Surrender: The Greek Affair Series Book One (7 page)

“I’ll get a taxi.”

“I’m free tonight. I’m free all weekend as matter of fact. Can I be your driver?” Is your friend staying with you?”

“No he’s staying in a hotel, but he is dear to me and I would feel better if I picked him up.”

“Well can I take you there and back? You haven’t replied.” Hope is torn. She so wants to be with him, and he is being generous, so she gives in. (She knows she would regret it if she denies him, because she would be denying herself.)

“Ok. The plane comes in late, as you know. I’m going to be at the seaside bar. Find me there and yes, thank you very much.”

“I’ll come and have a drink with you and we’ll go to the airport.”

And with that he gets up. She follows.

“I have to go now. I’ve been playing ‘hooky’”, he says with a smirk and he leaves. He turns and waves, leaving her stunned at the way things have taken this turn all of a sudden, and making her feel a whole lot better, but a whole lot worse at the same time. And she finds that she can’t wait for this evening.

Jason steps away with his heart pounding. This was the most difficult request for a date he had ever made. He wants a cigarette.

He needs the poison badly, to help him get over the surprise of her acceptance to his invitation. He is shocked and elated with her acceptance; so much so, that he almost loses his cool. He almost lost the art of manoeuvring the conversation to pretend that if she said no, it would be ok, but he knew it would not have been.

The thought of seeing her tonight makes his stomach flutter and his heart warm. He needs two cigarettes, one after the other. If he could smoke two together he would!

He knows he had to tread carefully; this was not any chick. This is a woman and if he has guessed correctly, a smart, sensitive and a hurt woman. A woman with her guard up. He wants to find out more about her. It had become his aim for now to get to know this amber-eyed woman, from the inside and if he was lucky, find his body inside her.

What a challenge! He needs nicotine, his drug of choice, and he knows he should not smoke in front of her, but he does not know why. He just knows!

Chapter Seven

It’s Friday again and the bars and taverns will be full.

Hope’s good friend, Pétro will be coming from Athens. Pétro has been her friend for as long as she can remember, throughout her adult life; he represented her awakening into love, outside the boundaries of which was once considered normal.

She met him many years earlier in her marriage, when she had been very young. She had been lonely and lost in a marriage that she did not understand, and at a time when she had no other personal friends. He had, over the years, been there for her throughout her turbulent marriage and subsequent mistakes in her love life. Mistakes are what she seemed to be so good at!

Pétro is gay and she had not known any other gay men or women prior to this friendship. She began to understand the different kinds of love and sex, in the journey of their friendship; to understand that you can’t help who you fall in love with, or who you are attracted enough to, to take to bed with you. She was always very receptive to his need to be with men. She didn’t know why, but it was as if she had led his life in another dimension. He had always been there for her when she fell apart, allowing her to cry on his shoulder, (even if only metaphorically), as tears were rare for Hope.

He had warned her, time and time again, that no matter how much geographical distance she put between herself and her problems, she still took Hope with her. But she still had not learned that lesson well enough, it seemed; she had yet to learn that problems don’t disappear with geography.

She needed him now, as she sensed that she is about to embark upon a delicious adventure that she feels she doesn’t deserve, nor is she entitled to it. But she knows what he will say. He will tell her to enjoy herself and put aside all the ‘have tos’ and ‘must dos’ and just be herself, but she doesn’t know who “herself” is! Never knew and even as the years pass by, she seems to know less of who she is.

Hope is aware that Jason is a delectable mezé (morsel) to pass the summer away with. In fact, she is more in tune with mezé then anything whole or complete. But she is also acutely aware that he has affected her in ways that no other man, (no matter what age), has. No one has ever touched her heart, and even her intellect, like this. She senses danger. She does not want to feel any of these things, because she does not understand them.

Pétro and Hope share a background of growing up in Australia, but are born in another country, being always displaced geographically, emotionally and as it seems, sexually. They suffer the same angst about their place in society and their place in their culture, or should it be called a cultural displacement?

Pétro is also funny, caring and in many ways, daring. She loves him like the sibling she never had.

She dresses in a simple cotton black skirt above the knee, a black tank top with shoe-stringstraps. She has a weakness for black; it’s easy to wear and always looks elegant, a shade avoided in this culture as it is associated with mourning, although she should learn to avoid it in the summer, as it can get hot. She hopes she’s elegant enough tonight, with low heeled sandals. Her short, auburn curly hair is simple, she never does much with it, and she abhors wasting time in hairdressers, so she only goes if necessary. (Her clutter is inside her, so she tries to avoid outside clutter by controlling her outside world, that she manages to fail at miserably.)

Hope has an early dinner, admires the lit fortress once again, and wonders at the stories it had hidden of the men and women who have died there, and who had been triumphant there. She walks to the little seaside bar, arriving at about 9.30pm and to her surprise, she sees Jason sitting at the bar with an amber drink in his hand and a cigarette in the other, and she finds herself wishing he did not smoke. But then, why should that be an issue for her?

He looks breathtakingly gorgeous. He is wearing a white shirt, sleeves rolled up and what seems to be navy linen pants, with Converse shoes. His hair is shining under the light and as she approaches him, his eyes are sharp like a cat’s in the night. They seem shaded and a little menacing than during the day….and more questioning. That mouth! Not that she had not noticed that delicious mouth before, but she wanted to avoid looking at it if possible, (as the only place she can imagine it, is all over her). The lips are full, sculptured with a defining line, as if they have been penciled in, but it is not a perfect mouth, as it has a slightly crooked turn on one side, when he smiles, and she sees this now as he looks at her. He butts out his cigarette as she approaches, and smiles with all that glorious slant of those lips. He moves like an elegant cat, hunting; slow and sure of himself, and as she nears him, he takes her by surprise, taking her hands in his and kisses her on both cheeks. Her blood pumps in her ears, violently.

