Cathy Williams - Six Greek Heroes

They kept strictly away from discussing her mother and his great-uncle, which meant they stayed off the past altogether. It also meant she didn’t tell him about what happened when she was sixteen.

She wondered if she should, but the more time they spent together, the more convinced she became that she would have no problem engaging in sexual intimacy with him. She didn’t really want to talk about that dark time, so she made no effort to break the unspoken moratorium Sebastian had placed on discussing the past.

Phillippa called the first day and upon learning that Rachel was still on the island, insisted on speaking to her. After that, they spoke each afternoon. Rachel really enjoyed her chats with Sebastian’s mother. Phillippa treated Rachel like a valued friend, almost like a member of the family and she liked that.

At some point, she would have to return to work, but she couldn’t make herself contemplate leaving Sebastian and the relationship growing between them.

On the fourth morning after Phillippa left, Sebastian came to the breakfast table, his jaw taut and his eyes reflecting tension.

“What’s the matter?” she asked after he leaned over to kiss her square on the mouth.

He did that a lot. Kissing her, but he never pushed for more and while part of her appreciated his restraint, she couldn’t help wondering the why of it.

“I have business in Athens and must fly out today.”

Her heart sank. “I see. I guess I’d better look into that flight home.”

His mouth set in a grim line, he asked, “Is that what you want?”

“I should get back to California. I don’t know how long they’ll hold my job open.”

“You have only been in Greece for a week. Surely a family bereavement justifies more time away than that.”

“There’s no point in my staying on the island alone. I’ve finished all I needed to do.”

“You could come to Athens with me.”

The words dropped like stones into the silence around them and she stared helplessly at him. He was inviting her to take another step forward in their relationship. Athens meant real life and he wanted to take her into it with him.

He said nothing, his expression as blank as an unendorsed check.

Her head told her to ignore the seductive attraction of such an invitation and get out while part of her heart was intact, but her heart told her it already belonged to the powerful man and to go for it.

She’d been ruled by her head all of her life and while she had a lifestyle far removed from anything resembling her mother’s to show for it, she was also lonely. She’d wanted Sebastian for as long as she’d known him and the chance to do something about it stared her in the face.

To ignore it would be to forever shut a door her heart was screaming at her to walk through. “I’d like that.”

His face transformed with a smile that she couldn’t help returning.

“Then it shall be arranged.”

The flight to Athens was a short one with no chance to communicate over the loud whir of the helicopter blades. Not that she would have interrupted Sebastian’s intent study of documents from his briefcase even if she’d been wearing a communication headset. They were returning to Athens because he had no choice and that meant he needed to focus on the problem at hand, not entertaining her.

And she didn’t mind. Simply being in his company was something special.

When they arrived in Athens, the limo driver dropped Sebastian off in front of his building and then took her to an apartment in an exclusive suburb of the city.

The chauffeur disappeared with her luggage and a middle-aged Greek woman offered her refreshments. Rachel refused, more interested in exploring Sebastian’s sanctuary than anything else. The housekeeper nodded and returned to whatever she’d been doing when Rachel arrived.

His home was big and beautifully decorated, the great room big enough to fit her entire California apartment in with room to spare. It had an eating area as large as any formal dining room, a living area with a huge plasma screen television and a large corner of the room dedicated to reading with ceiling high bookcases and matching reading chairs.

All the furniture had a rather traditional feel; it and the accents were all done in smooth dark woods. His interior decorator liked neutral tones with splashes of color, which fit the vibrant man’s personality rather well.

Inappropriate and no doubt misplaced jealousy had her wondering how well the designer knew her client. It was not even a fair thought, much less a rational one. There was nothing to say that Sebastian’s designer had not been a man and absolutely no indication that the relationship had been anything but a professional one.

Nothing but Sebastian’s reputation for dating beautiful career women while getting serious about none of them.

The possessive feelings coursing through Rachel were not unfamiliar and had been another reason why she had spent the last few years in the States. Living far away from Greece, she had not been forced to watch Sebastian with other women.

She walked into the first bedroom off the hall wondering how wise she’d been to come to Athens with a man who was unashamedly commitment phobic. Even if he hadn’t despised her mother, he was hardly a sure thing in the emotional department.

The room she’d walked into was a fully furnished guest bedroom, but there was no sign of her luggage.

The next room had been converted into a home office complete with computer, printer, fax machine and a three-line telephone system. She didn’t think he’d mind her using the computer to check her E-mail, so she powered it up, her chaotic thoughts still whirling around her decision to accompany Sebastian rather than fly home.

There was so little chance of a future for them that it was practically nonexistent. However, the feelings she had for him demanded she not walk away even if their chance at a future together had worse odds than winning the jackpot in California’s state lottery.

She loved him.

She couldn’t deny it. No other reason explained her inexplicable decision to stay on the island and to come with him to Athens knowing how little interest he had in a long-term relationship.

It was horribly ironic that she’d fallen in love with the one man programmed by her mother’s behavior to steer clear of any woman from the Long family. But there were lottery winners and maybe she could be a winner at love too.

It took only a moment to check her E-mail via her server’s Web site once the computer came online. There were several messages. So many in fact, that she almost deleted one from a friend of her mother’s in a wholesale clearing of junk mail from her in-box. She stopped herself just in time and clicked on the message, expecting an expression of sympathy of her recent loss.

Instead, the E-mail was a barely coherent diatribe about Matthias Demakis and his threat to divorce Andrea. It was only then that Rachel realized the message had been written the same day as the accident. She hadn’t received it before she left and now wished she’d deleted it with the junk mail.

Apparently Matthias had gotten fed up with his wife’s outrageous behavior and told her that he intended to divorce her, settling a small alimony stipend on her. Nothing like enough to make it possible for her to continue with her current decadent lifestyle. Her mother’s friend believed Rachel should come to Greece and stand beside Andrea in her time of need.

The thought was a nauseating one.

The very suggestion she stand by her mother’s side in such a scenario was obscene. The additional suggestion by her mother’s friend that it was in Rachel’s own best interest was just as appalling. She’d never considered Matthias Demakis a meal ticket and hated the fact that anyone would assume she did simply because she was Andrea’s daughter. She would never have countenanced a bid for more money by Andrea from a man who had already paid far too much in his marriage to her.