Her Greek Doctor's Proposal (10 page)

“You never cared about the gossip before and you shouldn’t now.”

He glanced over at his daughter, talking animatedly to everyone at Laurel’s table. “I have Cassie to think about.”

“And I have Petros. We can flaunt our heathen ways together.”

“We’ve always been experts at that.” He had to grin. “How about we flaunt our newfound upstanding citizenship equally well?” The waiter brought their food, and Andros stood. “I’ll get the kids.”

He took one step and saw that Laurel was already headed their way, Cassie and Petros on either side of her, holding her hands.

“Lose something?” She smiled at Taryn before her eyes met his. Until he realized the moment went on a little too long and he quickly shifted his attention to Cassie.

“I did. My little fairy flitted away as soon as she saw you come in.”

“And my monster followed,” Taryn said.

“I asked Laurel if she’d come see our fairy house and tell us how we can get the fairies to move in.”

A flood of instant pleasure filled Andros at the thought of her coming to Kastorini, spending time with him that afternoon at his home, while at the same time knowing it wasn’t the best idea. “Miss Laurel probably has things she needs to do, Cassie.”

“It’s Sunday. Sunday is for playing,” Cassie said, that cute frown on her face again. He had to smile, reaching out to smooth her brow with his fingers.

“True. But Miss Laurel may already have plans for how she wants to play today.”

The second the words were out of his mouth, he knew exactly how he’d like to play with Laurel. His eyes met hers, and damned if his thoughts weren’t reflected right back at him.

“At the risk of Cassie scolding me, I do have work to do today, since we’re behind schedule,” Laurel said, breaking the heated eye contact that somehow happened between them again. She looked down at his daughter. “But I’d enjoy stopping by for a short time to see your house and give a fairy-attracting consultation. It’s the least I can do since your dad fixed up my hand for me.”

“Speaking of which, I want to look at it again,” Andros said.

“Thanks, but it’s healing nicely.”

“How did you get your boo-boo?” Cassie lifted up the hand she was holding, still wrapped in a bandage, and examined it with an interest that made Andros smile again. Who knew? Maybe his girl would become a doctor one day, carrying on the family tradition.

“I stabbed it with a potsherd. That’s a piece of pottery that’s broken, and we try to find all the pieces so we can put it back together again.”

“I’m glad my daddy fixed it for you. He’s a good fixer.”

“Yes, I’ve seen that he is.” She looked at him again, and the warm admiration in her eyes had him wondering what she saw in his own. “Your food’s going to get cold. You go ahead and eat and I’ll come down at, what, two o’clock?”

“Park at the clinic, and I’ll meet you there. We’ll walk around town some and I’ll fill you in on a little of its history on the way to our house.”

“I’ll be there.” She patted both children on their heads and walked back to her table, her rear end gorgeously round and sexy in that clingy skirt of hers as she moved across the room.

Pretty oblivious to his lunch as he chewed, he became aware of Cassie jabbing her knife into
the meat on her plate, and he quickly cut it for her as his sister softly laughed.

“What?” Though he damned well knew what. That it had been written all over his face, which he’d have to better control when Laurel came to town.

“Looking at her as someone connected to your patients?” Taryn’s eyes gleamed with amusement. “Right. More like dessert.”

“I want dessert, Mommy. Something really sweet,” Petros said.

“Like uncle, like nephew.” She chuckled, still looking at Andros with that sisterly smirk firmly in place. “Which means Kastorini’s female population has much to fear in another ten years, Petros. Or much to look forward to, depending on your point of view.”

* * *

Glad that Christina was on call for the clinic, Andros caught up on paperwork in his office. Not very efficiently, though, since he kept seeing Laurel’s beautiful face and shapely body in that dress of hers that made him want to skim his hands along its fluid lines. Feel her curves beneath it. Kept interrupting his work and thoughts to walk to the clinic’s big front window to see if she had arrived.

Since when did he act like a smitten schoolboy in the throes of his first crush? That first crush
was so long ago he could barely recall it, probably because it had been followed by plenty of others before he’d left for school in the US. Even more after he’d arrived there, where the world, and the number of women in it, got a whole lot bigger than his hometown of seven thousand people.

