Page 97 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
‘Ah, you just thought you’d keep me on my toes by waiting until the last second to arrive, then.’
‘I don’t know where you get your ego from but not everything is about you. There was an engine problem with the yacht so we left Sephone later than planned.’ Beneath the coolness of her tone, Lydia could still feel the panic that had clawed at her as she’d watched the hours slip by. Thank God for her old friend Maya, who’d made her home on Kos and who’d dropped everything to meet Lydia at the harbour and speed her to the airport, no questions asked.
‘What excuse did you come up with to justify not returning to Athens with them?’
‘I told them I was going to stay with one of my English friends to get away from everything.’
‘You told them you were taking a trip to England and didn’t pack any luggage?’
Gritting her teeth at his mocking scepticism, her reply was a short, ‘I had to leave it at the harbour.’ As much as she’d despaired at leaving her luggage behind—Maya had promised to go back for it and walk it to her apartment for safekeeping—it was impossible to carry suitcases on a scooter. Being late for the flight would have caused a million times more despair. If she’d arrived one minute later, the door into Alexis’s private plane would have been closed to her. ‘I’ll need to go shopping when we get to Agon.’
‘I’m afraid that isn’t possible. Agon’s trading laws forbid retailers to open after five at weekends.’
‘Even for hotel boutiques?’
‘We’re not stopping in a hotel.’
Great. So she was going to be stuck in this awful outfit for the foreseeable future. When life threw crap at you, itreallythrew it at you. ‘Fine. I’ll marry you in this outfit, then. At least it’ll be fitting.’
He laughed softly. ‘From your perspective, certainly. Did your family believe your excuse?’
‘They had no reason not to—they’re used to me flying off to stay with friends.’
‘That’s good to know.’
There was something in his tone that made her turn her stare to him. ‘Why?’
Those gorgeous blue-grey eyes bored into her. ‘It’s good to know the excuses your wife will use when she lies to you.’
She held his stare with all the contempt she could muster. ‘When people lie it’s either to stop themselves getting into trouble or to spare the other’s feelings. Unless you’re planning to beat me to keep me in line, which I don’t think evenyouwould do, I have no need to lie to you, because I couldn’t care less about your feelings.’
There was the slightest flicker in his eye before he gave a half-smile. ‘Then I look forward to the day I catch you in a lie.’
And with those unsettling, enigmatic words, he dropped his stare back to his laptop and immersed himself back in his work.
It was movement that woke her. Disorientated, Lydia had to blink a number of times before she remembered where she was. Flying to Agon with Alexis Tsaliki to marry him…
Where was he?
Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes—it must have claimed her quickly as she didn’t remember her eyes getting heavy—she looked at her watch. Only forty minutes in the air. She could only have been asleep for minutes.
She straightened, her heart catching in her throat before her eyes registered the figure further down the cabin, in the dining area.
His back to her, Alexis had changed out of his trousers into a pair of faded jeans that perfectly accentuated his perfect buttocks and snake hips, and was leaning over, pulling something out of a carry-on bag, the muscles of his bronzed naked back rippling with the movement.
Her caught heart swelled and she gripped hold of her blouse right above the place it beat the hardest.
He straightened and then more muscles rippled and flexed as he lifted his arms and pulled a white T-shirt over his head.
‘Enjoying the show?’ he asked before he turned around and flattened the T-shirt over his rock-hard abdomen. Eyes gleaming, he strode towards her. ‘I would have showered but time ran away from me.’
Shewanted to run away from him. Lydia had never gone so fully from dozing to wide awake in such a short space of time.
‘I would suggest you change into something more comfortable too, but with your clothing predicament…’ Shaking his head with faux regret, he retook his seat and stretched his long legs out, his foot coming to rest right beside hers. Eyes alive with sensuous amusement, he smiled. ‘Unless you would like to borrow something of mine?’
Lydia pulled her feet back. ‘I’d rather suffer, thank you.’
‘Then you will soon get your wish—we’ll be landing in a few minutes.’
