back. Pulled himself up to his full height.
What was he doing? Presenting himself like a prize stallion?
Idiot. She’s exhausted. So are you. Act normal.
He cleared his throat and started again. “Get your things. I’m taking you home.”
Way to go caveman. Real smooth.
“Theo, really. I’ll be fine.”
He smiled, caught by surprise at the way she’d said his name. It sounded like a...a verbal caress. Just the chink in her armor he needed.
“I’m afraid it’s non-negotiable, Cailey. Bed. Sleep. I can throw some hot chocolate into the mix, but that’s where I draw the line.”
What was he? Twelve?
Cailey pressed her feet to the ground, obviously gearing herself up to protest, and then, much to his surprise, suddenly wilted.
Raising her hands, she said, “Fine. You win.” She turned her surrendering hands into pistols, “But we need to stop by Stavros’s taverna so I can see my mother. And after that just a few hours’ sleep then I’m back here, just like everyone else.”
“Deal.”
He put out his hand, and when she placed hers in his to shake on it he stunned them both by raising her palm to his lips and giving it a kiss.
* * *
Cailey virtually ran to the changing room to get her backpack. She wouldn’t have been surprised if sparks were flying out of the soles of her trainers.
What was going on?
An earthquake wasn’t the only thing that had shaken up the island.
Theo was not the man she had decided he would be. In her head—and in truth she had devoted far too much time to this—he had become a mini-Dimitri. No. Worse. A Monster Dimitri. A: because he stood about a foot taller. B: because he was a thousand times more commanding when he chose to be. And C: Theo was a million more miles off-limits and a gazillion times more gorgeous than his father.
But other than that...? Exactly the same.
She pushed into the changing room, ran to the sink, stared at the back of her hand for a minute, debating whether or not to kiss it back, then threw handful after handful of cold water on her face willing her brain to try and match Bad Theo with—well...with Real Theo.
The real Theo posed a much greater threat to her. The real Theo, in just one day, had teased apart each of the perfect tight stitches she had carefully inserted over the wound in her heart and burst them wide open again.
The man was an infinity of little perfections.
Never mind the tug-your-fingers-through-it hair, the ridiculously green eyes, his athletic physique and utterly kissable mouth... He was an incredible doctor. And she found that about as sexy as it came. He was thoughtful. Empathetic. Resourceful. He was a generous colleague. He hadn’t once patronized her or tried to catch her out when she’d hesitated over a medicine vial or which scalpel to pick up when he needed one. Not that it had happened much. From their very first patient he’d actually managed to bring out her A-game.
And now she was going to spend the night at his house.
Her powers of resistance were pitiful. She stared at the mirror above the sink and mimicked herself, “‘Okay, Theo. Yes, Theo. Whatever you say, Theo.’” Pathetic!
She’d always imagined her return to Mythelios would be more...triumphant, in a dignified and grown-up way. She’d wow him with her cool professionalism and make him realize exactly what he’d lost.
Not fall into his arms at the first sign of an aftershock and then agree to curl up in his guest bedroom only not to sleep because he’d be right next door.
She stared at herself again.
Serious face, this time.
Had she tarred Theo with the same brush as his father? Theo had never told her to get lost. Or to steer clear. Okay, so she had heard him laughing with his mates about a Nikolaides never marrying a housemaid once, and that had stung—singed itself into her psyche probably for ever—but it was Dimitri who’d told her to stay away from Theo, not Theo himself. And she wasn’t a housemaid anymore.
Besides, there was definitely chemistry between them. No denying that. There always had been.
But what if this was just a tease only for him to push her away again? She knew Theo would never marry her, but she had come back sort of triumphant. She was a nurse in an exclusive hospital. She’d done some cracking good work today. Her mother was free of her need for a Nikolaides paycheck so there’d be no more dangling that fear factor over her head. It still shocked her that Dimitri had said he’d fire her mother if Cailey didn’t leave his family alone.
A flame lit sharp and bright inside her. She would take Theo up on his invitation. The bed. The hot chocolate. She deserved it.
It might not have been his fault her mother had decided to sell the family home to help Cailey with her nursing school fees, but it was his fault for being so ruddy nice she couldn’t find a reason to say no to staying with him. And if Dimitri found out about this and tried to exact any kind of vengeance the blame would fall solidly on Theo—and then she’d leave the island and never think of either of them again.
“Ready?” Theo strode into the changing room, scooped up her backpack with one hand, slung it on his shoulder and opened his other arm to create a protective arc around her shoulders as he steered them through the crowds to the front door.
Oh, swoon. Wrinkly scrubs suited him. Then again, being naked probably suited him too. Not that she’d imagined that. Much.
He pushed open the front door, his arm still round her and whispered, “Out of the frying pan...”
At first she didn’t get it—and then just a few footsteps beyond the clinic a whole new raft of sensations bombarded her.
Discordancy. The shrill sounds of heavy machinery hammering away at centuries-old rock and beam. The savaged spot-lit remains of homes and businesses that had virtually disintegrated when the quake had hit.
A wash of guilt rushed over her that she could have been thinking naughty thoughts and having saucy tummy-flips while all this mayhem was still happening across the harbor town.
This was the reason she was here. Not to play out some revenge fantasy against one of the island’s richest men.
She shivered beneath the weight of Theo’s arm, which was still resting lightly on her shoulders protectively, the way a boyfriend or a husband might touch a loved one who’d had a rough day and was feeling a little fragile.
“You warm enough?”
Theo’s voice was soft, a balm against the harsh sound of saws on metal and jackhammers rat-a-tat drumming against concrete.
“Mmm...” She was confused, maybe, but not cold. Not with his arm wrapped around her.
Another shiver rattled down her spine at the thought of his father seeing them. He’d warned her off once and this was stark disobedience of the “stay away from my son” remit she’d promised to obey.
But that was years ago.
“Want my jacket?”
“No, no. I’m good.”
Scared. Excited. A little bit more lusty than she should be. But strangely...whole. As if coming back to the island and finding herself walking side by side with Theo Nikolaides had been the one thing missing from her life.
“Sure?”
He slid his hand to her waist and steered her round some debris that had fallen from a shop front they were passing. The owners sat inside. Their folding