The Touch of Aphrodite Read online

  As the date for her departure grew nearer, Emily found herself fluctuating between a desire to be off, and a deep depression at leaving everything familiar behind. To counteract the depression, she began to go shopping, buying complete new outfits to take with her, finding temporary comfort in the brightness of the shops and the friendly jostle of other people. It wasn't until her credit card statement arrived that she realised just how much she had spent. She was quite appalled at the amount. And she was meant to be training to be an accountant! Too late, she realised what very strange things grief could do to you, how irrationally and rresponsibly it could make you behave. Now she had financial problems to deal with, on top of everything else.

  It was almost a relief when, finally, it was time for her to leave. Sleety rain stung Emily's face as she trudged out to the taxi that would take her to the airport. Nikolaos would be waiting there for her. He had already been in England for a couple of days, but there had been just one brief phone call from him in that time, to confirm the arrangements that he had already made through her solicitor. Even so, the sound of his dark velvet voice, with just a hint of an accent, had made her heart thump very much faster than usual. She had dressed with care, wanting to look mature, efficient and in control. She had chosen a dark, severely cut suit, high-heeled shoes and a thin raincoat that barely kept out the late winter chill. It was a very unsuitable outfit for travelling in, but she didn't care. Dressing so formally gave her confidence, and that was the important thing. Her face was far too pale, but careful make-up helped to disguise it, and a bright lipstick gave her pinched lips much needed colour. And, as a finishing touch, she had drawn back her hair into a sophisticated knot, which completed the look of cool elegance for which she had been striving.

  She reached the airport in good time, and Nikolaos was waiting for her in the lounge. Emily gulped hard when she first saw him, standing taller than any of the men around him. She had forgotten —or forced herself to forget—just how very impressive he was. The rich tan of his skin was enough to mark him out from the pale faces all around him. And those eyes

  —so dark, almost black, and piercingly alert. His sheer presence was intimidating and it took all of her courage to walk up to him and give him a cool smile.

  His black gaze slid over her, clearly taking in the sophisticated outfit, the subtly applied make-up. Emily didn't have to be a mind-reader to know what he was thinking —that she didn't look like someone still stricken with grief over the recent loss of her mother and stepfather. More like a fashion model, in fact.

  She reminded herself that she didn't care what this man thought of her. She was going to Cyprus to learn how to run a hotel, and Nikolaos Konstantin was going to teach her. That was the extent of her relationship with him.

  'It'll be about half an hour before our flight is called,' he said rather curtly.

  'Do you want a coffee while you're waiting?'

  Emily wasn't sure that her tight throat would actually be able to swallow anything, but she still nodded. It would be better than sitting in awkward silence while they waited for their flight.

  In the restaurant, she stared at the cup which was put in front of her, but didn't attempt to touch it. Nikolaos took one mouthful of his own coffee, and then also set it aside.

  'At this late stage, I suppose there's no chance of you changing your mind about coming to Cyprus?' he said abruptly.

  Emily's head shot up. 'Of course not. All the arrangements have been made.'

  A cynical light shone in his eyes. 'And you'd lose your inheritance if you didn't go along with those arrangements, wouldn't you?'

  *

  Why was he doing this to her? Emily thought with sudden weariness. Didn't he know what these last few weeks had been like? How difficult it had been to get herself to this stage?

  She somehow forced herself to keep her voice even.•And you think that's all I m interested in? My inheritance?'

  He gave a cool shrug. 'What else?'

  'I suppose it hasn't occurred to you that I might be doing this because I loved Dimitri? That I'm simply trying to carry out his wishes?'

  'Please keep your voice down,' Nikolaos said evenly, making her realise that, despite all her efforts, her voice had suddenly become shrill with nerves and tension. 'There's no need to make a scene. And no,' he went on, 'I never, for one moment, considered that you were doing this out of any kind of affection for Dimitri. I think that you simply want the good things of life, and the easiest way to get them is with someone else's money.'

