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‘Sorry...’ He gave her a smile. ‘It’s not wired into my room. As I said, you have to come to me.’
She wandered into the kitchen and opened up a vast fridge, looking at the choice of food and wine. Then she peered back into the master bedroom, where her luggage had been placed, but deliberately didn’t go in. She just stared from the double doors. Her heart was thumping in her chest, and the real dilemma she had been trying to ignore was rising.
This wasn’t real. She had to constantly remind herself that the sole reason she was here was because, come Monday, she would have the money to move on and get her chance for a fresh start.
She had made lists all week, added up the pros and the cons—just as if this was a job offer.
And it was.
There was one point she had failed to add, though it belonged in both columns, being both a pro and a con.
Mary liked him.
No, it was more than that. Mary was just a little bit crazy about Costa Leventis.
Even when he hadn’t been able to get to the airport himself that morning, still he’d sent someone, and the efforts he had gone to meant more than he could possibly know.
And although they bickered, for Mary it felt like freedom—because he allowed her to be herself.
Whoever Mary Jones was.
As Costa made a phone call she looked again at her gorgeous new luggage, all waiting to be unpacked—but where?
‘Hey...’ He came to stand beside her, the doorway so wide that they didn’t even touch. ‘Do you want someone to come and unpack your things?’ he offered.
‘No, thank you.’
‘Then I’m going to have a swim.’
He moved past her, stripping off his shirt. Then, as he unclipped his case, she saw the dark bruises on his ribs and just couldn’t stop herself.
She said it again. ‘Some door!’
‘Yeah, some door,’ he said, unbuckling his belt.
Really, she knew she should take her cue and go, but she honestly thought he was about to elaborate...to explain things. Honestly thought that now they were properly alone there would be a chance to talk, to get to know each other.
But instead he stripped off.
Just like that.
She stood in the doorway and watched as Costa Leventis got naked.
‘Costa!’
‘What?’ He turned and saw her still standing there. ‘You’re the one standing there watching me.’
He pulled on some swimwear, but not fast enough for Mary to avoid seeing a full-frontal naked glimpse of Costa.
He was stunning. She’d guessed he’d be toned, but although large, he was trim too. And hairy! She’d listened to the women chatting in the salon as they breezed through magazines, and of course she’d read them too, before recycling them—even the sealed section that had come in one. Well, she’d actually saved that particular magazine...
But this was no glossy two-dimensional image that danced in her mind. And though his muscular legs and long, strong arms had not escaped her attention, nor the fan of hair on his chest and that black snaky line downwards, it was the other bit that was now permanently fixed in her brain. Mary had never seen a naked man before. That...that part of him had been lifting, sort of moving independently of him, and even though it was covered now, as he walked past her, it was as if she could still see it.
‘Are you coming for a swim?’ he asked.
‘Aren’t we supposed to be going to your mother’s?’
‘It’s not a doctor’s appointment. Anyway, if wewerereal...’ he gestured to the bed ‘...she’d expect me to be late.’
