by Mandy Baggot
‘What’s wrong?’ Tess asked, looking at him with concern painted on her expression.
‘Nothing,’ he answered, his eyes locked with hers.
‘Then …’
‘I do not know how this will work, Tess,’ he admitted. ‘But, I do know that I want this, what we are about to do, to mean … everything.’
He kept watching her eyes, trying to see or read what she was thinking.
She reached out, taking his hand in hers. ‘Andras,’ she said, ‘it already does.’
She leaned forward, lightly kissing his lips, her fingers moving to touch his body again, fingernails teasing his skin from the top of his core to his navel.
He got to his feet, standing up, his back to the ocean, the sun licking the skin on his shoulders and put his hands to his waistband. His eyes on her, he slowly pulled down the zipper. Inching the material down over his hips, he let his underwear come too, sliding both down over his thighs until they pooled at his feet. He stepped out and onto the sand, all the while watching her.
Before another thought could enter his head, Tess was up off the sand, slipping off her panties and moving towards him, jumping up into his arms, her mouth finding his with a desperate urgency.
He held her tight, her legs swinging around his hips, her heat so tantalisingly close to his arousal he could barely breathe. His kissed her hard, his arms holding her up, securing her against him.
‘In the water,’ she breathed, her lips close to his ear. ‘Make love to me in the water.’
Andras was carrying her like she weighed nothing, across the sand, towards the sparkling water, her nakedness kissed by the Corfiot sun, her heart thumping a rhythm she didn’t recognise. She wanted this moment more than she had wanted anything else. Nothing before had been like this, she had meant that, not with any of her Hooked Up liaisons, not even with Adam. This was something completely indescribable.
The water hit her toes first, then, as Andras walked them in deeper, she felt the cool lapping of the waves on the rest of her skin until she couldn’t be passive any longer. She wanted to get down into it, feel every part of the ocean on every part of her. She slid down out of his grasp, submerging herself, her shoeless feet uncaring for what lay beneath. The water was so clear, such a tonic not just to her skin but to her soul.
She turned to face him, smiling, with everything she had, beckoning him towards her. There was nothing else to say. No words were needed any more.
Andras stood before her, waist deep in the sea, beads of water sparkling across his bare chest, and she wanted nothing more than to feel him inside her.
She looped her arms around his neck and let him raise her up until she could feel the length of his arousal. She held his eyes, dipping her body slowly until she felt him push forward a little. She gasped, feeling him enter her, and then he drew away, denying her, teasing her. She tipped her hips towards him again, wanting the connection back, needing it.
‘Andras,’ she breathed.
‘What?’ he asked, breathless himself. ‘What do you want?’
‘You.’ She shuddered. ‘I want you.’
And then she felt him, all of him, firm, solid, slipping inside her, the waves aiding her to rock back and forth against him. Clinging to him, she closed her eyes, letting her other senses take over – the smell of his skin as she breathed in, the taste of the saltwater on her lips, the sound of the ocean, the touch of his hands at the base of her spine.
‘Tess,’ he whispered as their moved in perfect unison.
‘Call me Trix,’ she said, smiling.
Sixty-four
‘You drew all of this?’ Andras asked.
Lying on the beach, grazing on the picnic of feta, juicy, sweet tomatoes, olives and fresh bread, Tess had just shown Andras her Black Velvet branding. She snatched up another olive, popping it into her mouth as she nodded at him. His trousers were back in place but he was still deliciously bare-chested owing to the fact she was wearing his shirt.
‘Obviously, your laptop didn’t have a drawing app and it was so slow to log into my work system, so I had to download a free program that’s probably corrupted everything digital you own and draw the rest.’
‘It is amazing,’ Andras said, scrolling over to the next design.
‘I’m pleased with it,’ Tess admitted. ‘At short notice and, given what I had to design with, it’s actually some of my best work.’ She smiled. ‘And quite a lot of it is down to Corfu.’
‘It is?’ Andras asked.