So why had Laurel gotten so thoroughly under his skin, making him feel so oddly restless and itchy? Could it be because he’d spent the past two years showing he was a reformed man? Somehow, he didn’t think so. There was some intangible thing about her that, for whatever reason, just called to him like some irresistible siren.

About to go back to his desk, or, more accurately, the desk he shared with his father, he spotted her dusty sedan on the road that rounded the steep curve beyond the bell tower.

And just like that, his chest felt light, his work and the mysterious virus forgotten, his restlessness replaced by focus. On her.

With a sudden pep in his step, he went outside, locking the clinic door behind him. The car nosed into one of the empty parking spaces, and the smile on Laurel’s face seemed as carefree as he knew his own was.

He leaned in through the car’s open window. “Are you Laurel Evans, fairy consultant?”

“I am.” Her beautiful smile made his own
widen. “And my fee for attracting fairies is very reasonable.”

“What is your fee?”

“I’m still deciding.”

The way she looked at him, her eyes a brilliant, sweet, hot blue, practically melted him where he stood, and he struggled against the urge to grab her up, sit in the driver’s seat and pull her onto his lap to help her decide real quickly about that fee. Show he was ready and willing to pay up however she wanted him to.

Attracting fairies? Hell, if she attracted them as easily as she attracted him, his house would be overrun with the little things. He leaned closer to her in the hot car, a breath’s distance away, her sweet, citrusy scent intensified by the heat of her body. “How long will it take to decide?”

“Hard to say, but I’ve learned to go with a gut feeling when I get one.”

The breath rushed from his lungs and his heart bumped around in some off-kilter rhythm at her words. He knew exactly what he wanted, and from the way she was looking at him, she just might want the same thing. And how was he supposed to resist kissing her to find out? The question flitted into his mind, then promptly right out as, unable to think anymore, he closed the gap between them and kissed her.

Her mouth opened to his, moving, tasting,
exploring in an excruciatingly slow dance that weakened his knees. Her kiss was sweet and hot and beyond irresistible. He cupped her cheek in his hand, stroking the fine bones there, the softness of her skin and wisps of hair adding another layer to the overwhelming sensual pleasure. He could feel her response, taste the small breathy gasps that touched his moist lips and sent him deepening the kiss until the loud, grumbling chug of a truck engine cut through his foggy brain.

He pulled his mouth from hers, barely aware of the truck disappearing with a cloud of black smoke puffing behind. Laurel’s eyes were half-closed, her lips parted, their panting breaths sounding nearly as loud in the car as the truck had.

A jabbing against his ribs made him realize his torso was just about completely inside her car. He inhaled to catch his breath and clear his mind, thunking his head on the door frame as he extricated himself. A brain shake was probably something he badly needed.

“Ooh.” She winced, scrunching up her face in that cute way she had. “That hurt?”

“No.” Not nearly as much as stopping kissing her had. Which proved again that the woman was a siren, attracting him with her song and smile
until he quit looking where he was headed, crashing on the rocks for all the world to see.

Hadn’t he promised himself not to give the town any new gossip material? While getting it on with Laurel was about all he could think of at that moment, in a few weeks she’d be gone. If Cassie had to hear yakking about what a playboy her father still was, asking questions he didn’t want to answer to a four-year-old, he’d hate himself for his weakness.

“Just leave your car here.” He turned away from the question in her eyes, opening the car door and grasping her elbow with the hope anyone watching would just see it as a cordial gesture. “I’ll be your Kastorini tour guide.”

“Are you as good a tour guide as you are a doctor?”

“Not sure. You’ll have to let me know if I’m good.”

The heat and humor that sparked in her eyes made him think of that mind-blowing kiss, shortening his breath all over again. He wondered why he’d said it that way. Must be his subconscious thinking about the crazy chemistry between them.

Strolling the streets with her next to him felt strangely natural and right. Just as he’d felt after they’d been at the hospital in Vlychosia, reaching to hold her hand seemed a lot more normal
than resisting it, which he managed only with extreme effort. The air around and between them held an odd tension, an intense awareness, that crackling spark he always felt around her. But at the same time he felt relaxed and comfortable as he told her about the various landmarks in town.

