People were already sitting eating on the veranda as well as inside the massive restaurant, and other couples were idly enjoying a drink in the evening sunshine on the many scattered tables and chairs on the beach in front and to the sides of the building. Music drifted out on to the warm air along with the sound of conversation and laughter, and there was a definite buzz in the air.
In the distance across the white glistening sand, tiny waves lapped gently against the shoreline, the odd bird or two—along with two-legged creatures of the human variety—wandering along the beach in the warmth of the dying day. It was so foreign, so easy and relaxed and utterly Greek, that for a moment Sophy just stood and drank it all in once they were out of the car and Paul had disappeared. Sun, sea, sand…and Andreas at her side.
‘What an unusual place,’ she said at last, conscious of Andreas’s eyes on her face in the moments before she turned and looked at him. ‘And it seems to be very popular.’
He nodded, his dark eyes narrowed against the sunlight as he took her hand and began walking towards the building. ‘A good friend of mine owns it,’ he said quietly, and then, as Sophy bent and slipped her feet out of her sandals, he waited until she had straightened again before taking her hand and continuing, ‘Nick’s family is a wealthy one but he is the original bohemian. I think his father was despairing that he’d ever do anything with his life and then Nick met Iona, and within three months he had married her and bought this beach front, all of it. They built the restaurant and it was a success from day one. That was ten years ago.’
She couldn’t resist saying, ‘The love of a good woman obviously worked wonders then?’ as she smiled mockingly.
‘Obviously.’ It was very dry.
‘Is there living accommodation at the back?’ she asked curiously as they approached the rambling building.
‘Uh-huh. Just a kitchen and bathroom and one bedroom and sitting room. They live here eight months of the year and just retire to their house—a beauty of a place—for the winter.’
Sophy cast her eyes again over the wide sweep of sand and sea lit by strong evening Greek sunlight. ‘An idyllic lifestyle.’
‘In many respects. The restaurant only opens in the evenings as they didn’t want to lose sight of having time together, and they have an army of chefs and waiters now. However, money cannot buy everything.’
She raised her eyebrows questioningly at the statement, spoken as it was in an unusually sober tone for Andreas.
‘Iona cannot have a child of her own,’ he said quietly. They had reached the foot of the stairs leading up to the veranda now, and his voice changed as he said, ‘Come and meet Nick and Iona and then we will walk a little of your lunch off, yes? Then you will have room for more.’
There was no time to reply before a little squeal from within the restauran
t reached them, and in the next moment a small, slender woman with long brown hair reaching to her waist had flung herself down the steps and into Andreas’s arms. ‘Andreas! Oh, it’s so good to see you! But you are very, very naughty. It has been months since you came to see us.’
‘Don’t exaggerate, Iona.’ A long, loose-limbed and floppy-haired man had followed his wife and now he smiled at Sophy, holding out his hand as he said, ‘You must be Sophy. I’m Nick and this limpet clinging to Andreas is my wife, Iona.’
During the next few minutes Sophy decided she liked Andreas’s friends and that, if the circumstances had been different, they were the sort of people she would have liked to get to know better and spend time with.
Nick was the antithesis of Andreas, being so laid-back and mild-tempered that it was impossible to imagine him ever getting upset about anything, and Iona was just a sweetheart. Tiny, with huge expressive brown eyes and a gentleness about her that was very pleasant, she clearly adored her handsome husband, and he her. It was very nice to see, Sophy decided.
‘Give me a bottle of wine and two glasses, Nick,’ Andreas said after a while. ‘We’re going for a walk on the beach but we’ll be back for nine. Has Iona made any of her famous tzatziki, by any chance? And it has to be Iona’s, not one of your chefs, good as they are,’ he added with a wink at his friend.
‘Don’t I always make some if I know you’re coming?’ Iona answered reproachfully.
‘Always,’ Andreas agreed easily, smiling as he bent and kissed Iona’s smooth forehead. ‘And it’s always perfect.’
Sophy could hear Nick shouting orders in Greek to someone, and then he was back with a bottle of dark red wine and two enormous wine glasses which he passed to Andreas, saying as he did so, ‘I’ve told Stephanos to save a couple of good portions of moussaka along with a bowl of extra prawns and shrimps. I presume you’ll want your favourite main course after the tzatziki?’
‘I’ve been tasting it all day.’ Andreas grinned back.
Sophy was feeling acutely disturbed as they left the busy bustle of the restaurant and walked down the steps of the veranda on to the smooth white sand. She had left her sandals in Iona’s care, and now, as she curled her toes into the warm powdery grains beneath her feet, she said quietly, ‘They’re lovely people. I presume they spoke English for my benefit?’
‘They would want to make you feel welcome,’ Andreas agreed softly. ‘And, yes, they are two of the best.’
She didn’t like what seeing him relaxed and off guard with his friends had done to her equilibrium. He had been different with Nick and Iona to how he had appeared before, even with his family. Younger, softer, more approachable. And infinitely more dangerous because this Andreas was more attractive than ever.
There were tiny shells here and there, shining and glistening as they made their way right up to the water’s edge until the low hum of noise from the restaurant behind them was gone. Andreas had taken her hand in his as they had walked, the bottle of wine and the stems of the wine glasses hanging loosely in his other hand, and for some ten minutes or so he didn’t break the silence which had fallen between them.
Sophy was breathing in the scent of the sea and sand and warm summer air, looking across the miles of calm tranquil turquoise water under the vivid, hard blue Greek sky as she concentrated on not thinking at all. If she started to think she was quite liable to panic, she’d admitted to herself at the beginning of their stroll, and so it was easier to blank her mind and let her senses soak up the beautiful evening. Ignoring the hard-muscled figure at the side of her was more difficult because her body seemed to have developed a life of its own since she had met Andreas.
‘Over there.’ Their area of beach was quite deserted now and Andreas was pointing to where a shelf of rock curved gently out of the sand, the water rippling daintily round its edges. ‘The perfect place to sit and have a glass of wine and tell each other our life stories,’ he drawled lazily.
She glanced at him quickly. ‘I don’t remember that that was part of the deal tonight.’
His grin flashed without apology. ‘What would you like to talk about, then?’ he asked very softly. ‘The choice is yours.’