She nodded, then pointed at the screen. ‘See the name? Well, ordinarily, I would have gone for something with straight lines, thick, bold, shouting out, the way the “b” has a tail that connects to the “v” and in turn swirls to the icon of the glass, that was inspired by everything I’ve seen here. It’s like a flag fluttering from a boat or those eucalyptus trees at Agios Spyridon beach twisting in the breeze. It says “relaxation perfection”.’
He smiled at her. ‘And is that how you feel now?’
‘Are you referring to our “swim”?’ She felt the need to make the quotation marks in the air and, as she did that, she felt her cheeks heating up as her mind rewound to thirty minutes earlier when he had melted her in every way.
‘I am referring to the moment when I felt happier, more complete, than ever before,’ he whispered.
‘Andras …’ she breathed.
‘I am sorry,’ he said, leaning forward and kissing her lips. ‘I do not want to make you feel afraid.’
She shook her head. ‘I’m not afraid, just processing.’
‘For me too,’ he admitted.
She kissed him again, then flipped the laptop shut and turned around onto her back, gazing up at the azure sky above them. ‘So, do you want me to help you with some branding for the new, improved Taverna Georgiou?’
‘You would do that?’
‘Of course,’ she said, turning to look at him as he settled next to her, lying on his back too. ‘I know I’m not here for much longer but …’ And there it was. The reason why this was never going to work. Because she was on holiday, and he wasn’t.
‘You know, the restaurant, it was never really my father’s,’ Andras said, changing the subject.
‘What?’ Tess exclaimed. ‘But I thought it was one of those family businesses where it passed to the sons and you took over, and now Spiros is leaving, that was why your mum wanted to be involved.’
‘The restaurant was my father’s dream. He had worked in restaurants all his life and wanted to be the one in charge of his own place. He worked and he saved and then, finally, he got enough money to buy the taverna. But three weeks after it was his, before he could even open, he died.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Tess said, reaching for his hand.
‘And that’s why Mama always hated the restaurant. She would become my business partner to help Spiros, and to think that she was helping me, but she believes the restaurant killed my father. The pressure of taking on a new business, the hard work he had to put in to save the money. She wanted us to sell it on again but I didn’t want that. I wanted to make it work, in my father’s honour, and I have.’
‘Yes, you have,’ Tess agreed.
‘But now it’s time for a change,’ he said.
‘With your new ideas for events.’
‘Not just that,’ he said, turning over on his side and looking at her.
‘No?’
‘The restaurant is everything to me but, after my divorce, it became an obsession,’ he admitted. ‘I don’t want it to be an obsession any more. I want it to be a passion again.’ He took her hand. ‘Seeing the island again, with you and Sonya, it has shown me how much I have been missing, locking myself into work all the time, not having time for anything else, not making time for anything else. I need time away from serving meze to make these plans for expansion and entertainments and I need time to finish building my house.’
‘So, what are you saying? You’re not going to wait tables any more?’
‘Not all the time, no,’ he replied. ‘I am going to appoint a manager.’
Tess disconnected their hands and stifled a laugh. ‘It killed you to say that.’
‘It did not,’ he retorted. Then immediately he relented. ‘OK, maybe a little.’
‘I think it’s a good idea,’ Tess told him. ‘No one can survive on work alone.’ The sentence echoed in her own mind. If she believed that, she wouldn’t be spending every waking moment when she wasn’t dating at McKenzie Falconer.
‘And what about you?’ Andras asked.
Rumbled. He knew her far too well already. She smiled. ‘I think we were talking about your restaurant plans.’
‘Helllllloooo!’
Tess sat bolt upright at the sound of Sonya’s voice. ‘It’s Sonya,’ she said, her eyes already scouring the sand for her dress. She dipped a shoulder out of Andras’s shirt before she remembered she wasn’t wearing a bra today. She chanced a glance over in the direction the voice had come from, then snapped her head back. ‘I think she’s with the German couple!’
Andras caught her hand in his. ‘Relax,’ he said. ‘Your dress got wet in the sea and you needed my shirt.’
She swallowed. He knew that she wasn’t ready for the world to know what had happened between them. She felt bad about that, as if she had given him everything in one minute and then taken it straight away again the next.
