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“Nothing. Anything. Everything.” She shrugged nervously. “Sometimes I read the news to you or… I have a small fascination with astronomy,” she admitted. “If I came across an article on comets or whatever, I read it aloud to you.”

“Comets.” He lifted his brows. “I suppose that’s better than my horoscope.”

“Oh, I read that to you, too. And a few romance novels.” She bit her lip, not as contrite as she probably should have been.

“Did you want me to stay in my coma?” he asked dryly.

“Don’t be mean. At least it was the kind with a mystery. I skipped the spicy parts, though. I didn’t want anyone to hear me reading those aloud.”

“That was mean, Alia.”

She chuckled. This was how a date was supposed to feel. Nerves had always made her clam up when a man bought her dinner. She hadn’t known what to say and always felt like a very uninteresting person with her quiet village life.

For once the man across from her was genuinely interested in what she had to say, though, asking her, “And what about the dates we supposedly went on?”

“Oh.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I was annoyed at how Lambros kept saying we weren’t really married so I started making up dates and telling them to you, so if he eavesdropped, he would hear me reminiscing.”

“This feisty streak of yours is fascinating.” He set his forearm on the table and leaned toward her. “Tell me about our affair, then.”

“No. It was as tame as you would expect, considering my lack of experience.” She sipped her wine, but it stung her throat. “I don’t need you to mock me for it.”

He sat back. His gaze on her scorched like the heat off a bonfire.

“You really haven’t been involved with anyone?” he asked.

“I had Yaya to consider. I wasn’t going to embarrass her again.”

The way his face altered, expression turning both grave and understanding, made her feel as though he saw too much. Her stomach filled with lead and her heart felt snagged by a sharp hook, ragged and aching.

“Maybe if someone had stuck around, I would have caught feelings and slept with them, but our village is a long way from anywhere,” she said with as much detachment as she could conjure. “It’s quaint for a week, but we barely have the basics. No proper pharmacy, even. Everything you want or need requires planning and driving and waiting. So, yes, sometimes a tourist would ask me on a date out of boredom, but I knew I couldn’t leave and they wouldn’t stay so I stopped accepting.”

“I don’t think it was boredom that prompted them to ask you out.” He was still looking at her in that way that saw into her soul. The candlelight cast shadows into his sharp features, pinching her heart at how handsome he was.

“I’m pretty sure you’re bored right now,” she said with a flat stretch of her lips. It was probably the reason he had asked her to come out for dinner tonight. You could only stare at the same four walls for so long.

“Untrue. I’m very curious to know what you said about us. Tell me. How else will I back up your version of events?”

Ugh. That was decent logic, she conceded with an exhale of annoyance.

“I said we met after Khristos and Julian’s visit. Your brother recommended our island to you. You were vacationing on your yacht so you came by to say hello.”

“I would never drop in on strangers,” he said dismissively. “No. We’ll say that Khristos asked me to check on you. As a favor.”

“You can’t change what I already said happened.” It stung that he was basically saying he would have no interest in meeting her, but would have looked in on her if his brother obliged him to do so.

“First of all, it didn’t happen.” His mouth twisted with dark humor. “And there are always two sides to a story. That can be your side. I’m telling you I wouldn’t have bothered leaving my yacht unless my brother specifically asked me to. So I checked on you and then what? I asked you to dinner?”

“On your yacht. At sunset. Is that too clichéd?” In retrospect, it sounded very unimaginative, especially for this man. No wonder he didn’t want to meet her.

“I like my yacht.” He shrugged. “It’s very comfortable. And private. You’re very pretty. It tracks that I would invite you aboard. Did we sail first? Swim before dinner?”

“We could.” She studied him, trying to discern if that thrown-away compliment had been at all sincere.

“Naked,” he suggested with a teasing glint in his eye.

“On our first date? What kind of girl do you think I am?”

“I think, agapi mou…” He reached out to snag the nervous fingers turning her stemless wineglass. “…that we must have terrific chemistry if we fell into a secret engagement within weeks of meeting each other.”