What the Greek's Money Can't Buy Read online

  A loud beep signalling an incoming call from the limo’s phone startled her into dropping his socks. She hastily picked them up and slid into the car. From the corner of her eye, she saw Sakis step into his trousers. Silently, she held out the remaining items and picked up the phone.

  ‘Pantelides Shipping,’ she said into the receiver as she picked up her electronic tablet. She listened calmly to the voice at the other end of the line, tapping away at her keyboard as she added to the ever-growing to-do list.

  By the time Sakis slid next to her, and slammed the door, impeccably dressed, she was on her fifth item. She paused long enough to secure her seat belt before resuming her typing.

  ‘The only answer I have for you right now is no comment. Sorry, no can do.’ Sakis stiffened beside her. ‘Absolutely not. No news outlet will be getting exclusives. Pantelides Shipping will issue one press release within the hour. It will be posted on our company’s website and affiliated media and social network links with the relevant contact details. If you have any questions after that, contact our press office.’

  ‘Tabloid or mainstream media?’ Sakis asked the moment she hung up.

  ‘Fleet Street. They want to verify what they’ve heard.’ The phone rang again. Seeing the number of another tabloid, she ignored it. Sakis had more pressing phone calls to make. She passed him the headset connected to the call she’d put on hold for the last ten minutes.

  The tightening of his jaw was almost imperceptible before complete control slid back into place. His fingers brushed hers as he took the device from her. The unnerving voltage that came from touching Sakis made her heartbeat momentarily fluctuate but that was yet another thing she took in her stride.

  His deep voice brimmed with authority and bone-deep assuredness. It held the barest hint of his Greek heritage but Brianna knew he spoke his mother tongue with the same stunning fluency and efficiency with which he ran the crude-oil brokerage arm of Pantelides Shipping, his family’s multi-billion-dollar conglomerate.

  ‘Mr President, please allow me to express my deepest regret at the situation we find ourselves in. Of course, my company takes full responsibility for this incident and will make every effort to ensure minimal ecological and economic distress. Yes, I have a fifty-man expert salvage and investigation crew on its way. They’ll assess what needs to be done... Yes, I agree. I’ll be there at the site within the next twelve hours.’

  Brianna’s fingers flew over her tablet as she absorbed the conversation and planned accordingly. By the time Sakis concluded the call, she had his private jet and necessary flight crew on standby.

  They both stopped as the sleek phone rang again.

  ‘Would you like me to get it?’ Brianna asked.

  Sakis shook his head. ‘No. I’m the head of the company. The buck stops with me.’ His gaze snagged hers with a compelling look that held hers captive. ‘This is going to get worse before it gets better. Are you up to the task, Miss Moneypenny?’

  Brianna forced herself to breathe, even as the tingle in her shoulder reminded her of the solemn vow she’d taken in a dark, cold room two years ago.

  I refuse to sink.

  She swallowed and firmed her spine. ‘Yes, I’m up to the task, Mr Pantelides.’

  Dark-green eyes the colour of fresh moss held hers for a moment longer. Then he gave a curt nod and picked up the phone.

  ‘Pantelides,’ he clipped out.

  For the rest of the journey to Pantelides Towers, Brianna immersed herself in doing what she did best—anticipating her boss’s every need and fulfilling it without so much as a whisper-light ruffle.

  It was the only way she knew how to function nowadays.

  By the time she handed their emergency suitcases to his helicopter pilot and followed Sakis into the lift that would take them to the helipad at the top of Pantelides Towers, they had a firm idea of what lay ahead of them.

  There was nothing they could do to stop the crude oil spilling into the South Atlantic—at least not until the salvage team got there and went into action.

  But, glancing at him, Brianna knew it wasn’t only the disaster that had put the strain on Sakis’s face. It was also being hit with the unexpected.

  If there was one thing Sakis hated, it was surprises. It was why he always out-thought his opponents by a dozen moves, so he couldn’t be surprised. Having gained a little insight into his past from working with him, Brianna wasn’t surprised.

  The devastating bombshell Sakis’s father had dropped on his family when Sakis had been a teen was still fodder for journalists. Of course, she didn’t know the full story, but she knew enough to understand why Sakis would hate having his company thrown into the limelight like this.

  His phone rang again.

  ‘Mrs Lowell. No, I’m sorry, there’s no news.’ His voice held the strength and the solid dependable calm needed to reassure the wife of the missing captain. ‘Yes, he’s still missing, but please be assured, I’ll personally call you as soon as I have any information. You have my word.’

  A pulse jumped in his temple as he hung up. ‘How long before the search and rescue team are at the site?’

  She checked her watch. ‘Ninety minutes.’

  ‘Hire another crew. Three teams working in eight-hour shifts are better than two working in twelve-hour shifts. I don’t want anything missed because they’re exhausted. And they’re to work around the clock until the missing crew are found. Make it happen, Moneypenny.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’

  The lift doors opened. Brianna nearly stumbled when his hand settled in the small of her back to guide her out.

