Seventy-one
The view from Andras’s bedroom was stunning, but the light streaming through the glass as the sun rose had woken Tess early. Now, a cup of steaming coffee in her hands, she took in the baby-blue sky, small white scudding clouds moving across the horizon, the sea shimmering with sunlight as small fishing boats bobbed and dipped amid its undulating peaks and troughs. And nearer, on Andras’s thick, green lawn, there was Hector, a large paw pushing at the latch of his cage.
‘Kalimera.’
Tess turned away from the window at the sound of Andras’s greeting and held her coffee mug in the air. ‘Morning. I made you coffee. It’s by your side of the bed.’
Your side of the bed. She had slept here one night and had claimed a side? ‘On the bedside table,’ she corrected.
‘Thank you,’ he said, pushing the sheet down off his body and shifting on the mattress.
Tess watched every abdominal muscle tweak with each minute movement. It was like having your own up-close-and-personal Calvin Klein ad.
‘You are wearing my shirt again,’ Andras commented, taking a sip from his mug.
‘You want it back?’ Tess asked, prowling towards him, eyes heavy with seducing intentions she hoped he was taking note of.
‘I think I might,’ he responded, his eyes darkening.
She sprung, catlike, on to the bed and slipped a hand either side of his frame, holding herself above his body, just as she had last night.
‘Then take it back,’ she teased, voice low as her erogenous zones started having a party.
He moved to kiss her and she jerked her face away and out of his reach. ‘Oh no, not fast,’ she mimicked. ‘We are going to do this very, very slowly. What was it? Arga?’
‘Tess,’ he breathed, voice straining as his hands began to wander to the buttons of his shirt on her body.
Who was she trying to kid? She wanted his lips on hers more than she was craving drinks from the Coca-Cola company. She pressed her mouth to his then felt him spin her around and over on to the mattress until his frame was on top of hers.
‘I want to rip that shirt away,’ he breathed. ‘And then I want to kiss every part of you.’
‘Yes,’ Tess said, her body quaking with anticipation.
He held her wrists, dropping another sizzling kiss on her mouth. ‘But … it is past eight o’ clock.’ He let her go and vaulted from the bed, stretching his arms in the air and elongated his torso like he was doing it for her personal viewing pleasure.
‘Andras, please,’ she begged. ‘A Greek eight o’clock. We can wait for a Greek eight o’clock, you know, the one that doesn’t really exist.’
He grinned. ‘We have to meet Spiro at my mother’s house. I have to shave him and the other men have to help him to get dressed.’
Tess sat bolt upright. ‘Did you say shave him?’ She blinked. ‘Like remove all his body hair?’
‘No,’ Andras laughed. ‘Just his face.’
She pouted, feeling a little frustrated. ‘And what do I do while you’re shaving?’
‘Anything you want,’ he replied. ‘You can stay here, make some breakfast, sit in the garden, relax …’
‘What time do I have to be by the boat for the church?’
‘Eleven o’clock.’
‘And you’re sure your mother isn’t going to ban me from the vicinity like she has banned the tortoise?’ Tess asked. ‘I mean, all Hector has done is raid the restaurant kitchen, he hasn’t ever lied to her.’
‘Or said that he does not want babies,’ Andras added.
She grabbed a pillow and threw it at him, watching it cuff his shoulder. ‘That’s not funny.’
He was moving back across the wooden floor towards her then, that body of perfection shifting closer, igniting her arousal and sending her stomach into KitchenAid mode.
‘My mother knows how I feel about you,’ Andras said. ‘I told you, we have talked.’ He kissed her shoulder.
‘And Marietta isn’t going to be putting some Greek ugliness hex on me or anything?’ She shivered as Andras’s lips reached her collarbone.
‘I will still love you even if you end up looking like Medusa,’ Andras responded.
‘Love me,’ Tess whispered, the words feeling unfamiliar.
Andras stood back a little, keeping his face level with hers. ‘Is that too much? To say that, in this moment?’
Was it? He had shown her in so many ways how he felt and said so too, just not with that four-letter word beginning with ‘l’ that always seemed to put a different slant on it. She shook her head. ‘No.’
‘No?’ he queried.
‘No, it isn’t too much,’ she answered. ‘It’s nice. I like it.’
He kissed her mouth. ‘Good,’ he responded. ‘Because, when I mentioned Medusa, I felt sure you would be focused on the snakes.’
She hit his arm playfully and he recoiled, laughing.
‘I have to shower,’ he said, walking towards the door.
Just the thought of that delicious torso under hot running water was enough to make her labia throb. She picked up the pillow and hugged it to her body.
Then Andras put his head around the bedroom door. ‘Tess,’ he called.
‘Yes?’
He smiled. ‘I have a double shower.’
She had never run so fast.