didn’t have a chance to do anything but yell a warning to the fire-fighters as her friend, running as if all the fiends of hell were at her heels, suddenly began to pelt towards the door of the house.
Katie was never going to make it there, the two fire-fighters aiming to cut her off were closing fast, but before they had an opportunity to do so she tripped and fell. Though she landed on her knees it was the sharp pain that shot through her ankle as it turned awkwardly that made her cry out.
Impatiently brushing the tears of self-pity and impatience from her face, Katie squared her shoulders and, catching her soft lower lip between her teeth, concentrated her efforts on getting to her feet.
So far, so good, she thought as she tentatively took a cautious step; to her relief her ankle hurt but it took her weight. Wincing, she hobbled over to a convenient Japanese flowering cherry tree that was shedding its sweet-smelling blossoms onto the damp grass below and leaned against the trunk.
She gazed towards the house. The fire crew, seeing she was not seriously hurt and no longer capable of dashing headlong into a burning building, had turned their attention elsewhere.
Katie was pondering the compulsion that had been responsible for her stunt—
‘Thank God!’
She watched through a teary haze of relief as a couple of paramedics headed purposefully towards Nikos. The incredible noise of a fire scene seemed to recede to a low background buzz and the hurrying figures appeared to slow; only her heart continued to beat fast, so fast she could feel the vibration of each inhalation in her throat. She lifted a hand to her spinning head; each breath she took was an effort.
‘I think I’m going to be sick,’ she gulped to nobody in particular, before she quietly did just that—not that anyone noticed; they were all crowding around Nikos.
Trust him to turn out to be a hero…it was a part he was born to play, she thought, a wry but relieved smile on her face as she leaned back against the tree trunk.
CHAPTER SIX
THE hero was clearly not comfortable with his moment of fame.
‘I am fine.’ The cough that followed this impatient pronouncement did not add weight to his claim. Ignoring a recommendation to breathe deeply, Nikos pushed aside the oxygen mask that someone was trying to slip over his head. ‘I don’t need that!’
‘You’ve inhaled a lot of smoke,’ the paramedic explained patiently.
Nikos smiled thinly and resisted the impulse to point out to this well-meaning individual that as the one who’d done the inhaling he didn’t need any reminders. After a few moments of fruitless arguing they reached a compromise, of sorts.
‘Though it is an unnecessary precaution I will come with you if you give me a few moments to speak to my wife.’ Nikos gestured towards the solitary figure on the lawn and immediately regretted it because by no stretch of the imagination did she look in need of comfort. In fact she looked extraordinarily composed. ‘I think she’s in shock,’ he improvised.
Hopefully this would adequately explain away the fact that his
‘Well, just a few minutes…’
Everyone, Nikos reflected, was a sucker for a couple in love.
Did the professionals think it strange his wife had not been part of his reception committee? That she hadn’t dashed to throw her arms about his neck, tears of joy running down her cheeks? Nikos did not ponder the question for long; he rarely worried about how his actions were viewed by strangers. Though the potent image did remain in his mind, not because he was thinking about the impact on others—no, it was the impact on himself that occupied his thoughts.
Smooth arms wrapped around his neck, a soft, pliant body pressed to his, a silky head close to his heart. As he closed the distance between them anyone noticing would have wrongly assumed that the dark bands of colour highlighting the slashing curve of his high cheekbones were a product of the inferno he had just escaped—they’d have been wrong.
This scenario in his head was not a displeasing one, so the primitive response of his body was not, Nikos reasoned, to be wondered at. It was an explanation he was content with, but his reluctance to release this image was less easily rationalised.
Katie levered her back from the tree trunk and pushed a large hank of heavy hair from her face. ‘You found me, then…’
Nikos nodded. Her question made him realise that even though she had made no push to attract his attention, some inner radar had located her the moment he’d emerged from the building.
If you ignored the dark film of grime covering his skin and clothes he looked quite remarkably unscathed by his recent brush with death. In fact, he radiated an almost indecent amount of edgy vitality. It occurred to Katie that this was probably the most natural and relaxed she’d seen him. Near-death experiences obviously did for him what a box of chocolates, a soppy romance and a glass of wine did for her.
One corner of his mouth lifted as their eyes touched. Katie felt a flare of indignation—it clearly hadn’t even occurred to him that she had been through hell and back during the last few minutes because of his ridiculous macho stunt.
She didn’t know if she wanted to hit him or kiss him. Not
She swallowed convulsively, unable to prevent the image forming in her head of that sexy mouth claiming her own, parting her lips, his tongue invading her mouth, tasting…touching.
She shook her head and took a deep, tremulous breath. But it was too late, the chain reaction had already started.
Her eyelids fluttered as a rush of fluid warmth worked its way up swiftly from her shaking knees until her entire body was bathed in the golden glow. She held her breath and willed the flames consuming her to subside.
Katie couldn’t deny she had wanted to experience that kiss for real; for several moments she had been consumed by the wanting. Even now her bones ached with the raw desire that had swept through her with the ruthless force of a forest fire.
She was guiltily aware that she had never felt that way anticipating Tom’s kiss. She struggled to understand what had happened and more importantly why it was happening. It had to be her hormones; this was some sort of revenge attack because she’d neglected them.