Page 59 of Love on the Rocks
Chapter 24
Angelos fell with her into the satin sheets. His breath warm against her ear, he whispered: “I can wait no longer.Se thelo, asteri mou.”
I want you, my star. Mia shivered and raised her leg over his waist, letting him caress the silky skin of her inner thigh. She wanted him too.
- One Week with the Greek
CALLIE
After spending the past few weeks on Lyra, I was shocked by how crowded and busy I found Rhodes. As Teresa led me through the stone archways of the medieval city, I found myself missing the quiet of my little house, where all I could hear was the humming of the cicadas and the gentle lapping of waves on the rocks below.
“We can go to the spa first and then have lunch,” Teresa shouted over a group of tourists.“A body scrub and wax?”
That sounded heavenly. “Yes, please. I still can’t believe that a couple weeks ago, I was washing myself in cold water and bathing in a hot spring. Don’t get me wrong, the springs are amazing and now that my ankle is healed, I plan on going back there—but I’ve never felt so filthy in my life.”
“I still cannot believe they did that to you and thathe”—she pointed to Yiannis—“agreed. I told him that until your restaurant is built, he can forget about a—what do you call it?—a blow up?”
I laughed. “Oh my God, I love you. It’s called a blow job. But don’t be too hard on him. He already feels bad about it. And I’ve come to accept my own role in the whole situation.” It’s true that I hadn’t done much research on Lyra, or I would have known that that cottage was not representative of the island.
Teresa’s spa was near the beach not far from the old city. A morning of pampering was exactly what I needed. As I got undressed though, I realized I had red marks on my hips and thighs where Nikos had dug his fingers into me.
I was trying not to think about him, but it wasn’t easy, given what he’d done to my body last night. I’d felt thoroughly ravished and worshipped at the same time. It was the strangest sensation. Like, I’d had hot sex before, at least I thought I had. But I’d never felt like someone was so into my body—and intome. And seeing those marks brought me right back to the image we made in his mirror.
“Oh? What is this?” Teresa asked when she saw the mark on my neck. Then she shook her head. “I did not want to believe it was true, but it is! You and Nikos?”
“Look, it’s not like we can fight each other. It was rage sex, pure and simple.” Maybe that’s why it was so hot, I’d never slept with someone who pissed me off so completely. When I saw him this morning, I was torn between jumping on top of him or grinding my heels in his crotch. I’d never had such a physical reaction to anyone before. It was messing with my brain cells and my hormones. I should probably go to a doctor about it.
Ugh, and now I was imagining him bending me over his examining room table . . .
“Anyway, I put an end to it,” I assured Teresa, leaving out the fact that I was already having doubts about the benefits of this plan. I mean, really, why should I deprive myself of pleasure just to punish him?
“Hmm, I thought you were smarter than that, Callie. I admit he is good looking, but he is like a mean old man. And he has been that way since we were kids,” she warned as she wrapped a towel around herself. “Only now it’s worse because he is stuck on Lyra.”
“What do you mean stuck?”
“Well, Yiannis told me that he cannot go anywhere else. He has not been back to America in years, and the last time he went to Athens, he got so sick he had to come back immediately.”
“But he goes once a week to another island,” I argued.
“A small island. By boat. Planes and big cities are impossible.” Teresa nodded knowingly. “He has the island curse.”
“What’s that?”
“It is a fact that most people never leave. They cannot. There is a magnetic force that pulls them back.”
I laughed at the absurdity of such a belief. “Oh, come on.”
“He might want to trap you too. I don’t trust him.”
I knew I shouldn’t either after everything he’d done. Yet, there were times when I could understand his reasons for doing what he did. Oh God, was this Stockholm syndrome? Was I really making excuses for someone who’d humiliated me? It would be pretty on-brand for me.
“Just promise me that you won’t fall for him. That would be terrible.” Teresa sighed.
“I’m not going to fall for him.” I laughed at the absurdity of it. “It was just sex.”
* * *
After another fabulous meal—did one ever eat badly in Greece?—we walked to Teresa’s small but charmingly decorated apartment where we went over my notes from the presentation. Yiannis translated some of the suggestions in the notebook—most of which involved more celebrities to invite—and I told him what I’d written in my proposal to Greystone.