  In all her time working for him, he’d never touched her in any way. Forcing herself not to react, she glanced at him. His face was set, his brows clamped in fierce concentration as he guided her swiftly towards the waiting helicopter. A few feet away, his hand dropped. He waited for the pilot to help her up into her seat before he slid in beside her.

  Before the aircraft was airborne, Sakis was on the phone again, this time to Theo. The urgent exchange in Greek went right over Brianna’s head but it didn’t stop her secret fascination with the mellifluous language or the man who spoke it.

  His glance slid to her and she realised she’d been unashamedly staring.

  She snapped her attention back to the tablet in her hand and activated it.

  There’d been nothing personal in Sakis’s touch or his look. Not that she’d expected there to be. In all ways and in all things, Sakis Pantelides was extremely professional.

  She expected nothing less from him. And that was just the way she wished it.

  Her lesson had been well and truly learned in that department, in the harshest possible way, barring death—not that she hadn’t come close once or twice. And all because she’d allowed herself to feel, to dare to connect with another human being after the hell she’d suffered with her mother.

  She was in no danger of forgetting; if she did, she had the tattoo on her shoulder to remind her.

  * * *

  Sakis pressed the ‘end’ button on yet another phone call and leaned back against the club seat’s headrest.

  Across from him, the tap-tap of the keyboard filled the silence as his assistant worked away at the ever-growing list of tasks he’d been throwing at her since they’d taken off four hours ago.

  Turning his head, he glanced at her. As usual her face was expressionless save the occasional crease at the corner of her eyes as she squinted at the screen. Her brow remained smooth and untroubled as her fingers flew over the keyboard.

  Her sleek blonde hair was in the same pristine, precise knot it had been when she’d arrived at work at six o’clock this morning. Without conscious thought, his gaze traced over her, again feeling that immediate zing to his senses.

  Her dress suit was impeccable—a black-and-white
combination that looked a bit severe but suited her perfectly. In her lobes, pearl earrings gleamed, small and unassuming.

  His gaze slid down her neck, past slim shoulders and over the rest of her body, examining her in a way he rarely permitted himself to. The sight of the gentle curve of her breasts, her flat stomach and her long, shapely legs made his hands flex on his armrests as the zing turned stronger.

  Moneypenny was fit, if a little on the slim side. Despite his slave-driving schedule, not once in the last year and a half had she turned up late for work or called in sick. He knew she stayed in the executive apartment in Pantelides Towers more and more lately rather than return to... He frowned. To wherever it was she called home.

  Again he thanked whatever deity had sent her his way.

  After his hellish experience with his last executive assistant, Giselle, he’d seriously contemplated commissioning a robot to handle his day-to-day life. When he’d read Brianna’s flawless CV, he’d convinced himself she was too good to be true. He’d only reconsidered her after all the other candidates, after purporting to have almost identical supernatural abilities, had turned up at the interviews with not-so-hidden agendas—ones that involved getting into his bed at the earliest opportunity.

  Brianna Moneypenny’s file had listed talents that made him wonder why another competitor hadn’t snapped her up. No one that good would’ve been jobless, even in the current economic climate. He’d asked her as much.

  Her reply had been simple: ‘You’re the best at what you do. I want to work for the best.’

  His hackles had risen at that response, but there had been no guile, no coquettish lowering of her lashes or strategic crossing of her legs. If anything, she’d looked defiant.

  Thinking back now, he realised that was the first time he’d felt it—that tug on his senses that accompanied the electrifying sensation when he looked into her eyes.

  Of course, he dismissed the feeling whenever it arose. Feelings had no place in his life or his business.

  What he’d wanted was an efficient assistant who could rise to any challenge he set her. Moneypenny had risen to each challenge and continued to surprise him on a regular basis, a rare thing in a man of his position.

  His gaze finally reached her feet and, with a sharp dart of astonishment, he noted the tiny tattoo on the inside of her left ankle. The star-shaped design, its circumference no larger than his thumb, was inked in black and blue and stood out against her pale skin.

  Although he was staring straight at it, the mark was so out of sync with the rest of her no-nonsense persona, he wondered if he was hallucinating.

  No, it was definitely a tattoo, right there, etched into her flawless skin.

  Intrigued, he returned his gaze to the busy fingers tapping away. As if sensing his scrutiny, her fingers slowed and her head started to lift and turn towards him.

  Sakis glanced down at his watch. ‘We’ll be landing in three hours. Let’s take a break now and regroup in half an hour.’

  Despite the loud whirr of her laptop shutting down, he noticed her attention didn’t stray far from the device. Her attention never wavered from her work—a fact that should’ve pleased him.

  ‘I’ve ordered lunch to be served in five minutes. I can hold it off for a few more minutes if you would like to look over the bios of the people we need to speak to when we land?’ Her gaze met his, her blue eyes cool and unwavering.

  His gaze dropped again to her ankle. As he watched, she slowly re-crossed her legs, obscuring the tattoo from his gaze.

  ‘Mr Pantelides?’ came the cool query.

