Double Dare

"From the island-hopping holiday?"

"Yes."

She seemed pleased that he'd remembered. How could he forget that particular tale? He'd practically leapt on her as she described her growing awareness of her sensuality and what it did to her.

She glanced at the menu. "I'd like you to choose for me."

"Really?" He was amused. For the seemingly independent Abby, it struck him as unusual, but then he had so much to learn about her, didn't he?

She nodded. "I put my trust in your expertise." She said it as if she was referring to something much more intimate than a restaurant menu. "Oh, except I'd like to try the Retsina again, if they have a good bottle."

Why did that small thing bring him so much pleasure?

She was smiling to herself as she listened to him speak in Greek to Stefano, giving his choices for the meal.

He turned back to her. "What are you thinking?"

"About the islands. I'd like to go back one day. My mother is there now, coincidentally."

"You said your father passed on, yes?"

"Yes, and since then my mother has been going back to all the places they visited together. She's become quite the traveler in her mature years. I think perhaps she's trying to recapture the memories. It's sad. I think she senses now how much more they could have had from life, if they had just tried to enjoy each moment as it happened." She drifted and he drew her back with his caress. She laughed at herself.

Her mind fascinated him. "People don't realize the important things in life until they are taken away, is that what you think?"

She nodded. "It's not something we sit down and think about enough, yes. If we did, we'd be a whole lot better armed to prioritize life as it happened."

"What's important to you, Abby?" He couldn't resist asking, even if it was a loaded question.

She looked straight at him and her glance teased him in a way that made his chest ache. She stroked his hand, running her fingertips over the back of his fingers, trailing her nails over his knuckles. "Outside of this, outside of being here with you, now?"

His spine tensed with a sense of delicious anxiety, his body alert to her every move. "It is good, isn't it?" Even as he said the words, it felt like the understatement of the year. It was more than good. Deep down, he knew it was the best he'd ever had. He wanted her so badly. He arrested her fingers with his, locking their hands together. The way she looked at him when he did so made his loins flood. Her pupils were dark, her expression hungry.

The wine waiter arrived with their Retsina. They pulled apart to allow him to pour the wine.

"But what else?" he asked, when they were alone again.

"My work, I suppose...being professional."

"Professional," he repeated, with a sinking feeling.

She smiled, her eyes filled with secret memory. "I had this one secondary school teacher that I really liked and she said something that has always stuck with me. Remain professional, no matter what life throws at you, no matter what the situation is, and you will do well in life. So far I've managed to remember that and it served me well."

Zac felt as if he'd been hit in the solar plexus. The words she spoke meant everything to her. He could see that. But because they were about her job and its place in her life, they put an instant barrier between them,

a barrier he wanted to kick aside but didn't know how to overcome. They also threw a new light on his doubts about her integrity. Had he mistrusted her unjustly?

"Kind of like the old saying about keeping your head, when all around you are losing theirs," she added when he didn't respond.

He attempted to muster a response. "It sounds like a good motto to live by." He felt like he was the one losing his head right then.

Stefano arrived with the selection of starter dishes Zac had ordered and mercifully broke the awkward moment.

Zac distracted himself by tempting her with the offerings, telling her about their preparation, their ingredients, and their history. "A selection such as this we call Mezethekia. It means that which opens the appetite."

"My appetite is never satisfied when you are near."

He followed her remark by offering her a dolmathes and a smile.