Greek for Beginners (10 page)

His words, the intensity of his gaze, caused a shiver to run up her spine. A vacation fling was the perfect example. Meant to be enjoyed. Meant to end. Darcie found the thought unsettling, but she shouldn't have. If it was permanence she sought, she should have stayed with Tad. He was the man who'd offered for her hand. No, Darcie had other ambitions, newly revived ones that were just begging to be explored, exploited. Nick was giving her that chance. Anything else that transpired between them came without strings.

“Well, it had better be enough, because you'll never see them again once I give them a write-up.”

He stroked the hair back from her face. Where a moment ago his expression had been intense, it was thoughtful now. “I heard it said once that writers are artists who paint pictures with words. So, you are an artist, Darcie Hayes.”

How long had it been since she'd seen herself that way? Since she'd last dared to see herself that way? Confidence—new and heady
—
swelled inside her.

“Thank you.”

“I do not want your gratitude.”

“But you have it,” she argued. He couldn't possibly know what he'd done by giving her this opportunity. To lighten the moment, however, she rubbed her hands together and said, “I can't wait to get started.”

“So eager.” He took her hands in his. “But tomorrow will be soon enough. Today we will enjoy ourselves. Are you hungry?”

“Starving. I skipped breakfast,” she admitted.

“That is no good. You should never deny yourself.”

The man had a point, Darcie thought. She had denied herself a lot the past several years
—
not food, but other things that, in some ways, were every bit as vital to her well-being. He still had her hands in his. He turned one over, brought it to his mouth for a kiss. A moan escaped. Who knew the palm was an erogenous zone?

Nick leaned toward her, their mouths met. Not far away was a bedroom, one with a mattress for whose quality he had already vouched. She edged back on a sigh.

“Lunch?”

He rested his forehead against hers. “I thought we had just established that you should not deny yourself.”

“You're tempting me.”

“I should hope so.” His laughter was gruff as he stepped back. “But you are not ready and I promised that whatever happened between us would occur naturally and be mutually agreeable. The timing is not right. You need more romance, I think.”

She swallowed, liking the sound of that. “So, lunch?”

He swept a hand toward the door. “After you.”

* * *

They ate near the harbor, in a small bistro that Nick frequented when he was in town. The owner was a big man with craggy features and a booming laugh. He knew Nick by sight if not by name, so he smiled in welcome when they entered.

Lunch was a busy time, but since it was later in the afternoon, the crowd already had thinned. They took a table near the back of the small restaurant.

“Do you know everyone in Greece?” Darcie asked once they were seated.

“No, but I make it a point to get to know the people I like.” He reached for her hand. “Take you, for example. I find myself wanting to know everything there is to know.”

He said it lightly, but he meant it. He hadn't felt this interested in anything besides automobiles in a very long time. But there was no denying he was curious about Darcie, not to mention intensely curious about the man to whom she so recently had been engaged.

“You want to hear the story of my life?” she asked on a laugh.

“Yes. I believe you promised to tell it to me that first day.”

“You already know I'm a magnet for disaster and cursed with bad luck. The rest, I'm afraid, is rather boring.”

“I will be the judge.”

“All right. But you go first.” When he blinked in surprise, she added, “It goes both ways, you know. I have a lot of questions I wouldn't mind having answered, too.”

“So, we should satisfy each other's curiosity. Is that what you are saying?”

“It's only fair.”

“Ask then.”

Nick knew Darcie had chickened out when she inquired, “What's your favorite color?”

“Red. My turn.” And he went for the jugular. “How long did you know your former fiancé?”

“Too long.”

“That is not an answer,” he chastised.

“Get comfortable then,” she teased. “And, don't worry. I'll wake you up if you fall asleep.”

The server came for their order. When they were alone again, Nick motioned with his hand. “Go on. I am wide-awake and promise to stay that way. For the record, I am always interested in what you have to say.”

Darcie swallowed. While it was a bit disconcerting to have Nick's full attention focused on her, she liked that about him. He didn't just pretend to listen to her. He really did, making it impossible to hide behind her usual flippant replies and offhand remarks. Who knew, maybe telling him about Tad would be cathartic rather than merely embarrassing. Maybe it would make it clear not only to Nick, but also to herself that the past was behind her and it was time to grab the present by the horns.

“Well, I met Tad during my senior year of college. I had a really bad throat infection and went to the clinic on campus to get it checked out. He was a first-year intern and working that afternoon.”

“He was your doctor? Kinky.” Nick arched his eyebrows.

“No! Well, I guess technically he was for that one visit, but I kept my clothes on. Remember, tonsils.” She pointed to her throat. “They're up here.”

“I am well-versed in a woman's anatomy.”

