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Sybella shook her head at the figures involved but mostly the weight Nik must have carried all those years, wanting to restore his father’s reputation and unable to do so.
It wasn’t just the absence of his brother that had weighted him down but the loss of his father’s legacy.
‘At least she’s out of your lives. Is she out of your lives?’
Nik consulted his watch. ‘How about we take the tender to a cove near here and I’ll show you some of the sights?’
Sybella was changing into shorts and a T-shirt when she realised Nik had once again very neatly sidestepped her question for the second time.
* * *
An afternoon spent ashore, climbing to a lookout with spectacular views of the coast, concluded with a swim at dusk near the boat.
The water was warm and Sybella’s legs entangled around his, her hair falling in heavy ropes over her shoulders like the mermaid he’d discovered she was, her arms looped around his neck.
Talking about his brother and his stepmother this morning had brought the two sides of his life dangerously close together.
He didn’t want to think about his plans for Galina and the money she’d extorted out of him when he was with Sybella. She made it seem unimportant, and, worse, mean and small. Like a spiteful act she wouldn’t recognise him as being capable of.
She bobbed in the water in front of him, holding onto him like her own personal life buoy.
‘So have you met him? Your real dad?’ She was gazing into his eyes as if daring him to change the subject.
Trust Sybella to be worrying over this.
‘I’ve got a name. I know where he is.’
‘And?’
‘Helsinki.’
‘And?’
‘I still haven’t done anything about it. I don’t know if I ever will. I mean, he has a family, a life. I’m busy.’
He could feel her stroking the back of his neck, treating him like Fleur or one of those damned rabbits she kept. Only he found he didn’t mind because it was Sybella.
‘No, you’re not. You’re just like all of us, a little afraid of what might happen when we let down our guard with other people.’
‘Is that what I am, dushka?’ He tried not to sound too disparaging of her well-meant words.
‘You know you are.’ She smiled at him as if she knew all his cynical thoughts but didn’t believe one of them.
The truth was it was getting harder and harder to hold onto that cynicism when he was around Sybella. Her lashes were wet and sticking around her eyes like a doll’s. She was so beautiful it hurt. Did she know how strange it was for him, letting another person into his head like this?
‘I’ve let my guard down with you,’ he said, almost as a warning, although to her or to him he wasn’t sure.
Her arms tightened around him and he could hear her breathing quicken, the almost ferocious way she hung onto him as if that was all she’d wanted to hear, and it answered a need in him he hadn’t known until now existed.
‘How lucky you are, to at least have known one dad, and now you have a chance with another,’ she said urgently. ‘Don’t let that chance go by, Nik.’
She meant it, and coming from Sybella with her history it had a great deal of force.
He put his mouth close to her ear. ‘How lucky your Simon was, to be first in your heart.’
Sybella’s grip tightened. ‘He’s not first in my heart any more.’
* * *
They were flying home to Heathrow in his jet from Cape Town International Airport when Sybella, comfortable in a ridiculously luxurious seat, began to giggle.
Nik, standing over her with two glasses of bubbly, raised an eyebrow.
‘What’s so funny?’
She looked up, smiling at him. ‘One day I’ll be telling this story and no one will believe me.’
‘What, is it the champagne? I thought you’d appreciate it before you were back in that storybook cottage of yours hiding spirits in the airing cupboard.’
‘How do you know about that?’
‘Your mother-in-law at the restaurant.’
Sybella rolled her eyes.
‘So this is my last taste of luxury?’ she queried lightly as she accepted her glass, because suddenly they were bang, smack in the middle of making decisions.
