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She closed her eyes. “I’ll wear it, but I’m giving it back at the end of the night.”
“No.” He ran his finger over the necklace. “I want to see you in this necklace, and nothing else. I want to make love to you all night, while you’re wearing this necklace. And then, I want you to keep the necklace, and whenever you look at it, or wear it, I want you to think of me. I want you to wear it on your wedding day, and think of me.”
Her pulse was hammering, her blood rushing through her body, her heart racing, her mind whirling. It was too much information. The soaring excitement at what lay ahead. The sensual image he’d created. The possessiveness he felt towards her. But the depressing certainty that he would let her go. That he could speak about her marrying someone else so dispassionately, and yet still want her to think of him, even then.
He mistook her silence for agreement, and put an arm around her waist, his fingers gently strumming her hip as he guided her away from the car. She looked up at their surroundings for the first time. Beach spread for miles in every direction, except for a small structure just a little way from them. “What is this place?”
“This is Niko’s.” He said, as if that was an actual explanation.
“Sorry, I’m not familiar...?”
He smiled. “You’ll see.”
The unassuming timber structure, brightly painted with peeling yellow paint and a tiled red roof, was a restaurant. Very traditional, she would have guessed, going by the red and white tablecloths, blackboard menu, and the throng of locals filling up the space.
That he would bring her here for their date made her happy as heck. “You know me so well,” she grinned up at him. “This place is perfect.”
“I thought you would like it. But we are only having a drink here, Arnaki. I have something else planned for dinner.”
“Oh.” Her face fell as she watched a plate of char grilled octopus go past.
“This is where I would have brought you, Mikey Jones. But I sensed your curiosity about my dating life. So we start here, and then move onto more familiar ground for me. What will you have?”
She scrunched up her nose. “I don’t know. Whatever you think. What are you having?”
“Ouzo?” He teased. “I will choose something. That is our table. Go, make yourself comfortable.”
She looked towards where he was pointing. A table was set away from the rest, carved into a private niche by pot plants with bright pink bougainvillea bushes. She made her way through the restaurant, unaware of the looks of admiration she drew. Her smile grew wider as she moved outside and smelled the ocean and the flowers.
“How can you bear to be in Athens at all? You have this amazing paradise at your disposal. If I were you, I’d never leave,” she asked, when he joined her minutes later.
“You are leaving, though,” he pointed out, handing her a colorful cocktail with a little umbrella perched into piece of pineapple wedged to the rim of the glass.
She pretended fascination with the umbrella to avoid answering. What was she meant to do? Stay? Take up permanent residence on the island? To warm his bed whenever he desired, until he no longer desired her and she was left with nothing?
“I live in America,” she said finally, meeting his eyes directly. “You were born here. At Nisi Ourano.”
“Yes,” he agreed conversationally.
“But you chose to leave.”
“My job is quite demanding. Perhaps you’ve heard of Aleksandros Industries?” He was being lightly sarcastic, for anyone in the civilised world knew of Aleksandros Industries. Shipping, air freight, they were a logistics company that was branded on a million packages every day.
“You own the company, do you not? Surely you and that scarily efficient assistant of yours could run it from Nisi Ourano.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps. I’ve always preferred the city, though. I like noise. Action. People.”
“You?” She couldn’t hide her surprise.
“That surprises you?”
“I guess I just didn’t have you pegged as Mr Social.”
He laughed. “Perhaps not.”
She sipped the drink. “This is delicious.”
He nodded, and sipped his beer. “It reminded me of you. Sweet and fair.”
