The Touch of Aphrodite

by Joanna Mansell

  As they drove south-eastwards out of Paphos, towards the legendary birthplace of Aphrodite, she shot a couple of quick glances at him. The strong lines of his face were so very familiar to her by now, and the casual clothes seemed to emphasise the powerful muscles of his body. Emily felt a small army of goose-pimples suddenly march over her skin, and knew very well that it wasn't because there was still a very faint chill in the early morning air.

  The road ran right along the edge of the coast, so that Emily could see the first rays of the sun beginning to glint on the water. The sky was a pale azure now, but would soon deepen to a richer blue as another hot and perfect day got under way. A heat haze would shimmer over the mountains, and the island would bake lazily in the sun that drenched it.

  Nikolaos brought the car to a halt as the road curved round yet another small bay. 'This is it,' he said. 'Aphrodite's birthplace.'

  A narrow path led down to the cove below. At the head of the cove was a giant rock, surrounded by several smaller outcrops. The waves broke gently on the shingle beach, and they were touched by the rising sun, creating a thin line of foam that shone almost golden in the early morning light. Emily got out of the car and walked slowly down to the beach. Nikolaos followed, and then stood beside her as she kicked off her sandals and dipped her toes into the cool water. She turned and softly smiled at him, seduced by the magic of the legend, a beautiful woman rising up out of the foam of the sea.

  Do you think that it really happened?' she said a little dreamily. 'Did Aphrodite really come ashore here and live on this island?'

  Nikolaos looked back at her, and Emily wondered if it was the clear light of late dawn that was causing that bright glitter in his eyes.

  'Sometimes, it's possible to believe almost anything,' he said rather abruptly. Then he turned away and began to walk back up the beach, leaving Emily with little choice except to follow him.

  Back in the car, they retraced the route to Paphos, then turned north, towards Aphrodite's Baths. The sun was getting much warmer now, and Emily was glad that she had chosen to wear just a thin, sleeveless cotton dress. Her hair tumbled down to her shoulders in its usual cascade of golden curls, and the thin gold bracelet that she wore as her only jewellery glinted against the healthy, lightly tanned glow of her skin.

  She knew that there was a car park and tourist pavilion near the Baths of Aphrodite, so she was surprised when Nikolaos instead drove into a small fishing village and then stopped the car.

  'Why have we come here?' she asked. 'The Baths of Aphrodite are further along the road.'

  'You also wanted to see the Fountain of Love, didn't you?'

  'Yes, I did.'

  'Since the road leading to it isn't suitable for ordinary cars, the easiest way to reach it is by boat.'

  'By boat?' Emily echoed, with new interest. 'That's rather romantic; I'm sure people here on a second honeymoon would enjoy that.'

  Nikolaos looked sceptical, but said nothing. Emily gave a tiny sigh. She supposed that she should stop talking about love and romance, since Nikolaos clearly wasn't interested in either. She could understand that because, until a few weeks ago, she had known so little about it, hadn't even been particularly interested herself.

  Something had happened to her since her arrival on Cyprus, though. Something inside of her had changed — perhaps forever. Emily's nerves gave a gentle quiver, because that was a rather frightening thought. She couldn't run away from it any longer, however. She didn't know what had changed her — the warm glow of the sun, the scent of the flowers, the relaxed atmosphere and friendly, easygoing people, or perhaps even the influence of the legendary Aphrodite herself. She just knew that she was opening up, flowering, starting to want things that she had never really wanted before. Or, remembering the violent relationship between her mother and her father, had shied away from. And all these new feelings were tied up with Nikolaos, which was really scary, because underneath that formidable facade was a very sensual man. And Emily wasn't so naive and innocent that she didn't realise that Nikolaos could easily separate love and desire, rejecting one but pursuing the other with a single-minded determination that would be difficult — perhaps impossible — to resist. Which meant that she should be spending as little time with him as possible, because each day seemed to find her more vulnerable to him. She certainly shouldn't be going on this journey with him to the haunts of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

  Yet Emily didn't make some excuse to return to the hotel. Instead, she followed Nikolaos down to the small harbour at Latchi. And she'willingly got into the small boat that was waiting for them.

