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She breathed a laugh against his chest. “Men usually say that before storming out of a date or dumping me,” she said.

He squeezed her. “I don't believe either of those things have ever happened.” He held her away from him before she could reply, because he really didn't want to get into the previous boyfriend territory. That way madness lay. “Anyway, shower time.” He spun her and slapped her lightly on the ass.

She jumped toward the bathroom and looked back, raising an eyebrow at him as she disappeared into the shower.

He wished he'd gone to see her last year. Maybe he could have gotten her out of his system back then? He shook his head. No way. Out of everyone in the whole word, Molly would be the one who'd have totally messed with his system and broken him for anyone else.

Except he was already broken. Broken and not easily fixed.

S
he was already clean by the time he joined her in the shower. He opened the glass door and stepped inside.

“How dirty are you?” he asked picking up the soap and lathering it.

“Very, very dirty,” she said, straight-faced.

“You certainly look it.” He stroked his soapy hands around her neck, massaged her shoulders a little, and then very thoroughly washed her breasts. God, she was in heaven with him. He was just so responsive to her physically. Her previous boyfriends had been academics. And she'd thought she liked that. Men who appreciated her for her mind and her experience, and recently, she assumed, because she'd been temporarily famous. But David. He responded to her on such a fundamental level, almost at a cellular level. And she reveled in his intensity, both physical and mental.

Mostly physical at that moment though. Her breasts were super clean, and she stood with her eyes closed, just allowing the sensation of his hands to dominate the space around her. She was completely sated by her time with him, but Jesus…he slipped his hand between her legs, stroking with the lather, every inch.

She wriggled away with a laugh. “I need a rest. Wine. Coffee at the very least.” She needed time to think about what she'd done. Of course, she'd wanted this all along. Of course she had, for virtually a whole year. But in her fantasies, he'd been complete. Confident and easy. But anyone with half a cell of perception could see that he was confident, but difficult to read, and maybe even broken. She could see uncertainty in his eyes when he looked at her. She was worried. There, she'd admitted it. She didn't want to get emotionally attached to him if he would just run away again. She had to keep her feelings in check. Sex, not emotion.

He turned off the water and handed her a towel from a rack. She grabbed it and wrapped herself up in it again, flashing back to when she took the decision to drop it on the floor. Now she wondered if she'd done the right thing.

She changed into a sundress, still crumpled from her luggage. The heat and humidity would ease out the wrinkles in no time at all.

David came out of the shower and got straight on the phone after kissing her bare shoulder. “Hey Mal, have you checked out yet? Good, we're coming down.”

He put his phone down and pulled on his clothes from earlier. “Mal's leaving, and if we go now, we can stay in his room until we're ready to go. No one here knows that we were here together, so if anyone comes looking for you or me, they won't find us.”

A finger of fear poked her stomach as she suddenly remembered her predicament. She nodded and looked around the room anxiously. “We should probably go now, shouldn't we?” Suddenly being where the Russian agent had threatened them with a gun sent chills down her spine.

“I'm ready if you are,” he said evenly. “We're going down to the fourth floor via my room.” He held his arm out and she slid under it. He squeezed her once, and tension seeped out of her like water from a sponge. She was protected. Safe.

They arrived at Mal's room as he was leaving. He was a big man with features to match. At around six and a half feet, he towered over Molly and was just a little taller than David. Dark stubble speckled his face, and only his clear blue eyes showed any expression. He bumped fists with David and handed him a key.

“Be careful of him,” he said to Molly. “We've only just put him back together.”

“Fuck off,” David said evenly.

“Love you too, mate,” he replied cracking a smile. “Don't die. I don't want to arse around training someone else.” Mal picked up his bag and headed down the corridor.

“What training?” David said loudly, grinning at his retreating back.

Mal just raised a hand without turning around and disappeared around the corner.

Clearly he hadn't planned on waiting for them. Molly was glad they'd gotten there in time to get his key card.

“Hi guys!” a chirpy voice came from the other end of the corridor. It was Victoria.

“Hi! What have you been doing?” Molly asked, as she leaned into the rather exuberant hug that Victoria offered.

