She nodded, hiding her annoyance that Ezio had made a unilateral decision to move the situation to the next level. If and when Sam was told, it should have been her doing the telling.
‘Would that mean I wouldn’t have to go back to school here?’
She nodded again. ‘It would mean a lot of changes,’ she admitted.
Sam’s grunt in response could have meant anything but there was no misinterpreting the sag of relief in his narrow shoulders, a measure of just how much he was dreading going back to school.
Tilda’s eyes misted. She was making the right choice.
‘We have schools in Greece, some good ones. I could email you links...?’
‘I’d need to learn the language?’ The prospect of the challenge brought a glitter to the teen’s eyes, which faded as he added, ‘It doesn’t really matter. I’ll still be a weird loser there. The freak!’
Lost for words to comfort him, it broke Tilda’s heart to hear him voice fears she shared.
‘I got called weird and worse a few times at school.’
Brother and sister both turned in unison to stare at him, varying degrees of disbelief in their faces.
‘You!’It was Sam who expressed the doubts written on both Raven faces.
‘Uh-huh. There is a good ending to this story, though. You know what those boys who called me weirdo do when they see me now?’
Sam shook his head.
‘They smile politely and call mesir... They work for me.’
Sam looked thoughtful for a moment, then his thin face broke into a smile. ‘That is cool.’
‘It is actuallyextremelycool,’ Ezio agreed. ‘It’s also cool being the smartest person in the room, though I should warn you, you probably wouldn’t always be in the Athens academy. Right, then, I’ll email you and Tilda the school stuff, Sam.’ He turned and delivered one of his best megawatt smiles to Tilda as he got to his feet.
She suddenly felt a little more understanding of the women at whom he smiled and meant it—it was not hard to imagine that smile becoming a recreational drug of choice!
‘Like to walk me to the door?’ He held out a hand to her.
Aware that Sam was watching, after a second she stretched her hand out and allowed it to be enfolded inside the cool of his long, brown fingers. The moment they were out of the room, she pulled it free. The tingling sensation didn’t stop even when she rubbed her hand hard against her thigh, only stopping to open the door for him.
‘That was kind of you.’ She nodded her head towards the sitting room door and added huskily, ‘With Sam.’
He gave a dismissive shrug. ‘Not kind. It will help if he doesn’t resent me and, yes, it was true... I know you’re dying to ask.’ The corners of his mouth lifted, matching the smile glinting in his eyes. ‘The only slight deceit was not telling him that I was not so good at turning the other cheek...’ One dark brow lifted to a sardonic angle. ‘Humiliate a bully and word gets around and it takes the target off your back.’
‘Or it puts a target on your back for anyone who wants to prove they’re tough.’
‘That is not my experience, so relax; I don’t think Sam is the physical type.’
But you are, she thought. As her eyes drifted down his hard, lean body, she swallowed hard and veiled her shocked eyes, feeling the soft flutter that had resided low in her belly all evening get stronger.
Less butterfly and more trapped bird.
‘I sincerely hope he isn’t.’
‘A defensive martial art might make him feel more confident.’ He saw her expression and lifted his palms towards her. ‘Just a thought.’
‘One I’d be grateful if you kept to yourself. Violence,’ she said primly, ‘is no answer to anything, and the idea of my brother’s hands being a lethal weapon would not make me sleep well.’
As she spoke, her eyes got tugged towards Ezio’s hands, one of which was braced on the doorframe, long, elegant fingers that probably knew their way around a woman’s body.
The rogue thought sent a rush of shamed heat through her body. Where had that come from? She channelled her ashamed confusion, resurrecting her earlier annoyance.