'How do you feel, darling?'
Eve tried to sit up, but the pain was too great. She felt as though she bad been ripped apart. 'You goddamned animal...' Her voice was a ragged whisper.
He laughed. 'I was gentle with you.'
She looked at him in disbelief.
He smiled. 'I can sometimes be very rough.' He stroked her hair again. 'But I love you, so I was kind. You'll get used to it, Hree-se'e-moo. I promise you.'
If she had had a weapon at that moment, Eve would have killed him. 'You're insane!'
She saw the gleam that came into his eyes, and she saw his hand clench into a fist, and in that instant she knew stark terror. He was insane.
She said quickly, 'I didn't mean it. It's just that I—I've never experienced anything like that before. Please, I'd like to go to sleep now. Please.'
George Mellis stared at her for a long moment, and then relaxed. He rose and walked over to the dressing table where Eve had put her jewelry. There was a platinum bracelet and an expensive diamond necklace lying there. He scooped up the necklace, examined it and slipped it into his pocket. 'I'll keep this as a little souvenir.'
She was afraid to open her mouth to protest.
'Good night, darling.' And he walked back to the bed, leaned over and gently kissed Eve's lips.
She waited until he had gone, and then crawled out of bed, her body burning v/ith pain. Every step was an agony. It was not until she had locked the bedroom door that she felt safe again. She was not sure she would be able to make it to the bathroom, and she fell back onto the bed, waiting for the pain to recede. She couldn't believe the enormity of the rage she felt. He had sodomized her—horribly and brutally. She wondered what he had done to that other girl who had wanted to commit suicide.
When Eve finally dragged herself into the bathroom and looked in the mirror, she was aghast. Her face was bruised and discolored where he had hit her, and one eye was almost swollen shut. She ran a hot bath and crawled into it like a wounded animal, letting the soothing water wash away the pain. Eve lay there for a long time, and, finally, when the water was starting to cool, she got out of the tub and took a few tentative steps. The pain had lessened, but it was still agonizing. She lay awake for the rest of the night, terrified that he might return.
When Eve arose at dawn, she saw that the sheets were stained with her blood. She was going to make him pay for that. She walked into the bathroom, moving carefully, and ran another hot bath. Her face was even more swollen and the bruises were livid. She dipped a washcloth into cold water and applied it to her cheek and eye. Then she lay in the tub, thinking about George Mellis. There was something puzzling about his behavior that had nothing to do with his sadism. And she suddenly realized what it was. The necklace. Why had he taken it?
Two hours later, Eve went downstairs to join the other guests for breakfast, even though she had no appetite. She badly needed to talk to Nita Ludwig.
'My God! What happened to your face?' Nita asked.
Eve smiled ruefully. 'The silliest thing. I got up in the middle of the night to go to the loo, and I didn't bother turning on the light. I walked right into one of your fancy doors.'
'Would you like to have a doctor look at that?'
'It's nothing,' Eve assured her. 'It's just a little bruise.' Eve looked around. 'Where's George Mellis?'
'He's out playing tennis. He's one of the top-seeded players. He said to tell you he'd see you at lunch. I think he really likes you, darling.'
'Tell me about him,' Eve said casually. 'What's his background?'
'George? He comes from a long line of wealthy Greeks. He's the oldest son, and he's filthy rich. He works at a New York brokerage firm, Hanson and Hanson.'
'He's not in the family business?'
'No. He probably hates olives. Anyway, with the Mellis fortune, he doesn't have to work. I suppose he does it just to occupy his days.' She grinned and said, 'His nights are full enough.'
'Are they?'
'Darling, George Mellis is the most eligible bachelor around. The girls can't wait to pull their little panties down for him. They all see themselves as the future Mrs. Mellis. Frankly, if my husband weren't so damned jealous, Fd go for George myself. Isn't he a gorgeous hunk of animal?'
'Gorgeous,' Eve said.
George Mellis walked onto the terrace where Eve was seated alone, and in spite of herself, she felt a stab of fear.
He walked up to her and said, 'Good morning, Eve. Are you all right?' His face was filled with genuine concern. He touched her bruised cheek gently. 'My darling, you are so beautiful.' He pulled up a chair and straddled it, sitting across from her, and gestured toward the sparkling sea. 'Have you ever seen any-thing so lovely?'
It was as though the previous night had never happened. She listened to George Mellis as he went on talking, and she felt once again the powerful magnetism of the man. Even after the nightmare she had experienced, she could still feel that. It was incredible. He looks like a Greek god. He belongs in a museum. He belongs in an insane asylum.
'I have to return to New York tonight,' George Mellis was saying. 'Where can I call you?'
'I just moved,' Eve said quickly. 'I don't have a telephone yet. Let me call you.'
'All right, my darling.' He grinned. 'You really enjoyed last night, didn't you?'
Eve could not believe her ears.
'I have many things to teach you, Eve,' he whispered.
And I have something to teach you, Mr. Mellis, Eve promised herself.
The moment she returned home, Eve telephoned Dorothy Hollister. In New York, where an insatiable segment of the media covered the comings and goings of the so-called beautiful people, Dorothy was the fountainhead of information. She had been married to a socialite, and when he divorced her for his twenty-one- year-old secretary, Dorothy Hollister was forced to go to work. She took a job that suited her talents well: She became a gossip columnist. Because she knew everyone in the mi-lieu she was writing about, and because they believed she could be trusted, few people kept any secrets from her.
If anyone could tell Eve about George Mellis, it would be Dorothy Hollister. Eve invited her to lunch at La Pyramide.
Hollister was a heavyset woman with a fleshy face, dyed red hair, a loud, raucous voice and a braying laugh. She was loaded down with jewelry—all fake.
When they had ordered, Eve said casually, 'I was in the Bahamas last week. It was lovely there.'
'I know you were,' Dorothy Hollister said. 'I have Nita Ludwig's guest list. Was it a fun party?'
Eve shrugged. 'I saw a lot of old friends. I met an interesting man named'—she paused, her brow wrinkled in thought— 'George somebody. Miller, I think. A Greek.'
Dorothy Hollister laughed, a loud, booming laugh that could be heard across the room. 'Mellis, dear. George Mellis.'
'That's right. Mellis. Do you know him?'
'I've seen him. I thought I was going to turn into a pillar of salt. My God, he's fantastic looking.'
'What's his background, Dorothy?'
Dorothy Hollister looked around, then leaned forward confidentially. 'No one knows this, but you'll keep it to yourself, won't you? George is the black sheep of the family. His family is in the wholesale food business, and they're too rich for words, my dear. George was supposed to take over the business, but he got in so many scrapes over there with girls and boys and goats, for all I know, that his father and his brothers finally got fed up and shipped him out of the country.'
Eve was absorbing every word.
'They cut the poor boy off without a drachma, so he had to go to work to support himself.'
So that explained the necklace!
'Of course, he doesn't have to worry. One of these days George will marry rich.' She looked over at Eve and asked, 'Are you interested, sweetie?'
'Not really.'
Eve was more than interested. George Mellis might be the key she had been looking for. The key to her
