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The chilly draught came again.
She didn’t want to think about it—didn’t want to face it. Didn’t want to think that in just a few days’ time it would all be ending.
But what—what will be ending?
That was the question she shied away from answering.
* * *
‘Mel—bad news.’
She turned abruptly, halting in the action of fastening her packed suitcase. Nikos was standing in the open French windows of her room. He was frowning, phone in hand.
‘What’s happened?’ she asked, alarmed.
Their extended time on Bermuda had finally ended, and now they were due to head off to New York.
Mel could not deny that she’d given up on those ambivalent feelings she’d had about his determination to take her to America for a final few days together—she didn’t even try. There was no point. They were going there now, and that was that. They were booked and packed. Any moment now their bags would be collected and the hotel car would take them to the airport for their late-morning flight to New York. So it was too late to question why she was so uneasy about it all—wasn’t it?
‘I’m going to have to change our plans,’ Nikos said, his voice short. ‘We have to head back to Europe. Something’s cropped up and I can’t get out of it—I’m really sorry.’ He gave an annoyed sigh. ‘New York is off the cards—I’m getting us booked on the evening flight direct to London, and then we’ll need to drop down to Athens straight away...’
She was staring at him. Just staring.
He came up to her, slid his phone away and put his arms loosely around her waist.
‘I’m really sorry,’ he said again, apology in his eyes. ‘But on the other hand...’ he dropped a light kiss on her nose ‘...you’ll get to see Athens instead of New York.’
She stepped away from him.
‘Nikos—’
There was something in her voice that made him look at her.
Emotions were shooting through her like bullets. What had she just been thinking? That it was too late to be so uneasy about extending her time with Nikos yet further? Her expression twisted. Suddenly out of the blue, with a phone call that had changed.
‘Nikos, I can’t come to Athens with you.’ The words fell from her lips.
It was his turn to stare. ‘Why not?’ There was blank incomprehension in his voice.
‘Because...because I’m going to New York. Because seeing the USA is what I’ve planned to do.’ She swallowed. ‘I know you were going to be with me for a couple more days in New York, but I’m...I’m going on, Nikos. The way I planned.’
His face was taut. ‘Change your plans. See Athens instead. Didn’t you say you wanted to go “everywhere”?’ he challenged. ‘You haven’t even set foot in Europe yet.’
She shut her eyes. She could hear a kind of drumming in her ears.
I thought I’d have a few more days with him...just a few more days...
But that wasn’t going to happen. It was over—right now.
Because of course she couldn’t go to Europe with him—it was out of the question. Just out of the question.
‘Nikos—no. I can’t.’
‘You can’t what?’ he said, the words cutting into the space between them.
He could feel emotion starting to build in him, but he didn’t know what it was. Knew only that the woman he wanted with him was saying she couldn’t be with him...
‘I can’t just...just tag along with you to Athens. What as, for heaven’s sake? Here, we’ve been on holiday, but if you go back to your home city—well...what will I be doing there with you? What am I to you there?’
How can I have nothing more than a holiday romance with you if we’re not on holiday?
He was staring at her, his eyes dark, his expression darker.
She had to make him understand.
Something had changed in his eyes. ‘What had you in mind?’ he said.
His voice was dry. As dry as the sand in a desert.
It was her turn to stare, not understanding what he was saying—why he was saying it. Emotion was churning away inside her and she felt a sense of shock—shock that the moment she’d thought would be deferred for a few more days was upon her. Right now.
Then he was speaking.
‘Mel, I was clear with you from the start, wasn’t I?’ she heard him say. ‘Before we came here? I never fed you a line—you knew the score with me from the start. Don’t expect anything more than that.’
His voice was flat, unemotional. Had she read more than he’d intended into his saying they needed to head for Athens? He hoped not—he really hoped not.
