by Aleka Nakis
Thea took her right hand and pointed to the ring Demo had told her to wear the night before. “Ne, tou Pappou.”
Chapter Seventeen
“I hear the house is full of beautiful women. Is it true?” Demo repeated himself in Greek coming through the door.
“Ne, ne, ela, paidi mou.” Thea Eleni’s eyes twinkled as she answered him. She stood to greet him and then went in to the kitchen to make his breakfast.
“We need to talk, Sammy. There is something very important I need to tell you.”
Dread consumed her. He had bad news. She could feel it.
“First, I want to apologize. I know you won’t be happy with what I have to say, but Samantha, I made a mistake.”
Yes, she’d made a mistake too. She’d believed she could leave the past behind and enjoy the summer with the man she loved—even if her joy had an expiration date.
He touched her chin and turned her to face him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you everything about Daniels, because I wanted to protect you.”
“Brad?” she whispered.
“Yes, there is more than you know. I thought that I could shield you from him, hide you in these mountains and keep you safe. He’s really lost it, and he’s worse than you know.”
“What are you talking about, Demo? He’s always made empty threats, but he never carries through.”
Demo slammed his hand on the table. He lips narrowed into a tense line, and his eyes glared at her. “And why do you think that is?”
“What are you saying?” She scraped her lower lip with her teeth and tried, in vain, to swallow. But her throat was dry and scratchy, as if she’d spent the last hour in a desert sandstorm.
He leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. Rubbing his eyes with both hands, he exhaled loudly and said, “I know that he never executed his threats, he was not able to because—”
“Paidia mou, fevgo,” Thea Eleni said, placing breakfast on the table. She spoke with Demo in Greek and then kissed each of them before she discreetly left the house.
“We’ve upset your aunt.”
“No, I’ve upset her,” he said, placing an open palm at the center of his chest. “She knows I haven’t been completely open with you. She’s annoyed at me.”
Sammy squared her chin and stared at him. Her lip trembled and she bit it again to steady it.
“Agape mou, that night when Daniels wouldn’t leave from outside the office, I was scared for you. You refused to have me with you, so I placed security on you.”
She couldn’t believe it. He’d had her tailed for months. He knew her every move. Demo had pretended not to know anything, when in reality, he knew everything. He’d lied to her!
“They sent me a report every week, but I never opened any of them. I didn’t want to invade your privacy, and I knew you were okay because you came to work every day. They were instructed to call me immediately if you were ever in danger, and they did, twice. Once on Christmas and then again on Valentine’s Day. Sammy, he knows where you live.”
She tried to listen to what he was saying, but the jackhammer working full steam in her head drowned out his words. Sammy only heard that he had her followed. Her eyes burned, her stomach roiled and her head pounded.
Why would he do that? Why go through the trouble and not read the reports?
“I didn’t want to pry. I wanted to keep you safe.” She saw him swallow and his Adam’s apple bulge before he continued. “If you despise me for that, then hate me. I’m not sorry for trying to keep you safe. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. But, God help me, I would do it all again if I were in the same situation.”
“Why?” she asked, trembling and blinded by the tears in her eyes.
“Because I protect what I love.” His large hands closed around her waist and he lifted her against him, clamping his fingers to her as if he needed her support to breathe. “Agape mou, I could not bear it if something happened to you and I did nothing to prevent it. It would tear me apart to lose you.”
“You did it. You are the mysterious tenant. You rented the apartment in the lobby of my building.”
“Yes. I also changed the intercom system and the front door. And, like I’ve already admitted, I would do it again if I had to.” His fingers released her. He must’ve realized the pressure he was applying was too great. Then he shook his head. “No, I take that back. I wouldn’t do it again. I’d make you move into the penthouse with me. I’d tell you the whole truth if it happened today. I wouldn’t give you a reason again—a reason to leave me.”
“Tell me everything you know. I need the truth, no matter how bad it is,” she told him, forcing her stomach to settle.
“Like I said, he knows where you live. Security intercepted him at your building’s entrance on more than one occasion. It was a good thing they were off-duty police officers, because one look at their badges and he turned to leave. That was the extent of my physical interference in your life.”
“You had no right.”
“I should have told you. I’m sorry for that. I had no choice but to take action.”
She didn’t want to admit it, but on a deeper level, she was thankful. She nodded and reluctantly listened to his reasoning.
“Since last Saturday, he’s sent your work e-mail account twenty-seven messages—all threatening and some gory. Monday, poisoned chocolates were delivered from an anonymous admirer.”
“You knew all this and didn’t say anything?”
“No. Not all of it. I talked to Tony while you were in the shower and he read me the updated reports. I knew part of it, but I wasn’t sure about most. I didn’t want to worry you.”
Finding new strength in her fear, she jumped to her feet and walked to the opposite side of the table. “I know my e-mail is monitored, but how do they know the chocolates were poisoned?”
“When I called the office on Monday, Tony’s secretary asked me if you’d mind if she distributed the chocolate. She said it was a shame to let such good stuff go to waste. It was a cliché—poisoned chocolates. But I had it sent to a lab for testing. The truffles were laced with a common street drug.”
