Page 44 of About Love and Revenge

I'm not the kind of man who holds hands while walking, but with Elina I feel compelled to do so, to touch her, as if to make sure she doesn't disappear from my sight.

I think about what Grigori said. She is the enemy's daughter.

Rationally, I know she's the worst person I could choose to get involved with. First, because she's an Argyros, whose patriarch I'm going to exterminate from the planet, and second, because during the short time we've been together, Elina has been inserting herself under my skin at a terrifying speed.

Even if I overlook whose daughter she is, she'll never forget. The time will come when I'll destroy her father. There'll be nothing left of Leandros, and I don't believe that if she has to choose a side, it will be mine.

However, those certainties are useless given that I can't walk away.

Of course, I’ve made the excuse that we're going to dinner forbusiness, even though I chose the River Café, which is located in Brooklyn and has a beautiful view of the Manhattan Island. It's not a place I'd take someone to discuss business, but I feel like spoiling her, showing her a little bit of my city. I have long considered New York my home.

We could have talked on the phone, or I could simply have given her instructions through one of my secretaries. So even to me, the excuse that this is just a work dinner sounds weak.

I look at her profile as my driver steers through the vibrant streets. New York is not the kind of place that makes you want to go out in a car, especially on a rainy night. Actually, Manhattan is not a place you want to drive atany time.

Traffic is chaotic, even more so at night, and it can take almost an hour to travel just four kilometers. Besides that, even though the restaurant has valet parking, the security team in the vehicle behind us won't be happy with the exposure we'll risk by jumping out and handing over the keys.

I have other enemies besides Leandros. The old Greek just tops the list.

Does she know how to drive? Things between us are so strange. While I already feel somehow close to Elina, there are trivialities concerning her that I know nothing about, and despite telling myself that I don't need to delve too deep, that whatever happens will be fleeting, something pushes me to unravel her.

“Do you know how to drive?” I echo my thoughts.

She takes so long to face me that I think maybe she hasn't heard, and even when she turns to me, her mind seems to be elsewhere. A place she doesn't want me to go. “No.”

I don't understand. Although on the island she had everything at her fingertips, thanks to the luxury she’s always lived in, how can someone her age not know how to drive?

Was it by choice?

Once again comes the realization that she's still as inexperienced as a baby.

I wonder if her father did this on purpose, isolating her and her mother so that they were completelydependent on him.

“Wanna learn?” I could arrange this quickly. Yes, this is my screaming need for control and planning.

She shrugs. “Won't I be working from home? Almost everything can be arranged over the phone, anyway. If I need to go to your office, I can walk.”

“My offices are at World Trade Center Site, Elina,” I explain, indicating the complex constructed to replace the buildings destroyed in the terrorist attack of September 11. “About half an hour away from your apartment by car, depending on the traffic.”

Her cheeks turn red, and her mouth opens in an O of astonishment. "Is there someone who could teach me how to take a bus, then? Or the subway. In the movies, I’ve seen people riding the subway here in New York.”

Something tightens inside me with that simple question. What the hell was I doing, taking her out of the safety of her world and bringing her into a city such as this?

I take her hand and intertwine our fingers.

No, I'm not thinking clearly, but she brings out my protective side every damn time we're together. Since the night I saw her cornered by Naim in my house, it's like a bond has been created between us.

“When you have to go somewhere, we'll find a solution.”Perhaps it would be better to put a driver at her disposal. In addition to the fact that the New York subway is not safe at certain times, there's still the ghost of Naim hanging around.

“Okay, then.” She's letting me hold her, as if she understands that I need it right now, and that's just another one of her paradoxes.

I never know when she's going to send me away or ask for more, and instead of pissing me off, that turns me on. Our cat and mouse game makes my blood boil.

“How was your first day?”

“I didn't do anything but unpack my things. I wanted to take a walk around the city, but I feared getting lost.”

I nod, thinking about what I'm going to do when I get back to Greece. Even with the security team looking after her, she's not a prisoner. I can't keep her locked up in a tower, as tempting as the idea is.

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