The Kiss She Claimed From The Greek

Sofie took her hands off the vase only when it was steady again. Her palms were sweating. The young woman was leading her upstairs now, where a plush carpet led down a corridor.

Céline opened a door and stood back. ‘This is the master suite. We’ll have your bags brought up and clothes put away.’

Sofie was horrified. ‘I only have one bag and I can unpack myself...it’s no trouble.’

The girl smiled. ‘As you wish.’

Sofie stood on the threshold of the room for a second. It was dramatic. Dressed in dark brown and gold. Very masculine. A massive bed dominated one wall. Sofie had never seen a bed so big. Dark sheets with gold trim.

She stepped inside gingerly. Céline breezed past her, saying, ‘There’s an en suite bathroom and a dressing room through here.’

She was indicating another door. Sofie had a peek and nearly fainted. The dressing room was the size of the bedroom Achilles had used in her house.

The bathroom wasn’t much smaller. The colour scheme echoed that of the bedroom. Dark colours. Two sinks. A massive bath. Walk-in shower.

The views from the bedroom and bathroom looked over an expanse of green lawn. Presumably the house’s private back garden. She saw a gazebo in the distance, and a small, manicured maze.

Sofie struggled to find something to say. ‘This is...lovely.’

‘Can I offer you some refreshments? Champagne? Caviar?’

Sofie looked at the woman and wondered just who she was used to entertaining on Achilles’s behalf. She didn’t like the images that popped into her head.

She said almost apologetically, ‘I’d really like a cup of tea, if it’s not too much trouble?’

The girl blinked for a second, as if not computing a request for something as simple as tea, and then she smiled. ‘Of course. Come with me and I’ll show you to the lounge.’

A few minutes later Sofie was ensconced in a charming room, relatively cosy compared with the other rooms she’d seen. Céline had just delivered tea and biscuits that looked more like art than anything edible.

When she was alone again, Sofie took her phone out of her bag and did what she should have done before she’d allowed herself to be whisked away from her life—looked up Achilles Lykaios to see for herself in detail exactly who he was.