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Chapter One

JED SABBIDES shifted restlessly in his seat The plane was beginning its descent, and not before tiht of the delectable Phoebe waiting for him in London He had planned to be in New York for three weeks, but had cut short his trip by a day and rearranged his schedule to work froet back to her

He had to be in Greece by Saturday evening for his father’s birthday, and with the level of frustration he was feeling he had decided after a business lunch that only one night with Phoebe was not going to be enough…A couple of telephone calls and the Sabbides co for him at Kennedy Airport—the five-hour time difference between the two continents was for once a blessing

A frown ed his schedule for a wohts drifted back to the first time he had met Phoebe…

Exiting the elevator on the ground floor of the hotel he was staying at while he assessed the place with a view to purchase, Jed glanced at the girl walking across the foyer and paused for ain appreciation on her feminine form

She was about five-eight, with pale blonde hair that fell in soft waves to her slender shoulders Her profile was exquisite, and the so to distract frolide across the s that would o into overdrive

His arrested gaze followed her as she stepped behind the reception desk and then turned with a suest Her smile took his breath away His attraction was instant, and shockingly physical He ithout a wooing to be his, not for a second conte failure

He approached the reception desk and asked if she could recoood restaurant She tilted back her head, the better to look at him, and he realised she was even aze took in the delicate lines of her oval-shaped face—the creamy skin, the full mouth, and the brilliant blue eyes that now aze, and her eyes widened in instinctive fenition of his masculine interest She actually blushed Later he would learn why she did that

Phoebe in the Greek language , brilliant, and she was all that and more—beautiful with a perfect body and a quick mind

He asked her to have dinner with hi she was not allowed to date guests, but he char him she only worked there at weekends to supple Politics and History at University

He duly checked out, returning the next day to ask Phoebe again for a date and she agreed

He had never met a woman yet who had turned him down—usually they chased hi to wait over a ot her into bed

Mainly because Phoebe shared a house with three other students—two girls Kay and Liz, and the third a guy called John—she had virtually no privacy But she flatly refused to dine with Jed in the suite he kept in one of the family-owned London hotels Her excuse was that she would feel unco seen the kind of women who accompanied men to their rooms for only a few hours in the hotel where she worked

She was a feeeks short of twenty-one, and her youth worried hienuinefor more than he was prepared to offer

It was sheer coincidence, when entering the Eht after Phoebe had left hiain, that he met an old poker buddy of his and found the solution to his problem The man had just been knocked out of the World Serious Poker Tourna place in the casino at the ti to America and wanted someone to caretake his London apartment and his cat Marty while he ay

Casually Jed told Phoebe the story, and asked if she was interested in the job He introduced her to his friend, and when the cat purred and wrapped itself around her ankles she agreed

It was a in situation all round, and finally Jed got further than a goodnight kiss But even then she kept hi another few days!

It was a coincidentally novel solution, and a bit devious, he knew—but Jed was a cynic where the female of the species was concerned, and kneell worth the wait

Pheobe surprised hily she was the er and most incredibly responsive lover he had ever had…

That had been twelve o, he suddenly realised—another first for hi in all his thirty years

With his experience of woo realised wealth was his iven his father was now

Not that it e of twenty-five he’d becoht—courtesy of the internet at first, as a student at university having played poker on line, and then he hadon the financial , but one that made better use of his brilliant mind He’d set up his own company, JS Investments, and never looked back

At his father’s request he had agreed to join the fa on with his own business, and had soon virtually taken over the running of the Sabbides Corporation, which had for decades specialised in hotels as well as other areas of the leisure industry The company was now incredibly successful, but Jed’s relationship with his father—always strained—had becoly bad