The Passionate Greek (19 page)

Melanie, for all her discomfort, wanted to
smile. ‘He may not want me but he doesn’t want me getting attention
from another man,’ she concluded. Up on the top deck Nicos made
sure Mikhail and Melanie were as far apart as possible and made a
concerted effort to exclude her from the conversation by talking
business. As soon as she could she made her escape. ‘See you at
dinner,’ Mikhail said, and gave her a knowing smile, that Melanie
could see was not lost on Nicos.

That evening, getting Electra ready for bed,
Melanie pondered on the day’s events. Nicos liked to win, she knew
that. ‘Maybe I’ll give him a contest,’ she thought mischievously.
‘I might just flirt a little with Mikhail over dinner and see how
he likes that.’

But Nicos had made his plans. Her cabin
steward knocked on the door at that moment and announced that Mr
Nicos and his guests would be going ashore for dinner and he
understood that Miss Melanie preferred to stay on board with
Electra. 'How subtle, thought Melanie. He doesn’t want me along
tonight.’

The next morning neither Nicos nor Mikhail
appeared at the pool, much to Melanie’s relief but Katerina put in
an appearance. ‘My father and Nicos have been talking business all
morning. It’s very boring,’ she complained. ‘That’s all they did at
dinner last night, too. Now Daddy is talking about having to cut
short the cruise. Some silly crisis or other.’ She flung herself
down on the sun bed furthest away from Melanie and closed her
eyes.

Out on the deck with Electra after lunch
Melanie’s attention was caught by frantic activity. Two crewmen
were speedily loading a mountain of luggage into the ship’s launch.
Once it was all stacked Mikhail and his daughter appeared and
descending the ladder took their places. Melanie watched mystified
as the engines roared into life and it seemed just a few minutes
later she saw they had reached the harbor and they are their
luggage were deposited ashore.

Back in her cabin Melanie couldn’t contain
her curiosity. On the pretence of asking for cold drinks she rang
for the steward. ‘Was it the two guests I just saw leaving?’ she
casually asked him. ‘Yes, Madam,’ he replied. ‘I believe urgent
business caused Mr Tatachencko to cancel the rest of his
cruise.’

Now what, she wondered? Would the Athena
steam post haste back to Skiapolos with Nicos and she avoiding each
other all the way home? The ship was certainly big enough. But the
steward was handing her an envelope. ‘From Mr Nicos,’ he said
politely. Melanie waited till he was out of the room before tearing
it open. ‘Please have dinner with me tonight,’ she read. ‘I will
quite understand if you refuse but you will make me very happy if
you accept.’ The words danced before Melanie’s eyes. What did he
want with her this time? She didn’t feel like another confrontation
with him. He was probably just going to order her straight off the
island as soon as they docked.

Yet his note sounded conciliatory. She read
it again. She wasn’t mistaken. All afternoon she debated. ‘I won’t
go. I won’t dance to his tune. But what’s the harm in finding out
what he’s up to this time?’ She argued back and forth with herself.
‘You’re just looking for an excuse. You want to go.’ And she knew
she did. In spite of herself her heart lifted at the thought of
seeing him alone again.

He was standing at the drinks trolley, his
back to her when she reached the upper deck. He turned at her
approach and said, ‘Thank you for coming. I wasn’t sure you
would.’

‘
I
wasn’t sure I would, either.’ She
was determined not to let him have it all his own way, but he made
no reply.

‘Champagne?’ he asked her, the bottle poised
over a crystal flute.

‘Are we celebrating?’

‘I don’t know yet.’

Melanie was perplexed. The scene was
undeniably romantic. Candles set around the terrace provided the
only illumination, a bowl of blush roses scented the air. Where had
they come from on this hot Greek summer night? Whatever she had
expected from the evening it wasn’t this.

She took his proffered glass and walked to
the rail looking out over the dark night sea.

‘I have something to ask you?’ his voice
came from behind. She turned back to him unsure where this was
leading.

‘I want you to marry me.’

Whatever she had expected from the evening
it wasn’t this. Shock and disbelief chased each other through her
mind and must have been mirrored on her face because he took the
glass from her hand and led her to a sofa.

‘I’ve shocked you. I didn’t mean to.’

