by Sotia Lazu
Chapter One
Coastal Athens was the last place Elina would expect to see a cowboy.
Well, maybe the open sea would be less fitting, but coastal Athens was a close second.
A shirtless cowboy walking along the highway at seven in the morning made her mentally go over her breakfast for possible hallucinogens. But she’d only had her morning cereal, and a tall, broad-shouldered man in jeans, boots, and a cowboy hat was walking her way.
Elina blinked at the approaching figure and set her car into first gear. As soon as the road ahead cleared, she was out of here. She hoped that would be before the tan blond reached her Volkswagen sedan. She was in no mood for chit chat and didn’t believe in indulging beggars.
Weird, though. She’d never before seen beggars around these parts.
The light turned green, and in true Greek fashion, Elina leaned on her horn. The blaring didn’t dissuade the driver of the truck in front of her from making a U-turn on the highway.
The cowboy reached her, removed his hat, and easily slid half his upper body inside her open window. Damned air conditioning system had chosen the hottest day in July to die on her. Now the cowboy’s scent covered that of her car air freshener, and boy, was it a yummy smell… Like baby powder over something spicy. Cinnamon and clover?
Elina kept her gaze on the blinker of the white truck, as if she hadn’t noticed the naked muscular shoulder wedged inside her car.
“Excuse me, darling. Do you speak English?”
He had a Texas accent, if TV shows had that right. Elina almost laughed. This was the weirdest Thursday morning she’d ever experienced. Reluctantly, she half-turned his way, keeping an eye on the traffic light. It was red again. Great.
“I do,” she said. “But I have no change. Sorry.”
“I don’t need money.” One of his hands disappeared beneath Elina’s line of sight, and she freaked out for the split second it took to reappear, fisted around a bunch of fifty-euro notes. “I sort of got stranded here and need a ride. Anywhere near the center of Athens would be great.”
“I’m sorry. I have to go to work.”
He reached for her hand on the gear shift. “Please,” he said. “I’ll pay you. I’ve been walking for an hour now.”
“I can’t pick up a random hitchhiker. Maybe I could call you a cab?” Her Gucci purse was on her lap, and she fumbled in it blindly for her cell phone.
“By the time one gets here, I’ll have died of thirst,” he said with a chuckle.
The sound made her think of a water spring in the dessert. What an odd association. “I—”
“I promise I’m a good guy. I won’t lay a finger on you, unless you ask nicely.”The hint of mirth in his delivery saved his joke from sounding crass.
Elina raised her gaze to his face for the first time, and was shocked speechless. He was gorgeous. His big brown eyes, so light they looked almost amber, were fringed with long, thick lashes, and his lips were wide and sensual. His slightly crooked nose elevated his boyish good looks to something more primitive and masculine. And his smile… If Elina saw it before she said she was busy, she’d promise to drive him any place he wanted.
As things stood, she said, “I’m only going as far as Voula, but there must be a bus you can catch there.”
“Perfect.” He pulled her door open—why hadn’t she thought to lock?—and folded his six-foot-something frame in her passenger seat. “You’re a life saver. I’m Bill, but my friends call me Bull.” He extended a large hand with long, thick fingers. The inside of his palm was paler than the rest of him, but still darker than Elina’s skin.
She needed to spend some time at the beach.
“Elina.” The way his hand, warm and callused, swallowed hers felt too intimate. She let out a sigh of relief when the road opened up. “I’m late,” she said. “Have to be at work in twenty minutes, and it’s about half an hour’s drive.” She should have known better than to give in to that sleepover her sister insisted on last night. Marianna didn’t have an early morning; she worked for their father’s exports company and had taken two weeks off for her wedding. She could afford staying up late drinking and talking about her future plans. For Elina’s future plans to pan out, she had to focus on her career.
“And what exactly is work?” Bull asked.
She grimaced. “I’m in advertising. Customer account manager.” She always grimaced when she said it. Like she apologized for being a cog in the consumerism machine.
