The Enigmatic Greek (11 page)

‘For wanting you for a lover, not a friend?’ he said, so quick on the uptake she smiled ruefully.

‘Exactly.’

‘Honest lady.’ His eyes darkened. ‘Now go. Take your scruples off to bed.’

Eleanor smiled sweetly and marched off down the hall at speed, fuelled by disappointment when he made no move to follow her.

D
UE
to a new fondness for the miracle of electricity, Eleanor left the bedside lamp on for company when she was ready for bed, but sleep was hard to come by. She tossed and turned for what seemed like hours, prey to unfamiliar sexual frustration. She finally drifted into an uneasy, restless doze, but woke suddenly, heart pounding. She sat bolt-upright, cold sweat breaking out over her forehead as she stared in horror at the nightmare apparition in the open doorway. She uttered a hoarse scream and scrambled out of bed, so awkward in her terror she tripped and fell and for the first time in her life fainted dead away.

Eleanor came round pressed against Alex’s bare chest, his heart thumping like a drum against her cheek.

‘You’re safe,
agapi mou
,’ he assured her, breathing hard. ‘You had a bad dream.’

She opened her eyes a crack, afraid of what she might see, but there was no monstrous, terrifying figure in the open doorway. She heaved in a deep, unsteady breath. ‘It was just a nightmare?’

‘A very bad one, by your scream.’ He rubbed his cheek against her hair, his arms tightening protectively. ‘It took years off my life.’

‘Off mine too. It was so real. He was standing in the
doorway with those great crystal eyes staring at me.’ She swallowed convulsively.

Alex tipped her face up to his. ‘Crystal eyes?’

Eleanor nodded. ‘Like the dancer. A bull’s head on a human male body.’

He smiled indulgently. ‘A nightmare indeed!’

‘Sorry to involve you in it—why are we sitting on the floor?’

‘I found you there. I broke the Olympic sprint record to get here when you screamed, and found you unconscious on the floor.’ He got to his feet, picked her up and put her back against the pillows. ‘You gave me such a scare. Are you better now?’

She shook her head. ‘Not really.’

‘I’ll go down to the kitchen and look for my mother’s tea.’

‘
No
! Please. Don’t leave me alone up here.’ She tried to smile. ‘Sorry to be such a coward, but the monster in the doorway seemed horribly real.’

Alex sat on the edge of the bed, eyes narrowed. ‘You left your door open?’

Eleanor frowned as she raked her hair back from her perspiring forehead. ‘Of course not. I was hardly likely to get ready for bed with it wide open.’

‘Not after the conversation we’d just had,’ he agreed dryly. ‘This apparition you saw. It was in the open doorway—not outside in the hall?’

‘It—he—was there in the doorway, Alex. I froze in horror, and for an instant I couldn’t tear my eyes away. Then I screamed my head off and jumped out of bed in such a panic I actually passed out. A first for me, by the way,’ she informed him, and shivered. ‘I need a shower.’ She licked her dry lips, eyeing him in appeal. ‘Would you stay here while I’m in the bathroom?’

‘Of course.’ He frowned. ‘But be quick, because I must
search the
Kastro.
If what, or who, you saw here was real and not a dream, he must be found. I’ll ring Theo.’

‘
No
! Please don’t,’ she said, appalled. ‘It was just a dream.’ Vivid and horrible, but what else could it have been?

Alex nodded reluctantly. ‘As you wish.’

‘Thank you, Alex.’ She smiled brightly. ‘Sorry for the fuss. One way or another, you’ll be glad to see the back of me.’

He shook his head. ‘On the contrary. My mother—as always—is right. The company of an intelligent woman is a very desirable thing.’

Her smile was ironic. ‘But you must know lots of women. With your reputation and wealth and—and the rest of it—you must be beating them off with a stick!’

Alex threw back his head and laughed. ‘What a picture you paint of me.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘What do you mean by “the rest of it”?’

‘You know very well.’

‘Tell me.’

‘The physique and the looks, of course,’ she said irritably.

‘You find me good to look at?’

She rolled her eyes. ‘You know perfectly well I do.’

‘You are good to look at too, Eleanor,’ he said, in a tone which made her quiver. ‘I stood looking at you in the sun this afternoon before you knew I was there.’

He was wrong about that. She’d known the moment he stepped onto the roof, and not just because her hearing was acute. Alexei Drakos had a way of making his presence felt.

