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After finishing her sandwich, she pulled out a small bag of grapes she’d purchased in a fruit market. On impulse she offered to share them with an older woman who’d just sat down by her.
The woman smiled and took a few. “Thank you,” she said in heavily accented English.
“Please take more if you like.”
She nodded. “You are a tourist?”
“No. I came to visit someone, but he wasn’t here.”
“Ah. I wait for a friend.”
“Do you live here?”
“Yes.”
Stephanie’s pulse raced. “Do you know the Vassalos family?”
“Who doesn’t! That’s one of their boats.” She pointed to a beautiful white boat, probably forty-five to fifty feet long, docked in the marina. “Why do you ask?”
“It’s their son I came to see.”
“They have two sons. One works here. The other I never see. He’s always away.”
Did that mean he was always doing family business elsewhere?
Unable to sit there after that news, Stephanie got to her feet. Maybe all wasn’t lost yet. “It’s been very nice talking to you. Keep the grapes. I think I’ll take a walk until the boat gets here.”
Without wasting another second, she headed in the direction of the moored craft. Maybe one of the crew would tell her where she could reach Dev. She’d come this far....
Closer now, she realized it was a small state-of-the-art recreational yacht, the luxurious kind she occasionally spotted in Florida waters, but she saw no one around. After walking alongside, she called out, “Hello? Is anyone here?” But there was no answer.
Upon further inspection she took in the outdoor lounge with recliners and a sun bed. Beyond it was the transom, with water skis, a rope and scuba gear. The sight of the equipment brought back piercingly sweet pain.
She stepped closer and called out again. Still no answer. Since the boat that would take her back to Chios wasn’t in sight yet, she decided to wait a few more minutes for someone to come.
Praying she wouldn’t get caught, she sat down facing the open sea and hooked her arms around her upraised knees. Before long she spotted the boat in the distance, headed toward the harbor.
Time to go.
Her spirits reached rock bottom because she’d come to the end of her journey. With her head down, she retraced her steps along the pier. “Oh—” Stephanie cried out in surprise as a hard male body collided with hers. She felt a strong pair of hands catch her by the upper arms to prevent her from falling.
Through the wispy cotton of her white blouson top the grip felt familiar. But when she lifted her head, nothing was familiar about the narrowed pair of glittering black eyes staring into hers as if she were an alien being.
“Dev—”
It was him, but he was so changed and forbidding, she couldn’t comprehend it. He released her as if she’d scorched him, and kept walking.
“Dev!” she called in utter bewilderment. “Why won’t you even say hello? What’s happened to you?”
He continued walking, not fast or slow, never turning around.
She thought she’d been in pain when she’d opened the box of gardenias to discover he’d gone, but this pain reached the marrow of her bones.
Let him go, Stephanie. Let it all go.
Turning away from him, she kept walking, and had almost reached the beach area when he called to her in his deep voice. “Stephanie? Come back.”
She looked over her shoulder at him. “When you left the Caribbean so fast, I worried you were ill or even dying, but obviously you’re fine. Don’t worry. I’m leaving and won’t venture near again.”
“Come back, or I’ll be forced to come after you.”
She heard the authority in his voice that left her in no doubt he’d do exactly that. With her heart thudding, she started toward him. By the time she reached him, her khaki-clad legs would have buckled if he hadn’t helped her onto the nearest padded bench aboard the yacht.
The last time she’d seen him he’d been in his bathing suit after their dive. His eyes had smoldered with desire as he’d kissed her passionately, before they’d parted to get ready for dinner. He’d told her to hurry, then had pressed another long, hot kiss to her mouth. Neither of them could bear to be separated.
Or so she’d thought.
This brooding version of Dev looked formidably gorgeous. He was wearing white cargo pants and a gray crew-necked T-shirt. His black wavy hair had grown longer, setting off the deep bronze of his complexion. With his height and fit physique, he bore the aura of a man in command, just as she and the girls had supposed. But he’d lost weight.
He lounged against the side of the boat, his hands curled around the edge, his long legs extended. Legs he’d wrapped possessively around hers, whether under the water or in bed. But there was a gauntness to his handsome, chiseled features that suggested great sorrow or illness. She’d been right about two things: he’d left the Caribbean on some kind of emergency, and was a native Greek down to every black hair on his head.
