skewers and oysters on the shell. Spears of asparagus, slivers of capsicum, sticks of cucumber and sliced fruit added colour beside the seafood.
“Help yourself,” Angelo told Gemma, setting down a glass of white wine on the low table beside the sofa on which she sat.
“I will.” She threw him a smile and he surprised her by leaning over and brushing a kiss across her brow.
“A toast.” Zac raised his wineglass. “To Angelo and many more birthdays.”
They all echoed it and Angelo reciprocated by lazily raising his glass and proposing a toast to Pandora and Zac. Which led to Pandora suggesting that it was time for another wedding. A horrible silence followed.
“Don’t look at me,” Tariq grated. “I’m no advertisement for marriage.”
Gemma assessed him. He stared back. She detected suspicion in his golden gaze. He was gorgeous in a stern, hawk-eyed kind of way and wore a long, flowing thobe-although his head was bare-that suited his air of command. She couldn’t help wondering what had happened with his wife.
After dinner there was a large marzipan-iced cake, with candles for Angelo to blow out. Gemma grinned at him and decided to spare him another rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
“Speech, speech,” called Pandora. “Zac, agapi mou, come and sit.” Pandora patted the cushion beside her. She was blonde and beautiful in a wistful kind of way.
Zac landed beside her and, pulling her onto his lap, he growled. “Don’t call me my love in that fake way.”
“Phony was what I said. Not fake.” Pandora started to giggle and gave him a look brimming with love and humour, telling Gemma this was a very private joke.
“Ignore them,” Katy advised, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. Gemma noticed that Katy had lines of strain around her eyes. “Pandora is the only person I’ve ever met who can put my overbearing brother in his place.” Katy looked around with a frown. “Now, where is Angelo? Ah, getting out of making his speech and catching up with Tariq in the kitchen. Look at them, they must be talking about women.”
Gemma noticed how close the men stood, both serious, their heads together. “I take it Tariq’s marriage is unhappy,” she murmured softly.
“They’re separated. I think the experience totally put him off women,” Katy confided.
Gemma started to wonder what these forthright women would say about her later.
Katy seemed to read her mind. “Relax, we like you. Almost as much as Angelo does. Otherwise you wouldn’t be getting the inside gossip.”
“Angelo doesn’t like me,” Gemma protested.
“Mmm…maybe like isn’t a strong enough word. We’re not going to ask what happened between the two of you in the past-”
Pandora clambered off Zac’s lap and came to stand beside Gemma. “Except that we hope you had a damn good reason for two-timing-”
“Hush. We agreed that was none of our business.”
“It is none of your business,” Stacy said, entering the conversation. She glared at the other two women.
Gemma stared at the three of them, bemused.
And then Angelo was beside her. “Are you okay?”
She turned her head. “Shouldn’t I be?”
He perched beside her and slung an arm around her shoulder. “My family can be a little overwhelming at times.”
Pandora and Katy started to laugh. “Come,” said Stacy, “give them a break.”
Later Angelo saw her back to her unit. The night was cool but there was no rain. The fact that the wind had died down meant that they could hear the hiss of the sea. “I think your family may have the wrong impression about us…me,” Gemma said.
The lamps that edged the walkway shed enough light for her to see his eyebrows jerk up. “Why?”
“They seem to think that we’re an item. And Katy didn’t even seem worried that we’d broken off in the past. Although, I did detect some reserve from Tariq.”
“He thinks I’d be mad to take up with you again.”
“Oh?” The image of their heads close together in the kitchen came back to her. “You talked about me?”
“Tariq talked. He thinks you’ll betray me again. Break my heart.”
Gemma wanted to object. To deny that she’d ever do such a thing. Just in time she remembered that he thought she was Mandy. And Mandy had always been a flirt, a heartbreaker. So she drew a deep, steadying breath and asked, “So what did you say?”
In the shadows she could feel the force of his regard. “That I never loved you, so you never broke my heart. And it won’t happen this time around, either.”
Seven
Angelo and his family all left Strathmos on Sunday. Gemma heard the beat of the blades of the helicopter departing just after noon, but didn’t realise that Angelo had gone until she found the note in the backstage pigeon hole where her mail was delivered.
Back next Sunday. See you then.
That was all. He hadn’t even signed it. But she knew without doubt who had sent it.
Later she heard that he’d gone to Athens, that he’d be flying on to the resort at Kalos for a series of hush-hush meetings about a new opportunity he was investigating. Gemma had expected to feel relief at his absence, a cessation of the tension that twisted within her. But instead there was only an unfamiliar emptiness inside her.
Gemma suspected she was headed for heartbreak. Angelo had made it clear last night that there was no chance that he would ever love her. So she’d better take care to guard her hollow heart.
Gemma took one of the bicycles that the resort made available to the staff and guests and cycled down to Nexos, the small fishing village or xorio, not far from the resort.
The tables outside the local taverna were all taken. Most by locals playing tavli, backgammon. At one end, a fashionably dressed couple, clearly from the resort, shared a platter of mezze with olives and pita and a selection of spreads. Another young couple sat holding hands across a table. And a pang shot through Gemma.
There was no chance that she and Angelo would ever resemble these lover-like couples.
She turned away from the tables and chairs and wandered into the bakery beside the taverna, spoiling herself to a couple of tiropites-triangles of phyllo pastry filled with cheese-and a bottle of mineral water. She wheeled the bicycle across the cobbles and settled herself on the seawall to watch the fishermen spreading the nets in the sun and eat her impromptu lunch.
All around her, village life carried on. Across the road, two elderly widows dressed from head to toe in black were shuffling into the churchyard of the quaint white-washed church with its domed bright blue roof.
The church reminded her of Pandora’s talk about weddings yesterday and Tariq’s bitterness. Had he loved his wife? Why had his marriage fallen apart?
Of course, love was not strictly necessary for a marriage-or even for a relationship. Angelo had confessed last night that he’d never loved Mandy. What was it with these men?
Then she thought of the loving tenderness Zac demonstrated to Pandora and an ache settled in the region of Gemma’s heart.
Unscrewing the top off the mineral water, she took a swig. She doubted Angelo would ever love anyone like that, without reserve. He was so self-contained, he didn’t seem to need anyone.
For a fleeting instant Gemma couldn’t help wondering whether he was alone now. His little black book would have no shortage of numbers of beautiful women to call on. If he chose to…
The thought depressed her.
Last night he’d made it clear that he was in no danger of falling for her. So much for her wild idea of making him pay.
She’d fantasised about proving to him that he wasn’t irresistible to every woman in the world. That she held him in disdain. And she’d contemplated seducing him, making him fall for her, then rejecting him. But now she’d