  Emily couldn't believe that he could accuse her of something so disgusting. She could feel her pale skin going even whiter with rage. 'How dare you say something like that to me?' she said furiously. 'Especially since you don't even know me, you've no idea what I'm really like.'

  'How dare I?' he said contemptuously. 'Quite easily. And I don't have to know you. I believe you have an old saying in England —like mother, like daughter.'

  His words hit her like a physical shock. Then pure fury followed. Her mother had been the least mercenary woman Emily had ever known. Margot Konstantin had been gentle and affectionate, all too easily hurt, and not very good at looking after herself. She certainly hadn't been greedy and grasping, as Nikolaos was implying!

  'Are you saying that my mother was only interested in Dimitri because of his money?' she got out in a voice that was still choked with anger.

  'Of course. And before you try and deny it, remember that I know all about your mother.'

  'What do you know about her?' Emily demanded. 'How could you know anything? You never met her.'

  'But I know what happened in the past,' Nikolaos said softly, and his black eyes had now begun to glitter dangerously.

  The past? What was he talking about? Surely he wasn't going to dredge up all the old antagonism to her mother's original marriage to Dimitri? It had happened such a very long time ago, it was surely time to forgive and forget.

  'Are you referring to the first marriage between my mother and Dimitri?' she said in some disbelief. 'But they were just teenagers at the time; they couldn't cope with the problems they ran into and so they split up. All the same, my mother might have coped better if your family had made her feel welcome. But they didn't; right from the very start they made it very clear that they totally disapproved of the marriage.'

  'Of course they disapproved,' Nikolaos said in a cold voice. 'Dimitri was already engaged to marry someone else when he met your mother. Just a couple of weeks later, he broke off that engagement and announced his intention of marrying your mother instead.'

  'They fell in love,' Emily said defensively. 'They wanted to be together. Surely there was nothing wrong with that?'

  She knew at once that she had said the wrong thing. Nikolaos's face became much darker, and the sensual line of his mouth hardened. 'It's certainly wrong to take your own happiness at someone else's expense. The cancelling of that particular engagement caused a great deal of pain and sorrow.'

  'I'm sure that Dimitri was very sorry about that. He was a very caring man; he wouldn't have wanted to upset anyone —'

  'Upset anyone?' Nikolaos interrupted tersely. 'Two days after he broke off the engagement, his fiancee tried to kill herself. She swam out to sea, and would have kept on going until she drowned, if she hadn't been rescued by a fishing boat.' Ignoring the look of acute shock on Emily's face, he went on bitingly, 'A few months later, she married Dimitri's elder brother. I don't know why she did it —perhaps it was out of revenge, or spite, and just despair. The marriage was a disaster, of course. How could it not be?'

  'Look,' said Emily uncomfortably, 'I didn't know any of this. Oh, I knew that my mother and Dimitri had been married before, when they were very young, and that it didn't work out, but that was all. I'm really sorry that it caused so much grief, and I'm beginning to understand why the Konstantin family were so hostile to my mother at the time. But can't you accept that it's all in the past now? It happened over thirty years ago. And when my mother and
Dimitri finally met up again they were so happy, they deeply regretted all those years that they spent apart. I think that it really is time that you

  —that the whole Konstantin family —tried to accept their remarriage, and their love for each other.'

  'Love!' Nikolaos said, and there was such cynical contempt in his voice that Emily felt another small wave of shock. 'Love is just an excuse for a man to behave like a fool.'

  'I don't think that there was anything in the least foolish about Dimitri,' she retaliated at once.

  'He gave up his home and his family, and came to England to remarry your mother, when his first marriage to her had already been a disaster. In my opinion, that was extremely foolish.'

  'She made him very happy,' Emily said fiercely.

  'Oh, I'm sure that she tried very hard to make him happy,' Nikolaos said scathingly. 'I'm quite certain that she would have done anything to make sure that the Konstantin money didn't slip through her fingers for a second time.'

  Emily found his cynicism quite breathtaking. And his attitude completely intolerable. 'That is a disgusting thing to say,' she got out in a voice that cracked with renewed anger.

