Saved By The Greek Doctor (Greek Gods #3) - Holly Rayner Page 0,44

didn’t regret feeding her their moussaka.

I didn’t even regret kissing her.

I closed my eyes again and let myself remember that kiss. The fire of it, the way I’d felt as though she was an electric filament touching a lightbulb in my heart that had been dormant for so long that I’d thought it had stopped working. I remembered the feeling of her lips against mine, the blood rushing right to my head—and to other places.

The intensity of her eyes when she told me that she wasn’t going to let me pull away from her again.

And then I remembered how I’d answered her, and how the rest of the night had been so quiet and awkward between us that we’d rushed right through dessert and made our way quickly to the boat—both of us, I thought, anxious to get back to the house. So we could go our separate ways and end the sudden wariness that had grown between us.

When we’d arrived back here, her replacement boat had been waiting, bobbing at the side of the pier like it belonged there, all sleek, bright innocence.

But it had meant that our little interlude was finally at an end. I’d known it then, and I’d known that there was nothing I could do about it. Or rather… I’d known that there was something I could do. And that I wasn’t going to do it.

Because that bright, shining star of a woman needed to go home to Texas. I’d realized that the moment she kissed me. She was too good for me, and already had dealt with enough heartache. I wasn’t going to burden her with my sad story.

I wasn’t going to draw her down into my shadows.

No matter how much I thought she might be able to lift me up out of them.

I climbed out of bed, pulled a T-shirt on over my pajama bottoms, and slid my feet into my slippers. Then, not bothering with a shower—not yet—I stumbled my way to the kitchen, hoping that Trish had already started a pot of coffee.

I wasn’t worried about her seeing me before I got showered or dressed. She’d seen me this way all week, and had never done anything more than laugh at the state of my hair in the morning. It had become a ritual between us, and the thought of it made me smile.

It had become comfortable. Familiar. Wonderful.

When I got to the kitchen, though, I found it cold and dark… and empty. The coffee machine wasn’t on. She hadn’t raided the bag of croissants that we’d left sitting on the counter.

I turned slowly, my eyes scanning the counter until they got to the sink.

There was no coffee mug sitting there. No mark of her having been in here this morning.

I was moving before I made a conscious decision to do it, heading as quickly as possible for the other side of the house—and the patio that sat there, looking down on the ocean. I threw open the sliding glass door to that patio and raced outside, telling myself firmly that I was imagining things. Maybe she’d just washed her mug and turned off the coffee pot.

Maybe she’d thought she’d better be quiet, since I was sleeping in.

Maybe she was down with the horses, doing her best to give me space after what happened last night.

But when I got to the edge of the pool deck and looked down at my little harbor, I realized with horror that my initial instinct had been correct.

Trish hadn’t washed her mug after she finished her coffee. She never washed her mug after she finished her coffee.

She hadn’t even bothered with coffee this morning. She’d probably been too intent on getting out of the house as quickly as possible—and without making any noise.

And I knew she was gone. Because the replacement sailboat was no longer bumping up against that pier. And I knew right then that when I went into the room she’d been using, I would find it empty.

Emptier now than it had been before she’d spent a week coloring it with her laughter and dreams.

Chapter 22

Trish

I docked the sailboat without any problems—as it turned out I did indeed remember how to sail like a responsible adult, eyes open and everything—and made my way quickly from the little harbor to the hotel, my mind trying to keep itself busy with a list of things I needed to do. Things I still wanted to see in Athens, and other places I wanted to visit during