That relaxation diminished when he realized he could feel the curious stares fixed on them from houses they passed and from second-story windows of homes above the various shops. From the grinning men sitting at tables outside tavernas, drinking coffee or something stronger as they heatedly discussed whatever was the subject of the day, and enjoyed watching and talking about anyone who walked by while they were doing it.

He glanced at Laurel and could see she was aware of it too. “Living in a small town is a bit different from living in a big city. Didn’t think I’d come back here because of it.”

“But here you are.” She looked up at him, one blond eyebrow quirked. “So why did you? Aside from the obvious charm of the place?”

She thought it was charming to be stared at? Or was she able to look beyond that to see the generations of history and how it connected all of them in a strong bond of community you couldn’t find in a big city?

“Just decided it was time to come back. Take
my place as town doctor beside my father.” No need to tell her the whole story. How he’d never been sure he wanted that for a lot of reasons, including the embarrassment his parents felt from his actions, and his sister’s too. But the sudden situation with Cassie had shown him he needed it.

“Your father is a doctor too? Why haven’t I met him?”

“He and my mother have taken advantage of me being back. They’re traveling around Great Britain at the moment. Were supposed to come back this week, but decided Ireland had to be added on to the itinerary.”

“How long have you been back?”

“Two years. They’ve been to the States and Canada, on various European tours, and to Iceland since then, believe it or not.”

“My parents also loved traveling,” she said softly, her eyes instantly wistful and sad, as they had been last time she’d spoken of them. “Most of it for digs without us, but we did have a few great trips to national parks and Washington, DC, and other places they deemed too important for their girls to miss.”

“Glad you have those memories with them.” Now that he had Cassie, he couldn’t imagine leaving her all summer every year, and wondered why Laurel’s parents hadn’t found a way to take
their daughters with them. He let his arm slide around her shoulders to give her a brief, gentle hug. If he couldn’t comfort someone in need, then to hell with those watching who might want to make something of it.

“I can see you give Cassie a lot of your time,” she said, looking up at him with eyes that weren’t quite so sad now. “That you’re a good dad.”

“I try to be.” Wanted to be. And her words were a reminder, again, of why he shouldn’t pursue the short but doubtless incredibly sweet time he knew he and Laurel could spend together before she left. “Thanks. Not sure that’s always true, but I’m working on it.” Working on it damned hard, if resisting the urge to touch her and kiss her counted. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “So here’s the edge of town. The stone walls were built all the way down to the beach, complete with small angled cannon openings in the walls to defend against whoever wasn’t in possession of the town and fortress at that moment.”

“Is that a mosque? It doesn’t look like a Greek church.”

“It was. Built during Turkish rule. Later used as a schoolhouse, then a taverna, and now it’s owned by someone who lives in Athens and comes to stay here occasionally.”

He drew her to the outer wall to look down,
where its smooth stones ended at the beach far below and swimmers lounged on large, flat rocks tossed among the boulders and slapped by gentle waves. Farther down, colorful fishing boats bobbed at the long wooden dock. “Kastorini never had the same height advantage a lot of walled cities had during the Ottoman Empire, built way up at the top of a mountain, but we had other things going for us. Back in the day, citizens could see any approaching ships from far away on the gulf, and the mountain behind is so steep and prone to rock falls that it was pretty hard for invaders to sneak up on us.”

“So your ancestors were likely a mix of Ottomans and Venetians, with a little Byzantine and Turkish spice thrown in with salt and pepper. You’re like a finely flavored Greek stew.”

“That’s very poetic. Greek mutt’s probably more accurate.”

Her soft laughter, the sparkle in her eyes, filled him with pleasure, and, while he didn’t wrap his arm around her again as he wanted to, he moved closer until their shoulders touched.

“This place is just beautiful,” she said, gazing around at the curving, narrow streets, the old homes, the arches covered with masses of vivid flowers, her expression warm and admiring. She shifted her attention to the gulf waters
and the misty mountains beyond. “It’s no wonder you wanted to come back.”