After the Greek Affair

CHAPTER THREE

‘MOST of this side of Aura is covered in forest,’ Loukas explained as they approached the island and Belle remarked on the distinctive dark green cypress trees that flanked the shoreline, standing like silent sentinels guarding the land.

There was no beach; the grey rocky cliffs sloped down to the sea, forming a natural harbour where a wooded jetty had been built. The sea appeared a brilliant turquoise colour from a distance, but as Loukas steered the boat into the shallows the water was so crystal-clear that Belle could see shoals of tiny fish darting like silver arrows. Fascinated by them, she leaned over and trailed her hand in the water, watching their scales glint and gleam in the sunlight.

‘Aren’t they beautiful?’ she murmured, pushing her long hair over her shoulder.

Loukas fought the urge to run his fingers through the silky blonde strands, and concentrated on tying the boat securely to a post on the jetty. ‘Speaking as the son of a fisherman, I don’t think much of them; they’d only make a couple of mouthfuls,’ he muttered.

‘Oh, I wouldn’t want to eat them. They’re far too pretty.’ Belle laughed, her resentment of Loukas’s high- handed manner forgotten as she lifted her head and glanced about her, drinking in the view of the dense blue sky and sea and the rugged grey cliffs, which at close hand she could see were covered in a profusion of tiny pink flowers. ‘What a heavenly place,’ she said softly, the tension that had gripped her when they had left Kea seeping away.

Loukas could not look away from her. A man could drown in the depths of those incredible blue eyes, he brooded. And as for her smile! It lit up her gamine face and turned her classical features from beautiful to breathtaking.

He gave an impatient snort. Trouble! He’d known that was what Belle Andersen spelt. He should have followed his first instinct when he had seen her dainty figure teetering along the quay in her stiletto heels and turned the boat around. Instead he had brought her to his home—an honour he rarely conferred upon any woman, including his mistresses. Aura was his private haven, a place of peace and tranquillity where he could relax away from the pressures of work.

Right now he felt anything but relaxed, he thought derisively as he took Belle’s hand to help her step onto the jetty, and inhaled the delicate floral fragrance of her perfume. His body had been aroused since he had lifted her into the boat at Kea and her breasts had brushed against his chest, and now, with his eyes drawn to the delightful sway of her bottom as she preceded him along the jetty, he could feel his erection straining uncomfortably beneath his jeans.

‘Theos,’ he growled beneath his breath. All he needed on top of running his business empire and arranging Larissa’s wedding was an inconvenient attraction to a beautiful blonde who had the face of an angel but possessed a surprisingly sharp tongue.

A path ran from the jetty and climbed fairly steeply, disappearing around an outcrop of rock. ‘It’s only about a five-minute walk up to the house,’ Loukas explained as he picked up both the suitcases, ‘but the path is uneven in places.’ He glanced down at Belle’s new, shiny black patent stilettos that were probably her pride and joy, and grimaced. ‘Do you think you’ll manage? You might be better to change into more sensible footwear.’

Sensible! How she hated that word, Belle thought fiercely. It took her back in time to the countless arguments she’d had with John when she had been a teenager about her shoes, clothes, make-up. ‘I won’t allow any daughter of mine to go around looking like a slut,’ had been his favourite refrain, his face turning purple with temper, and his sergeant-major bark echoing through the house. He had known, of course—although back then Belle had not—that she was not his daughter. She had been a constant reminder of her mother’s infidelity and John had taken his bitterness out on her. Heels higher than an inch had been banned, along with short skirts and tight jeans—all the modern things that her friends wore. ‘You’ll do as I say because I’m the adult and you’re a child.’

Rebelliousness had burned in Belle’s heart every time John had bossed her around, and now the supercilious expression on Loukas’s face evoked the same mutinous feeling.

‘I always wear heels, and I can walk perfectly well in them,’ she told him coolly. ‘I’m sure I’ll manage the path fine.’ Head held high, she swung round, caught her heel on a tuft of grass at the edge of the path and stumbled, only saved from falling by Loukas’s lightning reactions as he dropped the cases and grabbed her arm.

‘Yes, I can see you’re as sure-footed as a mountain goat,’ he said dryly. ‘Let’s try again—carefully. And you’d better wear this.’ He plonked her hat unceremoniously onto her head. ‘The sun is at its hottest in the late afternoon, and with your fair skin you’ll burn to the colour of a boiled lobster in no time.’

Without waiting to hear her reply he picked up the cases once more and strode ahead of her up the path, not turning his head to see if she was following.

Arrogant, pig-headed… Belle took a deep breath and marched behind him, her eyes focused on the ground to make sure she did not trip. On one hand Loukas made her feel five years old. But there had been nothing childlike about her response to him when he had lifted her into his boat, she thought ruefully, flushing as she remembered how her nipples had tingled when her breasts had brushed against his chest.

