by Sara Craven
‘Why, yes agape mou,' he drawled. ‘For one thing, I have asked you to marry me.’
‘And I have refused.’ Gemma lifted her chin defiantly.
‘May I know why?’
‘I should have thought that was fairly obvious. If Mike hadn’t turned up like this, you wouldn’t have asked me. Yesterday, all you could think of was getting me off the island. Well, I prefer to stick to the original plan.’
‘You don’t understand at all,’ he said with exasperation. ‘matia mou, I felt I had to send you away, for your own sake, so that no word of this would ever leak out to involve us in scandal.’
‘You mean, you didn’t want your own involvement known,’ she accused angrily. ‘Everyone at the hotel yesterday was staring at me, wondering where you’d picked me up. I suppose I must be a disappointment after your usual ladies.’
‘That is nonsense.’ He was angry now.
‘Is it?’ Gemma pushed her hair back wearily. ‘Not that it matters. So, please don’t feel guilty on my account. As we’ve established already, it wasn’t rape, and I—wanted everything that happened last night, so please don’t worry about me—about anything, in fact.’
‘What are you saying?’ He sounded incredulous. ‘That we should pretend all this never happened— that we never met, perhaps?’ He walked over to her, cupping her unwilling face between his hands, staring down at her. ‘Gemma mou, you know that is impossible. Too much has happened. We can never be free of each other, even if that is what we wanted—which I do not believe,’ he added flatly. ‘So, why will you not marry me?’
‘For all kinds of reasons.’ The gentleness of his hands against her soft skin made her want to weep, but she controlled the impulse rigidly. ‘Because I have a life of my own—a career back in England, and—and I don’t need you.’
‘And what of my needs?’ The smile curving his lips and gleaming in his eyes was a seduction in itself.
Gemma looked away hastily. ‘I’m sure Fraulein Gretz will be only too happy to take care of them,’ she said tonelessly.
He made a sound that was suspiciously like a choked back laugh. ‘Perhaps she would, agape mou, if I gave her the opportunity, which I promise you I do not intend to do.’
‘Not even at the cosy dinner you were suggesting next week?’ As soon as the words were out, she regretted them, knowing that she had given him the chance to taunt her with being jealous.
‘Not at any time. Gemma mou, I may not have lived like a saint, but I do not seduce women guests in my hotels. Besides, at this cosy dinner you speak of, I had planned to announce our marriage.’
‘Is that why you suddenly want a wife?’ she asked huskily. ‘As protection against predatory blondes?’
He groaned. ‘No, wildcat, it is not.’ His eyes flicked restlessly past her to the bed, and his mouth curled wryly. ‘Damn your brother. If he was not here, I would take you to bed and make love to you until you pleaded with me to marry you.’
‘Then I can only be thankful he is here,’ she said inimically. ‘And you should be grateful, too, because marriage between us would be a disaster. We’re strangers from two different worlds, who’ve just happened to—collide for a brief while, that’s all.’ She paused, struggling to control the faint quiver in her voice. ‘Now, please leave me alone,’ she added with desperation.
He gave her a hard, searching look, and she had to force herself to stand her ground and look back at him, as if she meant every word, as if she didn’t care.
Then suddenly, starkly, he let her go, and she watched him cross the room, and go out, closing the door behind him.
She said under her breath, ‘Oh God,’ then her legs gave way, and she sank down, trembling, on to the floor, and stayed there, her arms wrapped round her body, rocking slightly like an unhappy child, while scalding tears emptied down her face.
* * *
A shower helped, later, and the tan-and-white dress, which was crisp and pretty, gave her courage too.
But when she got downstairs, only Mike was there, sitting on the terrace drinking coffee. ‘He’s gone down to the village to make sure the wedding truce is still holding up,’ he said, passing her a cup of coffee. ‘He’s a dynamic bastard when he gets going. I’ll say that for him,’ he added with grudging admiration. ‘I can’t altogether blame you for having a little fling with him, Gem, no matter what the original reason. I shouldn’t think he often has to ask twice, if ever.’
She said levelly, ‘I suppose not.’ She paused. ‘Mike, can you drive the jeep?’
‘Probably,’ he said. ‘Why?’
‘I need to get to Heraklion to catch this plane.’
‘Isn’t Nikolaides driving you there?’ He sounded surprised. ‘He mentioned something about it.
‘Perhaps so,’ she said. ‘But I’d rather it was you, Mike. I don’t really want to be alone with him again.’