“I'm sure you are.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, the two of us got to chatting. My tonsils were enlarged, something that happened quite often. He thought they might need to come out.”

“You talked about enlarged tonsils and somehow still wound up going on a date?”

Darcie pulled a face. “It must have seemed romantic at the time.”

“If you say so. Go on.”

“There's not much more to tell. Tad and I started dating and then, six years ago, he proposed.”

Nick's eyes widened at that. “The two of you were engaged for six years? Did you live together the entire time?”

“No. I moved in once he agreed to a wedding date. That was two years ago. Tad didn't want to get married until he was done with his residency and ready to start a practice of his own. Evelyn thought it would be too distracting.”

“His mother.”

Darcie frowned. “I tried to be understanding. She's a widow and Tad is her only child. He's all the family she has. But the closer our wedding came, the clingier and more demanding of Tad's time she became.”

“What did your family think of him?”

“Ah-ah-ah. It's my turn to ask a question.”

He bowed his head.

“Do you...like scary movies?”

Nick stashed his grin. She'd chickened out again. “No. What did your family think of Tad?”

She exhaled, clearly irritated. “My sisters liked him. I think they liked the idea of me being engaged and heading toward the altar even more than they liked Tad. My mom is still hoping this is just a case of cold feet. Tad was very sweet to her, always full of compliments.”

“And your father?”

She rubbed her chin. “Dad never really said anything one way or another while Tad and I were engaged, but I get the feeling he isn't all that upset I called it off, even if he's on the hook for a lot of nonrefundable deposits now.”

“Let me guess, you gave up pursuing your career around the time you and Tad got engaged? Your father did not like Tad because he wanted you to follow your dream, and he knew you would give up on it forever if you married someone like Tad. You had taken a job checking facts rather than writing pieces whose facts other people would check for you.”

It made sense to him now how she wound up in a career for which she had no passion.

“That about sums it up,” she said.

“And so you ended things.”

“One week before ‘I do.'” Both her tone and her expression were grim. “Not exactly my classiest moment.”

“Better one week before than one week after.”

“I guess that's one way to look at it.” The server returned with their drinks. “My turn again.”

“All right.”

He figured she would wimp out again. So, he nearly spit out the mouthful of sparkling water when she said, “What are your feelings for Selene?”

“I have no feelings for her. She is marrying my brother. End of story.”

“Okay.” Darcie accepted the cryptic answer with a nod. Then she hit him with both barrels by asking, “What are your feelings for your brother?”

“I miss him,” Nick replied honestly, surprising himself.

EIGHT

Nick woke in
his boyhood bedroom to the smell of fresh bread—the crusty variety that his mother and grandmother routinely made in an outdoor wood-burning oven that straddled the property line between their two houses. The scent wafted through the open window, drawing him upright.

He'd spent the past four nights under his parents' roof after spending his days with Darcie. As promised, they divided their time between sightseeing and work. He was enjoying both and he thought she was, too.

Already, she'd presented him with research on three vehicles, including estimated values for the vehicles based on what similar models had brought at recent auctions. She was thorough, conscientious and professional, and damn if he didn't find that all very sexy.

He wanted her. Had since that first glance in the airport. But he was treading carefully for reasons that he couldn't quite explain, since nothing about their relationship called for permanence. Darcie was newly single, finding her way, spreading her wings. He admired her for that. She wouldn't be looking to settle down so soon again. Especially with a man who lived so far away. Besides, Nick had no personal capital to invest in a relationship. He hadn't since Selene.

So why was he finding the idea of sleeping with Darcie and then saying goodbye less appealing by the day?

They were taking things slowly, more slowly than he'd ever moved with a woman. Nick supposed Darcie's candor where her ex-fiancé was concerned was among the reasons he was treading with care. She had been marginalized, made to feel unimportant by the man who was supposed to love her. Recalling the conversation at the restaurant, Nick could admit she had been painfully honest about her past relationship, whereas he had not divulged much at all when it came to Selene. The only secret he'd shared was that he missed his brother.

Admittedly, the revelation had come as a surprise to Nick. But it still didn't come close to all of the soul-baring Darcie had done, and he regretted that.

Meanwhile, he and Darcie continued to play it safe, flirting with abandon, even as they tiptoed around the land mines of their pasts. Safe. Sure. As long as he didn't recall how heated their flirtation turned at times.

On a groan, he got up and took a shower—the cold variety—before wandering to the kitchen. He came up short when he saw Pieter seated at the table. Nick had managed to avoid him since that evening at Yiayia's.

“What are you doing here?”

“Do I need a reason to visit our parents?” Pieter shot back. “Besides, the better question is what are you doing sleeping here when you have a bed elsewhere?”

“It's occupied at the moment.”

