‘All the shadows gone?’
‘Shadows?’
‘We both have them,’ Tino told her, shifting his head on the pillows to meet her gaze. ‘You can’t hide from someone who has spent his whole life blanking out the past—’
‘That works both ways, Tino.’
‘I know about the commune,’ he said. ‘I know about all the terrible things you saw while you were living there. I understand your reasons for running away, and for going back to live with your father. You were right to do that, Lisa. And in the end your mother did her best for you. No child should have been exposed to the dangers you were exposed to, and I believe she helped you to get out of there just in time.’
‘Who told you all this?’
‘Does it matter?’
It had to be Mike, Lisa realised. She hadn’t confided the truth about her mother’s extreme lifestyle to another living soul.
‘Don’t be angry with Mike,’ Tino said as he read her mind. ‘He only has your best interests at heart.’
‘I’m not angry. It’s just that I never talk about the past in case anyone thinks I’m looking for sympathy, or help. I know that no one can help me. I can only help myself.’
‘If you thought of it as understanding, rather than sympathy, you might find other people out there just like you. You can share the road back with someone else, Lisa, someone who is also trying to break free from the past.’
‘With you, Tino?’
‘Why not? Just because your mother’s life was chaotic doesn’t mean you have to order your own life with such an unforgiving hand.’
‘I’m getting better.’ She viewed their sated forms with a wry glance.
‘You are better, because you know you can trust me, and you know that violence will never have any part to play in our relationship. Why shouldn’t lovemaking be fun? Who’s to say what’s right or wrong between consenting adults, as long as no one else is hurt by their actions? What happens between us in the bedroom stays between us. And if you don’t like something, you only have to tell me.’
‘I like everything,’ Lisa assured him, snuggling close, already feeling her body starting to yearn for his attention.
‘Not yet,’ Tino whispered, soothing her with long strokes down her back. ‘First we talk.’
‘First you talk.’ Lisa raised herself on one arm to stare at him. ‘You know so much about me, and I need to understand your nightmares. Tell me about the past, Tino.’
‘I don’t want to burden you.’
Putting one finger over his lips, she shook her head, silently encouraging him, prepared to wait for however long it took.
‘Stella Panayotakis took care of me when I was a boy,’ he said at last.
‘Didn’t your mother take care of you?’
‘I never knew my mother—she didn’t want anything to do with me.’
‘Tino, I’m so sorry… I had no idea.’
‘No one does. That’s the joke. Tino Zagorakis, the Greek tycoon, doesn’t even know if he is a Greek.’
‘But your name?’
‘I took it from the van that came to the orphanage each week.. ‘‘Zagorakis Cleaning Services’’. What a joke, eh?’
‘The orphanage? Oh, Tino.’ This was no joke, and Lisa fell silent the moment he started speaking again.
‘Everything inside the orphanage was grey until the day that Stella Panayotakis came to work there. Stella taught me that life could be bigger than my life in the orphanage. She said my life could be exciting. She told me about the world outside the orphanage—a world that was raw, and vivid, and only waiting for me to take my part in it. She put dreams into my head, and promised they would all come true if only I believed… It was hard, Lisa, really hard and Stella Panayotakis made me believe.’
‘And when you were successful you gave her an apartment building.’