This was what he wanted. Needed. Yet Stergios fought back the bleakness as he imagined a future without Jodie. Instead of the peace he craved, his world was colorless and deathly quiet.
Stergios shook his head, ridding himself of the image. That didn’t make sense. Life would return to normal once Jodie was gone. It would be better. He silently walked back to the window, knowing that the pilot couldn’t get here fast enough.
* * *
Jodie’s head jerked up as the lights flickered. She checked her watch for the hundredth time. Night had fallen and there was no update from the pilot.
She nervously bit her lip and stared at the flames dancing in the fireplace. The helicopter had to show up and take her away. She wasn’t going to be stuck here for another night. Alone with Stergios.
As Jodie watched him through her lashes, Stergios prowled around the room, glaring at the crashing waves and torrential rains. Throughout the day the tension between them had ebbed and flowed. One moment they could talk easily and share a laugh. And then, quite suddenly, the atmosphere would change. The tension between them now stretched until she swore it shook.
Jodie rubbed her thumb against her lips. She shouldn’t have let that kiss happen but she couldn’t resist another taste of the passion she’d experienced long ago. She had found her response alarming and she had been on edge all day.
Stergios probably thought she responded that way with every man. But she had been celibate for a long time and no man intrigued her enough to take him to her bed. She was determined to wait for a man who cared about her. A man she could trust with her body and heart.
Stergios wasn’t that man, Jodie decided as she fought with the weight of disappointment. She watched him lean his shoulder against the window. He had proven it that night four years ago.
“Where did you go after you left the wine cellar?” Jodie cringed as the words spilled from her mouth. She knew better than to bring up that night.
He stared broodingly through the window. “As far away as I could.”
It suddenly occurred to her and she looked around. “You came here, didn’t you?”
Stergios hesitated. “Why would you think that?”
She burrowed deeper into the couch and stared at the fire. “This is your getaway. Your sanctuary.”
“Doesn’t feel like it,” he muttered.
“It’s isolated here. Secluded. With all communication cut off, this is the only place you will find solitude. That’s why you didn’t know I was banished until it was too late,” Jodie said with a sigh as the truth hit her. Stergios wouldn’t have abandoned her like that if he had known.
“I should have stayed and protected you.” His voice was heavy with regret.
Jodie wished he had stayed but she’d instinctively understood that he had been fighting demons of his own. That was why she had lied to protect him. It had been her turn to take care of him. “What did you do while you were here?”
“Went quietly insane,” he said softly.
She frowned at his serious tone. “Why?”
He gave her an incredulous look. “Do I have to spell it out? I had taken advantage of a vulnerable girl. A virgin. My stepsister. What kind of man does that?”
She raised her hand to stop that train of thought. “Okay, first of all, I was an adult at the time. A woman. And I was not vulnerable.”
“I took your virginity,” he said in a growl. “I’m not proud of that.”
His words shouldn’t hurt so much. That moment had been life-changing and he wanted to forget it. Erase that night completely. “You didn’t take it,” she argued hotly. “I gave it to you.”
He pushed away from the window. “You had no say in the matter.”
“Yes, I did!” she said as she leaned forward. “You were the one I wanted. I had lusted after you.”
He stopped in his tracks as his gaze sharpened.
“That’s right. I lusted after you.” It had been thrilling, scary and all-consuming. “It was not a crush. Not a passing interest. It was an obsession. I tried to hide it because I knew you would reject me.”
“You hid it very well.” He tilted his head back and closed his eyes. “It’s good I didn’t know.”
She blinked when the lights flickered again. “Why?”
“You had become a temptation,” he said as he dragged his hands down his face. “I had done everything I could to deny myself. I left home...”
Jodie gasped. “That was why you went abroad? Because of me?”
Stergios crossed his arms as if he was holding himself back. “I knew I had to get out before I did something.”
“You were only gone for a couple of months.” She had been overjoyed when he had returned to Greece that summer. She hadn’t questioned why he came back so soon. “What happened?”