Loosening his grip on her slender arm, but still holding it, he lowered his gaze to her lips and with the slightest of movements, inclined his head. His intent couldn’t have been clearer. If she moves away, I shan’t kiss her, he told himself, as though this would exonerate him of any wrongdoing. But if she stays where she is, I will.
Chapter Thirty-Five
It was an amazing kiss.
A clean sweep of a kiss that was silky and smooth.
Slow.
Gentle.
Intensely erotic.
With his hand on the nape of her neck he drew her closer, wanting more of the sweet warmth of her mouth, a mouth that was so deliciously inviting he couldn’t think why she had ever doubted her ability to kiss Theo.
The thought of Theo invoked common sense. He should bring matters to an immediate close. He should clear his throat and mumble some kind of gentlemanly apology: ‘Sorry, but I really don’t know what came over me.’
But to hell with that! He knew exactly what he was doing and wanted to go on doing it for as long as he could.
As inevitably as night follows day, the moment came to an end, brought to a halt by the intrusive sound of a small fishing-boat crossing the water in front of them. He stroked her hair away from her face, tucked it behind her ear. ‘I suppose one of us should say, “How did that happen?”’
‘It was you,’ she said, with a shy half-smile. ‘You started it.’
‘Not true. It was all down to you. You turned those lovely eyes on me. What was I supposed to do?’
‘But it was you who lowered your head.’
‘You didn’t have to respond. In my mind I gave you the choice to back out. Look, I’ll show you, this is all I did.’
He tilted his head and kissed her again. When she started to laugh, he stopped. She said, ‘You tricked that one out of me.’
‘So I did. But, in my defence, you make it so easy for me.’
‘I’m not easy.’
She sounded cross, and realising his blunder, he reached out to her hand. ‘I didn’t mean it that way.’
The night air hung listlessly around them. The tide must have turned, for now the sea was sucking at the pebbly shore beneath their feet. ‘But it’s what it looks like,’ she murmured. ‘First Theo, now you.’
‘What it looks like isn’t what it is. I know that and so do you.’
She raised her eyes. ‘I wouldn’t want you to think that I’m the kind of girl who — ’
‘You made your feelings for Theo very clear when we were talking. I wouldn’t have kissed you if I’d thought you were serious about him.’ Though he spoke with conviction, Mark wasn’t so sure that he was speaking the truth. Remembering the night he had seen Theo kissing Izzy, he understood now that it hadn’t been disappointment he had felt as he’d stood on the beach looking up at them, it had been jealousy. The realisation confirmed what he had suspected about himself that day he had first met Izzy and took her back to Villa Anna to see Theo - he really had been jealous that his friend might find happiness and he might not. And not just any old happiness, but the chance to be loved by someone as special as Izzy. It was a disturbing conclusion that needed some thought. But now wasn’t the time. Now he wanted to make Izzy feel comfortable with him again. He said, ‘We could pretend it never happened, that we didn’t kiss. Or make out that it was an act of impetuous madness.’
‘We could ... if that’s what you wanted.’
‘Doesn’t it also depend on what you want?’
She looked up at him, her eyes wide and faintly troubled again. ‘Why did you kiss me?’
‘Because I wanted to. And because it felt entirely the right thing to do. Can I ask the same of you?’
‘No.’
‘Hey, I sense a degree of disparity going on here.’ Her expression relaxed and he felt hopeful again. Hopeful. What an odd word to use. Hopeful of what? What did he expect to come out of all this? ‘So who gets to have the final word on the subject? You or me?’
‘Be my guest, take the floor.’
‘Okay. Here goes. I’d like it going on record that you need have no worries about your kissing technique. Your fears are totally ill-founded. Not that I’m claiming to be an expert, you understand, but I reckon with a bit more encouragement you could really make a go of it.’
‘Kissing for a living?’
‘Mm ... not quite what I had in mind.’
‘And who would give me the necessary encouragement?’
He cleared his throat, slicked back his hair, and straightened an imaginary tie at his neck. ‘I could make a start first thing in the morning.’