‘Why?’ she stuttered, her thoughts in
complete disarray.

‘When I saw you with Mikhail I realised I
couldn’t bear for anyone else to have you. You belong to me.’

‘You can’t marry someone because you’re
jealous of anyone else having them.’

‘I don’t want to live my life without you.
Isn’t that good enough?’ he asked.

‘I’m not sure it is,’ she said slowly. ‘You
don’t trust me now. Would being married to me make you trust me
more? I think we both know it wouldn’t. You would watch me for
every little sign that I was being untrue to you. What you believe
to be my past won’t ever leave your mind.’ She was twisting her
glass round and round in her hands. ‘I’ve told you before what I
need from you doesn’t seem yours to give.’

‘Don’t be so sure,’ he urged her. ‘Think how
happy we were in London. We could be happy like that again.’

‘No, Nicos. Something or someone would come
along to set you against me again. Even on our happiest days it
would be there in the background, like a train crash waiting to
happen. I could never be truly happy, nor could I make you
happy.’

Nicos looked devastated. ‘Don’t make up your
mind now. Think about it. We could be a family.’

A family. His words wrenched her heart. ‘You
have never believed that I could offer Electra stability. I would
always be aware of that.’

‘I would have enough stability for both of
us.’

‘You see,’ she pointed out. ‘You still don’t
believe that I could offer her a stable upbringing, only that you
could.’

He cast his eyes down. ‘I didn’t mean it to
sound like that.’

‘But it’s what you believe,’ she said, ‘and
I would always know that. Marriage might work between us for a
time, but your doubts would eat away at it.’

‘You can’t be certain,’ he said.

‘But I would need to be,’ she responded. ‘I
would need to know that you trusted me implicitly and you
don’t.’

'Once you have time to think about it you
might see that it will work. We can make it work. For Electra’s
sake we should try.’

Electra. She had been thinking with her
heart when she should have been thinking with her head. Marriage to
Nicos was the key to keeping her daughter.

Later as she lay sleepless in her cabin she
turned Nicos’s proposal over and over in her mind. He had said he
didn’t want any other man to have her, he had said he didn’t want
to live without her but he had never said he loved her. Did he love
her or did he just not like to lose? What had he said to her once?
‘I win. I always do.’

Could she be with him day in and day out and
not resent that however loving he might appear on the surface, deep
down he harbored deep suspicions of her. Could any marriage survive
that?

A whimper from the baby alarm alerted her
early the next morning. In the nursery she picked up her newly
wide-awake baby and cuddled her. As she held her close, inhaling
the warm soft baby smell of her, she knew that any sacrifice she
made for her daughter was worth it.

‘I can have you with me always and all I
have to do is say ‘yes’ to Nicos. I was mad to think of doing
anything else.’

The ship's mighty diesels were starting up.
They were homeward bound. When they got to Skiapolos she would tell
him of her decision. Unlike the slow, meandering journey when they
had set off for the trip the ship was at full throttle, the speed
of their progress bringing her swiftly closer to the time when she
would commit herself to Nicos.

As if sensing she needed to be alone with
her thoughts she saw nothing of him during the journey. He remained
holed up in his on board office and she spent the hours with
Electra, playing in the pool or walking the deck.

She didn’t see him when they docked, either.
Instead the steward handed her a brief note from him suggesting
they meet for dinner on the terrace at eight. He would obviously
expect his answer then.

As the time approached Melanie grew
increasingly nervous. She was going to accept his proposal but
there were things she needed to say to him, ground rules she needed
to lay down.

He was waiting for her, pacing up and down
on the terrace impatiently. As soon as she appeared he came to her
and said, ‘Well, what’s your answer?’ His directness floored
Melanie. She had expected they would sit down together, share some
champagne, be served dinner before embarking on a serious
discussion on what their marriage would entail.

Her instinct in the face of his demand was a
resounding “No”, but the thought of Electra held her back. ‘We
should talk about it first,’ she said breathlessly.'

‘What’s there to talk about,’ he said.
‘Either you marry me or you don’t.’

She turned away from him towards the end of
the terrace. He followed her and swung her round, holding her by
the shoulders. ‘I need to know. Is there someone else?’

