THEIR PROGRESS THROUGH the private airport was swift. Once they were on the plane one of the male attendants drew Nik apart as Chloe and Eugenie were seated.
Their conversation in rapid Greek lasted a few moments.
‘I’m travelling up front,’ he said to Chloe as he moved past her.
‘Can I come too?’ Eugenie cried in the act of unclipping her belt.
‘You’re grounded, or I’m assuming you will be, so no...behaving badly doesn’t get rewarded, kiddo.’ He flicked her nose affectionately with his finger and walked on, vanishing through the cockpit door.
‘I’m going to get my pilot’s licence as soon as I’m old enough. Uncle Nik got his when he was seventeen.’
Did that mean he was flying the plane now? Chloe wondered, tensing a little as the plane started taxiing; she was fine with flying but the take-off and landing always tied her stomach in knots.
Once they were in the air, Chloe accepted the offer of tea but refused anything to eat. Eugenie, who seemed to have recovered from her brush with the law, tucked into some hot beef sandwiches.
She finished and sighed in pleasure. Chloe pointed to her chin and the teen wiped away the spot of relish there.
‘So how long does it take to get to Spetses airport?’
The girl looked surprised by the question. ‘Oh, there isn’t an airport on the island. We land at the small private airport just on the mainland opposite and then we’ll fly over on the helicopter.’
Questioning her decision not to simply hand Eugenie over to her uncle when she’d had the chance, Chloe took a sip of her tea. The return flight might not be as simple to organise as she had imagined.
* * *
On the helicopter trip over from the mainland Chloe sat next to Eugenie, who went into tour-guide mode the minute they took off. By the time they landed Chloe felt pretty well informed about the island of Spetses and its aristocratic heritage; she could have written a paper about the colourful mansions, the history of blockade running, its significance in the Napoleonic wars, and its long association with the master sailors.
While Chloe was being educated, Nik sat next to the pilot in the cockpit. The two men obviously knew one another pretty well and, with his sleeves rolled up and his dark hair tousled, Nik looked relaxed and very different from the man she remembered from that night in the bar.
Or for that matter from any time since.
It would be very easy, she mused, to let her defences down with this Nik. Just as well she was only here to chaperone Eugenie.
She turned her head at the sound of a phone ringing, struggling to make itself heard against the noise of the helicopter.
‘It’s Mum, for you,’ Eugenie said, holding her own phone out for Chloe.
Chloe pressed the phone close against her ear, raising her voice above the background noise. ‘Hello.’
‘How can I ever thank you, Chloe?’
‘No thanks required. I’m glad I could help.’
‘How is she?’
‘Fine.’ She gave the worried-looking teenager a thumbs-up signal. ‘I know a great deal about Spetses now. Did you know that Spetsiots were heroes of the War of Independence?’ Chloe was pleased to hear the older woman laugh, then listened to her friend launch into another fulsome apology for imposing on her. ‘Eugenie was no problem,’ she said honestly, adding when Tatiana made sceptical noises, ‘It was good practice for when I have my own children...’ She lifted the phone away and waited for the static crackle to subside before shouting, ‘I said it was good practice for when I have my own children!’
It was only when she realised the signal had cut out and she lowered the phone that she realised Nik was standing right beside her, so there was zero chance he’d not heard every word she’d said. But if she’d had any doubts his first comment dispelled them.
‘Thinking of starting any time soon?’
Working on the assumption that if she ignored her blush he might not notice, she managed a small laugh. ‘My body clock is not ticking too loudly just yet.’
‘Just wanted to say, another five minutes and we’ll be landing.’ He turned away and moved back to the cockpit.
Once he’d gone, Chloe closed her eyes and pushed her fist against her mouth to stifle her loud groan. The other hand was pressed to her chest, where her heart was performing all sorts of life-threatening gymnastics.
