Mediterranean Mavericks: Greeks

‘Furthermore…’

‘Furthermore?’ He couldn’t help himself. He leant towards her and planted a kiss on the side of her neck and he felt her shiver against him.

‘I…you’re not…’ She wished he wouldn’t look at her like that, giving her his undivided attention. ‘You’re…not the sort of guy…I mean, Lily normally…well, girls like Lily…’

‘I’m flattered that you have such a high opinion of me.’

‘I’m just talking about the way you look.’

‘That’s better. A bit of Rose rage.’ He grinned and she smiled sheepishly back at him. ‘You’re beautiful, Rose.’

‘Oh, please. There’s no need for that, Nick.’

‘Stop running yourself down,’ Nick said forcefully. He gently took her fingers in his hand and unpeeled them from their stranglehold on her nightgown. Then he pushed her back onto the bed, where she fell, breathing thickly, her hair splayed out in unruly curls around her face.

What had he ever seen in those stick insects with their angular bodies and bony limbs?

He slowly pulled her nightgown over her head and there she was, in all her fulsome, voluptuous, sensual splendour. For a few seconds, Nick feasted his eyes on her and Rose looked back at him from under her lashes. Watching me, watching you, she thought, getting so turned on that she thought she might explode at any minute.

All doubts that he might have found her less attractive than the models he cavorted with were driven out of her head by the naked appreciation in his eyes.

And that did something to her. Like a dam being unblocked, every inhibition she had ever nursed about the shape of her body flowed away in a rush of wild, abandoned passion.

Nick, watching, sensed the change of mood, something in the sinuous way she moved under his raking eyes, and with a low groan he bent his head so that he could nuzzle her generous breasts.

These weren’t small tomatoes, they were heavy, ripe fruit with big, defined nipples that hardened as he lavished his attention on them, suckling and feeling her wriggle underneath him in instant response.

Her skin was as smooth as satin and felt just as he had anticipated it would. Soft and womanly.

He dragged himself reluctantly away from her glorious breasts so that he could kiss her, long, slow kisses, punctuated by her soft moans.

‘Touch me again,’ she whispered.

‘Where?’

‘Where you were before…’ Never had it felt so good to have her breasts touched. Having spent a life time being self-conscious about the size of them, she felt wildly liberated at Nick’s obvious delight.

‘Enjoyed that, did you?’ he murmured, licking the side of her neck. ‘My mouth all over your breasts…your spectacular breasts…I’ve never seen such succulent, big nipples before.’

Rose was shocked by the sexuality of his language and turned on at the same time. His voice was dark and velvety and caressing and the way he moved against her…He was as turned on as she was, of that there was no doubt.

She reached down to touch him, but he covered her hand with his.

‘Not yet, my darling. I have to take things at my pace or else I might end up letting us both down.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘I’m so turned on for you, I have to take things slowly.’

Rose smiled, understanding, and was filled with a sense of heady power that she could have this effect on this man.

She sighed as he massaged her breasts, lifting them to his mouth so that he could continue lathering them with his tongue, taking the nipples into his mouth and teasing the throbbing buds with his teeth. Wantonly, she arched up, thrusting herself towards him and moaning loudly as he ravaged her sensitive breasts.

She curled her fingers into his hair and half opened her eyes, following his progress down and then, as he parted her moistened labia, she fell back feverishly, hardly able to believe that she was allowing such an intimate exploration of her body.

She barely knew what to expect. Her knowledge of foreplay was limited and so her body was shameless and involuntary in its arousal.

As he flicked his tongue along the delicate pink flesh, and then deeper, sliding and rubbing her most feminine area, Rose felt herself spiralling into orbit. She writhed against his exquisite invasion and knew that she lacked the will-power and fierce control not to be tipped over the edge.

With a little tug, she pulled Nick up and he laughed softly, but obediently stopped his relentless assault that threatened to send her spinning out of control.

‘That was…’ Rose heard her own voice and barely recognised it. It was husky and breathless.

‘Mind-blowing?’

