As it was, her pulse was a little too fast and her senses a little too stirred. He looked so fit and virile in his linen trousers and fine wool knit shirt, the soft fabric of the black shirt wrapping his biceps and muscular chest as if it had been made for him, that her heart raced, the same wildly distracting feeling she had when she drank too much black coffee.
“What do we do, then?” she asked at length, hating the helpless feeling.
“I don’t have friends. But maybe we try to be friends. Or treat each other as if we’d like to become friends.”
The corner of her mouth lifted. “Okay. Starting...now?”
“Yes, and in the spirit of friendship, would you like to have dinner with me tonight? We’ll meet in the living room for a predinner cocktail and some light conversation before a nice meal.”
She held out her hand, her smile impish. “You have a deal.”
* * *
Kassiani dressed with care for dinner, choosing a long burgundy chiffon gown, with black beading on the neckline and delicate burgundy wispy sleeves. It was a dress she’d planned to wear to Elexis and Damen’s rehearsal dinner, but with Elexis disappearing, the dinner hadn’t happened and the gorgeous dress hadn’t yet been worn.
She drew her long dark hair into a side ponytail and slipped on the pair of burgundy heels. She felt very glamorous even before she added some black pearl teardrop earrings.
Kassiani arrived early and, seeing the living room still empty, opened the sliding glass door to step out onto the deck. The sky was a dark purple and in the distance she could see lights twinkling on a small island, and there was another small island on the other side. Beautiful Greece with the sparkle of water and light everywhere.
She breathed in the cool night air, and shivered a little at the breeze. She probably should have brought a wrap. Deciding she’d be better off inside, she entered the living room just as a young housekeeper began to plump the living room pillows on the two low linen-covered sofas. The maid, who seemed to be close in age to Kassiani, then took a soft cloth from her apron pocket and wiped down the various tables, and along the glass-and-chrome coffee table.
The maid startled when she spotted Kassiani, and Kassiani apologized for frightening her.
The young woman answered in broken English that she didn’t speak good English. Kassiani switched to Greek, apologizing for not being terribly fluent in Greek. The maid laughed and Kassiani smiled, too.
“Where are you from?” Kassiani asked, still speaking Greek.
“Adras. It is a small island near Chios.”
“Isn’t Mr. Alexopoulos from there?”
The woman nodded. “I come from his village. Many of us on the ship come from the village. He is very good about helping us find jobs.”
Kass was surprised. She’d gotten the impression that Damen had few ties to his childhood home. “Have you worked for Mr. Alexopoulos very long?”
“Two years. Ever since I finished high school. That is Mr. Alexopoulos’s rule. He will help everyone on the island to find jobs, but they must first finish school. He says education is very important.”
Kassiani was pleasantly surprised to hear this. She respected Damen even more for stressing the importance of education with the young people of his hometown. “Even the girls?”
“Especially the girls. He said it is vital that women have options.” Her smile turned wistful. “But sometimes those options mean we must leave home. That is the difficult part.”
“You’re homesick?”
The woman adjusted a chair and then squared a large glossy book on the low coffee table. “It’s easier now. It was difficult in the beginning. I’ve learned from the others that being homesick is natural. Some find it worse than others. Some girls, they just want to go home as soon as they can.”
“Does Mr. Alexopoulos allow people to return home?”
“But of course. He is the best employer. Everyone wants to work for him, and he finds us jobs, good jobs with benefits and three weeks paid holiday every year. That is a lot for us in Greece. Some people use their holiday to go home, others like to travel. I went to Croatia for my last holiday. I enjoyed it very much.”
“When do you go home next?”
“In October, for olive picking. Everyone goes then. It’s our economy.”
It was on the tip of Kass’s tongue to ask if Damen returned home then, too, when Damen suddenly appeared in the living room door, dressed in black trousers and a black shirt, open at the neck, revealing his strong, bronzed throat. He looked devastatingly attractive.
The maid, spotting Damen, bobbed her head and murmured a shy greeting to her employer before swiftly exiting the room.
Kassiani watched her go and then turned to face Damen. Her husband. It was still so strange to realize this man, this gorgeous man, this dazzling man, was her husband.
Kassiani cleared her throat, trying to hide some of her butterflies. “That young woman in housekeeping said she was from Adras, and she was telling me you provide incentives for helping the young people stay in school. I find that most admirable.” She hesitated. “I wish you would tell me things like this. I wish you would tell me things about you. I learned more about you from talking to her for five minutes than I learned after spending five days with you.”
“I don’t like to talk about myself.”
Kass sat down on one of the couches, gently smoothing the delicate chiffon of her skirt. “But don’t you think it would help us if I knew you?”
“Maybe.” He walked to the sleek bar in the corner, and moved bottles and decanters around. “Can I pour you a drink?”
“Yes, that would be lovely. What do you recommend?”
“What do you like?”
Her nose wrinkled. “I don’t actually drink very much. And I know it’s Greek, but not ouzo tonight.”
“Something a little fruity and fizzy, then?”
“Please.”
“Your Greek is a little rusty,” he said, uncorking a bottle of champagne and then adding a splash of a dark ruby liqueur. “But better than your father led me to believe.”
“I grew up speaking Greek, and I understand it fairly well, but you’re right, it’s been years since I actually spoke it.”
“Did you attend a Greek language school in California?”
“No, Dad’s parents only spoke Greek to us.”
“I think I remember Kristopher mentioning his parents lived with you for a number of years.”
“Yia-yia did. She joined us when Pappous died. My dad wanted them to join us in San Francisco sooner, but Pappous preferred Greece. He said San Francisco was too cold and gray for him.”
“Your