She stared back at him, her face clouding
over. ‘You tell me we can be happy, that we can work things out
between us. Yet, even when you are asking to marry me you still ask
me that.’

He dropped his hands from her shoulders and
walked to the edge of the terrace, staring out to sea. He stood
motionless for some time as if deep in thought. Melanie watched
him, refusing to be the one to break the silence. Finally he turned
to her and said, ‘Let me begin again. Will you do me the honor of
becoming my wife?’He looked beseechingly at her. In spite of her
resolve never to be charmed by him again Melanie’s heart
melted.

‘I will marry you but only on the condition
that you never again refer to what you perceive as my past,’ she
said.

But it was almost as if he hadn’t heard her.
A look of joy crossed his face. ‘I will make you happy,’ he
promised.

‘You have to understand,’ she insisted. ‘If
you marry me you do it unconditionally. I won’t make excuses to you
for what you see as my past behavior. If you can’t trust me to be a
good and faithful wife to you in the future then I don’t want to
marry you.’

She had said what she came to say. She knew
that if he hesitated she would walk out, even though it meant
losing her daughter. She might regret it for the rest of her life
but would Electra want a mother who wasn’t true to her principles?
Would she, when she was old enough, understand? Melanie couldn’t be
sure. She only knew that when it came time to make the final
decision she had to be true to herself. Nicos took her on her terms
or not at all.

‘I accept,’ he said. Relief flooded over
Melanie and as he took her in his arms her tears flowed. He wiped
the tears away tenderly. ‘Is it going to be that bad being married
to me?’ he teased gently. He led her to the table. ‘No champagne
and blush roses tonight,’ she said shakily, attempting humor. He
smiled at her and rang a small hand bell. The double doors from the
terrace opened and Andreas appeared, smiling broadly and wheeling a
trolley complete with roses and a champagne bucket. Melanie, her
tears drying, laughed with delight.

‘I wasn’t sure you were going to accept me,
so I kept them out of sight,’ explained Nicos, filling her glass
with the bubbling champagne.

‘The roses are beautiful,’ exclaimed
Melanie. He picked one out and placed it in front of her. ‘Look
inside,’ he said. ‘The interior of a rose is fascinating.’ She did
as he instructed, gently pulling the petals apart. A cluster of
diamonds sparkled up at her. She gasped and looked up at him. ‘I
hope it fits,’ he said. He removed the ring and placed it on the
third finger of her left hand. ‘I’ll give you a happy life, I’ll
make it work,’ he promised.

Later, his arm round her, he led her to his
bed. Slowly and lovingly he began to undress her. Turning her he
unzipped her dress, slipped the straps from her shoulders and as it
fell to the ground cupped her breasts in his hands. He buried his
head in her shoulder and while his fingers played over her nipples
his teeth gently bit against her skin. She moved against him,
loving how hard he felt. His hands moved from her breasts, down
towards the dark hair where her sex throbbed for want of him. His
fingers penetrated her and she moaned softly as he brought her
nearly to climax.

Then he lifted her gently and placed her
almost reverently on the bed. He moved on top of her. His fingers
had made her wet with desire. Now he entered her, his eyes never
leaving hers. Slowly he moved inside her, his rhythm becoming more
and more insistent till he finally exploded into her. Her body
arched under his and as they reached the heights in unison he
called her name over and over.

They lay in each other’s arms talking
softly. ‘I once told you that sex didn’t mend anything,’ he said.
‘But tonight we didn’t have sex. I made love to you. From now on I
will always make love to you.’ Melanie’s heart sang with hope. If
fate gave her time she would prove to him that she was a woman he
could not only love, but could trust like no other. She lay in his
arms, at last secure in the knowledge that he wanted her in his
life, no matter what he believed she had done .He had promised to
marry her unconditionally. He had done what she wanted of him.
Surely now was the time to tell him the truth.

He had been silent for a while. ‘Nicos,’ she
whispered. He didn’t’ reply. She turned in his arms and looked up
at him. He was asleep. She smiled lovingly and stroked his cheek.
He didn’t stir. Laughing softly she extricated herself as quietly
as she could from his arms, careful not to wake him and tiptoed
from the room. Tomorrow would be time enough.