The Touch of Aphrodite

by Joanna Mansell

  'I certainly understand desire, and the madness it can cause. But marriage should be based on more than that; it should include respect and affection and permanent commitment.'

  'Dimitri's marriage to my mother included all of those things. If you'd seen them together, you'd have known that. Are you married?' she demanded.

  'No,' he said rather curtly.

  'Well, I'm not surprised, considering your cynical attitude towards other people's marriages,' she retorted. 'I hope, for the sake of the women of Cyprus, that you stay single all your life!'

  'One day, I will want a family. Then I will marry," he said tersely. 'But I will be very careful of my choice of partner. Make the wrong choice and too many people can be affected by the far-reaching consequences. In my uncle's case, because of his obsessional love for your mother, his family have been deprived of their rightful inheritance, and I have to spend a year of my life looking after a woman who means nothing to me.'

  His last words hurt far more than he had probably intended. Emily was alarmed at just how much they stung, and retaliated fiercely to try and cover up her reaction. 'You do not have to look after me. I'm not stupid or helpless, I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself. And you seem to be forgetting that this arrangement has disrupted my life, as well as yours. Unlike you, though, I'm trying to make the best of it. That's why I wanted to talk to you today, to see if we could put an end to all this hostility. That's obviously going to be quite impossible, though. You're clearly not interested in calling some kind of truce, or trying to make things easier and more pleasant for both of us.'

  'I'm certainly not interested in making your life easy or pleasant,' Nikolaos said brutally. 'On the other hand, I can see that you've got a great incentive for wanting to get through the next few months with the minimum of trouble. After all, at the end of it, you're going to get your inheritance. And that's all you're really interested in, isn't it?'

  'Oh, I give up,' Emily said in sudden despair. 'Trying to talk to you is just impossible. You've got such fixed, biased ideas about me, and they're never going to change, are they?'

  'No,' he said flatly, then he put his foot down hard on the accelerator and sent the car hurtling along the motorway.

  They drove on to Nicosia in absolute silence. Emily wished that she had never set foot in this car, had never been stupid enough to think that she could reason with Nikolaos Konstantin, and couldn't wait for this trip to be over.

  When they finally reached Nicosia, Emily asked in a T £ht voice to be dropped outside the Cyprus museum.

  'Do you intend to improve your mind?' Nikolaos enquired caustically.

  'I'm well aware that you don't think I've got a mind to improve,' she retorted.

  'To the contrary,' he replied softly. 'I think that you've got a very clever, and probably devious mind.'

  'You also think that I'm greedy, unscrupulous and unprincipled,' Emily said accusingly.

  'Your words, not mine,' he reminded her. He glanced at his watch. 'I'll pick you up in two hours.' Then, as soon as Emily had got out of the car, he swiftly drove off.

  By that time, Emily wasn't exactly in the right frame of mind to appreciate the ancient culture of Cyprus. She couldn't just wander around aimlessly for the next couple of hours, though, so she trudged through the porticoed entrance of the museum.

  As she wandered slowly through the rooms, staring at terracotta figures of warriors, charioteers and mythical minotaurs, statues in stone, bronze and marble, helmets and weapons, drinking cups, necklaces, and a cauldron decorated with griffins and double-faced sirens, she soon became absorbed in what she was seeing. Here was Cyprus's fascinating, turbulent and often blood-stained history, stretching right back to Neolithic times. The island had been ruled by the Romans, invaded by the Saracens, conquered by Richard the Lionheart. Phoenician traders had beached their galleys on the golden sands, Venetian merchants had sold their goods in the streets of Nicosia, the Knights of St John administered great estates that produced sugar cane and the famous Cyprus wine.

  Emily stood for the longest amount of time, however, in front of the marble statue of Aphrodite. Here she was, the legendary goddess of love who had made her home on Cyprus, the temptress of all men, unfaithful to her husband, flitting from lover to lover. And yet, according to legend, when one of her lovers, Adonis, was killed by another of her lovers disguised as a boar, the inconsolable Aphrodite had wept, and from her tears had sprung the red and white anemones that now covered the island.

