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Cleo winced at that rather cruel question. ‘Try for a little tact, boss.’
‘Don’t call me that when we’ve strayed so far from workplace boundaries.’ Ari pushed away his empty plate. ‘There’s desserts somewhere...possibly in the kitchen—’
‘Not for me. That steak filled me up.’ Cleo stood up. ‘I’ll have coffee, though.’
Cleo set out the coffee cups on the top tray of the trolley and proceeded to pour for both of them before walking back into the sitting room. ‘You asked me how I felt about my father? Rejected about sums it up. It hurt a lot when I was growing up when I saw other kids with their dads. And then years later I saw my father again with a woman and two children in the park. They seemed happy. It was only then that I truly understood my background. That woman and those kids were hisrealfamily, while I was only the by-product of his affair—’
Ari frowned. ‘That’s harsh.’
‘It’s reality,’ Cleo contradicted quietly. ‘It was healthier for me just to accept that that’s how it was. I gather your half-siblings come from a similar set-up?’
Ari expelled his breath in a sharp hiss. ‘A long-running secret affair, yes. I was shattered when I found out—’
‘Shattered?’ Cleo queried in surprise.
‘I believed that my parents had had a very happy marriage—’
‘Yes, but you were on the outside,’ Cleo pointed out gently, reflecting that, in the realm of personal relationships, Ari seemed rather naive. ‘I assume that this affair was your father’s and that you only found out about it because he had...er...passed away?’
Ari released a heavy sigh as he paced. ‘Yes... Do you mind me asking if you’ve ever contacted your half-siblings?’
Cleo twisted to look at him and frowned. ‘No. Why would I do that?’
It was Ari’s turn to look surprised. ‘They’re your flesh and blood.’
‘Yes, but I’ve always assumed that they don’t know about me and probably have no idea that their father cheated on their mother with another woman. Why would I want to upset them with that knowledge?’ Cleo asked ruefully. ‘Yes, I’m curious about them, but approaching them would probably hurt them by revealing stuff they don’t need to know. I doubt that I would get a very positive response.’
His level ebony brows pleated. ‘All the same—’
‘No, Ari,’ she cut in, using his name for the first time because she was so caught up in the discussion. ‘Look at howyouare feeling now. You said you were shattered when you discovered that you had siblings and that it’s trashed your belief in your parents’ happy marriage...’
As Cleo made those deductions, Ari angled admiring dark golden eyes over her and sank down on the hide sofa beside her. ‘You really understand all this stuff... You see, I don’t. The whole thing just came at me out of nowhere and I’m not sure how to handle it—’
‘But you’re on theotherside of the fence from me. You are theacceptedchild. What about your half-siblings? What do you know about them?’
‘I’ve got a private investigation team trying to trace them, but nothing that I have so far discovered is reassuring. I don’t know when the affair ended or even how it ended, but my father appears to have left the woman and the children without money, which very much shocked me,’ Ari imparted in a driven undertone. ‘The veryleasthe should have done was ensure their financial security.’
‘I suppose I respect you for caring and not just thinking about yourself,’ Cleo told him truthfully.
‘I feel bloody guilty. I had an idyllic childhood. I have never lacked anything I wanted in life.’ Ari breathed rawly, his disquiet unhidden. ‘I have had every educational opportunity and advantage handed to me on a plate...while my father’s other three children have had next to nothing in comparison—’
‘There arethreeof them?’
‘A boy and girl set of twins and a younger girl,’ he proffered curtly.
Compassion filtered through Cleo. She was staggered by the amount of emotion he was revealing, because she had always assumed he was as self-contained and cool and calm as he appeared to be on the surface. The revelation that he was not at all that way humanised him and erased her awareness of their differing status while touching her heart. His spectacular golden eyes were liquid with emotion and she lifted an instinctive hand and rested it in a soothing gesture against his jawline, fingertips lightly grazing his stubbled skin.
‘It’s all right,’ she whispered softly. ‘It’s not your fault. Nor is it your duty to carry the responsibility either. It was your father’s choices that made it that way for his other children. I can’t believe that they would blame you for his oversights.’
That this tiny young woman was actually striving to comfort him knocked Ari sideways. No female had ever approached him in that light since his mother had died several years earlier and it drew him like a fire on a winter’s day, his dark eyes flaming pure glittering gold as he tipped up her chin with a flick of his fingers and brought his mouth down on hers.
It was like sticking her finger in a light socket, being hit by lightning, taking a ride on a shooting star, Cleo thought crazily as her whole body pulsed and lit up with a burst of heat and longing that blew her away. Nothing had ever tasted as good as that beautiful mouth of his, about which she had fantasised so often. Hard and yet soft, his lips caressed hers with lazy sensuality, and then, as her own parted to let him inside, the stab of his delving tongue kick-started an infinitely more primitive response. A needy ache stirred between her thighs and her nipples tightened, pushing at the lace of her bra while her heart thundered inside her chest.
‘Are you okay with this?’ Ari husked in her ear as her hands clung to his shoulders as if he were the only stable thing in a collapsing world.
And in a way, he was, because she knew exactly what he meant, only there was no time to think about the many, many things she knew she would normally be thinking about. She knew that any perceptible hesitation would end the opportunity. She also knew she definitely didn’t want that. She didn’t want to be a virgin any longer either, she conceded grudgingly. For goodness’ sake, she was twenty-two years old and had held on to her innocence, herignorance, whatever people might choose to describe it, for longer than most in her age group. For once, too, she didn’t want to play it safe; she wanted to tear up the rule book and take a risk. After all, with every man she had ever spent time with, she had always been waiting for the magic moment when passion sparked and swept away every other concern, giving her that shot of adrenaline-driven desire that other women had described. So what if her magnetic irresistible lure was Ari Stefanos? Surely she was as capable of having a one-night stand and walking away afterwards as any other woman? After all, there was nothing surer than thathewould be walking away...
A guy who lived in a world utterly removed from her own.Are you okay with this?He took it for granted that every woman was prepared to consider travelling from a mere kiss to full sex when he asked! Hiding her reluctant amusement, Cleo pressed her face into his shoulder, drinking in the divine scent of him and quivering with an awareness absolutely new to her. ‘I’m fine with this,’ she framed shakily.
