She shivered at his impassioned words. Did he mean that? Or was he saying what he thought she wanted to hear? That was the thing about being taken for a fool; you always wondered who was going to be next if your defence was down.
‘Listen, your ex, he is amaláka,’ Kostas told her.
‘We can agree on that.’
‘But do you know what I would have really said to you about the photos? Apart from not wanting your daughter to have seen them?’
She shook her head.
‘Maybe that the only thing I am sorry about is that there are not more photos. They did not get any of you making me kiss you on the motorbike.’
‘Oh, I made you kiss me, did I?’
‘You begged me to, if you remember.’ He trailed his index finger up and down over the back of her hand.
She smirked, tingles shooting up and down her spine. ‘I think it was more an order actually.’
‘And I was too terrified to think of what my punishment might be if I did not comply.’
‘Of course you were.’
‘God, what do you do to me?’ he exclaimed, hands in his hair in frustration. ‘I should go away and sit with the turtle.’
‘No,’ Faye said. ‘You will frighten it.’
‘Do I frighten you?’
‘No. Because I’m always in charge, Kosta.’
‘Argh! Honestly, we have to stop.’ He laughed. ‘Now I am too hot, not the turtle.’
He linked their hands, locking their fingers together, then he used his thumb to toy with hers. She liked it. It was cute. ‘You know I almost called the Corfu news people,’ he continued.
‘What were you going to say? Make a complaint?’
‘No,’ he breathed. ‘To ask them to email the photos. To ask if they had any more.’ He smiled. ‘I liked how we looked together, Faye. I liked it a lot.’
‘Really?’
‘Did you not?’
‘A lot of people seemed to have a lot to say about it. Katerina wants to hear every detail of my sex life. Some of my staff are smiling at me – mainly the guys – others are doing the sign of the cross whenever I appear. And then there’s Saffron, like I said.’ She sighed. She’d had to leave her daughter, what with the turtle emergency, and the situation hadn’t changed. Saffron had refused to listen to anything Faye had to say and she had locked herself in Faye’s bedroom, unresponsive even on text message.
‘She thinks I am not worthy to be with her mother?’ He nodded. ‘She is right, of course.’
‘No, Kosta, it isn’t you specifically. It’s just change.’
He nodded. ‘Yeah, change. Like today I find out my grandmother has a mobile phone and steals internet from one of the villas nearby.’
‘You went to see her again?’
‘Yeah. I went to see her again.’
‘Was it OK?’
‘Not really.’ He nodded as if he was affirming that statement in some way. ‘It was… difficult.’
Faye could sense there was so much more than ‘difficult’ but she didn’t want to push him. She was discovering he kept his emotional door locked tighter than hers.