“Hi”

“Hi”, she says a little bewildered,

“Do you want to sit at a table?”

“Yes please, I hate bar stools.”

“What would you like to drink?”

“Campari and soda, thanks.”

He orders a drink for her, and another for himself, and they weave over to a small empty table in a corner. He is gently leading her with his hand in the small of her back, with the manners of someone well bred and beyond his years. He makes sure they’re seated, facing each other.

Hope feels a little paralysed, and wonders what she’s doing here with this gorgeous man. She knows this is not just a “friend”. She doesn’t know what he is actually, but she knows that she feels shy, very vulnerable, and puzzled as to why she feels this way. He has not given her any indication to make her feel this way. It is normal to make random friends on any Greek Island in the summer. So she takes stock immediately, because he is most likely just a friend - but he is so lickable!

***

Jason is very confused as to his need for this woman and he knows it’s not just about sex! It is summer and on a Greek island, where sex is the easiest thing to find. He needs to peel her defences back, to see what is underneath, discover the woman, the person, and what makes her tick! He sees pain in her eyes, but he wants to do all this while he has his mouth all over her, eating her….. and while he is inside her! He feels that he may be a step closer, but he is wary about becoming too sure of himself, as once again he reminds himself that he is dealing with a woman, not a girl, and he feels he might be playing way out of his league.

***

They are seated in such a way that the light is on her, and he can see the amber eyes and the way they glow in the artificial light. He is in semi-shadow and she feels as if she is emotionally naked! He looks comfortable, at ease with himself and his gorgeous body, that surely is well exercised both in, and out of bed.

The drinks arrive and he immediately lifts his glass with his beautiful hand. Hope has a fetish for masculine hands on men; his are perfect, like the rest of him. They clink their glasses,
“Stin igiá mas”
(to our health), and he looks deeply into her eyes, as if searching for something, but she doesn’t think she has anything to give him.

“Stin igiá mas!”
she replies

He takes a gulp, puts the glass down and looks at her face with a thousand questions written all over his.

“So tell me about yourself.”

She looks at him, measuring her reply. “What is it you want to know about me?”

“Just everyday things. Are you married? Divorced? Never married?”

“Divorced.”

“Thought so.”

“How come you thought so?”

“Well you seem old enough to be married and yet you’re here on your own,” he says, taking another gulp from his drink and avoiding looking at her.

“I don’t know if I should take offence to that,” she says, looking at him for the first time, straight into his face, with a little bit of fight in her, but slightly smiling.

“That’s the spirit, that’s the look I know you have.” He now looks straight at her, “I don’t mean it in any offensive way. You look like you have responsibilities, and there is nothing carefree about you. I suspect you have children too. Somehow, you don’t strike me as someone who has not lived a life.”

Hope relaxes and tries to be casual. “I have a grown up son, and yes, I have had a previous life to this one, maybe more than one.”

Jason somehow feels that he might be treading on painful ground, and so changes the subject, much to Hope’s relief.

“Tell me about your friend who is coming tonight.”

“What is there to tell. He is a dear friend and someone I love very much.”

“A gay friend!”

“How the hell did you know that?”

“It’s easy to deduce. Not staying with you, so he cant’ be a lover, dear friend like a brother, and anyway all worldly and attractive women have one favourite gay friend. It’s not rocket science.” He smiles and makes her smile too.

“Tell me a little about you then.”

“There’s not much to tell. I finished university and came to Greece to do my national service, so I don’t have any other commitments to the
“patrída”
(the fatherland). Then I can get on with my life.”

“How long do you have left of your national service?”

He sits back in his chair, takes a deep breath and lets it out, “Finished! I get my discharge papers in two weeks.”

Relief is written all over him and Hope feels a pang of disappointment in her stomach, as it means he will be leaving the island. She looks at her watch and realises its time to go to the airport.

“Shall we go? We’ll just make it. Oh, and by the way, I can’t thank you enough for this.”

They get up at the same time. He moves stealthily to the counter to pay and she watches his back and the beautiful form; the wide shoulders and slim hips, the pouting butt, that is so kissable! Lucky girl, whoever has him, and just for a nanosecond, she wished she was twenty and unencumbered.

They walk through cobble-stoned side streets to get to the Square, where the cars are allowed to park. To Hope’s surprise, he leads her to a conventional civilian car, rather than the army jeep she expected, and for some strange reason she is disappointed. Weird!

“Where’s the jeep?”

“I’m not allowed to use it off duty.”

He opens the passenger seat door for her and she gets in. The last time a man opened the car door for her was her father, who had old world manners. This is very unexpected from someone so young. The drive to the airport is about half an hour, because the road is well constructed, and the traffic is easy.

She looks at him driving, and she sees the perfection of his profile and wonders at how anyone could be so perfect. She wants to ask him so many questions, but good manners prevent her from doing so. Instead, she allows him to talk.

He turns and looks at her and gives her a soft smile, then turns to the road and asks her, “Where is your son?”

A question that she was expecting, but it still surprises her and creates a certain amount of unease, only because of her guilt for uprooting her son. Not because Jason asked the question. It would not matter who asked her that question, she would feel the same.