The Passionate Greek (6 page)

Stung, she replied hotly, ‘It was never my
intention to leave without an explanation,’

‘How very honorable of you.’ His face
registered disbelief spurring Melanie to fury.

‘Since you are obviously quite prepared not
to believe a word I say I won’t bother to even try,’ she
snapped.

Their raised voices disturbed Electra who
began to cry. Suffused by guilt Melanie rocked the baby in her arms
and, comforted Electra’s sobs subsided to sleepy snuffles. Meeting
Nicos’s s eyes over the baby’s head she could see he felt as guilty
as she did.

‘Here, let me take her up the rest of the
way,’ he said, his voice soft. ‘She’s getting heavy now, isn’t
she?’ Unresisting, Melanie let Nicos take Electra from her and
cradled in her father’s arms Electra stuck her thumb in her mouth
and closed her eyes contentedly. In spite of herself Melanie was
oddly moved to see father and daughter together.

‘Can you manage the beach bag?’ Nicos’s
voice was kindly questioning, as if they had never had a cross word
between them.

‘Yes, thank you,’ said Melanie, in a small
voice.

They were behaving as if Electra could
understand every word and were determined to put up a convincing
show of togetherness in front of their daughter.

As she followed Nicos’s long strides up the
steep steps cut out from the hillside which led up to the villa
Melanie could not help but be aware of Nicos’s deeply tanned
muscular legs as he powered upwards, his sleepy daughter no
hindrance. He was in shorts, and shirtless, displaying broad
shoulders narrowing to slim hips. ’He’s still got the sexiest butt
on any man alive,’ she thought ruefully and chastised herself for
it. She was disturbed to find that he still had the power to
attract her like no other man had before.

At the top of the steps he turned to her and
placed Electra tenderly back into her arms, running his hand softly
over Electra’s baby curls. ‘Her hair is the same color as yours,’
he said, unexpectedly. ‘Sea green eyes like yours, too. She will
grow up as beautiful as her mother.’ Melanie stared speechlessly at
him. He had spoken almost to himself. Abruptly he said, ‘I know how
long you’ve been here. You have obviously spent all your time with
her.’

Melanie, rocking Electra in her arms, kept
her gaze averted from him and stayed silent. A dreadful fear
engulfed her. Now that Nicos was back was she looking at the last
of her daughter? It had to be.

Nicos took a step towards her. She hugged
Electra closer to her protectively.

‘I’m not going to snatch her away,’ he said.
‘You needn’t look like that.’

Melanie struggled to speak. She had a lump
in her throat that refused to go away. She could feel his eyes on
her. ‘And how have you been spending these illicit days,’ he asked,
but he sounded more amused than angry. Melanie remained mute and he
said, ‘Well, whatever you have been doing Electra looks very well
on it.’ Melanie was startled but before she could think to say
anything he had turned away abruptly and left her staring at his
retreating back.

As Melanie readied Electra for bed she
wondered how she was supposed to spend her evening now that Nicos
was back. It would be time for dinner in an hour or so. At Anna’s
insistence she had always eaten her evening meal alone in the
dining room. She had suggested she eat in the kitchen with the
staff but Anna would not hear of it. Perhaps she could have
something sent up to her room.

She was pondering this option when Anna
appeared and as if reading her thoughts announced: ‘Mr Nicos want
you to eat with him on the terrace tonight.’

‘Confrontation time,’ Melanie told herself.
‘I might as well get it over with.’

Anna turned to leave the room. At the door
she looked back at Melanie and said sternly, ‘You wear something
pretty.’ Melanie half smiled. ‘You know you can be a very bossy old
lady when you want.’ But Anna had gone’

Melanie gazed after her nonplussed. The case
she had brought to the island contained only practical clothes like
jeans, cotton tops and beachwear. She had the feeling that they
were not Anna’s idea of ‘something pretty’. Like a mind reader Anna
appeared in the doorway again. ‘You look in storeroom cupboards.
.You find things.’

With that pronouncement she disappeared
again.

Melanie sighed to herself. Anna was
obviously not going to be satisfied unless she dressed for dinner.
‘I’ll do it for Anna,’ she decided. ‘No doubt Nicos would prefer me
in sackcloth and ashes,’ she thought crossly.

