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her ruffled dark head to the toes of her black patent shoes.
    The look of dark contempt that filled it made her shiver, feeling as if a much needed protective layer of skin had been stripped from her body, leaving her raw and exposed, frighteningly vulnerable.
    ‘And what makes you think that what just happened had anything to do with anything?’
    ‘But—you…I thought…’
    Her tongue seemed to tangle up on itself, tying itself in knots so that she couldn’t get the words out.
    ‘You thought…?’ Nikos prompted harshly when she fought with herself, trying to speak.
    ‘I thought that that—that when you…’
    When you kissed me. She just couldn’t make herself say it. She knew that she would give herself away if she did. She had thought—had hoped —that the way he had kissed her so passionately meant that he still felt some trace of something for her. That, if nothing else, at least he was still attracted to her. And she had little doubt that that hope, that illusion—because his face made it plain it was an illusion—would show in her voice if she said anything more.
    ‘When I kissed you?’ Nikos drawled mockingly. ‘Is that what you mean? So tell me, my sweet Sadie, just what did you think was happening? What do you think that was?’
    ‘I—’ Sadie tried to begin, but he ignored her stuttering attempt at speech and talked across her quite deliberately.
    ‘Did you think it was warmth? Was that it? Or perhaps affection? Or perhaps…’
    He actually had the nerve to stop, appear to consider, evenlook suitably surprised, when deep down inside she knew damn well that the brute wasn’t surprised at all but had been aiming for this right from the start.
    ‘Thee mou , you didn’t think it was love , did you?’
    If she’d found it hard to speak before, then now Sadie found it absolutely impossible. She could feel the hot colour flaring in her cheeks and knew that her furiously embarrassed reaction had given her away completely.
    ‘Then I’m sorry—’
    ‘No, you’re not!’ Sadie broke in, finding her voice at last in the strength of the wave of anger that swept over her. ‘You’re not sorry at all. And I know it wasn’t—wasn’t anything like love.’
    It couldn’t have been. There was no way anyone could switch on love like that and then immediately turn it off right away.
    ‘It certainly wasn’t,’ Nikos confirmed coldly.
    ‘So what was it?’
    Cruelty? Deliberate manipulation? Some sort of hateful test?
    ‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Nikos questioned softly. ‘I couldn’t help myself.’
    He’d shocked her there. It wasn’t at all the answer she’d expected. But he’d anticipated her response and knew that he had her when her head went back in amazement, green eyes opening wide. A smile that did nothing to light up his face and had no effect at all on the coldness of his eyes flickered across his beautiful mouth as he noted her response.
    He paused just long enough for his words to sink in and hit home before moving in for the kill.
    ‘Lust will do that,’ he declared, making sure that his words were totally clear. ‘You always spoke to my most basic masculine nature—my libido—you still do. I find it hard to keep my hands off you.’
    ‘Is that supposed to be a compliment? Because if it is you need to work on your technique.’
    But Sadie’s sarcasm, her attempt to hit back, simply bounced off Nikos’s impenetrable hide without, apparently, even leaving a mark.
    ‘Lust I can handle,’ he went on, as if she had never spoken. ‘It’s something I can decide to indulge or not as I choose.’
    ‘And you—decided to indulge it just now when you pawed me—’
    ‘Not pawed, Sadie,’ Nikos corrected, shaking his head almost as if in sorrow at her interpretation of his actions. ‘I do not paw women. And if I had then you would not have responded as you did.’
    ‘I—’ Sadie tried to protest, but the sudden rush of confidence to speak seemed to have deserted