He turned to her. "I told them nothing. I wouldna betray my friends. They burned me, cut me, broke my fingers, shattered my feet - "
She covered her mouth with a trembling hand, but a strangled whimper escaped.
He stepped toward her. "I dinna betray my friends. I prayed for death so I wouldna betray them."
"I'm so sorry," she breathed.
"I doona want yer pity, lass."
"But I am sorry."
"Bloody hell, I dinna want to tell you." He paced away. "Now ye'll look at me like some poor weakling who was fool enough to get captured - "
"No." She stepped toward him. "Don't you dare blame yourself. It wasn't your fault."
He groaned. There she went with the therapy. "Olivia, I only told you so ye'd understand how much I value loyalty. I would rather die than betray my friends and family. Ye'd be hard pressed to find any man in the world as trustworthy as I."
Her mouth curled up. "Or as modest."
He smiled. "There, ye see. Ye read me quite well, so I doona think ye need yer special powers with me."
She hooked a curly tendril behind an ear. "Maybe. I don't know. This is so...strange."
"Ye can trust me, lass. May I see you tomorrow night?"
Her eyes met his with a searching glance. The lust he'd battled all evening returned at full force. He stuffed his fists into the pockets of his hoodie to keep from grabbing her. Lord Almighty, he wanted to kiss away her doubts.
His gaze dropped to her pink mouth. So soft and sweet. Everything was slowly becoming tinted with pink, which could only mean his eyes were turning red. A sure sign that he desperately wanted her. She licked her lips, and he closed his eyes, praying for control.
"All right," she whispered.
Thank God. He opened his eyes and found her gaze drifting over his body. She wanted him. He didn't need any empathic powers to feel the heat coming from her. He could hear her heart pounding. Maybe he could steal a kiss after all. He stepped toward her, lowering his gaze to her feet so his red glowing eyes wouldn't frighten her.
"I'll see you tomorrow." She turned and dashed into the house.
He took a deep breath to calm his raging lust. "Olivia," he whispered, simply because he liked hearing it. He liked the way it rolled off his tongue. She was so beautiful. Unique. Worth fighting for every step of the way.
His eyes slowly returned to normal, and he headed toward the stairs with a growing sense of triumph. She'd tried to reject him, but he'd persevered and emerged victorious. Fate was on his side after all.
By the time he reached the beach, Robby was grinning. He'd see her again. Flirt again. Laugh again.
Life was good. He'd found Olivia.
"I thought you'd never get up." Eleni Sotiris frowned when her granddaughter wandered into the kitchen shortly before eleven the next morning. "Are you still not sleeping well?"
"No, 'fraid not." Olivia yawned. She'd spent most of the night tossing and turning, replaying her meeting with Robby MacKay over and over in her mind. And after re-creating the scene faithfully a dozen times, she'd started fantasizing alternative endings. What if she'd let him kiss her?
She fixed a cup of hot tea while her grandmother sat at the table chopping an onion into tiny bits.
Eleni scraped the onions into a mixing bowl filled with ground meat. "Are you still worried about that bad man? You never told me about him."
"It's not him." That was one good thing about Robby MacKay. He'd completely taken her mind off Otis Crump. Olivia peered at the contents in the mixing bowl. "Is that hamburger?"
"A little beef, a little lamb. Some tabouli." Eleni peeled some cloves of garlic. "Don't you recognize the stuffing for dolmades?"
Olivia sat across from her grandmother and sipped some tea. She could lie, but her grandmother would know. "I guess not."
Eleni gave her a worried look. "You remember how to make dolmades, don't you?"