It was ridiculous...bewildering and humiliating. Why did she react this way to him? What was it about him that seemed to tap into something inside her...a need...a hunger...? An image of the answering hunger she had glimpsed in his eyes flashed into her head and her heart gave a heavy traitorous thud then started cantering crazily again.
She was complaining a hell of a lot, Chloe reflected, but if she really didn’t want Nik chasing her, throwing temptation in her way, why hadn’t she done something about it?
She could.
And she knew it. There was a fail-safe way, a one-hundred-per-cent-guaranteed method to make him back off at her disposal... It wasn’t as if she’d even have to show him; just using the words would have the desired effect. She could casually throw into the conversation that she had some ugly scars and always would have.
In Nik’s head she was perfect. She inhaled and lifted her chin, a little smile playing across her mouth. She had been perfect and she had taken it for granted. Strange how you didn’t appreciate something until it was gone.
The smile vanished and along with it the enduring sadness; she’d been lucky and she knew it. She no longer wallowed in self-pity or asked herself why it had to happen to her.
She contented herself with imagining that one day there would be a man in her life; of course, he might not make her think of passionate, all-consuming sex the moment she saw him but there were other, more important things in a relationship...deeper things that lasted the test of time.
It would be nice to have both, but she was a realist and she knew few people were that lucky.
* * *
They had disembarked the helicopter when Nik joined them, his tall, broad-shouldered figure drawing glances from the handful of fellow travellers that hovered nearby. Watching his approach through the shield of her lashes, Chloe had to admit it was not surprising he drew every eye; he might be the most irritating man on the planet with an ego to match, but he was also the most supremely elegant and by far the sexiest.
‘If you don’t mind I’ll hang around for a bit and hand Eugenie over to her mum personally,’ she said.
There was a slight time delay before he responded and the enigmatic smile that briefly tugged at the corners of his mouth troubled her, but as she’d been geared up for an argument his non-reaction was a bit of an anticlimax.
‘The car should be waiting; it’s this way.’ His gesture invited Chloe to step ahead of him.
The waiting car was another long, shiny monster, and as they approached the driver jumped out, a Greek version of Fred.
Nik called out to him in Greek, the man called something back in response and walked around to the passenger door, but before he had a chance to open it an open-topped Jeep driven at speed drew up behind it. Chloe stepped back from the cloud of dust it threw up, but before it had even settled Tatiana, wearing a cotton shirt over a tee shirt and shorts, her shiny bell of dark hair pulled back off her make-up-free face in a severe ponytail, jumped out.
Chloe felt the teenager beside her tense and heard her sharp intake of breath, before she stuck out her chin and quavered out defiantly, ‘Before you say anything—’
‘How could you?’ her mother ground out.
‘I...’ Without warning the youngster’s belligerence vanished and she started to sob heartbrokenly. A second later she was in her mother’s arms being told everything would be all right. Chin resting on her daughter’s head, a shiny-eyed Tatiana shot a look of gratitude in Chloe’s direction.
‘We are so, so grateful to you, Chloe.’
‘It’s fine. I’m glad I could help.’
The image of Chloe sniffing into a tissue at the scene in front of her while she blinked hard made something tighten in Nik’s chest, but he ignored it and drawled out sarcastically, ‘Are you going to cry too?’
‘I am not crying!’ Chloe snapped back, blowing her nose hard.
‘Do you mind travelling back with Nik?’ Tatiana asked, glancing at her brother for the first time. ‘I could do with talking one to one with this one.’ She kissed the top of her daughter’s head. ‘Alone.’
Chloe minded very much. In fact, the idea of sharing the back seat of the limo with Nik filled her with horror, but she hid her feelings behind a smile and shook her head.
‘Actually I don’t mind waiting here to catch a lift straight back to the mainland.’
Tatiana looked blank and then shocked. ‘You don’t think we’d let you go straight back, do you? Heavens, you’re here as our guest for as long as you like.’
‘I couldn’t possibly stay.’ Chloe tried to sound firm, but all she sounded was tired as she lifted a hand to her ticcing eyelid.
