‘Fantastic.’
‘Oh, lighten up, you might even enjoy it.’
Cassie smiled to herself. She could feel the way Ares was bristling behind her. Was it wrong that riling him felt so right?
He sat on one of the benches in her peripheral vision, legs spread. She didn’t have to look to know his bare legs were as muscled and strong as the rest of him.
When he didn’t make any attempt to converse she asked sweetly, ‘How was your night on deck?’
‘Fine.’
‘Is that a security thing? To keep an eye out?’
He huffed and said, ‘Something like that.’
Cassie rolled her eyes and shut her mouth. She needed her wits to navigate through the Cyclades. Mykonos was on the other side of Naxos and Paros, so she focused on that for now and tried to block out the brooding muscled man-mountain sitting far too close for comfort.
When they approached the island, Cassie dropped the anchor in a sheltered spot and busied herself getting the tender into position.
‘You’re going onto the island now?’
Cassie turned from the small lower deck and looked up. ‘Yes, that’s my plan.’ She smiled sunnily. ‘You’re welcome to join,’ knowing full well he’d have to come with her.
‘What’s your plan?’
‘Well, some lunch to start with, I’m starving, and then shopping. And then, later, clubbing.’
Ares didn’t smile. ‘Sounds delightful.’
After Cassie had secured the boat, and they were in the tender heading towards the old port, she tried her best not to be so aware of Ares. It annoyed her that he appealed to her so much. He was like a dark cloud.A dark sexy stormy cloud.And she hated that she felt the urge to make him smile, look happier. Because that pushed way too many buttons. She’d spent her life trying to make her parents smile and be happier and it hadn’t worked.
To know that nothing you’d done had had a positive effect on the people around you in spite of your best efforts was not nice. It was why she’d oftentimes felt invisible. And yet she couldn’t join Ares where he was, her inner spirit was just too buoyant no matter how much she might try to deny it.
When they had secured the tender, Ares said, ‘Where to now?’
‘Mykonos town.’
He hailed a cab and they were being spirited away from the port within minutes. Cassie realised that she hadn’t paid for anything yesterday and Ares had just handed the driver some euros.
She said, ‘I don’t expect you to pay. I’ll give you what I owe, and for dinner last night.’ He’d all but run her out of the restaurant after she’d told him she planned to lose her virginity. She still couldn’t believe she’d had the gall to say that. But it had been worth it for the look of shock on his face.
The fact that he’d populated her dreams last night made it slightly less worth it. Because he was welded to her side for the foreseeable future and so the chances of her actually getting to lose her virginity with anyone seemed to be challenging in the extreme.
Unless you lost it to him,whispered a little voice. As if Cassie didn’t already have that incendiary moment from their first night branded onto her brain for ever. Moaning into his mouth as she pushed herself into his hand.
‘Are you all right? You’ve gone very red.’
Cassie saw the town centre approaching and said to the driver in a panic, ‘We’ll get out here,efharisto,’ and she all but jumped out of the car as it was still moving in a bid to get away from that dark incisive gaze.
She strode forward into the shopping district and pulled a baseball cap onto her head, praying Ares would leave it alone.
An hour later, as Ares sat on a bench outside a boutique, sipping a small and perfect espresso, he had to acknowledge that he hadn’t had this kind of time off in…ever, and, while it was disconcerting, it wasn’t unenjoyable.
No wonder so many of his peers preferred babysitting royals and celebrities. This was positively civilised. If a bit mind-numbingly boring. Shopping bags were scattered at his feet. And Cassie had just entered the umpteenth boutique.
She’d said a short while before, ‘I know you must think this is so typical but, for what it’s worth, I never get to just…shop. I’m supplied with clothes by a stylist.’
She’d sounded so defensive and had been looking up at him from under the lip of her baseball cap in a way that had made him want to bend down and capture those plump lips against his, and press against her. So he’d said curtly, ‘I’m not thinking anything.’
