Page 147 of Love Among the Ruins
She walked towards her bedroom door, a hasty plan unfurling in her mind. She’d take a shower now, then pack her suitcase, then go to bed. She was on the first flight out tomorrow.
“What are you doing?” Dominic had an uncanny knack for sneaking up on her when she least expected it. Her hand stilled on the doorknob. Her heart beat wildly in her chest. Emotions swirled around inside her, humiliation scalding her heart.
She’d gotten it all wrong. What he felt was nothing like what she did. “You want to be alone, Dominic. I got the memo.” She opened the door, not wanting to face him.
“Is that what you really think?”
She was a blubbery weak mess. “Just go,” she pleaded, her shoulders slumping as a tired exhale escaped her lips. “You should go.”
He placed his hand on her shoulder. “I don’t want to.”
“It’s late and I have to pack.” She tried to take a step towards the door, but his hand remained, the heat emanating from his skin, sending shockwaves through her body.
“Eleni.”
Not this. Not now. Not anymore.
“Look at me,please.” The man didn’t beg, not in the real world, but here in Santorini, this was not the real world. This was a slice of make-believe heaven.
Curious, she did as he asked. “What?”
He scrubbed his hands over his face, wiping the water away from his eyes. A hint of anxiety in his voice was the only indicator that he was on edge, because the rest of him, that wall of muscle in the water, signalled nothing but strength and calmness.
“Don’t be angry.”
“You couldn’t get away from me fast enough in the pool just now.”
Silence, and then a deep exhale from him. He didn’t even bother to deny it. Exasperated, she spun around, ready to go into her room but his hand went to her should again, halting her.
“That’s not entirely true.” He sounded sad, or had she mistaken that for weariness? His thumb gently swept over her skin, sending her nerve endings wild. He was so close behind her that she could feel the heat rolling off him. But it was more than just his body heat. A current fizzed through the air between them.
She turned around, needing to read his expression. “We were sitting and talking one minute. I thought ...” She stopped herself from blurting out girlish words which would only embarrass her.
I thought we were getting on well.
A man like Dominic was used to women throwing themselves at him. Never in all her wildest dreams had she ever imagined she’d be one of them, but ... here she was.
“You’re upset. I can see that now.” His hand reached up to cup her face, a touch she had been yearning for for so long.
“I am not.” But her tone gave the truth away. She stared at the floor, becoming acutely aware that her wet clothes were sticking to her, and that her shorts were still by the pool and she was standing here in her panties. Water trickled down both their bodies, the falling droplets landing on the floor and creating a pool of wetness where they stood.
The space between her legs throbbed. A dull thrum of possibility, an ache that had been there for a long time, steadily growing stronger.
“I can read you like a map, Eleni. You’re upset, and I think it’s because of me.”
What a clever man he was. All that expensive school education hadn’t gone to waste. “You flatter yourself.” She tried to block him off, but her need for him was so intense she could no longer hide it.
“Do I?” He lowered his hand away from her face. “You think I don’t want to be around you, but you’re so wrong. So very wrong.”
“Then why do you move away from me each time—” He put a finger to her lips. It singed, the heat so palpable, she felt the burn.
“Because …” He let out a groan, deep in the base of his throat, as if he was fighting to keep something in. “Because I care about you, Eleni. I don’t want to see you hurt or upset.”
“You upset me just now when you couldn’t get away from me fast enough.”
“That’s what you thought.”
“What else was I supposed to think?”