  He lifted one hand in a dismissive gesture. 'Spare me all the indignation. I'm not interested. I just wanted to make my own position perfectly clear.'

  'You've certainly done that,' she retorted.

  'Yet you still intend to come with me to Cyprus?'

  'I certainly do,' she said with renewed determination. If this conversation had been aimed at making her change her mind, then he was going to be disappointed! 'I also intend to learn how to run Dimitri's hotel, and at the end of the year claim my full inheritance.'

  'That is exactly what I thought you would do,' Nikolaos said coldly. 'And since our flight has just been called I suggest we board the plane.'

  They were travelling in the first-class section, which meant that they weren't crammed as close together as they would have been in the tourist section. Even so, Emily felt stifled by Nikolaos's closeness, just inches away in the seat next to hers. She was still blazingly angry at him because of the things he had said, especially about her mother, but at the same time she was uncomfortably aware of his overwhelming male-ness; she seemed to feel the heat radiating from that darkly tanned skin, and she didn't have to look at those black eyes to know that they were glowing with repressed energy. She began to feel the first twinges ofpanic. If he was having this confusing effect on her after only an hour, how on earth was she going to get through the next year?

  She stared out of the window, but couldn't see anything except bleak grey clouds. Eventually, she turned back to Nikolaos.

  'When we reach Cyprus, where will I live?' she asked rather stiffly.

  'I own several hotels,' he said shortly. 'Accommodation won't be a problem.'

  'Did Dimitri have a house on the island?'

  'He sold all of his personal property when he remarried your mother. It was obvious that he didn't intend to return to Cyprus.'

  'Because he knew that his wife wouldn't be made welcome,' Emily retorted.

  'Dimitri understood why he had to choose between your mother and his family,' Nikolaos said more harshly.

  'Because of all the bad feelings over their first marriage? Well, I think that this silly feud between our two families should come to an end, Mr Konstantin. And you should feel the same. After all, aren't Cypriots meant to value all family ties very highly?'

  'Nikolaos,' he said, ignoring what she had just said. 'I think that you should call me Nikolaos.'

  'What?' she said, thrown completely off balance by his unexpected response.

  His black eyes suddenly glittered again. 'We are, after all, cousins by marriage.'

  'Cousins?' she echoed, staring at him in fresh confusion.

  'Didn't you know?' His mouth had set into an unnervingly hard line. 'My father is Dimitri's elder brother.'

  'But —' Emily abruptly fell silent again as all the implications of his last remark became startlingly clear to her.

  'Have you finally worked it out?' Nikolaos said, his eyes fixing on her with an intensity that made her nerves feel quite raw. "The woman whom Dimitri was engaged to, when he first met your mother —the woman who tried to drown herself when he broke off that engagement —the woman who married Dimitri's elder brother on the rebound —she is my mother.'

  Emily tried to swallow, but couldn't, her throat was suddenly too dry.

  'I —I didn't know,' she mumbled at last.

  'It seems to me that there's a great deal you don't know,' Nikolaos said softly.

  'You're either very ignorant, or simply not interested in the history of your family.'

  That remark stung because there was an element of truth in it. Emily had been so relieved when her mother's remarriage to Dimitri had worked out so marvellously that she had determined to put all the unhappy past behind her. She had decided not to ask any questions which would stir up bad memories or cast a shadow on their happiness. She was beginning to regret that now, because she found herself uneasily wondering just what else she had to learn about the Konstantin family.

  For much of the rest of the flight, she tried to read a book, but it was hard

  —in fact, almost impossible —to concentrate on the words. She was too aware of Nikolaos sitting beside her, engrossed in some paperwork now, but still radiating that powerful presence which she found so very disturbing. Eventually, he raised his head, glanced out of the Mndow, and then seemed to relax a fraction.

  'We're nearly home,' he said, with some satisfaction.

  Emily was about to say that it was his home, not hers, but the words slipped out of her head and were forgotten as she looked out of the window. The grey clouds had disappeared, the sun was shining hazily down out of a pale azure sky on to a soft blue sea, and the island of Cyprus rose out of the gently lapping water, coloured gold and green by the winter sunshine.