Before she could find a suitable answer, he parted her legs with his muscular thigh. ‘Now let me really blow your mind,’ he murmured.

It was one deep thrust. She would never have imagined that such a powerful and impressive member could enter her with such effortless ease to fill her up. He began moving inside her, slow, hard, rhythmic and he seemed to know exactly how her body worked because every time she felt herself reaching the inevitable, shattering climax, he would ease his tempo, allowing her to come back down so that he could remorselessly take her back up again.

Somewhere along the line, she was too lost in a world of sensation to really know when, he flipped them over so that she was lying on top of him, with his hands on her buttocks and her breasts dangling down, their swollen nipples perfect targets for his eager mouth.

There was no part of her body that wasn’t aroused. Bliss to feel him in her even while his mouth was avidly on her.

Bliss, even, afterwards, as she eased herself off him, wonderfully fulfilled, like the cat with a very full bowl of cream.

Yes, of course, the reality of the situation was only a thought away, but she was being mad, wasn’t she? Taking chances for the first time in her life? And it felt good.

‘We should get some sleep now,’ Rose said regretfully, ‘or else we’ll be like zombies in the morning.’ This was like a dream, lying here, curled into him and everything making sense because she loved him, against her will. Piercing through the dream, however, was the sure and certain knowledge that there was no way she could let him know that. Unrequited love was only bearable if it remained a secret.

But…

Rose hugged this thought to herself…what if he fell in love with her? Against all odds?

Sure, she wasn’t his type of woman, at least not in the expected sense, but he was seriously attracted to her, wasn’t he? And he did like her, didn’t he? Put those two things together and there it was, like a root beginning to take hold in the soil, the notion that in the days remaining to them she might just discover that her love stood a chance after all.

Having fought for a life that contained no nasty shocks and hence no surprises at all, Rose now found herself walking the perilous but exhilarating path of toying with what had seemed an impossible dream.

‘I’m lying in bed with you and you talk to me about getting some sleep?’ Nick ran his hand along her thigh. Sleep was the last thing on his mind, never mind the hour.

Rose smiled and closed her eyes. He made her feel wanton, something she had never felt before, and she stretched her arms above her head, tempting him with the breasts he seemed to like so much, loving the way his eyes darkened as they swept over her.

Their love-making was long and languorous. He touched her everywhere and she, emboldened by him, touched him everywhere and revelled in exploring his body.

It was five before they finally fell asleep, wrapped in each other’s arms, and Rose awakened to the sun doing its utmost to get a foothold in the room.

And an empty space next to her.

The dreams she had nurtured the night before, when everything had seemed tantalisingly within reach, began to dissipate like mist in the sun, but then she heard a slight sound and there he was, standing in her doorway, with a cup of coffee in his hand.

Rose sat up, pulling the sheet up to her neck, and drew her knees up with a smile.

‘For you.’ Nick strolled towards her with the cup of coffee.

‘How long have you been up?’

‘Oh, an hour or two.’

‘You should have woken me up.’ She yawned and took the cup from him, hoping a healthy injection of caffeine would revive her.

‘And missed the sight of you sleeping the sleep of the innocent?’

Rose marvelled that someone could look so good in a pair of baggy shorts and a fairly disreputable tee shirt.

‘I don’t feel innocent this morning,’ she confessed, shifting to make room so that he could sit on the bed next to her. ‘In fact, I feel…’

‘Wicked? Decadent?’ He tugged the sheet down and nodded. ‘Much better. I like the view far more without the sheet covering it.’

Rose blushed and grinned and gulped down some tea. Mrs Rose Papaeliou. Nice ring to it, she thought.

‘Something like that. I’ve never…just had a one-night stand. Believe it or not, I’m not that kind of girl.’

‘I believe you, and whoever said that this was going to be a one-night stand?’

Hope flared but she managed to keep her expression neutral. ‘Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll be up,’ she said, changing the subject. ‘What do we have planned for today?’

‘Oh, I thought we would spend the rest of our time here doing a little exploring of our own.’ He stood up and shot her a wolfish grin that made her toes curl in anticipation. ‘How do you feel about scuba-diving?’