‘Andras …’
He squeezed her hand. ‘It is OK.’
‘Oh my! It’s sooo hot, isn’t it? Isn’t it hot, Hans?’
‘Ja,’ the man, presumably Hans, replied. ‘It is very hot for walking.’
He looked at least six foot three, had cropped ginger hair with a beard that almost reached his chest. Next to him was a tiny woman, her jet-black hair in plaits. Around both their necks were expensive-looking cameras and a set of binoculars.
‘Sorry!’ Sonya exclaimed. ‘How rude am I, not introducing you all.’ She waved a hand towards Andras and Tess. ‘Hans, Elsabeth, this is Tess and Andras.’
‘It is nice to meet you,’ Andras said, getting to his feet and holding his hand out to Hans.
‘You too. Your island, it is so wonderful,’ Hans said, shaking Andras’s hand.
‘We have almost trekked the whole length of Corfu,’ Elsabeth informed them, settling herself on the sand next to Tess. ‘Today we came here for one special reason.’
‘The Great White Egret.’
‘I think you’ll find he’s the new president of America,’ Tess answered.
‘It’s a bird,’ Sonya said, sitting down. ‘There are lots of them on Corfu but here, on Vidos, Hans and Elsabeth were hoping to catch them in action.’
‘In action?’ Tess queried.
‘Mating,’ Hans announced, dropping his large frame to the beach too. ‘You know …’ He grinned. ‘In, out, shake it all about.’
Elsabeth laughed and Tess could feel Andras was looking straight at her.
‘They do a dance,’ Sonya said, picking up an olive and slipping it into her mouth. ‘The male rises up on its legs, bright white feathers fanning out at the bottom and spiking up at the top and then he bobs and bows … up and down, down and up … Then finally he starts swooping his swan-like neck around.’ Sonya laughed. ‘Hans showed me a YouTube video over his loukanika.’
‘His what?’ Tess asked, finally looking up.
Andras smiled. ‘Greek sausage.’
Tess baulked. Thirty minutes earlier and … no, she didn’t even want to contemplate it.
‘So,’ Sonya asked, nudging Tess’s arm. ‘How did it go with the banker?’
She nodded quickly, toying with the buttons of Andras’s shirt. ‘It was really good, in the end.’ She looked to Andras who was offering out some picnic to Hans and Elsabeth, sunlight gleaming off that gorgeous body. ‘There’s no firm decision yet but we’re, you know, quietly hopeful.’
Sixty-five
Taverna Georgiou
Andras stood, his back against the wall of the restaurant, surveying everything before him. It was the start of evening service and tables were filling for their always sold-out Greek night. Pride coated his insides as he watched the staff he had trained over the years running things like clockwork. It was going to be a hard job to decide who he was going to give the position of manager to. He hadn’t really groomed any of his waiters or waitresses for the role and he was starting to realise that was a mistake. Had he really not thought that one day he would want to grow and expand, not just the business, but himself? He supposed he had been holding back for so long, feeling he had to hold back, needing the solidity of what had grounded him after Elissa had left. He had been afraid to even think of new opportunities until he had been pushed into it by the departure of his brother and been shown something else by Tess.
‘Help me.’ It was Spiros’s voice in his ear and he turned his head, seeing his brother at his shoulder. ‘I have Mama telling me she expects a grandchild within six months and I have Kira telling me she wants to run her own catering business when we get to Parga.’ Spiros shook his head. ‘I do not know which one I fear more, and I am sure it takes longer than six months to grow a baby.’
Andras put a hand on his shoulder. ‘There is nothing to be afraid about. Kira wanting some independence is a good thing.’
‘It is?’ Spiros asked, sounding very unsure.
‘Of course.’ He smiled. ‘If she has a business to look after she will not have time to get bored with you.’
Spiros scowled. ‘This is not the time for jokes. My wedding is tomorrow.’
‘And it is going to be a beautiful day,’ Andras assured him. ‘Perhaps I will soon have good news for you too.’