“I heard you showed up at the shipping office, but I never dreamed I’d find you outside the Diomedes. What are you doing here?”
Stephanie could hardly fathom the frigidity of his words. “I told you. After what we shared, you left so fast without an explanation I could live with, I feared something terrible must have happened to you. I—I needed to see for myself,” she stammered.
“I thought the card I left with the flowers summed things up.”
“It did, but I guess I’m a hard case.”
She heard his sharp intake of breath. “I’ll ask again. What are you doing here?”
“I came to Greece to find you, and was told you were away on business indefinitely. The man at the desk didn’t give me any additional information, so I was trying to find someone on this yacht who might tell me where you were. But no one was about.”
“Evidently that didn’t stop you from waiting around.” He spoke in a low wintry tone so unlike him she shivered in fresh pain. “In your desperation, I’m surprised you didn’t come to Egnoussa much sooner.”
Her desperation? What on earth was wrong? How could he have changed into a completely different person? He might not like seeing her again, but his demeanor bordered on loathing.
Though terrified at the thought he might be seriously ill, and stung by his hostile behavior, Stephanie still held her ground. “I would have been here the next day if I’d known where you lived. But the note you put with the gardenias didn’t tell me where I could find you.”
“How remiss of me.” Coupled with his sarcasm was an icy smile, devastating her further. “Still, with the help you were given, you managed to track me down easily enough.”
“If you’re talking about God’s help, you’re right.”
Evidently he didn’t like her response, because he straightened to his full height. “Even knowing you as I thought I did, I have to admit I’m surprised you’d use that excuse to cover who you really are.”
“Who I really am?” Despite being stymied, she lifted her chin proudly. “Then we’re on even footing, because I don’t know who you are either. The man I met in the Caribbean was named Dev Harris, an international exporter from New York on a scuba diving holiday. A man who made our dive master, Angelo, look like a beginner.”
Below black brows, Dev’s dark eyes pierced her to the core of her being. This frontal view of his face exposed shadows beneath them, and carved lines around his mouth that hadn’t been there before. Despite her anger it grieved her that he could have been suffering all this time.
“And you made quite the seductress.”
A gasp escaped her throat over the unexpected remark thrown out at her like that. Incredulous, she shook her head. “Seductress? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Come on, Stephanie. The game is over. Working for Crystal River Water Tours, you don’t make the kind of money to send you all over the world, on two occasions in the last three months, without a definite agenda.”
For a moment she was so shocked, she couldn’t make a sound.
“However, I have to admit you played your hand with such finesse, you almost took me to the cleaners, as you Americans say. I barely got out of there in time.”
“In time? For what?” She couldn’t begin to understand him. In a slow rage over his indictment of her, she moved closer. “Curious you’d say that, because it seems I flew out of Providenciales too late.”
He folded his powerful arms. “And now you’re in trouble up to the last silvery-gold strand of hair on your beautiful head.”
“Yes,” she answered in a quiet voice, without blinking. Trouble that came wrapped in a baby quilt, with a bottle of formula, among other things.
A white ring encircling his mouth gave evidence of the negative emotion fueling him. “So you’re here to continue where you left off.”
She swallowed hard. Two could play at this game he’d accused her of. If she could keep him talking, maybe she’d find out what was going on. He wasn’t the same Dev. “Only if you still want me.”
“That’s an interesting proposition. Why don’t you make me...want you.” His voice grated the words. “If you can accomplish that feat, I’ll let you name your price.”
“What price are you talking about?” she cried in absolute shock.
His eyes narrowed to black slits. “One way or another, money is the reason you’re here.”
“You think?”
In spite of his cruelty to her, his dare emboldened Stephanie to take him up on it. Much as she wished she could turn off her desire for this man whose child she was carrying, it didn’t work that way. With her only thought being to get to the bottom of this nightmare, she reached for him and slid her arms around his neck.
“I’ve missed you,” she whispered, before pressing her mouth to his, needing to be convincing so he’d listen to her. “You have no idea how much.” After three months deprivation, her longing for him was at full strength, despite her pain at being abandoned. She needed to feel his arms around her and be kissed the way he’d done before, as if he was dying for her.
