Love's Awakening by Rachel Ford

Author:Rachel Ford
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780373031160
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1991-03-01T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

SELENA opened her eyes to daylight, her first conscious thought that, against all the odds, she had slept. Almost as soon as she had returned to her room and undressed, in fact, she must have plunged headlong into a deep, black well of sleep.

She lay for some minutes, straining to catch any sign of movement from Alex, but no sounds came so she swiftly showered and dressed. She hesitantly opened the door to his room and peeped in, expecting to see his dark head on the pillow, but his bed was empty. The sheet was rumpled, though. So he had come back here then, and not, as she'd half feared, spent the whole night in the olive grove. He'd probably gone down to the pool for a pre-breakfast swim. Maybe she would join him—a first tentative step, perhaps, towards getting their relationship into a slightly less fraught state.

But Alex was not in the pool. He was seated, on his own, at the breakfast table, and when he saw her he gave her a brief impersonal smile, a polite 'Kaiimera, Selina,' and then immediately switched his attention back to the sheaf of papers he had been flipping through.

She slid into the chair opposite, poured herself some coffee, then sat covertly watching him over the rim of her cup, seeing his dark blue eyes, half hidden by the heavy fringe of stubby black lashes, as he skim-read each sheet in turn, occasionally pausing to frown slightly. There were fine lines at the outer corners of his eyes, white against the tanned skin, and there was a tautness about his mouth...She stared at each of his familiar features in turn, lingering on them, until suddenly, as though feeling her intent gaze on him, he looked up. Their eyes met, then abruptly he swilled down the last remnants of coffee, pushed back his chair and stood up.

'I have to go to Athens this morning.'

'Oh.'

She set down her cup, jarring it against the saucer, and registered for the first time that he was wearing, not casual beach clothes, but a white shirt, very formal in cut although the top two buttons were undone, and a pair of lightweight silver-grey trousers.

'I—I didn't know.'

'Yes, well, something urgent has cropped up—something which I am needed for.'

'But how long will you be away?' she blurted out.

He shrugged carelessly. 'A couple of days perhaps.' He picked up the pile of papers, briskly shuffled them into order, then came round to her side of the table and stood looking down at her. 'You are still very pale, koukla. Enjoy yourself while I am away—remember, you are on holiday.'

She glanced up at him quickly, but there did not seem to be the slightest irony behind his words. And then he was gone—without a kiss, a goodbye, a backward look—almost as if he was actually glad to go, she thought, with a needling little burst of resentment.

She sat listening to his retreating footsteps, then reached for a soft bread roll and began

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.