Page 15 of Vows of Revenge

‘I’ll never manage the conference dinner tonight if I eat all this!’ she exclaimed humorously.

‘Looks good, doesn’t it?’ Damos agreed cheerfully. ‘Get stuck in!’

Kassia did—it looked too good to resist. And then she realised the waiter was setting down not just a teapot, but two glasses of gently fizzing sparkling wine.

‘To celebrate,’ Damos said, handing her one and lifting his own.

‘Um...celebrate what?’ Kassia asked, confused.

He smiled across at her. ‘Afternoon tea,’ he said. ‘One of the great contributions to civilised life!’

Kassia laughed—she couldn’t help it. And nor could she help feeling her cheeks colour again, just because of the way Damos Kallinikos was smiling at her.

Oh, dear God, but he was just so...so...

Descriptive words failed her—and were quite unnecessary. Because the colour in her cheeks, and the skipping of her heart rate, the sense of effervescence in her veins, was telling her just how strongly she was reacting to seeing him again.

I thought our paths would never cross again. That he’d been and gone from my life. And now...

Now here she was, totally unexpectedly, totally out of the blue, having afternoon tea with him in Oxford’s best hotel...

As coincidences went, running into him like this as she had, it was beyond amazing.

‘Cheers!’ said Damos Kallinikos, clinking his glass lightly against hers, smiling across at her with his warm, wonderful smile.

She took a sip of the sparkling wine, feeling suddenly light-headed, dipping her eyes. Whatever extraordinary coincidence had caused Damos Kallinikos to step back into her life, even if just for afternoon tea, she was very, very glad of it.

It was definitely worth enjoying.

Damos set down his glass and reached for one of the delicately cut sandwiches. Satisfaction was filling him. Kassia had accepted completely that there was nothing more behind their encounter than sheer coincidence, just as she’d accepted his invitation to afternoon tea.

She clearly welcomes meeting me again, and is happy to spend time with me.

Second base had definitely been achieved. Now it would be a question of building on it. OK, so for the next couple of days she’d be occupied at the conference, but after that...? Time to put himself in her diary.

‘What will you be doing after the conference?’ he asked. ‘I think you mentioned over dinner that you visit your mother when you’re in the UK...?’

Kassia reached for a savoury tart and started to eat it delicately. Damos surveyed her through half-lidded eyes. Though she was neatly dressed, the long-sleeved top and trousers she was wearing were very unexciting, he found himself thinking. She was still not wearing any make-up, and her hair, though again very neat, was simply pulled back into a knot on her nape.

Why does she not make more of herself?

His gaze rested on her assessingly. He had been prepared for her lack of chic, but he still wondered at her apparent complete lack of interest in fashion or her appearance. His gaze lingered for a moment. And yet her bone structure was good, and there were those light, almost silvery eyes, and her slender figure showed itself off in her delicately sculpted collarbones and the elegant length of her forearms.

Her reply to his question distracted his thoughts.

‘I spent a few days with her before I came to Oxford,’ she was saying. ‘She lives in the Cotswolds, so not too far from here.’

‘Very scenic, I believe, the Cotswolds,’ Damos commented.

He knew more about her mother now—he’d had her checked out. She was remarried to a retired industrialist, enjoyed a plentiful social life, and holidayed a lot. Just how much communication she had with her ex-husband he wasn’t sure, but he could not risk it. Could not risk word of his forthcoming affair with Yorgos Andrakis’s daughter getting back to Athens.

Fortunately, his sources had indicated that she was likely to be taking off for an annual late-summer holiday at her husband’s villa in Estepona, in southern Spain, so she should be off the scene shortly. That would fit in nicely with his own planned timing.

‘I don’t know much about this part of England,’ he went on musingly. ‘Apart from Oxford itself, and the Cotswolds, what else is worth seeing? I ask because I’ve business in London late next week, so I’ve some days free for sightseeing here. What do you recommend?’

‘Um...it depends what you like,’ Kassia replied.

She sounded awkward again.

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