‘Perhaps Chloe has other places to be.’ And other people she’d rather be with, he thought sourly, and the silent addition caused the line between his dark brows to deepen.
‘You can’t fly straight back,’ Tatiana argued.
‘Not unless she sprouts wings,’ Nik inserted drily. ‘Marco is refuelling the jet and then heading straight off to Düsseldorf.’
He slid effortlessly into Greek as he added something to Tatiana, who nodded in agreement.
‘Well, that settles it, then, you’ll stay with us...at least for tonight...to let me say thank you...?’
‘But your grandmother is unwell...’ Chloe began searching desperately for a legitimate reason to refuse their hospitality, or at least a reason that wasn’t, I really can’t be around your brother because I don’t want to be reminded of something I want but can’t have, and shouldn’t even want to begin with!
It sounded convoluted even in her own head, but then so was her relationship with Nik. Except she didn’t have a relationship with Nik. She closed one eye as the eyelid tic started up again.
‘She’s a lot better.’
‘Yaya is a tough old bird,’ Nik said gruffly, the warmth in his voice when he spoke of his grandmother unmistakeable.
And I’m sure there are some serial killers who love their grannies too, Chloe reminded herself as she fought hard against any lowering of the levels of antagonism that she felt were essential to maintain. Bad enough that she lusted after him, liking him as well would be too, too much to take.
‘Well, that’s settled, you’ll follow us,’ Tatiana announced.
Chloe, who was pretty sure that she hadn’t agreed to anything, not that that seemed to bother anyone in the Latsis family, opened her mouth to protest but Tatiana was telling Eugenie to throw her bag in the back. ‘Or, better still, Nik can take the scenic route and show Chloe...oh, no!’ Her eyes slid past her brother and her enthusiasm morphed into dismay. ‘Get in the car,’ she said sharply to her daughter, then, after adding something urgent-sounding in Greek to Nik, she climbed in beside the girl and slipped back into English, saying hastily, ‘Sorry, Nik, but I don’t want Eugenie to get caught up in this.’
Nik, who had turned to follow the direction his sister was looking, nodded. ‘You get going. Chloe, get in the car.’
Tatiana was already starting up the engine and Chloe couldn’t help turning round to see what had caused her friend to rush off.
There was a woman approaching them, about fifty feet or so away now, who was by turns running then walking, or rather stumbling, towards them, her uncoordinated gait suggesting she’d been drinking.
Chloe didn’t have a clue what was happening, but she was the only one, it seemed. Even the driver, who had murmured something in Greek to Nik and got back behind the wheel after receiving a nod in response, seemed to be in the know, but she did recognise an order when she heard one. She told herself she wouldn’t have obeyed him on principle, even if she hadn’t been eaten up with curiosity to discover what was going on!
‘I said—’ Nik began, still not looking at her, but Chloe could feel the tension coming off him in waves. His taut profile looked grey and grim, and the muscles along his clenched jawline were set like iron.
‘I heard you, which isn’t the same as obeying you,’ she said calmly.
He turned his dark head then, flashing her a look of seething impatience, and ground out, ‘I really don’t have time for this now.’
The woman was close enough now for Chloe to see that she was correct in surmising that the woman was drunk; she could smell the alcohol from yards away. So, it seemed, could Nik, who set his shoulders and turned back with an air of forced resignation as he waited until she was within hearing distance.
‘Hello, Helena.’
The woman was probably pretty when she remembered to comb her hair and her eyes weren’t lost in black-smudged circles of mascara that had been washed by tears running in dark rivers down her face.
The sound coming from her was half sob, half breathless pant as she walked straight past Chloe, her attention totally focused on Nik, her eyes burning with hatred.
Nik didn’t move an inch as the woman staggered up to him, glaring.
‘I wake up every morning wishing you were dead!’ she slurred. ‘I wish I was dead!’
