In Petrakis's Power Read Online Free

any breakfast you’ll need it. Especially if you face a difficult meeting with your father.’
    ‘Difficult?’
    ‘I mean emotional. If his health has deteriorated then your discussion will not be easy for either of you.’
    The comment made a jolt of fear scissor through her heart. She was genuinely afraid that her dad’s urgent need to see her was to tell her he’d received a serious diagnosis from the doctor. They’d had their ups and downs over the years but she still adored him, and would hate for him to be taken from her when he had only just turned sixty.
    ‘You’re right. No doubt it will be emotional.’ She gave him a self-conscious smile and chewed thoughtfully on her sandwich.
    ‘I’m sure that whatever happens the two of you will find great reassurance in each other’s company.’
    The sudden ring of Ludo’s mobile instantly commanded his attention. After a brief acknowledgement to the caller, he covered the speaker with his hand and turned back to Natalie.
    ‘I’m afraid I need to take this call. I’m going to step outside into the corridor for a few minutes.’
    As he rose to his feet she was taken aback to see how tall he was … at least six foot two, she mused. The impressive physique beneath the flawless Italian tailoring hinted at an athletically lean and muscular build, and she couldn’t help staring up at him in admiration. Concerned that she might resemble a besotted teenager, staring open-mouthed at a pop idol, she forced herself to relax and nod her head in acknowledgement.
    ‘Please, go ahead.’
    As the automatic twin doors of the compartment swished open Ludo turned to her for a moment and, with a disconcerting twinkle in his eye, said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t run away, Natalie … will you?’

CHAPTER TWO
    ‘I ASSUME THAT all the papers are ready?’
    Even as he asked the question Ludo rapidly assessed the detailed information he’d been given, turning it over in his mind with the usual rapier-like thoroughness that enabled him to dive into every corner and crevice of a situation all at once and miss nothing.
    At the other end of the line, his personal assistant Nick confirmed that everything was as it should be. Rubbing a hand round his clean-shaven, chiselled jaw, Ludo enquired ‘And you’ve scheduled the meeting for tomorrow, as I asked?’
    ‘Yes, I have. I told the client that he and his lawyer should come to the office at ten forty-five, just as you instructed.’
    ‘And you’ve obviously notified Godrich, my own man?’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘Good. It sounds like you’ve taken care of everything. I’ll see you back at the office some time this afternoon to give the papers a final once-over. Bye for now.’
    When he’d concluded the call Ludo leant his back against the panelled wall of the train corridor, tryingin vain to calm the uncharacteristic nerves that were fluttering like a swarm of intoxicated butterflies in the pit of his stomach. It wasn’t the call or its contents that had perturbed him. Finalising deals and acquiring potentially lucrative businesses that had fallen on hard times was meat and drink to him, and he was famed for quickly turning his new acquisitions into veins of easily flowing gold. It was how he had made his fortune.
    No, the reason for his current disquiet was his engaging fellow passenger. How could a mere slip of a girl, with the reed-slim figure of a prima ballerina, long brown hair and big grey eyes like twin sunlit pools, electrify him as if he’d been plugged into the National Grid?
    He shook his head. She wasn’t anything like the voluptuous blondes and redheads that he was usually attracted to, and yet there was something irresistibly engaging about her. In fact, from the moment Ludo had heard the sound of her soft voice she had all but seduced him … Even more surprising than that, what were the odds that she should turn out to be half-Greek? The synchronicity stunned him.
    Distractedly staring down at several missed