Chapter Thirteen
Chapter
Thirteen
Theo
Being friends with Dani over the past thirty years meant learning to cope with jealousy.
Theo had watched men come and go. He’d watched her heart get broken and her break hearts in return.
He’d witnessed her flirting, and on more than one occasion, he’d been sitting right next to her when someone came up and asked her out.
But it didn’t mean he had to like it.
He needed to shake it off. One more night. He could spend one more night with her and then they’d, hopefully, return to the States and get back to their—separate—lives.
Theo grabbed his and Dani’s bags and headed down the hall toward the room Christos pointed out. Please, please, please let there be a couch in this room. He couldn’t spend another night in a bed next to her, and he wasn’t sure his shoulder could take a night on the floor.
Dani opened the room and stepped inside. But when Theo went to follow her in, he was greeted (pleasantly) by her backside.
“What are you—” he started, but quickly stopped once he craned his neck around the open door.
He should have wished for more than a couch. This room wasn’t much bigger than a tin of sardines.
Dani squeezed the rest of the way into the room with the door only inches from hitting the bed. “I know rooms in Europe are smaller than in the U.S., but this is…”
Her voice trailed off, so he finished her sentence. “Puny.”
There wasn’t a couch. Just a bed. There wasn’t even room for him to sleep on the floor, not if he didn’t want to be in the way of the door. And the full-size bed didn’t look nearly large enough for the two of them.
They closed the door and both stood, staring at the bed.
“Is it me or do the beds keep getting smaller?” she asked.
He couldn’t help but snicker, washing away all the frustration and annoyance from earlier.
“Why are you laughing? This is ridiculous!” she said. “What the hell are we supposed to do with this?” she asked.
“I think we’re supposed to sleep on it.”
“Quit joking around! This can’t be it,” she said, trying not to laugh and gently shoving him.
“And what do you think the alternative is?”
“Argh!” she groaned and face-planted on the bed…
Ker-chunk!
The metal bedframe collapsed and bent toward the center, turning the mattress into the shape of a canoe.
“Oh, come on!” she called out to the ether. “My ass isn’t that big!”
Theo burst out laughing.
“Stop laughing! This isn’t funny.”
“I mean…it’s a little funny,” he said, standing at the edge of the bed and staring down at her.
“No, it’s not! I’m caught in a mattress taco! Mattresses should be tostadas, not tacos!”
“Can I please change your nickname from Juicy to Mattress Taco?” he asked, unable to control his laughter.
“No!” she said, rolling over and pointing at him. “I’m not a mattress taco!”
“Wait here. I’m going to ask Christos to borrow his phone so I can get a picture,” Theo joked.
“Don’t you dare! Now help me,” she said, reaching her arm out for him.
He leaned over the bed and lent her his arm to pull her out.
But with the shape of the bed and the dip in the center, he lost his balance and tumbled into the fold with her.
They both burst into laughter as limbs flew everywhere.
Body parts pressed against each other. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he’d felt her breasts. Or maybe it was her ass.
But she’d definitely just placed her hand high on his thigh, a little too close to his groin. Dangerously close.
“There is no way we can sleep on this,” he said.
“That’s what I’ve been saying all along!”
They struggled, wriggling around to get their balance, but it was no use. The bed was fucked. The door suddenly flew open, however, and immediately cut off their laughter.
“What happened?” Christos said with mild exasperation, putting his hands on his head.
“I sat down, and it literally collapsed,” Dani tried to explain, propping herself up on top of Theo.
“We can pay for it,” Theo said.
“I’m not worried about that,” Christos said, waving Theo off. “Come on, I’ve got another room.”
Theo scooted toward the edge of the bed, trying not to put weight on his bad shoulder. Once he was almost out, he reached over to her. “Here,” he said, offering his hand and then pulling her the rest of the way.
Theo grabbed their bags again, then they shuffled back down the hall toward another door. Christos stood with his hand on the knob, clearly hesitating.
“I’m sorry, but this is all I’ve got left,” he said, opening the door to a larger room—but with an even smaller bed covered in a frilly pink bedspread.
They stepped inside and looked around. “It’s my girlfriend’s daughter’s room,” Christos explained.
“There’s another little room with a desk over there.
” He pointed to another door on the wall opposite the bed.
“It’s great, really,” Dani said. “Thank you, we appreciate it.”