She sighed. Her unexpected attraction to Loukas was another complication to add to the fraught situation of trying to complete Larissa’s wedding dress within a very tight deadline. She could only pray Larissa had spoken the truth when she’d said that her brother spent much of his time at his offices in Athens and often stayed at his apartment in the city, because she hoped to have as little to do with him as possible.

The path wound up to the top of the cliff, and at the summit Belle paused to take in the view. An endless expanse of shimmering blue sea was on one side, dotted with islands, the closest of which was Kea. To the other side of her the landscape of Aura was mainly grey rock, green vegetation, tall, slender cypress trees and dense olive groves, beneath which grew a carpet of brilliant red spring poppies.

‘Do many people live on the island?’ she asked Loukas, who had slowed his pace so that she could catch up with him. ‘I see there is a village down in the valley.’

‘Many years ago a small community, mainly fishermen, lived here. My father was born on Aura. But Kea has a bigger harbour, and gradually everyone moved away, leaving the island uninhabited until I bought it three years ago.’

‘So no one lives in those houses?’

‘My household staff and their families live in the village now. Many of the houses were in a bad state of repair, but I have a team of builders who are gradually restoring them. There is also a church where Larissa will be married.’

‘I hope it’s a big one,’ Belle commented. ‘Larissa told me that hundreds of guests have been invited to the wedding.’

Loukas grimaced. ‘Yes, her fiancé has a huge extended family, most of whom Lissa has never met before. The church is tiny, and most of the guests will be seated in the square outside for the actual ceremony, but the reception will be at the villa, where there is much more room.’

Belle gave him a surprised look, wondering how big his villa was. ‘Will there be room for so many guests to stay at your house?’

‘Theos, no!’ His horrified expression at the idea of his home being invaded by guests was almost comical, and made him seem a little more human, she mused, desperately trying to fight her awareness of him as she studied his superbly chiselled features. ‘Most people will stay in Athens or on Kea. I’ve chartered a fleet of helicopters to ferry guests over to Aura, and some people will arrive by boat.’

‘It sounds a logistical nightmare. Wouldn’t it have been easier to have the wedding in Athens?’

Loukas shrugged. ‘Probably. But Larissa wanted to be married here, and I’ll move heaven and earth to give her the wedding she wants.’

Belle stared at him, startled by the sudden huskiness in his voice. There could be no doubt that Loukas adored his sister. The emotion blazing in his eyes was strangely humbling and made her wonder if she had misjudged him. Perhaps he wasn’t as controlling as she had first thought? Certainly it seemed important to him that Larissa’s wedding should be perfect.

They walked on in silence, the path wider now so that they were side by side. The views from the clifftop, of the sea and across the island, were stunning, and Belle was not surprised that Larissa wanted to hold her wedding in such a beautiful place. It was not Larissa Christakis who occupied her thoughts, however, but her brother.

‘You said that your father was born here on Aura, but I take it that you were not?’

‘No, the island had been abandoned long before then. I was born on Kea and spent my early childhood there. Larissa was also born there, but she has no memories of the place because we moved to America when she was very young.’

‘Why did your family leave Greece?’ Belle asked curiously.

‘To make a living.’ Loukas’s mouth tightened as he silently acknowledged the bitter irony of that statement. ‘My father’s fishing boat had been wrecked in a storm and he couldn’t afford to buy a new one. But without a boat he couldn’t fish and make money to feed his family. A distant cousin owned a grocery store in New York. Xenos arranged for us to move there so that my parents could run the shop, and when he died he left it to them.’

‘It must have been a big change, moving from a small island to a city. I moved house dozens of times when I was growing up, because my stepfather was in the army and we lived wherever he was stationed.’ She had hated being the new girl at school, always trying to fit in and make friends, Belle remembered. ‘I would have found it even harder to settle in a new country.’ She glanced towards the turquoise sea shimmering in the sunshine. ‘Didn’t you miss all this?’

‘Every day. But I was young and better able to cope with the change.’ His voice deepened. ‘It broke my father’s heart to leave Greece.’

‘He must have been pleased when you bought Aura—his birthplace.’

Loukas hesitated for a moment, and then shrugged. The basic facts about his background could be found by anyone who chose to research him on the internet. ‘He never knew. My father died eighteen months after we moved to the States, and my mother followed him to the grave two years later.’

His voice was so devoid of emotion that Belle shot him a startled glance. Despite the heat from the sun she shivered, sadness sweeping over her at the thought that Loukas’s father had never come home, never seen again this beautiful place.

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know—’ She broke off abruptly. There was no reason why she should have known about the tragedy that had torn Loukas’s family apart. She had met him less than an hour ago, they were strangers, so why did her heart ache for him? And why was she so sure that he concealed his pain behind his unfathomable grey gaze? Perhaps because she had learned to hide her own heartbreak at her mother’s death and pretend that she wasn’t hurting inside, she thought bleakly.

