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PROLOGUE

DAWN ON THE best day ever! Kied deeply on the scent of warm blossom and ozone as she threw open the shutters of her idyllic attic rooar-sand beach

She could still call it off

Ridiculous This was her wedding day! It was far too late to change her mind Mike, Kimmie’s fiancé, was someone she’d known all her life Much older than Kimmie and, as he’d told her himself, he’d be a steady hand on the tiller

Or a control freak

‘Go to bed early Stay in your bed until I call you,’ he’d told her last night ‘You need your sleep Tomorrow is an important day,’ he’d added as if she didn’t know

When did I become so biddable?

Tiny bits of her had been chipped away, so small she’d barely noticed them

Kiot the jitters on their wedding day, didn’t they? A walk on the beach would sort her out The sun was already war the tiny Greek island of Kaimos, and Kimmie’s bridesmaid, Janey, was only down the corridor They could both cool their feet in the sea and, hopefully, loosen up, in Ki

Was Mike just a safe option?

He was the only option, and she had wanted to settle on a good lehold on her and turned her hard and cynical

Did she love him?

If love was fa to explain herself, then Mike fitted the bill perfectly No one wanted to be alone Not really

Did Mike love her?

Enough questions! It was ti on shorts and a top, she padded down the corridor to knock on Janey’s door

‘Janey? Are you awake? Can I come in?’

Hearing so out, ‘Yes!’ she took a chance

‘Sorry to wake you so early, but—’ Words froze in her ht of Mike naked in bed, with Janey on top of hi him for all she orth Which wasn’t very much, as it turned out, Kimmie reflected numbly as she stumbled backwards out of the room

CHAPTER ONE

HIS FIRST DAY on Kaiht, Kris had opted to stay on his yacht He’d thought an energetic swim in the sea would wash the cobwebs of the city away but, having reached his favourite beach, he was confronted by a group of tourists, apparently oblivious to the fact that this stretch of sand was his private preserve

Seawater drained off his body as he stepped out of the water and impatiently raked back his hair He was iroup Great breasts, fantastic legs and the th ebony hair streaked with purple Wearing the tiniest bikini he’d ever seen, she was dancing down the dunes to the sound of an old beatbox one of her cohtly coloured chiffon scarf around her waist and it was decorated with so that flashed in the sun Tiny bells attached to it jingled as she s of beads around her neck that if she went in the water, she’d surely sink He liked quirky, but this was ridiculous, though her manner interested hi wild, al to lose and was dancing to blot out souessed her friends were trying to show their support

What the hell? His hackles rose as they started to light a bonfire On his beach! Then soown Did it belong to the quirky wo a face, stepped back, leaving her friends to place it on the funeral pyre

Resentut, but he was keen to see the drama p

lay out As the flarated, the wo formed a protective circle around her, also reone out With only ashes left, she stabbed at the embers with a stick, as if she had to be sure that every ato the stick, she walked to the water’s edge where, tugging a ring off her finger, she flung it into the sea He watched it glint as it went out and glint again as a strong wave brought it straight back onto the beach again The tide orking against her, though she had no idea that the ring had returned as she’d already turned away

Wanting to meet her for so and caught up with her before she reached her friends Holding it out on the palm of his hand, he asked, ‘Is this yours?’

She stared at hiaze dropped to his outstretched hand and she shuddered

‘Take it, or I can toss it back,’ he offered

Ki in her chest Not only had she survived the shock of her life this ood for her friends, she was now confronted by a Titan who end And he was holding out the ring, expecting her to take it

She guessed he was around thirty years old Huge and brutally ly intelligent stare that wouldn’t let her go, and hard, rugged features that looked as if they’d been hewn out of stone completed a picture she had no wish to see His wild mop of thick, inky-black hair was still daht on his sharply etched cheekbones thanks to the thick shading of black stubble that suggested he hadn’t shaved today Tough enough to be a roustabout froht be a local fisherman Deeply bronzed by the eleelo

‘You found it,’ she said la her voice

‘Evidently,’ he confirmed

‘But I don’t understand’ She frowned ‘I just flung it out to sea’

‘And the tide brought it straight back again I thought you’d want to know,’ he relish His voice was deep and husky, and only faintly accented—Greek, she thought, having recognised the familiar intonation So he was a well-travelled roustabout

‘Yes, thank you,’ she said, shading her eyes to stare up at him

‘And now you’d like uessed with an amused quirk of his brow

‘Would you?’

‘Of course’

‘Can you ain?’

‘It won’t ever co at her hand on his arm

What was she thinking?

She wasn’t thinking, Kimmie concluded as she snatched her hand away fro, and stunned a this man had halted her recovery stone dead

But he was as good as his word She watched as he fired the ring so far out to sea she was confident it would never be seen again Her gaze strayed to the for from the back as he was from his front

‘So so around

She alht have caught her staring at hily