He noticed her clutching the gift in her arm. “What time were you thinking?”
“Since you’re running the hotel, you need to take care of those phone calls Giorgos told you about. So why don’t you call me when you’re ready and I’ll come for you.”
“All right.”
He allowed the doors to close and they rode to the third floor, where he walked her to her room. Lys was so afraid that he might want to come in and she would let him, she was totally thrown when he told her he needed to get going. After giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, he turned away and strode down the hall to the elevator.
She felt totally bereft. You idiot, Lys!
After entering her suite, she put the gift on the coffee table and left to go downstairs. Lys was too wound up to go to bed yet. When she entered the office she found Giorgos still at the front desk talking with Chloe, who helped run the counter. The second he saw Lys, he followed to her office. That habit of his was getting on her nerves.
She sat down in her swivel chair. “I’m surprised you’re still here. Where’s Magda?” She and another staff member served as assistant managers on alternating nights.
“I got a phone call that she’s sick, so I stayed.”
Lys was afraid she knew why. “That was good of you, but I’m here now so you can leave.”
“Sometimes I don’t feel like going back to an empty flat.”
How well she knew that. “Tell me the truth. Do you wish you were home in Athens?”
“No,” he answered almost angrily and moved closer to her desk.
“I hope you’re telling me the truth. Now that I’ve taken ownership of the hotel, it’s important to me that everyone is happy.”
His eyes widened. “This hotel is your inheritance?”
“That’s right.”
She could see her revelation had completely thrown him.
“But you’re so young—” Whoa. “I thought—”
“You thought Kyrie Rodino would have willed it to his ex-wife,” she interjected. “That would have been a natural assumption. What else is troubling you?”
He hunched his shoulders. “Who’s the mystery man?”
Lys decided it was time to set him straight and douse his hopes there could be anything between the two of them. She held out her left hand. He eyed it as if in disbelief.
“You can be the first on the staff to learn Takis Manolis asked me to marry him.” What she would give if she could believe he truly did love her...
Giorgos’s head jerked up. “How soon?”
“Aren’t you going to congratulate me?”
“Of course,” he muttered, then darted her a speculative glance. “I take it he knows you’re the owner.”
What was Giorgos thinking? Instead of answering him she said, “Thank you for going the extra mile to cover tonight, but you look tired. After putting in a full day’s work already, you need to go home. I’ve let work pile up here and need to dig in. Good night, Giorgos.”
Instead of indulging him further, Lys started scrolling through her messages until he left her office. After a half hour, she had cleared most of her work and after telling Chloe to call her if there was a problem, she went back to her suite to get some sleep. Not that it was possible with this incredible ring on her finger.
* * *
Takis phoned her Wednesday morning while she was drinking coffee in her room. “Kalimera, Lys.”
Her heart thumped just to hear his deep voice. “How are you?”
“I’ll be better when I see you later. At breakfast I told my parents I’d like them to meet you. They want us to come over to the hotel at two when business is slow.”
Startled, she slid off the bed. “You mean today?”
“It surprised me too. My brother must have said favorable things about you. More than ever I’m convinced Danae was right about the engagement. My parents truly are anxious to see me settled.” But they didn’t know why Takis had asked her to marry him. “I’m leaving it up to you when you want me to come for you.”
She glanced at her watch. “Where are you right now?”
“In my car on the way to the house. The water and electricity are supposed to have been turned on. I want to get over there and check things out.”
“Then you have enough on your mind. I’m going to get ready and I’ll take a taxi to your house.”
“Lys—”
“No argument. I’ll bring sandwiches and salad from the hotel kitchen.” She rang off before he could try to reason with her.
Without wasting time, she called the front desk to let them know she was leaving the hotel. After hanging up, she showered, then washed and blow-dried her hair.
She didn’t have to worry over what to wear and reached for her simple black gown she could dress up or down. It had sleeves to the elbow and a round neck. She wore tiny gold earrings and sensible black high heels.
When she was ready, she called the kitchen and gave them instructions. One of the waiters was to meet her at the hotel utility van in the garage with the food. Next she phoned the hotel florist. After telling them what she wanted, she asked that one of the employees bring the vase of flowers to the van and set it on the floor. After retrieving the flowers, she drove out to Tylissos.
It wasn’t until she pulled up behind the two cars parked at the side of Takis’s house that she realized there’d been a car behind her. She’d noticed it on the highway after leaving Heraklion, but it passed her by as she turned off the engine.
But seeing a hard-muscled Takis walk toward her drove every thought out of her mind and she trembled with excitement. Dressed in a casual cream-colored polo shirt and tan trousers, he was so striking, her breath caught.
“I’ve brought flowers,” she said after he came around to open the door. “I hope your mother will like them.”
“It’s a perfect gift.”
“A woman can’t resist flowers.”
“I’ll remember that.” The way he eyed her made her pulse leap.
“They’re on the floor in back.”
He retrieved them while she brought the food and followed him into the house. But halfway through the living room she stopped because her eyes had caught sight of the fresco he’d rested on the mantel of the fireplace. The colors stood out, emphasizing the drabness of the room that needed a complete makeover.
He could see where she was looking. “I’ve been studying the fresco and think we
