Innocent Obsession. Anne Mather
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gentle look, he said: ‘Leon wants to see you. I have explained that you are not to blame for Margot’s behaviour,’ his lips tightened, ‘and he has agreed that you should stay and look after Nikos. As you had intended.’
Sylvie looked bewildered. ‘But how? I mean—am I to go to Alasyia with Leon?’
Andreas’s jaw hardened. ‘Unfortunately, that would not be at all acceptable.’
‘Acceptable?’ Sylvie was confused.
‘You are a young unmarried girl,’ declared Andreas roughly. ‘Sick as Leon is, he is still a man.’
‘Oh!’ Her colour deepened. ‘So—so what—–’
‘Arrangements have been made,’ said Andreas flatly, and somehow Sylvie knew who had been responsible for those arrangements. ‘Leon has been very ill. He needs time to convalesce. It has been arranged that he will continue his convalescence at Monastiros.’
‘Monastiros?’ Sylvie gazed at him uncomprehendingly. ‘Where—where is that?’
Andreas leaned back against the cushioned leather, unfastening the button beneath his silver-grey tie, loosening the knot almost imperceptibly. He looked more relaxed, even satisfied, but Sylvie was impatient to know exactly what he had planned for her.
‘Monastiros is an island, thespinis,’ he said, his eyes narrowed as he looked at her. ‘It belongs to—my family. You and Nikos will be happy there, and Leon will have all the care he needs. My aunt, Ariadne Petronides, will see to that.’
Sylvie sat up. ‘But why couldn’t we go to Alasyia? If—if your aunt is to provide a chaperon?’
‘You will go to Monastiros,’ he stated flatly. ‘It is all decided.’ He ran the palm of one hand over the roughening skin of his jawline. ‘And now you must excuse me while I change my clothes. My parents wish for us to dine with them this evening.’
Sylvie scrambled to her feet as he stood up, and her haste brought her less than a hand’s-breadth away from him. ‘I—I can’t go to dinner like this,’ she stammered, indicating the creased Indian cotton, and without hesitation his dark eyes dropped appraisingly down the full length of her body.
She had never been so conscious of her own shortcomings, she thought, with the blood rising hotly to the surface of her skin. He could not help but observe the palpitating rise and fall of her full breasts, or miss the anxious quivering of her stomach. Beneath the enveloping folds of her dress her knees were shaking, and she was sure she looked as hot and dishevelled as she felt. Nevertheless, his intent assimilation of her appearance did arouse a certain indignation inside her, and she clung to this as his eyes returned to her face.
‘Your suitcases are downstairs,’ he said at last, without emphasis, moving his shoulders in an indifferent gesture. ‘I will have Spiro fetch them up for you.’
The crisp detachment of his tone made Sylvie increasingly aware of her own lack of sophistication. She was over-sensitive, she told herself impatiently. She had no reason to object to his assessment. After all, they were virtually related, he as Leon’s brother and she as Margot’s sister, but nevertheless no man had looked at her in quite that way, and she was left feeling raw, and strangely vulnerable.
‘Th-thank you,’ she said now, linking her clammy fingers together, and as he moved away to summon the chauffeur she endeavoured to compose herself. But she couldn’t dismiss the trickling of moisture that had invaded her spine, or dispel her awareness of his alien personality.
Madame Kuriakis reappeared, and at Andreas’s instigation showed Sylvie into the bedroom she could use to change in. If the housekeeper had any misgivings about the girl’s continued presence in the apartment, she managed to conceal them, but Sylvie, with her increased sensitivity, suspected she had very definite opinions of her own.
Left alone, Sylvie explored her domain with genuine curiosity. So this was what Margot had been loath to abandon, she reflected with unusual cynicism, trailing her fingers over apple-green damask and the gleaming patina of polished wood. Even the adjoining bathroom had a sunken bath, with its own jacuzzi unit, and she acknowledged without envy that luxury here was an accepted part of living. She was almost regretful she had only time to take a shower, although perhaps it was just as well. It would not do to get too accustomed to so much comfort.
By the time she emerged from the bathroom, a fluffy green towel draped sarong-wise about her, her suitcases had been deposited on the carved chest at the end of the bed. Extracting her keys from her handbag, she opened the largest of them with a thoughtful air and studied its contents with evident indecision.
Expecting to stay at Alasyia, which was sufficiently remote from civilisation to need little in the way of formal clothes, she had brought mostly casual wear and swimsuits. But she could hardly turn up at the Petronides residence for dinner wearing a cotton smock or beachwear, and the nearest thing to an evening outfit she possessed was a waistcoat and matching pants in amber-coloured velvet. It was worn with a cream shirt with wide, flowing sleeves gathered into a lacy cuff, and a frilled jabot below her small determined chin, and Sylvie had always thought it was quite flattering. The amber colour matched her eyes, which were several shades lighter than the rich brown they should have been, and the close-fitting pants accentuated the slender length of her legs. Nevertheless, she suspected that Madame Petronides might not approve, and she viewed the rounded curve of her hips with some anxiety. Was Margot right? Did she wear her clothes too tight? Did she eat all the wrong things? She sighed half irritably. Well, it was Margot’s fault that she was here, and if she didn’t suit, Margot would have to give up her selfish pursuits and replace her.
She studied the fall of corn-gold hair without satisfaction. Should she braid it, or coil it into a chignon, or leave it loose? Plaiting her hair would only accentuate her immaturity, she decided impatiently, and she didn’t really have the time to do a good job of creating a more sophisticated style. With a resigned shrug she tied it at her nape with a length of black cord, then regarded her appearance with as much objectivity as she could muster.
Where was she expected to sleep tonight? she wondered, after dimissing her appearance with a careless shrug. Acting on impulse, she folded up the Indian cotton and re-locked her suitcases, guessing there was little chance that she would be allowed to stay here. The idea that she might be expected to stay with Margot’s mother and father-in-law had little appeal for her, but she doubted she would be offered any alternative. If it was unacceptable that she should stay at Alasyia with Leon, it was certainly unacceptable for her to sleep at Andreas’s apartment.
When she entered the living room again, Andreas was already waiting for her, his dark looks enhanced by a black mohair dinner jacket. He was in the process of pouring himself a drink from the selection available on a tray resting on a carved wooden table, but he straightened at her entrance and inclined his head politely.
‘Can I offer you something?’ he enquired, indicating the glass in his hand, but Sylvie shook her head. She was nervous enough as it was, without the effects of alcohol to weaken her confidence, and Andreas shrugged his acceptance and raised his glass to his lips.
Unwilling to appear to be studying him too closely, Sylvie allowed her eyes to move round the lamplit room. It was quite dark outside the long windows now, and the lights of Athens beckoned insistently. Instinctively she moved towards the windows, catching her breath as the floodlit Parthenon attracted her enchanted eyes. She thought she had never seen anything more magnificent than the tall white columns outlined against the velvety darkness of the sky, and her lips parted in unknowing provocation as she gazed upon its ancient symmetry.
‘You find it interesting?’
She had been unaware that Andreas had come to stand beside her until he spoke, and now she looked up at him with some of the fascination she had felt still in her eyes.
‘It’s quite beautiful, isn’t it?’ she exclaimed, her voice husky with sudden emotion, and Andreas’s dark eyes were enigmatic as he met that ingenuous appeal.
‘How old are you, Sylvana?’ he asked, using