  Emily gave a rueful smile. What would it be like to have such a tempestuous love life? She had absolutely no idea. She had had a couple of semi-serious relationships, but she had never been in love. Sometimes, she thought that she never would be. Part of her shied away from it; she knew —like Nikolaos —that love could have its darker side.

  Her mother's second marriage, to Emily's father, had been very unhappy, and as a child Emily had seen far too much of the damage that could result when love turned sour. She had even experienced some of that damage herself, when her father's anger and frustration had boiled over into a violence that had lashed out indiscriminately in all directions. She gave a small shudder as old, painful memories briefly surfaced. Then she pushed them away again, locked them away in the very back of her mind, where they couldn't hurt her. She rarely thought of those dark times nowadays. Dimitri's generous affection, compassion and surprising gentleness had helped to heal a lot of the old wounds. And the happiness he had obviously found in marriage to her mother had helped to convince Emily that a relationship could work marvellously well when love was deep and mutual. She reluctantly walked away from the statue of the fascinating Aphrodite, left the museum, crossed the road and went into the Municipal Gardens. She found a seat shaded by palm trees, and sat down to wait for Nikolaos to return.

  She certainly wasn't looking forward to the return trip to Larnaca. The only good thing was that, at the speed Nikolaos drove, it wouldn't take too long. Fortunately, he was an excellent driver, handling the large, powerful car with effortless skill.

  Nikolaos drew up outside the museum half an hour later, exactly on time. Emily walked towards the car, but then slowed down when she saw that he wasn't alone.

  A woman, perhaps a couple of years older than Emily, sat beside him. She had very dark hair that fell in luxuriant waves to her shoulders, and eyes that were almost black. Her face was nearly, but not quite beautiful, with strong bones and a full mouth, and she had the same aura of dark sensuality that radiated from Nikolaos, although it was more subtle and feminine. As Emily climbed into the back seat, she noted the other woman's air of confidence and sophistication, and immediately felt at a disadvantage. She knew that she couldn't match it, at least not at the moment. Too much had happened over the past few months; the strain of coping with everything had knocked a lot of her own self-assurance out of her, although she still managed to put on a brave show when circumstances demanded it. Underneath, though, her nerves all too often felt completely ragged, and it was hard to be the capable, confident Emily that she had once been. As Nikolaos drove away, however, and the woman beside him turned to look at her, Emily managed to produce a friendly smile.

  'I'm Emily Peterson —' she introduced herself.

  'This is Sofia,' Nikolaos cut in. 'She's a cousin of mine.'

  Emily's heart immediately sank. If this woman was another Konstantin, then she couldn't expect a very warm response.

  She was right. Sofia didn't give Emily an answering smile. Instead, her dark gaze ran swiftly over her, scrutinising her with some intensity. 'Nikolaos and I have known each other for most of our lives,' she said at last, in a low and rather husky tone. "We are very close friends, as well as cousins.' She obviously didn't intend that Emily should miss the implication of that remark, and looked at Emily's face carefully, to make sure that she had got the message. Emily tried hard to keep her expression completely neutral, but wasn't completely sure that she had succeeded.

  In a very cool voice, Sofia
went on, 'I know who you are, of course. I have heard about you from my family.'

  Her English was as good as Nikolaos's. There was nothing in the least friendly in her tone of voice, though. Emily gave a silent sigh. She supposed that Sofia knew all about Dimitri's will and, like Nikolaos, intensely disapproved of the way he had left his estate.

  She sighed again, more audibly this time. The next few months were going to be very difficult if the entire Konstantin family were against her. She had to make a real effort to win at least some of them over to her side, Emily told herself. It was obviously no use attempting it with Nikolaos; his opinion of her was absolutely entrenched, and there didn't seem to be anything on this earth she could say or do to change it. But Sofia was a woman, and near to her own age. They might even find that they had a lot in common, if they could just get past this initial hostility.

  Emily tried another friendly smile, which got no response at all. She didn't give up, though. Instead, she -.sked in a warm voice, 'Do you live in Nicosia?'

