‘Come back to bed. I’ll fly you back to Antaxos later if that’s what you want. We’ll pick up whatever it is you need and then you can come back to Athens with me. I’ll help you with your business.’
‘I have to do this by myself.’
She walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, letting the jets of water slide over her body. Closing her eyes, she reached for the soap but he was there before her.
‘This soap smells like you.’
She smiled and pushed her soaking-wet hair away from her face as he slid his hands down her body. ‘It’s my soap. It comes in the same three scents as the candles.’
‘At least you know a bit more about seduction now.’
As he kissed her neck she closed her eyes, but this time the anxiety twisting inside her prevented her from relaxing.
Reluctantly, she pulled away from him and grabbed a towel.
‘I have to go.’
It felt urgent now, to get this done so that she could start her new life. Excitement bubbled under the feeling of apprehension. She walked back into the bedroom and picked up the pretty linen dress she’d chosen from the clothes he’d provided. Her hesitation was driven by years of living with her father. He wasn’t here, and yet she could hear his voice telling her to change into something more suitable. Telling her that the dress was too short, too eye-catching, too—everything.
Then she remembered her father wasn’t going to see her wearing it.
From now on the only time she heard his voice would be in her head.
There would be no row because this was the last time she was going home and her father wouldn’t be there.
Stefan strolled back into the bedroom, a towel knotted around his lean hips.
Determined not to be distracted, Selene let her own towel drop to the floor and reached for the dress.
Behind her she heard the sharp intake of his breath. Assuming his response was because she was naked, she lifted her head and smiled at him. He was looking at her body.
‘Theé mou, did I do that? I hurt you?’ He was across the room in three strides, his hands gentle on her arms as he turned her and took a closer look at her back and then her arms. ‘You have bruises. Finger-marks.’
Selene twisted away from him and pulled the dress over her head quickly. ‘It’s fine. It’s nothing.’ It wasn’t nothing, of course, but it wasn’t anything she wanted him to know about. It was her past and she wanted it to stay in her past.
His face was suddenly pale. ‘I thought I’d been gentle.’
‘You were gentle. You were brilliant. Honestly, Stefan, it’s nothing—’ She stumbled over the words, feeling guilty that she had to let him think that but unable to give him an alternative explanation. ‘And now I really need to go.’
‘You should have told me I was hurting you. I would have stopped.’
‘You didn’t hurt me.’ No way could she tell him, or anyone, the truth—and she didn’t need to because she was fixing it. ‘I just bruise easily, OK? It’s nothing to do with you.’ Not looking at him, she scooped her damp hair into a ponytail.
Now that the moment had come, she just wanted it over with. She wanted to get it done. ‘I’ll take the ferry to Poulos and the nuns will take me back by boat.’
‘I’ll take you back to Antaxos.’
‘No! Someone might see you and call my father. I can’t risk him knowing I’ve left the island. I need a head start on him.’
‘Selene—’ His tone raw, Stefan dragged his hand through his hair and shot her a look she couldn’t interpret. ‘He probably already knows.’
In the process of sliding her feet into her shoes, she assumed she’d misheard him. ‘How can he possibly know? He’s with one of his women. He won’t be home for another six days.’
‘He knows because he will have seen the photographs.’
‘Photographs?’ Selene stared at him, her brain infuriatingly slow as she tried to make sense of w
hat he was saying. ‘What photographs?’