It was so infinitely distant from the life she had known till now, from the mean streets and ugliness of London—even from the busy bustle of Athens. This, here, now, was peace—absolute peace. Absolute beauty.
And Xandros was smiling at her—there was warmth in his voice, in his eyes... He was being so kind, so considerate.
Memory plucked at her of how kind he’d been that dreadful morning when she’d fled her father’s house with all her stupid hopes smashed to pieces, when she’d sobbed all over Xandros... She’d done the same last night and he’d been just as kind...
She felt her heart swell and emotions swirled in her again. Quite what they were, she did not know—she knew only that it was Xandros at their centre... Only Xandros.
‘So, what would you like to do today?’ he was asking now.
He was giving her, she knew with a little pang, a timely interruption to her thoughts...to emotions she could not yet make sense of.
‘We could take a dip in the sea again, and then catch some rays before the sun gets too high. And then maybe, if you feel up to it, we could take the dinghy out later? How does that sound?’
She gave a flickering smile again, nodded. Letting him take the lead, guide her forward.
He wanted her to enjoy the day and she found that she did. It would have been impossible not to.
She swam, the cool salt water easing her body and the low ache between her legs dissipating, and then she let the sun warm her, giving herself to its golden balm. Then there was a leisurely al fresco lunch—more fresh bread, Maria’s goat’s cheese, sweet tomatoes and succulent home-grown olives. And afterwards, as he had promised, Xandros took her out on his dinghy, skimming them peacefully across the sun-drenched bay, back and forth, not talking while she leaned back, feeling the breeze fill her hair as well as the sail. Feeling a sense of peace fill her.
On their return, Maria attempted to feed them again, but Xandros took her for a walk—not up the cliffs this time, but inland, to Maria and Panos’s home.
Panos proudly showed her his vegetable garden, groaning with produce, and his fruit-laden peach and lemon trees, and his olive grove, and his well-fed chickens and his stout pigs, and his two very fine-looking mules. She admired all of them unstintingly, and then he sat them down and plied them with almond biscuits washed down with a glass of his lethal home-distilled peach brandy, while his two deceptively fierce-looking dogs leaned heavily against Rosalie’s legs, panting gently in the heat and inviting her to pet them, which she smilingly did.
Before they left Panos pressed a huge watermelon into Xandros’s hands, and a basket of sun-warmed tomatoes into Rosalie’s.
‘Epharisto poli...nostimo!’ she ventured, trying out her phrasebook Greek. She thought it meant ‘Thank you...delicious!’
Panos’s weathered face split into a huge grin, and with some voluble Greek he promptly added a pair of ripe peaches to the basket.
‘We must make our getaway before we empty their larder!’ Xandros murmured with a laugh, and they did just that.
They set off back to the villa, accompanied by Panos’s dogs until he called them with a piercing whistle, whereupon they padded back to him.
‘They have a good life, Panos and Maria,’ Rosalie heard herself say. ‘Simple, but good.’
‘They do.’ Xandros nodded. ‘But you know...’ his tone was thoughtful ‘...I sometimes wonder whether, if I tried to live like Maria and Panos, Kallistris would lose its magic. Sometimes when you have too much of something you enjoy, it palls.’
She glanced out to sea, thinking about what he’d said.
But I’ve had so little all my life! So little of anything, really—except my mother’s love. In that, I have been rich indeed.
But of everything else she’d had so little as she’d grown up—even in comparison with her contemporaries. They had had girlfriends, boyfriends, romance in their lives...
Her eyes flickered back to the man walking along beside her, who could melt her with a single glance, a single touch, a single kiss. Who had revealed to her, last night, a desire that had swept her away into a sea of searing passion...until her inexperienced body had confused and confounded her.
But now he was promising her not shock and tears, but ecstasy in his arms...promising to make her truly his as she had never thought she would be.
He will be my lover—and I his...
She had not thought this strange, brief marriage would bring her that—had not looked for it or allowed herself to dream of it—but if it did, why be shy of it? Why refuse what she had never thought would be hers?
He wants me as I want him!
And why should that not be something to rejoice in? Even for the short duration of their time together? Her life had changed utterly in so short a time, all thanks to Xandros. She would be grateful to him for ever. Grateful for all he was making possible. Grateful that he desired her as she did him.
And it will be good—oh, so good! For he is everything I could ever dream about in a man! Everything!
The wonder of it filled her. She felt a warm rush around her heart and lifted her eyes to his. He caught them, smiling down at her, warm and caring.