instead of coming onto the attack,” he said, amusement and something she thought was resignation in his voice.
Quickly moving out of his arms, she straightened her shirt, re-tucking the tails to appear unaffected by his touch. “I’m sorry, Mr. Theopolis. I didn’t know you were out here.”
Dimitri grimaced. “So we’re back to my last name again, eh?” Sighing heavily, he took her hand and led her out of the hallway, down the decking to a pretty parlor she hadn’t seen the previous day. “Okay, let’s get this out into the open,” he said, turning to face her. “What do you think my intentions are?” he asked.
Helen looked up into his handsome face and shook her head. “It was my fault last night. I let my imagination run away with me and I pushed my affections onto you,” she said with painful honesty, unable to look at him and the hated blush heating her cheeks. “I stepped out of line, but if you’ll just give me another chance, I’ll make sure I don’t consume more alcohol than I can deal with and will never let myself get so out of hand. I honestly can’t imagine what happened but can guarantee that it won’t happen again.”
Dimitri looked at her, his hands on his hips and ground his teeth in frustration. The two of them were back to square one, with her denying everything she was feeling and, if he allowed it, she would revert back to painful professionalism. Damn if he was going to allow that. He’d made progress last night and he wasn’t going to allow himself to fall back into the cold shower mode.
“What about what I feel? Perhaps you should consider what I want out of this situation.”
Helen nodded her head gravely. “Yes. I’ve considered that. And if you wish me to resign, I will submit my resignation immediately.”
“Resignation!? Like hell you will!” he almost yelled. Taking a deep breath to calm his temper and flaring desire that was still running through his system, he looked down into her soft, lovely features.
Moving closer, he shook his head. “Oh, no, Helen. We’re not ignoring last night. In fact, here’s what we’re going to do,” he said softly, moving forward to eliminate the distance between them. Each time she took a step backwards, he took one forwards, unrelenting as he forced her to realize that the desire between the two of them was mutual and unquenchable. “I’m going to kiss you and when we’re finished, you’re going to go downstairs and change into something more appropriate. When you come back up, we’re going to have coffee and breakfast. We’re not going to talk about work or contracts or anything that involves shipping or takeovers. We’re going to talk about each other. You’re going to tell me what makes you tick, then I’m going to do the same. We’re going to slowly get to know each other. Once that is done, and we realize that neither one of us is repulsed by each other’s past, I’m going to make love to you until our eyes can no longer see straight. We’re going to make love over and over again until we’ve both satisfied the longing that has been tamped mercilessly down over the past few months. And then we’ll move forward.”
Helen listened to his pronouncement and her breathing started to increase, her heart rate sky rocketed and she could hear a ringing in her ears. “Oh,” was all she could say and then almost berated herself for being so pathetically unprofound.
“Is that all you have to say?” he asked, towering over her, blocking out the light and glaring almost angrily into her blue eyes.
Helen moved her lips but no sound came out. He was so large, so big, so muscular and overwhelming that she could barely think. Her body was reacting to his words and she wanted desperately to sound non-chalant about the issue but she was completely out of her league.
“Yes, I think that’s all I can say,” she said, nodding her head for emphasis.
“Fine.”
Without another word, he took her face between both of her hands and looked at her, not saying another word. Helen knew she should close her eyes but she watched, mesmerized as his head descended toward hers, his mouth moving slowly, painfully slowly. Helen took a deep breath, her hands balled into fists at her sides, waiting while his head moved down to her mouth.
When the contact finally occurred, Helen wasn’t sure what she was thinking, if