Expectant Bride by Lynne Graham

Meg chuckled. ‘Not in those clothes!’
    â€˜Some secretaries are very highly qualified and earn top salaries,’ Ellie hastened to point out.
    One of the other women leant across the gap separating them and said, ‘That blonde piece was a dead ringer for you, Ellie.’ She gave an outrageous wink. ‘And you did go AWOL that night. Anything you’d like to confess?’
    â€˜Me… me ?’ Ellie repeated, sharply disconcerted and striving for more convincing vigour.
    â€˜Ellie would be too busy lecturing our Dio about sexism in the workplace to get off with him!’ someone else mocked.
    â€˜I’m rather behind tonight. I’d better get back to work,’ Ellie told Meg breathlessly as the dialogue roamed away from her again, leaving her limp.
    She caught the bus home at the end of her shift, feeling both tired and stressed out. As she walked down the street where she lived, she could not help but notice the long silver limousine parked outside the shop. Fierce tension tautened her slim figure and her heart raced so fast it was a challenge to breathe. As she approached, Dio Alexiakis got out of the car, the movement fluid and controlled, without any suggestion of haste.
    As usual, he looked spectacular. Charcoal-grey suit, crisp shadow stripe shirt, elegant silk tie in muted shades. Ellie’s heart went from racing to sinking. Dio looked every inch what he was, she acknowledged dully. A very rich and powerful businessman, highly sophisticated and exquisitely well groomed. How she had ever for one second imagined that she could have a relationship with someone like him?
    Ellie removed her keys from her bag with an unsteady hand. ‘You’re not playing fair, Dio. I told you I didn’t want this,’ she reminded him.
    â€˜I hurt you and I’m sorry,’ Dio murmured steadily.
    Unprepared for a blunt assertion of that ego-battering truth, Ellie twisted her head away. Her strained eyes stung with tears as she fumbled blindly to get the key into the lock and get the shop door safely shut behind her again.
    Dio plucked the key from her nerveless grip, opened the door and stood back.
    Ellie stepped inside and adjusted the alarm so that it wouldn’t go off. ‘I just don’t want to speak to you…OK?’ she said stiltedly.
    â€˜No. It’s not OK. I want to talk to you.’
    Ellie swallowed hard. All he probably wanted to do was explain and go away again. With as much dignity as she could muster, she simply shrugged as if she didn’t really care either way. Dio followed her up the steep narrow staircase behind the counter. She unlocked the door of her bedsit and switched on the lamp by her bed.
    It was a spacious room and she was proud of it. She had painted the walls a sunny yellow, put up posters, and covered the armchair with a colourful throw. Tossing her keys on the gate-leg table by the window, she turned back to him with pronounced reluctance.
    Dio studied her with an intensity she could feel right through to her bones. She flushed and folded her arms, suddenly horribly conscious of her serviceable rain jacket, fadedjeans and sweater. In the act of tilting her chin, she connected with glittering black eyes. She quivered, treacherous heat pooling between her thighs, a strength of craving that appalled her instantly awakened.
    â€˜Come home with me’ Dio demanded thickly.
    â€˜No!’ Ellie gasped, reeling in bemusement from that invitation.
    Dark colour scored his hard cheekbones. His dense lashes swept down low over his stunning gaze and he breathed in deep, his tension as strong as her own. ‘You’re right. We have to talk this out first,’ he conceded with gritty reluctance.
    First? Ellie spun away on legs that trembled, shattered that he could reduce her to such a level with just one smouldering glance.
    â€˜I went off on a tangent with you on the island,’ Dio admitted without hesitation. ‘When