Page 42 of Love on the Rocks
“I’ll be there in spirit. Check your email, Cal. I just sent you some essential reading for your upcoming battle.”
“Will do. And, Liv, let me know what works for you. I can’t wait to see you.”
“Okay, love you. And don’t forget to call your parents! Your mom has been calling nonstop.”
After a quick call with my parents, who were biking through tulips in the Netherlands, I stayed in the bath luxuriating in the hot water and coming up with my next plan of attack. I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering to Nikos: his big hands and broad shoulders, those ridiculously long eyelashes and the sexy scruff on his face. Mmm, I wondered what that scruff would feel like between my legs.
Stop it, Cal. Let Gaz be a lesson. No more self-absorbed assholes.
I was turning over a new leaf. I was done with these guys, full stop.
* * *
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” I placed my e-reader aside. I’d downloaded Levi’s copy of Sun Tzu’sThe Art of Waron to it after he’d sent it with a note that made me smile.
“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”
Levi wasn’t one for writing long messages, and I’m pretty sure he was only in our group chat because we’d forced him into it, but he always had a quote fromThe Godfatherat the ready when you needed one. It sounded like good advice to me. Since I had a lot of time to kill while my ankle healed, I wanted to come up with the best strategy for winning this war.
Besides, I wasn’t good at convalescing. I didn’t know how to sit around, so I spent the first couple days on my terrace spying on my neighbors—well, one in particular. Nikos’s house was directly across the harbor from mine. I could see him come and go between his house and office, and I’d figured out his office hours were roughly 10–6 every day with an hour or two for lunch (I wondered who he was serenading now at the taverna). Asidefrom the occasional child or elderly person, his patients seemed to be mostly young, attractive women.
How many of them had he slept with?I wondered, trying to ignore the tiny stab of jealousy in my gut.
Unfortunately, I’d also learned this morning, as I was drinking my coffee, that he sometimes went for a swim in the bay. When I caught my first glimpse of him in just his swimming trunks—all broad shoulders, chiseled abs, and golden skin—I dribbled coffee all over my robe. He had quite a few tattoos, one large one on his side that I would have liked to see up close. I tried to remain indifferent to the half-naked sight of him. But it was impossible. He was beautiful in the water, sleek and powerful as a dolphin.
When he climbed back on his dock, I was still gawking, and thanks to my damn ankle, not quick enough to dart away. He had the nerve to wave at me, so I turned my chair and presented him with my back. Okay, so much for my new career as a spy. I wouldn’t be joining MI6 anytime soon.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at my door. When I didn’t answer, he called out, “I just wanted to check on that ankle.”
“It’s fine. Go away.” I peeked through living room window and watched him saunter off. Did he have to walk like that? Like a damn panther, with slow, self-assured steps like he owned the whole damn island. He wore those slouchy linen pants that hung on his lean hips and his sleeves rolled up over his forearms. His hair was still wet and wavy, and I bet it smelled like salt and sex. God, this was so unfair.
The worst thing was, I was dying for company. So when Yiannis had the misfortune of walking past my place, I practically dragged him inside. Yiannis owed me big time and I was ready to collect.
He tried to hide the fear on his face when I closed the door behind him. “Miss Calista, I was sorry to hear about your fall. I hope you are settled now.”
“Let’s stop playing games, please. I know what you did,” I said, crossing my arms and giving him my most intimidating stare. “Now, normally I should report you to Greystone for taking nearly two weeks rent for a house that I never lived in. I’m sure that’s against most rental laws.”
His eyes widened, then he was practically stuttering out excuses. “Please, I didn’t want to. It wasn’t my idea.”
“Oh, I know that. You don’t strike me as a devious person. I’m willing to overlook everything if you agree to help me.”
I invited him out to the terrace for somemezzedesand wine. He stared at the food warily as if he suspected I’d poisoned it all.
“You are angry?” he asked.
“Well, yes. Put yourself in my shoes. Imagine that you’d been sent to a strange country where you don’t speak the language and you’re counting on the kindness of strangers to make adapting easier. But instead, they play a nasty trick on you. It didn’t feel great.”
He hung his head, his light brown hair falling over his boyish face. He held his hands up. “I am sorry. I should never have agreed to this, but it seemed like the only way to . . .”
“Scare me off?” I suggested.
He shrugged. “Yes.”
“I know there’s resistance to the resort here. But I’d like to understand whyhe”—I gestured to Nikos’s house angrily—“is so opposed to it. He told me it wasn’t personal, but it sure feels like it is.”
“Uh, I don’t know where to begin.” Yiannis glanced anxiously across the cove and moved closer, speaking in a whisper. “Nikos spent every summer here as a child. His grandfather was the doctor and the mayor here for many years. Very respected.”Yiannis grew excited, and I could tell that he too held the old man in high esteem.
“When did he pass away?” It was all starting to make sense now. The intensity with which Nikos defended the island, almost as if he was charged with protecting it by some divine right.
