Fortune Favors The Bold

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: GETTING BURNT

Everything which followed happened in a blur for Adonis. The restaurant, the conversation with Theía Calista and the dinner. Every cell in his body was gripped with an immeasurable tension which was acutely aware of her. It was like he was completely hooked. Her perfume haunted him, the barest touches drove him crazy, and not to forget her smiles.

He'd never met someone who laughed so freely before. They were precious, something so unadulterated and unimpaired that they felt like a gift. Memories of the kiss they’d shared flashed in his mind, hot and needy and he felt his groin growing hard right in front of the woman who’d practically raised him.

Theía Calista was his father’s first cousin, but he considered her more family then the others. She was the only one who’d had the guts to completely remove herself from the family equation, staying away from the melodramas. Sometimes Adonis wondered if she was the only genuine family he’d ever had.

His aunt had been the one to visit him in boarding schools when his own mother had never bothered. Little Adonis had always looked forward to the frequent visits of his relative for it was usually accompanied with gifts.

Not expensive insignificant presents which rained from the Fortune mansion. Theía Calista always brought him his favorite things like the Fables of Aesop or jewelry designs from Wolfers Frères. She was the only one who cared about him as a person instead of viewing him as an asset or a steppingstone.

Therefore, he wasn’t sure why he’d brought Alaya to meet Theía Calista. It had been an act of pure impulse. Seeing them together, laughing and appreciating the same food made him realize that the two females were alike. Genuine and loving. It had been a hasty decision, but his subconscious had known something which he hadn’t figured out until now.

Alaya Petrov was totally different from the women he used to espouse. He hadn’t met a woman who was so strongly opiniated and fiercely independent. Yet, there was a streak of vulnerability which she hid well from the world, but which would sometimes surface from time to time.

Wanting her was no longer something he could control. Across the table, he wished he could push his hands through her mass of unruly hair, bring her rosy lips to his and taste the essence of her.

“She’s lovely,” a voice whispered in his ear, making him jump from his erotic fantasies and he turned around abruptly.

“Theíos Nikos!” he exclaimed happily. It had been so long since he’d visited them – the last time they’d met had been on his father’s funeral. “How nice to see you.”

The old man beamed enthusiastically in his direction with approval. “Is that your girlfriend? She’s so different from the ones we see in your photos. Myra’s been asking about whether you were thinking of settling down not that Mason…” his uncle stopped in dismay as the latter figured out his mistake a tad too late.

Adonis felt his whole being shrinking back in himself as the horror of his father’s death came haunting him back. For a moment, he’d been caught up with Alaya’s struggles and life that he’d managed to forget his own demons.

It had been a much-needed reprieve but now reality was back like a b***h.

“I’m sorry, yiós. It wasn’t my intention to hurt you. I know it’s hard times for you and your mother.”

Adonis smiled politely but the fun had already evaporated from his mind. The stark reminder of Alaya’s presence in his life was enough to kill the buzz. With a forced smile, he stood up and Alaya picked up his cue.

“I’m sorry Theía Calista. It’s already late and I have a very important meeting in the morning,” he offered as a polite excuse, gritting his teeth when his uncle was apologizing profusely for his gaffe. “No, it’s really late and we should head back.”

“Oh yiós!” Theía Calista protested vehemently. “You know how my husband can be tactless sometimes. Please don’t mind his words and stay for the night. I have two rooms upstairs which has remained empty for far too long. Ever since Myra’s moved back to Greek with her husband, my house feels empty.”

Myra was their only daughter who’d gotten married last year leaving the couple alone. Adonis made a mental note to come visit more often, but he refused the invitation. “It’s so kind of you to offer us your home, Theía. But we really cannot stay over….” His words were interrupted with the fact that the old woman had linked her arm with his and was already marching inside the house.

What kind of stupid impulse had made him come here? he now wondered crestfallen, casting a look towards Alaya in apology. The latter seemed to take his aunt’s insistence quite sportingly and was looking around the house with open curiosity.

He gulped down any further refusal and allowed himself to be railroaded by his intrepid aunt. She brought them to the first floor of the house which seemed inhabited. “Your uncle and I have shifted downstairs. With age, it’s difficult for us to manage the stairs.”

Alarm ran through him. That meant that they would both be alone in the whole floor. Instinctive protest ran on his lips, but he swallowed them when he realized that his innocent aunt playing matchmaker. With doe-eyed innocence, she blinked back at him holding his gaze until Adonis wanted to struggle her.

“Theía Calista…,” he began in warning.

An uncomfortable feeling crept at his neck as he realized that his crazy aunt was trying to set him up with Alaya. That infuriating matchmaker was using the occasion to her advantage and subtly trying to leave them alone in her house in the hope that things between them might progress.