  An older, darkly tanned man, stripped to the waist, grinned at Nikolaos and greeted him. Then he started up the engine and the boat began to move out of the harbour. The sun was brighter now, lighting up the mountains that rose up behind the village, and tipping the small waves with bright sparks of light as the boat picked up speed and left the harbour behind. Nikolaos obviously knew the boat owner, because he asked after various members of his family. Emily lazily sat back and listened to the sound of Nikolaos's voice, deep and confident, quite unlike any other man's voice. At the same time, her gaze roamed over the curve of the coast with its small bays lapped by the blue sea, and the rising swell of the mountains behind it, their pale, sun-scorched slopes dappled with the different greens of olive, cypress, fig, carob and almond trees. This morning, the very shape of the island seemed sensual, and she found herself stretching luxuriously, as if some of that sensuality was seeping into her own veins.

  The boat chugged slowly to a halt alongside a rocky outcrop. There was no purpose-built landing area; anyone wanting to go ashore simply jumped out on to the rock.

  Nikolaos went first, and then held his hand out to Emily. She hesitated for only an instant before letting him catch hold of her with a firm, hard grip. When they were both ashore, the boatman waved to them, and then headed his boat back out to sea. Emily turned to Nikolaos in alarm.

  'How do we get back again?'

  'We walk,' he said. "The best way to see this part of the island is on foot. But first I'll show you the Fountain of Love.'

  As he had warned, it was no more than a muddy well, but Emily still found it fascinating. And it was so marvellously quiet and peaceful here; the only sound came from the birds which sang tunefully from the trees, and the insects that buzzed around lazily in the growing heat. The main blaze of spring flowers was over now, but butterflies flitted silently among the few late blooms that were left, and a couple of small lizards scuttled, carefully avoiding Emily's feet.

  'No wonder Aphrodite chose to live here,' she said dreamily. 'It's so beautiful."

  'Aphrodite didn't exist,' Nikolaos reminded her. 'Except in people's imaginations.'

  'Well, my imagination is working overtime at the moment,' she said in the same dreamy voice. 'I can almost see her, drifting through the trees, on her way to meet one of her lovers —'

  'You sound as if you wish you were on your way to meet a lover,' Nikolaos said softly.

  Something in his tone of voice brought her abruptly back to reality. 'No, of course I don't,' she said, much more sharply than she had intended. It was a lie, though. Emily was beginning to long for love; she wasn't frightened of it any more. The memories of the violent relationship between her mother and her father seemed to be fading a little with every day that she spent on this beautiful, peaceful island. And, without even knowing that he had done it, Nikolaos had taught her that men could be physically powerful, and yet still be capable of gentleness, when it was needed. That they could lose their tempers, and yet not resort to violence, not lash out indiscriminately and hurt whoever was nearest to them. That desire could be controlled, and the restless energy that it generated channelled into work and concern for the family, instead of becoming pent-up and destructive.

  But he had also taught her what it was like to want someone. That was probably the most dangerous lesson she had ever learned, and one of the most painful. Sheknew that it wa
s useless to want Nikolaos; he wasn't interested in what she could offer him. If he ever married at all, it would be to the dark, sophisticated Sofia, someone he could indulge, feel affection towards but not love, never be in danger of losing his heart. He would never risk falling a victim to the passionate, unquenchable, irresistible kind of love that had overwhelmed his mother, and broken up his family. i think — ' Emily's voice came out as a dry croak, so she cleared her throat and tried again. 'I think that we should start the walk back to Aphrodite's Baths.'

  'Why?' Nikolaos asked, his voice low and his gaze fixing directly on her face.

  Emily glanced around nervously. Too late, she realised just how isolated it was up here. And Nikolaos's eyes were taking on that dark glitter that she had already seen a couple of times before. When he had kissed her, wanted to make love to her —

  'Because —well, because —' she began very unsteadily, feeling something inside her begin to tremble.

