A Tale of Two Cousins

Chapter One-3

Maggie smiled flirtatiously at the younger one, who whispered something in her ear that had her throwing back her head and giving another trill of laughter.

“Oh, brother,” I muttered to the cat, and, with a quick glance around the room, hurried over to where I could see waiters emerging through a door, laden with trays of hors d’oeuvres. My mouth watered at the same time my stomach rumbled ominously.

One waiter paused, a handsome dark-eyed devil in a plain white shirt and black pants, offering me a flute of champagne. “No, thank you,” I murmured, adjusting Valentino so he could glare at the waiter when he tried to get a glimpse down my dress. The possessor of substantial cleavage, I was no stranger to men trying to do that, which is why my mother’s old dress was so perfect. It left my shoulders bare, but the band across the chest was almost leer-proof.

I spied an unattended table that bore a tray of snacks near the waitstaff entrance, and made a beeline for it, ignoring all the bright chatter around me. “Yum, Valentino. These look tempting. I hope no one sneezed on them or otherwise did something to take them out of the running.” I examined the hors d’oeuvres carefully, but they looked OK, and I quickly popped three phyllo pastries filled with goat cheese and herbs into my mouth, moaning softly to myself. “Oh, lord, I could eat a whole tray of just those. But I suppose I should find something you can eat. Let’s see. ... That looks spicy.” I tried a little samosa, saying around it, “Yup, spicy. This looks like some sort of slider. Let’s peel the meat off it and see if you like it.”

Valentino, who’d expressed haughty interest when I started stuffing my face, snuffled the little blob of what I assumed was lamb before l*****g it off my fingers. With a furtive, quick glance around me, I picked up the platter and took it over to where a couple of chairs had obviously been tucked away forgotten in a corner. It was partially hidden by the door that led to the depths of the hotel, which suited me just fine. I turned my back on the room and hurriedly picked the meat off the three other sliders, feeding it to the cat.

A brief gust of air, making my skirt flutter out around me, preceded a thump on my back that sent me flying forward into the wall. “b****y hell!” I hit my head on the back of one of the chairs when I stumbled into it, clutching the cat to my side so he wouldn’t get crushed when I half fell onto the chair seat.

“Christ! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you standing behind the door—are you hurt?”

I slid off the chair onto the ground, using one hand to rub the spot on my forehead while I set Valentino down and held tightly to his leash. “Not seriously, no. And it’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have been there. I was just feeding ... er ...” I looked up when the man who’d spoken squatted next to me, words drying up on my tongue at the sight of him. He looked to be in his late thirties, had short curly black hair and olive-green eyes, and could very easily have graced the cover of the magazine for which I had promised to interview an up-and-coming desirable bachelor. His cheekbones were just high enough to make his jawline angle down to a gently blunted chin in a way that made me feel first hot, then chilled.

“Your cat?” he finished my sentence, smiling as he gave Valentino a little pat on his head. Valentino considered him with his yellow-eyed gaze for a few seconds, then strolled over and sniffed cautiously at his shoes.

I stared at the gorgeous man for a few seconds, my attention on the two indentations that appeared on either side of his cheeks when he smiled. They weren’t exactly dimples, but they were cute enough to remind me that I wasn’t there to ogle the waiters.

“My what? Oh, Valentino. Yes, he’s mine. Newly so. A little girl gave him to me outside the hotel,” I said, managing to get myself under control enough to allow the man to give me a hand. I got up, brushing off the full lace skirt, hoping the crinoline petticoat that I wore underneath to give it the proper shape wasn’t stuck in my underwear, or some other embarrassing circumstance. “I was just giving him a little meat. I think he’s hungry.”

The man looked at first the cat, then me. “Someone gave him to you?”

“A little girl. It was heartbreaking, but I guess he’s my responsibility now.”

“How very thoughtful of you. You have the most amazing eyes.”