At first she could wring no response from him, and couldn’t bear it. Then, suddenly, she felt his groan before he pulled her closer, as if he couldn’t help himself. Every remembered memory came flooding back...the rapture, the ecstasy of his mouth and hands doing incredible things to her.
If anything, the flame of heat licked at both of them even more strongly than before. She rejoiced that she’d found him and that he still wanted her. His response couldn’t be feigned. He was definitely covering up something. But right this minute intense desire was the one truth between them, and she’d cling to it with every breath she possessed until she knew what had happened to him.
Their bodies swayed due to the intensity of their passion. He clung to her with surprising strength. Voluptuous warmth enveloped them, bringing her inestimable pleasure that was spiraling, taking her over the edge of coherent thought. “Could we go someplace private?” she begged against his lips. “I’ve needed to feel you like this for so long, but I’m afraid someone will see us.”
After a slight hesitation, he tore his lips from hers and released her. Before he pulled away she thought she saw torment in his eyes. “Come with me.” He sounded out of breath.
“Wait. I dropped my purse.” She retrieved it from the deck floor.
“No luggage?” he asked, falling back into that accusatory tone she hated.
“I only planned to come here for a few hours, so I left it in my hotel room on Chios.”
He studied her through veiled eyes, no doubt assessing the validity of her statement before grasping her hand. “We’ll go below.” Nikos pulled her to the top of the stairs and they descended. He led her down the hallway past the lounge. Beyond it was the galley and a laundry room. The master bedroom was on the end, with its en suite bathroom.
The bed was unmade. Had he slept on board last night? While she stood there, bombarded with questions she needed answers to, he shrugged out of his T-shirt. After throwing it on a chair, he sat on the end of the bed to remove his sandals. She took a quick breath when he stood up to get out of his cargo pants. Despite his weight loss, he was such a striking man her mouth went dry looking at his hard-muscled frame.
“What are you doing?”
He shot her a penetrating glance. “I thought this was what you wanted. I’ll pay your price after we’re finished. Let me help you.” In a lightning move he reached for her purse and tossed it on the chair on top of his shirt, panicking her.
“Wait, Dev—”
But he was beyond listening to her. “Delightful as that blouse is, I’m aching to see you again without any artifice. It’s been a long time since our all-nighter. Kissing you has caused me to remember how delightful you are. Do you want to remove it, or shall I?”
Suddenly apprehensive, she stepped away from him. The challenge she’d initiated, to break him down, had backfired and she started to be afraid. “Please don’t be like this, Dev. We need to talk.” She refused to tell him why she’d come all this way, until she understood the reason he’d changed into someone else. If he made love to her, he’d know what she was hiding.
His smile had a wicked curl. “I don’t remember you being this coy with me before. Come here.” He inched closer and caressed her cheek. “We were lovers. Why pretend to be shy now when you were—shall we say—so accommodating before?”
Heat flooded her face. He was the most irresistible male alive. She couldn’t bear it that there was this awful anger emanating from him. “For one night I slept in your bed, but I wouldn’t call us lovers, not when you took off the next day, never to be seen again.”
She felt his hands circle her neck, where he rubbed his thumbs over the pulse throbbing in the hollow of her throat. “That must have been a shock, eh?” he taunted. “Didn’t you like the flowers I left behind?” he whispered silkily. “You told me gardenias were your favorites.”
Stephanie had promised herself she wouldn’t break down in front of him, but she had to fight the sting of salt against her eyelids. “I loved them, and would have thanked you if you’d left me a forwarding address or phone number.”
His hands slid to her hair, where his fingers curled around the strands of her ponytail. “Since you’ve found me anyway, come to bed and show me just how much you loved them. Don’t worry. You’ll get what you came for.”
She shook her head. “Don’t do this, Dev. Whatever terrible thing you think I’ve done, those ten days we spent together have to account for something to cherish.”
“Cherish?” he mocked, wounding her all over again, before freeing her. His hands went to his hips in a stance of male beauty all its own. “That word connotes fidelity, loyalty. I wonder if an ounce of either quality exists inside that delectable body of yours.” His response dripped like acid from his lips.
