Saved By The Greek Doctor (Greek Gods #3) - Holly Rayner Page 0,25

and narrowed my eyes a bit. That looked like it would take more than floating.

In fact, it looked like it would take some very strong swimming. To stay off the rocks, and to keep from getting swept out to the ocean.

Still. I’d been playing in the ocean since I could walk, more or less, and I’d never been scared of it before. I was a strong swimmer. Yeah, I liked being on a boat more—there was a better view from up there—but I didn’t see any reason to suddenly get nervous about whether I could handle something or not. I straightened my shoulders, tilted my head a bit, and smiled up at him.

“Sounds doable,” I replied. “Let’s go.”

Chapter 13

Trish

The walk down to the beach was easier than I had anticipated, given how high up off the coast the house actually was. I’d thought we might take the golf cart or maybe even a car to get down the several hundred feet to where the water lapped against the shore. Instead, we went from the pool deck down an enormous set of rough wooden stairs that doubled back and forth down the cliff, a single rail on the side guiding us down—and keeping anyone, I thought, from actually tumbling down the cliffs we were descending.

I mean, theoretically. If you were really intent on tumbling, that rail wasn’t going to stop you. and it wasn’t all that secure. Which was why I walked on the other side, up against the cliff’s face.

I was completely willing to try new things, and I wasn’t generally scared of much. But I did not like heights. And the idea of tumbling down the cliff we were currently descending was… not appealing.

I had to admit that I was wondering whether there would be an easier way to come back up, when we’d surely be tired from having been in the ocean, but I didn’t bring it up. Honestly, my mind was mostly on the coming adventure—and that was mostly because Nikos’ excitement was so evident that it was practically bleeding out into the air around us. Whenever he turned back to tell me something or give me a piece of advice about snorkeling, his face was lit up with a joy that I didn’t often see on the faces of grown men.

Though maybe, I realized, that was because I wasn’t hanging out with the right sort of grown men. Maybe it was because I was hanging out with men who were so jaded and disillusioned with life that they didn’t know how to feel that sort of joy anymore.

Which was a completely ridiculous and overly dramatic thought, I told myself one moment later. I didn’t hang out with jaded or disillusioned people! My friends were all unjaded and totally still… illusioned! And I didn’t know Nikos well enough to know that he wasn’t jaded or disillusioned.

There was absolutely no denying his excitement about the prospect of the swim, though, and by the time we got to the bottom of the stairs, I could feel my heart racing with the same excitement. I didn’t know what we’d find out there, but if he was this worked up about it… it felt like it had to be great.

There was also, I’ll admit, the not-imperceptible satisfaction of seeing him getting so excited about something we were doing together. It was a… well, ‘satisfaction’ was the only word I could think of… about him being that overjoyed to do anything with little old me.

Right, okay, you’re right. It sounds stupid when I say it that way. But that doesn’t make it any less true. And it definitely doesn’t make me feel guilty for having felt that way.

At the bottom of the stairs, we found a boathouse that contained a wealth of equipment. I saw snorkeling and scuba gear—lots of masks and tanks—as well as wetsuits and fins and an entire wall of paddle boards. There was also a jet ski tied up to the side of the thing, in the small amount of water the house contained, and a pair of four-wheeled vehicles.

“You keep more vehicles down here?” I asked, surprised. “What for?”

He turned to me, eyes wide with innocence. “So we don’t have to climb those stairs again after we’ve been out swimming. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” I replied with a grin, and a small sigh of relief. Nikos was nothing if not thoughtful and prepared.

He walked toward the masks and other gear and went through a quick selection process that seemed to