The mixture of venom and despair in her voice sent an ice-cold chill down Chloe’s spine but Nik just stood there. What made it all the more bizarre was that he didn’t look angry, he looked...sad, compassionate and, most telling of all, guilty.
Chloe’s imagination went into overdrive. What had he done to this woman?
‘I’m so sorry,’ he said finally.
The woman’s face screwed up and an anguished high-pitched shriek left her open mouth as she pulled back her arm and aimed a closed-fisted blow that made contact with Nik’s cheek.
Chloe gasped in alarm, her hand going to her own cheek, but he just stood there and continued to do so as the woman started to pound his chest with her flailing fists, shrieking hysterically the whole time.
As the frenzied attack showed no sign of abating, although God knew where the woman got the strength from, the shock that had held Chloe immobile abated.
‘No!’ She wasn’t even aware that she’d voiced her protest or had moved forward until Nik looked at her and moved his head in a negative motion.
It was the total absence of anger in his austere, strong-boned face that hit her, that and the profound sadness. It added a deep ache of empathy to the already present confusion and horror—too many layers of emotion for Chloe to comprehend.
His headshake coincided with the woman running out of steam and she finally slumped her head against Nik’s chest, weeping in a way that hurt to listen to.
After a moment Nik lifted a tentative hand to her head, smoothing the tangles of hair down in a gentle stroking motion.
‘I’ll take her.’
Her focus totally on the tableau before her, Chloe hadn’t heard the approach of a man wearing a harassed expression. ‘Come on, honey, that’s it. I didn’t know where you’d got to.’ The woman lifted her head slightly at the sound of his voice.
‘The bastard should be dead!’
For all the reaction Nik showed to this venomous declaration he might as well have been, the skin drawn tight across the prominent bones on his face giving them the appearance of stone.
The stranger took the weeping woman, who reminded Chloe of a puppet whose strings had been severed, and pulled her against him, wrapping a supportive arm around her ribs as he half dragged, half lifted her away from Nik. ‘Sorry, you know she doesn’t mean it; she doesn’t know what she’s saying.’ The woman continued to weep uncontrollably as she slumped up against him.
The stranger looked from the woman he held to Nik with an expression that brought a lump to Chloe’s throat. ‘It’s not always this bad, but it’s particularly hard today...’
Nik nodded, his face still granite.
‘She’s been drinking all morning. I thought maybe being here with family would help.’ He stopped and shook his head. ‘Bad idea. I stopped for gas and she must have seen you... I had no idea that you’d be here.’
‘Neither did I. It was an unexpected visit. Is there anything I can do...?’
The woman’s head lifted at that. ‘Haven’t you done enough already?’ she slurred, before pressing her face back into the man’s shoulder as he turned and began to walk away down the road.
Nik watched for a few moments before he looked at Chloe. Some of the rigidity had gone from his tense posture, but not the lines of tension bracketing his mouth or the shadow in his eyes. ‘Have you seen enough now?’
She flinched, but didn’t react to the unspoken accusation, which was both harsh and unjust, that she had taken some voyeuristic pleasure at the scene she had witnessed.
‘Are you all right?’ she asked, wincing inside at the crassness of her words, and she wasn’t surprised when he just flashed her a look.
The muscles along his taut jaw tensed as he turned away. He didn’t want or deserve Chloe’s sympathy.
Are you all right? she’d asked. Well, he was certainly more all right than the man who would have been thirty-five today if he’d lived. An image floated in his head, of Charlie grinning as he delivered the punchline of one of his terrible jokes, Charlie looking guilty when he explained this would be the last time they worked together because he was letting his lovely Helena finally make an honest man of him.
Nik remembered feeling pleased that he’d managed to guilt Charlie into one last assignment, though he hadn’t succeeded in planting a seed of doubt in his friend’s mind when he’d predicted that Charlie wouldn’t be able to live without the adrenaline buzz.
You know when it’s time to quit, Charlie had said.