She breathed deeply as she drank, then forced herself to stop drinking the water. The last thing she wanted was to have to go to the bathroom on the hike up the mountain. She didn’t remember seeing a toilet anywhere.
“Thank you,” she said.
“You’re very welcome.”
She straightened on the rock and felt it poke her skin through her thin shorts. But it was better than passing out on the trail and rolling down the cliff to fall into the water below. Erica pressed the wet rag to her face and closed her eyes. Slowly, the light-headed feeling faded away. Her throat didn’t feel as dry. Her gaze sharpened again.
“Are you feeling better now?”
“Much. Thank you.” She glanced up the hill at the disappearing line of people. Lani and her fellow passengers were long gone. “I’m not sure I can go on, though.”
“You don’t need to go on. I can give you my own tour of the island.” He shrugged, the muscles in his body moving in a mouthwatering symphony under his skin. “We can take it easy, not worry about the crowd.”
She didn’t bother agreeing or disagreeing on the personalized tour. She had the feeling he had already decided what to do. With her. And she was so annoyed with herself for her physical failure that she would let him.
“Okay,” she said.
He chuckled, white teeth like lightning across his brown face. “Good.”
They waited a few minutes longer for her to regain her equilibrium; then Nikolas took her hand and helped her up.
“I’m not an invalid. I can walk on my own.” She pointedly waited for him to take his hand off her before making a single step. Her knees trembled, but she kept going.
“You would deny me the simple pleasure of touching your flesh?”
“Yes.”
“A cruel mistress.”
“I’m not your mistress at all.”
“The morning is young, American Princess.”
She rolled her eyes and made her slow way up the trail at his side. They walked behind a few stragglers who were either breathing as heavily as Erica had been or were taking pictures. A young couple, who looked barely twenty, took turns with the camera and taking photos of each other against the backdrop of the dark rocks, glinting sea and crisp blue sky. Between every photograph, they stopped and kissed, their hands groping at body parts in an embarrassing way.
Nikolas grinned. “Young love is beautiful—is it not?”
“Are they in love, or are they just in lust?”
“Does it matter?” Nikolas tilted his scarred eyebrow her way. “Even though one does not have to be in love to have sex, it’s still an expression of love.”
“Yeah, right,” Erica said, sarcastically, although that was an assumption on her part since she’d never been in love. Her eyes jerked to Nikolas’s face. “Are you in love with that woman? That Lani?” She could have slapped herself when the question tumbled from her lips.
“I’m not in love with anyone,” he said.
“Ah.” Maybe he was one of those men who didn’t believe in love. One who would spend his entire youth and vital years chasing anything in a skirt just to squeeze the last bit of sexual enjoyment from life before dementia or a necessary marriage claimed him.
“I don’t think you understand,” he said.
“I understand more than you think.”
“No. You make your assumptions about me at your own peril, American Princess.”
“Peril?” She made a disbelieving noise. “I don’t think so.”
They continued their trek up the volcano, Erica’s footsteps becoming more confident with each passing moment. Nikolas walked at her side, graceful and agile, his breaths steady, bare chest gleaming with faint perspiration under the golden sun. The wind toyed with his glossy curls.
“So, tell me, Princess, why are you traveling alone and not with your boyfriend?” Nikolas did not look at her as he asked the question; he kept his gaze focused on the path ahead. His lips twitched with a smile.
“There’s no boyfriend,” Erica said, finding herself amused at the transparent ploy to find out whether or not she was attached.
She told him about Colette and the trip they had planned together as a reward for graduating law school.
“Ah, so you’re yet another rapacious American lawyer on the loose.” A smile took the sting from his words, but Erica found herself defending her decision anyway.
“And you’re talking about assumptions?” She gave him an arch look. “I’ll actually be working with the Innocence Project when I get back to New York. I want to help change the system that too often wrongfully convicts innocent people and throws them behind bars.”
He looked at her in surprise, his mouth curving with quiet appreciation. “Beautiful and a warrior, too. I think I’ve just lost my heart.”
Erica kept walking. But she couldn’t hide her own smile.
* * *
As they achieved the top of the mountain, the entire volcanic formation unfolded like a tapestry before them—the sparkling waves of the ocean, the jagged rocks. Across the cerulean water, Erica could see the white cliffs of a neighboring island and, on top of them, whitewashed houses, churches with their blue domes, the traceries of streets. A slow breath of wonder eased from her lips. She was a city girl through and through, but this natural splendor just about brought her to her knees.
“Amazing.” She turned in a circle to take in the wonder around her. “Do you ever get used to the beauty of this place?”
His eyes did not leave her face. “Never.”
She flushed and looked away from him, glanced around again, feeling for the first time the rightness of her taking this trip. It had not gone the way she’d pictured. Being here with Colette, exploring the islands together, laughing and sharing an experience neither of them would forget. But still it had been wonderful. Memorable.
Nikolas came closer to her, so close she felt him again, smelled the sun and whatever faintly citrus shampoo he used on his hair. He put a hand on her shoulder and pointed across the water.
