He laughed again. ‘Faye, relax, I am joking with you.’
Yes, apparently this whole situation was nothing but hilarious to him.
‘That really isn’t funny, Kosta. Really.’ She was deadly serious now.
‘Lypame polý. Faye, I swear, I would not do anything like that. You know how I am, how I have to be with privacy.’
There were those eyes dancing with hers again, but there was no duplicity written there, just softness. She swallowed. ‘OK, well, I’m going to get changed now and then I will leave.’
‘So, we are clear, yes? This stays between us,’ Kostas said firmly.
‘Agreed,’ Faye replied with a nod.
‘OK,’ he answered. ‘Good.’
‘Good.’ She turned to go towards the second bedroom and then she turned back. ‘Sorry, just one thing. Did you want me to order some more cushions for you? There should be cushions on the bed and the sofa, to make it a bit more homely. I have no idea what’s happened to them but?—’
‘Ochi,’ he said fast. ‘No, that is OK. I have no need for cushions.’
‘OK,’ she said. ‘Well, I will get changed and then I will go.’
‘Take your time,’ Kostas said. ‘I will be in the shower.’
And with the thought of him wet and naked, exactly how he had been when he’d pinned her against the shower screen last night under that waterfall stream, Faye forced her feet to beat a retreat.
25
RECEPTION, HOTEL MARGARITÁRI, AVLAKI
‘The eggs were better at breakfast,’ Katerina remarked, chewing on the end of her pen as Faye searched the drawers of the reception desk for a spare phone charger she knew she kept there. Saffron had forgotten to bring hers and had commandeered Faye’s to charge, watch TikTok and repeat until Faye got to escape hotel demands later in the day. Faye had suggested her daughter head to the beach or sunbathe by the pool, but apparently that required too much effort for a first full day…
‘Fani staged an intervention,’ Katerina continued. ‘Last night, she locked her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend in theapothekeuntil they had sorted things out one way or another.’
‘Uh huh,’ Faye said, fingers roving around in the next drawer.
‘So she tied him up and threatened him with a rake.’
‘Really?’
‘No, Faye!’ Katerina exclaimed. ‘Not really! You are not listening to me and… What is that on your shoulder?’
Faye got caught between trying to digest the information and wondering what was on her shoulder. She looked to her left and, to her horror, there was a mark and she knew exactly the origin of it. Kostas.
‘Oh, that!’ Faye said as nonchalantly as possible, putting her hand to the spot on her skin. ‘Horsefly. Didn’t put my repellent on and it got me really good.’
‘Faye! What happened to your hand?’
Faye’s eyes then went to the hand she was holding to the square of skin where the ‘horsefly’ bite was. The cut from the glass, bloodied but already starting to heal. Kostas’s mouth on that was how last night had started. Well, actually, she could blame Saffron taking her bed and that sofa stopping her from sleeping as to the reason she had been in the hotel grounds with a jug of sour cherry in the first place…
‘Faye! What happened!’ Katerina repeated, eyes a little on the crazed side.
‘Stupidity happened,’ Faye stated, covering the wound with her other hand until she looked kind of like someone about to be harnessed into a straitjacket. ‘I broke a jug.’
‘Are you sure it is OK? Let me look,’ Katerina ordered.
‘No, it’s fine, honestly and… Oh, Dimitria, I didn’t see you there.’
Faye backed away from Katerina’s attention and banged her hip against the side of the desk as she realised her boss had arrived in the space.
