Page 22 of Modern Romance Collection May 2024 Books 1-4

‘How old were you when you were sent to boarding school?’

‘Eight.’

Erin gasped. ‘So young...’ She couldn’t imagine packing Ashling off at the age of eight to go anywhere.

Ajax shrugged lightly. ‘My older brother was there already.’

‘Were you close?’

Erin saw Ajax’s eyes in the mirror, his gaze narrowed on the road in front of him. ‘Yes and no. Our parents encouraged us to compete more than collaborate.’

Erin absorbed that. ‘Your parents are still alive?’

‘Yes.’ Terse. And then, as if conscious of Erin’s silence, Ajax added, ‘They’re in Athens. We also own some islands, and they pick and choose where to go for holidays or family events. Or they travel to their other homes around the world.’

‘Family events...? Are there many of those?’

‘There’s one in a couple of weeks.’

He was avoiding meeting her eye in the mirror. Erin didn’t have to ask him if his family knew about Ashling—it must have hit the papers here too by now. She wondered how the news had gone down. She was beginning to suspect a certain level of conservatism and snobbishness...

‘Ab-gab-bab-dada...’

Erin smiled at Ashling who was looking out the window and pointing to the sky.

A sensation on the back of Erin’s neck made her look up to find Ajax looking at her through the mirror at last. Instantly she was warm and tingling. The hairs on her skin were standing up. She couldn’t look away, and eventually he did.

He was a good driver—fast, but safe. Not showy. Erin was acutely aware of his hands on the wheel. Big and strong. Masculine. She remembered how they’d felt on her. Not soft. Firm. Possessive. A pulse throbbed between her legs. She cursed herself.

She could see they were approaching a village, with houses strung along the road. Bright red and pink bouganvillea spilled over walls and roofs. It was quiet at this hour of the morning. Fairy lights were strung over doors and between buildings. Erin could imagine them lit up at night. It was unbelievably pretty.

But Ajax kept going a short distance out through the other side of the village, until he turned abruptly down a narrow track which then opened out again revealing iron gates and a wall on either side.

A man emerged from a security hut.

‘Kalimera,’Ajax greeted the man, and they conversed for a moment before the gates opened and they drove up along a wide drive bordered by flowering plants on both sides.

Erin could see pristine green lawns. And then her breath was taken completely when they drove around a bend and the driveway opened out into a huge courtyard with a fountain centrepiece, and a two-storey villa appeared before them.

The rising sun bathed the building in a bright glow, the pale and weathered stones of the villa making it almost fade into the background. It looked majestic, but also warm and rustic. Erin wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but it had definitely been something more modern—perhaps stark white with sharp edges.

This was warm and inviting and beautiful, and it made something in her chest tighten. As if she’d had a dream of this image but hadn’t realised it till now.

Ajax opened the car door and for a moment Erin felt almost superstitiously that once she stepped on this land her life would change for ever.Shewould change. But she was being ridiculous. She got out, avoiding Ajax’s eye, not wanting him to see how this place was affecting her already.

There was a small breeze, bringing scents of the sea and wild herbs and plants.

Ashling emitted a cry from the car, a demand for attention, and Erin hurried around to take her out of the seat and hold her in her arms. A woman appeared in the massive front doorway, beaming. She was dressed in black, wiping her hands on an apron.

She greeted Ajax in rapid-fire Greek. He was smiling at her. The tightness in Erin’s chest intensified. She hadn’t seen him smile since their last night together. And she hated it that it mattered to her.

He looked at Erin. ‘This is Agatha, my housekeeper. She lives on the property with her husband, who is the caretaker.’

Erin nodded at her shyly, and to her surprise the older woman came over and immediately held her arms out for Ashling, who went quite willingly into them, as if she knew this woman.

‘We will have some milk, yes? And maybe a change of nappy?’

Erin was surprised to hear her speak English. She started to say, ‘I think she’s okay, actually—’ but the woman was already disappearing into the villa with the baby.

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