‘You will?’
‘I went to see the bank today. I am hopeful for a loan from them.’
‘Oh.’
There was something about Spiros’s tone that spiked at him. He did not seem excited or particularly interested about this development.
Andras continued, ‘I know that it will take a week or so for the money to come through, if they agree, but—’
‘Mama has given me the money.’ Spiros dropped his head.
‘What?’ Andras exclaimed.
‘I’m sorry, Andras. We needed some cash to pay some bills on our new house and Mama was there and … I could not say no. I could not afford to say no. But no papers were signed. That is between you and me. We will work it out.’
As much as he wanted to be angry about this development he had held out on his brother for too long. He knew that. He would just have to speak to his mother. Ensure that she realised that the money she had given Spiros was just a loan, that he intended to pay her back and keep control of his business.
‘It is OK,’ he told his brother, patting his shoulder.
‘It is?’
He nodded. ‘Mama and I will work it out. You just concentrate on your wedding and the move … and Kira.’
‘I have nothing to be nervous about, right?’ Spiros asked, putting his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looking rather like someone heading for Death Row.
‘Nothing at all,’ Andras insisted. ‘Except maybe what happened to Uncle Dimitri if you put a foot out of place tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow I am going to ask her,’ Spiros announced.
‘Ask what?’
‘I am going to ask Mama what happened to Uncle Dimitri.’
Andras smiled. ‘Then you must tell me if it is worse than any of us have imagined.’
Spiros nodded and jostled Andras with his elbow. ‘Very soon you will be free of Mama’s plans for you and Marietta. She will be going back to the south of the island soon.’ Spiros laughed. ‘No more fake girlfriends, huh?’
He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. Should he tell his brother the truth? That he had feelings for Tess, feelings that he had never believed would be possible.
‘Spiro …’ he began.
‘Spiro!’ It was their mother, standing in the centre of the room and beckoning her
younger son.
‘What have I done this time? The donkey is well again, I have been pinned and measured a thousand times for my costume, my hair is cut shorter than I would like and I have arranged for the pharmacist to make a herbal remedy to try to stop Helena fainting.’ He shook his head. ‘As every day goes by I come to realise why you didn’t get married the traditional way, Andras.’
Andras clapped a hand to his brother’s shoulder. ‘One more day, brother … and everything changes.’
‘Spiro! Come here, your Auntie Tadita wants to dance with you!’
‘Auntie Tadita,’ Spiros said to Andras. ‘Have we met before?’
‘I think she is the one who squeezes a little too hard,’ Andras answered.
‘Andras, they all squeeze too hard.’ Spiros let out a breath. ‘Rescue me if I am not released in fifteen minutes.’
Sixty-six
Kalami Cove Apartments
‘I’ve had a really, really brilliant day!’ Sonya announced, slicking lip gloss over her lips.
The women were sat outside on their terrace, an open bottle of retsina on the little table, a half-empty bag of oregano crisps alongside it. Tess’s eyes were on the photo of her and Andras she had taken on that first boat trip, the one she still hadn’t shared on social media.
‘Did you have a brilliant day? After the boring banking?’ Sonya asked.
‘What?’ Tess looked up from her phone.
‘You’re not on Hooked Up again, are you?’ Sonya looked to Tess’s phone. ‘Oh that’s a lovely photo. When did you take that?’
‘At the start of the holiday, you know, Andras’s first day as our guide man.’
Sonya sighed. ‘We’ve done so much here, haven’t we?’
‘We have,’ Tess agreed. ‘It’s been …’ She sought for the right word. ‘Special.’
‘So,’ Sonya started. ‘Have you thought about Andras? Whether there might be something real there?’
She had done nothing but think about him since they had made love on Vidos Island. On the boat back to Corfu Town, surrounded by Hans, Elsabeth and Sonya with binoculars trained on the wildlife, she had watched Andras, strong hands holding the side of the boat, dark hair moving in the breeze, his shirt covering that taut torso. They hadn’t had a chance to talk about what happened next, but perhaps neither of them had any answers.