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With a sigh, Bastien scooped up the dog before it skidded off the desk and broke its legs, and settled it on the floor. Then, lifting the toy with distaste, he flung it—sending Skippy into a race of panting pleasure.
‘I will only throw it once,’ he warned the animal.
Unable to get back to work, he walked out onto the balcony and groaned out loud as he paced in the warm evening air. His muscles were stiff.
Banishing Skippy, who was showing annoying signs of wanting to follow him, Bastien went down to the basement gym in an effort to work off some of his tension. A marathon swim, followed by a long, violently cathartic session with the punch bag, sent Bastien into the shower.
All he needed was a good night’s sleep and a clear head, he told himself urgently when he was tempted to approach Delilah. He did not need or want her...
* * *
Lilah sat up late in bed, reading, and fell asleep with the light on, wakening disorientated at around three in the morning. On her way back from the bathroom she thought she heard someone cry out, and she went to the window and brushed back the curtain to look down at the moonlit garden below. Nothing stirred...not even the shadows.
When the sound came again she realised that it had come from Bastien’s room, and she crossed the polished wooden floor to listen behind the communicating door with a frown etched between her brows.
The sound of a shout galvanised her into opening the door. Bastien was a dark shape, thrashing about wildly in the bed, and choked cries interspersed with Greek words were breaking from him.
There was no way on earth that Lilah could walk away and leave him suffering like that. He was having a nightmare, that was all, but it was clearly a terrifying one.
She hovered uncertainly by the side of the bed, and then closed her hand firmly round a sleek tanned muscular shoulder to shake it.
‘Wake up, Bastien...it’s just a dream,’ she told him gently.
CHAPTER EIGHT
ARMS FLAILING AND eyes wild, Bastien reared up and closed a hand round her throat, dragging her down to the bed on top of him as he struggled to focus on her.
‘Bastien...it’s Lilah!’ she gasped, in stricken dismay at the effect of her intervention. ‘You were stuck in a bad dream. I was trying to wake you up.’
‘Delilah...’ Bastien framed dazedly, shifting his tousled dark head in confusion, his eyes glittering dark as night in the faint light emanating from her room. He blinked. ‘What are you doing in here?’
‘You were having a really bad nightmare,’ she repeated as she levered herself away from him and settled on the empty side of the bed. The dampness of perspiration sheened his lean dark features and he was still trembling almost imperceptibly. ‘What on earth has got you that worked up?’
‘I put my hand round your neck... Did I hurt you?’ Bastien demanded, switching on the bedside light and tipping up her chin to examine the faint red fingermarks marring her slender white throat. ‘Diavelos, Delilah... I’m sorry. I could have seriously injured you. You should never have come near me when I was like that. I’m very restless. That’s why I always sleep alone.’
‘I’m fine... I’m fine... I was worried about you,’ she admitted.
‘Why the hell would you be worried about a guy who doesn’t treat you with respect or consideration?’ Bastien prompted grimly.
‘I was really concerned about you,’ Lilah countered, ignoring that question because she could not have answered it even to her own satisfaction. ‘What on earth were you dreaming about?’
His lean dark features were shuttered. ‘Believe me, you don’t want to know.’
In an abrupt movement that took her by surprise, he pulled her backwards into his arms. Little tremors were still running through his big powerful frame.
Lilah released her breath in a bemused hiss. ‘Try to relax,’ she urged him, aware of the shattering tension still holding his muscles taut in his big body.
‘Don’t try to mother me, glikia mou,’ Bastien growled warningly, resting back against the pillows and breathing in slow and deep before exhaling again. ‘That’s not what I want from you.’
‘Well, you’re not getting anything else,’ Lilah warned him bluntly.
