“Dash, I have to tell you.” Lotus took a deep breath.
“What?” Years of hard dealing in business steeled the fear that tremored through him.
“I don’t have any strong clear memories of my own parents,, except that there was laughter and a great deal of love. With my Sinclair parents, I found that love again. I was always happy as a child and as I grew older. I suppose it sounds as though I lived in a fantasy and maybe I did, but I tell you I never expected, not in ten lifetimes, to Find a love like ours.”
“Neither did I,” he whispered.
“I love you. I have never loved anyone the way I love you, and 1 never will, and I want to stay with you for eighty years.” Lotus smiled up at him, feeling both sadness at giving herself over completely and the ineffable joy that it was to Dash.
“Only eighty years?” Dash croaked, burying his face in her hair, feeling as though the pounding in his blood stream would break through his skin at any moment. “I want more.” He lifted his head and looked at her.
“More?” Her voice was barely audible as she stared up at him, seeing the moistness in his electric eyes. “Can there be more than all there is?” “How philosophical you’re getting, wife!” Dash lifted her and swung around so that they were lying side by side on the bed facing each other. “Do you suppose it’s the Greek influence?”
“The Acropolis?” Lotus ventured weakly, her eyes fluttering closed as Dash began to kiss her toes. “We were going to see it,” she reminded him.
“There’s time, love. I just have good priorities.” Dash turned her over on her stomach, letting his tongue trace the Fine veins behind her knee. The merest trace of salt on her skin set his pulse in double time. His mouth traveled up her body in slow gentle forays that had him trembling when he felt her body spasm in response. When he heard her breathy moans, low growls were torn from his own throat. “Lotus! I love you.”
“Thank you,” she responded as he lifted her around to face him. “I must . . . tell you ... I like this ...”
“Do you, my baby?” Dash’s words were slurred as he slid up her body. He lifted himself above her, noting with great satisfaction her rapid breathing, the feverish glitter to her as she clutched at him. Nothing on earth gave him more satisfaction than to give her joy, and sensual delight as well. It made his heart thunder to watch her rise to fever pitch, his own libido racing hers.
When he took her, it was with a gentle violence that lassoed them to each other, that took them away, emotion to emotion, love lashed to love.
Dash sighed, gathering her closer into his arms as his breathing settled into normal rhythm once more. “You are beautiful, Lotus.”
“You too.” She yawned, then chuckled. “Just a short nap,” she mumbled, then closed her eyes.
When she woke she heard the water running and knew that Dash must be getting ready for their trip to the Acropolis. She heard him whistling and assumed he was shaving. She laid out the clothes she would wear, then pushed open the door of the bathroom. She looked right into his eyes, that were squinting into the mirror. “Hi.” “Hi. Come in, Mrs. Colby.” Dash watched her in frank enjoyment. “Your body is perfect.”
“Time to get ready for the Acropolis.” She laughed at him and hitched herself next to him, doing her own washing up, feeling very comfortable with him.
“Did I ever tell you I love you?” he murmured, wiping the rest of her face, grinning at her when she nodded.
“The Acropolis,” she repeated.
‘I think I’ve heard that before,” he crooned, rinsing her hair and body.
“Soap in my eye,” Lotus sputtered. “Stop laughing.”
“I’d never laugh about that.” Dash chuckled, making her fume.
“Monster!” She gulped as he swathed her in warm towels. “Put a towel around you. You’ll catch cold. “I’m never cold around you.”
They dressed in a slow fashion, despite Lotus’s urgings to hurry.
“If you keep looking at me like that, we’ll never leave this room,” Lotus argued.
“Ummm?” Dash watched as she lifted her arms and let the white eyelet sundress slip down the front of her. “Honey, I think you’ve gained a little weight . . . here.” He pressed his hand on her middle, a slight crease in his brows before he smiled at her.
“Have to get my shoes.” Lotus broke free of him and raced across the room, for the low-heeled white slides she was going to wear with her dress. He was just too smart! He already noticed the change in her body and was putting the information into that computer brain of his. She would just have to hope that he wouldn’t add everything together and come up with the answer before she had a chance to talk with him on the island.
