Playing by the Greek's Rules (Puffin Island 0.50)

He simply smiled and she leaned back with a shocked laugh.

‘You are so bad. And honest. I love that.’

‘As long as you don’t love me, we don’t have a problem.’

‘I could never love you. You are so wrong for me.’

‘I think we should drink to that.’ He raised a hand and moments later champagne appeared on the table.

‘I can’t believe you live like this. A driver, bottles of champagne—’ She lifted the glass, watching the bubbles. ‘Your villa is bigger than quite a few Greek islands and there is only one of you.’

‘I like space and light and property is always a good investment.’ He handed the menu back to the waiter. ‘Is there any food you don’t eat?’

‘I eat everything.’ She paused while he spoke to the waiter in Greek. ‘Are you seriously ordering for me?’

‘The menu is in Greek and you were talking about sex so I was aiming to keep the interaction as brief as possible in order to prevent you from feeling the need to dine under the table.’

‘In that case I’ll forgive you.’ She waited until the waiter had walked away with their order. ‘So if property is an investment that means you’d sell your home?’

‘I have four homes.’

Her jaw dropped. ‘Four? Why does one person need four homes? One for every season or something?’

‘I have offices in New York, San Francisco and London and I don’t like staying in hote

ls.’

‘So you buy a house. That is the rich man’s way of solving a problem. Which one do you think of as home?’ Seeing the puzzled look on his face, she elaborated. ‘Where do your family live? Do you have family? Are your parents alive?’

‘They are.’

‘Happily married?’

‘Miserably divorced. In my father’s case three times so far, but he’s always in competition with himself so I’m expecting a fourth as soon as the wedding is out of the way.’

‘And your mother?’ She saw a faint shift in his expression.

‘My mother is American. She lives in Boston with her third husband who is a divorce lawyer.’

‘So do you think of yourself as Greek American or American Greek?’

He gave a careless lift of his broad shoulders. ‘Whichever serves my purpose at the time.’

‘Wow. So you have this big, crazy family.’ Lily felt a flash of envy. ‘That must be wonderful.’

‘Why?’

‘You don’t think it’s wonderful? I guess we never appreciate something when we have it.’ She said it lightly but felt his dark gaze fix on her across the table.

‘Are you going to cry?’

‘No, of course not.’

‘Good. Because tears are the one form of emotional expression I don’t tolerate.’

She stole an olive from the bowl on the table. ‘What if someone is upset?’

‘Then they need to walk away from me until they’ve sorted themselves out, or be prepared for me to walk away. I never allow myself to be manipulated and ninety-nine per cent of tears are manipulation.’