Rose thought that pretty much anything in the company of Nick Papaeliou would be an inviting prospect.

And there was no Lee Peng in tow. He had flown to Indonesia for a week to oversee another building project. The various people with whom they had liaised were no longer necessary, Nick informed her.

Which just left the two of them on their own and the delights of Sabah and its surroundings.

Nick thought that boredom might set in. After all, wasn’t that the way of the world? And they were in each other’s company twenty-four seven.

Good old common sense told him that, without those necessary absences during which batteries could be recharged and tedium kept at bay, he was almost certain to tire of her company.

To his surprise, he didn’t. She teased him mercilessly and he discovered he enjoyed it.

It was relaxing and invigorating being in her company. They scuba-dived and she proved herself pretty fearless, a side effect of having nomadic guardians, she explained, while sniggering that he seemed a little wary of the big blue sea.

They went to the local open market, which sold fruit and vegetables of every shape, size and description, many of them unrecognisable. They ate miniature figs that were sweet as sugar and drank ice-cold coconut water straight from the split coconuts that were sold in the stalls.

They dared each other to cross a bedraggled suspension bridge and then congratulated themselves afterwards by making love in a secluded part of the dense foliage and bush that fanned the river.

Without the rigid dimensions imposed by everyday life, it was easy to take that step out of sync, to explore each other without guilt and, as Rose admitted to herself, to make no attempts at holding back her headlong fall into love.

But it didn’t matter because she was seeing a new side to Nick. He laughed a lot and was utterly relaxed. He had even stopped working. He took only essential calls on his mobile. Most of the time, he would glance at the number and ignore it.

Rose took that as a very good sign indeed. He wanted to spend time in her company, he enjoyed being with her to such an extent that he was willing to forgo work, and that said a great deal because, having worked alongside him, she knew that work was something Nick never, ever sidelined.

And the sex…The sex was remarkable. He was forceful, considerate, inventive and utterly irresistible.

When he looked at her, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and one touch was enough to reduce her to instant meltdown.

After a life of carefully made choices, Rose was not equipped to defend herself against the overwhelming force of what she felt.

Anyway, she didn’t want to. She wanted to be reckless.

She wanted to have his arms around her as they sat on the beach and watched the sun set. She wanted him to close that bedroom door and move towards her, every muscle in his body alert with the same hunger she felt for him. She wanted to cling to her dreams that her perfect love would be returned.

Which, on the last night of their stay, brought her to the very delicate matter of how, exactly, she might find out what his intentions towards her were.

‘Tonight’s meal was fantastic,’ she said, which was the most roundabout route she could think to discuss the fact that their holiday was now at an end. ‘In fact, the food over here has been exquisite. Such flavours. I love the multi-ethnic cuisine.’ Thinking that she was beginning to sound a little like a restaurant critic, she bit back the temptation to carry the theme through.

‘You’re gabbling, Rose. Lie back and enjoy the stars and the sound of the sea.’

Rose obediently lay down next to him on the wide beach towel provided courtesy of the hotel, which seemed to know that sun loungers were not to everyone’s taste. Especially, she thought, late at night when you wanted to be physically close to someone. Like now.

She tried to submerge herself in the ambience but her thoughts were whirring around in her head and she finally said, casually, ‘Bit of a change, all this, isn’t it? From London, I mean…’

‘Huge change.’

‘Be strange to go back tomorrow.’

‘Very strange.’ He sounded faintly surprised at that admission. ‘But reality’s never further than a stone’s throw away.’

‘I thought that was rats.’

‘In my line of work, the two are often interlinked.’

Rose could feel him grinning in the dark but she didn’t want to relax and enjoy his sense of humour, as she had done for the past few days. She wanted to pry beneath the surface and find out what happened next in their chapter, because she was sure that there would be a next.

‘Will you miss…being here?’ With me?

‘All good things come to an end.’ Nick shrugged, his hand, under her neck, hanging, almost touching her breast. ‘That’s just the way it is.’

