The Good Greek Wife? Read Free Page B

to distract Jason, to turn his thoughts onto other, more important things—more important to Jason, anyway. Even if Hermione’s aggression was not Jason’s way, he was every bit as hungry for control of Odysseus Shipping as his mother.
    â€˜I want to call a board meeting for tomorrow,’ she said, raising her voice so that she could be heard over the crash of the waves.
    It worked. She felt the change as soon as she spoke, the new and different tension in Jason’s body, the gleam in his eye thathe couldn’t disguise as he looked down at her. He even loosened his hold on her so that she could step back away from him.
    â€˜Why?’ he asked, not sounding at all as if he believed there was any reason other than the one she knew he was hoping for.
    â€˜I’m sick and tired of this whole business, Jason.’
    The tension that had gripped her earlier pushed the words out in a rush, giving them far more emphasis than she had planned.
    â€˜I want to get away from here, start living again. I’m tired of treading water. It’s more than time this whole business was sorted out and everything finalised so that we can get on with our lives. I can’t inherit unless we have Zarek’s death declared and legalised. So let’s do that. Let’s put it all behind us—’
    â€˜I’ll get onto it right away,’ Jason broke in on her, his tone revealing only too clearly how much her words had pleased him. He even gave her another hug but thankfully it had lost the sexual overtones of the earlier one. His ambition and greed were a more powerful force—or perhaps, more likely, the sexual flirtation had only been used with the hope of bringing things to this point. Another reason to be glad that she had made her decision.
    â€˜Exactly how do you want to play this?’
    But Penny had had enough. Painfully aware of their silent watcher, the unsettling atmosphere he had created, she just wanted to get back inside, seek the privacy of her room.
    â€˜Not now, Jason. Not here. He—’
    â€˜Who?’ Jason questioned sharply. ‘Who’s “he”?’
    â€˜That man…’
    Flinging out her arm, Penny gestured wildly in the direction of the harbour and the spot where the fishing boat was tied up.
    â€˜What man?’
    â€˜He…’
    But Penny’s voice died away as she turned in the directionshe’d indicated and saw only the boat bobbing at its mooring, the water lapping against the harbour side and the lamp illuminating an empty and silent space where the mysterious man had once been. He had gone silently and secretly, and she had no idea just what he had heard or seen or why it should bother her that he had overheard any of their conversation. But all the same, something uncomfortable and uneasy nagged at her mind at the thought that he had been there at all, and the rapid, uneven beat of her heart was the lingering effect of her unnerving and unsettling encounter with him.

CHAPTER TWO
    H E WOULD need to be more careful in the future, the fisherman told himself as he headed away from the harbour and towards the small, single-storey, white-painted house that he had made his home since he had arrived on the island a few days before.
    He had almost given himself away there, speaking English—speaking at all when it was so possible that Penny might recognise his voice and know that he was alive. Alive and back on Ithaca for the first time in over two years.
    And he didn’t want her to know that. Not yet. Not until he had had a chance to check the lie of the land, see just how things were. It might only have been two years—just twenty-four short months—since he had been on Ithaca, and a much shorter space of time since he had realised that the place even existed, but to him it felt so much longer than that. It seemed as if it were a whole lifetime since he had set foot on the island. Then he had thought that he would