  'The island of love,' Nikolaos murmured as he saw the rapt look on her face, and a note of cynicism was back in his voice now.

  Emily ignored it. She was entranced by her first sight of the island. 'It's also the home of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty,' she added softly, remembering the stories from the books she had read during the past few weeks. 'She rose from the foam of the sea and bewitched men, filled them with sweet desire.' Then she realised that her skin felt suddenly hot, and her nerve-ends were tingling in a strange way.

  That is only a legend,' Nikolaos pointed out.

  'Of course it is,' she agreed quickly, flushing hard and wondering what on earth had made her say something like that. And to Nikolaos, of all people!

  She reminded herself that it definitely wouldn't be a good idea to let herself be bewitched by this island; she was here to learn how to run a hotel, and claim her inheritance, that was all. All the same, her gaze became a little dreamy as she saw the blue seas and the green forests, the beaches that glowed in the sun and the patches of colour from early spring flowers. As the plane neared Larnaca airport, it flew over a wide lake with pink clouds floating on its surface. Emily frowned in puzzlement. Pink clouds? Clouds that floated on water? Then she realised what she was looking at

  'Flamingos!' she exclaimed out loud. 'Whole flocks of flamingos.'

  Nikolaos looked at her consideringly, as if he hadn't expected her to be so obviously delighted with her first glimpses of the island. That's a salt lake,' he told her, after a short pause. 'The birds spend the winter there, and in the summer, when the lake dries up, the salt is collected.'

  The plane began its approach towards the runway, and Emily twisted a few stray strands of hair back into the golden knot at the nape of her neck. She knew that it was silly, it really didn't matter what she looked like. There wasn't going to be a whole crowd of Konstantins waiting for her at the airport, to welcome her. She didn't know one single person on this island

  —except for Nikolaos.

  She took a quick look at his dark face, shuttered again now, as
if to deliberately keep her out of his private thoughts. Then the plane wheels gently bumped against the runway and suddenly it didn't matter, she was here on Cyprus, and she knew that she was glad that she was here. Glad that she had had the courage to tackle this new challenge. And she wasn't going to let Nikolaos Konstantin be a problem. She was going to get through the next year without any more pain, any more sadness, any more emotional turmoil.

  Over the past few months, her life had hit rock-bottom. Now she was sure that it was slowly on the way up again.

  CHAPTER TWO

  AFTER the plane had landed, Nikolaos whizzed her through all the formalities with astonishing speed. Then he collected her luggage.

  'The excess charge on this is sky-high,' he said rather grimly. Emily looked edgily at the great pile of suitcases and hoped there was no way he could find out that they were stuffed with all the clothes she had bought on that reckless spending spree. She hadn't been able to find enough energy to return them to the shops, and had felt too guilty to leave them behind.

  'I am staying for a whole year,' she said defensively.

  'We do have shops here, on Cyprus,' Nikolaos pointed out. 'You could have packed just a few essential things, and bought everything else you needed once you were here.' Then his mouth set into a cynical line. 'But I suppose that you enjoyed spending Dimitri's money. Does everything in those suitcases have an expensive designer label on it?'

  'I didn't spend a penny that wasn't my own,' Emily retorted, fiercely resenting his implication that she couldn't wait to rush out and spend some of her stepfather's money. 'I haven't been living on Dimitri's charity for the past few years.'

  Nikolaos looked sceptical, but didn't press the point any further. 'Follow me to the car,' he said instead, in a crisp tone.

  'Our bags---'' began Emily.

  'The chauffeur will bring them.' He signalled to a broad-shouldered man standing near by, whom Emily hadn't noticed until now. Then he walked quickly towards the exit, leaving Emily to hurry after him. The car that was waiting outside was dark, sleek and powerful. Like its owner, Emily muttered to herself, as she sank into the soft leather seat in the back. Then her nerves gave a hefty twitch as Nikolaos got in beside her. Edgily, she began to wonder if she was always going to react like this every time he came close to her.