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Even though it was late, he decided to stop by the pool deck for a drink. It was empty, the bar closed and most of the sun loungers packed away for the night. He took a seat in a deckchair under the awning, out of sight of the prying lens of any roving paparazzi that had got wind he was on-board, and enjoyed the peaceful sound of the sea slapping against the sides of the nearby vessels and the distant rumble of city traffic.
He heard a doo
r behind him slide open and presumed it was a steward come to see if he wanted something to drink. Then he heard the soft sound of flip-flops crossing the deck and knew it wasn’t a staff member. He watched Lexi Somers stroll to the railing and gaze out over the harbour and back towards Athens.
There wasn’t anything overtly sexual about her in hot pink leggings and a jade-green oversized shirt but he couldn’t take his eyes off her. She had been getting under his skin since the moment he had met her. But he couldn’t for the life of him understand the attraction. She didn’t appear to be like any other woman he’d met before. She was beautiful but didn’t flaunt it, she seemed intelligent and switched on and yet she played children’s games with ease and enthusiasm. And she spoke her mind—a quality he had never admired in a woman before.
In some ways she reminded him of the way his mother had been with Sasha—gentle and loving. Although Leo knew that his mother must have cared for him too, he knew that she had never approved of him. Where Sasha had been gentle, he had been rough. Where Sasha had been passive, he had been aggressive. He remembered that too often she had told him he was just like his father and she hadn’t meant it as a compliment.
He returned his attention to Lexi Somers, who looked almost lost as she gazed out over the water, and he wondered if she was thinking about Paris. About her Parisian lover. Missing him, even.
‘Unless your intention is to be on the cover of the morning paper tomorrow, I suggest you stand back from the railing.’
‘Oh.’ She jumped at the sound of his voice and squinted to where he sat in the semi-darkness, the deck lit only by a few well-spaced down-lights.
‘I didn’t see you sitting back there in the dark.’
Leo crossed one foot over his opposite knee, his hands clasped behind his head as he slouched a little further into his deckchair. ‘So it seems.’
‘I was trying to see if I could see the Parthenon at night. I hear it’s beautiful.’
‘All you’ll see is camera flashes going off if you’re not careful. Or is that what you want?’
‘Oh, yes, that would be great,’ she scoffed. ‘As you can see, I’ve dressed for the occasion.’
Leo reluctantly ran his eyes over her. She looked more than fine to him. ‘They won’t know who you are anyway. And since I wasn’t standing beside you they’re unlikely to dig. Most likely they’ll assume you’re staff. Except if you wander around in that red bikini you had on today. I don’t usually let my staff dress like that when they’re working.’
‘Lucky I’m not staff.’
‘Your choice,’ he said, reminding her of her wish not to be paid for the weekend. Which still irked him. If he was paying her the lines of their relationship would be clearer and he wouldn’t always be thinking of crossing them.
She narrowed her eyes as she walked towards him. ‘I didn’t see you by the pool earlier today.’
‘I was on the bridge.’
‘Spying?’
‘Going over the itinerary with my captain,’ he advised curtly.
‘I was teasing,’ she informed him and Leo felt his teeth gnash together at her amused expression.
She wandered over and stood beside his table. ‘Ty loves the water. In summer we get out buckets and let the kids play with water in the sandpit and he’s first in line. He also loves to run. I don’t know if you noticed but when he gets going he’s—’
‘What’s that you’re holding?’
She glanced at the white plastic object in her hand. ‘A monitor.’
Leo frowned, immediately suspicious. ‘For what?’
‘Ty. It was one of the things I requested on the list I put together this morning.’
‘What’s it for?’
‘If he wakes up and cries out I’ll hear him. It’s a bit like a walkie-talkie but it only transmits signals one way.’
‘You can’t be available to him day and night,’ he said somewhat churlishly.
‘Somebody has to be.’