  'My family owns an apartment there,' Sofia said distantly. 'We also have a house in Limassol, and another in the Troodos mountains." Emily was beginning to realise that the Konstantin family was far more wealthy and influential than she had realised. Before coming to Cyprus, she had rather naively assumed that Dimitri had been the success story in the family; the one who has raised his prestigious hotel to five-star status. She had obviously been wrong about that, though. From the little she had learnt, Nikolaos's business interests seemed to be widespread and varied, and obviously highly lucrative. But if the family had so much money, why were they making all this fuss about Dimitri's estate being left to her? Emily wondered with a puzzled frown.

  'Are you really going to work for Nikolaos for the next few months?' Sofia asked abruptly, interrupting Emily's thoughts.

  Emily shrugged, 'I don't have much choice. It's a condition of Dimitri's will.'

  'Dimitri's will!' Sofia repeated, with obvious impatience. 'I don't understand why it should be causing all these problems. Surely you can break the will, Nikolaos?'

  He turned his head and gave her an unexpectedly indulgent look, as if he was well used to her impatience. 'If it were up to me, I could and I would. But the rest of Dimitri's family won't agree.'

  'Can't you talk to them?'

  'I already have. Their decision was firm and final, though, and I won't try again to change their minds. They have the right to do as they think best.'

  'Then it's up to you to do something," Sofia declared, turning back to Emily.

  'You know that the will isn't right or fair; you must tell your solicitor that you won't accept its terms.'

  But Emily was getting rather tired of the Konstantin family telling her what she should or shouldn't do. Also, she was discovering that she didn't like Sofia very much. There was something hard and self-centred in her eyes and mouth, a spoilt wilfulness in her tone of voice. Emily was already abandoning any plans she might have had to try and befriend her.

  'I don't intend to go against Dimitri's wishes,' she said steadily.

  'Nikolaos, please do something about this,' Sofia said pleadingly, a soft, husky undertone to her voice. 'You must make her give up this claim.'

  But Emily had had more than enough of this particular conversation.

  'Dimitri's will was very clear, and there are no grounds on which anyone could contend it,' she declared very firmly. 'And if you give me any more trouble about it, then I might have to take legal steps to prevent it.'

  Too late, she realised that sounded like a threat. And Emily knew instinctively that no one in their right mind would ever issue a threat against Nikolaos Konstantin. Even Sofia looked startled, as if she had never heard anyone do anything quite so rash before.

  Nikolaos raised his gaze briefly to the driving mirror, so that he could look directly at Emily. She shivered slightly under that dark, angry scrutiny, but then reminded herself that he couldn't actually do anything. Not while he was driving, and also had his cousin sitting beside him.

  His voice when he next spoke, though, reminded her that there were more ways than one of inflicting damage.

  'If you take any kind of legal action against me, I promise you that you will be very sorry,' he said with soft menace.

  Emily didn't say another word, and even Sofia seemed subdued by Nikoloas's grim tone. The car sped on to Larnaca, through the low, rounded hills covered with fresh spring greenery and tiny splashes of colour from early flowers. But not another word was spoken by the three people in the car during the entire journey.

  CHAPTER THREE

  WHEN they finally reached Larnaca, instead of taking Emily straight back to the hotel, Nikolaos instead brought the car to a halt outside a large office building.

  "I have to see someone about a business matter,' he said briefly, it will only take a few minutes. If you don't mind waiting, Emily, I'll take you to the hotel directly afterwards.'

  'No, I don't mind,' she said with resignation. The journey from Nicosia had already seemed quite interminable. It wouldn't matter if it dragged on for a while longer.

  After he had gone into the building, an uncomfortable silence filled the car. Sofia sat with her elegant head slightly turned away and made no effort to speak, so it was Emily who finally broke the silence.

  'Did you meet Nikolaos in Nicosia by chance?' she asked.

  'Of course not,' Sofia replied in a frosty tone. 'The meeting was arranged several days ago. Nikolaos and I have some family business to attend to here, in Larnaca, and then we are having dinner together tonight.'