She reached for a flimsy silk scarf that Dash insisted she would need, then they left the room, her hand held tight by him.
Athens! The most colorful composite of ancient and new in the world. They traveled to the marketplace first, because Lotus had to see firsthand what so many of her friends had described to her. The cacophony of traffic and voices, speaking, singing and bartering, assaulted the ears, yet was not unpleasant. There were times that Dash had to shout to get her attention and there were times when she had to read his lips to know what he was saying, but still it delighted her.
Lotus smiled at the people and they smiled back. She said kalimera over and over again, laughing out loud when persons returned the greeting.
“I think I may have to buy you a house in Greece. You like it, don’t you?” Dash loved watching her in the market, but he finally had to edge her away and up the hill. “We have to get to the Acropolis.”
“Where?” she quizzed him wide-eyed, still looking all around, not wanting to miss anything.
“Follow me.” He chuckled as she looked over her shoulder, then began waving to people along the way. He flagged down a battered cab and gave their destination.
“All right, kyrie, I will do it,” the driver said in a broken Brooklyn accent. “I know America. I drive a cab in New York three years.”
The car shot around corners, and up alleys so narrow that if anyone stepped out a door as they were passing, there would have been an accident.
“My goodness, I think he received his taxi driver training in Manhattan.” Lotus closed her eyes for the third time as they weaved around a push cart, the vendor shaking his fist at them.
When they reached the area, filled with tourists on that warm day, Lotus knew that they had arrived at their destination. What surprised her was the number of steps they had to travel to get to their destination. In her eagerness to reach the ancient Greek edifice she tripped, and Dash had to catch her.
“Take it easy, darling. We’re getting there.” He frowned down at her. “You could have fallen.”
“Don’t worry.”
“I do worry about you.”
“I know.” She loosened her hand from his grasp and slipped it around his waist.
In companionable silence they covered the ground that took them to the Acropolis.
Lotus was in awe. She spoke to Dash in whispers
as they moved slowly through the structure, the wind an eerie voice in the stillness.
When they were through, and retracing their footsteps, there was silence between them at first. “You liked that.”
“Oh, yes, husband, I liked that.” Lotus looked up at him. “Thank you.”
“Thank you. I don’t think I’ve ever looked at it with such intensity before, so I thank you.”
They ambled down to the streets. Then Dash waved at the taxi driver to follow them.
Finally Dash was able to get her into the car and he gave the driver directions in Greek.
“The taverna?”
“Of course.”
Lotus nodded and looked around her, craning her neck, stretching, looking out her window and out Dash’s.
“You’ll have a sore neck.”
“I don’t want to miss anything.”
He laughed.
When they reache
d the taverna, Lotus was disappointed. “It’s so small.”
“Yes. But this is not one of the tourist traps, either. This is the taverna where Athos told me he and his father learned the ancient dances.”
“Oh. Should we go inside?”
“Not yet.” Dash ordered ouzo for himself and retsina, the local wine, for Lotus. “Ouzo over here does not taste like the ouzo you get in New York.” He held up his glass and let the rather viscous liquid slide around it. “It is here in Greece that ouzo is at it’s best.”
Lotus made a face over her retsina, but she wouldn’t let Dash get her anything else. “Are you sure this is the local wine?”
“Does it taste like turpentine?” Dash asked.
Lotus narrowed her gaze on him. “Is this a trick? This isn’t even wine, is it?”
“No tricks, my love.” Dash leaned across the tiny round table and kissed her, oblivious of the people passing by on the street that ran in front of the taverna. “That is the local wine. I like it, but I have heard people say that it tastes like turpentine. Let me get you something else.”
“No. I want to try the local things. Let me taste your ouzo.”
Dash looked skeptical, but he lifted his glass to her mouth, and watched her swallow.
“Good Lord,” she wheezed.
“A unique flavor,” Dash assured her.
