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She took a drink of water and wiped her mouth with a napkin, hiding how pleased she was that Apollo cared for her opinion. ‘I think this is beautiful, luxurious. I know I haven’t seen your resort yet but I don’t have to, to know that it’ll be far quieter than here. Krisakis isn’t overrun with tourists. How long would it take to get to there from here by boat?’
Apollo shrugged again. ‘About two hours.’
‘Krisakis could become a very exclusive day trip or couple of days’ trip from here when it gets too frenetic. From what I’ve seen, you might not have the stunning geology of the caldera but you have peace and solitude and that counts for a lot.’
Apollo tipped his head to one side and regarded her. ‘Not a bad assessment and you’re right about Santorini being overrun.’
Again, Sasha was embarrassed by how Apollo’s regard for her opinion made her feel. Was she so starved for praise?
When the dinner was over, the guests were led down to another level where a DJ was playing salsa music. The happy compelling beat resonated in Sasha’s body. It was infectious.
Apollo pulled out a chair for her at a small table near where couples were already dancing, moving sinuously to the beat. He got her a glass of champagne. ‘Excuse me for a second? There’s someone I see that I need to speak to.’
Sasha feigned a nonchalance she wasn’t feeling to be left on her own. ‘Sure.’
She watched him walk away through the crowd, lithe and graceful, and saw how everyone he passed turn to look. Women especially. Her insides tightened low down when she thought of what he’d said. ‘We will finish what we just started.’ He couldn’t possibly want her that much. Could he?
A sense of insecurity assailed her. This party was peopled by some of the most stunning-looking women Sasha had ever seen. Women that Apollo couldn’t fail to notice. What had happened earlier had been an anomaly. A heated moment.
She looked away from his departing figure and took a sip of her drink in a bid to try and pretend she was part of the wealthy crowd around her. The bubbles fizzed down her throat. That sensation, together with the uplifting music, the warm air, the scents, the vast starry sky, all conspired to make her forget her insecurity, and feel lighter than she’d done in days. Weeks.
Her toe tapped to the music.
‘Come on! You look like you want to dance.’
Sasha looked up to see a young man holding out a hand. He was with another couple, and they were dancing energetically to the music. She immediately drew back, smiling, ‘No, no, I’m just a spectator.’
‘Don’t be silly!’ Before Sasha could object the man had taken her hand and was pulling her up from her seat. She spluttered a surprised laugh and put down her glass, with no choice but to give in to his exuberant invitation.
Apollo frowned as he looked over the heads of the people he was talking to. Sasha wasn’t sitting at the table. Then a flash of billowing white caught his peripheral vision and his breath stopped in his throat.
Sasha was dancing—inexpertly, it had to be admitted—but all the more compelling for that because she was clearly enjoying her efforts, head back, laughing.
She was dancing with a young man who was swinging her round with more enthusiasm than skill. She stood out effortlessly and he could see people stop to look, smiling in spite of themselves at her sheer happiness.
A sense of possessiveness he’d never experienced before rose up before he could deny it.
He was jealous.
And then another emotion, less identifiable, made Apollo’s chest go tight. He remembered she’d smiled like this when they’d first met. She’d captivated him like she was now captivating everyone here. And that’s how she’d sneaked under his guard, by defusing a set of defences he hadn’t even been aware of. A need to be controlled and on guard at all times for fear that the world would pull the rug out from under his feet at the next moment, like it had each time he’d lost a family member.
He’d believed
his defences were impenetrable, vowing not to allow anyone to get too close, and certainly never entertaining thoughts of family—until she’d appeared and wreaked havoc.
You let her wreak havoc.
She’d exposed a weakness in him, a need for something he’d denied himself...and she was doing it again.
Yet even now, with this knowledge, he knew he wouldn’t be able to resist her. A spurt of rebelliousness rose up from his gut. Why should he? She owed him...
Even before her dancing companion had noticed him and stopped and turned pale, Sasha was aware of Apollo’s presence a nanosecond beforehand.
He snaked an arm around her waist and in the lull between one song and the next he said, ‘Agapi mou, the next dance is mine.’
Sasha might have laughed at how quickly her dance companion handed her back to Apollo, if her insides weren’t coiling tight with awareness and something much sharper.
Apollo swung her expertly into his arms just as the music slowed to a more sultry beat. He was all around her and she could barely breathe because of her proximity to his tall, whipcord body.