  'Oh,' said Emily, and she found herself swallowing rather harder than she intended. She was alarmed to discover that she didn't like the idea of Sofia and Nikolaos sharing what would probably be an intimate meal. That was ridiculous, of course, because it was absolutely none of her business. She hurriedly told herself that she really didn't care that Nikolaos and Sofia had a dinner date.

  'I —I expect that you see quite a lot of Nikolaos?' Emily forced herself to say.

  Sofia's dark eyes suddenly glittered with hostility. 'Yes. But you'll be seeing far more of him during the next few months.'

  Emily got the message at once. She also decided that this was one misunderstanding that she could put right straight away. She didn't like Sofia very much, and the feeling was obviously mutual, but there was no need for there to be animosity between them because of Nikolaos, and she intended to make that perfectly clear.

  'Look, let's get one thing straight,' she said in a very firm voice. 'Nikolaos and I will be working together — and that is all.'

  'Please don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm naive,' Sofia said, in a brittle tone.

  Emily thought that naive was just about the very last word she would ever have used to describe the sophisticated, worldly Sofia. She was determined to get this sorted out, though, before Nikolaos came back.

  'I'm here on Cyprus to learn about Dimitri's business affairs,' she said evenly. 'Nikolaos doesn't want me here, but because of the terms of Dimitri's will he has to spend the next year trying to teach me the things I'll need to know. It's not an ideal situation, but we're both adults and I'm sure that we can cope with it.' Privately, Emily had deep reservations about her ability to cope with Nikolaos, but she certainly wasn't going to admit that to Sofia. But Sofia was already staring at her with renewed hostility, 'i^nd why do you suppose that Dimitri wrote that ridiculous proviso into his will?' she said, her dark eyes flashing.

  "I'd have thought that was obvious —' Emily began.

  'Of course it's obvious!' Sofia interrupted angrily. "Dimitri was always a stupid romantic. Even a child could realise what he had in mind, forcing you, his adored stepdaughter, and Nikolaos, his favourite nephew, to work together and spend so much time in each other's company!'

  Emily blinked in genuine astonishment as she realised what Sofia was implying. Was she the one who had been naive? Was that really what Dimitri had had in mind? She remembered how he had s
ometimes gently teased her over the fact that she was nearly twenty-four and still not married. She knew that he had wanted to see her with a husband and children, and had always looked concerned when she had told him that she was a career girl at heart. But surely he wouldn't go so far as to try and manipulate her into a relationship?

  'No, you're wrong,' she said finally, with a quick shake of her head. 'Dimitri would never do anything like that.'

  'Of course he would,' Sofia said scornfully. 'In his mind, it would have been the perfect solution. You don't really think that he intended that someone like you should run his hotel, do you? He wanted to bring you and Nikolaos together, so that you would be safely married, and Nikolaos, as your husband, would keep control of Dimitri's business concerns.'

  Marriage to Nikolaos —for just a few dazzling moments, Emily allowed herself to wonder what it would be like to be married to such a man. To share everything with him —share his bed. Then she forced herself to push those startling thoughts right out of her head. It was never going to happen; it was quite impossible. And once she had managed to convince herself of that she allowed herself to become angry at Sofia's insulting implication that she was quite incapable of running Dimitri's hotel.

  'When Dimitri drew up his will, he wasn't matchmaking. He was concerned only about the future of his hotel," she said fiercely. 'And I intend to justify his decision to put me in charge, once I've learnt everything I need to know. But if you're still worried about the amount of time I'll be spending with Nikolaos, here's something that might make you feel a lot better about it. If Dimitri did have any plans to force us into some kind of relationship, they are most certainly not going to work. I would rather die and go to hell than marry Nikolaos Konstantin!' Emily was well aware that she was speaking more out of bravado than conviction now. She also rather desperately needed to escape from the increasingly claustrophobic atmosphere inside the car. She scrambled out and slammed the door. Then she turned back to Sofia. 'You can tell Nikolaos that I intend to walk back to the hotel,' she added tensely. 'I don't want to spend one more minute today with any members of the Konstantin family!'