The storeroom so called was in reality the
top floor of the three-story villa. As Melanie mounted the stairs
she wondered what on earth she was going to find up there to wear.
She rummaged through a few trunks filled with spare warm bed linen
for the island’s cold winter months and hunted through a few boxes
before she remembered one of the rooms was lined with cupboards.
The first one was filled with warm winter clothing obviously
belonging to the staff. The second was full of what seemed to be an
overflow of Nicos’s wardrobe. The third made her gasp. Hanging on
the rails was a collection of jewel colored silk and chiffon
dresses.

‘Mine, they’re mine,’ she breathed. Her mind
spun back to when Nicos had bought them for her. A shopping trip to
Athens, the smart boutique, trying them on under Nicos’s approving
gaze and being quite unable to decide which she liked best. ‘Have
them all,’ laughed Nicos. And pulling her to him whispered, mock
wicked, in her ear. ‘The dress I like best is the one I can get off
you quickest.’

She fingered a flame silk chiffon with
fluted skirt and thin straps. Nicos had loved her in that dress.
Her mood turned mischievous. Swiftly, she decided. She would wear
it. Maybe it would annoy Nicos, but, she reasoned, he could not be
more angry with her than he was already.

He was standing at the end of the terrace
when she made her entrance. As she walked towards him the skirt
billowed about her long tanned legs. She knew she looked good. Her
tawny hair fell about her lightly tanned shoulders, the flame of
the dress intensifying the moss dark green of her eyes.

She heard the sharp intake of his breath as
she approached. For a moment she hesitated. His eyes looked
haunted. In an instant she regretted her spur of the moment
decision to stir up those old memories. But he seemed to recover
himself quickly enough, handing her a flute of champagne and
leading her to where a table and chairs looked out over the bay. At
the other end of the long terrace she saw a dining table had been
laid, candles softly glowing, starched white cloth. Melanie thought
how romantic it would have been, but for what she presumed was to
come.

‘I’m all dressed up for a real dressing
down,’ she told herself, nerves wanting to make her giggle

‘I ordered rack of lamb for dinner,’ Nicos
was saying conversationally.

‘I thought I was going to be the lamb on the
rack tonight,’ she could not resist saying. He laughed with
delight. ‘I always remember that about you. You make me laugh. Most
women don’t.’

The evening was not turning out at all the
way Melanie expected. The moon looked as if it was moving swiftly
through the sky, the warm night air clung deliciously on her skin,
the man opposite her was undeniably the most desirable she had ever
known.

‘Life can be very unfair,’ she thought
wistfully.

Once seated at the elegantly laid intimate
dining table Melanie felt oddly vulnerable. Opposite her Nicos was
disturbingly close, the sexual aura he excluded almost a visible
thing. Her sandaled foot caught his under the table and she drew it
back quickly. Nicos gave her a small knowing smile, which
disconcerted her even more. He chatted inconsequentially to her as
their first course of locally caught lobster was served, switching
easily to Greek to converse with the dark jacketed elderly man
serving them.

Melanie was reminded of how when she had
first come to the island she had learned that what had seemed to
her his occasionally sharp and demanding manner with his staff hid
a deep and abiding concern for them and their welfare. Now she
asked, noting the old man’s stiff jointed movements, ‘Isn’t he too
old to be working and so late?

‘Andreas would be mortified if I sacked
him,’ explained Nicos. ‘He has been working at the villa since he
was a young man. He is too proud to accept a pension so his job is
to serve me when I am here which as you know is not all that often.
I pay him a yearly salary so we are both happy.’

‘That’s generous of you,’ Melanie felt bound
to remark. His eyes hardened ‘Oh, I can be very generous to those
who are loyal to me,’ His barb stabbed Melanie as he clearly
intended. Seeing his arrow had reached its target he gave a
satisfied smile. ‘So are the gloves are about to come off?’ Melanie
wondered. But Nicos continued to chat in a convivial fashion,
commenting on the deliciousness of the food and attentively filling
her wine glass like the perfect host. Only when Andreas had cleared
their plates away and left them alone did Melanie feel the
atmosphere between them subtly change.

Swirling his brandy round and round in its
balloon glass Nicos fell silent, his gaze fixed on the amber liquid
warming beneath his long fingered hands. Finally he said, ‘We need
to talk business.’

