It was galling in the circumstances, and she could just imagine the satisfaction Andreas would feel if he knew—which meant he must never find out. What made the situation all the more unpalatable was that she had never felt this w
ay before and she couldn’t understand why it had happened now, so fiercely and without warning. And with Theodore’s brother, of all people.
She paced the bedroom, her eyes stormy and her mouth tight with self-deprecation. The truth of the matter was she had never met a man with such lethal magnetism before, she admitted after a good ten minutes of self-analysis, not in a day-to-day setting of close contact anyway. Oh, there had been the odd male on the Tube or at a function or something, whose good looks had had that extra dimension which had made her heart beat faster, but not like this. Not like Andreas Karydis.
But it didn’t matter. It didn’t, not really. She was panicking because she felt things were out of control—but they weren’t, they weren’t, she reassured herself grimly. Everything was fine. All her life, from when she had been a little girl of three or four and had realised she and Jill hadn’t got a daddy like everyone else—and moreover that there was something shameful and secret about the fact, judging from her mother’s reaction when they asked questions, she had imposed an almost obsessional self-control on herself.
And when she had found out the truth about her father and had seen what loving and trusting a man to distraction could do to a woman, she had consciously vowed she would never let herself be manoeuvred into such a humiliating position. Life—her life—was built on constraint and determination and absolute autonomy, and within those restraints she was happy. She had met and married Matthew, hadn’t she? And they had been united in agreeing each of them would follow their own separate career and destiny within their relationship. It had worked. It would still be working if he hadn’t died.
She stopped her pacing and walked into the bathroom, turning on the shower before slipping out of her clothes and allowing the cool silky water to bathe her hot skin.
She was just overtired, that was all. Theodore’s death, the awful funeral and trying to support Jill and Michael at the same time as giving her job the hours it needed had taken it out of her. She worried about Jill, she couldn’t help it.
She had always felt more like Jill’s mother than her sister, she reflected ruefully as she lifted her face to the refreshing spray. And although she had always tried to hide her concern about Jill’s choice of husband, her initial misgivings had grown with the years rather than decreased.
What had Andreas meant with that crack about Theodore? She frowned as she tried to remember his exact words. Oh, yes, he had said Theodore couldn’t have made Jill happy and that Michael had no idea of what a father was. She would ask him what he meant by that, the next time she saw him. He couldn’t make remarks like that without explaining himself fully, and there was a sight too much cloak-and-dagger stuff concerning Theodore, in her opinion!
Once back in the bedroom and with sleep a million miles away, Sophy picked up one of the novels she had brought with her from England, climbed into bed and adjusted herself comfortably against the heaped pillows. She would read for a few minutes before settling down to sleep, she decided, and put all thoughts of a certain tall, dark Greek out of her mind.
An hour later she was more wide awake than ever and couldn’t remember a line she had read. The book could have been written in double Dutch for all the sense it had made to her whirling mind. She threw it down irritably, annoyed with herself.
She had heard Jill come upstairs just after Andreas had left, and some time after that all the lights had been extinguished downstairs and now there was only shadowed blackness beneath the balcony windows. The whole house was asleep. The whole world was asleep, she told herself restlessly, wondering why it was always so much worse to be awake when you knew everyone else was sleeping peacefully.
She settled herself down, resolutely switching off the lamp at the side of the bed. She was tired and her body was calling out for rest; it was only her mind that seemed determined to solve all the problems of the universe!
After half an hour of tossing and turning, the light went on again and Sophy swung her legs out of bed, her face frowning. Okay, so she couldn’t sleep, but she’d go stark staring mad if she had to remain in this room another minute. She would go for a walk in the gardens. In fact, she could take her swimming costume with her and if there was enough light she could perhaps have a swim in the pool. It was as warm as a summer’s day in England.
The decision made, she dressed quickly in light cotton combat trousers and a thin but warm cashmere jumper she’d brought with her, just in case the night was a little chilly after the intense heat of the day. After grabbing a towel and her costume, and slipping on a pair of flat pumps, she opened the door to her room cautiously and peered out on to the landing. Everywhere was silent and dark. She felt a moment’s trepidation which she ignored.
She made her way carefully downstairs by the light of the moon shining through the windows, and then paused in the massive hall, suddenly uncertain. What if the place was alarmed and she roused the whole house?
Well, she’d just explain she was hot and bothered and had decided to take a midnight swim, she told herself firmly. And with the huge wall surrounding the property and the fact that Evangelos’s estate was miles from the nearest village, there probably wasn’t an alarm anyway.
There wasn’t. In fact, the door at the end of the corridor leading off the hall wasn’t even locked, and Sophy passed quietly through into the cool scented darkness of the night with no trouble at all, breathing a little easier now that hurdle was over.
Once outside, she found the moonlight was lighting up the grounds almost as bright as day and her way was quite clear. She breathed in the perfume of the sleeping vegetation in great gulps as she walked down towards the pool, suddenly finding herself grinning. This was great, quite an adventure, and it had been years since she had acted on impulse.
Her footsteps quickened as she lightly skimmed the lawn and ran down through the arch of roses into the pool area, and after kicking off her pumps she had stripped off the trousers and jumper and donned the swimming costume in seconds. The pool appeared even more enormous in the moonlight, and the far end under the trees was in deep shadow which caused her a moment’s disquiet before she told herself not to be so silly. She walked to the shallow end of the pool as the cool breeze drifted over her skin and ruffled the silk of her hair.
She dipped her toe in the water and then squeaked as the cold water hit her nerve-endings. It felt freezing!
She was just about to jump in, knowing it would take ages if she tried to do it gradually, when something—a movement, a ripple or maybe just her sixth sense—caused her to pause, her heart beginning to thump madly as she peered into the blackness.
‘Is…is anyone there?’ She felt slightly ridiculous speaking to thin air, but something wasn’t right.
Nothing happened for what seemed like an hour but in reality was no more than a second or two, and then an unmistakable voice said quietly, ‘It’s me, Sophy. Andreas.’
Andreas? Andreas? She heard the swish water made when a body was cutting through it and then after a moment saw a dark shape come out of the shadows and into the tiny glittering waves lit by moonlight. And in the same instant she glanced over at the chair where she’d thrown her clothes and awful realisation hit. She’d thought she was alone and she had been completely naked for a few moments. Had he seen? What was she thinking? Of course he had seen. A blind man would have seen!
‘You rotten, low, conniving—’
‘Hey, hey.’ He paused to tread water in the middle of the pool, his face shadowed planes and angles in which only the glitter of his eyes was truly discernible. ‘What have I done now?’ he asked with every appearance of hurt surprise.
‘What—?’ Words failed her and she had to take a hard pull of air before she could continue. ‘What have you done? You know exactly what you have done, so don’t come the old soldier with me,’ she bit out furiously. ‘You let me change into my costume without a word to warn me you were here. You’re absolutely disgusting!’ she finished scathingly.
‘I didn’t even see you
until it was too late,’ he said mildly. ‘You flitted in here like a breath of moonlight and proceeded to whisk off your clothes in two seconds flat. When I realised I was no longer alone, you were already…’