“I’m not funding this willful, unnecessary folly, Kizzy.”
She was taken aback by his sharp tone. “Don’t worry. I’ll pay for it myself. I’m not content to rely on other people for the rest of my life.”
Andreas firmly took hold of her wrists, pulled them away from her chest, and covered her mouth with his before she could utter another word. She tried to stay tense and annoyed with him, but it was not long before the seductive effect of his kiss worked its magic and she softened in spite of herself. The man’s charm was irresistible.
“You don’t need a driver’s license,” Andreas murmured against her lips. “Stop fighting me on this. You have me to look after you now. Just let me take care of you.”
Kizzy sensed a change in him, and was suddenly reminded that she couldn’t risk relying on him being there forever. That was not the deal they had struck. A dark, brooding foreboding seemed to glide over and between them. “Tell me the truth, Andreas, there has to be more to your refusal. What’s the real reason you won’t drive me to Prasonisi?”
He loosened his hold on her and slowly straightened his shoulders, his face a mask. “The real reason?”
Kizzy nodded solemnly and took a deep breath. “I deserve to know.”
He sighed heavily and ran his hands through his hair. “The real reason is that I was planning a surprise meal for us at an exclusive mountain restaurant I know at Prasonisi. I was rather looking forward to sharing a bottle of champagne with you. I thought it would be good to chat for a few hours over a leisurely meal—just the two of us. But I can’t drink and drive.”
“Oh.”
“Exactly.” He traced a line with his fingers around the smooth contour of her jaw. “I think it’s time we went home to bed now, don’t you? No more arguing. No more Kizzy Dean defiance. Please?”
“I’m sorry,” Kizzy murmured. “I don’t know what got into me, behaving like a spoiled child—”
“Don’t worry about it. We’re both tired. Besides, you can make amends for spoiling my surprise with that amazing body of yours.”
…
Sitting on the picturesque lower terrace of the villa, Kizzy closed her eyes for a leisurely moment and inhaled the salt air from the bay. She had missed Andreas more than ever over the last few days while he had been attending his conference in Paris. The trip down to Prasonisi had been wonderful and had made their parting even more unbearable, so she had decided to wait at the villa for him to return, rather than go into work as usual, to ensure that she saw him as soon as possible.
She glanced at her watch and began to feel a little uneasy. He should have been back a few hours ago, according to his flight plans. Still, somehow she managed to smother the unhelpful thoughts that were beginning to invade her mind. She should be used to his frequent business trips by now. Andreas was an incredibly driven man, almost to the point of being a workaholic, so she wouldn’t put it past him to drop in on a few local business concerns before he actually came back to the villa.
Kizzy twitched as she felt a velvety brush around her bare calves. “Diablo,” she crooned, “what’s up with you?”
Callista’s cat had almost as much influence as Dorinda in the villa. Andreas seemed to dote on her even when she hissed and scratched, and he tolerated her kittens too, now that they had all been spayed. His patience with them was infinite, however unreasonable their behavior or demands. But then, they were the only survivors of the crash that had killed his sister, she had discovered from Dorinda. Andreas’s sister had been desperate to get the semi-feral cat to a vet when the animal was struggling to give birth. It was this act of compassion that had cost his sister her life.
Suddenly, Kizzy’s heart leapt at the sound of his familiar voice.
He must be taking a call on his cell phone, she thought, and stood up from her seat under the shade of an ancient fig tree to greet him, brushing out the creases from the new red dress he had bought her—it was the one she had refused to try on in Rhodes, and somehow it seemed right to put it on for him today.
She pressed her lips together to ensure just a trace of cherry-tinted lip balm remained, but not so much that she would cover him in smears when they kissed.
Then her excited heart shuddered and almost stopped.
Andreas had emerged from behind a stone wall on the upper terrace and was heading back toward the main villa courtyard. He was laughing. And so was his companion.
She was as petite as a shop mannequin, with blue-black hair that fell below her waist like a silk curtain. Andreas had her tucked neatly under one of his broad shoulders as he stopped and turned to place a kiss on the woman’s forehead. Kizzy’s hand flew to her mouth as she stifled a small cry of shock and then struggled to prevent the sudden rise of physical sickness that she could feel welling up inside her. They were chatting in Greek, so she couldn’t understand what they were saying, but the air of intimacy that surrounded them was undeniable.
Kizzy clenched her hands into fists to stop them from shaking and forced them against her lips while she silently watched the pair disappear into the villa, still laughing. Acid tears burned the back of her throat as her fight to suppress them failed.
So this was how it was going to end.
She had known it would happen one day—it had been inevitable, but so soon?
A dark cloud fell over the memories of the last six weeks since their return from the island, as Kizzy faced up to the realization that he must have planned all this some time ago. It was obvious now—once Andreas had decided she wasn’t the type of mistress material he was after, he had found her a job to keep her safely out of the way while he lined up a replacement!
Anger rose up in her throat and manifested itself in a small guttural cry of self-preservation as her decision was quickly made. She had no choice, not if she had any pride left, nor if she had any respect for her mother’s memory and the promise she had made never to let a man grind her into the dust.
He was not going to discard her and there was no way she was going to hang around until he finally decided to break the bad news to her.
She was going to walk out on him.
Her front teeth bit down hard on her bottom lip and she forced her heavy limbs toward the wooden door that led to the outside world. She needed time to think, to regroup, and work out a way to maintain a shred of dignity when her heart was shattering into a million tiny pieces. Yet all she seemed able to think about was Andreas’s new woman—and scratching her eyes out.