The Passionate Greek (9 page)

Half way up where the steps took a sharp
turn and the view to the beach was clear she could not resist a
backward glance. Nicos remained on the platform and Katerina was
swimming out to him, with a surprisingly proficient crawl.

‘So, not so much ‘Princess Precious’ after
all when it suits her, Melanie concluded with a wry smile.

In the nursery Electra was standing up in her cot and
Maria was playing pat- a-cake with her to the baby’s glee. Smiling,
Melanie picked up the warm bundle of her daughter and held her
close. ‘Time for a paddle,’ she crooned to her. Every afternoon she
took Electra down to the sea and dangled her in the gentle waves
while Electra shrieked with joy. She set off, deciding to avoid the
cove where she had left Nicos and Katerina, and choosing a beach
where the waters were shallow and safe.

The island was ringed with small coves She
could choose a different one every day and still there would be
some undiscovered. Winding her way down the path she remembered
that this was where she had first seen Nicos on his return to the
island and she had felt she was being watched.

Holding Electra out at arm's length she ran
down to the sea with her, laughing and pretending to throw her into
the water. This was Electra’s favorite game. Mother and daughter’s
laughter mingled in the warm afternoon and Melanie felt, as she
always did when she was with Electra like this, that whatever
happened to her in the future she would never forget these days
with her beloved child.

‘Here let me have a turn.’ Nicos had come up
behind them, his bare feet silent in the soft sand and Melanie,
intent on the game, was taken unawares. She let Nicos take Electra
from her and he waded out into the deeper water, dipping the baby
in and out of the warm waves as she squealed with pleasure.

‘Careful,’ admonished Melanie worriedly.
‘Don’t take her out too far.’ He waded back to her. ‘This one will
never be afraid of the sea’ he said happily. ‘She was born to sail,
you will see.’ His face was alight with joy and Melanie could not
help but be touched.

‘Here, take her other arm.’ he said, and
swinging and supporting her gently between them, they walked
together along the shore. ‘We must look every inch the happy
couple, thought Melanie, and found herself wishing with all her
heart that it was true.

He led them to the shady shelter of a rock
where, to her surprise, Melanie saw that a tartan picnic rug had
been spread on the sand and set with a wicker basket. Nicos settled
mother and baby on the rug and disappeared, reappearing in minutes
toting a cool box that he placed triumphantly beside them.

‘Dah, dah!’ he shouted triumphantly. His
boyish enthusiasm was infectious and Melanie found she was enjoying
herself. Digging into the box Nicos produced ice-cold lime soda for
himself and Melanie and a baby bottle of orange juice for Electra.
A plastic box contained a variety of bite sized sandwiches. Tiny
almond biscuits completed the picnic.

They ate in compniable silence. Melanie was
touched to see how tender Nicos was with Electra, breaking the tiny
sandwiches into even smaller pieces for her and wiping egg
mayonnaise from her face with wet wipe he fished from the cool box.
‘You thought of everything,’ she said smiling. She wondered idly
what was in the wicker basket since the cool box seemed to contain
enough food for a feast, never mind a picnic.

After they had eaten their fill she found
out. Nicos sat Electra in front of the basket, and undoing the
leather straps, threw back the lid. The interior had been emptied
of its fitment of cups, plates and cutlery and was filled with
toys. Electra dug her little hands in gurgling with delight. Nicos
looked on entranced as she pulled out one thing after another. A
big gaily striped plastic beach ball, a bucket, a spade and small
bat with ball attached made a heap in the sand.

Nicos and Melanie’s eyes met over their
baby’s head and they smiled at each other. Melanie was glad to see
that none of the toys he had bought was expensive. Electra was
going to grow up heiress to a global empire. Nicos could buy her
anything her heart desired but he hadn’t. As if reading her thought
Nicos said, ‘I think simple toys are best for children. They are
quickly bored with expensive battery driven things. We won’t spoil
her.’

The word ‘we’ hung in the air between them.
They looked away from each other and Melanie busied herself packing
up the cool box. A sudden thought occurred to her. ‘What made you
think we were coming down to this beach? I often take Electra down
to the east cove instead.’ ‘I know,’ said Nicos. ‘I put a picnic
down there, too.’