“You see that church with the tallest dome there?” His palm burned into her skin.
It took a moment for her to focus on what he was saying. She wet her lips in reaction to his nearness, to the smell of him so full and delicious that she could bite into him and sate any hunger.
“Yes, I see it,” she murmured.
“There, three buildings over, is where I live.”
She shook herself out of her stupor and stared at where he pointed in astonishment. The house, tall and multiterraced with a series of bright blue doors, looked large even from where they stood. She could only imagine what it was like up close.
“I didn’t realize crewing for a tour boat paid so well.”
He dropped the hand pointing to his impressive house but didn’t remove the hand from her shoulder. “It doesn’t. I’m filling in for a friend who wanted to spend the week in his girlfriend’s bed.”
So not only was Nikolas gorgeous beyond comprehension; he was rich, too. Some people really did have everything. “That’s very noble of you.”
“Not really. He promised to show me pictures when he gets back.” He chuckled, a soft breath of sound that brushed against her cheek.
Nikolas laughed at her shocked expression; then the mirth receded from his face for a moment. “I’m joking, Princess.”
“Are you?”
He laughed again.
They stood quietly for a moment, admiring the sea, the hills and sky. Erica allowed herself to sink into his warmth, to relax at his side and enjoy the uncomplicated pleasure of his presence.
“Every night,” he murmured, “I go to the rooftop of my house and look out on this beautiful island. Sometimes it is easy to become blind to the beauty of a place, especially when faced with it
every single day of your life, but I have not always lived here, among this beauty. I’ve lived in Athens, too, in London, for a short time in New York, where I went to university. I take nothing for granted. Life can end. Privilege can end—” he made a sharp noise “—just like that.”
Erica wished she thought and lived as he did. Grateful. In awe of the world around him.
She had lived in D.C. for years. She’d worked in an area with some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, but she couldn’t say that she had appreciated everything she had seen as much as she could have. She had been born in a city and visited many others on family vacations. It was the pastoral and the tropical that took her breath away. The cities simply had been everyday life. Even New York, where she’d spent the first eighteen years of her existence.
It thrilled her, though, the idea that Nikolas had, at one time, been in the same city as her, but it was now thousands of miles away from where they currently stood. It felt like a shared history. Something concrete.
“Where did you go to school in New York?”
“Columbia,” he said. “I swear I have been to every bar within twenty miles of that university. It is a miracle I learned anything while I was there.”
Erica smiled. “I’m sure you got what you needed.”
“Yes,” he murmured. “I did.”
Erica looked away from the island across the sea to Nikolas’s face. His eyes were serious but glittering with life and the wildfire of loving everything he did. She’d never met anyone like him before. Her eyes dropped to his mouth, the strong column of his neck, then his chest. Bare and muscled, hard in the sunlight.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I’ll have no choice but to give you a more personal tour of the island than you intended.” The corners of his mouth pricked up in a smile.
Erica’s head swam with his exhilarating presence, his low and teasing voice. “And what would that tour entail?” She heard herself asking as if someone else had hijacked her tongue.
Nikolas’s eyes widened. Then it was her turn to feel the burn of his gaze on her mouth, on the press of her breasts through the tank top.
“American Princess, please don’t say these things unless you mean them.”
Quickly regaining her sanity, Erica opened her mouth to recant what she had just said when he leaned down and kissed her. She drew in a quick hiss of breath, drew the taste of him more fully into her mouth.
He tasted like olives and red wine. Salty sweet. Intoxicating.
His mouth touched hers lightly, hands falling to her waist. Then when she did not move back or protest, his mouth settled more firmly on hers and his hands tightened. Delicious mouth. Senses swimming. His tongue licking the seal of her lips, then plunging inside, firmly stroking the hot interior until she gasped with the sudden sensuality of it. Her tongue, teeth, her palate felt the intimate touch of his tongue. The agile muscle caressing her as if he wanted to feel everything about her.
A fever flooded her face, her body. Her sex plumped between her legs, and her skin tingled from his touch even though it was through the thin tank top. The sun’s burn was nothing compared to his caresses. She twined her arms around his neck, pressed herself against him, rubbing her suddenly aching nipples against his naked chest. A purr rumbled from her throat.
“Oh!” he groaned into her mouth. “You feel so good....”
Erica’s fingers clenched at his neck, slid up into his hair. She panted as their kiss intensified, grew deeper. Harder. She’d never felt such a powerful attraction before. And from the one kiss, a single kiss, she wanted to fall to the ground with him, allow him anything he wanted.
His hands dropped away from her waist and grabbed her ass, pulled her firmly, rhythmically, against him until she was moving her hips, circling for pleasure, wanting even more of a physical connection with him.
She touched his chest. The big pec muscle jumped under her hand. Smooth skin. Lush warmth. The sensuous movement of him against her. He was hard to her soft, food for her hunger.
She burned for him. She was wet. Swollen. On fire for him.