She gasped in horror and raised a shaky hand to cover her mouth. “Truffles are my favorite.”
“I know, and I guessed that Daniels knows it too.” He stood and walked around the table to stand beside her.
Visually daring him not to answer her, she met his gaze. “How long have you suspected all of this?”
“Since the night you left New York.”
“And were you planning to share this information about my life with me?
“No,” he said, breaking their eye contact and looking down. “Like I said, I didn’t want to worry you. I know now that it was wrong not to tell you. You’re a strong woman, and you’ve been taking care of yourself. I just didn’t want you to slip into the state you were in at the beginning of December. You were so sad, so hurt. Agape mou, no one should ever make you feel like that.”
Never would she have guessed that he’d known how she’d felt during that horrid time. She’d had no clue that he cared or noticed. But he had, and she wanted to sing it from the rooftops. He’d noticed her. He’d cared.
“I won’t keep anything from you again. I promise.” Making the sign of the cross, he gave her his word. He tried to touch her hair, but she turned and walked away.
“Is there any more?”
“Yes. I think he’s in Crete,” he said.
She spun on her heels and stared at him. That did it. She was terrified. The monster was here? How could she confront that tormenting face again?
Demo nodded to confirm she’d heard correctly, and this time she let him touch her and rub her upper arms.
“Yesterday, I thought a car was tailing us when we went for lunch.”
“That was why you drove like a maniac near the beach bar,” she said, rolling her tongue over her teeth.
“Yes. Then there was the accident and explosion at the bun
galow. I can’t prove it, but I know he’s behind it.”
She rubbed her fingers in a circular motion against her temples. “I agree. I felt the same way. I was relieved when you told me the village history. Brad would stand out like a sore thumb here, but not in the city with the tourists.”
“Ah, so you were keeping something from me.” He looked relieved that she too had not been one hundred percent forthcoming with her thoughts. The corner of his lips seemed to smile.
“It’s not the same. I didn’t say much because I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to overreact.” She defended her silence.
“My sentiments exactly,” he said.
“Touché, Demo. Tell me the rest.”
“As I’ve told you, the authorities were about to arrest him, but what you don’t know is that he vanished with a fake passport. For some reason, Zoë urged Tony to search for a Daniel Bradley. Someone using that name entered Crete on Wednesday evening.”
She nodded her head, her intellect in control. “That makes sense. It’s something he’d do. A simple thing like transposing his first and last name. He’d want me to figure it out, and he’d want me to fear his next move.”
“And what do you think it will be?”
“I don’t know right now,” she said, sitting again.
“Sammy, you know him better than the rest of us. Try to get inside his head and see what he’s thinking. We need to stay one step ahead of him, and once we have him, we can turn him over to the US Embassy. The Greek government will probably want to deal with him on the fake passport issue first.”
“You’ve told Manoli and your other relatives about this?”
“I had to. It was the best way to make sure he doesn’t get close to you.”
“I understand.” At least she tried to. Logically, having knowledge gave them the best weapons. She should have known, too. She could have handled the information. “I do feel very safe here. I just wish I had known. No, I wish you would have told me, trusted me not to panic and for us to have worked as a team. I have an issue with other people making decisions for me. I don’t want or like it. My whole life has been about maintaining control. Each time somebody else has it, I get hurt. Demo, you can’t imagine what it’s been like. I’ve lost so much; I can’t stand to lose anything else.”
Despite the great deal of strength required for her to admit that, she felt relieved to have vocalized her fears and finally opened the door to let some skeletons out. Her anger and frustration dissipated. Her body relaxed.
Demo pulled her against him and wrapped his arms around her. “I won’t leave you, agape mou. We’re a team in every sense of the word, maybe a mulish team, but a team all the same. You’re stuck with me.” Kissing her, he lifted Sammy in his arms, and carried her inside. “You’re not going to shake me, koukla.”
Sammy held onto him, felt his strong neck under her hands, and sank into the warmth of his chest. She wanted him. She needed him.
He placed her gently on the bed, and began to slowly unbutton her shirt. Pushing the material aside, he splayed his hands over her chest and caressed the aching skin. She needed him. She wanted him. Never could she deny those facts.
“Mine,” he claimed.
“Yours,” she whispered.
He then took her hand in his and placed it over his t-shirt. “And my heart is yours.”
Demo, the man she’d secretly loved for months, made slow, passionate love to her—the woman he’d been silently protecting for months.
*****
Her stomach growled and she laughed as he nibbled on the back of her shoulder, tickling her with the stubble on his chin. When her stomach rumbled again, she remembered the eggs sitting on the table on the balcony. What a waste of good food.
“I think someone is ready to get out of bed,” he said. Running his hands over her body, he played with the curls covering her most intimate area, wandering across her stomach on a sensuous march up her ribcage. He settled on her breasts and feathered the tender velvet tips, which peaked the instant he paid attention to them.
“I guess you’re tired then,” she teased.
