Page 35 of Forgotten Greek Proposal
He laughed and stretched his long legs out. ‘She didn’t sleep in her coffin when she was watching over you in hospital.’
‘Yeah, but I bet she got them to feed the donated blood to her.’
‘She did disappear a number of times.’
‘See, told you.’ She passed his phone back and tried not to show her fresh dejection when he took care not to let their fingers touch.
They were eating breakfast on the balcony again, enjoying a few moments of peace. The wedding was only two days away now, and activity levels on the island had gone through the roof, the workers busy setting things up through the night so that any outdoor work could be avoided in the scorching heat of the day.
There was nothing enjoyable about this torture for Lucie that early morning. She’d slept badly, oscillating between sexual frustration, something she had never suffered from before in her life, and trying to force more memories, trying to at least expand the one concrete memory that had come to her.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked. ‘You don’t seem yourself.’
She shrugged and kept her moody gaze on the rising sun. If he could read her so well that he could see through her fake bright smiles, then he’d probably hear any lie in her voice.
Lucie had assumed she would tell Thanasis about the memory that had come back to her, but now found something holding her back.
Why couldn’t her first real memory of those missing months have been a good one? Why couldn’t it have been of them laughing or, even better, making love, not of the aftermath of an argument where he’d walked out on her and she’d been fighting back tears she would never let him see.
Whywouldn’t she have wanted him to see her cry? She’d never been much of a crier but she’d never been ashamed of her tears the few times they’d leaked out over her life.
And why was she too frightened to ask him about it?
But she needed to say something. ‘When we were living in your apartment… Did Athena visit much?’
There was only the slightest hesitation. ‘A few times that I know of. What makes you ask?’
‘A dream I had.’ That much she could tell him, and now she did look at him.
He’d raised an eyebrow in question.
‘The other night,’ she explained. ‘I thought it was a dream but now I think it might have been a memory.’
‘And you think that because?’
She kept her stare on him, wanting to gauge his reaction although she didn’t quite know why she wanted to gauge it. ‘Do you have black leather sofas and a glass coffee table?’
His face moved a little closer to hers. There was the slightest flicker in his eye. ‘You remember them?’
‘Yes.’
‘Anything else?’
She chose her words carefully. ‘Nothing specific, but in my dream Athena was laughing at me, which is nothing unusual for her but the way it made me feel in the dream was unusual. Normally whatever she says to me rolls off—the only way to deal with her is to be Teflon coated—but whatever she said had really upset me.’
There was a tightness in his voice. ‘Can you remember what she said? What she was laughing about?’
‘No. Is it real, then, the dream? Did I discuss it with you?’
‘No, but, Lucie…’ His features loosened a touch. Slowly, he reached for her. Suddenly she found herself holding her breath as his thumb traced over her cheek. ‘Athena has always been poisonous to you. Sheispoison. If you remember nothing else, remember that.’
The small, tender act of intimacy was over before she could take a breath. Before she could even open her mouth to speak, he expelled a short decisive breath and, with a rueful smile, got to his feet. ‘I need to get changed. My helicopter will be landing shortly.’
She stared at him dumbly. ‘You’re going somewhere?’
‘I have business in Athens.’
She stared even more dumbly. This was the first she’d heard of it. ‘Can I come?’
