Free The Greek Boss's Demand by Trish Morey

clean.
    For a moment she was too shocked to respond. For one thing the gesture had been completely unnecessary. For another it had been way too intimate. But the worst of it was that she felt cheated.
    Because for some insane reason she had found herself wanting that kiss. And it hadn’t happened.
    â€˜Thank you,’ she forced herself to say through gritted teeth, her voice scratchy. Breaking eye contact, and trying to pretend that having cappuccino foam practically licked off her lip was an everyday occurrence, she headed resolutely for the office.
    â€˜The pleasure was all mine,’ she heard Nick mutter a few paces behind her.
    Â 
    The phone was ringing when she got back to her office.
    â€˜So how did it go?’ asked Tilly.
    â€˜It didn’t.’
    â€˜You mean you didn’t tell him?’
    â€˜I couldn’t.’
    â€˜You chickened out?’ Tilly’s tone was damning.
    â€˜I tried to tell him but he wasn’t listening. And things have changed.’
    â€˜What’s changed?’
    â€˜He’s marrying Sofia.’
    A pause. ‘Are you sure?’
    â€˜Tilly, he’s bought her a diamond the size of Uluru and they’ve both asked me to help with the wedding. How much more evidence do I need?’
    â€˜Oh.’ Alex could hear the sound of Tilly sitting down. ‘Are you okay about it?’
    Alex scoffed. ‘Why should it matter? Nick means nothing to me now.’
    Liar! Even as she said the words it felt as if someone was twisting a knife inside her. And yet it shouldn’t matter, so why the hell did she feel so bad?
    â€˜I guess that does complicate things. But he still—’
    Alex cut her off, knowing full well what was coming. ‘Yeah, I know. I just couldn’t do it on top of everything else. Not today.’ Not after he’d offered to set me up in an apartment for sex whenever he felt like it. She glanced at her watch. ‘Listen, sis, I need your help. I can’t do this wedding planning thing. I don’t have the first idea of how to go about planning a wedding, let alone the extravaganza Sofia will expect—besides which, I have far too much work on my plate already. So I recommended you. Can you do it?’
    â€˜So…you’re not actually okay about it?’
    Alex sighed. ‘Look, it’s complicated. Let’s leave it at that. Now, do you want this job or not?’
    Tilly rang off once they’d worked out a time for Sofia to drop by, and Alex worked out that she had better deal with the bank and transfer some money pronto. Sofia’s credit card had maxed out—no mean feat, given the gold-plated limit. The new blue wardrobe had obviously taken its toll. She authorised a transfer to ensure there was sufficient credit to cover the inevitable imminent shopping spree and went in search of the blushing bride-to-be.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    T IME , like Alex’s peace of mind, was wearing thin. It had been a quiet couple of weeks. Tilly had kept Sofia so busy, organising the wedding of her dreams, that she’d hardly been in the office. Nick had extended his trip away, as expected. He was due back tomorrow, in time to collect Dimitri—who was arriving from Athens—from the airport.
    Everything was ready. The invoices were up to date. The bank statements reconciled. The management reports were prepared—a neat stack of facts and figures to greet the new administrator, who would need all of this to evaluate the Xenophon Group’s operations.
    She’d achieved a lot in just a few days—achieved all that she’d set out to do and more. But there was no rush of satisfaction at having met her self-imposed targets. No spring in her step at having smoothed the chaos that had been the office, since Aristos’s death, into order and control.
    Nick was coming back tomorrow. Somehow the anticipation of that—the dread of that—overpowered everything else.
    But that was