“You’re just like your Papous.” Gema said grudgingly when they’d gotten back to the yacht later that afternoon. Vistos smiled faintly at her.
“I hope so.”
“Your grandmother died when you were young?”
Vistos nodded. “I was only five, I believe. I cried and cried at first, but my father…..” Vistos lost the smile and shook his head. “Papous Stavros let me cry with him when no one was around. Just him and me.”
Gema glanced at Vistos beside her as they stood at the helm, looking down at the water below as the yacht sliced through it. He’d never shared something like that with her before, and on impulse Gema covered his hand on the railing with hers. Vistos stiffened at first, then relaxed gradually and let his thumb rub the side of her hand briefly.
“He’s a great man.” Gema said softly, and Vistos slipped his fingers through hers and held tight. Such a simple thing, holding hands.
“I don’t think we’ve ever held hands before.” Gema said, laughter in her voice, and Vistos looked down at their entwined fingers.
“That’s because you’ve always been afraid of me.” He said wearily, and Gema scoffed.
“I am not afraid of you-”
“You are, cara.” He turned his back to the railing, facing her, pulling her body against his seamlessly, and Gema struggled as he only held her tighter.
“See? You fight immediately, instinctively, even though you know I wont hurt you.”
Gema stopped wriggling, and just stared at Vistos’ chest in front of her. He chuckled, and she could feel the laughter against her chest, and it made her start squirming again. “You are, perhaps, more afraid of how I make you feel, than of me, hm?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Gema said stubbornly as she willed her body to stop responding to him.
“Non? Well that’s a shame.”
Vistos loosened his hold on her, and Gema stepped back a little, lifting her head to speak, and he kissed her soundly. Gema resisted him at first, then his hand was cradling her neck as his other latched onto her waist, and Gema felt herself giving up the fight, giving into Vistos, into what she’d wanted since he’d walked back into her life. She was breathless, dizzy, barely conscious of the small sounds coming out of her throat, of her hands tunneling through his hair, clinging to his shirt, exploring his back with her hands. Vistos pulled himself from her, and Gema’s eyes opened to half mast, looking up at him sleepily, and he growled.
“Don’t look at me like that, cara, or I’ll take you right now against the wall.”
Gema blinked, realizing they were in plain view of any passing boats and the crew themselves. With a small gasp, Gema righted her clothes and turned to flee inside, but Vistos grabbed her arm and pulled her back against him.
“Non, not so fast that you forget what you felt, that you shut down from it. You want me, cara, and you’ll have me. Now go below deck, and change into something to swim in.” Gema went down the stairs, locking herself into the bedroom and leaning against the door, breathing hard. She was in trouble. She was in deep.
“Oh God, but he‘s just so adorable!” Gema whispered, and bit her lip, trying to remember the last time she was so excited by the threat of having her clothes ripped off.
“Are you sure you don’t have to do any work?” Gema asked Vistos as they lounged on the private beach of his beach house in Crete. Vistos smiled wearily at her as he rubbed lotion into his shoulders and the top of his back.
“You must know that I worry about the company when I am away nearly as much as I worry about Kai.”
“You worry about Kai?” Gema asked, surprised. They had just spoken to him that morning, and he seemed to be having too much fun to miss them.
“Of course I miss him, he’s my son as well!” Vistos said harshly, and Gema blushed, looking away. She picked at the floral print coral sarong she’d tied around her waist and shifted her strapless bikini top up nervously.
“I just…will have to get used to thinking of him as being, our son, and not just my son.”
“Now, cara, you are learning.” Vistos said, lying flat on his back on the lounger, and putting on his sunglasses. Gema propped her lounger to sitting, and she leaned back against it with a book about Crete, losing herself in the history of the island.
Vistos woke up from his nap, stretching and sitting up, to see Gema lying on her stomach and reading, engrossed in the book. Vistos swatted at her hand, and she jumped, startled, and he grinned, pulling her up.
“Come, let’s go for a swim.”
So Gema let herself be dragged into the ocean by Vistos, let herself begin to forget about how hurt she’d been, about how hard it had been without him, and just enjoy being with Vistos again. By the time they made it back to the beach house early that evening, they were hand in hand and content with the silence between them as they came into the house. Vistos sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, heading for the kitchen.