Pieter smiled. “Precisely my point.”

“Is there more coffee?”

Nick motioned to the
briki.
His mother had been brewing coffee in the traditional, long-handled pot for more than three decades. He had a
briki
at his house, too. The copper pot was as bright and shiny as the day it was made since it never saw any use. The same could be said for his electric coffeemaker—both the one here and the one back in New York. What did it say about him, Nick wondered, that he owned a house and an apartment, but neither felt like home?

In answer to his question, Pieter got up and poured the last of the coffee into a demitasse cup and handed it to Nick.

“Thank you,” he said stiffly. Although he was tempted to leave, he took the chair opposite his brother.

“It looks like you had a rough night.” Pieter didn't bother to hide his grin.

Until just a few years ago, such good-natured teasing between the brothers had been common. Nick didn't want to miss it. He didn't want to miss Pieter. But, just as he'd admitted to Darcie, he did. He sipped the coffee. It was strong and very sweet. That was how their mother always made it, but it did little to improve his sour mood.

Head bent over his cup, he grumbled, “I don't remember that mattress being quite so lumpy.”

The mattress wasn't why he'd slept so poorly, though, and they both knew it.

“I never realized how chivalrous you were. Yiayia even commented on it.”

Nick grunted and took another sip of coffee.

“She is sure this is a sign.”

“Yiayia and her signs,” Nick mumbled. “Everything is a sign to her.”

“But is she right in this case?” Pieter set his cup back on its saucer. He was no longer grinning when he asked, “Have you found someone...special?”

Nick stared into his coffee. “Darcie is special.”

“Is it serious?”

“It is...complicated,” Nick replied truthfully, uncomfortably.

The evasive answer had his brother nodding. “Love is always complicated.”

“And you would know!” Nick challenged.

Pieter didn't take the bait. Instead, he replied, “I am happy for you. All of us are. Mama and Yiayia can talk of nothing else.”

That should have pleased Nick. It was why he had introduced Darcie to them, after all. With his supposed girlfriend as the topic of their conversations until the wedding, he would no longer have to worry about them trying to set him up. But he felt uneasy.

“What are they saying about Darcie?” he asked.

“It's not so much what they are saying about her, although obviously they like her. It's more the effect Darcie has had on you. You seem like your old self again. Mama and Yiayia are happy you have found someone. As am I.”

Emotions crowded in. Nick pushed away all but anger. Arching an eyebrow, he said sarcastically, “So we can be one big happy family again? Do you really think that possible, Pieter?”

His brother swallowed. “It is what I hope, what I want.”

“And you get whatever you want. Or you take it, as the case may be.”

Pieter looked gut-punched. “You are not being fair.”

“Fairness, brother? Really?” His voice rose. Nick rose along with it. Palms planted on the tabletop, he demanded, “You want to talk about fairness?”

Pieter was on his feet as well. “You made your choices, Nick. You are the one who decided to leave Greece, to set up a business in New York, far away from family. Far away from Selene.”

“And you were here to offer comfort and company,” he added caustically.

But Pieter didn't back down. “You chased
your
dream without bothering to ask her what she wanted. You just expected that she would drop everything, leave everyone behind and follow you.”

Nick's conscience stung. Was that what he'd done? Darcie came to mind. She'd sacrificed her dream of feature writing for her fiancé, settling for a fact-checking job at a small trade publication instead. Ultimately, what she'd given up had only fed her dissatisfaction and resentment. Had Nick done the same thing to Selene? If she had followed him to New York, would their relationship have survived?

Because he did not care for the face staring back at him from the mirror in his mind, his tone was harsh when he told his brother, “That is not what I expected, dammit!”

“Then what?” Pieter challenged. “What did you expect?”

Darcie, Selene
—
both women were forgotten now. Nick saw only Pieter, his brother and, at one time, his very best friend.

“I did not expect you to betray me!” He pounded his fist on the tabletop with enough force to rattle their coffee cups. There it was, the crux of the matter. The one big stumbling block Nick could not surmount, regardless of the number of times he'd tried. “While I was gone, I asked you to look after Selene for me. I knew she would be lonely. I did not think—”

Pieter's fists were clenched at his sides. “How many times must I tell you that is not how it happened? Selene and I did not betray you!”

The brothers glared at one another across the table.

“I do not care about Selene.” And it was true, Nick realized. His feelings for his childhood sweetheart were over. “But you! My own brother. I
trusted
you.”

“I did nothing to betray you or your trust. God knows! I fought the attraction I felt for her, and I felt it since we were all teenagers. Do you know what it was like to have her choose you?”

Nick blinked. He hadn't known. Had not even suspected. Would he have cared if he had? His anger now, however, was greater than any concern he felt for Pieter's feelings in the past. “So, you got even? Is that it?”

