The Greek’s Cinderella Deal by Carol Marinelli

CHAPTER NINE

THEIRWALKBACKvia the beach was beautiful. The sand was warm beneath her feet and the gentle lap of water was soothing. There was a massive moon over the water, on the very edge of being full, and it should have been perfect.

It almost was.

‘It looks like a big ball of white chocolate,’ Mary said into the silence as he walked alongside her. ‘Well, like it’s been licked at one of the edges a bit.’

He didn’t laugh, or do anything really—just walked in silence. Maybe he was waiting for an explanation. Or maybe he was just killing time, Mary thought. Getting through the long-dreaded weekend.

‘Do you think she believed us?’ Mary asked.

‘What?’

‘Yolanda—do you think she believed us?’

‘You really know how to play smoke and mirrors, don’t you?’ he accused. ‘Hey, let’s focus on the most irrelevant detail, why don’t we?’

‘The party is the reason I’m here.’ Mary’s voice was starting to rise, and she wasn’t used to the sound of it doing that. ‘And if we’re going to sort something out by tomorrow then—’

‘There is no tomorrow.’

‘We can sort it out,’ she insisted. ‘Talk it through.’

‘Talk what through?’

‘I just need to know what you’re thinking.’

‘Mary, you’re asking me to talk to you, to tell you what I’m thinking. You want to discuss this as if it were some sort of relationship in need of rescue, when it’s absolutely not. The only thing I need to know is, did I hurt you?’

‘No.’

‘Was I too rough?’

‘You weren’t rough,’ Mary said. ‘If you’d known the truth you’d have taken things slower, but it was actually very nice...’

‘If I’d known,’ Costa responded tartly, ignoring the last part, ‘then, believe me, you wouldn’t be here.’

‘Oh, so you’d prefer a more experienced date?’

‘Why are you here, Mary?’ He turned and bluntly asked her. ‘Money?’

She nodded.

‘Anything else?’

‘A weekend of sun and a party.’

‘And?’

‘Sex.’

‘I made it very clear I was hiring you to act as my girlfriend. Brilliant acting skills, by the way—the perfume, learning some Greek...’

‘I took it seriously,’ Mary answered primly, trying to hide the little alarms that were being triggered as he approached her landmine zones. She’d actually been herself—and he’d clearly loathed it. ‘Method acting, I think they call it. I got a book once from—’

‘The library?’ he finished for her.

‘I’m sorry if I misled you.’

‘Misled? You’re a liar, Mary,’ he told her, ‘and a very good one. And that is entirely your prerogative. I’m not judging you. I’ve lied to get ahead too. But may I suggest you don’t attempt no-strings sex when you have no idea what’s involved?’

‘I wanted no-strings sex, though.’ She heard his angry hiss. ‘I honestly did. I like how you make me feel and I wanted a weekend of fun and a party and making love...’

‘Let’s stop right there. Because not only do I not “make love”, but in the middle of the no-strings sex you say you want, clearly you changed your mind.’

She was silent.

‘You knew you were out of your depth.’

‘No.’

‘Yes,’ he insisted. ‘I was in the pool with you, Mary...’

‘The reason I stopped you wasn’t because I was scared, or regretting things, or faking it, or worried that it might hurt—well, maybe a bit...’ She took a breath. ‘I don’t know how to say this.’

‘Go ahead!’

‘Well, I wasn’t...’ She stopped herself again.

‘Please,’ he invited, ‘let’s just have it out here and now.’

‘I wasn’t going to stake my sexual health on a slut like you!’

There—she’d said it. In fact, she’d shouted it. And for the first time in almost for ever she’d let her temper out.

‘God help me...’ Costa muttered, because she was the most confusing person ever placed on this earth!

‘I’ve known from the start that we’re not going anywhere,’ Mary said. ‘I accept that.’

‘Oh, you accept that, do you? Mary, it was never even up for negotiation.’

He wasn’t just angry with her, but with himself too—because he’d have had her in the pool and they both knew it. And he never had unprotected sex. Never.

‘Are you even on the Pill?’

‘I started it the night you left.’

Costa gave a black laugh, but then changed it to a somewhat incredulous smile. ‘I admire you, Mary,’ he said, only he knew he didn’t sound particularly complimentary. ‘When you go for something, you really go for it, don’t you?’