“I’m starving, but I also really need a shower.” He pulled a water bottle from the fridge, and Gema took off her hat, ruffling her own hair as she joined him in the kitchen. “Hhmm, I should not have dismissed the cook for the day.” Vistos muttered, and Gema offered on impulse.
“Why don’t you let me cook up something, and you can go take that shower.” Gema suggested, and Vistos looked at her.
“Yeah? You’re gonna cook?”
“Hey, I can cook! You just never let me.” Gema insisted, hands on hips.
Vistos shrugged and backed out of the room with his hands raised. “Alright, I guess we’ll see.”
Humming as she cooked, Gema threw something together quickly using what was in the fridge and pantries. Chicken breasts, fresh tomatoes, and all the fresh greens you could imagine, led to a grilled chicken salad, and the fresh wild mushrooms and a can of cream of chicken and a few old hints from her mother’s recipes made mushroom soup. Vistos came out, fresh from the shower, as Gema was sliding the bread out of the oven, and he looked at the food on the table in surprise.
“Wow, this looks amazing.”
Gema grinned as she took off her oven mitts and ran a hand through her hair. “Make your plate, but don’t eat yet!” She warned, backing up towards the bedroom. “I’m going to jump in the shower for literally five minutes, and if I see even one olive out of place from that salad, you’re getting it.”
“Is that a promise?” Vistos drawled, and Gema pretended not to hear him, even though her ears turned as red as her cheeks and she hurried away.
Scrubbing down quickly, Gema washed her body and hair before hurrying out and pulling on a pair of black shorts and a billowy tube top. Her hair was still wet from the shower, and slightly curled, but she didn’t bother doing anything to it before hurrying out to eat with Vistos. Not only had he made his plate, but hers as well, and Gema smiled as she sat down with him.
“Wine?” Vistos asked, reaching for the white already.
“Yes, sure.” He poured her a glass, then raised his to toast.
“To new beginnings.” Vistos said softly, and Gema couldn’t help but smile back, her heart melting. God she was a hopeless romantic.
“To new beginnings.”
Vistos praised her cooking, so much so that Gema was so distracted she forgot about the bed, and it burned. They laughed as they tried to salvage it, opening all the windows in the small beach house and airing out the smell. Eventually, they simply sat on the patio with the bottle of wine, talking, laughing, and drinking. The sun had long since gone down, and they listened to the water hitting the edge of the sand again and again, in silence for a while.
“I love it out here.” Vistos said, and Gema turned to look at him. She was curled up in the wicker chair she sat in to fight off the slight chill in the air, and Vistos had long since gotten her a blanket to wrap up in. “When I bought this place, I told myself I was going to come here when things got too much, when I needed to just recharge, but this is the first time I’ve been back here since I bought the place.” Vistos shook his head and Gema nudged his leg with her foot playfully.
“Hey, you’re a busy man. You conquer other businesses or something important like that, right?”
Vistos laughed, and his hand absently caressed the foot she had left on his lap. “Something like that.”
“Poor Vistos, you have too much money to count!”
Vistos laughed again, looking at her now and getting serious. “You know Gem, I never should have treated you like I did, and I mean the whole thing.” He said fervently. “I held your parents money over your head to get what I wanted and I shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have accused you of working with Doug to steal my money, and I should have realized that letter wasn’t from you.” He leaned towards her anxiously, cupping her cheek in his warm hand.
“Forgive me, Gema, cara, forgive me!”
“oh Vistos-!”
His lips covered hers passionately, and Gema found herself hauled out of her chair and onto his lap, kissing him with everything she had. Her hands tunneled through his hair, wound around his neck and pulled him even closer as his hands trailed up her back under her shirt. His lips left her mouth to conquer her neck, and Gema was lost in sensation as he picked her up and walked through the house with her wrapped around him.
The bed was soft and smelled like Vistos as he laid her down, standing back up, and Gema clutched at him, willing him to stay. Vistos smiled slowly at her, peeling off his shirt, and Gema watched, fascinated, as he undressed for her. Belatedly, Gema scrambled to sitting and pulled her own shirt over her head, and her bra had only just hit the floor before his lips were on hers again and he was pushing her down on the bed. His hands made short work of her shorts and underwear, dropping them to the floor, and returning to her body. Arching into him hungrily, Gema found herself nibbling at his ear and pleading for him, clutching him close, until Vistos ground himself to the hilt, making Gema gasp and hold him even tighter. Eyes rolled back in ecstasy, Gema moved with Vistos, her body responding to him as if they’d never left each other, and he breathed her name against her neck as he proceeded to remind her of what they once had.
