Page 102 of Love on the Rocks
But this time he stood, and in front of the entire dining room, made his way toward me. He moved hesitantly at first then more confidently as an enormous smile spread across my face.
“You came,” I said when he reached me at last.
He nodded, his warm hand gliding up my arm. “It’s not every day the woman I love realizes her biggest dream.”
I inhaled sharply, and he grew blurry around the edges as I fought back tears. “Is this part of your devious plan to lure me back to your island?”
“No, I wouldn’t dare steal you from the rest of the world,” he whispered as he slid his arms around my waist and pulled me closer. “And anyway, I told you, it’s you who’s put a spell on me.”
“And I have no intention of breaking it,” I whispered into his ear as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
“I don’t want you to,asteri mou.” His warm lips smiled against mine and I breathed him in, my fingers winding through the soft curls at the nape of his neck.
The first time I saw him, he was a stranger. This time he was mine.
Chapter 42
NIKOS
“Mia sat at the end of the dock, blinking hard into the setting sun. . .”
Callied yawned and shut the tattered cover ofOne Week with the Greek.
“You can’t just leave me hanging like that,” I complained. “I came all this way to see how the story ends.”
“I thought you came all this way for me,” she huffed and flipped the sheets back, pretending to get out of bed. I wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her soft naked body back against mine, nuzzling my face into her neck.
“If I don’t get some sleep, I’m going fall headfirst into my bisque tomorrow.” It was past 2 a.m. and we were snuggled in her tiny bed where she’d been reading to me between feeding me bites of food from the restaurant.
That was one of the perks of sleeping with a chef. I got to be the first taste tester.
“Well, I suppose I already had one happy ending.”
She tossed a pillow at me.
“I meant your dessert,” I said, my voice muffled behind by the pillow. The significance of that dessert and of the menu itself hadn’t been lost on me. It was almost identical to the menu she’d developed back in Lyra.
She was in every bite and occasionally so was I. The night we spent together on my boat had been transformed into Between the Sea and the Stars—a constellation of osteria caviar and seared scallops of on a bed of kritoma. The Ode to Aphrodite was pink langoustine in a wild fennel foam. And then, of course, there was the dessert that she’d been struggling with. Her “work in progress” that had gone through countless iterations. In the end, she’d added bittersweet oranges—the acidity that balanced the sweetness of the dish—and pistachio-tahini crumble topped by a luscious mound of saffron custard; it was subtle yet profound and stayed with you long after the plate was taken away. It made you want more.
She’d changed the name of the dessert from Work in Progress to Love on the Rocks, and it had made theGuardiancritic lose her mind. If I had had to bet on any dish a month ago to be singled out for all the accolades, it wouldn’t have been the dessert.
Callie hadn’t read the review yet and covered her ears anytime I threatened to read it aloud. For someone who’d been dreaming of being featured on 30 Under 30 lists, she was strangely disinterested in theGuardianarticle. I’d read it a dozen times and was even thinking of framing it and putting it up in my office back home.
“And then there’s this.” I held up the paper. “You couldn’t ask for a better ending.”
“You’d better not read that to me before I go to bed.”
“Oh, come on, are you that thin-skinned? If you don’t finish that book for me, I’m reading this to you.” I cleared my throat and flicked the paper. “In a non-descript brick building in Clerkenwell . . .”
“No fair!” she cried. “Okay, okay, I’ll finish the chapter.”
She curled up against me and opened the book. Finally, I’d know how it ended for that lucky bastard Angelos and Mia.Honestly, the guy was an alpha asshat, and I really couldn’t understand what he had to offer Mia beyond his enormous, throbbing manhood and his billion-dollar portfolio.
Callie cleared her throat, her tongue darting out to wet her lips. Those lips. They were going to be the death of me. I’d crossed the entire European continent just to taste them again.
“Mia sat at the end of the dock, blinking hard into the setting sun. At first she thought she must be dreaming, but as the sailboat approached, she saw the words written on its gleaming white exterior: Asteri Mou.
The same words that echoed in her dreams at night, recited in the same dark baritone that whispered to her all those weeks ago. ‘Asteri mou.’