“Obviously nothing as fun as you,” she said with a sly smile. She held her hand out to David. “Victoria Ruskin, WAMP. The voice of the tri-cities.”

“Nice to meet you, Victoria. I'm David,” he said, wondering which tri-cities she was talking about.

“Do you two fancy having lunch? I found a great place away from the madness here. I've heard some crazy gossip about what went down last night.”

Molly glanced at David, who looked interested. “Sure, that would be great. Can we meet you there? We have a little unpacking to do first.”

“Awesome. It's on the corner of Sina and Skoufa behind the hotel a few blocks. Great souvlaki, fabulous mimosas. Say in an hour?”

“Sure, see you there!” Molly said.

They opened Mal's door and marveled for a moment at the array of empty bottles he'd left in there. Kristal champagne, which Molly remembered was being served at the cocktail party, and a variety of beers.

“It's amazing he can function,” David said, shaking his head. “He didn't tell anyone he was checking out early, so let's just put our bags in the closet and call for housekeeping.”

Molly didn't say anything, just wondered if Mal was in the same place as David had been. As if he'd read her mind he said, “I know it looks like he has a problem, but he doesn't. He's just English. Mostly everyone I've met from there can drink like it's a national skill-set.”

At Molly's silence, David turned. He noticed her dress for the first time. Really noticed it. Her sundress was a pale yellow with thin straps, and, God help him, with the light of the window behind her, it was almost transparent. Her hair, almost the same color as her dress, was still damp and curled around her face. She was mesmerizing.

She smiled. “We have an hour. Do you actually want to unpack, or get out of the hotel?”

“What do you suggest?” He really wanted to stay in the room with her and demand she remove her dress so he could see her naked again. He was fairly sure that she had only the tiniest panties and no other underwear on. He swore he could virtually see her nipples through the dress. If he looked really hard. Really hard.

Jesus, man. Get a fucking grip.

“There is the Temple of Olympian Zeus just around the corner. We could take a walk there. It was the largest temple in Athens when they built it.”

“Sure. Sounds like a plan.”

As they made their way out of the hotel, David couldn't figure out if people were staring at them because Molly was a total knockout, or because they'd already been fingered as suspects. Whichever it was, it was making him feel uncomfortable. He didn't like people noticing him.

They walked toward the temple, David wanting to poke the eyes out of any man who looked at her. This was not a natural reaction, he was sure. He needed to bring things back on track.

“What do you know about this Doubrov guy?” he asked. “Was he into anything he shouldn't have been?”

Molly was silent for a beat too long. “Not that I know of. I really didn't know him that well at all. We were on the same archaeological conference circuit, but I really only knew him from attending his lectures, and the meet and greets afterward. He'd just passed a message through my boss that he was looking forward to seeing me again.”

“What exactly did you say to him when you met him at the party? In fact, why were you at the party with jeans and sneakers on?”

“The airline lost my bag with my cocktail dress in it,” she said as she pointed across the road to the tops of the temple pillars.

He noticed that she hadn't answered his first question and a cloud of concern—or was it suspicion?—bloomed in his stomach. He took her hand to cross the road, wanting to make sure she couldn't run. And suddenly he wondered why he thought she would. Instinct? He hadn't been able to rely on his instinct for a few years. He wasn't sure he could now. “And you couldn't have waited for the cocktail party the next evening, or the evening after that?”

“Well, I had my speech tomorrow, and I was supposed to have a few days to relax afterward, maybe visit an old dig or two, but I guess that's out of the question now, right?” She pulled some tickets out of her purse and handed them to a woman in the box, who gave her two brochures with color photos of the temple.

The temple loomed in front of them, huge white columns against a dark blue sky. It was a beautiful ruin, he had to admit. But it didn't diminish the feeling that he was missing something key. Something he should have remembered. It chilled him that he wasn't on top of his game, and he wondered if it was Molly fucking him up, or his own special demons doing the job.

