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His lean, darkly handsome face gripped her gaze. ‘I need to talk to you—’
Cleo struggled to drag her hungry eyes from him. But it was as if he were a magnet and she were made of metal. Compulsion made her gaze cling to his sinfully gorgeous face. ‘We’ve got nothing to talk about—’
‘I’ve had some news about my siblings, but not anything I want to share in a public place,’ Ari intoned drily. ‘When will you be free?’
She knew her own vulnerability as her heartbeat quickened and a shimmer of prickling awareness sifted wickedly through her taut body. He was still making her feel things she had never felt before, but even worse, he was making her feel them when she was striving not to be affected. He broke down her every defensive barrier and she didn’t know how he did it.
‘Six. But—’
‘I’ll have you picked up,’ Ari incised, and turned on his heel.
Cleo wanted to smack him for his arrogance even while curiosity was tugging crazily at her because she was almost as inquisitive about the unknown relatives he had discovered as he was. She bristled at having been taken by surprise. Would she have acted any differently had she been prepared for his appearance? She suppressed a sigh and tried to be honest with herself. Truth was that, on the spot and in the flesh, she found Ari Stefanos downright irresistible.
Only a few minutes after she walked out of the bar, a luxury car purred into the kerb. A male she recognised from the office as belonging to Ari’s security team emerged from the vehicle, tugged open the rear passenger door and called, ‘Miss Brown?’
Cleo settled into the car as it pulled back into the traffic and didn’t really draw breath again until the vehicle purred through a select city square of Georgian town houses and finally drew to a halt outside one of them. She had expected some penthouse apartment, not an actual house, she reflected in surprise as she climbed out and mounted the steps to the front door. The car departed again just as the door opened and an older woman murmured, ‘Mr Stefanos is waiting for you, Miss Brown.’
Her slender spine stiff with self-consciousness, Cleo walked through an echoing tiled front hall, becoming belatedly aware that the house was a rare double-fronted town house of enormous size and grandeur. Her surroundings were like a shock wake-up call to her. This was Ari’s true milieu, the rich and opulent environment of a male born with an entire silver service in his mouth, never mind a single silver spoon! What did he know about scrimping to survive in a city as expensive as London? What did he know about shopping with coupons and buying clothes in charity shops? How on earth had she ended up in bed with a male with whom she had so very little in common?
She was shown into an unexpectedly airy sunroom where tall exotic plants offered filtered shade from the sunshine. Comfortable seating overlooked a secluded rear garden that was a glorious oasis of greenery. The sound of a sliding door sent her flipping round. Ari strode in from outdoors, more casually clad than she had ever seen him in faded jeans and a forest-green sweater. Although his lean, dark features were clenched with a brooding tension she had not seen there before, he still looked younger and even sexier than normal in that get-up. The instant that bold thought raced through her head, she squashed it flat and reddened.
‘Cleo...sit down,’ he urged. ‘Coffee?’
‘No, thanks. I’m on a caffeine high by the time I leave the bar,’ she confided.
‘It’s time we exchanged phone numbers,’ Ari decreed.
Cleo breathed in deep, on the brink of refusing, and then, belatedly, she acknowledged that she wanted that link, and she dug out her phone.
The woman who had ushered her indoors reappeared with a laden tray, which she set down on the low table before withdrawing again. Cleo was relieved to see a pot of tea on offer.
‘Help yourself,’ Ari urged, passing her a plate. ‘I thought you might be hungry...’
‘Only a little,’ Cleo confided, tempted by the delicious snack foods into selecting a couple and then setting down her plate to pour the tea. ‘I get a pretty good lunch at midday.’
‘It’s none of my business, but why would you leave a decent position in an office to do bar work?’ Ari shot at her with a frown.
‘If you take tips into account, I actually earn more at a busy city bar,’ Cleo explained apologetically, glad to employ an excuse that glossed over her real reasons for leaving Stefanos Enterprises. ‘My stepfather runs a pub. Thanks to him, I’m experienced behind the bar.’
‘I think we both know that the salary is not why you chose to jack the job in,’ Ari murmured softly.
Cleo stiffened. ‘Let’s not get into the personal stuff. What did you want to talk to me about?’
‘You’re the only person apart from my lawyer who knows about my father’s second family. It seems wiser to keep it that way,’ Ari explained heavily. ‘Tragically, I received bad news on that score today.’
‘Oh...’ Cleo framed in dismay on his behalf. ‘What did you discover?’
‘That their mother died over ten years ago and that the three children went into foster care because there were no other relatives. So far, the investigation agency has only been able to trace one of them... Lucas, the elder twin and the kid brother, whom I wassoeager to meet,’ Ari breathed through clenched teeth, a muscle tightening at the corner of his unsmiling mouth, his amber gaze dark with suppressed bitterness and regret. ‘Deadat the age of twenty-two from a heroin overdose, both him and his girlfriend—’
‘What hideous news to receive,’ Cleo responded in a shaken whisper, leaning closer, wanting to offer comfort but not sure how to do it without crossing the imaginary line that imposed the boundaries she felt that she needed around him.
‘Their bodies were found together in a squat. I feel sick with shame that something like that could have happened to my own flesh and blood!’ Ari admitted in a savage undertone. ‘How could my father neglect the needs of the children he had brought into the world to that extent?’
Cleo frowned at that searing condemnation. ‘You take such a negative view of things,’ she scolded softly. ‘You don’t know all the facts, do you? And unfortunately, with both your father and the woman he had the affair with dead, you mayneverknow the facts. A hundred and one different things could have happened. Maybe the woman broke up with your father and refused his support... Nobody knows their own future. Maybe they lost contact and she was too proud to ask for help. It was a secret relationship as well, so there was probably nobody else able to inform your father that the children had lost their mother. Until you know for sure what happened, you musttrynot to make harsh judgements.’
‘When you receive news of that nature, it is difficultnotto judge! My siblings went into the care of the authorities. My little brother dropped out of school at fifteen and ran away from his foster home to live on the streets. He had a string of convictions for drug-dealing before becoming an addict. He was identified by his criminal records—’
Cleo reached for his hand, where his fingers were biting angrily into the arm of his seat. ‘Ari...it’snotyour fault. None of this is. You didn’t even know Lucas existed. But it’s very sad that you never had the chance to meet him and that he seems to have lived what sounds like a pretty unhappy life—’