His hand touched her breast, fingers squeezing her nipple through the shirt. Past the loud strumming of the blood in her ears, she heard the crunch of footsteps against the rocks. People. Erica shoved at his chest and wrenched her mouth away from his, breathing heavily. But he clutched at her ass, trying to keep her close, his mouth diving back for hers. She quickly drew back, blinking into the sun that seemed even brighter than before.
Nikolas made a rough noise. His hips surged into her hips, but she kept some distance between them, her hand pressed flat against his stomach, their foreheads pressed together as they both panted. Erica licked her lips.
She looked away from him and immediately saw the young couple that had been taking pictures before, the amorous ones she had been so contemptuous of. And now here she was making out with a guy she’d only just met, seriously contemplating ripping his clothes off and climbing on top of him, right there among the sharp bits of shale.
“Let me go,” she breathed.
Instantly he released her. She stepped a few feet away, pressing her palms to her burning cheeks. The couple had already turned away, but she heard the high-pitched sound of their laughter. Remembered the camera the boy had pointed at them.
“Damn! This is so not me.” She turned away from him, barely restrained herself from pressing her palm against the front of her shorts. She was so wet and wanting that in those few moments that Nikolas had held her, nothing else had mattered but satisfying the desire that surged between them.
“Damn,” she said again.
Erica ran a hand over her face, squeezing her eyes shut. Then she turned to Nikolas. Which was a mistake. He was mouthwatering. Bare chest glistening in the sun, full mouth wet and faintly red from their kisses, curls pulling loose from the ponytail. He was still breathing hard, his chest and belly heaving from the force of his breaths. And his bulge pushed thickly against the front of his shorts. He made no effort at all to hide his arousal.
She quickly turned away from him. Temptation in the flesh.
“It’s only a body, American Princess. Surely you’ve seen a man hard with desire for you before.”
She felt him coming toward her, heard him, and she kept walking. Feet slipping across the rocks, hands shoved hard in her pockets. Yes, she had seen erect men before. But she’d never wanted one the way she wanted Nikolas. His body was perfect. His accent made her knees weak. When he touched her, she wanted to abandon everything she’d ever learned about decent behavior and make love to him out in the open as if that were her birthright. She swallowed again.
“Stay away. Please.”
His footsteps stopped. She walked until she rounded a corner on the rocky hill. Not too far off on another hilltop, she saw at least a dozen other tourists. They were laughing and taking pictures. Some tried to cool off by fanning themselves with their hands or their hats.
Erica leaned back against the rough surface of the cliff face, pushing her back into the jagged rocks to distract her body from its clamoring desire. Her palms itched to touch him. Her nipples were still hard and aching for his mouth. She took long and deep breaths. Clenched and unclenched her hands until she felt more in control of herself.
After long moments, she turned and looked around the corner of the rock face. Nikolas stood where she had left him. His head was thrown back, hair loosened from its ponytail as the breeze played in his long and thick curls. He was so beautiful it almost hurt her eyes to see him. As if sensing her gaze, he turned to face her.
“Are you ready for the rest of your tour?” he asked.
Either that or we’re having sex right here, right now. Erica took another breath. “Okay.”
Nikolas gave her a quick smile, throwing off the look of desire on his face. “Let’s go then.”<
br />
Walking side by side, they journeyed higher up the volcano. Up ahead, Erica noticed a splash of blood on the ground, probably from one of those girls she’d noticed earlier wearing open-toed sandals. When she had booked the tour, the woman behind the counter had cautioned her to wear closed athletic shoes to protect herself from the sharp rocks.
“They say that one day these volcanoes will come alive again and swallow all of Santorini.”
They stood on the top of the undulating slope of black rock and miniature desert plants, looking out over the wide vista of rocks, ocean and other tourists clambering up the volcanoes in a winding trail of humanity.
“Doesn’t that scare you?” she asked. The very idea of it terrified her, to be basically burned alive, her body petrified under melted rocks, magma and ash. Or maybe even asphyxiated by the gases belched from the crater.
Nikolas shook his head. “If it’s not this, then it would be a gunshot or airplane crash or even old age. Death comes to us all, Princess.”
Erica shuddered. She’d rather die of old age in her sleep, or even be hit by a runaway bus. Maybe that was one of the reasons she could never see herself living in Hawaii or even California with its notorious earthquakes. She could easily imagine falling into a crack in the earth and being swallowed alive into the planet’s core, never to be seen again.
He laughed softly. “There are worse things than burning.” He slid her a look full of passion and longing. And for a moment, only a moment, Erica agreed with him.
While everyone else followed the path staked out by some long-gone tour guide, he took her to the hidden paths of the volcano, down isolated trails on the island that showed little signs of human trespass.
“The active volcano is there. From here, you can see the steam rising and smell the sulfur.” He took a deep breath of it and turned to her, smiling. “You like?”
“It’s scary,” she said. “But incredible. Like a sleeping dragon, beautiful and frightening at the same time.”
“Yes, exactly.” He nodded as if she’d just revealed that she understood all the secrets of the universe.
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