Page 83 of Love Among the Ruins
“You should have asked me.” There was food there for ten people, and she didn’t eat much at all.
“You told me to surprise you.”
“You already have.” She looked into his eyes and something warm melted inside her, a reassuring feeling that she was being cared for. That, in this moment, as surreal as it was, Dominic was looking after her.
Why was he always so good to her?
It wouldn’t all fit on the small table, so he laid it out on the larger table on the side and told her what the various dishes were.
“I had my lunch on the island. We can eat there,” she insisted, trying to get up, but the pain started as soon as she put weight on her foot.
He moved a small coffee table to her and insisted on bringing the food over. “Sit down, Eleni.”
She paused to gape at him, taking in everything he was doing for her. “You’re very kind, Dominic.”
“Enjoy it while it lasts. This is a rarity. Either that or I must be coming down with something.”
She giggled.
There were two sides to this man; a harsh, unrelenting, serious side—the one most people saw and which made them tremble. But she mostly saw his softer side, and she had no idea why.
While he’d given her this job out of pity, because of what had happened on the yacht, it didn’t make sense for him to still be so tender and attentive to her.
“Why are you doing this for me?” she asked again, his answer from earlier not satisfying her curiosity.
He gave her a pointed stare. “I told you why,” in a weary tone that suggested he no longer wanted to discuss the matter.
But he was doing too much. Far too much.
He plated the food she asked for, then filled his own plate up before joining her on an adjacent sofa.
They ate quickly and quietly, and she even had seconds. When they had finished eating, she felt emboldened, nourished, better.
“I think I could hobble back to the hotel, Dominic.”
“Not this again.”
“I could even jog back.”
“I didn’t know you were a runner.”
“That’s because I didn’t tell you.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him now that she was training. She didn’t want to talk about Jonas, wanted to keep him in her heart tucked away in a small special place. Talking about Jonas to Dominic didn’t feel right. “It’s a hobby, something I do to keep fit.”
“I didn’t know.”
Why would he? They weren’t supposed to have that type of dynamic. But here she was, sitting in his home, on his sofa, having food he had plated for her. What a turnaround.
But why?
And how?
It seemed so unreal to her, and yet Dominic Steele now watched her with amusement.
“What?” she asked, feeling self-conscious. She hoped her feet didn’t smell. Or that the dolmades, the stuffed vine leaves she so loved, weren’t stuck between her teeth.
“Nothing.”
“You don’t have a housekeeper or a chef?” She’d half-expected to see them and had been surprised that when he’d left her alone, she’d been truly alone.