‘Which…’ Rose decided to take the bull by the horns because they could sit around talking in metaphors all night and get nowhere ‘…leaves us where?’

Well, Nick thought with disappointment, it had to happen eventually. The bubble had to burst. He had idiotically thought that Rose, who was in a league of her own, would be the exception to the rule, the one woman who didn’t start questioning the future and trying, thereby, to pin him down to promises of ever afters he had no intention of making.

‘Well, I think we can safely say that your stint working for me is now over. Shy of a week or so, but we’ve accomplished what we set out to do, wouldn’t you agree? You must be looking forward to getting back to your old routine. Are you?’

‘Yes, of course I am.’ In truth, she had barely missed her old job and was certainly not looking forward to returning to the grindstone having sampled the excitement of working for Nick, where every day brought new challenges. However, she wasn’t a fool. She might have abandoned common sense, she might have dared to hope that her flight of fancy would bring her the result she wanted, but she could read nuances as well as the next person. Better. Over the years her ingrained sensitivity had fine-tuned her antennae and her antennae were now telling her that he was backing away from giving her a direct answer for a reason and there could only be one reason. Whatever he felt for her, it wasn’t love. It wasn’t even enough to give her any kind of commitment. The man who had always walked away from relationships of any depth was walking away now and Rose felt as though her lifeblood were draining out of her system.

What had she been thinking? That the way his eyes darkened when he saw her naked counted as love? Or that the easy way they talked and laughed and touched really meant something?

Inside she was hurting so much that she suddenly couldn’t bear the feel of his arm around her. Outside, though, she controlled her voice and schooled her expression even though he couldn’t see her face and made sure to sound as calm as she could as she started to chat about what had been happening in her old job, updates from her friends whom she had barely seen over the past few months.

‘Naturally, this doesn’t have to mean the end of…what we have,’ Nick murmured, and Rose could feel him turn towards her. What, she wanted to ask, exactly do we have? For him, yet another pointless relationship based on satisfying sex and for her…more heartbreak, more involvement, more misery in the end.

‘Oh, I think it should, really…’

‘You don’t mean that.’ Nick turned completely towards her and tilted her head so that he could kiss the side of her neck and Rose shrugged him off and sat up.

‘I do.’ She looked over her shoulder at him. Moonlight becomes him…wasn’t there a song that went like that? He was just wearing an old tee shirt and a pair of faded jeans, but she knew every inch of his perfect body now, knew the lazy strength and muscular body encased in the casual clothing. She wondered how she could ever have thought that he might actually fall in love with her, the way she had fallen in love with him.

Would he return to England and be embarrassed to be seen with her? He had told her often enough that he loved her curves, found them incredibly sexy, that stick-thin, in comparison, was a turn-off. But that was here, where everything had been in a state of unreal suspension. She would bet her newly refurbished house that the minute they stepped back onto English soil stick-thin would suddenly be desirable because stick-thin represented the sort of model type he needed hanging on his arm.

He would always run true to form and she had been a fool to have thought otherwise. He was, and always had been, out of her league.

Rose stood up and dusted herself down. He, of course, was still lying on the towel, hands behind his head, probably, she thought, convinced that he could talk her round. Maybe for a few more romps in the hay back in England, where he would keep her hidden away and out of sight.

‘This has been great.’ She gesticulated vaguely around her. ‘The scenery, the atmosphere, the romance of being out of England and in the hot sun. Now it’s finishing…’

‘You asked what was going to become of us.’ Nick sat up. ‘That implies that you consider us an item.’

‘I meant in connection with work,’ she lied. ‘I thought it would be awkward being stuck in each other’s company, pretending that nothing had happened between us.’

‘Stuck in each other’s company?’

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. What I meant was…’ Now he was standing up, which instantly made her feel a lot less assured. ‘Look, this has been brilliant. I never thought…well, my first impressions of you weren’t all that flattering but I’ve enjoyed every minute of being here with you. We had fun, didn’t we?’

Nick couldn’t quite believe his ears. Shouldn’t he be the one giving the Dear John lecture? Shouldn’t he be the one doing the letting down slowly and gently?