‘You made a very charming picture lying there.’ His eyes lit with sudden fury. ‘Then I saw the bruise at your waist and I could have strangled Spiro with my bare hands.’

Eleanor smiled shakily. ‘Thank you. I think. I’ll have that shower now.’

Alex got up and stood over her. ‘Can you stand?’

‘Yes,’ she said firmly, embarrassed to find her camisole and shorts soaked with sweat. ‘I’m fine now,’ she said, face hot, and made for the bathroom as fast as her shaky knees would allow.

‘Be quick, in case you feel faint again,’ Alex ordered.

Eleanor groaned in despair at her reflection. She would have to wash her hair. She got on with it as fast as she could but, with shaking hands and legs threatening to fold under her, it took time before she was dry and wrapped in Talia’s robe. She combed her hair through and swathed it in a towel then slapped moisturiser into her cheeks to bring some colour back to them. When she opened the door, Alex was eyeing the stripped bed, perplexed.

‘The sheets were so damp I took them off, but where does Sofia keep the replacements?’

Eleanor crossed to the dresser and began opening drawers until she found a stack of perfectly laundered bed linen. ‘
Voila!’

‘Excellent! But there is still a problem. The mattress is also damp. You can’t sleep here tonight.’

She cringed at the thought of drenching his mother’s bed with sweat. How gross was that? ‘Of course I can. Those chairs are really comfortable.’

‘For sitting only. You shall sleep in my bed again.’ His lips twitched at the look on her face. ‘I’ll take the couch in my office.’

Eleanor shook her head vehemently. ‘Thank you, but that’s unnecessary. I can sleep on the settee in the tower room.’ Even though she quailed at the prospect. The thought of spending the night alone in any room in the apartment scared the living daylights out of her.

‘No, Eleanor. You take my bed; I’ll take the office couch.’ He raised an eyebrow as she chuckled. ‘It’s good to hear you laugh, but what is funny?’

‘I once worked on a paper where the boss’s office couch was a way of getting a promotion for some women on the staff,’ she told him.

He grinned. ‘Not for you, of course.’

Eleanor batted her eyelashes. ‘When it was suggested to me, I cried prettily, insisting it was against my religion to have sex before marriage. The M of perfectly laundered bed linen. ‘
Voila
he avoided me like the plague after that—though he gave me a glowing reference when I left. Another man glad to see the back of me!’ She removed the towel and ran her fingers through her hair. ‘I’ll just get something else to wear.’

‘Be quick, then,’ he ordered. ‘You need sleep. Bring your phone.’

In the bathroom Eleanor pulled on her one and only nightgown, replaced the robe and slipped the phone into her pocket. Alex held out his hand as she emerged, and she clung to it as they went along the hall, half-expecting the apparition to leap out at them until Alex closed his bedroom door behind them.

Eleanor eyed his bed with respect. ‘You must be a very tidy sleeper.’

He shook his head. ‘I was not in bed. I did some work in the office after you left me. I was undressing when I heard you scream.’ He turned the covers back on one side of the bed. ‘No more nightmares tonight,
parakolo
,’ he commanded.

She hugged her arms across her chest. ‘If it was a nightmare. He looked very real to me.’

‘In which case, I should have searched for him.’ Alex smiled at the look of dismay on her face. ‘But I will leave it until the morning. Now get into bed.’ He frowned as Eleanor hesitated. ‘You’re still not happy?’

‘Not really, no.’ She braced herself. ‘Could you possibly sleep in here tonight, Alex? Please?’

His dark eyes flared for an instant before narrowing to the familiar, assessing look. ‘Your dream frightened you that much?’

Oh yes.
It had felt too real for a dream. The more she thought about it now she was calmer, the more she was convinced that the apparition had been a flesh-and-blood man—from the neck down, at least. In that second of sheer, blazing terror his image had imprinted itself on her mind so indelibly she had only to shut her eyes to see him again in every detail. Every detail … Her eyes flew open again as she turned to Alex in sudden dread. ‘He had a tattoo on his arm.’

He frowned as he sat on the edge of the bed. ‘Are you sure you’re not remembering the dancer who played the Minotaur at the festival?’

‘Absolutely sure. In my photographs he definitely has no tattoo.’

‘Can you describe this?’

‘No. I stared for only an instant before I screamed and passed out,’ Eleanor said bitterly.

‘If he’s that real to you, I have no choice. I must search the
Kastro
immediately.’ Alex looked suddenly older, his mouth and eyes grim as he pulled on his clothes.

