Page 74 of Love Among the Ruins
“Put your arms around my neck,” he ordered. “Don’t want you falling again.”
“What? No.”
“Do it.”
She tentatively put both of her arms around his neck and, as if she were a full-blown junkie and could not resist, she took a sniff of his neck.
He stopped, angled his face at her. “Did you … sniff my neck?” He stared down at her.
“What? No. I’m in pain.Terriblepain.” She winced and sighed on cue. Dominic moved carefully, but instead of heading for the stairs, he moved towards the doors. “I can’t go to the meeting with you, Dominic. I can barely—”
“We’re going to my house.” He moved towards the car, and Kostas opened the door for him.
“We’re what?”
“We’re going to my house.”
Óh Theé mou.“What, no!” She could not.
“You’ve said that three times already.”
“Why are you counting?” she cried.
He gently shifted her into the seat, and placed her other sandal which she hadn’t noticed him pick up, back on the floor. She hadn’t even noticed him picking it up. He ordered her to sit sideways with her legs up, her back against the car door, but she refused to, not wanting him to see her feet, especially not now with her grossly swollen ankle. “And why are we going to your house? Why?”
The man had gone mad. There was no reason she needed to go to his house. Why couldn’t he leave her here to recover in her hotel room?
Instead of answering her, he made a phone call, leaving her in dazed confusion and bewilderment. The hotel assistant brought her bag and other belongings.
Dominic got into the car. “My private doctor will assess you at my house.”
This man had gone too far. “I don’t need a doctor.”
“Says the medical doctor herself.”
“Dominic. My foot is not broken.”
“Are you sure?”
“I know so. It doesn’t even hurt that much.”
“We’ll find out soon enough.”
But he had a meeting with Galatis. “You can’t waste time on me,” she said. “You have more important things to do.”
“I will do as I please.”
“Drop me off at the hospital if you’re so concerned. I don’t need your private doctor to see me.”
“I don’t need the drama of arriving at the hospital, but if he thinks you’ve broken it or fractured it, and we need to go to the hospital, we will.”
“It’s not broken, Dominic.”
“How do you know?” he asked, glancing at her foot.
“Because I’d be crying if it was.”
“Would you? You’re a tough one, Eleni.”
