‘WHYSANTORINI?’
Cassie wondered if she could ignore the question. Ares had insisted on coming with her onto the island. He’d seemed almost eager to get off the boat. She was regretting saying they’d walk the famous almost six hundred steps up from the old port to Fira instead of taking the cable car.
They’d docked the tender at the port. Donkeys meandered up and down the steps carrying luggage and, sometimes, people. One passed her by now with a tourist on its back. Cassie felt sorry for the poor donkey.
She glanced at the man who was keeping pace beside her easily. She noted there wasn’t a hint of perspiration or exertion on his face, when hers felt as if it were about to melt off under the seam of the baseball cap she was wearing for protection from the late afternoon sun as much to hide her identity.
She’d changed out of the cut-off shorts and T-shirt into loose linen trousers and a sleeveless V-necked silk top. A bag containing water and other essentials was slung across her body.
‘Because I’ve never been and I’ve heard the sunset viewed from Oia is spectacular.’
‘It’s just a sunset.’
Cassie stopped near the top—mercifully—and looked at him. ‘Are you always this grumpy or is it my unique effect on you?’ she asked and smiled sweetly.
He just scowled behind his dark shades that made him look like a movie star. After Cassie had unpacked earlier and returned up top on the boat, Ares had gone down into the cabin with his bag. She’d called after him with only a modicum of sarcasm, ‘Feel free to use one of the rooms at the stern of the boat.’
He hadn’t answered. But he had changed into a white short-sleeved polo shirt that made him look even darker and only emphasised his outsize muscles.
It wasn’t just the climb up from the port that made her breathless. She went back to climbing the last steps and said, ‘If you don’t want to be here so badly why don’t you send someone else? Maybe they’ll be a bit more excited about a sunset.’
Cassie had more or less resigned herself to the fact that she would be shadowed for this trip, whether she liked it or not. She didn’t fancy her chances of evading Ares or one of his staff, after reading about him and his company.
‘All my staff are busy on assignment.’
Cassie sent Ares a look. ‘No doubt protecting far more worthy clients.’
He seemed to stiffen. ‘I never said you weren’t worthy.’
‘You didn’t have to,’ Cassie said without any rancour. She was actually finding it quite refreshing being around someone who wasn’t overly obsequious. Or who she felt she needed to keep happy.
They were at the top of the steps now and Cassie saw a bus being loaded up withOiain the window. She was heading for it when a hand—a large hand—wrapped around her bare upper arm. An electrical charge jolted through her body. She stopped and looked at Ares.
He said, ‘Where are you going?’
‘Taking the bus to Oia. It’s the best place to see the sun set.’
He shook his head. ‘No, we’ll take a cab.’ He was all but herding her to the taxi rank nearby and within a nanosecond she was installed in the back seat with him alongside her, one long muscled thigh far too close for comfort.
He was giving instructions to the driver in Greek and then the car was on the move.
A little stunned at the speed with which the man moved for someone so big and imposing, Cassie said churlishly, ‘This ismytrip.’
‘And you’re my responsibility. When we’re off the boat, I’ll dictate the modes of transport.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Cassie said under her breath.
But obviously not far enough under because he said, ‘That’s more like it.’
She looked at him but his face was turned away towards his window. She could have sworn she saw the faintest upturn of one side of his mouth and that sent a wave of heat undulating through her body.
Disgusted with herself for being so weak and susceptible to a pretty face and a few bulging muscles, she looked out of her own window.
‘This place is like a theme park.’
The words were gritted out from above Cassie’s shoulder. She’d taken off her baseball cap and it hung from the strap of her bag. Her hair was pulled back and she was wearing shades. She knew that she more or less blended pretty well with the rest of the tourists. If anything, Ares was the one attracting all the attention, moving through the throngs of people clogging the narrow pretty streets of Oia lined with shops and boutiques and restaurants.
That suited her fine. She loved this sensation of being anonymous among crowds. Then she spotted something and exclaimed, ‘Ooh, I was going to try and find this—it’s here!’
