And he didn’t deserve to be alone.
He deserved to be loved.
Through the window of her apartment she could see couples walking hand in hand along the street on their way to the nearest beach. Families with small children, the nice gay couple who owned Brittany’s favourite bar. Everyone was in pairs. It was like living in Noah’s ark, she thought gloomily, two by two.
She resisted the urge to lie down on the narrow bed and sob until her head ached. Brittany needed her. She didn’t have time for self-indulgent misery, especially when this whole thing was her own fault.
She found a shirt that buttoned down the front and was folding it carefully when she heard a commotion in the street outside.
Lily felt a flicker of panic. The cab couldn’t be here already, surely?
She was about to lean out of the window and ask him to wait when someone pounded on the door.
‘Lily?’ Nik’s voice thundered through the woodwork. ‘Open the door.’
The ground shifted beneath her feet and for a moment she thought there had been a minor earthquake. Then she realised it was her knees that were trembling, not the floor.
What was he doing here?
Dragging herself to the door, she opened it cautiously. ‘Stop banging. These apartments aren’t very well built. A cupboard fell off the wall last week.’ She took in his rumpled appearance and the tension in his handsome face and felt a stab of concern. ‘Is something the matter? You look terrible. Was your phone call bad news?’
‘Are you ill?’ He spoke in a roughened tone and she looked at him in astonishment.
‘What makes you think I’m ill?’
‘Vassilis told me he took you to the emergency department. You were very pale on the boat. You should have told me you were feeling so unwell.’
He thought she’d gone to the hospital for herself? ‘Brittany is the one in hospital. She had a fall. I’m on my way there now with some stuff. I really need to finish packing. The cab will be here soon.’ Knowing she couldn’t keep this up for much longer, she turned away but he caught her arm in a tight grip.
‘Why did you walk away from me? I thought we agreed you were going to stay another night.’
‘I didn’t walk. I bounded. That’s what happens after rebound sex. You bound.’ She kept it light and heard him curse softly under his breath.
‘You didn’t need to leave.’
‘Yes, I did.’ Aware that her neighbours were probably enjoying the show, she reached past him and closed the door. ‘I shouldn’t have agreed to stay in the first place. I wasn’t playing by the rules. And as it happened Brittany needed me, so your phone call was perfect timing.’
‘It was terrible timing.’
Discovering that being in the same room as him was even harder than not being in the same room as him, Lily walked back to the bedroom and finished packing. ‘So you’re flying back to New York? That sounds exciting.’
‘Business demands I fly back to the US, but I have things to settle here first.’
She wondered if she was one of the things he had to settle.
He was trying to find a tactful way of reminding her their relationship hadn’t been serious.
The ache inside grew worse. She tried to think of something to say that would make it easy for him. ‘I have to get to the hospital. Brittany fell on site and fractured her wrist. She’s waiting for me to bring her clothes and things and then I have to arrange a flight for her back to Maine because she can’t stay here. She has invited me to spend August with her. I’m going to say yes.’
‘Is that what you want?’
Of course it wasn’t what she wanted. ‘It will be fantastic.’ Her control was close to snapping. ‘Did you want something, Nik? Because I have to ring a cab, take some clothes to Brittany at the hospital and then battle with the stupid Wi-Fi to book a ticket and it’s a nightmare. I did some research before the Internet crashed and at best it’s a nineteen-hour journey with two changes. She’s going to have to fly to Athens, then to Munich where she can get a direct flight to Boston. I still have to research how she gets from Boston to Puffin Island, but I can guarantee that by the time she arrives home she’ll be half dead. I’m going to fly with her because she can’t do it on her own, but I hadn’t exactly budgeted for a ticket to the US so I’m having to do a bit of financial juggling.’
‘What if I want to change the rules?’
‘Sorry?’
‘You said you weren’t playing by the rules.’ His gaze was steady on her face. ‘What if I want to change the rules?’