Even from that distance the tension whipping through his frame had been unmistakable, as had the blatant dark promise in his eyes as his gaze raked her from head to toe.
More than anything she’d wished she could lip-read when she’d watched his lips move to answer whoever was at the other end of his phone conversation.
That last look plagued her. It’d held hunger, anger and another emotion that she couldn’t quite decipher. Brushing it off, she smiled, accepted her coffee and headed outside. She was a little early for her class with the inner city kids but she hadn’t wanted to spend another moment at the tension-fraught breakfast table with her father and brother this morning.
In contrast to Pietro’s third degree as to what exactly had happened with Alfonso Delgado, her father had been cold and strangely preoccupied. The moment he’d stood abruptly and left the table, she’d made her excuses and walked away.
Even Pietro’s reminder that they had a dinner engagement she couldn’t recall making hadn’t been worth stopping to query. All she’d wanted was to get out of the mansion that felt more and more as if it was closing in on her.
‘Bom dia, anjo.’ The deep murmured greeting brought her thoughts and footsteps to a crashing halt.
Theo leaned casually against a gleaming black sports car, a pair of dark sunglasses hiding his eyes from her. But her full body tingle announced that she was the full, unwavering focus of his gaze. Her breath stalled, her heart accelerating wildly as her pulse went into overdrive.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ she blurted before she could stop her strong reaction.
Aside from the devastation his tall, lean suited frame caused to her insides, the thought that he could discover where she was headed or what she did with her Tuesday and Thursday mornings made her palms grow clammy. By lunchtime today, if Pietro were to be believed, Theo would be firmly entrenched as a business partner in her family’s company. Which meant constant contact with her family. Which meant he could disclose parts of her life she wasn’t yet ready to disclose to her family.
‘Are you following me?’ she accused hotly as she approached him, her senses jumping with the possibilities and consequences of her discovery.
‘Not today. My trench coat and fedora are at the laundry.’
‘Keep them there. In this heat, you’d boil to death.’
A smile broke across his face. ‘Do I detect a little unladylike relish in your voice, anjo?’
‘What you detect is high scepticism that you’re here by accident and not following me,’ she snapped.
‘You give me too much credit, agape mou. I asked for the best coffee shop in the city and I was directed here. That you’re here too merely confirms that assertion. Unless you go out of your way to sample bad coffee?’
Before she could respond, he straightened and reached for the hand wrapped around her coffee. Curling his hand over hers, he brought his lips to the small opening on her coffee lid and tilted the cup towards him.
He savoured the drink in his mouth for a few seconds before he swallowed.
Inez fought to breathe as she watched his strong throat move. The slow swirl of his tongue over his lower lip caused darts of sharp need to arrow straight between her legs.
‘Delicious. And surprising. I would’ve pegged you for a latte girl.’
‘Which goes to show you know next to nothing about me,’ she retorted.
He slowly raised his sunglasses and speared her with his mesmerising eyes. Although a smile hovered over his sensual lips, some unnameable tension hovered in the air between them. A charged friction that warned her all was not as it seemed.
Hell, she knew that. Theo Pantelides spelled danger. Whether smiling or serious, dallying with him was akin to playing with electricity. Depending on his mood, you could either receive a mild static frizzle or a full-blown electrocution. And she had no intention of testing him for either.
‘Sim, I don’t know enough about you. But I intend to remedy that situation in the near future.’
She shrugged. ‘It is your time to waste.’
He merely smiled and turned towards his car.
‘I thought you came to get coffee?’ she probed, then bit her lip for prolonging a meeting she wanted over and done with. Last night she’d told herself to be thankful that she would never see this man again. And yet, here she was, feeling mildly bereft at the notion that he was leaving.