She cursed herself for convincing Alex that her intruder wasn’t a figment of her imagination. ‘If you must, please take someone with you!’

‘I am more concerned with your safety than mine, Eleanor.’ His eyes softened as he sat down beside her. ‘Now listen to me,
agape mou.
When I leave, lock the door and do not open it until I get back. I shall turn every light on up here on this floor. You are completely safe locked here in my room, but ring me if you need me.’

She nodded forlornly, filled with a sudden overpowering desire to go home, back where she belonged.

Alex looked down at her for a moment, then pulled her up into his arms and kissed her very thoroughly. ‘Get into bed and try to sleep,’ he said huskily and strode to the door with her. ‘Lock the door,’ he repeated his order, and closed it behind him.

Alex flicked on lights as he went along and rang Theo as he went up the stairs to the roof door to confirm it was locked. When he took the lift down to the ground floor he opened the outer door a crack at the back entrance to the
Kastro
and Theo Lazarides left his house and hurried to meet him. Alex spoke in a rapid undertone as he described his guest’s nightmare and stated his intention to search the warren of ancient rooms in the Kastro basement. Theo promptly offered to accompany him, but Alex shook his head. ‘Just get ready to catch him when I flush him out.’

‘You think the lady really saw someone then,
kyrie
?’

‘At first I was sure it was just a bad dream, but later she remembered a tattoo, so it might be possible it was not. Sorry to involve you, Theo. You must be tired.’

‘Not so tired I could sleep, knowing you were searching down there alone with no one to watch your back. You think someone is lying low somewhere in the old part?’

‘No, I do not. But I’m going to make sure.’ Alex smiled grimly. ‘I was lucky enough to achieve a meteoric success rate early on in life to get where I am now, but I’m not fool enough to believe I did it without making enemies. Someone’s out to cause me pain of some kind, financial or personal, but the fool made the biggest mistake of his life when he paid someone to kidnap my mother. I’m indebted to Ms Markham for her share in preventing that, so the least I can do is make the search to ease her mind. And mine.’

Theo looked worried. ‘You think this is all connected to
kyria
Talia?’

‘Because it would hurt me most, yes.’ Alex tested a couple of torches. ‘My method of dealing with opponents has been pre-emptive all my life—to get in with my strike before they get in with theirs. I learned that very early on with all the opponents lurking along my road to success. So now I’m going to flush out this man and get rid of him before he does any more harm.’

‘You think he is real, then.’

‘In my head, no, but I can’t take any chances, Theo.’ His eyes glittered coldly. ‘If he is real, I could kill the swine just for frightening my guest. And I’ve left Ms Markham alone up there, so I’d better get on with it.’

Theo caught his arm. ‘Let me go in there with you,
kyrie
!’

‘No. I appreciate the offer, but I’ve got more chance of catching him unawares if I go in alone.’

In time, when the reconstruction was completed, Alexei intended this oldest part of the
Kastro
to function as more storerooms for the island’s produce, but in the beginning his priority had merely been making the basement structure of the place sound. Once that was done, he organised transformation of the ground floor into kitchen and living quarters, plus a personal exercise room, and went on to convert the top floor into his private apartment with offices on the floor immediately below it. Come the autumn, the majority of the male population would get to work on the network of rooms and passages in the cellars and basement.

Armed with a torch, Alex left Theo standing guard by the door which opened from the hall on to the ancient steps and descended cautiously, his deck shoes noiseless on the ancient stones picked out by the solitary beam of light.

It was eerie work, hunting a phantom quarry. But
Eleanor’s terror had been so genuine her scream had given him the same dread he’d felt when his mother shrieked his name as Spiro snatched her at the festival. His eyes glittered coldly. If whoever was lurking in his
Kastro
was involved in either incident, he would pay for it, and pay dearly. Alex moved silently through the familiar stone maze, feeling his way along walls which gave way to doorways and narrow passageways, until he was satisfied that even the last possible hiding place was empty. It was slow, nerve-straining work, his entire system on full alert, prepared for attack which never happened. No one was there. Cursing silently, he mounted the ancient steps, shaking his head in response to Theo’s raised eyebrows as he emerged.

‘It must have been a dream after all.’ He shrugged. ‘Ms Markham was fascinated by the bull dance, and took some extraordinary photographs. The dancer who played the Minotaur made such an impression he surfaced in her dreams.’