Saved By The Greek Doctor (Greek Gods #3) - Holly Rayner Page 0,47

life.

You can imagine my shock when I threw open the door and found… Nikos. Nikos, standing there and looking like this might be the most important door-knocking he’d ever done in his entire life.

Well, I thought, I’d gone from having zero men in my life to suddenly having two of them standing in the same place at the same time.

A couple days ago, I might have thought that this was insanely awkward and not at all something that I should be involved in, but now that I’d spent a week on Nikos’ island, getting my feet under me and remembering who I was without Bryan breathing down my neck. Now that Bryan was here again, bothering me, and I needed to find a way to get him to back off and get out…

I grinned at Nikos, putting aside my shock and thinking about how angry Bryan had to be, and loving every second of that.

Of course, it didn’t answer the question of what Nikos was doing—and how he’d found me. It also didn’t touch the thrill that had gone through me the moment I recognized him.

Because he’d found me.

“Nikos,” I said, realizing as I said it that my voice was coming out all breathless and soft, which made me sound like one of those empty-headed heroines I hated in movies. I worked hard to get more air into my voice and sound more self-contained, and continued. “What are you doing here?”

To his credit, he never even bothered to look around. He didn’t bother with the room or the man standing in it. He just stared into my eyes as he reached up and cupped one cheek, his other hand going down to grasp mine.

“I woke up and found you gone,” he said huskily. “And it felt like the entire world had gone sideways without you there to keep it in place. I didn’t even believe it at first. Couldn’t get my mind to wrap around it and make it real. But the moment I did… Well, I couldn’t exactly just let it happen, could I? So I called every one of my contacts in Athens, trying to find you. For such a big place, Athens is a remarkably small town. Someone always knows something.”

He gave me an almost bashful smile—an expression I had never seen on his face before—and then lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug.

“Turned out one of my old friends has a cousin who works at this exact hotel. She remembered an American girl the rough size and shape of a pixie, with blond hair and blue eyes. The second I heard that, I got into my boat and came for you. Drove far too fast. But at least I kept my eyes open the entire time.”

Well, that was possibly the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me. Absolutely, positively the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for me, and it wasn’t even a contest.

I worked hard to keep my bones from melting and lifted my chin.

“I had to go,” I said. “I realized that it was the wrong thing, for me to be there putting pressure on you. I found that room full of your little girl’s things and I just thought—”

He leaned forward and kissed me, his lips both asking permission and demanding that I allow him into my life, his breath pressing my mouth open for him, his lips promising the world, and I melted right into him, my arms reaching up around his neck and my mouth answering his question with a resounding “Yes, please, and thank you, and could I possibly have more?”

I smiled against his mouth, feeling for the first time in our entire acquaintance like we were actually on the same page… and that we actually knew what the other was thinking.

And then a hand came down on my shoulder and yanked me away from Nikos.

“What the—?” Bryan snapped. “Who’s this? And why are you kissing my girlfriend?”

At one point in my life, I might have stood back, unsure of how to handle that particular situation. Horrified at the implications and nervous about what the men would do to each other. I might have felt guilty, even ashamed, to have been caught kissing another man. I would most definitely have been babbling excuses and apologies for him having seen that, and hoping that I hadn’t hurt his feelings—even after he did what he did to me.

But that wasn’t me anymore. I’d been through the ringer and back, and