Coming Home by Alison Fraser

Author:Alison Fraser
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2010-08-14T18:00:08.296000+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

ANDROS saw she loved the boat ride. Her eyes were as bright as Nicky’s, her laugh as exhilarated when he opened the throttle wide and the speedboat threw up spray in its path.

It was not a new experience for him; he had once made the journey regularly, would be making it often in the near future, yet he caught some of their enjoyment. He found himself prolonging it, making an unnecessarily wide sweep towards the island and obliquely studying the girl’s profile. The wind was streaming the honey-gold hair back from her face and once more he thought her beautiful. He wished she wasn’t.

She hated the house. He saw that too, as they stood viewing it from the end of the jetty.

‘You don’t like it?’

‘It’s very . . .’ Alex hesitated, then quickly offered, ‘Imposing.’

‘It was designed by a Swiss architect,’ Andros qualified.

Was that good? All Alex knew was that she had never seen a house so large, so magnificently situated and so unremittingly ugly. It might positively breathe money, but style was something else. It didn’t seem to have one—more like several, with its pillared entrance, Spanish archways and long french windows. To crown it all, it had a flat tiled roof.

‘My father loved it,’ he said with an unmistakable indulgence in his tone, and added, ‘You do not look too pleased. I’d hoped its . . . grandeur would compensate for the lack of entertainment on the island.’

It was a timely reminder to Alex that she was rudely gaping at his home. ‘It’s not that I don’t find it beautiful,’ she improvised hurriedly under his scrutiny.

‘It’s more that I’m not used to anywhere quite so big and

‘And?’ He lifted a quizzical brow.

‘Well, it’s different’—What was she saying?—’I mean interesting . . .’ she said, floundering.

His laughter cut her short and he let her off the hook with a highly amused, ‘I think the word you are searching for, Miss Saunders, is grotesque,’ as he himself looked askance at the house above them.

Alex might have laughed herself if she hadn’t been aware of who had her dangling on that hook in the first place. Not that her stony glance had much effect, especially when Nicky chose that moment to chime in, ‘Why don’t you call Lex Lex?’

‘Why not?’ Andros smiled at the boy’s enquiry, apparently regarding it less awkward than it sounded. He directed at Alex, ‘You mind?’

How could she? Without appearing ridiculous, although that about summed up their strange relationship.

‘If you like.’

He nodded. ‘I like,’ he said, not quite matching her casualness. ‘And you may call me Andros, yes?’

What a time to feel suddenly shy, acting like the teenager she wasn’t far from being, Alex groaned as she avoided his gaze and mumbled, ‘Yes, if you want.’

She sighed with relief when his attention was diverted by the burly middle-aged man in rough work clothes who descended the flight of steps from house to shoreline. Greeting him with a surprising warmth, Andros introduced the newcomer to Alex as Mario’s stepfather, Spiro Kallides.

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