  Sakis inhaled slowly, willed his wavering control to slide back into place. By the time his gaze reconnected with hers, his interest in her tattoo had receded to the back of his mind.

  Receded, but not been obliterated.

  ‘Have lunch served in ten. I’ll go take a quick shower.’ He rose and headed for the larger of the two bedrooms at the rear of his plane.

  At the door, he glanced back over his shoulder. Brianna Moneypenny was reaching for the attendant intercom with one hand while reopening her laptop with the other.

  Super-efficient and ultra-professional. His executive assistant was everything she’d said on the tin, just like he’d explained to Ari.

  But it suddenly occurred to Sakis that, in the eighteen months she’d worked for him, he’d never bothered looking inside the tin.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘I NEED TO get to the site asap once we land,’ Sakis said in between bites of his chef-made gourmet beef burger.

  Brianna curbed her pang of envy as she forked her plain, low-fat, crouton-free salad niçoise into her mouth and shook her head. ‘The environment minister wants a meeting first. I tried to postpone it but he was insistent. I think he wants a photo op, this being an election year and all. I told him it’d have to be a brief meeting.’

  His jaw tightened on his bite, his eyes narrowing with displeasure. Brianna didn’t have to wonder why.

  Sakis Pantelides detested any form of media attention with an almost unholy hatred, courtesy of the public devastation and humiliation Alexandrou Pantelides had visited on his family two decades ago. The Pantelides’ downfall had been played out in full media glare.

  ‘I have a helicopter on standby to take you straight to the site when you’re done.’

  ‘Make sure his people know my definition of brief. Do we know what the media presence is at the site?’ he asked after swallowing another mouthful.

  Her gaze darted to his. Green eyes watched her like a hawk. ‘All the major global networks are present. We also have a couple of EPA ships in the area monitoring things.’

  He gave a grim nod. ‘There’s not much we can do about the Environmental Protection Agency’s presence, but make sure security know that they can’t be allowed to interfere in the salvage and clean-up process. Rescuing the wildlife and keeping pollution to a minimum is another top priority.’

  ‘I know. And...I had an idea.’ Her plan was risky, in that it could attract more media attention than Sakis would agree to, but if she managed to pull it off it would reap enormous benefits and buy back some goodwill for Pantelides Shipping. It would also cement her invaluable status in Sakis’s eyes and she could finally be rid of the sinking, rock-hard feeling in her stomach when she woke in a cold sweat many nights.

  Some might find it shallow but Brianna placed job security above everything else. After everything she’d been through as a child—naively trusting that the only parent she had would put her well-being ahead of the clamour of the next drug fix—keeping her job and her small Docklands apartment meant everything to her. The terror of not knowing where her next meal would come from or when her temporary home would be taken from her still haunted her. And after her foolish decision to risk giving her trust, and the steep price she’d paid for it, she’d vowed never to be that helpless again.

  ‘Moneypenny, I’m listening,’ Sakis said briskly, and she realised he was waiting for her to speak.

  Gathering her fracturing thoughts, she took a deep breath.

  ‘I was thinking we can use the media and social network sites to our advantage. A few environmental blogs have started up, and they’re comparing what’s happening with the other oil conglomerate incident a few years ago. We need to nip that in the bud before it gets out of hand.’

  Sakis frowned. ‘It isn’t even remotely the same thing. For one thing, this is a surface spill, not a deep sea pipeline breach.’

  ‘But...’

  His expression turned icy. ‘I’d also like to keep the media out of this as much as possible. Things tend to get twisted around when the media becomes involved.’

  ‘I believe this is the ideal time to bring them round to our side. I know a few journalists who are above-board. Perhaps, if we can work exclusively with them, we can get a grea
t result. We’ve admitted the error is ours, so there’s nothing to cover up. But not everyone has time to fact-check and the public making assumptions could be detrimental to us. We need to keep the line of communication wide open so people know everything that’s going on at every stage.’

  ‘What do you propose?’ Sakis pushed his plate away.

  She followed suit and fired up her laptop. Keying in the address, she called up the page she’d been working on. ‘I’ve started a blog with a corresponding social networking accounts.’ She turned the screen towards him and held her breath.

  He glanced down at it. ‘“Save Point Noire”?’

  She nodded.

  ‘What is the point of that, exactly?’

  ‘It’s an invitation for anyone who wants to volunteer—either physically at the site or online with expertise.’

  Sakis started to shake his head and her heart took a dive. ‘Pantelides Shipping is responsible for this. We’ll clean up our own mess.’

  ‘Yes, but shutting ourselves off can also cause us a huge negative backlash. Look—’ she indicated the numbers on the screen ‘—we’re trending worldwide. People want to get involved.’

  ‘Won’t they see it as soliciting free help?’

  ‘Not if we give them something in return.’

  His gaze scoured her face, intense and focused, and Brianna felt a tiny burst of heat in her belly. Feverishly, she pushed it away.

  ‘And what would that something be?’ he asked.

  Nerves suddenly attacked her stomach. ‘I haven’t thought that far ahead. But I’m sure I can come up with something before the day’s out.’