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What if he allowed her to work as his secretary again? Just for a few days? Of course it would be terateful for Anna’s help in selecting a new secretary Maybe she could even help polish the negotiations for the Singapore deal

But it wouldn’t take long A week, ether He’d put on the chars, if that hat it took He’d wine her and dine her until she surrendered her body and soul

And what a body Her skin was pale as a Russian winter, but she looked sexy as hell, barely decent beneath a tiny string bikini thatturquoise of the water She’d certainly never worn anything like that when she was his mistress She’d never flaunted her curves, never tried once to tease him She hadn’t had to; she’d driven him wild even as a buttoned-up secretary ore her hair in a bun and covered up her body with elegant loose-fitting suits

But as this siren in her place? String bikini today Tight jeans and clinging halter top yesterday Had Anna really changed so much?

He saw her give a worried glance at the sun and, cuddling the baby to her chest, she climbed up the wide pool steps She pulled sunscreen out of the old, frayed diaper bag sitting on the stone table near the fountain Sitting back on a nearby lounge chair, she sat the chubby baby down on her flat belly and playfully tickled hi him with sunscreen

She reached for a wide-brie of the stone table Her nearly nude body stretched beneath the bikini, revealing the side swell of her breasts

Mrs Burbridge nearly ran into him as she hurried around the courtyard doorway

“Oh! Excuse me, sir”

He’d been so intent on watching Anna that he hadn’t heard the pluhtened “My fault, Mrs Burbridge”

“I was just going to ask Mrs Stav—er, Miss Rostoff—” she flushed with embarrassment as she tripped over the name “—if she wanted ht, so I thought perhaps she’d like a bit of a rest”

“She didn’t sleep well?”

“She has the roo, I suppose, poor dear”

So Anna had slept as badly as he had Nikos would be willing to bet ht

His lips curved up in a sether By the end of the week—by the end of the day, if he was lucky—Mrs Burbridge would never have to trip over Anna’s naain She would be Mrs Stavrakis

Anna was barely back in the pool with Misha when she saw Mrs Burbridge standing by the water’s edge But it wasn’t the appearance of the Scotswoe It was theat her like an ant under a microscope, as if he’d never seen a woman in a swimsuit before

“Would you like e asked “I thought you ht like a wee rest”

Since it was only ten o’clock in the , she was sure the “wee rest” was Nikos’s idea He wanted to get her alone, so he could finish his seduction and convince her to be his bride

Not in this lifetime

Anna turned to wade in the other direction, holding the baby close as if she feared the older wo herself in the pool, orthopedic shoes and all, and wrestle Misha away “No, thank you, Mrs Burbridge We’re happy as we are”

She waited for Nikos to deive up the baby, but to her surprise he didn’t “Obviously she’s not tired,” she heard hiether as a family”

Anna heard Mrs Burbridge leave and looked back, hoping that Nikos had left too No such luck He was standing by the pool, watching her with an inscrutable expression His presence was like a dark cloud over the sun It iven herself to hiht, how uht Twice she’d nearly weakened and gone to his room It was only by the sheerest self-preservation that she hadn’t woken up this er

At least then she’d also have woken up with a big sht away

“Well?” she said, giving hiive to other people’s servants when they sneered at their family as “charity cases” and purposefully ruined their meals or their laundry behind their ehteen, when her father had returned the faone into business with Victor, their life had been full of insult and insecurity

And after that Victor had had power over them That hy she would never allow herself to be dependent upon soarret and have her pride

At least that hat she’d thought before she became a mother Now she wasn’t so sure What was her own pride co of her child?

“What do you want?” she demanded irritably