“Yes. That must be what nitroglycerin tastes like.” Lotus coughed, then sipped her retsina and grimaced. “This is getting better.”
Dash put back his head and laughed, not noticing the admiring glances of a woman who passed.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Lotus said crossly.
Dash looked puzzled. “Do what, love?”
“Women are looking at you,” Lotus informed him.
“Huh?” Dash looked around him, then back at Lotus, his smile building slowly. “Jealous?”
“Yes. So watch yourself.”
“I will,” Dash answered, not able to stem his contented smile.
“And you needn’t look so pleased with yourself. I’m sure there are other gorgeous, sexy men in Athens.”
“But none of them for you . . . except this one.”
“Thumping your chest?”
“Yes,” Dash growled back. Then he looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Dmitri.'
“Yes, my friend. I knew that was you Athos has told us you were married and that you would be coming to Greece.”
A bear of a man lifted Dash out of his chair and hugged him, pounding him on the back. Then he turned to Lotus. “So you are the beauty taken the beast, eh?”
“I’m Lotus Colby.” She held out her hand. It stunned her when the man ignored her hand. Instead, he lifted her out of her chair and embraced her also.
“Dmitri Amopoulos would never accept just the hand of Colby’s wife, eh?” His booming laugh brought heads around, smiling and chortling as they watched Lotus being bear-hugged. “Why is not the big Dasher Colby laughing, eh? You, who used to wrestle Graeco-Roman-style with me and a few times win. Just what is it that makes you frown, my friend? You like no man to touch this very special woman, is that it?”
“That’s it.” Dash fired the words through tight lips.
Dmitri’s booming laugh filled the air once more. “Is good. You have been well and truly taken, my friend.” Dmitri looked down at Lotus whom he'd barely released. “Yet you are so small to have such power, my little flower. You are much like your name. My friend Athos told me of it. Lotus, eh?” “Yes.” Dash managed to free Lotus and pull her back against him.
“Umph . . . mumph . . . Dash . . .” Lotus gasped, moving back from him a fraction. “You’re smothering me in your chest.”
“Oh. Sorry, darling.” Dash glared at the Greek who was laughing again. “I think it’s time you and I had another go round on the mat.”
Dmitri’s eyes had a zealot’s glitter. “Where? When?”
“Never.” Lotus clutched Dash’s waist and looked at the Greek. “I prefer him in one piece.”
Dash kissed her head as Dimitri grimaced. “These women, they do not want us to play.”
“Breaking Dash’s ribs wouldn’t be play to me,” Lotus said tartly, making both men smile at her.
“You are a lucky one, Colby, I will say that. I wish that I had seen her first. You would not have had a chance.”
Dash grinned, but his arm tightened. “It would have been war, my friend.”
“So it would.” Dmitri read the challenge. Then he shrugged. “But for now we will watch the dancing and maybe do it ourself, heh?”
Lotus looked at the reckless gleam in Dash’s eyes and felt her heart thump. “Can you do it?” Dash nodded.
Darkness came quickly. One moment the sky was colorful orange, purple, and blue and the next it was deepest night.
Inside the taverna was cool, but as the music began and the dancing started, the coolness was replaced by a moist heat.
Lotus became so caught up in the slow fever of the rhythms that she wasn’t even aware of the light sheen of perspiration on her own skin. When Dash rose to his feet to clasp arms with the other men in the dance, she felt such a rush of excitement she had a hard time breathing. She sipped the tall glass of iced lime juice Dash had gotten for her. Lotus had laughed at him when he had made a small fuss about assuring himself that the ice cubes in the glass were made from bottled water.
The throbbing beat took the dancers around the floor in slow, measured steps first, then they broke apart in leaps as the music quickened. Lotus was on her feet, clapping as were the other patrons as the men gyrated and spun. Then with a rousing flourish it was over and Lotus was cheering with the rest. “Darling . . .” She threw herself at Dash when he came from the center of the floor, feeling the wetness of his body. “It was so beautiful. Here, take my juice.”
