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“Sis, you are many things. Smart, kind, funny…but you’re not about to charm anyone into a business deal.” He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
None of them would. Growing up in a small country town with more overprotective brothers than should be legal had meant dating prospects were nonexistent. She’d been put permanently in everyone’s “too hard” basket.
“Don’t look at me like that. Besides, this guy is a bit of a bastard. You don’t want the attention of someone like that.” Daniel shook his head. “And I know the software is good enough to sell itself. I’m not going to pimp my own sister out to get his attention.”
“So what now?”
“I’ve got a meeting with an ex-trader who was a big deal before he retired. I’m hoping he might have some contacts.” He checked his watch. “But he lives on the north part of the island, so I’ll be gone until this evening. Can I convince you to come with me? It’s supposed to be beautiful up there.”
Her heart skipped a beat. It was like the fates had handed her the perfect window of opportunity. And there would be no need to make excuses as to why she wanted to slip away if her brother was going to be on the other side of Corfu.
“Didn’t you just indicate that I’d be useless in a business meeting?” Marianna raised a brow, hoping to hell that she sounded calm, and not like she was about to spend the afternoon trying to find a stranger for the purpose of having sex.
Daniel blew out a puff of air. “I don’t like the idea of leaving you alone for that long. We’re in a strange country, and this is one language you don’t speak.”
True. She was fluent in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and German, and could carry on basic conversation in Portuguese, Indonesian, Russian, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Mandarin, but still hadn’t gotten around to learning more than a few cursory phrases in Greek. It was on her list.
Maybe if you hadn’t spent your whole life with your nose in a book, you wouldn’t be so inexperienced in dealing with people.
She’d been that child—the one who preferred learning over relationships. An information sponge. Marianna liked that about herself, though perhaps she should have made some girlfriends over the years. Perhaps if she’d tried harder, she wouldn’t be looking to romance novels for information about the opposite sex. And it wasn’t like she could ask her best friend, Jules, about it, either. He was a guy, and they’d never ever crossed that line, even if she’d wanted to many times as a teenager. But asking him about it now would just be…weird.
Hence, the romance novels.
“I’ve got my translation app, and if there’s one thing you don’t need to worry about, it’s me and languages.”
“You’ve got roaming turned on for your phone, right?” Daniel asked, his brows creased. His dark eyes were a mirror-image of her own, of all the Halsey kids. “Don’t worry about the cost.”
“I’ll turn it on,” she promised. She drained the rest of her coffee and stood, tucking her ereader back into her handbag.
Daniel looked at her sheepishly as they headed out of the café. “I know you think I’m being overprotective—”
“You are.”
“Promise you won’t go too far, okay?”
“I’ll be fine. I’m going to sit and read, and then I’m going to go to bed early and try to shake this jet lag.” She ignored the guilt zipping through her for lying to her brother.
She shouldn’t feel guilty. Marianna was a grown woman, and she didn’t have to account for herself. But the truth was, she’d gotten used to being protected. To being alone with her nose in a book. Back home, it had become harder and harder to meet people. To date.
The weight of knowing she was so inexperienced made her incredibly self-conscious, and it had only gotten worse as time passed. Guys back home expected a woman in her mid-twenties to be confident. And Marianna had fumbled so badly the one time she’d managed to kiss a man that he’d laughed in her face. Said she kissed like an overeager puppy.
Needless to say, she wasn’t encouraged to try again.
But that was the whole point of coming on this trip. Here, she could pretend to be anyone.
In fact, she already had a fake identity planned out. She was going to be Bianca, a well-traveled, cultured language student who was enjoying a holiday in the Greek islands. And if it all went horribly wrong and she embarrassed herself again, then she could fly home and avoid the risk of awkwardly running into her lover.
Her lover.
The very thought of it stoked the fire already burning inside her. Excitement, trepidation, and need all twisting and turning together to create a ball of anxious energy. She wanted to go home a new woman. An experienced woman.
“Daniel, will you go already?” She laughed, hoping it sounded genuine. “You came here to do business, not to babysit me. It’s a little insulting that you think I can’t take care of myself. I’m twenty-four, not fourteen.”