  'Because you don't want to be here alone with me?' Nikolaos suggested.

  'Of course not,' she lied. 'You don't think that I'm scared of you, do you?'

  He moved a step closer. 'Perhaps you should be,' he said softly. A self-mocking gleam lit his eyes. 'I'm certainly a little scared of you,' he added, to her absolute amazement.

  'Of me?' she echoed, in sheer disbelief. 'You can't be!'

  'Why not? When I'm around you, things begin to get a little out of control. And you know how I feel about that.'

  'You don't like it,' Emily said, with a small gulp.

  'No, I don't,' Nikolaos agreed. He moved still closer. 'The problem is, I do like this.'

  He was near enough to kiss her now. And he did. A swift, hard kiss that revealed perhaps even more than he had intended.

  'You said that you wouldn't do that again,' Emily whispered shakenly. 'We agreed that we'd have a working relationship.'

  'I know. And, at the time, I certainly meant it. But you keep making me break all my own rules. And I'm about to break them again,' he added more huskily.

  He took another kiss, longer this time, and more intense. Emily took an involuntary step backwards; all her instincts were crying out for her to run away now, before he discovered just how much she wanted to give in to this, how long she had secretly been aching for the touch of his lips again.

  'I really don't think this is a good idea,' she managed to get out jerkily.

  'Of course it isn't. We both know that.' Nikolaos's hand slid into the soft golden mane of her hair, caressed its warmth, then closed around the bright strands, holding her face close to his. 'But, right at this moment, I don't seem to care. And I can't seem to stop,' he added in a much thicker tone of voice. His mouth covered hers again almost before he had finished speaking. Vague thoughts of resistance drifted through Emily's head, but then drifted right out again, the warmth and pressure of his lips made it impossible to think coherently. Then his fingers untangled themselves from her hair and instead slid over the soft cotton of her dress, tracing the curved shape of her body beneath, touching lightly but hungrily.

  Everything inside her seemed to subside into chaos. And such an intensely pleasurable chaos. Emily shivered, despite the heat of the sun and the fire licking through her veins. If she experienced this for too long, she might not be able to live without it —

  Nikolaos raised his head and looked directly at her. His dark eyes were brilliant, and his own breathing had become uneven.

  'You are dangerous,' he said, the tension clear in his voice. 'I should turn my back on you, walk away, and just keep on walking."

  'Then why aren't you doing it?' Emily somehow found the courage to challenge him.

  Their gazes locked and held. Then Nikolaos gave a sudden growl of sheer frustration. 'I've tried. I have tried. I've told myself that I didn't want someone with your pale little English face. That uptight little English mind. But I've watched your skin turn gold under our sun, seen you come alive as its heat warmed your heart, and I soon realised that underneath you're just like me, full of hidden fires that would burn and burn if we ever let them get completely out of control.' He swayed even closer, so that she could feel the heat radiating from him, and knew that her own skin was becoming frantically hot. 'You think that I should walk away? So do I. But the trouble is that I want this too much,' he finished roughly, and then his mouth was back on hers again, but this time with an intensity that she might have found a little frightening if she hadn't already been responding with an eagerness that amazed her, left her head reeling with the implications of these new revelations.

  He kissed her with an ever-growing lack of control, and her own emotions rocketed to new peaks of intensity. This time, his fingers weren't content with moving over her dress, but slid underneath it, and Emily caught her breath sharply as she felt the first touch of his hands against her bare skin. Every nerve in her body silently quivered, and her skin felt almost raw where his fingertips were lightly caressing its silkiness. With his other free hand, Nikolaos dragged back her golden curls so that his mouth could move restlessly over the nape of her neck. Tendrils of pleasure curled right down to her toes, and her heart thumped even more erratically.

  'I can feel you shaking inside,' Nikolaos murmured. 'Deep down, where no one's ever touched you before.'

