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“No harm done,” he said, without moving away. His chest was rising and falling faster than normal. Mikey focussed on the fabric of his shirt as it moved with him. Breathing was difficult.
“You’re losing your clothes,” he said, pointing to where her sarong had come loose. It must have happened when she’d stumbled, getting out of the car. The soft fabric was flapping down one side, exposing her bathers.
“Oh.” She reached for it at the same moment Loucas did. Their fingers connected. His eyes caught and locked with hers. She let go of the fabric, and held her breath, while he lifted it and gently, so gently, tucked it back in place.
His smile was tight. Forced, she would have said. “All fixed,” he murmured throatily.
Her pale eyes scanned his face. Was it just her that was feeling this wave of heat? Was it only Mikey’s body that was aching with a need for contact? Her lips parted as she imagined what it would be like to be kissed by him. For his frame to envelop hers; his strong arms to wrap around her and pull her to him. And she knew. It would be heaven.
She squeezed her eyes shut on the fantasy that would never come to pass. Loucas Aleksandros was a billionaire tycoon and a man famous for his bachelor lifestyle. The string of high-profile women he’d dated were nothing short of astounding. Actresses, politicians, lawyers, models. It seemed to Mikey that his only prerequisite was a body like an Amazon warrior and a face a supermodel would envy.
She looked downwards, at her own petite, curved frame. Her breasts that were too big, her curved hips and thighs; her rounded bottom that made buying jeans difficult. As for her face, she knew she was pretty, but certainly not spectacular. Mikey was not vain. She had four older brothers who had made sure she didn’t have a single ticket on herself. Her nicknames as a girl had ranged from Pipsqueak to Pumpkin to Tinkerbell. She therefore simply didn’t see how many men took a second glance at her. Flirtation was more likely to be perceived as friendly brotherly banter than a serious attempt to earn her affection.
The first time her heart had begun to race like wildfire because of a man had been the first
time she’d set eyes on Loucas Aleksandros. But it was an impossible dream. A stupid fantasy. Any woman with a pulse would feel the same way when faced with his overt and obvious charms. For Andrew’s sake, she needed to ignore her body’s understandable responses and focus on the job at hand. Helping a lost little boy recover from an unimaginable loss. That was her job. Not this. Not losing herself in the intangibly deep eyes of her employer.
“Thank you,” she clipped, her tone unmistakably guarded. Without meeting his eyes, she slipped through the gap between his arm and the car, and moved to the front passenger seat. She climbed in and shut the door before he could offer to assist her.
Loucas seemed about as keen to talk as she was. As he revved the powerful car and pulled out of the garage, his face was set as a grimly determined mask. Mikey snuck one look at him and then looked hastily away. Beyond her tinted window, the countryside passed in one beautiful blur. Bright colors all blended as one, as Loucas manoeuvred the car like a man who knew the roads completely.
“Where are we going?” She ventured to ask, when they’d been driving for ten long, silent minutes. Minutes that had crackled with awareness for Mikey, making her skin tingle.
Loucas seemed back to normal, his face unaffected and unconcerned, as he slid a sidelong glance her way. “A small cove. It’s completely private. And by far, the most beautiful spot on the island.”
“Completely private as in, you own it?”
“Ne,” he agreed with a nod. “It was my father’s.”
“Your father passed away several years ago?”
Loucas angled his head to spear her with his deep gaze, then turned back to the road. “Yes. He died when I was twenty six.”
“My age,” Mikey said with a wistful shake of her head. “I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for you.”
Twenty six, he thought to himself. Still a baby. At thirty six, he had ten years on her, and undoubtedly a lot more experience in the world. “It was a surprise,” he said quietly. “Then again, he did not look after himself at all. He smoked all his life, drank like a fish and had a penchant for saganaki I could never match. He was the ultimate hedonist, and eventually, it killed him.”
“Are you serious?” Mikey couldn’t help looking at Loucas now. She turned her whole body in the plush leather seat, so that she was properly facing him.
“Why is that so hard to believe?”
“Oh. It’s just that you’re so…” she gulped. Virile? Healthy? Divine? “In good shape,” she rushed to finish, dropping her eyes.
His grin was brief. “Thank you.”
“I just imagined he would have been like you. Or that you would be like him, rather.”
“No. With the exception of our abilities to run Aleksandros Industries, my father and I had nothing in common.” He took the next corner with speed and precision. With a skill that took her breath away, he glided the powerful car around a hairpin bend and down a steep hill, that led to a sparkling ocean.
A cry from the back of the car interrupted Mikey’s gaze of wonderment at the beautiful landscape.
“Andrew,” she gasped, instinctively reaching back and putting a hand on his knee. “Loucas, for God’s sake, slow down.”
Loucas swore under his breath and lifted his eyes to the rear-vision mirror. He’d been so focussed on Mikey that he hadn’t spared a thought for his nephew. He winced at his thoughtlessness and took the car down a gear. He descended the hill at a snail’s pace, and stopped as soon as he could. Mikey had unbuckled her seatbelt and leaped from the car before he’d cut the engine.
He watched in the mirror as she unbuckled Andrew and pulled him into her lap. He was crying and shuddering, his face pink and white, blotched from an emotional outburst. Mikey shushed him and stroked his hair, her eyes closed as she spoke quiet words of reassurance to the small boy.
He watched her continue to hug the boy, until his crying had stopped. Her eyes opened and, quite by accident, snapped onto Loucas’s in the rear vision mirror.
