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‘She told you that?’
‘Stella is your greatest fan.’
‘And now, I have more plans, bigger plans.’
Tino’s enthusiasm was infectious. ‘What are your plans, Tino? Please tell me about them.’
‘Well…I am going to have more places like Stellamaris.’
‘More islands?’ Lisa drew up in amazement.
‘I’m sorry, pethi mou, you do not know.’
‘I don’t know what?’
‘When I bought Stellamaris, I named it for Stella, and then I used it as my base.’
‘Your base? You mean for your business?’
‘For my other business.’
‘Stop talking in riddles,’ Lisa warned, dropping a kiss on his chest.
‘I bring young people to Stellamaris, and some older people too…to find themselves. The island is a sanctuary, a place to start again, and for some, a place to start. Many of the people on Stellamaris began their lives in orphanages. I make sure there is training there for everyone, and that Stella visits frequently. Stella was my inspiration, and now she is theirs.’
‘Now I understand why you’re so close to Arianna.’
‘Stella was a single mother, and it was very hard for her back then. Don’t look so impressed, Lisa. I don’t deserve any praise. I did nothing special…it was all Stella’s doing. All I have ever done is give people the tools to help themselves. Their achievements are all their own.’
‘And now?’ Lisa looked at him intently. ‘Tell me about your new plans?’
‘They’re not so much new, as an extension of my existing scheme. I have accumulated massive wealth, and now I want to use that money to help others as Stella helped me. I want to extend my programme right across Greece to begin with.’
‘Nothing too ambitious, then,’ Lisa teased him gently.
‘Very ambitious,’ Tino admitted, ‘and because of that I will need someone at my side. I can’t even start the work I want to do until I find that one special person—someone who shares my aims, my desires, my dreams…someone who knows what it feels like to be on the outside looking in. Can you be that person, Lisa?’
‘Are you offering me a job?’
Tino tilted his head as he pretended to consider this. ‘Can you think of anyone better qualified to take on this task than a successful businesswoman who has accepted that she can delegate some of her duties to other members of her team at Bond Steel, a woman who has suddenly discovered she has a heart, a woman who knows what it is to be an outcast, a woman of principle, a woman who is every bit as driven as I am, a woman who has recently declared she is looking for radical change in her life?’
Closing her eyes, Lisa took time over framing her answer. ‘All this—’ she touched his face gently in wonder ‘—and a new job in just one working week.’
‘Exactly as we planned,’ Tino pointed out. ‘We make a great team.’
‘And if I was looking for something more?’
‘Something more?’
‘More than just a job, more than simply joining your organisation to help you with this new project?’ She tensed as Tino stretched beyond her to reach for his clothes. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Looking for something…’
Seeing the velvet case, Lisa exclaimed with concern. ‘You were supposed to take those back.’
‘Surely you didn’t expect me to take them back to the shop after you’d worn them, did you?’
Remembering where she’d worn them, Lisa blushed. ‘Perhaps not.’
