Chapter 19
Tiffany wasn’t sure how she got through the day after their shower session.
And the session before that when Theo had proved beyond doubt he was a man who liked to eat.
Over the intervening months since the wedding, she’d thought about their night together so often, she’d figured she’d somehow exaggerated how good he was at pleasuring a woman.
Romanticised the entire experience.
But nope. The man ate pussy like the ancient Greek Gods of Greed and Debauchery had sent him to earth entirely for the purpose of cunnilingus.
And she’d wanted to kiss him so bad this morning, her lips burning with the need for his mouth. It had been so freaking tempting. But they’d pushed the envelope enough and she’d known if they started, they wouldn’t stop and that envelope wouldn’t have just been pushed, it’d have been incinerated.
Fortunately, it was Dimitri and Helena’s last day and she thanked all the Greek gods for that as they motored to Mykonos where they were dining together one last time before they parted ways.
Frankly, it couldn’t come soon enough.
Because then things between her and Theo could get back to normal.
Him above deck, her below. Him, an uber-wealthy, entitled playboy so commitment-phobic he’d had a vasectomy at the age of twenty-two.
Her, a cruise ship croupier from an outback cattle station and wannabe author who had no intention of ever being a rich man’s darling.
They just had to get through lunch.
Which, in the end, wasn’t much of a hardship. The taverna was away from the Mykonos tourist traps and known and beloved by both Dimitri and Theo, who’d been greeted by several people before they’d even taken a seat.
It was obviously a family restaurant well patronised by locals, every age group sitting around rough-hewn tables bearing checked tablecloths.
An area was cleared for a dance floor where little kids grooved to the traditional folk songs being played by three old guys sitting in an alcove wearing traditional Greek vests – a guitarist, a bouzouki player and a guy playing the accordion.
The atmosphere was lively rather than loud and the lamb she’d ordered and devoured had melted in her mouth.
‘To the happy couple,’ Dimitri said as they all raised their shot glasses of ouzo that had been delivered compliments of the house.
‘It has been an absolute delight getting to know you, Tiffany.’
Dimitri smiled at her as Helena added, ‘We’ve had a thoroughly enjoyable two days.’
Despite her wanting it over, Tiffany couldn’t help but agree. Their guests had been easy-going and good company. ‘I’m so pleased we had a chance to get to know one another,’ she said. ‘We’ve had a great time, haven’t we, Theo?’
She knew Theo had history with Dimitri that wasn’t so pleasant but, for all that, he’d seemed to enjoy having the old man around. ‘Indeed,’ Theo graciously agreed, his gaze lingering on hers, making Tiffany think it wasn’t the company to which he was referring.
‘ Yamas ,’ Dimitri said as they all tapped their glasses together.
‘ Yamas ,’ Tiffany murmured in unison with the other three as she promptly threw back the shot, enjoying the spicy aromatics of the aniseed flavour.
Dimitri nudged Theo with a chuckle. ‘This one is definitely a keeper.’
Theo laughed and said, ‘Indeed,’ again with a wriggle of his eyebrows.
Gesturing to the waiter, Dimitri said, ‘Another, please.’
‘Dimitri,’ Helena chided.
‘Just one more,’ he coaxed, shooting his wife a smile.
Rolling her eyes, she said, ‘One more. Or you’ll be asleep in your supper.’
He laughed heartily as he winked at Theo. ‘Never get old, Theo.’ He waved the waiter over. ‘It is a terrible thing.’
Considering Dimitri was relatively spry, he didn’t look too heartbroken as their glasses were topped up and they all clinked again, knocking back the second shot with another round of, ‘ Yamas .’
‘Theo!’
Tiffany looked over her shoulder to find a man maybe ten years older than Theo approaching. He was tall and distinguished with elegant grey wings in his hair.
‘Vasilis!’ Theo smiled and rose from his seat and the two men hugged affectionately as they spoke in rapid-fire Greek Tiffany had no hope of picking up, before he performed the introductions, switching to English for her benefit.
‘And this is Tiffany.’
‘Tiffany.’ Vasilis, an old friend of Theo’s who apparently lived on Mykonos and was into real estate, glanced speculatively from her to him, back to her again, his gaze not missing the ring on her finger as he bowed over her hand. ‘Where has he been hiding you?’ he asked in accented English.
She smiled. ‘On his superyacht.’ Everyone laughed, but hey, it was kinda true.
‘Is Deidre here?’ Theo asked.
‘Of course.’ He pointed to a table closer to the back where a stunning woman in red chatted to two adorable girls who looked about five or six, with chocolate curls and matching floral sundresses. ‘The twins are here too.’