Melanie laughed, astounded. ‘What about the
toys? Don’t tell me you doubled up on those, too.’

‘Of course,’ said Nicos, sounding
puzzled.

Melanie’s heart contracted. Had she
forgotten how thoughtful he could be, how he loved organizing
surprises? How simply loving. ‘No, not forgotten,’ she told
herself. ‘I just don’t want to remember.’

Melanie saw little of Nicos over the next
few days. She took to eating her lunch in the nursery and
requesting her evening meal be served early in the dining room.
Sometimes his deep voice, Katerina’s brittle laughter, the sound of
cutlery against china and the clink of fine crystal drifted up to
her room from the terrace. She resisted the urge to look out of her
window to the couple dining below. To her chagrin she couldn’t deny
she was jealous.

In her mind she gave herself a severe
telling off. ‘So you’d like a repeat of the last evening you spent
on the terrace with Nicos Chalambrous, would you? her inner voice
queried sarcastically. But she couldn’t still the pictures that
flashed through her mind. Nicos, his powerful body bleached from
bronze to silver by the moon’s light, the beauty of his nakedness,
her own limbs wrapped around his waist, her arms tight around his
neck bringing his lips down to hers. The way she had taken his size
into her, willingly, wantonly.

What had he said? ‘You can’t fix something
that’s broken with sex.’But it hadn’t felt just like sex. It had
felt like love. She shook her head angrily. ‘I won’t think about
it.’ But she did, constantly.

After their afternoon on the beach he had
made no attempt to see her. Instead Maria was sent to take the baby
to him. Uneasy, Melanie asked the girl what they did on these
occasions and was relieved to hear that Nicos played alone with
Electra walked her in her buggy down to the harbor or carried her
down to the beach.

Her mind circled round the enigma that was
Nicos Chalambrous. One minute he appeared kind and loving towards
her, the next his eyes were filled with suppressed anger. And she
was woman enough to recognise that in his unguarded moments he
looked at her with unmistakable naked desire.

It had all been so different when she had
first come to Skiapolos with him. The Villa when she first saw it
glowed softly in the evening light, it’s white walls and tiled
terraces seemed about to tumble from the hillside into the sea
below. They had wandered the island hand in hand. Nicos showed her
all his favorite places, the sandy coves hidden from view unless
you knew the secret pathways; the vine covered hillsides cool in
the heat of the day.

They made love wherever and whenever they
wanted. Sometimes Nicos was gentle and tender with her, at other
times savagely demanding. She could never get enough of his
lovemaking. He in turn wanted her all the time, never seemed to
tire of gazing at her face and her body.

She learned things about him one the island.
He was short tempered in the morning till his first cup of thick
black Greek coffee. He suffered no fools around him. He was
intolerant of mistakes. He was often demanding and arrogant with
the villa’s staff. She remonstrated with him once when he had
barked at one of them over some misplaced object. ‘Oh, did I?’ He
sounded puzzled. ‘They know me. They know how I like things.’ But
it was clear those who served him loved him.

The only one he was unfailingly patient with
was old Anna. Melanie guessed she must be nearly 80 but she was
spry and light on her black shod feet, her black clad figure
upright as a girl’s. Anna, who had regarded Melanie with suspicion
when she first arrived on the island, had taken to her. She would
chuckle and pat Melanie’s arm as they passed each other in the
corridor. Melanie did not realise that Anna spoke English till one
early evening, when Nicos was over on the mainland, and not
expected back until late. Anna came to where she was sitting on the
terrace.

‘You love Mr Nicos,’ she stated abruptly in
her heavily accented English.

Surprised Melanie could only answer, ‘yes,
very much.’

‘Yes, I see that. Then you must know things
about him. He is good man. We don’t mind if he shout. He send our
children to school, pay for our medicines, he take good care of
us.’ Anna’s sharp brown eyes bored into Melanie’s. ‘I look after
him when he small. Not happy boy. Make my heart break. He tell you
yet.’

‘No,’ said Melanie uncertainly. ‘I thought
he was happy on this island when he was a boy.’