I was a bit taken aback by the abruptness of the statement, but then, I was just ogling the man’s jaw and almost dimples, so I guessed I didn’t have much to complain about. “I do?”

“They’re amber. I’ve never seen amber eyes before. And now I’ve offended you.” He smiled again, making me feel like the air-conditioning needed to be cranked up a couple of notches.

“You haven’t, actually, although I’ve always thought of my eyes as a boring old light brown. Yours are very nice, too. They’re kind of a sage, olive green.”

“That would be my mother’s influence. She was Irish. Are you by any chance American?”

Valentino tired of smelling the waiter’s shoes and hopped onto the chair to consider the tray of snacks. I pulled him back, giving him the last of the slider meat. “No, although I grew up in Ottawa. Until my parents died, that is.”

“Ah, that would explain why you sound like my cousins’ wives.” He smiled again, and then stuck out a hand. “I’m Dmitri.”

“Hello, Dmitri. I’m Thyra. And this is Valentino.”

“He looks like one. Er ... TEER-uh?” he asked, looking hesitant as he carefully pronounced my name.

“Yup, it’s an odd one, huh?” I spelled it for him. “It’s a family name that my parents insisted I have. I actually have four names, and this is the best of them, so really, it could be worse..”

He laughed. “My father insisted I be called after him, so I completely understand. Luckily, my family lets me use Dmitri—my middle name—instead. Now, I’ve just about knocked you silly with the door, and we’ve exchanged name secrets, so I believe we should progress to the point where I ask if I can get something for you. For your cat? A glass of wine? A bowl of water? A piece of paper so you can give me your phone number?”

I gawked at him for a moment. “Are you insane?”

“Not that I know of,” he said, his cheeks doing that almost-dimpling thing again.

“Wait ... I just need to be sure because this doesn’t happen very often. ... Are you flirting with me? Oh, God. You weren’t, were you? You were just being funny, and because I like your eyes, and you have those almost dimples, I thought you were, but you weren’t, and now I want to die. And now my mouth won’t stop telling you everything I’m thinking. Gah! Please go away so I can die of embarrassment here in the corner by myself. Well, with Valentino, because he has no one else to take care of him.”

“I was most definitely flirting with you,” he answered, his smile growing into an outright grin. I liked what that did to his face. It made little laugh lines spread out from the edges of his eyes. “Although I doubt if that doesn’t happen very much.”

“I’m short, wear glasses, and am probably the most introverted and socially awkward person you will ever meet,” I said, giving him a wry smile. “You’ll have to trust me that men don’t often give me a second look.” I hesitated, not wanting to lie to him. He seemed so nice, so friendly, that it just seemed wrong. “Not ones who don’t have an ulterior motive.”

He was silent a moment. “I don’t quite know how to respond to that. I want very much to compliment you and say that you aren’t short, that your glasses are charming, and that I don’t find you awkward at all, socially or otherwise, but I suspect you might not take that in the spirit that I intended, so I’ll simply ask you if you would give me your number so that we might continue the conversation at another time. Say, tomorrow? Perhaps over coffee? Lunch?”

“I’d like that,” I said before I remembered that I shouldn’t be spending money on meals out ... and then there was the matter of the interview. We were supposed to meet the Greek playboy the following evening. However ... after a moment’s consideration, I decided that given Maggie’s attitude, I was due a little fun before I had to fall into step for the interview. “But I was going to go sightseeing tomorrow. I only have a couple of days in Athens, and I really want to see everything I can.”

“That’s perfect!” he said with another eye-crinkling, almost-dimpling smile. Something inside me felt girlish and giggly, a bolt of excitement cheering me up despite the awkwardness of the party. “I’m known for my ability to show off Athens, if you would like me as a tour guide.”

I glanced toward the door behind him, which opened to allow two more waiters to emerge with fresh trays of snacks. “That would be awesome, so long as you can take the time off.”