She watched him swallow the liquid. “Whew.” Dash grinned at her, then made a face. “Warm work.” He exhaled a deep breath.
Lotus embraced him. “You were so graceful.” She looked up at him. “I love you,” she whispered, satisfied when she saw his eyes darken. He would make love to her when they returned to the house! She frowned for a moment, looking up at him. “You might get chilled and catch cold."
Dmitri laughed as he wiped the sleeve of his cotton shirt across his forehead. “He will not catch cold, little flower. Sit down. We will have chilled retsina and ouzo.”
Lotus drank fruit juice and watched the men. Though Dash drank his share of the Greek liquor and so did Dmitri, neither man seemed to be much affected by the alcohol.
“Come, little flower, it is time for you to dance.” “Ohh.” Lotus felt herself lifted out onto the
floor as the music was beginning again. She sensed rather than saw that Dash was right at her heels. At first she stumbled and felt very gauche, but gradually, with the smiling encouragement of Dmitri and Dash and the other Greek dancers, she was able to overcome her shy awkwardness and begin to take part. The music entered her soul and took over her nerve ends. The throb of the bouzouki became her own pulse rate, and her legs bent and swayed to the ageless chords.
Finally Dash decided it was time to go.
Lotus felt like a wet noodle. “It was wonderful,” she told Dmitri, “I do hope we meet again.”
“We will, my little flower. Each time you come to Athens you will see me. And sometime when I come to your Atlantic City, you will see me then. I will teach you to speak Greek, kyria." He swept her up in another hug, then shook hands with Dash and was gone.
“Isn’t he interesting?” Lotus quizzed her husband.
Dash shrugged. If Dmitri had kissed Lotus one more time, he would have torn his head off! He could fee! his jaw grinding at the thought.
“Hey, Silent One, I think we’ve arrived.”
“Huh?” Dash looked at her, then at the taxi driver who’s head was cocked quizzically. “Oh, sure.”
Lotus watched her husband as he led her into the house, his arm around her. “I don’t know about y
ou, but I’m anxious to make love to my husband.”
Dash’s head shot around to her. His smile was slow in coming. “Good idea.”
They hurried through a shower to rid their bodies of the sticky feeling after dancing.
“Darling . . .” Dash breathed as they made their way, arms locked around each other, to the bed, their bodies still damp from the shower. “I love you.”
“And I love you.”
That night their love was an explosion of gentleness and delight. To Dash’s joy, Lotus took the initiative and began an aggression of her own that turned his bones to jelly and made him feel as though his heart was fibrillating.
“That’s it. No more.” He growled, turning her on her back, both their bodies having a love sheen. He entered her with a gentle thrust that had her gasping.
Then there was only oneness with no single Dash or Lotus, just the oneness that only love could bring them, the marriage of the spirit that made their blood boil, their skin freeze on that very special journey into physical love.
They fell asleep with their arms around each other.
The next day they woke and made love again, showered and dressed with their eyes meeting constantly.
They breakfasted, feeding each other wedges of orange, bits of egg, pieces of toast, sips of coffee.
As they packed their things, both of them kept looking at the bed.
Lotus laughed. “We had better run, or we’ll never catch the ferry.”
“just wait until I get you on that island. The beach is so private that we’ll make love there.”
“Sounds good,” Lotus croaked, feeling her hands tremor as she carried the overnight bags and Dash managed the heavier luggage they took down to the cab waiting outside the house.
The ferry was a delight. It was old, but the very clean and the plain food that was served as the craft wended its way through the lustrous water was a delight to Lotus.
“I can’t believe you’re eating again after the breakfast you had.” Dash cuddled her, laughing as he munched a very sweet orange, licking the juice from her lips himself. “Umm, I do like doing that.”
“I think the Greeks are suspicious of your mental stability. You show too much interest in your wife and not enough in their beautiful scenery,” Lotus told him, hazily, feeling once more the need to love her husband. She put her free hand to his cheek. “Have I told you that I love you?”
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