‘Yes, he happy here,’ said Anna. ‘I look
after him here. Make him have nice time. But he not here much. They
send him away.’ Anna turned as the sound of the speedboat’s engines
below heralded Nicos’s return. ‘I go now. No tell Nicos. You wait
for him to tell you.’ But Nicos had never told her of his past,
just as she had never told him things he ought to have known about
her.

He had loved her, she knew. He had told her
she was his world, the woman he had been looking for. As her
thoughts wandered regretfully over the past the germ of an idea
began to take shape. Nicos had loved her. He still desired her. If
only she could make him love her again. ‘What have I got to lose,’
she asked herself. ‘I have already lost my daughter. If I can bring
Nicos back to me then Electra comes, too.’

Once the idea had taken hold Melanie’s mind
began to race. She needed to get Nicos alone, away from Katerina
and with plenty of time together to put her plan into action. In a
flash of inspiration the thought came to her. His at sea with no
one else but just the two of them,; perhaps weighing anchor at a
small deserted island where they could bathe naked. Perfect!

Now all she had to do was get him to invite
her. She couldn’t do that while skulking away in her room every
evening. Tonight she would have to brave the terrace. She dressed
carefully, choosing one of the more low-cut dresses from the loft
collection. The moss green swathed chiffon encrusted with crystals
clung daringly to her breasts and the folds of the skirt stopped
just short of her knees. Thin-strapped gold sandals with the
highest of heels showed off her long slim legs. The color of the
dress brought out the deep green of her eyes complementing the pale
bronze of her skin and the tawny sheen of her hair. Surveying the
result in the mirror of her room she was pleased. Subtle but
undeniably sexy.

She waited till she heard their voices on
the terrace. Peeking out of the window she saw that Nicos and
Katerina were enjoying their aperitif at the far end of the
terrace. She wondered if either of them had noticed that the dining
table was set for three as she had earlier asked the staff to
do.

Nicos rose to his feet at the sound of her
heels on the marbled terrace. She saw from his expression that her
outfit had hit the mark. He looked stunned as she walked towards
him, his face registering first surprise then appreciation and an
unmistakeable gleam of lust. ‘Good,’ she thought. ‘First score to
me.’

Katerina, whose back had been turned to
Melanie, swung round imperiously her face like thunder when she saw
the newcomer. But Nicos was ushering Melanie to the table, pouring
champagne from an ice bucket into a crystal flute and handing it to
her. Melanie sipped silently her eyes on Nicos over the rim of her
glass. She studiously ignored Katerina and devoted all the
attention to Nicos.

She was pleased and amused to see that he
was having trouble keeping his eyes from where the mounds of her
breasts rose from the silky chiffon folds. As they proceeded to the
dining table she was sure she could feel his eyes caressing her
slender calves. Katerina was beside herself. She vetoed the chair
Nicos offered opposite him and plonked herself down next to him
with a glare at Melanie. That left Melanie facing Nicos, a much
better arrangement from her point of view. It meant that Melanie
could keep her gaze on Nicos throughout the meal, and he had a
perfect view of her candle lit curves. She said very little, and
was seemingly entranced with every word he uttered. She hoped she
wasn’t overdoing it. She was almost sure that from time to time she
saw a glint of amused understanding on his face.

Melanie moved the conversation round to
sailing, an easy task where Nicos was concerned. As he expounded
enthusiastically on the joys of ocean racing Katerina looked bored.
In contrast, Melanie found that her interest, at first feigned was
become real as he talked about his sailing yacht, “Dancing Queen”.
‘I’m taking her out tomorrow morning,’ he told Melanie. ‘I’ve had
some new rigging fitted I want to try out. You must come with me.
I’ll teach you something about sailing.’

Melanie couldn’t believe her luck. This was
what she had planned. But belatedly Nicos had turned to Katerina
and was saying, ‘You, too, of course.’ Melanie hoped Katerina would
decline but though she hardly looked delighted at the prospect she
seemed determined to go along.

‘We leave early tomorrow, so no late night,’
Nicos announced. ‘But Nicos,’ Katerina protested, ‘I thought we
were going to finish out drinks out here. It’s still very early.’
Turning to Melanie she said dismissively, ‘You go. You have to be
up early with your charge.’