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Immediately Kallie could feel something slam into her. She hadn’t touched alcohol in years. Seven years. And suddenly the only thing she could smell, or taste, or feel with a nauseous swimming in her head was the alcohol. And with shocking vividness, she was back there on the patio, her head swimming, feeling the acute mortification all over again. As if it were yesterday. Terror gripped her, squeezing around her heart, and she lifted a hand to her chest.
It was all hitting her at once. She was in Athens again. Greece. With Alexandros, who was looking over at her. She could see him frowning…was she looking funny? Kallie felt very strange…and she knew that for some reason she’d stopped breathing.
‘What is it?’ Alexandros’s voice came from far away.
‘Kallie, answer me…’
Her voice was raspy, she couldn’t breathe. ‘I don’t know…must have been something…’
All she did know with some kind of miraculous self-protecting clarity was that he couldn’t know why she was having this reaction. The room was spinning now and she felt herself drooping sideways, unable to sit up. Then she was being lifted up into strong arms, against a firm wall of something…muscle? She didn’t care. She felt sick, but safe. Then she blacked out.
She came to in the most horrific, undignified fashion, hunched over a toilet bowl, her whole upper body dripping wet, retching. Alexandros was behind her, holding her hair back as life slammed back into her and she emptied her stomach. Finally it was over. She was shaking all over violently. She felt herself being pulled back up and a wet cloth over her face and neck. It felt wonderful. Then she was sitting on his lap and being held very firmly against a broad chest until the shaking started to subside. She finally managed faintly, ‘Where…where are we?’
A rumble came from under her cheek. ‘In the staff toilet of the restaurant.’
Kallie closed her eyes and clung to Alexandros. ‘Oh, I’m so sorry…’
When she opened them again, she took in the shower and realised that he must have had to put her underneath it to wake her up somehow. She pulled back.
‘I’m so sorry…’
‘Don’t be. Kallie, what the hell was that?’ His voice was harsh. ‘For goodness’ sake, woman, if you’re allergic to liqueur or coffee, why didn’t you tell me?’
But I’m not! Or, at least, she hadn’t thought she was. But even as Kallie thought about the alcohol in the coffee, she could see the images flood her head again, the acute nausea close behind. She closed her eyes, gripped his shirt and breathed deeply. This was ridiculous. No way could this be affecting her so badly. It had to be the food…or something else. She couldn’t still be so tied into what had happened. The thought that she could be made something in her head shut down.
She shook her head. ‘No, it couldn’t be…’ It couldn’t be!
‘It must have been something I ate.’
‘We had the same thing and I feel fine,’ he pointed out grimly.
She was too weak to argue.
He stood, taking her with him, clasping her to his chest. She only saw then that his own hair was plastered to his head, his chest soaking. He’d got into the shower too? He answered her look. ‘Well, I could hardly avoid getting wet, too, could I? I couldn’t just dump you in there.’
‘Sorry,’ she said in a small voice. Again.
He elbowed his way out of the room and his friend Theo was there, the owner, looking awful and wringing his hands. ‘I am so sorry, Alexandros. I have no idea how this could have happened.’
Kallie gave an involuntary shudder. Alexandros tightened his hold.
‘Theo, it’s fine. Forget it…. we need to leave now, though, we’re wet.’
His friend jumped around, clearly upset, and gave them towels. ‘Your vehicle is right outside the door here, at the back…’
Kallie couldn’t help another wave of mortification. She was sure the great Alexandros Kouros hated this embarrassment. When he climbed into the back of the vehicle, still keeping her tucked into his arms, she resolutely looked out the window, taking her arms away from his neck.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said stiffly yet again, her whole body rigid. ‘I didn’t mean to embarrass you in front of your friends…the people in the restaurant…’
Alexandros looked down at the bent head, her hair no less vibrant, even though it was wet. When she’d taken her arms down from his neck, he’d had the urge to bring them back up. And when she’d gone rigid, the loss of her soft curves nestled into him had been almost like a physical pain. And despite what she seemed to think, when she’d almost collapsed, the entire restaurant could have disappeared for all he’d cared. His only concern had been Kallie and getting her to safety. He’d even bellowed out for a doctor but none had been there.
‘Don’t be stupid, Kallie. We brought you out the back because it was quicker.’
‘Oh…’
He took one of the towels and put Kallie away from him slightly, starting to undo her shirt. She slapped at his hand ineffectually. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
He pushed her hands out of the way. ‘Kallie, you’re soaked, so am I. Unless you want to get hypothermia, you have to take off your shirt.’