‘Oh, by all means let the board meeting
begin,’ snapped Melanie, not wanting him to see how he had unnerved
her. Ignoring her outburst he went on. ‘I am sure you think you
have a valid reason for your behavior but I don’t want to go into
that now.’

‘Well, I do,’ said Melanie, striving to keep
her voice even, hoping with all her heart that their discussion was
not going to descend to the level of their last ‘business’ meeting
when Nicos had refused outright to consider her pleas to look after
Electra.

‘I owe you an explanation for what I did and
I am determined you will listen to me,’ she persisted. Nicos’s
rejoinder confused her. ‘I don’t want explanations or apologies. I
just want you to stay.’

‘What do you mean?’ she faltered.

He looked up from his glass and met her
eyes. ‘What I say. Stay here on the island for the summer and be
with Electra.’

‘I can’t…..’

He interrupted her. ‘What do you mean you
can’t? It’s what you begged me for, isn’t it?’

Melanie glared at him. ‘If you would let me
finish, I intended to say that I can’t believe you have changed
your mind’ His savage words from her ill-fated interview with him
in England rose unbidden to her mind. ‘I seem to remember you
didn’t want a jailbird looking after your daughter.’ As soon as the
words were out of her mouth she wanted to bite her tongue off. Here
was Nicos inviting her to stay with Electra and she was dragging up
the very thing that might prevent it.

But Nicos looked sharply at her, ‘I believe
I have apologised for that. I would like an answer. Would you be
prepared to stay for the summer to look after Electra?’

Melanie’s mind reeled and her heart surged
with happiness. She felt as if all her dreams were coming true. She
did not care what had changed his mind. She only cared that he had.
She felt alight with joy. His next words brought her down to earth
with a bump. ‘But only for this summer, of course. After that you
will have no contact with her as you had previously agreed.’ His
voice, so charming over dinner, was perfunctory and cold.

She felt bound to ask, ‘If you don’t want me
to have contact with Electra after the summer why do you want me
here now.’

‘For Purely practical reasons. You are
needed.’ He looked at her sharply. ‘You have deceived me,
hoodwinked my office staff and invaded my private island and I do
not forgive that.’ Melanie opened her mouth to protest, but he held
up his hand to silence her. ‘Anna is getting old, it is not fair to
expect her to cope with the demands of childcare and she tells me
you are very good with the baby as I, myself, have seen.’

In a flash of understanding Melanie thought
back to the afternoon when she had been playing in the sea with
Electra. She had had a strong feeling that she was being watched.
‘You were spying on me today on the beach,’ she accused. He ignored
her interruption and continued.

‘As of course you know, the excellent nanny
we engaged had an unfortunate accident and however you inveigled
yourself on to Skiapolos and into my house the fact remains that
you are here. It’s too late now to think of getting anyone
else.’

‘What will you do if I refuse?’ Melanie was
driven to ask. Never in a million years would she give up the
chance of the summer with Electra, but some devil in her wanted to
hear what he would say.

For the first time a look of uncertainty
crossed his face. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. Melanie had never seen
Nicos at a loss. He was always so in command of himself, so sure of
the way forward. She could not help but put a reassuring hand on
his arm. ‘Of course, I will stay,’ she said, but could not resist
adding, ‘As long as you know it is for Electra’s sake and not for
yours.’

‘Oh, I never doubted it,’ he said, but the
look on his face was one of profound relief. He took her hand
across the table and the familiar feel of his long fingers caused
her heart to lurch. ‘Thank you,’ he said simply. She went to
withdraw her hand but he held it fast and circled his fingers
around hers.

‘No ring I see,’ he said.

‘No, she replied. ‘Did you expect one?’

‘I thought you might wearing his ring by
now,’ he said

‘Whose ring?’ she asked angrily, and
snatched her hand from his grasp.

‘We both know the answer to that,’ he said,
his anger matching hers.

Sharply she pushed back from the table, her
chair scraping noisily on the tiled floor, the brief truce between
them over. ‘I have no wish to continue this conversation with you.’
Her voice shook. ‘I didn’t come here to go over old ground. You
didn’t listen before and you won’t listen now.’