She laughed, picked up the arrow that was between them, turned it over in her hands and stroked the feathers. Impulsively, he took it from her and held it to his heart. ‘Argh, you’ve got me right here, Izzy.’
She snatched it away from him. ‘You’re barmy. Completely barmy.’
‘Actually, and just between you and me, this is the sanest I’ve ever felt.’ He put his arm around her.
She relaxed into him, rested her head against his. ‘Do you suppose after I’ve practised another kiss on you we ought to get back to the party?’
‘Why, Sugar Lips, I do declare you’re making me blush with your forward ways. But it’s not a bad idea. Though if I don’t think you’re up to standard, you could be stuck here for a while.’
She gave him a nudge with her elbow. ‘I thought you said I was good.’
‘Easy there, Tiger, always room for improvement.’
Having insisted that Max and his parents had done more than their fair share of organising the party, Laura had packed them off to bed, and she and Izzy were in the kitchen, tidying up the last of the glasses.
Izzy knew that for the last hour Laura had been dying to get her on her own and subject her to an intensive question-and-answer session. When she and Mark had returned to the party, they had bumped into Laura as they had emerged from the path, so it was a foregone conclusion that she would want to know what Izzy had been up to with him.
‘I thought it was strange when I couldn’t find you anywhere,’ Laura said now, as she opened the dishwasher and stood back to let the cloud of steam escape. ‘It was Dolly-Babe who told me that she’d seen the pair of you sneaking away down the hillside like a couple of lovers in search of a smoochy hideaway. She was very put out. She was hoping to have Mark all to herself.’
‘That’s what he was afraid of.’
‘Ah, so he used you as protection, did he? Very cunning of him. So, Izzy, how many holiday flings do you need?’
‘It’s not like that!’ she cried indignantly. ‘Despite what you all thought, I was never having a fling with Theo.’
‘Calm down, I was only teasing. I think it’s great that you’re testing the water from more than one puddle, so to speak. And he is rather gorgeous with that dead sexy voice of his, I can quite see the attraction. But putting your string of conquests to one side, you’ll never guess what went on here while you were enjoying your secret assignation down on the beach.’
Izzy couldn’t believe her luck that so convenient a diversion was to hand and quickly grasped it. ‘Don’t tell me, Ma and Pa Patterson had a fight?’
‘No, worse than that. Angelos was doing his best to teach Dolly-Babe to dance the light fantastic, and with more than a glass or two of ouzo inside of him, he let it slip who Theo really was. Not only that, it turns out the land that Bob was after was the olive grove here in Ayios Nikólaos that Theo bought. It all got very unpleasant with the pair of them thinking they’d been made fools of. They stomped off in a fearful fit of pique.’
‘Goodness! Do you think Theo knew all along that it was Bob who had designs on the olive grove?’
‘Of course he knew. Theo might like to give the impression of being a charming happy-go-lucky man for whom everything falls into his lap by haphazard chance, but to be as successful as he is it takes a ruthlessly sharp mind that’s as astute as it is devious. With that land being right on his doorstep he would have known exactly who was behind the offer and what plans Bob had for it, so he had made certain that there was no likelihood that Bob could set them in motion.’ She yawned hugely. ‘Oh dear, that’s it as far as I’m concerned, I’m going to bed. I’m all in. I’m definitely getting old, I can’t take these late nights any more. I just hope the girls don’t make too much noise when they get in - I could do with an uninterrupted night’s sleep. You coming?’
But Izzy didn’t follow Laura to bed. Her head was too full of that evening’s events. She made herself a mug of tea and went and sat on the terrace. All the villa lights had been switched off and sitting in the darkness she felt the night wrap its cool aura of calm around her.
But the aura of calm didn’t last for long.
A horribly familiar voice inside her head said,
And just what did you think you were doing down there on the beach, and for all the world to see?
You know what, she answered her mother back, I was having the time of my life! There! What do you say to that? Mm ... gone quiet on me, have you? Well, good. Because if ever there was a man worth disgracing myself for, this is the one.
She closed her eyes, defiantly shutting out her mother’s unwanted presence, and relived every heart-stopping moment of that first kiss with Mark.
