Page 54 of Hot Greek Summer

‘I am. I heard you perfectly. I just don’t believe you, even if you do.’

Winnie sighed heavily, deciding how to phrase the mishmash of thoughts in her head. ‘When I look back now to when I was married, I see that my husband was pretty fond of telling me what he thought I should do with little regard for my feelings. Now that I’m not married any more, I’ve decided that making my own decisions is important to me.’

Consternation furrowed his brow. ‘I see a problem, I try to fix it.’

‘Classic Martian behaviour,’ Winnie said, adding, ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus?’ when Jesse looked nonplussed.

‘I’m an Australian man, Winnie. We don’t fuck about with self-help bollocks.’

She laughed a little despite herself, wrapping her arms around her midriff. Alpha should be his middle name.

‘Take the key,’ he said, lower, less insistent, more intimate. ‘Please?’

She gazed silently at the small silver key. Would it weigh as heavily in her hand as it did on her mind? Was she making too big a thing of it? He’d tried to do something nice for her.

‘Would it help if I told you I like having you around?’

Oh, that wasn’t fair.He might not read self-help books, but he sure knew how to help himself get what he wanted.

‘No complications, you said.’

He shrugged. ‘Who mentioned complicated?’

‘That keyfeelscomplicated to me. Thisroomfeels complicated to me.’

‘We’re neighbours. I’m just being neighbourly. You’re not in England now, Winnie; this is how it goes on small islands like this. We barter, we help each other out.’

‘So I should say yes if Panos asks to draw me naked, then?’

Thunderclouds rolled across his dark, expressive eyes. ‘He better fucking not.’

They stared at each other, having backed themselves into their respective corners. Jesse cracked first.

‘Forget I even suggested it,’ he said, short and blunt, then turned and walked out of the room.

‘Jesse,’ she said, rounding the desk to the doorway, feeling ungrateful. ‘I’m sorry …’

He moved to the deep butler’s sink and threw his brushes in without turning around. ‘Don’t be. It’s just a room.’

Winnie studied the stiff set of his shoulders, and the deep tan on the back of his neck from working in the olive grove. How could someone who went out of their way to keep their life as simple as possible be so stubbornly difficult to understand? She backed into the room again and closed the door with a soft click.

Shit.He’d handled that like a prize cock. Jesse chucked the brushes in the sink, furious with himself for not seeing how his behaviour was just more of the same old bollocks on repeat. He couldn’t help himself, or so it would seem. Show him an artistic blonde, and he’d impose his will on her to the point where she cracked. Hot shame washed through his body at the idea that history could repeat itself, even after a dormant decade of kidding himself that he was past it. Had it been lying in the shadows waiting to catch him out all of that time? When he heard the door click open again a few minutes later, he didn’t turn her way.

‘Hey, Jesse.’

‘Uh-huh?’

She didn’t reply, just waited patiently for his attention. He knew he was being rude, but he was pissed with himself, and with her, and with just about every other damn thing he could think of right now.

‘I looked at your drawing.’

Christ.He’d put his drawing of her on the easel in there. He’d intended it as a welcome gift, but given how things had panned out it was all kinds of inappropriate.

‘I shouldn’t have put it there,’ he muttered, washing his hands. ‘I’ll move it later.’

Another protracted silence, and then, ‘No … I’m glad you did. You see me differently from how I see myself.’

He could hear vulnerability in her quiet words, and, biting down on his lip, he finally turned to look at her.

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