Stretching lazily, Gema turned her face into the pillow and breathed deeply. The familiar scent of lavender was absent, replaced with the irresistible smell of manly cleanliness that Gema knew only too well. She jerked up, only to be prevented from going far by a heavy weight strewn across her back. That weight tightened and grabbed onto her waist, and Gema discovered it was an arm as she squirmed against the hold Vistos was dragging her into. Gema pushed against his strong pecks and Vistos’ chest rumbled with a sigh as he pulled Gema’s body flush with his and buried his face in her hair, murmuring in Italian, then snoring softly. Gema was stuck, trapped against Vistos’ hard, warm body on all sides, and she wondered how she got into this situation. What time was it? Based on the amount of sunlight straining to get into bedroom from behind the lightweight white curtains, it was well past nine, and Gema needed to get up as soon as possible, if only to escape from Vistos’ bed.
Moving very slowly, Gema attempted to untangle one of her shapely legs from Vistos’ strong, muscular ones. She was halfway out, when the arms around her tightened again, and Vistos growled in her ear.
“Trying to slip away?”
“Let me get up, Vistos!” Gema tried hard not to focus on the way the sound of his voice made her shiver, despite the dull headache she suspected was from too much wine, and goose bumps that broke out all over her body.
“Why would I, hm?” He murmured against her neck, rubbing his stubble against her soft neck and it made Gema want to melt, but she firmly kept her eyes from rolling back in her head by closing them. Vistos’ arms were suddenly not around her, and Gema felt bereft for a brief moment, and opened her eyes. She was staring at the white ceiling, and she breathed a sigh of relief that he was no longer encasing her with his arms and his smell. Hopefully he took a long time in the bathroom, and she would be able to leave before he got back. What had she been thinking, sleeping with him! Gema turned her head towards the bathroom, and the door was closed. Thanking the heavens, Gema rolled onto her stomach and tossed the covers off of herself, stretching like a cat and sighing, raking a hand back through her hair.
“Little Kitten” A deep voice rumbled behind her, and Gema didn’t even have time to react before an iron grip was on her ankle and she was being pulled towards the foot of the bed. Gema gasped and scrambled for the headboard for leverage, but Vistos yanked her towards him sooner than she could. He was laughing as he used both hands on her thighs, right above her knees, to flip her onto her back. Gema was suddenly looking at the white ceiling again, her heart hammering in her chest, adrenaline pumping through her veins. She suddenly remembered she was stark naked, and Gema gasped, rearing up and scrambling for the covers, but Vistos was faster, grabbing her wrists in his hands as she struggled against them. Gema screeched in frustration.
“Let me go this instant!” Vistos grinned down at her.
“I admit, there is much fun in chasing you, but now that I’ve caught you, why would I let you slip away again, especially when..” His eyes raked hungrily over her naked form as she wriggled to get away from him. “It’s so fun to play with you” He purred, crawling up her form on the bed, holding her wrists in his hands. Gema’s breathing was uneven as he crawled up her body, finally stopping with one powerful knee on either side of her legs, keeping them from thrashing around to kick him. She was trying to tel her body to calm down, to stop reacting to this caveman, but it wasn’t listening. Her senses were in tuned to him, especially after last night, and as Gema looked into Vistos’ lazy, desire filled hazel eyes, she realized she didn’t have a chance in hell of leaving here with her heart intact.
Having her struggle against him was turning Vistos on more than a naked surrendering any gorgeous woman had ever offered to him. She was fighting herself more than him, he knew, he could see it written all over her face. She wanted him, after last night that was certain, but she hated herself for wanting him. He didn’t know what had come over him, but weeks, months, years, of not having her had finally caught up with him, and he was hungry for her. He had wanted her again last night, almost immediately, but Gema had peacefully drifted to sleep and he had been too engrossed in watching her sleep to wake her for another go. She may hate him out of the sheets, but her body responded to him in a way no other woman’s had, and he had missed that, and intended to make up for lost time, he vowed as he lowered his mouth to hers.