How it had happened was still a mystery to her. One minute they had been laughing and joking and the next, she had found herself wishing he would kiss her. And just as this thought had formed itself, he had lowered his eyes and tilted his head, and she had realised he was thinking the same. And the best thing was, there hadn’t been a single attack of doubt or nerves throughout. It had felt so right between them. All she had been conscious of was the dreamy pleasure his soft warm lips were giving her. It had seemed so natural, so unforced and unhurried. And so sublimely wonderful.
Unlike the kiss she had had with Theo. How scared she had been that he would find her wanting. That he would think she was less of a woman than he was used to.
But Mark hadn’t made her feel like that.
When eventually they had decided they ought to rejoin the party, Mark had offered to carry her up the path again, but she had put her foot down and said she could manage just fine. ‘Am I allowed to hold the hand of Little Miss Independent, then?’ he had asked.
‘I think that would be okay.’
But, of course, he had done more than that. Half-way up the hillside, he had stopped and said, ‘Do you remember? This is where you fell and hurt yourself. We’d better not take any chances, I’ll take hold of both your hands.’
‘But that would mean I couldn’t walk.’
‘True. But it would enable me to kiss you again, safe in the knowledge that those lethal hands and elbows of yours couldn’t take another shot at me.’ He had treated her to a repeat performance of that trick of slowly lowering his head. ‘And would that be all right?’ he had asked, holding back from her and making the moment all the more seductive and irresistible. ‘I’d hate to be accused of presuming anything of you.’
The combination of his husky voice, little more than a whisper, the smell of his aftershave mingling with the heady scent of the cypress trees around them, and the heat of his body reaching out to her, all came together and hit her in the form of an all-consuming bolt of desire. It was a shockwave of pure lust that travelled at high speed the length and breadth of her. Tilting her head back, she closed her eyes and waited for him to kiss her.
But when a few seconds had passed and he hadn‘t, she opened her eyes. ‘What’s the hold-up?’ she asked.
Holding her face in his long, smooth fingers, he said, ‘I was just taking a good look at you. Committing you to memory.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I can’t imagine a better way to remember this evening. Can I see you tomorrow?’
‘Where?’
‘On the rocks where we were just sitting ... where I first met you.’
‘Okay, I’ll be there. Early, before everyone else is up.’
Thinking of the scene now, and looking at her watch, Izzy saw that it was only a matter of hours before she would be with Mark again. She hugged this happy thought to her, holding it tight, wanting to squeeze every delicious impetuous hope out of it. She didn’t care a jot if she was crying for the moon, it was the best feeling in the world, and while it lasted, she was determined to enjoy it.
Further round the bay, at Villa Anna, Mark was also sitting in the dark. Staring at the sea, he was watching the outgoing tide breaking the surface of the water. Nearer to him, and down on the shore, he could hear the waves building in strength as they clawed at the sand and stones, dislodging what they could within their deceptively embracing touch.
The shifting tide echoed his own agitated state. And restless with a surfeit of energy he went and leaned against the low wall on the edge of the terrace. He suddenly wished that he had had the nerve to entice Izzy back here to spend the night with him.
He sighed heavily, ran his hands through his hair and told himself to think of something else. Something marginally less erotic than the thought of undressing Izzy and making love to her.
Think of Theo and what the hell you’re going to say to him when you speak to him next! Oh, by the way, Theo, I’ve got this thing going with Izzy. No hard feelings, eh?
Chapter Thirty-Six
Francesca was regretting the amount she had had to drink. She was feeling sick and each time she closed her eyes the noisy packed-out bar they were squeezed into would spin round inside her head. She should never have knocked back all those tequila slammers. She had only done it to teach Harry a lesson. To show him that this was how you had a good time.
Earlier on, and already a bit tipsy, she had been boasting to Nick what a great kisser his brother was. She had then tried to kiss Harry in front of everyone, but he wouldn’t let her. ‘Don’t, Francesca,’ he had said, his face reddening, ‘not here. Not like this.’ But she had kept on until in the end he had unhooked her hands from around his neck and pushed her away. ‘I’d rather kiss you when you were sober and knew what you were doing.’ His voice had been as hard as steel. So had his eyes.