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‘How do people live here?’ She laughed as she paused to rest on a flat area that seemed suspended above the houses below, their roofs like steps back down to the sea.
‘You get used to it.’ He looked at her with genuine concern, despite his light-hearted response. ‘Are you feeling okay?’
‘I’m fine.’ She laughed again. ‘I just wanted to stop and take in the view.’
She turned and looked out to the sparkling sea and felt Nikos stand close behind her. A fizz of desire shimmered through her and she turned to him, the view suddenly losing its appeal.
‘You won’t see much that way.’
His roguish smile melted her heart and she leaned towards him, wrapping her arms around him, almost sighing with pleasure as he lowered his head and kissed her gently. Her love for him was growing, and moments like these gave her hope that the man she’d fallen in love with would find his way back to her and one day love her too.
‘If you keep kissing me like that I won’t want to see anything,’ she said impishly as he pulled her tighter to him. ‘Where are we staying? The hotel?’
‘I’ve made other arrangements,’ he said, and a wicked glint entered his eyes, making her pulse leap with anticipation.
All week he’d treated her like a princess, showered her with gifts and made love to her in a way that had made her heart melt. But he hadn’t said how he felt, or even hinted at it, and she’d kept her love for him tightly locked away, sensing he wouldn’t want to hear those words even in the height of passion.
‘And what would they be?’ she teased, and stood on tiptoe to brush her lips over his.
‘Patience,’ he said, his accent suddenly pronounced, and she knew she was tormenting him as much as he was to her.
He smiled. A lazy, desire-laden smile. And her heart flipped as she smiled back at him, relishing the moment as he kissed her tenderly once more. It was a gentle kiss, but loaded with the promise of so much.
‘Nikos!’
His name, called from above, and a flurry of Greek drew her attention. He let her go as she sprang back from him and he laughed—a deep, sexy sound that heated the very core of her, making her wish they were going to wherever he’d made his ‘arrangements’. Anywhere they could be alone.
‘My grandmother,’ Nikos explained, and he called up to the elderly woman standing by a bright blue-painted door that was surrounded by a flush of gorgeous red flowers. He took her hand and climbed the remaining steps towards his grandmother.
Serena held back as he embraced the tiny woman dressed almost completely in black, her grey hair covered by a black scarf tied under her chin. Rapid Greek rushed between them and then the old lady turned to look at Serena.
‘Welcome,’ she said, in very stilted English, and her lined face was full of kindness and warmth.
Serena stepped forward, about to put out her hand to take the old lady’s, but she was pulled into a hug and had no choice but to reciprocate.
As Nikos’s grandmother finally let her go the old lady turned to Nikos and spoke in Greek.
‘She says you are very beautiful and she wishes she could say more than the few English words she knows.’
Serena blushed and looked from the smiling face of his grandmother to Nikos. His handsome face was relaxed and he was looking much more like the man she’d first met. He looked as if he’d left the worries of the world in Athens—as if here he could be the real Nikos. Hope grew in her heart.
‘I hadn’t expected her to be able to say anything to me. Tell her I love her home.’
Nikos relayed the message. The old lady nodded her head knowingly and walked through the tall blue door into a courtyard. He turned to Serena as she looked about her, taking in the array of pots filled with flowers in full bloom.
‘My grandmother learnt a little English when my mother was here, but hasn’t had any use for it since she left.’
Serena knew her eyes must have widened, but couldn’t keep the shock from showing or sounding in her voice. ‘Your mother was English?’
His mouth suddenly set into a hard line, his features becoming chiselled, his eyes glacial blue. ‘Half-English. The only thing I have to thank my mother for is her blue eyes.’
Each word he spoke was brittle, but she kept her gaze focused on him. He hardly talked of his mother and had never mentioned that she was half-English. Questions rushed forward, but as she glanced at the wary expression of his grandmother she knew now was not the time.
It had been Nikos’s blue eyes, so sexy and passionate, that had snared her heart from the first glance, making her fall in love so fast. She’d wondered whom he’d got them from, but hadn’t for one moment thought his mother might be from an English family.