“No.” The fight had gone out of his brother. Pieter slumped down in his seat. His voice was quiet, but his words were no less potent when he said, “I love her, I have always loved her, but I never imagined...I never dared to hope... You have to believe me that it was long after the two of you had parted ways that anything developed between us. Even so, we both tried to deny it.” Pieter shoved a hand through his hair, his eyes bright with pain, frustration and resignation when he added, “Some things cannot be denied.”

The door opened and their mother rushed into the kitchen from the yard. Her face was flushed, her expression one of worry.

“What on earth has happened? Your raised voices can be heard all the way to the coast!”

“Nothing happened,” Nick told her, feeling more shaken than he wanted to admit. He crossed to the sink and tossed the remainder of his coffee down the drain.

As he stalked from the room, he heard Pieter say wearily, “He cannot forgive me.”

* * *

Darcie was at the computer in Nick's home office working on some research when she heard a car pull up the driveway. Her mouth curved into a smile as she recognized the purr of the Jag's powerful motor. Then she glanced at the clock, puzzled. He was almost two hours early for their drive to Trikala. They had an afternoon meeting with a potential buyer for the Porsche he'd been driving the day they met.

Was that really only a week ago? It was hard to believe given all that had occurred since then. Indeed, over the past two weeks Darcie's entire life had been turned upside down. She'd gone from being an uncertain and disenchanted bride-to-be to a single woman who was determined to hammer out a new future for herself. And having a fine time doing it, thanks to Nick.

Her heart skipped a beat when she heard the door open. She turned, intending to tease him about being so eager, but her own smile died upon seeing his dire expression.

“Are you ready to leave?” he asked.

“I, um...” She glanced back at the computer, where she had several files open. “Can you give me another fifteen minutes? I just need to check a couple more things and print this out.”

He nodded. “I will be on the terrace.”

When she finished, she joined him there. He was so preoccupied that he didn't even hear her approach. When she laid a hand on his shoulder, he turned abruptly, almost as if he expected to find someone else standing there.

“Nick, is everything all right?”

“Yes. Of course.” But his eyes remained dark and fathomless and at odds with the smile that turned up the corners of his mouth. “I am looking forward to our trip.”

After Trikala, they were going to continue on to Meteora, where they would stay the night in a hotel. Even though Darcie had not asked him to, Nick had booked separate rooms for them, and of course he had insisted on paying for both. First thing in the morning, the plan was to tour a couple of Meteora's remaining six Greek Orthodox monasteries that were built atop rocky sandstone towers. Then the two of them would head back to Athens.

She had been looking forward to the trip as well. But now...?

“What's wrong?” She laid a hand on his arm. “And please don't tell me ‘nothing.' I want to help.”

“I thank you for your concern. But you cannot help me.”

“Nick,” she pleaded.

“I had an argument with my brother this morning.” He waved one hand in dismissal. Even so, Darcie's stomach took a tumble.

“Selene?” she suggested.

Nick's gaze returned to the sea. In profile, Darcie watched his jaw clench. “It is an old wound, but it has not healed properly.” He sighed wearily then. “I do not know if it ever will.”

“Sometimes talking to a neutral third party helps. I've been told I'm a good listener.” When he turned, she offered an encouraging smile. Even so, it was a full minute before Nick said anything.

“I have been so angry. And I have felt entitled to that anger.”

“But now?”

He swallowed and shoved a hand through his hair, leaving it as messy as his emotions. The expletive that followed—and she didn't doubt it was an expletive—was spoken in Greek.

“Why don't you tell me what happened between you and Selene?” Maybe by taking a step back in time, he would be able to move forward.

“Selene and I had been seeing one another for a couple of years when I went to New York for the first time. I had saved up some money, and my uncle had a contact in the United States. I planned to attend a few auctions, gain some understanding of the business and return to Athens to build my company here.”

“But you stayed.”

“Not at first, but eventually. The market for classic automobiles is so much larger in America. It made sense!” He was less emphatic when he added, “Selene did not see it that way.”

“Were the two of you engaged at the time?”

He shook his head. “I never proposed, but I thought we had an understanding.”

“And moving to another country, was that part of the understanding?”

He frowned. “She did not want to leave Athens.”

“Of course not. Everything familiar to her is here,” Darcie said. “It was a lot to ask.”

“I know.” He pinched his eyes closed. “We argued about it more than once, each trying to sway the other. I tried to find a solution. The best I could manage was a compromise. I came back to Greece as often as I could.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug.

“Did she ever come to New York?”

“Once. It was right after I took an apartment there. As much as I love Manhattan, that is how much she hated it. Still, I told myself that eventually...” His words trailed off and he shook his head.