Wedding Party Collection: Here Comes The Groom. Rebecca Winters
On the other hand, she was worried that he hadn’t fully recovered yet.
“Nothing relaxes me more than to get out in nature.” He pulled off his sunglasses, revealing those penetrating black eyes to her gaze for the first time that day. “We both need a break from the stress before the fair begins.”
So saying, he levered himself from the car and came around to help her. When they went inside the reception area, the lodge keeper rushed to greet Dimitrios in Greek. He obviously knew him well.
While they conversed at some length, the man’s wife brought them tea and biscuits. The repast tasted good. After they’d finished, she bid Alex to follow her from the office to one of the nearby cottages.
It turned out to be a pleasant room with an ensuite bathroom and three twin beds. Dimitrios came inside with her suitcase. He tipped the woman, then shut the door behind her.
Turning to Alex, he pinned her with his dark, level gaze. “I arranged for two rooms before I left Thessalonica this morning. However, the concierge just informed me that a problem has arisen and now there’s only this one available. Apparently the granddaughter of the concierge and his wife is being married today, and they’re expecting more family.”
“In that little church we just passed?” she cried in delight.
He nodded. “The wedding party is staying here for the night, so the lodge is closed to the public.”
She smiled to herself. “But there’s always a room for you.”
“Because I serve on the eco council for special preserves like this throughout Greece, an accommodation is usually made available if a member is in the area.”
He served on many boards, but being his New York assistant, she hadn’t heard of this one. It seemed that every day in his presence meant she learned something new about him.
“How special?”
His eyes gleamed. “If we’re lucky, you’re going to find out. Don’t worry about tonight. I brought my bed-roll. After we have dinner, I plan to sleep in the forest. Excuse me for a moment and I’ll bring in my things.”
Once he left the room, Alex stood there immobilized with fresh pain.
Given the unexpected circumstances, any other man might have tried to take advantage of the situation. Not Dimitrios. The night of the accident he’d wanted her to stay with him to help run interference. But now that he was recovered, it didn’t occur to him to ask her to share the room with him.
She had to admit it wasn’t anyone’s fault but hers. Michael had created this persona for her. One that made her blend into the woodwork.
Alex blended all right. So well, in fact, that Dimitrios saw her as one of the guys. She could be Stavros for all he cared.
Of course he cared a great deal for his Greek secretary. She knew Dimitrios cared a lot for her, too. Wanting to show her a favorite place of his meant they’d become friends. But never lovers.
Back in high school and college she’d dated quite a bit, but because she’d lost her heart to a certain Greek, no other man had ever meant enough to her to become intimate with him.
Tonight that was what she wanted. To lie in his arms and get so intimate with him, he would never let her go.
But if she dared shed her disguise right now in order to make him see her in a different light, it would end their friendship. He would despise her for misrepresenting herself to get a job with his corporation. Everything would blow up in her face. It was going to blow up anyway after she resigned.
The mere thought of never seeing him again was anathema to her. She couldn’t imagine getting through the rest of her life without him, yet the day of parting was almost here. There was nothing she could do now but play this out to the bitter end.
Stifling a tiny sob, she hurried into the bathroom with her suitcase. After freshening up, she pulled out the plastic bag holding her sneakers. Once she’d slipped off her matron pumps, she put on her navy and white tennis shoes.
They didn’t match her three-piece, oversize suit with the high square neck. It was an unattractive jacquard design of intricately woven salmon pink, gray and brown. During the hike she imagined she’d get hot wearing it, but that would have to be her punishment.
When she finally went into the room, the sight of his powerful body in cutoffs and a white T-shirt revealing the well-defined chest beneath caused her to suck in her breath.
On the same note, his eyes passed over her with less interest than if he’d glimpsed a plate of fried eggs left out on the table for the better part of a week.
How awful she looked. It killed her to go on wearing such unattractive clothes in front of him, never being able to let down her hair and be herself. Just once she’d like to see those black orbs ignite when she walked into a room….
He hung his suit in the closet, then reached for his backpack. It was sheer poetry watching his bronzed, hard-muscled arms slip into the straps.
“What have you got inside?” she inquired. “It looks heavy.”
“This is nothing. Some food and water plus a few other items. Shall we go?” He locked the door behind them.
For the next twenty minutes she followed him along a path, which started to wind into foothills studded with black pine and oak. “Are we on sacred ground yet?”
Dimitrios paused to look back at her with an amused smile that tripled her pulse rate. “We’ll be coming to the strictly protected area before too long. When you see something move, I’ll give you the binoculars.”
Startled, she said, “I’d settle for a clue about now.”
His lips twitched. “That would spoil all the fun.”
Uh-oh. This outing seemed to have brought out the boy in him. She had an idea she was in for it.
He handed her a bottle of water from his pack. “Don’t drink too much all at once,” he cautioned.
After a moment she returned it and they resumed their trek. He continued along the path, pacing himself so Alex could keep up. Though the scenery was beautiful, she found herself watching the backs of his legs. They were perfectly molded machines of whipcord strength.
Content to feast her eyes on Dimitrios, she almost bumped into him when he stopped ten minutes later to point out a family of badgers partially hidden by the underbrush. Alex took a step off the path to get a closer peek at them. They were burrowing for all their worth.
“Oh—look how hard they’re working!”
“They remind me of you.”
The mocking comparison to the grizzle-coated mammals was hardly flattering, but she’d come to recognize his mockery as a compliment of sorts.
“Thank you very much.”
She thought she heard a chuckle as they continued up the path. The higher they rose, the more she became aware of a forest alive with the sounds of rustlings and whirrings. No doubt foxes and other creatures abounded in the wooded setting.
They stopped to drink more water. When he’d put the bottle away, he took out the binoculars. Before she knew how it happened, he’d hung them around her neck.
In the process, his hands brushed her hair and shoulders, setting her on fire wherever there was contact. She quickly averted her eyes, afraid to look at him.
“We’re getting closer to the peak. Keep your gaze skyward.”
She nodded, unable to talk with his body practically touching hers, radiating his male warmth. Once he’d turned and started up the trail again, she was able to expel the breath she’d been holding.
They hadn’t been hiking more than five minutes before she saw several dark specks in the sky. With each leisurely circle, they came closer.
She