  'I've been touched,' Emily insisted unsteadily, a last vestige of pride wanting to make him believe that she wasn't so naive that she knew nothing of these things.

  'Not in the way that I mean.'

  'I'm not some wide-eyed little innocent,' she insisted.

  'Yes, you are,' Nikolaos said with absolute certainty. "You've no idea what this is really all about. No idea what I can do to you,' he went on in a lower, darker voice.

  His hand floated upwards, his palm grazed against her breast, and then his fingers curled around her soft flesh, enclosed it, caressed and then gently nipped. A dozen different sensations burst through her, each one more dangerously pleasurable than the last, and Emily's eyes flew open in alarm. Each time he touched her, he was going a little further. And she didn't want to stop him.

  To confuse her further, he kissed her again. Not so intensely this time. The touch of his lips was light, gently provocative. His tongue softly probed. He was sharing the touch and taste of himself with her; the dark, exotic, Mediterranean tang of his skin seemed to surround her, the heat of the Cypriot sun seemed to run through his veins. Then his fingers drifted down, beneath the waistband of her dress, across the flat plane of her stomach. Emily closed her eyes and nearly stopped breathing. She knew that she had to make him stop — he was overwhelming her; in a few more seconds she would be ready to give absolutely everything to him, even her soul, and that would be a disaster of cataclysmic proportions because he didn't want her soul — nor her love.

  But his fingers were still moving, still exploring, sliding lower and caressing more intimately. Emily swayed faintly; small waves of pleasure were exploding inside her, and still he was touching, stroking, caressing —

  'No,' she moaned, almost desperately. Then, somehow, she found the strength to say it again. 'No.''

  Nikolaos immediately became still, although he was breathing very unevenly and a dark flush of colour showed beneath the deep tan of his face.

  'Why?' he said in a stark tone. 'You want this.'

  'I don't want —' Emily struggled to find the right words, struggled against the rebellious demands of her body, which, for the first time in her adult life, were running almost out of control. 'I don't want—just sex,' she finally got out in a fractured voice. "Well, yes, I do want it,' she added more honestly,

  'but if it's just like this —if there isn't anything else —then it won't mean anything.'

  Nikolaos's face darkened. "And what is the "something else" that you want?'

  he growled softly. 'Love? You already know that isn't on offer. I've made my feelings on that subject perfectly plain. But I can give you pleasure,' he went on, his black eyes fixing on her with a powerful intensity that made her
nerves almost melt. 'In my own way, I can make you happy.'

  'But can I make you happy?' she said in a low tone.

  'I don't think so. Not if the only thing I can ever give you is my body. I've got so much more to give than that —but you don't want it. You don't want any kind of love in your life; you don't trust it. I think that you're even afraid of it because you can't control it.'

  They stared at each other for what seemed half a lifetime. Nikolaos was finally the first one to look away.

  'You're right, of course,' he said almost angrily. 'I'm not interested in love; I've taught myself to live without it. I want to live without it.'

  Emily half closed her eyes. She had felt that way once. But not any more.

  'People can change,' she said in a soft voice.

  'I don't want to change,' Nikolaos said bluntly. 'I want you,' he went on, his black eyes glowing fiercely. 'I've made that very clear. But I can live without you, if I have to. And that's exactly what I'll do, if you won't accept me on my own terms.'

  'I can't live with your terms,' Emily said helplessly.

  'Then what happened today must never happen again,' Nikolaos said in a grim tone.

  She couldn't believe he could cut her out of his life so quickly, so decisively, but before she could shakenly protest he began to speak again.

  'Unfortunately, we still have to work together, but in future it would obviously be better if contact between us could be kept to a minimum. In the meantime, I suggest that we return to the hotel immediately. We both have a great deal of work to get on with, and I think it would help the situation if we had something to fully occupy our minds.'

  He turned away and strode off, and Emily stumbled after him, unable to believe that it was possible to feel such intense pleasure and such utter misery in such a short space of time.