‘Gosh, they’ve grown,’ Theo remarked.
‘Time flies, my friend,’ he said, slinging an arm around Theo’s shoulders.
‘This is just what I was telling him,’ Dimitri murmured.
Vasilis opened his mouth as if to agree but stopped as the musicians started a new song, and he grinned instead.
‘Tiffany.’ He smiled at her. ‘This is your lucky day. Nobody dances the Sirtaki like me. Theo’ – he pronounced it with its full Greek inflection, the way Dimitri and Helena had done the last couple of days – ‘tell her how well I dance.’
Theo laughed. ‘You used to, back before you had grey hair and two little girls.’
‘Some things you don’t forget.’ He held out his hand. ‘Come.’ He winked at her. ‘Dance with me.’
‘Oh.’ Tiffany shook her head. She could shake her booty in a night club as well as the next person, but folk dancing was not her thing. ‘I don’t know…’
He waved away her objections. ‘It’s the Zorba song, everyone knows that dance.’
Tuning into the music, Tiffany realised she did recognise the tune, the slow and repetitive opening notes warbling from the bouzouki the soundtrack to so many Greek movies and television she’d watched over the years.
‘Follow my lead,’ he said with a wink.
Laughing, Tiffany let him tug her onto the empty dance floor.
She could see people turning in their chairs to watch but was only conscious of Theo’s gaze as she stood beside Vasilis, one arm straddling his shoulders, the other raised out to her side as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, travelling a few steps one way, then back again as she followed his lead.
Theo’s gaze followed her and she felt… sexy as the tempo of the song slowly picked up. Another expensive kaftan-style dress shifted and moved with her body, floating and skimming as she pushed her hair behind her ears to expose gold hoops swinging against the side of her neck.
Other people joined them, her arm straddling someone else’s shoulder on the other side as a line formed and then when it didn’t fit on the dance floor, it morphed into a circle, the music getting faster and faster.
She laughed up at Vasilis as she fumbled the steps trying to keep up but all the time, acutely aware of Theo. Watching her.
His intense gaze a brand on her flesh that thrilled and titillated.
Then suddenly he was there, squeezing into the circle beside her, his hand sliding to her opposite shoulder, her hand sliding to his nape, instantly falling in with the tempo, smiling down at her as she smiled up at him and her heart fluttered madly, and not from exertion.
Vasilis’s wife joined them too, their twin girls spinning around in the middle of the circle as the music reached its crescendo and stopped dramatically to claps and cheers.
Without conscious thought, Tiffany collapsed laughing into Theo’s arms, energised and caught up in the joy and the spirit in the taverna.
‘That was great,’ she said, her face aching from smiling so hard as she raised her voice to be heard over the noise of the crowded dance floor.
He grinned. ‘You were great.’
‘She’s a keeper, that one,’ Vasilis teased Theo as he swung one of his daughters up in his arms.
Theo nodded, his blue eyes flirty. ‘She is.’
And Tiffany’s heart went kerthunk .
* * *
Dimitri and Helena left soon after the dancing with hints about wedding invitations, but Tiffany and Theo stayed on for a while, joining Vasilis and Deidre, indulging in another ouzo or two and relaxed, affectionate banter, and it reminded Tiffany of the time Theo’s English friends had stayed on the yacht.
Except perhaps even more so given the closer cultural ties between Vasilis and Theo.
The couple’s curiosity about Tiffany and Theo’s relationship was palpable – Deidre’s gaze kept drifting to the engagement ring – and she and Theo didn’t do much to tamp it down considering they could have easily dropped the act with Dimitri and Helena gone.
But, high on good company and good food, on dancing and ouzo and two giggling girls who gazed at Theo adoringly, it was too easy to keep touching and flirting.
And here, in the bubble of this little local taverna, it didn’t feel like an act. But perhaps that was the ouzo.
Thankfully, Deidre and Vasilis were too polite to push and Tiffany was pleased she didn’t have to lie to anyone else. She was also pleased to see yet another facet of Theo’s life. The one here on Mykonos, which he clearly relished as he talked about retiring here one day.
‘Did you mean that?’ she asked as they left the taverna later in the afternoon. ‘About retiring?’
He’d been holding her hand as they’d left and it felt like the most natural thing in the world to keep doing so as they walked past whitewashed houses along cobblestoned pathways, the thick white paint between the stones making it look as if it had been crazy glued together.
‘Yes,’ he said with a smile. ‘Absolutely. One day.’
‘Kelsey says your house here is stunning.’
‘It is. Even if I do say so myself.’ He gave a self-deprecating laugh. ‘Want to see it?’