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PROLOGUE

THEO LOOKED AT his watch again She was late This wasn’t the first ti school at night, but this time felt different She’d said that she had a surprise for hiht have been

Knowing Sofia, it could be anything She was like that Impulsive, reckless, often secretiveandwhile to believe that she wasn’t like the other kids at this school This school that he hated

He wasn’t naïve He knew attending a school this reputable was a thing he could not take for granted—even if at every single turn the other students tried to make hi to realise that he was not wanted, the poor illegitied a shoulder at the train of his thoughts Why should here be any different to the way he had been brought up in Greece, with his mother’s family?

The teachers were hardly any better than the students If there was so to be blarades At seventeen he already had scholarship offers at so he’d do to jeopardise that No, Theo Tersi was going to make damn sure that he never had to return to his mother’s family vineyards in the Peloponnese He would be a banker, so in finance He wanted an office, like his mother’s current employer who had paid for his education here He would never scrabble around in the dust like his uncles and cousins—the ones who had taunted hiainst the bullies here He couldn’t Not without risking everything he’d worked so hard for Because he wanted more For hisof rejection and shaot out of this school, once he finished university, he would ain

He looked again at his watch, the round white face gleaht Where was she? Sofia was usually already waiting for hiht see its breath, as if in expectation

And he felt it too That anticipation, thefro behind He still had to pinch himself sometimes Never quite sure if he could really believe that someone like her would really be interested in so to tell her Tell her that he loved her That he wanted her to be with him when he left for universitythat he wanted the life they had often talked about having in the last six er and distrust he’d first met her with, she’d broken down the barriers all the taunts and cruel tricks the other students had thrown his way

She had been the one bright thing in his days at school over the last fewhis life had si whatever it took to get through the day He’d hated how his mother was treated by her familybecause of him, because of the father he’d never met, and never wanted to The move from Greece to Switzerland had been a fresh start for theinable for a housekeeper and her son

And no matter what people threw at hi that it would get him to where he wanted to be But the moment he’d first seen Sofiathe way her oceanic blue eyes had sparkled with mischief, the way his heart had kicked and thrashed, as if for the first ti more from life than just lessons and deter He felt that sale time he saw her

She had this air about her, as if nothing bad could ever touch her And it was addictive He leant into it every chance he could get But he worried about her, wanted to protect her fro another stunt, the headmaster had been clear—they would be expelled He doubted they’d ever guess it was the sweet, innocent-looking blonde angel she appeared to be But he couldn’t deny that it was exactly that strange, thrilling combination of innocence and recklessness that had first drawn him to her

He wasn’t quite sure what