“Sounds interesting.”
She side-eyed him.
“Okay, not really. But what am I supposed to say?” His velvety, throaty laugh awoke things inside Elina that had remained dormant since college.
No. Bad parts. She should be focusing on the BENE account. Three hours left till the presentation that was to propel her to the Vice President position, and she was more than ready to land the fucker. She shouldn’t be thinking of how comfortable Bull looked in her passenger seat, or how hot she felt in her pencil skirt and sleeveless shirt.
“It’s a job,” she said. “A career. I’m good at it.” Was she apologetic again? She needed to cut that out. Marianna never sounded this timid. Timid women made no history, and Elina wanted to make history. She longed to cash in on all the sacrifices she made through the years in order to always come first.
“I suck at promoting anything, myself included. I was on that road for twenty five minutes, and nobody would even speak to me.”
“You said it was an hour.” She arched a brow his way.
His grin was the perfect mixture of innocence and wickedness. He ducked and curls the color of straw fell in his eyes. “Sunstroke had me confused.”
She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from returning the expression, and faced the road again. “I don’t appreciate being lied to. I should let you off here.”
“I promise to only tell you the truth from now on.” That shouldn’t be too hard when now on would only be a few more minutes.
She didn’t voice her thought. Instead, she let her gaze drift to the sea. Much better view than the packed cars in front of her. Much safer than the shirtless hunk beside her.
“This place is beautiful,” Bull said.
Elina shrugged. She grew up in Athens, but this was where she’d spent all her childhood summers. On this beach. Under this sky. There were more hotels now, more traffic, more tourists, but the place was the same, familiar and comforting, but not much more.
“No, really. Beautiful. To be this close to the sea… And there’s something about the air. The people. Makes me feel free.”
Might explain his state of undress. “Where are you from?” Elina asked.
“The States.”
She stopped at yet another light and faced him. “Well, duh.”
He laughed. It suited him, and the fine lines around his eyes indicated that he did it a lot. “Texas.” He drawled the word, and her spine tingled. “A friend hooked me up with a summer job, and I jumped at the opportunity to visit Greece.”
Last night Marianna ranted and raved about the significance of casual sex. Elina didn’t see the point in spreading her legs for a man she felt no connection to, and she had no time to forge such connections, so she’d given up on the sport after her first and only serious boyfriend went abroad for his MBA. Now she wondered if her kid sister might have it right.
Or the last pitcher of margaritas hadn’t left her system yet. She lifted her sunglasses atop her head and rubbed the bridge of her nose. When she glanced at Bull, he was watching her.
“You have gorgeous eyes,” he said.
Her cheeks burned. She didn’t have gorgeous anything. Marianna, with her willowy figure, huge green eyes, and chestnut curls that reached the small of her back was the gorgeou
s sister. Elina was the sensible, brilliant one, but nothing remarkable in the looks department—a little overweight, with shoulder-length, wavy, light-brown hair she usually wore pulled back from her face, and the same hazel eyes as everyone on her mother’s side of the family.
But Bull found her eyes gorgeous.
Nah. He was being polite.
And they’d reached Voula. “See the Periptero over there?” She pointed at the kiosk on the opposite lane. “The guy who owns it is known as Spoon-Guy. He hands customers their purchases and gets their money using a… a sort of an oar? That way, he doesn’t have to leave the kiosk, and they don’t need to get out of their car.” There. That useless bit of information should take the focus off herself.
Bull nodded. “Sounds interesting.”
“Like my job?”
“Maybe a little more.”
She hooked a right on Varis Avenue. Her hand was on the gear shift, and her knuckles grazed Bull’s thigh. Fuck, that was a lot of muscle. Not that she couldn’t tell just by looking, but—
Shit. She missed her turn.
She signaled and turned right on the first street she could. She pulled over and turned in her seat, to look at Bull. “If you walk back to the main road, you should be able to catch a cab. I think there’s a bus stop within walking distance.”