Dev would be shocked if he knew what existed inside her and was growing with every passing minute. She pressed her arms to her waist, unable to forget for one second that she was carrying his son or daughter.
“It’s clear you believe I betrayed you in some way. How could I have done that? We were together constantly at the resort. On that first day you asked me to be your diving partner, not the other way around. I spent every waking moment with you instead of the girls who came with me. I never even left the resort to go shopping with them, because you wanted to be with me every second.
“When I read the note left in the flowers, you have no idea what it did to me. I realized I was only a spring fling to you. I—I thought it was more.” Her voice caught. Feeling unexpectedly nauseous, she moved over to the bed and sank down to recover.
He pinned her with those jet-black eyes. “Yet even though you got the message that our interlude was over, you came here, anyway.”
After what they’d shared, for him to say that it had been over since they’d left the Caribbean caused her spirits to plummet to a new low.
“Yes. It was important for me to see you again, to find out why you had to go back to your work so abruptly. What if you needed help? Possible reasons for your sudden disappearance plagued me, until I couldn’t sleep. I feared it might have even been a medical emergency that prompted you to write me that note, and you didn’t want me to worry about you.
“All this time I’ve wondered if something terrible had happened to you or your family, and you couldn’t confide in anyone who knew you. I simply didn’t know.” She bit her lip. “A few days ago I couldn’t stand it any longer and decided to search for you.”
“How did you manage that? Who told you my name?” He sounded beyond livid.
“No one!” she cried. “At least not in the way you mean.”
“Explain that to me.”
She stood up again, kneading her hands together. “When I couldn’t find a number or address for you in New York, I turned to the employees at the resort to try to get answers.” By the time she’d explained everything she’d done, his expression looked thunderous.
His dark head flew back. “Are you telling me you figured out what plane flew me out of the Caribbean?”
“Not at first. Taking you at your word that you had an emergency at work, I thought about the flights. One to Los Angeles and one to Vancouver. Why would you go to either place when you were working in New York? The private jet to Greece made no sense, either, at least not at first.
“I spent all night wondering. By morning I looked the name up on the computer and discovered Vassalos Maritime Shipping located on the island of Egnassou. I didn’t know if you were a Vassalos from Vassalos Maritime Shipping or an employee. But since you’d told me you worked for an international export company, I thought it was a close enough connection to find out. That’s why I brought the photographs, in case someone recognized you.
“I thought there might be a chance I could find you here. When the man at the shipping office desk recognized your picture, I knew I’d come to the end of my search. That’s when I realized you’d been lying to me the whole time. Undoubtedly, you do that whenever you meet a woman to enjoy for a time before you disappear.”
For a full minute he studied every square inch of her, his expression lethal. “Since you’ve accomplished your objective, let’s go to bed for old time’s sake, one more time, shall we? Then I’ll send you on your way with enough money to have made your trip worthwhile.”
Her body stiffened. “I don’t want your money and have already gotten what I came for, Dev.”
“The name is Nikos, as you damn well know!”
Nikos...
Somehow she’d thought Dev would soften while they were alone, and tell her why he’d lied to her. But the inscrutable man facing her bore little resemblance to her secret Adonis who’d brought her joy every second they’d been together. It hadn’t mattered whether they’d been walking on the beach or finding glorious sights in the aqua depths of the sea.
She decided this man didn’t deserve to know about the baby until it was born. He wouldn’t believe her if she told him now, anyway. In fact, she was beginning to think he’d drummed up this betrayal business on purpose, to get rid of her. He’d probably pulled the same excuse on his other lovers when he was through with them. If that was true, he’d done a stellar job.
Now that she had the main phone number of Vassalos Shipping, she could always leave a message for him next January. If he cared to answer, he’d learn then that he was a new father, not before.
His smile was beautifully cruel. “You’ve been playing me for a reason. Now I want to know what it is.”
Stephanie drew in a fortifying breath. “I’d hoped to get an honest answer out of you, but you’re not Dev Harris. Let’s just say I don’t want to ruin my memory of him. You, sir, are someone I don’t care to know. For all I know you have a wife and children. The thought of committing adultery with you makes me sick.”
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