Page 43 of Forgotten Greek Proposal
‘Earth to Thanasis.’ Her concern was mirrored in her tone and it came to him with a sickening thud that he didn’t deserve her concern.
Reverently tracing the line of her jaw, he gazed into the most beautiful eyes in the world and knew the moment he’d wanted to stretch for eternity was already over.
‘There is something I need to tell you. Something you need to know.’
Her forehead creased.
‘Lucie…’ He closed his eyes briefly before fixing them back to hers. ‘What I’m about to tell you… Know that I love you. Hold that thought. I love you.’
Apprehension written all over her face, she lifted herself up, hugging the sheets to her breasts. ‘You’re scaring me,’ she whispered.
‘I’m sorry.’ Deep in the very pit of his being, the weight of dread was pulling at him. His next words would determine the remaining course of his life. ‘I’m sorry, Lucie, but our past, what you’ve been told, it’s all a lie. You and I were never in love.’
For the longest time she just sat there looking at him blankly. And then she seemed to shrink, the colour draining from her face, eyes dulling with comprehension.
‘Forgive me,’ he said quietly, knowing as he said it that he didn’t deserve her forgiveness, ‘but we were never lovers. We were as far from lovers as it is possible for two people to be.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
LUCIE SAW THANASIS’Slips move but heard no sound above the roar in her head.
Time had faded away, the world spinning around her and then ebbing to a crawl, everything that had happened between them since she’d woken in her hospital bed flashing like picture stills in her vision.
Slowly, slowly, the present began to weave back into her consciousness, her eyes clearing to soak in the dark stubble on Thanasis’s jawline, and the dark hairs of his chest which were so soft in stark contrast to the hardness of the muscle and bone beneath them, the nerves of her hand registering the tenderness of the giant hands holding hers… She had no recollection of him taking them or even of him sitting up to face her. She heard, too, the tenderness in his voice.
‘Lucie, say something, please.’
Her head was pounding.
Slowly, she forced herself to meet his stare.
His green eyes were stark with torment.
She tugged her hands free and whispered, ‘I need to use the bathroom.’
Twisting to the edge of the bed, she groped with her foot for the floor then fought to keep her legs upright as she staggered away from him, suddenly aware that she was cold. Cold and naked.
Naked from their lovemaking.
A whimper rose up her throat but she smothered it, dragging her legs to the door he’d silently indicated, suddenly desperate to cover her nakedness.
Oh, dear God help her, had itallbeen a lie?
There was a grey robe on the door but she couldn’t bring herself to touch it, and she wrapped a bath towel around herself before splashing water on her clammy face.
She was shaking. Her whole body.
The memory she’d been searching for finally flashed before her. Lucie and her mother alone in her hospital room.
‘Mum, how do Thanasis and I get on? The nurse seems to think…’
‘Seems to think what?’
‘She thinks he’s in love with me.’
‘It has been obvious to us all that strong emotions have developed between you.’
But her mum hadn’t met Thanasis before Lucie’s accident. It had been a lie. One of many, many lies.