Anyway, whoever said that it had to end just yet? Sure, he didn’t want a strings-attached relationship. Never had, probably never would. Which didn’t mean that they couldn’t continue enjoying each other until time did its thing and they both decided to move on.

‘Sure, it’s been fun.’ He hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans and stared at her. That sexy body…that light, infectious laughter…Well, this was her choice and the right one, really. ‘And I’m glad you’re…so calm about this…’

‘What did you expect?’ Rose asked lightly. ‘Tears and histrionics?’

Nick shrugged and began walking back to their rooms. This was most definitely not how he had expected to spend his last night in Borneo. ‘Maybe nothing so extreme,’ he grated as she fell in step with him. ‘You’re not the tears and histrionics kind of girl, are you?’

Certainly not in public and definitely not when she’d made a complete idiot of herself.

‘Not really.’

‘And I’m glad about that.’ He stopped and Rose continued walking for a few steps before turning around to look at him. ‘I wouldn’t want to have hurt you in any way. You know me, Rose.’ He laughed softly although something inside him felt slightly sick. Probably, he figured, because he had had the rug pulled very neatly from under his feet. Well, everyone needed a shake-up now and again and he was no exception. It hurt because the feeling was so damned alien to him. ‘I can’t give promises of commitment and settling down.’

‘And I wouldn’t want them,’ she said quickly. ‘Certainly not from you. We clicked in bed, but there’s so much more to relationships than just clicking in the sack.’

Nick wasn’t sure he much liked that, but he gave her a brief nod, which could have been agreement or simply acknowledgement of what she was trying to say.

‘But, and I never thought that I would say this, I’m grateful to you, and not just because you bailed me out of a financial mess. I’m looking forward to going back to my old job, but you’ve given me the confidence to think about new pastures, not to rely on just doing the same thing day in and day out and thinking that it’s fine because I know the routine.’

‘Glad to be of service,’ Nick told her coolly.

‘Course, I’ll make sure that I have all the written reports ready for you by next Monday.’

‘No need.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I’m no longer convinced that I’ll be siting Borneo for my hotel.’

‘Why not?’ Rose asked, astounded at his U-turn. ‘It’s an amazing island. And you’ve put in so much time in getting to know it.’

‘Yes, it’s an amazing island and if tourism is to kick in, then I would rather not be the one to introduce it. It’s easy for a unique place like this to lose its innocence because of rampant commercialism.’ And besides, he thought angrily, Borneo would forever remind him of her. They had spent some pretty intense days together and she had imprinted too much of it with her stamp. How could he ever walk along this stretch of beach again without thinking about her? And that wouldn’t do. He had let his guard down, allowed her to get under his skin, and let this, he thought, be a lesson to him.

She was delivering some heartfelt speech about tasteful and controlled tourism and the benefits to a local community and he sliced through her ramblings with dismissive ease, pleased to have her reduced to silence.

‘You make some valid points, but my decision is made.’ Churlish would be to make a big deal of the fact that she had, like it or not, ended their relationship. Churlish, in other words, would be to allow his ego to be involved. On the other hand, he could be as relieved as she appeared to be that the whole thing was over and, honestly, he was. Good while it lasted but all good things came to an end and it was best to part company on good terms. The ideal scenario when it came to the opposite sex, if he thought about it.

‘So…’ he injected some warmth into his voice as they began to stroll back to the hotel complex ‘…all packed?’

‘Check.’

‘Including those ridiculous souvenirs you insisted on buying at the market a couple of days ago?’

‘They weren’t ridiculous. You’ll be sorry you didn’t invest in a couple yourself when you get back to England and realise that they would have looked very fetching on your walls.’ She kept her voice as light as she could, but now the bantering that had led her to think of what they had as something special hurt beyond endurance.

‘Name two places where colourful masks would have blended in.’

‘You mean against the stark white walls and expensive abstracts?’

Rose heard herself conducting this perfectly normal conversation from a distance, almost as though she were hovering over herself, watchful and detached.