Mr. Blue Eyes: Wild Night Dreaming 1 (2 page)

But as soon as he saw and recognized Thera’s
friend, it was like he fell from the edge of the cliff to a fast
flowing river, and it just got him carried away.

Pull yourself together, Mate
, he
scolded himself, but his still eyes followed the hypnotic sway of
Carla’s hips with a mind of their own. He closed his eyes for a
moment, and what he immediately saw were her green exotic eyes,
watching his face as she laid on the pillow, her raven black hair
scattered on the soft, silky cloth.

He immediately opened his eyes. Oh, those
green eyes were trouble. Those got him hooked in the first
place.

Oh damn…

H
ow to fit four
suitcases in a small Opel’s trunk was a tricky issue and helped to
occupy Carla’s mind. They finally managed to stick the two bigger
ones together in the trunk and the two smaller ones on the back
seat along with Jake. Thera sat on the front seat with Carla, and
they drove home, taking the narrow by-the-shore road.

Jake sat on the left side right of the back
sit, directly behind Carla, and every time she looked in the mirror
her eyes would meet his. Why were those eyes focused on her? They
were, each and every time, and he was watching before she looked.
Like he was just waiting for her to look and… there.

Is he doing this on purpose
, she
wondered. What was he exactly remembering about their short
encounter?
Oh damn
, she groaned inwardly as she remembered
what
she
had started remembering eversince she laid her eyes
on him in the airport.

“Oh… my country… I’ve missed you so much!
Look Jake, look at all this beauty! Smell the sea, feel the breeze
caressing your skin. Australia is wonderful but… there’s no place
like home!”

On the right side of the road, green was the
dominant color that relaxes the eyes. Hills full of grown trees and
wild bushes succeeded fields with crops, while a house or a farm
would pop out occasionally. On the left side laid the sea, calm as
the day was generally windless, with the surface of the blue water
sparkling like diamonds from the rejuvenating sun’s rays. The
beaches already accommodated some swimmers who loved early dives.
It was very hot but Carla didn't turn the air-conditioning on
because Thera wanted open windows.

Again, Jake’s and her eyes met on the
rearview mirror. Her eyes were accusing. His smiled, but managed to
also look guilty.

“It’s really beautiful,” Jake agreed and
finally took his eyes off Carla and turned them towards the window,
to the view. But not for long. In a moment, his eyes returned to
the mirror.

“Have you been to Greece before, Jake?” she
finally asked. Maybe some light conversation would dispel the
feeling of awkwardness that gratefully, Thera didn’t seem to
notice.

Why would she? She would remember a Carla who
didn’t talk very much when people she didn’t know much were around.
She would remember a Carla shy with new acquaintances. Though she
could hide this from others successfully, Thera had known her too
much to know the signs. Why would she think that the awkwardness
this time was not because she hadn’t known Jake before now, but
because she had known him too much!

“Yes, a few years back, but not here. I was
on an island, called… Mykonos?”

Of course, where else would you go when
you were paid to go there,
she bitterly thought.

“On vacation or business?” Her voice sounded
ironic, but before he could answer, Thera did.

“Oh, but honey, Jake’s work is mainly through
the net. Why would he travel all the way to Mykonos? It was
obviously a vacation trip!”

She blinked. Carla was now one hundred
percent sure that Thera had no idea about Jake’s past job
description. Her lips thinned as again, she looked at the rearview
mirror, and at him, accusingly.
You bloody scoundrel
, her
eyes accused him.
The position you’ve put me in
…

“Actually, it was little of both. I had to
meet an important client there,” answered Jake, and answered her
glare with a provocative look in the mirror, his lips slightly
twitching.

“Oh, really? Locals?”

“A local,” he corrected. “I have to say, my
transactions with her were… extremely satisfactory.”

This man had got a hell of a nerve, baiting
her the way he was doing. She tried to swallow her anger as she
seethed, and took her eyes away from the mirror.

Thank god that my skin is dark and I don’t
blush too obviously
, she thought as she heard him laugh low.
The sound was sensual, giving her a shiver that started below her
belly and spread throughout her body. She stepped hard on the
accelerator, furious with herself. She shouldn’t let him get to her
this way. She shouldn’t.

Soon, they arrived at the house. The car
entered two wide open iron gates and drove through the paved
driveway that led to the closed garage in the left of the main
building. Thera became a little freaked-out by the way Carla drove,
which
she
had noticed.

“Wow… I didn’t know that my friend has become
a female Schumacher!” she teased as Carla turned the engine off
right outside the garage.

She grinned at her. “My little car may be
old, but it’s a rocket!” she answered proudly before she got out of
the car.

The truth was speed was her passion. She
found that out after Thera had gone. It was a passion that even her
parents’ car crash hadn’t banished. Speed on a car gave her the
feeling of freedom from all of her cares. It relaxed her and got
her ready for stressful work. It was also a good thing that there
were many stretches of roads here in the island that were free of
traffic and heavy cars. She could indulge anytime she wanted.

She now stood with Thera beside the car, and
her friend was looking up at the house with wonder.

“
E
xactly as I
remember it!” she said, like she was at the same time sinking
herself into happy memories.

“Well, we kind of like it the way it is so we
decided not to tear it down to build another,” Carla teased.

The house was standing on the top of a small
hill, with the side facing the ocean descending on a beach. The
house was big, built with colorful stone and red roof tiles, with
wide-windowed rooms at different levels all the way down the hill.
On the front facing the roads, the grounds and the upper floor were
visible with the garage and the long circular driveway. The ground
in front of the house is covered by green grass, with a big
umbrella in a corner, by the edge of the flower garden. Under the
umbrella were a table with glass cover and bamboo legs, and its
four matching chairs.

