Chapter Nine
Chapter
Nine
Theo
What had he been thinking? Teasing her. Egging her on. Allowing her to fucking bathe him.
All night long, he replayed “bath time” in his head.
No matter how hard he tried not thinking about it, his mind and body wouldn’t let him forget the way her fingers felt, massaging his scalp.
Or the fact that she’d seen his cock. And ass.
It didn’t help that his shoulder was pulsating with a throbbing pain that kept him up.
Though if he was really being honest with himself, his aching cock was more distracting than his shoulder.
The sun was starting to come up, casting an orange glow in the room.
A sliver of light sliced through the curtains, casting a radiant beam along Dani’s curves as she lay on her side facing away from him.
They’d both seemed to dangle as close to the edge of the mattress as possible, leaving a solid two feet between their bodies.
But Theo couldn’t chance that they might touch.
They’d done enough of that for the evening.
Π?ντα ?σουν εσ?.
He let his mind relive Dani’s fingers tracing his tattoo, sending a warm tingle along his obliques. How could he explain the words? Her words.
It’s always been you.
He watched her lying there and thought back to that night.
To the way they’d slept together on the couch, her nestled perfectly into his body, holding her hand to that area on his side, mindlessly running her fingers back and forth on his skin in that exact spot.
There had been so many things he’d wanted to do, wanted to say, but he couldn’t.
Not yet. But they had time. They had forever.
At the time, the tattoo had seemed the perfect way to remember that night.
Now that he had the words etched on his body, however, he realized he didn’t need a reminder of that night.
Like he’d ever forget it, even if she had.
Her words cycled through his head constantly.
With the way he felt about her, the way he’d always felt, it didn’t seem possible that she hadn’t meant it when she said the words.
Now the tattoo seemed foolish. He couldn’t tell her what it meant. Not now.
Not ever.
Dani started to stir, and for an instant, Theo thought about pretending he was asleep, but what was the point? She turned her head to look behind her, noticing that he was already awake, then yawned before turning over fully and tucking her forearms under her head.
“Hi,” she said with a smile that would melt any man’s heart.
“Hi,” he responded almost as if he were in a stupor.
Way to play it cool.
“How’s your shoulder?” she asked.
“It’s okay. I think so long as we’re not playing tackle football, I should be fine.”
“So you’re gonna live?”
“Yes, I’ll live.” He smiled. “How did you sleep?”
“Well, I can’t say it was as comfortable as Vautour’s place, but I suppose I slept all right, all things considered. Could have been worse.”
“Oh yeah? How so?”
“You could have snored. It’s funny. I always pictured you a snorer.”
He made an interested face. “And why is that?”
“Because most men snore. I mean, jeez, have you ever heard Eddie? If anything could drive me to murder…” She let her voice trail off.
Theo knew exactly what she was talking about. He couldn’t count the number of times he had to throw a pillow at Eddie when they had sleepovers. Yet even still, Theo felt the need to vindicate his best friend.
“Well, you were snoring last night,” he fibbed.
Dani shot up from the bed, her face absolutely mortified. “No, I wasn’t!”
“Oh yeah, totally sawing logs all night long. I had to put a pillow over my head to drown it out,” he teased.
“You’re joking,” she proclaimed. But when he didn’t respond, she followed up, “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“Sorry, Juicy. Like brother, like sister. I always thought there was something about you that reminded me of Eddie,” he said, putting his finger to his chin and looking up like he was thinking.
“Shut up!” she said, throwing a pillow at him. Theo laughed, catching the pillow before it hit him in the face. “I knew I didn’t snore.”
Theo took the pillow and brought it behind his back, propping himself up.
“Give me back my pillow,” she said.
“Nope, sorry. Snore tax.” He fluffed up both pillows, making himself more comfortable.
“I wasn’t snoring.” She glared at him, trying her best to look serious in this rather unserious conversation.
He shrugged, then nestled into the cushions like he was settling back into bed.
With a quick movement, Dani reached over to snatch the pillow back from Theo, but he caught her wrist before she was able to take it.
They paused, staring at each other for a solid beat, before Dani scrambled for the pillow, sending arms flailing, bodies thrown about the bed.
She tried scowling, but their laughter broke through, turning to giggles when he touched the sides of her stomach.
“Don’t,” she said, still laughing. “You know I’m ticklish.”