‘Perhaps...’

‘Perhaps?’ He turned in simple amazement at her complete understatement. ‘Diving off the top board, a birthday night out with a brute, a weekend in Greece as an escort when you’ve never even—’

He stopped, because he could not focus on her innocence; it was much easier to allow his natural suspicion to take over than to indulge in dangerous thoughts about the intoxicating woman in front of him.

His eyes narrowed, he said, ‘Were you hoping this would last longer than a weekend?’

‘Oh, now you think I’m here to trap you?’

‘I don’t know what the hell to think!’

If anything, Costa dared not think too hard. Because suddenly it wasn’t Mary’s sexual inexperience that was the issue, it was these damn feelings that were getting in the way. The same feelings that had been getting in his meticulously planned way since he had first laid eyes on this woman who had introduced herself as ‘Mary from London’.

‘I don’t want to get involved with anyone,’ he told her as they arrived back at the villa.

‘So you’ve said. Several times.’

‘And we’re too involved already.’

‘Hardly...’ Mary refuted.

‘Yes, we are,’ Costa said. ‘Look, I don’t want the responsibility of a relationship and this is starting to look like one.’ He hoped it was too honestly said to sound selfish. ‘I don’t want all the panic of one.’

‘Panic...?’ She frowned.

‘Wrong word.’ He corrected his English. ‘Drama.’ Then he corrected the situation. ‘Look, whether Yolanda believed us or not doesn’t matter,’ he said. ‘She’s just going to have to deal with the fact when I tell her that we broke up.’

‘What will you tell her?’

‘The truth.’ Costa looked at her then. ‘That we are completely incompatible.’

He’d expected pleas and protests, and yet Costa was coming to understand that he had absolutely no clue when it came to Mary.

She said nothing.

‘I’ll arrange the helicopter in the morning. I can book a hotel for you in Athens.’

He didn’t quite know how to handle her silence.

‘You can raid the minibar and go crazy again.’

He found her continued silence unsettling.

‘Mary, you really don’t need to be sleeping with the likes of me.’

‘Save the pep talk,’ Mary snapped. ‘Believe me, I’ve been sent away before there was time to unpack more times than you can count. I don’t need to be told again that I’m just “not quite right”, that I “just don’t fit”.’

There were no tears and no trace of bitterness in her voice, but then she asked a question.

‘You’d really prefer me to have no feelings for you?’

‘So you do have feelings?’ he demanded.

‘Of course I do,’ Mary said. ‘I’d be crazy to be here otherwise. But you’re right—we are completely incompatible. I would never want a real relationship with you. I want a man who sends cards and flowers and balloons...’

‘What is your obsession with balloons...?’ He screwed up his nose.

‘I happen to love them. And you’re right. I don’t want cold sex and no conversation. I just wanted to play at a relationship and practise on you...’

‘Practise?’

‘Yes,’ she admitted. ‘I wanted fun in the sun and to make love and laugh and be close to someone—even if just for a couple of nights. But now one of those nights is about to be wasted in the guest room. Guess what, Costa? I won’t be creeping into your room in the middle of the night. I’ve been lonely nearly my whole life; one more night is neither here nor there. Nor will I be raiding the minibar in Athens. I’ll be going out clubbing...’ She glared at him. ‘I’m going to have some of that cold, meaningless sex you so clearly endorse. Gia parti mou!’

‘Are you finished?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘I’ll be gone in the morning, and I’m guessing you’ll be conveniently out, so I’ll tell you a few home truths now. Your mother would have loved a card from you...’

He moved his shoulders in a silent, mirthless laugh.

‘Oh, yes, she would—and also she’d like to know what the hell happened to your face...’

‘She doesn’t need to know about Ridge—’ He couldn’t even finish saying the man’s name.

‘Just tell her you got into a fight with the guy who was making me miserable. I can assure you she’s imagining far worse.’

‘Have you quite finished?’

‘No! I would have been brilliant,’ she said. ‘I would have been the best fake girlfriend ever! I’m not the one who’s struggling to keep up my end of the deal. You’re the coward, Costa. You’re the one who refuses to let loose, even for one weekend.’

He said nothing.

‘I wish you well,’ Mary said, and headed into the guest room. ‘Adio.’