LITMIR.BIZ

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how is it that you speak at least two other languages fluently and can hold your own in the snobby dining rooms of Athens?’

      Lucy was silent for a long time. She looked out of the window that they were seated beside and saw the dark ocean, and fishing boats twinkling under a moonlit sky. And then she said haltingly, ‘My mother was one of the most celebrated burlesque performers in the world …’

      And before she knew it she was telling him everything, and he was listening, as rapt as she’d ever seen him. She told him about living in Paris, and before that Rio de Janeiro, New York … London. The ever-changing schools, the nomadic nature of their lives.

      Lucy wrinkled her nose. ‘Her real name was Mabel Proctor, but she changed it to Maxine Malbec.’

      Ari frowned. His thumb stopped making little circles of sensation in her palm.

      ‘The Maxine Malbec?’

      Lucy nodded, feeling slightly sick. Was he going to judge her now or, worse, judge her mother? She started to pull her hand back, but he gripped it again.

      He was shaking his head. ‘Lucy, that’s an amazing story … The picture I saw in your flat—I thought there was something familiar about her.’

      She smiled wryly. ‘That’s what I was afraid of. And it’s not a story—it was my life.’ She shrugged, feeling self-conscious. ‘Having a mother who was so overtly … sexual made me wary, I think, of that side of me.’ Her mouth tightened. ‘It’s also why I have an aversion to expensive jewellery … trinkets … Seeing my mother fobbed off by so many rich men over the years … My father was one of those men, married with his own family. He had no desire for a love-child.’ Lucy’s voice trailed away. She was shocked she’d revealed so much so quickly.

      She didn’t elaborate on how precarious her life had been until she’d grown older and taken control of herself and her mother. She also didn’t elaborate on the fear she still had of becoming dependent on a man, on how her father’s rejection had fostered a deep feeling of insecurity she was only just beginning to let go of.

      Ari winced inwardly when he recalled her reaction to his asking her to buy something for Augustine Archer, and then dragging her around that jewellery shop. He remembered the innately sexy way Lucy had stripped for him that first night. ‘You’ve obviously inherited her natural sensuality—that’s all. She sounds like she was an amazing woman, and it must have been hard, raising a daughter on her own.’

      Lucy was struck somewhere very vulnerable by his easy understanding. She nodded and smiled weakly, feeling emotion rise. ‘She was … is an amazing woman.’

      Ari frowned. ‘She’s still alive?’

      Lucy nodded. ‘Yes, but …’ She told him about her mother’s illness and the home that she was now in.

      He said quietly, ‘It must be hard to see her like that … diminished.’

      Lucy just nodded, terrified she might start crying. ‘It is.’

      To her relief he seemed happy to let it drop there, and discreetly paid the bill before tugging her up and leading her back down the quiet winding streets to the humble little house.

      A few hours later Ari lay on his back, his arms around Lucy’s sleeping form, her breasts rising and falling gently against his bare chest. Even though he was recently sated, that subtle movement made him hard again. He shifted minutely and bit back a groan when Lucy moved too, and he felt her nipples against his side like two hard berries.

      For the first time in his life he’d put himself in a situation where he couldn’t just get up and leave a woman behind—after all, where could he go? And for the first time it wasn’t sending that usual feeling of suffocating claustrophobia into his belly.

      The following evening Lucy was changing while Ari had a shower in the small bathroom downstairs. The house was tiny, and rustic and beyond basic, but she loved it. Ari had told her earlier of how his mother had grown up there with her sister and her mother, his grandfather having died when they were small.

      She went to the balcony and smoothed the plain dark red sundress over her hips. Her skin tingled from being in the sun, and she felt freer than she’d felt in a long time. She’d called her mother’s home earlier, and she was obviously having a good day—although Lucy had had to explain again why she wasn’t able to visit for another week. It seemed as if her mother was making friends with some of the other residents, and the matron had assured her again that she was being well cared for. The relief was enormous.

      A sound made her whirl around from where she was leaning against the balcony rail, watching the sun go down over the sea. Ari stood in the doorway with just a towel around his lean hips.

      She looked up, throat dry, and met his eyes. They glowed with dark, decadent promise. He put his hand to the towel and with a flick of his wrist it was gone. Lucy’s body flamed.

      ‘Come here …’ he said softly.

      Lucy tried to resist the feeling of hot insanity. ‘Ari, I’ve just changed …’

      ‘Come here.’

      On shaky legs and bare feet Lucy walked over and said, ‘Has anyone ever told you that you’re extremely bossy and arrogant?’

      He shook his head and pulled her right into him, reaching for her dress and pulling it up, at the same time pulling her pants down. Excitement made Lucy shiver uncontrollably.

      ‘Only you seem to have the nerve to say these things …’ he growled, mock angrily.

      And then talking stopped for a long, languorous moment.

      Much later, when the moon had risen and the stars were out, they headed out for dinner. Lucy had put on a light cardigan as the late spring evening had a slightly cool edge. Her eyes drank Ari in as she trailed him, her hand firmly clasped in his. She never would have imagined him to be so tactile, but he was always reaching out to touch her, to take her hand, rub the back of his hand down a cheek … She sighed inwardly. He was wearing black trousers and a snowy white shirt, and he was more gorgeous than any one man had a right to be.

      This part of northern Paros was a sleepy fishing village. The summer hordes hadn’t descended yet, but in the distance Lucy heard music and recognised a traditional Greek tune as they rounded the corner into an idyllic little square where a taverna was all lit up. A mad profusion of flowers erupted from every windowsill and around the door.

      Lucy heard shouts and laughter, and as they went in Ari ducked his head to avoid hitting the doorframe. An even bigger shout went up, and suddenly a crowd was thronging around them and a huge man was dragging Ari’s face down and kissing him soundly.

      When he could, Ari pulled Lucy forward, feeling an incredible lightness in his chest. He’d missed coming here. A gut-wrenching sense of homecoming nearly floored him with its intensity. London and the merger and Athens and Helen all seemed to be light years away from this moment.

      But as if he couldn’t hold it down the thought rose up like a spectre: the emotion … The threat of it was rising up to swallow him whole. That was why he hadn’t been back.

      He felt for Lucy’s luscious curves and let her distract him from those dark thoughts, introducing her to his mother’s old friends and even to some distant cousins. He could see a few of the young bucks eyeing her up, but with one warning look from him they retreated, shamefaced. Ari kept her close when they were seated in the corner with Costas, the owner, who pulled up a chair and ordered a veritable feast on their behalf.

      Lucy sat back a while later and groaned, wiping her mouth with a napkin, ‘I’ve never eaten as much as I have these last two days. And I do not need any extra padding.’

      Ari looked at Lucy from under hooded lids, his eyes drifting down to that delectable cleavage in her red dress. It made him remember taking that dress off her only hours before, unhooking her bra and letting those voluptuous mounds spill into his hands. His body tightened and grew hot with annoying

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