“Well, take your time. My girlfriend will be over for dinner, but it won’t be ready for a while still,” Christos said. “Bathroom’s down the hall. I’ll leave you to it.”
Once he left and the door clicked shut, Theo and Dani took one look at each other and both burst out laughing.
“Okay, this was not what I’d expect from a man who drives a Keraboss Super K,” Dani said. “I pictured more discotheque and hanging with the guys from that ride.”
No, definitely not. Seemed underneath the flashy car and personality was a softie.
They each turned toward their bags, searching for something to change into, and Dani took a quick shower.
Once she returned in a robe she must have found in the bathroom, it was Theo’s turn.
Without needing to ask, Dani helped him take off his shirt.
No words were spoken, but he noticed her inspecting his tattoo once more.
Π?ντα ?σουν εσ?.
He sped off to the bathroom before she could ask what it meant again.
Fortunately, taking a shower was easier than the bath.
By the time he emerged and threw on a pair of fresh navy chinos and a white-and-navy-checkered button-down (much easier than pulling something over his head), Dani was already dressed in the room, wearing a pink and orange wrap dress that hugged in all the right places and opened at a slit on her thigh.
Theo couldn’t take his eyes off her. And chances were, other men—like Andreas—wouldn’t be able to take their eyes off her, either.
“Do you like it?” she asked after noticing him looking. “I got it from that cute little boutique in downtown Grand Rapids a few months ago.” She did a half twirl that revealed way more thigh than should have been legal. Not with the type of scandalous thoughts running through Theo’s head.
“Are you sure you won’t be cold?” was all Theo could say in response.
Dani frowned. “Theo, it was a million degrees today.”
“Yeah, but the evenings get cooler.”
“Then I’ll ask Andreas or Christos to borrow a jacket,” she said, shrugging.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” he asked.
“What on earth are you talking about?” she asked, furrowing her brow.
Okay, now Theo was getting annoyed. It was one thing for her to flirt with the guy. It was another thing to pretend like she wasn’t.
“I’m only saying…I think maybe you and Andreas were a little too…friendly, earlier.”
“Friendly?”
Theo rolled his eyes. “Don’t be coy, Daniela.”
“Oh my God,” Dani guffawed. “If you haven’t noticed, Theo, Maurice and Louis aren’t here anymore. We don’t have to keep pretending.”
“We told his yayá we were engaged, and there the two of you were, flirting right in front of me. How can we trust someone like that?”
“I wasn’t flirting. He was. And trusting him is easy seeing as we don’t have any other choice right now.”
Her nonchalance turned his stomach.
“Fine. Look but don’t touch,” he said.
Where the hell did that come from? The minute the words were out of his mouth, he wished he could suck them back in.
“Look but don’t touch?” she repeated with disbelief, craning her neck to glare. “For fuck’s sake, you’re really taking this big-brother thing a little too far, don’t you think?”
“I’m trying to protect you,” he growled, standing less than two feet from her.
“Protect me?” She spun around and brought her finger up to his face. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t even be in this mess!”
“And if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be, either!” he said, taking a step forward.
Shit.
He hadn’t meant to say that.
She cocked her head back, clearly having whiplash from what he’d said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, her eyes narrowing at him.
He couldn’t tell her the truth. That after he’d heard about her beau from her dad, he went to the karaoke joint to confirm for himself.
That seeing her singing on the stage while staring lovingly at her new man didn’t just make him jealous—it crushed him.
That the only thing he thought to do about it was to get as far away from her as possible.
So he could forget. So he could finally move on. Maybe he’d even come to Greece and find himself a Good Greek Girl who didn’t highlight all the things he liked about Dani.
Because he couldn’t watch her with someone else. He couldn’t forgive himself for waiting too long to tell her how he felt. Distance was the only answer.
No, he couldn’t tell her any of that.
“I mean that if you hadn’t been snooping around Knossos, Vautour never would have even known you existed,” he said, instead. “And if you hadn’t gotten caught, I wouldn’t have had to pretend you’re my fiancée to keep you safe.”
“Oh, so this is my fault?” she asked, now turning her finger inward. “Need I remind you, Theo, that you were the one who came looking for me at the museum, not the other way around,” she said, pressing her finger into her chest, giving him yet another reason to look at her breasts.
Gutterbrain. Snap out of it.