As they walked around the site, he thought for the first time since he'd hit Athens about his EOD brother Danny, who had died in an explosion when he'd playfully kicked a soccer ball, on patrol in Afghanistan. A ball that had been filled with explosives. It had been nearly a decade ago, but as his therapist pointed out over and over, seeing the explosion, feeling the blast, smelling the burned flesh was
not
normal. Remembering it was normal. Being horrified by that memory was normal. His life however, was not normal, and at this stage he didn't even know what normal looked like.

She sat on a bench facing the ruins. “I like to imagine the people who lived here, who worshipped here.”

He sat beside her and put his arm around her like they were teenagers on a park bench. Embarrassed he drew it back again, but she grabbed his hand and snuggled in his shoulder, despite the heat of the day. She fit there.

He took a breath, and then another. He wanted to just enjoy this today, because tonight they would both be gone and this would be a memory. Even if she wouldn't tell him exactly what was going on, after today he didn't really need to know her secrets. And would probably be better off not knowing them.

A man in a suit entered the site. He didn't stop at the ticket booth, he just showed the lady something. David stood up. “Is there another way out of here?”

“Only over there.” She pointed to the other side of the temple, close to the way they'd come in.

David made a fairly simple deduction. The man was in a suit, so he wasn't a tourist. He didn't buy a ticket, so he probably flashed a badge or some kind of ID at the ticket woman. And, he and Molly were virtually the only people there.

“Molly, listen to me. I think that man is either with the police, or something worse. I'm going to distract him while you get to the exit. Go meet Victoria for lunch and I'll meet you there, you remember where she said?”

“Sure. Sina and Skoufa.” Molly gathered her purse and looked anxiously at the exit.

“Great. Order me a doner kebab will you? I'll be right behind you.” He caught her hand as she made to move and kissed it, trying to alleviate the concern etched on her face. The same concern that he felt.

She gave him a quick smile and headed in the opposite direction around the temple.

He coughed loudly to make the man look at him. It worked. Their eyes met and the other man's step faltered a little. Excellent.

“Hi there,” he said lifting his hand and flashing a wide, wide smile. “How ya doin'?”

The man slowed right down and looked behind him in confusion. By the time he looked back, David was right on top of him. He stopped walking.

“Whatcha doin' here? Looking at the temple? It's quite somethin' isn't it?” He played a Deep South accent, cowboy-type. The type people expect to find in an American abroad.

The man up close was clearly out of place, pale, thinning hair, badly fitting suit. There was not much he could do to cover what he was doing. He was a dud in a suit at a tourist site. He knew he was busted.

“Who are you here for? Me, or the family over there?”

“Excuse me,” he replied in accented English as he tried to brush past David.

David just turned and walked with him. “Did your buddy tell you that I videoed him interrogating an American citizen without allowing her any legal recourse? That was so cool. Look, I can show you the footage. It was awesome. He took out his gun and everything. Just like an old school KGB officer. You know, Cold War days.”

The man stopped and looked closer at David, and then at the phone he was holding up. He shrugged. “You know it's not so much cold war anymore. These days it's an arctic freeze. And you don't want to be in the middle of that. The exposure could kill you.”

David couldn't believe his ears. “You're in Greece, buddy. That's in the European Union. Ally of the USA. You're not going to be able to ride roughshod over the authorities here.”

“And you, ‘buddy' should read a newspaper every so often. Greece is considering breaking with the EU and looking to its old World War II ally, Russia, for a bailout. And when we seal the deal with the new government”—he lowered his voice into a whisper—“we'll have Russian military bases in a NATO country. Oh the fun we will have with you then.”

Jesus, he really did need to read a newspaper. He knew things were up in the air with the Greek government and the EU, but not
that
far up in the air. “You're talking EU politics here, and we're American. If you make a move on her—for any convoluted reason—I will ensure you will pay. You personally.” He dipped his head. “Okay, maybe also your friend.”

The man sighed and shook his head wearily. “I don't care. I've been doing this for nearly thirty years. I do what I'm told when I'm told to do it. I don't make waves, and I'm not about to start now. But let me tell you this. There are things in play here that even I don't know. High level. I've been told that you are waging a war against my country.” He shrugged. “That means we're following you, and following the girl. Beyond that I don't know.”