Oh, Theo knew, all right. Eddie used to tickle her as a form of torture, which satisfyingly resulted in her kicking him in the face once.
“Oh yeah?” he said, his hands shooting to her waist again.
But Dani wasn’t having it. She batted his hands away and placed her own on his bare stomach.
Fuck. Theo was ticklish, too.
He struggled to get out from under the bedspread, but once Dani realized what he was doing, she swung her leg over his waist, straddling him while her hands danced all over his body.
Her touch turned from ticklish to sensual. And now with her looming over him with her beautiful black hair cascading over her shoulders and her breasts freely swaying underneath her loose-fitting tank top—fuck—he could feel himself starting to get hard. This was not what he needed.
Her hand ran over his body, touching his tattoo and sending a zap through him, a jolt that startled her and they both froze. She felt it, too.
“Did that hurt?” she asked.
No, it didn’t hurt.
It burned.
“It’s my shoulder,” he said, even though she’d been nowhere near his shoulder.
She raised her head then nodded like she understood.
Understood he was full of shit.
“I suppose we should probably start getting ready,” she said. “Who knows when Maurice and Louis are going to come knocking.”
Right. Maurice and Louis. For a brief moment, he and Dani were the only people who had existed.
He’d forgotten where they were and what they were doing.
Finally, he experienced a bit of normalcy, of his life back home.
Not that he and Dani had ever been in this position—literally—before, but being around her gave him comfort.
And made everything else, everything that was bad, fade away.
But only for a moment.
“Yeah,” he simply said.
She shifted her weight to dismount him when her ass grazed his now fully hard cock.
There was no way she hadn’t felt it. She sucked in a quick breath and her eyes widened just a fraction, then she swung her leg wide, presumably to avoid hitting his dick.
The instant her body was off him, he coughed and shifted in the bed, trying his best to hide his hard-on by sliding one foot to prop up his knee.
As if she didn’t already know it was there.
He tried not to stare at her ass as she bent over her bag, digging out a set of clothes before heading to the bathroom. The instant the door clicked shut, he grabbed his cock to readjust himself and relieve the pressure, then leaned his head back against the headboard.
It’s always been you.
* * *
The road to Demetrios’s was long, winding, and bumpy as fuck.
Theo tried to put the morning out of his mind, focusing on the task at hand.
Their little frolic in the bedroom was nothing but a momentary distraction.
If they were going to find the eye, he needed to think more about the Minoans and less about how it felt to have Dani straddling him.
“I heard one of the world’s oldest olive trees is somewhere on Crete,” Dani said, leaning forward to speak with Maurice. “They think it’s like three thousand years old.” Must have been something she’d learned on her tour.
“We’re not stopping,” Maurice said as they careened down the dirt road.
Dani sat back in the seat, almost pouting. It was cute that she still wanted to see the sights. Maybe if they got out of this mess, he could take her on a private tour of Greece.
Theo quickly shook the thought away. Like she’d ever want to come back after this. Not to mention her boyfriend.
They pulled up to a giant old stone building with a large medallion with an eye and the μ on the side, most likely the mill.
Rows of olive trees with their twisty trunks scattered the hillside across the property behind the building.
To the right a bit farther up the driveway was a house.
Theo tried picturing the Minoans in this place thousands of years ago.
Who knew. Like Dani said, some of these very trees could have been that old.
All four of them got out of the car and walked over to the building. “No funny business,” Maurice reminded him. “And no Greek.”
Did they really need the warning each and every time they went anywhere?
“What if they don’t speak English?” Theo asked.
“They’ll figure it out.”
Theo internally rolled his eyes. Sure, many locals spoke English, but he hated the entitlement in Maurice’s voice.
He walked up to a man pushing a wheelbarrow full of olives.
“Excuse me, do you speak English?” Theo asked.
“Yes,” the man responded.
“Is the owner here?” Theo asked.
“We don’t do tours at this facility on weekdays,” the man responded.
“Oh, we’re not tourists. We’re…”
What? How to explain to this man without setting off alarm bells?
“We’re food writers and we’re writing a book on olive oil. We heard this is one of the oldest olive oil farms in all of Greece.”
That was believable, right?
“Crete,” the man said.
Theo tipped his head, unsure of what he was getting at.
“Oldest in Crete,” the man clarified.