Page 142 of Love Among the Ruins
“Thank you.” He examined it with exaggerated concentration, needing something to focus his attention on other than Eleni’s delicious body.
Did she have to wear those shorts? And that top? He crossed his legs and wished he’d had head to toe body armor to hide the growing erection which would soon be impossible to hide.
“Is it broken?” she asked, pouring herself a glass of lemonade. She kicked off her flip flops and bent one leg under her as she sat, making herself comfortable, a feeling he didn’t share.
He tapped away uneasily on his phone, his cock pulsating as if it had a life of its own; a disobedient teen ignoring his request for calm. “The screen is damaged, but it still works.”
“Phew.” She made a gesture as if she were wiping the sweat off her forehead. He would have licked it off given the chance.
For the love of Christ keep it together.
“You decided to come out?” He needed to know that she was okay. He tried to hold it in, but it was an impossibility around this woman.
“I didn’t want to stay in the room all evening. That’s what I do every day in Athens.”
He gripped his glass hard and lifted it to his lips. “I’m sorry your day was ruined.”
“It wasn’t.” She surveyed him quietly, a question in her eyes. “This part is nice.”
“This part, here by the pool?”
“You’re not so bad to be around, Dominic.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Notthatbad? Should I be upset or pleased?”
“I can’t imagine you ever being upset. Angry, yes, but upset? That would imply you had a heart.” Her luscious lips curved up into a smile. A smile he adored and a face he thought of most nights before he went to sleep.
“Most people are scared of you, but I’m not.”
“I like that you’re not. It’s not my intention to scare people, but I don’t suffer fools and in my experience a lot of people are fools.”
“There you go with your self-aggrandizing manner.”
He wasn’t trying to brag, nor did he consider himself as all important. “I’m being truthful, and most people can’t handle the truth.”
She took a sip and set the glass back on the table, but it was the red marks around her wrist that enraged him. He reached out and touched them. “That fuck—”
“Don’t, please,” she begged, leaning forward. “Let’s not ruin this evening.”
He forced himself to sit back and calm down.
“What happened back there, and on the yacht, it doesn’t just happen to me, it happens to my friends. It happens all the time, at the tavernas, at bars, whenever we’re out.”
His stomach twisted. “It must suck to be a woman.”
“Not as much as it must suck to be a man,” she countered. “The audacity of imposing yourself on a woman who clearly doesn’t want you. I don’t meanyou…” she said quickly, “I mean—”
“I know what you mean. I agree. The audacity. We’re a horrid sex …” He flinched inwardly and wished he hadn’t mentioned the S-word.
“I know what you mean.” She did it again—a smile curved its way along that beautiful mouth of hers.
Fuck.
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, placing his hand over his ever-growing erection.
“We shouldn’t have to be afraid each time we are out late or walking home. We shouldn’t have to watch what we wear. We shouldn’t have to suffer the shameful catcalls and advances of desperate men.”
“No, women shouldn’t.” The irony of his situation. He wholeheartedly agreed with her—he disliked those men, too—but he was sitting here with a boner, for her. And it was so wrong. It made him feel so wrong, so dirty. He wanted to fly back to Athens tonight.
