‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘would you like to take a boat out sometime?’
Her expression lit as she followed his cue. Glad to do so. Glad to move away from the long, dreadful years that were gone now. Her grandfather, she hoped, was in a far better place, reunited with his long-lost family. And she was free to live her own life, making her own way in the world, enjoying her precious, fleeting youth untrammelled by cares and responsibilities. Revelling in all the new experiences she could.
Like skimming across the brilliantly azure sea that lay before her.
‘Yes, please! I’ve never been on a boat.’
His eyebrows rose. ‘Never?’
She shook her head. ‘No, never,’ she confirmed. ‘My grandfather didn’t like the water. It was as much as he’d do to go on seaside holidays when I was a child. He would sit in his deckchair, in long trousers and a long-sleeved shirt, and wish he were elsewhere while I played, merrily building sandcastles and splashing around in the freezing cold English Channel.’
She spoke easily now, far preferring to remember happy times with her grandfather. Then her expression changed again.
‘When I was older I used to gaze across the water and long to see what was on the other side.’ She smiled. ‘And now I know. It’s this—this blissful, gorgeous place.’
Instinctively she reached for his hand, squeezing it lightly. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Thank you for bringing me here. I shall treasure the memory of this all my life!’
Nikos lifted her hand and grazed her knuckles lightly, so lightly, with his mouth. Little flurries of electricity raced along her skin at his touch.
‘It is my pleasure to bring you here,’ he said, the husk audible in his voice.
Mel could feel desire pool in her stomach. Then, with a little laugh, she dropped his hand.
‘I can’t resist the water any more,’ she cried, and got to her feet. She peeled off her cover-up and glanced down at Nikos. ‘Last one in is a sissy!’ she taunted wickedly, and hared across the hot sand to where the azure water was lapping at the beach.
She ran right into the water, which was blissfully warm to the skin, and plunged into its crystal-clear embrace. Behind her she heard a heavier splash, and then Nikos was there, too, grinning and diving into the deeper sea like a dolphin, surfacing again with his sable hair slicked back and water glistening like diamonds all over his broad muscled shoulders and torso.
‘Not going to get your hair wet, then?’
It was his turn to taunt, and with a toss of her locks Mel mimicked his dive into the gently mounded swell and swam underwater, to emerge further out to sea, almost out of her depth. She trod water while Nikos caught up with her in two powerful strokes.
‘This is glorious!’ she cried exuberantly. ‘The water’s so warm it’s like a bath!’
His grin answered hers and he dived again. Exuberance filled him as he surfaced for air some way yet further out. Mel swam to him and her eyelashes were glistening with diamond drops of water. Her slicked-back hair emphasised the perfection of her sculpted features. How incredibly beautiful she looked.
Without conscious thought, he caught her shoulders and pressed a swift, salty kiss on her mouth. Not with passion or desire, but simply because—well, because he wanted to. It lasted only a second and then he was away again, powering through the blue waters of the warm sea.
Mel came racing after him in the same exuberant mood. That sudden salty kiss had meant nothing—and everything. A joyous salutation to the playful pleasure of being in the warm, embracing sea, bathed in glorious bright sunshine, with fresh air and water spray and absolutely nothing to do except enjoy themselves. And enjoy each other...
* * *
The afternoon passed in as leisurely and lazy a fashion as the morning until, with the sun lowering, they made their way up the winding paths towards their rooms. Mel’s skin felt warm and salty, and a sense of well-being filled her.
‘A good first day?’ Nikos asked.
‘Oh, yes,’ Mel assured him. She gave a sigh of happiness and went on walking. The day might be over but—a little thrill went through her—the night was only just beginning...
And what the night would bring was what she longed for: Nikos in her passionate embrace.
The little thrill went through her again.
The process of transforming herself from beach babe to evening goddess took Mel some considerable time.
‘Take as long as you want,’ Nikos had assured her, his eyes glinting. ‘I know it will be worth the wait.’
Nearly ninety minutes later she checked herself out in front of the long mirror on the wardrobe door.
As she did so a memory fused in her head of the way she’d tried to inspect her appearance in Sarrie’s back room, with nothing more than a hand mirror.