“Here’s your room,” his aunt showed hastily, practically shoving him in the aerated room, closing the door in his face without giving him time to retaliate.

He heaved a sigh of frustration at the too obvious manipulative tactics but raved a hand in his coiffure in sheer resignation. There was nothing he could do without rising the suspicion of the detective. If she found out about his predicament, she wouldn’t let him live through it.

He heard footsteps in the adjacent room and sat on the bed in horrified shock, waiting for a moment alone to confront his silly romantic aunt. He felt like a teenager who’d been trapped in an unfortunate situation.

When he was fairly certain that Alaya had settled in, he opened his door to tiptoe downstairs. He was furious to catch a giggling Theía Calista in the arms of her husband.

“Theía Calista!!!” he roared angrily and watched as the latter jumped guiltily at the sound of his voice.  “What were you thinking?” he demanded in fluent Greek to make sure that Alaya couldn’t grasp a word if she overheard.

“What do you mean?” the woman blinked back at him in fake incomprehension.

“Don’t play that game with me!” he whispered in dramatic outrage. “We both know what you’re trying to do here. Will you come clean please?”

The old woman stood up and crossed her arms across her chest in defiance. “Alright, I may have exaggerated a little bit,” she replied in her mother tongue. “But I have the best intentions of the world, I promise. She’s perfect for you!”

“Theía Calista, she’s the detective working on my father’s murder,” he informed coldly, not appreciating her interference in his personal life. “I didn’t want to embarrass her by introducing her as such. There’s nothing going on between us. She’s not my girlfriend.”

There was no staggering horror in her aunt’s eyes as he’d expected. No shame, no regret whatsoever. Instead, she firmly stood her ground. “You could have fooled me. I’ve seen the way you look at her.”

“Oh yeah?” he retaliated back angrily. “How do I look at her?”

“Like you want to gobble her up. You don’t fool me a bit. I’ve been married for twenty-three years. I know how these things work. And I know you! You would never accept the fact that you’re attracted to her because she’s nothing like those plastic bimbos you surround yourself with.”

Adonis was pissed, not with his meddling aunt’s persistence, but more with the truth of the statement. “You have no right to interfere in my life,” he shot back, despite knowing that the words would hurt the woman.

Truly enough, the green eyes so like his darkened with a hurt expression and she hung her head in defeat. “Fine! I apologize,” she replied with wobbly lips and turning her back to him.

“Theía Calista,” he said gently, hating himself for having wounded the only person who’d been in his life at every stage. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. But you must know how hard those past weeks have been for me. I don’t have time for romance, especially with the one who’s supposed to find out my father’s murderer.”

For a moment, he let the horror of the past days reflect in his eyes. Those were the only person he showed his real self without any barriers. Maybe coming back here right after his father’s death was not such a good idea. Not with the detective upstairs. Even if Alaya wouldn’t be able to pick up the language, she could easily feel the drift of the conversation by the nuances.

“That’s precisely what I meant. You need to cut yourself some slack. You’ve done a great job being the son of Mason Fortune for so long. Now it’s time to live your life. I also want to discover the murderer, but this should be the only objective of your life. Not anymore.”

Adonis sighed. It wasn’t as easy as she made it sound. Aunt Calista was the only who knew the toll it took to be the only heir of Mason Fortune. For so many years, he’d suppressed his smallest desire only to live up to the expectations that his father had for him. Now the latter was dead, and he didn’t feel any freer.

“Exactly,” his aunt replied like he’d voiced the words aloud. “You need to let it all go, Ad. There’s no point to all this if you can’t pave your own way now like you’ve always wanted to do.”

Of course his father’s cousin was right. He should stop letting his dead father control his life, his actions, his thoughts. Everything. But it was hard to break the habits of a lifetime. But there was one thing he was absolutely certain of – Alaya Petrov had no permanent place in his life. He wasn’t going to saddle himself with a woman who lived in a completely different circle than him.

It was too complicated.

Anger filled him for a reason he didn’t care to inspect too closely. He did the only thing he could at the moment to unleash the beast gnawing at him.

“Living my life has nothing to do with the woman upstairs,” he cried out passionately, not forgetting to use Greek as a subterfuge. “She never has and will never have a place in my life.” A movement caught his gaze, and he was shocked to find a forlorn Alaya standing at the top of the stairs looking like she’d just lost her best friend.

Damn! Damn! Damn! His heart constricted painfully as his own reflection made a mockery of the words he’d just uttered. It wasn’t true. Had she understood? Why the hell did she look so sad?

“Syngnómi. Den eícha skopó na parémvo.,” she muttered in a small voice before disappearing inside her room leaving a discomfited and completely dismayed Adonis behind.

I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude, she’d said in perfect Greek, which meant that she’d understood every damned word between his aunt and himself. It was futile hiding the truth.

She mattered. More than she should.