“I think that can be arranged.” He pulled out his cell phone. “Will you give me your number?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have one. A phone, that is. But if you give me yours, I can borrow my cousin’s phone.”

He hesitated, but held up his phone to show me the phone info on it. “I’ll write it down for you.”

“No, it’s not necessary. My brother and I have this weird mental thing with numbers—he can do mad math problems in his head, and I remember strings of numbers.”

“That must be convenient. Is your brother here in Athens?”

“No, he’s a homicide detective in Scotland,” I said, wincing a little at the pride in my voice. “Sorry, that sounded smug, didn’t it? I didn’t mean that his job was better than anyone else’s, although I am very proud of him. He’s ... happy.”

“And you’re not?” The laughter faded from his pretty green eyes.

I hesitated, torn between telling this handsome stranger everything and knowing that even though he had an easy manner and I liked him, it wasn’t wise to go baring my soul when I knew nothing about him. “My life is a bit complicated at the moment.”

“Then I hope that seeing Athens tomorrow will bring you some pleasure,” he said with another pat on Valentino’s head. “What hotel are you staying at? I can meet you there about ... shall we say nine?”

“Uh ...” I thought quickly. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I was staying at this hotel, but I didn’t want to lie to him. “It’s a small one; you probably wouldn’t know it. How about if I meet you here?”

“As you like,” he answered, his voice smooth, but I felt like he’d just withdrawn from me. I realized with a stab of guilt that he probably thought I didn’t trust him, but before I could rally some sort of excuse for not giving him the name of the hotel, he added, “I should get back to it. I’m sorry again for bumping into you, although I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.”

“So do I,” I said lamely, feeling even more awkward when he gave me a little nod and moved into the room, probably to pick up some of the empty glasses that had been left on the tables.

It was if the sun had gone behind a cloud, dimming my joy a little. I badly wanted out of there, so I could sit and think about Dmitri, and remember the warmth in his eyes when he smiled, but knew Maggie expected me to be at her beck and call, as befitted a princess.

“Oh, screw it,” I said after a few minutes of inner struggle, and went in search of her. I found her in the center of the room, surrounded by people, her face shining with pleasure. The satisfaction in her eyes gave me a guilty twinge in my belly, but there wasn’t much I could do about my regrets now.

“Can I have a word?” I asked softly when Valentino and I managed to nudge aside a couple of men in expensive suits in order to get to her side.

She shot me a look that was rife with a warning. “Someone on the phone for me?” she asked, giving another lilting laugh, and said with a big smile to the circle of men and women who were evidently hanging on her every word, “Unless it’s His Serene Highness—my brother, the crown prince, you know—I don’t wish to be disturbed.”

I ground my teeth for a few seconds, managing to bite back everything I wanted to say in order to murmur in her ear, “I’m done.”

“Thyra, no!” Her eyes filled with a plea that made me feel like a heel. “You can’t stop now. I’ve only just started, and you said we’d have several days. It’s unfair of you to expect me to walk away before I’ve had any fun!”

“I don’t mean you have to go, too. I’m going to take the cat and go buy him a litter box and some food, and then go back to the hotel. You don’t need me here. Just please remember Beck, and don’t do anything that they wouldn’t like.”

She beamed a smile at me that could have lit up half the city. “I won’t do anything you wouldn’t do,” she answered before turning back to the group of beautiful people. “So sorry about that interruption. Thyra is an excellent PA, but so moody. I think she’s just a bit overwhelmed.”

“Oh, yes,” I said under my breath, hoisting the cat higher as I marched out of the room, my temper getting the better of me. “I’m so overwhelmed by you pretending to be me. How on earth am I going to stand another four days of this, Valentino? How am I going to get through it without cracking or yelling at Maggie to stop acting like she’s so much better than everyone else? What if word about her behavior gets back to Beck, and that just adds fuel to the fire Kardom is trying to start?”

The cat had no answer. I sighed, feeling a kinship in that respect, and took us off before it got too late to visit a pet store.