“I’m never too tired for you,” he said, shifting to the left so that she fell on her back. “Never,” he repeated, and parted her thighs with his knees, plunging into her warmth.
She moaned with the unexpected ecstasy as he moved within her.
“I want to hear you cry out with pleasure.”
“Mmm,” was all she could manage as she her eyelids fluttered shut.
“Open your beautiful eyes. They get so big and dark when you give yourself completely to the sensations of your body. I want to see you. I want you to see me.”
He thrust deeper and she tightened to hold him there, inside her, filling her and making her come apart.
“Demo,” she cried, and the stars exploded as he let go and joined her in the rapture of their union.
“Wake up, agape mou. It’s time to eat.” He placed a tray of bread, feta and olives on the bedside table and sat on the bed to stroke her silky hair.
She opened her eyes and smiled at him. “Did you say food?”
“I can’t expect you to live on love alone.” He tore a piece of the crusty bread and brought it to her lips.
“Mmm, breakfast in bed,” she said.
“Actually it’s after lunchtime. It is almost four in the afternoon.” He laughed and licked a crumb off her chest.
She sat up abruptly and swatted his roaming hand. “Stop! Your family will be here soon. You invited them for afternoon coffee. I’m naked. They’ll see us.”
He chuckled. “Only if they walk into our bedroom.”
“Stop it.” She pushed his head away as he attempted to lower it to her neck. “We need to get ready.”
He was still laughing. “Relax. Afternoon coffee is no earlier than seven or eight. Dinner is at ten or eleven. Remember?”
“Oh, I forgot. Thank God,” she said, turning to settle against him. “In that case, let’s eat.”
They sat on the bed and fed each other, devouring the tray of food like hungry wolves. When their hunger sated, they laid together, looking at the ceiling.
“Brad won’t come to the village,” she said. “He doesn’t like direct confrontations. He thrives on head games instead.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, the way he gets a thrill out of fear. He plays on people’s emotions and sympathies, striking a scar. An old wound, something that will hurt the most.” She pushed on her stomach. “He’s a coward when it comes to a physical altercation with someone his own size. And you’re bigger. Plus, you have the whole village behind you. His plan will be to divide and conquer.”
“Then you had better not leave my side. I don’t want him to find you alone.” He wrapped his arms and legs around her, leaving no distance between them.
“I don’t either.”
Feeling her shudder, he tightened his hold. No one would hurt her again. Never! Baffled at how she ever got involved with someone like Daniels, he had to ask, “What did you ever see in him?”
“I was naïve. He was a smooth talker and my first boyfriend. Once we...well you know, I thought I would be with him forever.”
“So he was your first?”
“Yeah. Too bad I didn’t have anyone to compare him to, or I would have known what a bad lover he was.”
This was too much information. Demo considered himself a pretty modern and progressive Neanderthal, but he didn’t want to hear her sexual history. These details were in the past. She was his now, and he was not going to let her go. Not ever.
“You were my first orgasm,” she said against his forearm.
His back stiffened. How could that be? The woman in his arms was like molten lava. Her passion ignited faster than rocket fuel.
“He said I was priggish and frigid. I couldn’t satisfy him, and that’s why he went with other women.”
“That’s despicable and an outright lie.” Demo turned her around to look int
o her glorious eyes, the entrance to her soul. Their usual sparkle dulled with self-doubt.
“Don’t you see what you do to me?” Needing to assure himself that she understood, he pushed her palm over the physical evidence. “Even when I’m furious, I want you. When I’m happy, I want you. When I’m terrified, I want you. And I’m constantly battling my libido when I think of you. Working with you, and not being with you, was torture. A sweet torture that I looked forward to every morning from the day I hired you.”
Her eyes grew wide and beamed with pleasure from the knowledge of his longing for her. Her rosy cheeks were warm to his touch and her mouth dropped open, but she did not speak.
He cupped her face. “As I will testify on a stack of bibles, you’re definitely not frigid. Now if you care to experiment with more adventure, I’ll be happy to oblige you. I’ll even offer my body as a sacrifice and let you ravage me in the platia if you wish, in the position of your choice.”
She laughed at his suggestion. “You’re something else, Demo. You make me feel so good.”
“Does that mean you’re willing to keep me around?”
“For the time being,” she teased.
“No, agape mou, not for the time being, not for a ridiculous summer deal, but forever. Marry me, be my wife, be the mother of my children. You’re my other half.”
Her body shivered and then she pulled away. She stared at him, a look of disbelief and dismay on her beautiful face. He held his breath in anticipation, and waited, giving her time to respond.
She cleared her throat. “This is very sudden. I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes,” he coaxed. He studied her expression, but could not read it. He swallowed the knot closing his air passage. “Unless you don’t feel the same about me.”
“It’s not that. I don’t picture myself as someone’s wife anymore, and I don’t plan to have kids. I don’t know if it’s fair to bring a child into this world.”
“Not someone’s wife, my wife, yineka mou. Mine. Why don’t you want to have children? They are a blessing.”
“I need time to think if I could be what you want me to be. I need to be sure I could do it, could give you everything you want.”