“You shouldn’t have to worry about anything on a mission this earthshaking. If it’s what you really want, I’ll go with you to Nice, Andreas.” Zoe hugged him, hoping she wasn’t making another big mistake. The first was going to Athens with him, giving Lia ammunition to use against him.
He crushed her tighter, muttering something in Greek against her forehead that sounded heartfelt. “Now I know everything’s going to be all right.”
She wished she did, but he was going into a situation with no guarantees. When she thought of all the help he’d given her while she’d been doing research, she couldn’t turn him down when she loved him so desperately.
Once he let her go, she sat down on the banquette and they sped back to the port where he’d left his car. Though she saw more dolphins, her mind was on his ex-wife. Lia had entered into her marriage concealing a lie and the guilt had lost her Andreas’s love even before the truth came out. Still, Zoe could tell Lia’s love for her son was total.
It pained Zoe that she was now the other woman in Lia’s eyes. The volatile situation had become a triangle she hadn’t wanted any part of. But fate had brought her and Andreas together under the most innocent circumstances. The moment he’d told her he was separated with a child, she should have stopped seeing him.
Nancy would have told Zoe not to get entangled. Find a man without baggage.
However, life didn’t work that way. Zoe’s heart had a mind and will of its own. When Andreas had come over to the taxi to see if she was hurt, it was as if she’d been instantly melded to him. It was more than physical attraction. She’d felt a connection she couldn’t explain and knew would never go away.
Until he found Ari’s birth father and all the visitation issues were settled in court, Zoe would stand by him while he did the right thing for his son. She loved him too much to do anything else. But as far as their future was concerned, she would leave Greece so Lia couldn’t keep on using her as a weapon against Andreas.
Zoe could hear his argument that Lia would fight him as long as any woman was in his life. She feared that was true. Andreas’s life would never be an easy one. A lot of divorced couples had troubles for years where financial fortunes and children were involved.
Once visitation had been permanently resolved, he could let go of the past and start living out the life destiny intended for him. Z
oe didn’t see herself as a part of it, only a means to different ends for both of them.
She’d met a man a breed apart from other men. She could never have imagined it in her dreams. He’d told her he was in love with her. She knew he’d meant it for the present and she’d been reveling in it from the beginning.
But she didn’t trust first love feelings from a man who wasn’t divorced yet, who hadn’t yet explored all the possibilities for romantic involvement still awaiting him. At thirty-one years of age, he had years of living ahead of him filled with beautiful, remarkable women of his own country who would do anything to be loved by him. At least then, Lia wouldn’t worry that he would leave Greece with his American lover and Ari.
“What’s going on in your mind to put such a fierce expression on your face?”
Zoe had been so deep in thought she hadn’t realized they’d reached the port and pulled into his private slip.
“Divorce can be so ugly, even if it’s necessary.”
“Don’t worry, Zoe. This will pass.”
“I don’t know how you hold it all together.”
He shut off the engine. “You haven’t been listening. You’re the reason I’m able to handle everything. Maybe the time will come when you’ll believe me.”
She wanted to believe it now, but she was afraid. “I’ll go below to get my things.”
“I’ll come with you.”
Mindful of his rock-hard body right behind her, she gathered her bag and cosmetics. They met on the dock. He brought the flowers with him. After he tied up the boat, they walked to his car and left for the city. But he took a different route that led to Kalamaki, the exclusive area of Patras she’d heard of but had never been to.
“Where are we going?”
“To my villa. I’d like you to see where I live.”
“No, Andreas. Lia saw me in your hotel suite in Athens. She has people watching you, but so far you haven’t taken me to the home she shared with you and Ari. It’s too personal. She’s just waiting to get something else on you that will look damning to the judge. I want to stay out of this as much as possible until he renders a final decision.”
Zoe thought he hadn’t been listening to her until he made a turn midblock and headed back to the freeway, taking them into the center. With a population of over two hundred and sixty thousand, Patras was the third-largest city in Greece.
“Please don’t think I’d rather not see it. You know I do, but it’s not wise. I’m already a stumbling block for you. Let’s not make it any worse.”
She noticed he gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I’ll take you to your apartment right now and come by for you at six in the morning.”
With the tension thick between them, he parked in front of her flat and carried in her bag and flowers. This time he walked all the way inside to put the arrangement on the coffee table.
Zoe felt terrible. “Andreas? Tell me you understand.”