The estate was surrounded by a wall about two
meters high, interrupted by the iron gates for vehicles and another
smaller one on the side for pedestrians.

Carla sensed Jake stopping very near her, and
she immediately tensed. Never had she imagined, even in her wildest
dreams of him, that she would witness him here, in her house,
ever.

“You have a wonderful home, Carla,” he said
with sincere voice.

“Thank you, Jake,” she replied. “This house
was my father’s baby.”

“I’m very sorry for your parents. Thera told
me they died in an accident?”

Her eyes suddenly got teary and for a moment,
she couldn’t help but look up at him wildly as she stepped near
Thera. She certainly did not want him to be there right then! “Yes,
t-two years ago.”

He touched her arm tenderly, almost
involuntarily, and she froze. For a second, she drowned in the look
on his eyes. For a second, time stopped and nothing seemed to move.
They were alone in the world, even as she heard Thera saying
something on the other side of her.

It was another voice that woke her up from
her preoccupation.

“You’re here at last, little lady! We were
worried!”

The deep voice talking in Greek made all
three of them jump. She snapped out of her dream state with a
frown, and studiously avoided looking at Jake now that others were
with them and would surely noticed something.

The old man approached, looking a bit grim as
he held Thera’s shoulders to look her over. Then he smiled and bent
down to kiss the hair of her laughing friend.

Carla couldn’t help but smile. “The flight
was delayed, Mr. Gerou,” she said in Greek. Mr. Gerou was on his
sixties, still well-built and strong. If it wasn’t for the white
hair and moustache, he would have appeared much younger.

Then another, female, person rushed from the
house and immediately engulfed Thera in a tight embrace.

“Oh, Thera! Thera!” the old woman was
exclaiming, then greeted the young woman profusely in Greek.

“Mr. Gerou is my caretaker-gardener and
personal bodyguard,” she explained to Jake in English while they
waited for the greetings to die down. “He is married to Mrs.
Georgia, who takes care of the house and cooks. The house is big I
have other people coming by to help them during the week, but these
two live with me in a separate apartment at the back of the house,
in a lower level. You’ll see when I give you a tour. They’ve been
working for my family for thirty years and they are already on
pension. But they still wanted to live here with me.”

“That is understandable. They wouldn’t want
to leave you alone. Unless… you’re married or living with
someone?”

She blinked at his perceptiveness. Not of her
status but of why the old couple would not leave her. “I’m sure
Thera has already mentioned I’m not married.”

“Living with someone then.”

This time, she looked at him. How dare he
make assumptions? “I keep my wayward ways out of my personal life
here,” she said. “I do not want the old couple scandalized. They
are like parents to me. I don’t want them disillusioned, okay?”

There. That should put him to his place.

“They don’t speak English at all,” she said
when she was facing the other three again. “So if you need
something, I or Thera can translate. You can try signing, sometimes
that works. But if Thera or I are around, better to let us
translate for you, to avoid misunderstandings.”

She heard that low, sensual laughter. She
just managed to avoid a shiver. “I’m good with signs. Maybe we can
turn it to a game. Much enjoyable,” he said before stepping forward
and initiating himself into the group with hand signs. Which,
indeed, made the introductions much more interesting. And yes,
enjoyable, she hated to admit as the others laughed at Jake’s
antics with his hands.

After that, they entered the house, helping
each other with the luggage.

* * *

IT was 6 PM and Carla laid on the comfortable
couch in balcony of the ground floor’s sitting room, watching the
beach and the sea below. This was her favorite part in the house,
and she would be found here when she wanted to relax. Her father
had chosen a perfect place to build this house.

Her father was an architect, and she was
right when she told Jake that this house was his baby. He had built
it as he had dreamt it. It was his idea that the ground floor rooms
should not be separated by walls and doors, but rather be built on
different levels connected with steps. A lot of steps, from the
main hall to the living room with comfortable couches, the fire
place on the left wall, the huge plasma TV right beside it, and the
right wall made of glass showing the back side of the house and the
sea. There was a glass door there, too, that led out to the balcony
much like this one where she was at.

On the same level with the living room but at
the left side of the building was the library that accommodated
floor-to-ceiling shelves full of books. Books literally covered the
walls, the big wooden desk with Carla’s computer, and the twin
elegant black leather sofas with a small coffee table between
them.

At the immediate upper level from the living
room was the kitchen, with wooden cupboards and the fitted
appliances on patina. Left from the kitchen, separated with a huge
fish tank, was the dining room. There was a long dining table there
that could easily sit a dozen people, even when there were only
three of them in the family. They always had guests when her
parents were still alive. Thera and her parents were often here –
if she and her parents weren’t at theirs.

The dining room of the house was one of the
parts of it that carried many happy memories, she thought with a
smile.

C
arla stopped with
the memories at that. It was still painful sometimes, to remember
her parents when they were most alive – with their loved ones and
their friends. The people who had adopted her were very opposite
her shy personality, but had managed to at least impart in her some
of their vivaciousness and their love of friendship as she grew up.
She didn’t have as many friends as they, but they were all genuine,
with Thera as the longest. Distance and the ocean weren’t able to
keep them apart.

She took a sip of coffee and returned her
eyes to the soothing sight. She had needed to relax since Thera
came back with her scoundrel of a boyfriend. She was alone. Mrs.
Georgia and her husband have already retired at their apartment
like they did every day while Thera and Jake were relaxing in their
rooms. They, of course, had to have separate rooms, as they were
here on Greece, in respect to the elderly in the house. She didn’t
know the arrangements when they visit other places, but as she led
them to their rooms which were in the same level of the house, at
least, there was no question about this.

She enjoyed the silence.

But a couple of minutes later, Thera came
down the stairs and sat with her on the couch, holding a cup of
coffee.

“It’s so good to be here again!” she smiled,
looking relaxed and well-rested.