‘You can’t get up to much in a jeep,’ he said. ‘But I’ll mention it to him, certainly. I can’t see why he should object. Under the circumstances he must be as keen to be rid of you, as you are to leave.’ He frowned a little. ‘I was hoping I’d be able to stay here again, but if he’s in residence, I shall have to look elsewhere. Maybe someone in the village will put me up.’
‘I’m sure they will,’ she said drily. ‘They’ll probably be anxious to “make amends” too. But I don’t think Andreas will be staying on here. He has an apartment in his hotel at Aghios Nikolaos. I expect he’ll be returning there.’
He brightened. ‘You think so? Well, here’s hoping. I like this place.’ He yawned. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. I think I’ll go down to the bakery and get some bread.’
‘Maria usually brings it.’
‘I expect Maria has other things on her mind today,’ he said cheerfully, demonstrating, his sister thought wryly, yet again his unparalleled capacity for detachment. He went off whistling.
Gemma finished her coffee, then went upstairs to finish her packing. She put the lace tablecloth in on top of everything else and closed the case. She wanted to leave now, although it was far too early for her plane. She would rather drag round Heraklion, toting her case, than stay at the villa, listening to the moments pass, waiting for the time when she would never see Andreas again, she told herself wretchedly.
When she went downstairs, they had both returned, Mike with bread, and Andreas with a bundle wrapped in paper, which he handed to her.
‘What is it?’ She made a poor attempt at a smile. ‘Another present from a wellwisher?’
He said coldly and briefly, ‘Your bag. You could hardly leave without it.’
She bit her lip. ‘Well, now I do have it, I’d like to leave right away please.’
He shrugged. ‘If it is convenient for your brother, then I have no objections. Besides, I have other plans for the rest of the day,’ he added softly.
In spite of what he had said earlier, she had an image of Helga displaying her golden body beside the pool, and winced inwardly.
Mike carried her case out and stowed it in the jeep, grumbling cheerfully at the weight of it.
Gemma faced Andreas. She felt helpless, totally lost for words, and the dark cool face gave her no help whatsoever.
In the end, she managed a tom ‘Goodbye,’ then turned and hurried down the terrace steps and through the garden to where the jeep was waiting outside the gate. Mike was already in the driving seat, but as she took her place beside him, he uttered an impatient exclamation.
‘I’ve left my wallet in the rucksack. Hang on, Gem. I won’t be long.’
She hoped with all her heart that he wouldn’t be. The pain was beginning already, cramping her throat, making breathing difficult. She put her folded arms on the dashboard, and rested her forehead on them, closing her eyes wearily.
Life went on, she told herself, and no one had ever died of a broken heart, or any similar self-inflicted wound.
But it would be easier once she was on her way.
She was aware of
his return, aware of the jeep starting up, and she sat up slowly, pushing her tumbled hair back from her face as the vehicle began to lurch down the rough track towards the village.
She froze, her lips parting in a soundless gasp. She said, ‘You! But Mike was driving me.’
‘A last minute change of plan.’
‘Like hell there is.’ She wrenched at the door handle, almost breaking a nail. ‘Let me out of here.’ And as the jeep gathered speed. ‘I said—let me out.’
‘I heard you,’ he hurled back at her. ‘I should imagine the whole village heard you also. Now, be quiet.’
‘I won’t be quiet.’ Her voice shook. ‘Where is Mike? What have you done with him?’
‘He is finishing his breakfast,’ he said coolly. ‘We talked on our way back from the village, he and I, and arrived at an understanding.’
‘How nice for you,’ she said wildly. ‘Now, stop this bloody jeep. I am not going to Heraklion with you.’
‘No, you are not,’ he agreed. ‘That is another change of plan. We are going to Rethymnon instead.’
She said dangerously, ‘And why should we do any such thing?’
‘Because my mother has a house there, and I am taking you to stay with her.’
The news struck her dumb, but not for long. ‘You’ll do no such thing,’ she raged at him. ‘I don’t want to meet your mother, and I’m damned sure she won’t have the slightest desire to meet me.’
‘Don’t be a fool.’ He clashed the gears and swore. ‘Every mother wishes to meet the girl her son intends to marry.’
‘For the last time.’ Gemma’s voice rose. ‘I am not going to marry you.’
She saw him grin. ‘I am glad you say that for the last time, agape mou. I confess I would prefer you to take a more positive view of our relationship, because you, my wild dove, are going to be my wife just as soon as it can be arranged.’
Tears threatened perilously. She said in a low voice, ‘You can’t marry me, and you know it. We—we’re totally different.’
He shot her a smiling glance. ‘Why, yes. You are a woman, and I am a man. That seems to be the usual arrangement.’
‘Don’t make jokes.’ She shook her head helplessly. ‘I’m trying to be serious.’
