“Very, very dirty,” she said, straight-faced.

“You certainly look it.” He stroked his soapy hands around her neck, massaged her shoulders a little, and then very thoroughly washed her breasts. God, she was in heaven with him. He was just so responsive to her physically. Her previous boyfriends had been academics. And she’d thought she liked that. Men who appreciated her for her mind and her experience, and recently, she assumed, because she’d been temporarily famous. But David. He responded to her on such a fundamental level, almost at a cellular level. And she reveled in his intensity, both physical and mental.

Mostly physical at that moment though. Her breasts were super clean, and she stood with her eyes closed, just allowing the sensation of his hands to dominate the space around her. She was completely sated by her time with him, but Jesus…he slipped his hand between her legs, stroking with the lather, every inch.

She wriggled away with a laugh. “I need a rest. Wine. Coffee at the very least.” She needed time to think about what she’d done. Of course, she’d wanted this all along. Of course she had, for virtually a whole year. But in her fantasies, he’d been complete. Confident and easy. But anyone with half a cell of perception could see that he was confident, but difficult to read, and maybe even broken. She could see uncertainty in his eyes when he looked at her. She was worried. There, she’d admitted it. She didn’t want to get emotionally attached to him if he would just run away again. She had to keep her feelings in check. Sex, not emotion.

He turned off the water and handed her a towel from a rack. She grabbed it and wrapped herself up in it again, flashing back to when she took the decision to drop it on the floor. Now she wondered if she’d done the right thing.

She changed into a sundress, still crumpled from her luggage. The heat and humidity would ease out the wrinkles in no time at all.

David came out of the shower and got straight on the phone after kissing her bare shoulder. “Hey Mal, have you checked out yet? Good, we’re coming down.”

He put his phone down and pulled on his clothes from earlier. “Mal’s leaving, and if we go now, we can stay in his room until we’re ready to go. No one here knows that we were here together, so if anyone comes looking for you or me, they won’t find us.”

A finger of fear poked her stomach as she suddenly remembered her predicament. She nodded and looked around the room anxiously. “We should probably go now, shouldn’t we?” Suddenly being where the Russian agent had threatened them with a gun sent chills down her spine.

“I’m ready if you are,” he said evenly. “We’re going down to the fourth floor via my room.” He held his arm out and she slid under it. He squeezed her once, and tension seeped out of her like water from a sponge. She was protected. Safe.

They arrived at Mal’s room as he was leaving. He was a big man with features to match. At around six and a half feet, he towered over Molly and was just a little taller than David. Dark stubble speckled his face, and only his clear blue eyes showed any expression. He bumped fists with David and handed him a key.

“Be careful of him,” he said to Molly. “We’ve only just put him back together.”

“Fuck off,” David said evenly.

“Love you too, mate,” he replied cracking a smile. “Don’t die. I don’t want to arse around training someone else.” Mal picked up his bag and headed down the corridor.

“What training?” David said loudly, grinning at his retreating back.

Mal just raised a hand without turning around and disappeared around the corner.

Clearly he hadn’t planned on waiting for them. Molly was glad they’d gotten there in time to get his key card.

“Hi guys!” a chirpy voice came from the other end of the corridor. It was Victoria.

“Hi! What have you been doing?” Molly asked, as she leaned into the rather exuberant hug that Victoria offered.

“Obviously nothing as fun as you,” she said with a sly smile. She held her hand out to David. “Victoria Ruskin, WAMP. The voice of the tri-cities.”

“Nice to meet you, Victoria. I’m David,” he said, wondering which tri-cities she was talking about.

“Do you two fancy having lunch? I found a great place away from the madness here. I’ve heard some crazy gossip about what went down last night.”

Molly glanced at David, who looked interested. “Sure, that would be great. Can we meet you there? We have a little unpacking to do first.”

“Awesome. It’s on the corner of Sina and Skoufa behind the hotel a few blocks. Great souvlaki, fabulous mimosas. Say in an hour?”

“Sure, see you there!” Molly said.

They opened Mal’s door and marveled for a moment at the array of empty bottles he’d left in there. Kristal champagne, which Molly remembered was being served at the cocktail party, and a variety of beers.

“It’s amazing he can function,” David said, shaking his head. “He didn’t tell anyone he was checking out early, so let’s just put our bags in the closet and call for housekeeping.”

Molly didn’t say anything, just wondered if Mal was in the same place as David had been. As if he’d read her mind he said, “I know it looks like he has a problem, but he doesn’t. He’s just English. Mostly everyone I’ve met from there can drink like it’s a national skill-set.”

At Molly’s silence, David turned. He noticed her dress for the first time. Really noticed it. Her sundress was a pale yellow with thin straps, and, God help him, with the light of the window behind her, it was almost transparent. Her hair, almost the same color as her dress, was still damp and curled around her face. She was mesmerizing.

She smiled. “We have an hour. Do you actually want to unpack, or get out of the hotel?”

“What do you suggest?” He really wanted to stay in the room with her and demand she remove her dress so he could see her naked again. He was fairly sure that she had only the tiniest panties and no other underwear on. He swore he could virtually see her nipples through the dress. If he looked really hard. Really hard.

Jesus, man. Get a fucking grip.

“There is the Temple of Olympian Zeus just around the corner. We could take a walk there. It was the largest temple in Athens when they built it.”

“Sure. Sounds like a plan.”

As they made their way out of the hotel, David couldn’t figure out if people were staring at them because Molly was a total knockout, or because they’d already been fingered as suspects. Whichever it was, it was making him feel uncomfortable. He didn’t like people noticing him.

They walked toward the temple, David wanting to poke the eyes out of any man who looked at her. This was not a natural reaction, he was sure. He needed to bring things back on track.

“What do you know about this Doubrov guy?” he asked. “Was he into anything he shouldn’t have been?”

Molly was silent for a beat too long. “Not that I know of. I really didn’t know him that well at all. We were on the same archaeological conference circuit, but I really only knew him from attending his lectures, and the meet and greets afterward. He’d just passed a message through my boss that he was looking forward to seeing me again.”

“What exactly did you say to him when you met him at the party? In fact, why were you at the party with jeans and sneakers on?”

“The airline lost my bag with my cocktail dress in it,” she said as she pointed across the road to the tops of the temple pillars.

He noticed that she hadn’t answered his first question and a cloud of concern—or was it suspicion?—bloomed in his stomach. He took her hand to cross the road, wanting to make sure she couldn’t run. And suddenly he wondered why he thought she would. Instinct? He hadn’t been able to rely on his instinct for a few years. He wasn’t sure he could now. “And you couldn’t have waited for the cocktail party the next evening, or the evening after that?”