“Great idea,” she replied and they grinned at each other.
Cassia sighed.
Why was it so easy to be with him like this when ten years ago he was always stiff and formal beside her? She’d never seen this side of him and it made it all the more difficult to guard her heart against him.
But she had to.
This was all a trick. He was just nice to her because they were thrown together in this disaster. They needed each other to survive and he’d gain nothing by alienating her. But when they were rescued and when they went back to their lives, they’d be like they were before – strangers.
She repeated those thoughts to herself over and over as she tried to refreeze her heart and rebuild her armor.
She mustn’t repeat her mistakes from ten years ago.
A few hours later, Nikos was waist-deep in the water trying to catch fish with his bucket while she was perched on top of a rock, laughing at him.
“Stop! You’re scaring the fish away!”
“Stop laughing at me! Do you know how hard this is?” Nikos hissed.
Cassia already caught two large fish while Nikos still had nothing. He was wet from head to toe and failing miserably.
“Damn it!” he cursed as he slipped and fell in the water.
He rose from it, cursing and sputtering. Cassia continued laughing as he turned to her.
“You think this is funny?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“It really is,” and she howled with laughter once more.
Cassia clutched her stomach and laughed as Nikos tried over and over again. After an hour and he still had nothing, he finally conceded.
“You didn’t catch anything. But look on the bright side: you are clean now since you’ve had a bath,” she teased.
Her laughter was cut short when she was suddenly doused with cold water. When she opened her eyes, Nikos held his bucket over her head with a smirk on his arrogant face.
“Why you—you—“ she never got to finish the sentence as she decided to pounce.
She fell from the rock and into the water taking Nikos with her. When they resurfaced, they began splashing each other like two rowdy children.
Cassia gave it all she had and didn’t relent. Nikos did the same and soon enough, both of them were tired and dripping wet. And they were both laughing.
“Okay. Stop. I call truce,” Cassia surrendered. Her arm throbbed from her exertions and she knew Nikos’ aches and pains were punishing him as well.
“Truce,” he agreed as he breathlessly waded towards her rock and sat beside her. He looked around and listened carefully for the kidnappers might have been alerted by the noise of their childishness.
“If catching fish was a competition, I won today,” Cassia gloated.
Nikos scoffed. Then he leaned back and lay down across the rock.
“I haven’t had that much fun for as long as I can remember,” he sighed.
Cassia’s heart immediately went out to him. She remembered his nightmares, the night he was tortured and the scars she saw when she cleaned his wounds.
She also lay down on the rock and looked at the sky.
“What happened two years ago, Nikos?”
He stilled and the mask he always wore slid back into place.
He never spoke to anyone about his kidnapping, except for the doctors he consulted to help him. Even they had difficulty in having him open up about what he experienced. But right now, only one question from her and he ached to spill everything. Something in her called out to the pain he carried inside him. He turned to his side and looked into her hazel eyes.
He saw concern there. No judgment. No pity. No curiosity. Only concern.
He started recounting his tale.
“Antonio and I were on our way to a business conference. Suddenly, there was an explosion and the car I was in swerved to the side. Then, they fired on us. I felt a pain in my side and realized I was shot.”
Her eyes widened. Now she knew where the scar on his side came from. But why did it look like the skin was burnt?
“From there on, I drifted in and out of consciousness. Maybe it was from blood loss. I would have died if they didn’t do anything about it.”
Nikos gritted his teeth as he flashed back to the scene. He recalled how they dug out the bullet and then seared his skin to close the wound. Shame washed over him as he heard his own voice crying and begging for them to end his torture.
He looked at Cassia to gauge her reaction. She reached for his hand and squeezed.
“They will pay, Nikos. We will make them pay for all they did to you two years ago. And for what they did now,” she vowed.
Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. They were not of pity or judgment. She cried for him because she shared his pain. His heart ached at those words.
“How did you manage to get off the island?”
“First I’ll tell you about Elise.”
She nodded.
“She was the daughter of one of the leaders of those who kidnapped us. But she was not like them. At first, Antonio and I thought she was sent in to torture us. She came to our cell carrying her knives and a whip.”
He breathed in deep and summoned the courage to continue.
“She asked for a bucket of water and threw it over me. She laughed and so did all the guards. She asked them to leave and then told us she was not the enemy. She’d help us but we had to scream as loud as we could.”
Nikos gave a bark of laughter. He remembered the look of confusion on Antonio’s face when she told them she’d help but they had to shout as though they were being beaten within an inch of their lives.
“She laid down those knives and retrieved medical supplies from under her dress. The water she threw over me was so she could clean my wounds and avoid an infection. She really did help me while Antonio and I screamed. We didn’t trust her at first but she came back night after night.”
“I guess that’s when Antonio fell in love with her?” Cassia said with a small smile.
“Yes. I was still too weak then but when I wake up during the night, I saw her sitting outside our cell and the two of them were talking. Before the sun rose, she was gone.”
“She helped you leave the island?”
“Yes and no. She wasn’t allowed to leave the island either so she couldn’t smuggle us out, if that’s what you’re asking. But she found a way to help. We were about to be transferred to another place where they would keep us. Elise overheard them and she told us. Antonio asked her to contact Alex and she did. When we were transferred to the place, Alex and his team were there waiting.”
“What about Elise?”
“Antonio grabbed her and carried her to the helicopter himself. He refused to let her go. He didn’t want her to go back to what she did in the island. He told her she deserved a better life and that he would give it to her.” Nikos smiled. “They were married a few months later.”
When he finished with his story he saw Cassia dash away her tears with her hands. Then, she smiled at him and he felt as if a huge burden was lifted off his chest.
The doctors were right after all. Speaking about what happened in the past truly did help. Maybe the problem was that he never really opened up about everything. He chose the bits and pieces that he shared. And when he spoke, he always believed that people would look down on him with pity. He hated that.
Now, he felt free.
Before he could think further, he dipped his head lower and his lips met hers. She gasped as he deepened the kiss and he used that opportunity to dart his tongue inside and taste her.
It was exquisite.
It was exactly how he remembered it ten years ago. Maybe even better.
Cassia’s first thought when Nikos kissed her was that she should punch him in the face but there was another part of her that wanted this. He kissed her just how she remembered in her dreams of their wedding night and it set her blood on fire.
She sighed against his lips and threw her uninjured arm around his neck to pull him closer. She returned his kisses with a passion of her own as she ran her fingers through his hair. Nikos groaned and she truly became lost.
Nothing else existed but him and her and the pleasure they felt in each other’s arms.
Just like their wedding night ten years ago.
Cassia felt as if she was doused with another bucket of cold water when she remembered that night. She gave herself to him fully, asking for nothing in return. She just wanted to make memories with him that she could take with her when she left.
That night was perfect.
But the next morning, Nikos showed her his true colors. She then realized it was true what they said that the devil wore the face of an angel.
She pulled back and scrambled away from him.
“Cassia...?”
“We have to go. We still have to find somewhere we can cook the fish without being seen before the sun sets.”
She took the bucket and placed the fish inside. Without waiting for Nikos, she sprinted towards the opposite side of the stream.
Nikos pushed himself off the rock.
He also ran a hand through his hair in frustration. What was the matter with Cassia? One moment she was very sweet and tender and the next she was back to being a spitfire. He had her in his arms and was kissing the hell out of her one minute and the next she pushed him away and disappeared.
He shook his head and set off to follow her.
“Women. The day that men understand them is the day of the apocalypse,” he muttered to himself.
He also gave himself a mental shake but no matter what he did, he could not forget the events that recently transpired. Now, he was even more convinced that he wanted his wife back. Her passion for him was still like it was ten years ago.