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‘I mean...’ Nico shrugged, eyes on the road as he manoeuvred the car away from the airport and along the steaming tarmac framed with lush green, beyond which was the flat blue sea ‘...I was expecting something slightly...bigger and more...how shall I put it? More...tourist-oriented than what confronted me.’
‘But how could you not know what to expect? Haven’t you been here before?’
Nico took his time answering. When he was growing up, mention of his black sheep uncle had always been accompanied by disapproving frowns and muttered oaths. He knew the story of Sander as much as everyone else did. A waste of space whose vices had come close to threatening the survival of the family empire. A man so addicted to self-indulgence and so willing to fight tooth and nail to feed his habits that extreme measures had been taken to limit the damage he could do. To get rid of him.
Raised on a diet of self-discipline and the mantra that doing the right thing involved making sure the company was never jeopardised because it was bigger than just the Doukas family, Nico found everything his uncle had represented personally unacceptable.
Yes, Nico enjoyed a playboy lifestyle. Yes, he enjoyed women and he enjoyed sex, but when it came to the family holdings and his own considerable empire he had always known that his duty lay in sober considerations. There would be no room for anything other than the path his own father had followed. He would wed a suitable wife and emotions would never be allowed to destroy what had been built.
Secretly, Nico had a deeply buried fear that his own personality was far more like his uncle’s than he cared to admit, which made it all the more imperative that he maintain self-control.
He slanted assessing eyes at his companion in the passenger seat because she had asked a valid question.
It was ironic that, while she knew so much about the way he worked and, frankly, the person he was, she knew so little about the actual nuts and bolts of his life. Although, as she had rightly pointed out, he kept to himself exactly what he didn’t want the rest of the world to know. When he thought about it, she was different from any of the other women who had entered and departed his life. Actually, she wasverydifferent, because she actually knew him, with the kind of intangible familiarity that came when you worked alongside someone for a long time. She could practically read his mind when it came to certain things!
But when it came to the details of his personal life? Those were closely guarded. Nico had long ago worked out that to maintain control of your life where it mattered, it was important that you let nothing go. Start opening up and things stood a good chance of unravelling like a ball of wool.
However, here they were and his secretary, until recently a closed book, would inevitably end up knowing something of his life whether he felt inclined to impart the information or not.
Nico told himself that it didn’t matter. Grace was his secretary. She wasn’t his lover. Lovers clung to confidences, read meaning into them, hoped for more. As his secretary, she would listen, skim over the personal and focus on the practical, namely the business of sorting out the hotel along with everything else.
Except things had changed between them...hadn’t they?
Nico shrugged off that fleeting thought.
They were driving slowly, the winding road fringed with trees and foliage, swaying palms tilting up to the blue sky, houses interrupting the green landscape.
He’d only been on the island for a day and a half, but he already knew how to get around it because it was small and the main road was the artery from which smaller roads meandered off into the hills.
He took one of those side roads now.
At the corner, in front of a patchwork of flimsy houses, a dark-skinned woman was sitting in front of a stall that was bursting with vibrant colours of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Ahead, the broad, smooth road turned into a more winding track, although it was still possible for two cars to pass one another. Not that the island was bustling with traffic. The small town was busy, with a humming central market, but away from that the tributary of roads, winding through little pockets of houses and shops and all leading to beaches of some sort, were largely quiet.
‘I’ve never been to this part of the world before,’ Nico admitted heavily. ‘Why would I?’
‘But surely if your uncle lived here... I mean, it’s so beautiful...’ She slid a sidelong glance at him and smiled. ‘If I had a close relative living in a place like this, you’d have to lock me up and throw away the key to stop me from flying over and demanding accommodation at least once a year.’
Nico burst out laughing. ‘I can’t relax where there’s nothing to do,’ he admitted. ‘Lying on a beach staring at the sea isn’t my thing.’
‘I can’t think of anything better,’ Grace mused. She shrugged. ‘But I guess to each their own. Why have you never been here? Aside from not liking holidays that aren’t action-packed? Didn’t you want to visit your uncle? Or did he prefer to go to Greece to see your family? What brought him over here in the first place?’
‘Long story.’
‘And one you don’t want to tell? Nico, it doesn’t matter.’
Nico glanced across to her, but she was turned away, her head slightly tilted to appreciate the warm breeze against her face, her eyes half closed as she gazed out at the stupendous passing scenery.
She hadn’t pushed for details and suddenly he felt an urge to do more than just volunteer scant information because, really, what business was his background story to her?
For once, slamming the door on a question that breached his boundary lines felt like overkill.
Besides, did she care one way or another if he answered? Then he thought of that simmering spark that had been lit under them weeks before, the spark she’d made sure to douse.
Maybe she did care...maybe more than those cool eyes revealed...
There was a soft smile tugging her lips as she enjoyed the heat and the sprawling, lush beauty.