‘Marriage is a serious business,’ he agreed solemnly. ‘That is why I have avoided it until now.’
‘But I’m not from your world,’ she said desperately. ‘Don’t you see how impossible it is?’
He swung the jeep across the road, and brought it to a halt, just under the signpost where James and Hilary had deposited her an eternity before.
He turned to her, and he wasn’t smiling any more. Under the smooth olive skin, his face looked taut and drawn.
He said, ‘Without you, Gemma mou, I have no world. Don’t you know that? I love you, and I am so afraid that if I let you go back to England, even for a few days, that I will lose you somehow. That when I follow, you will have escaped me at last, hidden somewhere, and I won’t know how to find you.’ He touched her cheek with his hand, and she realised he was trembling. ‘Stay with me here, treasure of my life and let me teach you to love me. Let me make up to you for all the bitterness that has been between us.’
In a little shaken voice, she said, ‘You say—you love me? But how can you? You don’t know me.’
‘What do I not know?’ he asked. ‘I know that you love your family, and that you have loyalty and integrity, and fierce courage. I know that you have a temper, and a sense of humour. I know that when we make love, you give yourself with your whole heart, even though you are still too shy to look at me afterwards. Whatever else there is, it will be my joy to learn as we live together.’
She made a little stifled sound. ‘You’re—very kind.’ She didn’t look at him. ‘But you don’t have to say these things. I know you only offered to marry me—to make amends—and because you think you may have made me pregnant.’
He said very gently, ‘My sweet one, that is not true. From the moment I saw you, looking at the Lily-Prince, I wanted you—before even I heard your friend speak your name, and knew for certain who you were.’ He groaned. ‘And when I realised that you were the girl I was seeking—I felt sick to my stomach. I hated Stavros and his claims on my friendship—hated myself—the whole mess which would stop me meeting you, and wooing you as I wished to do.’ His voice deepened huskily. ‘That first evening, when I asked you to pretend with me that we were simply lovers, with no complications except our need for each other, I meant every word, agape mou. Because, but for Maria and her stupid wicked lies, that is how it would have been for us. Can you deny it?’
‘No,’ she admitted helplessly. That day at Knossos, she’d already been tinglingly aware of him, although she’d made light of it to Hilary and tried to deny it even to herself, bewildered and disturbed by the strength of her reaction.
‘And as for any baby——’ His arm went round her shoulders, drawing her to him, and he kissed the corner of her mouth. ‘Only God knows if you indeed carry our child under your heart, but I am selfish enough, matia mou, to hope that it has not happened yet, so that we will have some time to ourselves to enjoy each other, and to prepare a proper home for the children that will be given to us.’ He brushed her mouth with his. ‘The apartment at the hotel is unsuitable for a dozen reasons. I want a real home, and you in it. Am I still suffering from egotistical fantasies, my dove?’
She said, ‘No,’ her mouth trembling into a shy smile as she slid her arms round his neck. ‘You make it sound like Paradise, Andreas mou.'
He drew her close, and she could feel the urgent, steady beat of his heart against her breast. ‘M’agapas?’ he asked her softly. ‘Do you love me?’
‘Yes,’ she said on a little sigh. ‘So much. And I’ve been so unhappy. I thought you were tired of me, and that was why you were sending me away.’
‘Tired of you, wildcat?’ His smile teased her. ‘I could as soon be tired of life itself. No, I meant to behave so honourably. To send you home, so that I could follow. So that we could start again, with me asking your parents for you—convincing them somehow that I was a suitable husband. Convincing you too if necessary,’ he added drily. ‘I would have liked to have murdered Maria and Kemal with her, but also I was grateful to them, because the truth set me free to love you as I wanted. And, of course, it then followed that you had to be protected— especially from myself. As my bride to be, your body should have been sacred to me.’ He uttered a soft groan. ‘But when you came to my room last night, you were a temptation not even a saint could resist, and as I’ve told you, I’ve never pretended to be a saint.’ His mouth twisted a little. ‘So—that is why we go to Rethymnon, to my mother’s house, where not even I would dare to be tempted.’ He took her hands and raised them to his lips. ‘And I think we will not distress either my mother or yours, by giving them any hint that we have already enjoyed our wedding night.’
It was her turn to tease. ‘You have an unexpectedly conventional streak, kyrie.'
He grinned back at her. ‘I intend to be a model husband, kyria—your husband.’ He stroked her face with his hand. ‘So, I ask again, Gemma mou, will you marry me. Will you be my life, as I will be yours?’
And she breathed her answer against his lips as she kissed him.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
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