He seemed in no hurry to get out of the car. “Is this where you work?”
“A couple blocks back.”
Bull nodded. Fiddled with the hat in his lap. “And you’re determined not to skip today?”
“Can’t afford to.”
“Could I buy you a drink tonight, to thank you for the ride?” He scrunched his face before she could answer. “Fuck. I’m working tonight,” he said.
“Tomorrow, maybe?” What was she doing? She’d never see him again. Plus tomorrow night was Marianna’s bachelorette party.
“Working tomorrow too. How about lunch, Saturday?”
She shook her head. “I have plans.” A wedding to get ready for.
His face fell. “I’m leaving on Sunday. Guess it’s not meant to be.”
“I guess so.”
Bull sucked on his lower lip. Worried it with his teeth. “Well, darling, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you for coming to my rescue.” He leaned in, and Elina held her breath.
Would he kiss her? Did she want him to?
God, yes. She fluttered her eyelids shut and parted her lips in invitation.
Bull laid a ghost of a kiss on the corner of her mouth. “Goodbye, gorgeous Elina.”
“Goodbye,” she whispered, and pretended not to hear the regret in her voice. She only opened her eyes after he shut the car door, and then watched his wide back and tight ass disappear in the rearview mirror.
Chapter Two
“You’re late. Marinos was insufferable when he got in and you weren’t here,” Sofia, Elina’s assistant, whispered as she handed her the day’s agenda.
Awesome. The one time her boss deigned to set foot in the office before noon, and it was the only morning Elina wasn’t on time. She couldn’t find it in herself to feel guilty, but it threatened to dampen her mood.
Sofia stood and rounded her desk, her long, pale-blonde hair styled in perfect curls around her beautiful face. It never ceased to amaze Elina that Sofia found the time for a full makeup and fake eyelashes every morning. “I’ll make coffee, and then we can go over your notes. Last night was more fun than you’re used to, huh?”
Elina nodded. The buzz of the office, people brainstorming over coffee and answering phones, usually fed into Elina’s drive for success that had landed her the position of Key Accounts Manager and an office of her own, as opposed to the cubicles on the main floor. Today, it sapped her energy.
Her skin still hummed where Bull’s lips had touched her. She felt their lingering effects much, much lower, in the area her sister called No Man’s Land. The throbbing between her legs demanded satisfaction, but she had priorities. She was going to dazzle Petros Marinos, and he’d make her V.P. Finally. She’d worked her ass off, missed Mom’s birthday this year, and repeatedly laughed off the creep’s advances without getting confrontational. She’d earned this promotion. It significant to her career.
She left the door to her office open and turned on her PC. She was stupid not to ask for Bull’s number—some way to contact him. She really couldn’t afford to miss work today, but she might be able to leave early.
“Parcel for Mr. Papadakis?”
She span to see a courier, holding a parcel the size of a shoebox. “Door at the end of the hallway.”
“He’s not in yet.” Sofia came in, to place an iced cappuccino on Elina’s desk. “I’ll take it.”
Elina glanced at her. Leon Papadakis was the other candidate for the Vice President position, and at the top of Elina’s shit list. He went out of his way to make her life hell every chance he got, intercepting her email and blaming her for everything, from misplaced files to the computer virus that brought down their server last month. She wasn’t going to handle his mail for him, and neither was her assistant.
Sofia signed for the parcel at her desk and sent the courier on his merry way. Then she returned to Elina’s office and shut the door behind her. “Bet it’s those handmade loafers he’s been bragging about. I vote we fill them with honey.”
“Sofia…”
But Sofia was already ripping up the packaging. “Okay. Not fill them. We can drizzle a bit—enough for his feet to stick. Oh fuck.”
“What?” Elina craned her neck to see what was in the box. Was it pamphlets?
“Son of a bitch. I can’t believe Marinos would do this.”