Another thought struck her. ‘Larissa can’t have been very old when your parents died. Who looked after her?’

Loukas had started walking again, and Belle fell in step beside him. ‘I did. There was no one else. She barely remembers our father, and I have tried to be a father figure to her. But she missed having a mother. She still does—especially now, as she prepares for her wedding.’ He gave a heavy sigh. ‘You know how it is—there’s a special bond between mothers and daughters.’

His words touched a raw nerve. A lump formed in Belle’s throat and for a moment she could not speak. ‘Yes,’ she said at last in a low tone. ‘I know how it is.’ She stared at the horizon, the sharp line between the sea and the sky blurring as tears filled her eyes. She had shared a special bond with her mother—or at least she had believed she had. But in all those years that she was growing up, during all those mother-and-daughter shopping trips and girly chats, Gudrun had never revealed the truth about her father. The feeling of betrayal burned in her heart as fiercely as the pain of grief.

‘Belle… Is something wrong?’ Loukas suddenly realised that she had fallen behind and turned to find her standing looking out over the sea. Her face was half hidden beneath the brim of her hat, but he sensed her tangible vulnerability.

What the hell had got into him today? he wondered irritably. He was not one of the sensitive ‘new-man’ types so beloved by women’s magazines; he was a hard-headed businessman who dealt in facts and figures, profit margins and takeover bids. Flights of imagination about the emotional well-being of any woman, let alone his sister’s dress designer, whom he’d met for the first time an hour ago, were not in his nature.

He glanced at his watch and realised he was late to make an important call. He couldn’t blame Belle if he’d missed out on the Tokyo deal, he conceded. But from now on he was determined to concentrate on business and not allow himself to be distracted by her.

‘I was just admiring the view.’ Belle blinked fiercely before she turned to Loukas. She could sense his impatience as he waited for her, and she pushed her dark thoughts to the back of her mind and walked towards him, determined to focus on the job she had come to Aura to do.

They continued along the path for a few more metres before it forked—one branch sloping down to a set of steps cut into the cliff, which led to a white sandy beach below, and the other stopping in front of a set of wrought-iron gates set in a high stone wall. Loukas pressed a button so that the gates swung smoothly open, and ushered Belle through.

‘Welcome to the Villa Elena.’

‘Oh…wow!’ The stunning sight before her eyes jolted Belle from her painful memories. ‘It’s…spectacular,’ she breathed, as she stared at the ultra-modern architecture of the white-walled villa with its many windows that must offer amazing views over the sea.

Loukas nodded. ‘It’s home,’ he said simply.

Belle could have no idea how much those two words meant to him, he thought. Through all the years he had spent living in a grim tenement block in a rough neighbourhood in New York he had clung to his memories of his homeland, and had dreamed of one day owning a house overlooking the sapphire-blue waters of the Aegean.

Thanks to his quick brain, ruthlessness determination and years of relentless hard work, he had built his hugely successful company and achieved his dream. Aura was his bolthole, where he had created a home for him and Larissa.

It would have been his child’s home too. It should have been. The familiar black bitterness filled his heart. He had bought the island when Sadie had told him she was pregnant, and commissioned an architect to design a luxurious villa for the woman he had loved and their baby.

But Sadie had never come here, and there had been no baby—she had made sure of that. His jaw hardened, his gut twisting at the memory of her betrayal. She had known how much he wanted his child, but she had refused to allow anything to stand in the way of her pursuit of stardom.

Larissa was the only person he had confided in, and it had been she who had begged him to stop anaesthetising his emotions with whisky. He would never forget how his little sister, whom he had cared for since their parents had died, had become the carer. Lissa had been there for him in his darkest days, when pain and anger had clawed at his insides. But soon she would leave the island and move to the house he had bought for her and Georgios in Athens. Loukas exhaled heavily. His little sister had grown up, and it was time to let her go, but he had not anticipated how hard he would find it.

He glanced briefly at Belle. ‘Come on through,’ he invited. ‘My butler will know we’re here and will serve drinks on the terrace.’

Butler! Of course he had a butler, Belle told herself as she followed him across the white marble patio. Loukas was a billionaire and he probably had dozens of staff to run around him.

She realised that they had entered the villa grounds by a side gate. The house was to the right of her, while on her left they skirted a large circular Jacuzzi and continued on towards an infinity pool that gave the illusion of spilling over the edge of the cliff into the sea below. In the bright sunshine everything seemed to throb with an intensity of colour: the gleaming white walls of the villa, the aquamarine of the pool and the sea, and the vibrant oranges, reds and yellows of the flowers set amidst the lush greenery of the landscaped garden. It was paradise, Belle thought, feeling almost dizzy from the beauty of her surroundings.

As they walked towards the terrace and stepped into the shade of the white awning fluttering gently in the breeze, a man walked out of the house to meet them.

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