Lucy took them purely because she couldn’t not. She pasted a smile on her face for the benefit of the flower seller, and after paying Ari was leading her away again. The flowers were huge and cumbersome. Lucy tried to get his attention, pulling on his hand, but it would have been easier talking to a block of wood. He led her relentlessly through a veritable maze of streets until they emerged into a charming square and Lucy spotted shops with designer names.
Again without pausing for a moment, Ari tugged Lucy along until she found him leading her into an exclusive jewellery store, the iconic name of which made horror slam into her. As the door hissed quietly closed behind them, and the security guard clearly recognised Aristotle Levakis, Lucy tugged fiercely on Ari’s hand—but to no avail. He led her over to where an eager assistant, already smelling a large sale, stood.
He drew Lucy in close to his side with an arm of steel and sent her a devotedly loving look. Only Lucy was aware of the hard glitter behind it. Hardly breaking that eye contact, he said, ‘I’d like to buy something for this beautiful woman.’ He flicked a glance at the sales assistant and smiled urbanely. ‘Although I’m sure you’ll agree that there couldn’t possibly be anything in this shop to rival her beauty.’
The sales assistant cleared her throat obsequiously and looked Lucy up and down, taking in the T-shirt and shorts, the flat gladiator sandals and dusty feet. Lucy cringed from head to toe under the snooty woman’s scrutiny, and right then she hated Ari more than she’d ever hated anyone in her life, hearing his well-practised patter.
Hellbent on proving something, Ari was still so incensed that he dragged Lucy from display to display, forcing her to look at priceless bracelets, necklaces, earrings and brooches. Every now and then she tried to entreat him, to tug on his hand, but he ignored her. A heavy mass of dark, twisted emotion was weighing him down inside.
Why hadn’t her eyes lit up when they’d got in here? And why had he felt that punch to his solar plexus in the street when he’d believed her to be exactly the same as every other woman? And why was she contradicting that now, insisting on leaving? Making him feel confused and out of his depth. He heard her speak again.
‘Ari. Please. Let’s just go. I don’t want anything here.’
He turned to look down, and the stunning natural beauty of her face and those stormy grey eyes nearly floored him. He could feel the thrust of her soft breasts against his chest. She looked pale. But he did not know how to get himself out of this situation except by saying, his voice harder than he’d ever heard it, ‘We’re not leaving until you choose something, Lucy. There’s not a woman in the world who would say no to that, so please don’t play the wide-eyed innocent with me. It won’t work.’
Lucy’s belly clenched at the look of pure cynicism that crossed Ari’s features, twisting them. Suddenly her anger dissolved, and all she felt was sad. She tore her eyes away and looked around futilely, hating every single item of jewellery on display. This whole scenario was making her skin crawl. But she knew he meant it. They would not leave until she’d chosen something.
She tugged her hand, and for the first time Ari let go. Moving away, feeling tears film her eyes, Lucy searched and searched, barely even seeing the glittering gems arrayed in glorious profusion.
But then something did catch her eye, hidden away at the back of one of the cabinets. It was a necklace of such stunning simplicity that it took her breath away. It was a butterfly design; she’d always had a sentimental thing about butterflies, and her mother had used to buy her presents with butterfly motifs. Seeing this now was like some kind of sign, and Lucy had to fight back the tears.
The wings of the design glistened with what she could only assume were tiny diamonds, and three delicate silver strands linked it on each side to the catch.
She pointed with a trembling finger. ‘I like that one.’
A startled gasp of disbelief came from the sales assistant, clearly seeing her month’s worth of commission disappearing down the drain.
‘That one?’
Ari had heard the exchange and was behind Lucy, looking over her shoulder. She tensed as the fine hairs stood up on the back of her neck.
The sales assistant co
uldn’t keep the pain out of her voice. ‘Well, yes, it is a nice piece…’ She laughed nervously, ‘If you like something more…subtle…and the designer is local. But really…’
Lucy heard a scathing, ‘Less than one thousand euros? I don’t think so…’ come from behind her, and then she felt his mouth close to her ear, so only she could hear which he said. ‘I think I want a lot more than a two-night stand Lucy, mou, so I think you’re worth a lot more than that…’
Before she knew it Ari had arrogantly picked out a completely different necklace, with a huge sapphire stone surrounded by diamonds, and the ecstatic sales assistant was wrapping it up efficiently before they changed their minds.
Outside the shop, Lucy broke desperately from Ari’s grasp, but he caught her again effortlessly and swung her round. She closed her eyes and to her utter horror could feel tears welling. She couldn’t stop one from slipping out. She felt a tense stillness come into his body.
‘Lucy…’ He sounded exasperated now. Lucy didn’t doubt that he’d moved women to tears after buying them jewellery before, but for entirely different reasons.
Ari took hold of Lucy’s arms. They felt slender and fragile under his hands. He saw the tear slip down the pale softness of her cheek and cursed himself silently, feeling like an absolute heel when he didn’t even know why. He’d just spent a fortune on her! And in his experience money equalled a satisfied woman. He was floundering badly, had never been in this place before, and had certainly never expected a reaction like this. She looked almost green.
Seeing her still holding onto that crazy bunch of flowers, Ari grabbed them out of her hand and passed them to a woman strolling past. He was unaware of her gasp of delighted surprise as she took them, entirely focused on Lucy again. More tears were slipping down her cheeks. He was used to women’s histrionics, but this was different. She was doing it so silently. And he could tell that she hated that she was crying.
‘Lucy…look—’
She seemed to come to life and lifted a hand, knocking aside one of his as she wiped her cheek. Finally she opened her eyes, and their swirling depths made him want to pull her close. But everything about her screamed stay back.
Her voice was heart-achingly husky. ‘I’ve never been so hu…humiliated in all my life.’
Ari raked a hand through his hair. He wanted to go back to when he’d seen Lucy in the street, taken her in his arms and kissed her, and start all over again. But when she’d pushed him away and then said those things about the flowers he’d lost all perspective. Without wanting to look too closely at why, he just knew it had something to do with her reference to those other women. That this was exactly the same…A small voice crowed, Wasn’t it?
Lucy couldn’t look up at Ari any more. She broke free and started to walk back towards the hotel. She could see it in the distance; they were closer than she’d thought. She felt numb.
When she felt Ari take her hand again she stopped dead and took a deep breath before turning around. ‘Look—’