A knot formed in Elina’s stomach. “What?” She rose and took a better look. Not pamphlets. Business cards with the company logo. A box full of them. No. No no. “What do they say?” Her voice reached her ears shrill.
Sofia picked one up and studied it. “Leon did it himself. I would have seen the order if it was official. I file the ISO documents. All purchases go through—”
Elina’s vision narrowed in on the pale rectangle. “What do the cards say, Sofia?”
Sofia met her gaze, her face ashen. “Leon Papadakis – Vice President”
Marinos gave him the position. She brought in the biggest fucking client they ever had—no, bigger than they’d dreamed of—and Marinos overlooked her in favor of his tennis buddy.
“Fuck them.” She grabbed her purse and threw open her office door.
“What are you gonna do?” Sofia called from behind her.
“Leave.” She was calm now. Collected. She was better than this place anyway. She’d had enough of pandering to the egos of men with half her qualifications. She should have quit sooner, when Marinos Senior passed the reins to his idiot son.
Said idiot son blocked her path before she reached the double glass doors keeping her from freedom. “You’re late,” he said.
“You’re an asshole,” she said.
“What was that?”
Oh he’d heard her. She should ignore him, but he might see that as weakness, and she was done playing weak to seem non-threatening. She got in his face. With her heels on, she was an inch taller than his five-foot-ten. “I said you. Are. A fucking. Asshole. You couldn’t run this company if your life depended on it, and I’m done saving your ungrateful ass. I’d love to stick around and watch you sink the deal with the BENE people, but I quit.”
Marinos glared up at her. “You can’t quit. What about the presentation?”
“Leon can do it.” Why was she still talking to him?
“Leon is in Thessaloniki today.”
“Bummer for you.”
“You’re supposed to give me a two-week notice.”
“I am. But I have four months of vacation time saved up the past six years, which means I don’t need to see your disgusting face again till my resignation is in effect.” Granted, her exit would have been more dramatic with a shorter speech, but some things needed to be said.
Sofia mouthed, “Call me,” and Elina nodded and strolled out the door, holding her middle finger in the air. She’d go back to the beach house, put on her bikini, and soak up as much sun as she could, before the reality of what she did sunk in, and she freaked out about the future.
A familiar figure leaned against her car as she exited the building. He was still half naked, and when he stretched, even more devastatingly sexy. He took off his hat and smiled. “Bus drivers are on strike today.”
She grinned. “Cab drivers too?”
“I didn’t see any.” He wouldn’t, unless he stayed on the main road.
“So, naturally, you decided to wait for me to get off work?” She arched an eyebrow and licked her lips. She was being playful. Flirty. First she quit her job, and now she was flirting with a stranger. A ksenos, in more ways than one. Marianna would be proud.
Was today opposite day?
Bull shrugged and left his hat on the hood, beside him. “Thought you’d need lunch at some point. I was prepared to wait a few hours, but it seems I’m in luck.”
“More than you know.” Before she realized she was going to move, she looped an arm around his neck, and rose on her toes to press her lips to his.
She might as well do two stupid things today.
It took Bull a heartbeat to catch up, but then he dug his fingers in the bun she’d painstakingly made immaculate this morning, and ran his tongue along the seam of her lips before driving it inside, to meet hers. He tasted even better than he smelled—like the sun and the sea and life. Like everything forbidden. Everything she’d denied herself.
He glided one hand lower, to trace her spine, then splayed it at the small of her back and pulled her closer.
Elina tugged his lower lip between her teeth and then sucked on his tongue. Bull moaned. His stubble grazed her skin, and she gave into the irresistible urge to lick his neck.
His breath was hot against her ear, as he said, “Is this you, asking me nicely to lay a finger on you?”
She let out a surprised laugh and nodded.
Bull found her lips again, and when she opened up for him, slipped his hand to her ass. His palm easily spanned one buttock and curved around her upper thigh. He squeezed. Kneaded. Elina rocked her hips against him. His erection dug into her belly, and she wanted to climb him and impale herself on it.
