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Crack teauards were employed to keep rubber-neckers, journalists and ex-lovers at bay Frogmen would swin jetties, before their luxury yacht was given the all-clear to sail into harbour When he was growing up, Alek didn’t knohat it was like not to be tailed by the shadowy presence of souard And then one day he had escaped At fifteen, he had walked away, leaving his ho his ties with theone from fabulous wealth to near penury but had eer would he be tainted by his father’s fortune Everything he owned, he would earn for himself and that was exactly what he’d done It was the one thing in life he could be proud of His

He realised that the waitress was still waiting for an answer to his question and that she no longer seeet off duty He s his heart beat a little faster ‘Because I grew up on a Greek island where there were no trains and few buses’

‘Sounds idyllic,’ she said

Alek’s smile faded It was such a cliché The ht you were talking about paradise, because that was the ie they’d been fed But serpents lurked in paradise, didn’t they? There were any nuly white houses which overlooked the deep blue sea There were all kinds of dark secrets which lay hidden at the heart of seely normal lives Hadn’t he found that out, the hard way? ‘It looked very idyllic fros are rarely what they see a little deeper’

‘I suppose not,’ she said She transferred the tray to her other hand ‘And does your family still live there?’

His s into wet concrete His family? That wouldn’t be his word of choice to describe the people who had raised him His father’s whores had done their best, with limited success—but surely even they were better than no mother at all Than one who’d run out on you and never cared enough to lift the phone to find out how you were

‘No,’ he said ‘The island was sold after my father died’

‘A whole island?’ Her lips parted ‘You mean your father actually owned an island?’

Another stab of lust went kicking to his groin as her lips parted If he’d announced that he had a home on Mars, she couldn’t have lookedwealth could be—especially to soht have trouble getting her head around solanced at her hands and, for soht of her unmanicured nails only intensified his desire and he realised that he hadn’t been entirely honest when he’d told her he wasn’t planning to drag her away to a dark corner He thought he’d like that very much

‘You’ve been standing there so long that you’ve probably come to the end of your shift,’ he said drily ‘You could have had that drink with me after all’

‘I suppose I could’ Ellie hesitated He was so persistent Flatteringly so She wondered why Because he’d been almost friendly since he’d helped with the little boy who’d cut his knee? Or because she’d displayed a degree of reluctance to spend time with him and he wasn’t used to that? Probably She wondered what it must be like, to be Alek Sarantos—so sure of yourself that nobody ever turned you down

‘What are you so scared of?’ he taunted ‘Don’t you think I’entleman?’

It was one of those life-defining moments Sensible Ellie would have shaken her head and said no thanks She would have carried the tray back to the kitchen, unlocked her bike and cycled hoht and the powerful scent of the roses wereher feel the opposite of sensible The last time a man had asked her on a date—and you couldn’t really call this a date—was over a year ago She’d been working such unsociable hours that there hadn’t been a lot of opportunity for down time

She looked into his eyes ‘I hadn’t really thought about it’

‘Well, think about it now You’ve been waiting on e? I have a fridge stocked with liquor I haven’t touched If you’re hungry, I can feed you chocolate or apricots’ He rose to his feet and raised his eyebrows ‘So why don’t I pour you a glass of chane?’