Page 36 of Virgin's Night with the Greek

‘You’re welcome. It’s been good to stand behind the wheel again.’

‘I can’t imagine a gentle meander along the Santorini coast is quite the same as hurtling across the Atlantic in gale force winds.’

‘No,’ he agreed, reaching into the cool box for the two remaining ice-cold bottles of beer and popping the caps off. ‘But it doesn’t matter. The wind in your hair and the spray on your face is exhilarating whatever body of water you’re on and whatever the weather. And anywhere there’s an unobstructed horizon gives you the freedom of being able to head in any direction you choose.’

Was he aware how wistful he sounded? Was he only talking about sailing? Willow shifted onto her side, partly to take the bottle he handed her but mainly so she could see his expression more clearly. ‘It might have been a while, but you seem very at ease on board.’

‘I’ve been sailing ever since I could walk.’

‘So why did you give it up?’

‘I had to. I had no choice.’

But had he? Really? She got that he’d had to abandon the idea of competition when he took over the company, but couldn’t he have continued to do it for fun?

She shouldn’t probe. A tiny muscle flickered in his jaw and it was none of her business. And yet the questions had been niggling away at her ever since they’d left Ancient Thera the day before and they had to talk aboutsomething. Conversation wasn’t dangerous. It needn’t lead to unwanted intimacy of the emotional kind. She was just curious as to what made him tick, that was all. It wasn’t as if she’d be giving any of her own secrets away.

‘Why is duty so important to you?’

Leo lifted his bottle and took a mouthful of beer before answering, as if needing the fortification before replying. ‘My father wasn’t the easiest of men,’ he said eventually, with a wry twist of his lips. ‘He was weak when it came to my mother, which I didn’t realise until I was older, and he could be cold and aloof, but he spent a lot of time with me, discussing the business, when I was a kid. He regularly took me with him to the offices in London and Athens. I remember repeatedly being introduced as the next boss and although it was always said in a joking kind of a way everyone knew he was deadly serious.’

‘Did he never consider anyone else?’

He shook his head. ‘He came from the sort of family where the eldest son automatically inherits.’

‘That must have put you under a lot of pressure.’

‘There was never any question or discussion about it,’ he said, interestingly neither confirming nor denying her observation. ‘It was always presented as a fait accompli.’

‘No wonder you’re resentful.’

He cast her a quick, sharp glance. ‘Resentful?’

‘Occasionally it comes through when you’re talking about your family,’ she said. ‘And it’s completely understandable. I mean, you were so young. As you once told me, the learning curve was steep. You must have had to make many personal sacrifices along the way.’

‘None that I wasn’t willing to make,’ he said with a shrug that was perhaps a little too sharp to be casual. ‘I had to give it everything. I couldn’t let him down. In business, he demanded and commanded respect and I had that for him in spades. Within five years of merging the two companies, he doubled the bottom line. He halved staff turnover. Professionally speaking, his shoes were always going to be big ones to fill.’

‘But you do fill them, don’t you?’

‘I do. I more than fill them. But they don’t fit very well.’

‘Whatever do you mean by that?’

Despite the intensity of the midday sun Leo’s blood chilled when he realised he’d just revealed more than he’d meant to. Why had he done that? Had the heat gone to his head? Had too much time under water this morning reduced the oxygen supply to his brain? Was he drunk? Or had he simply been thrown by the discovery that if Willow had noticed his resentment he wasn’t as good at keeping a lid on his emotions as he’d always assumed?

Something had to account for the slip, but whatever it was, it wouldn’t happen again. The thrill of being back on board and out to sea had obliterated his caution. The blanket of calm had given him a false sense of security. Unwisely, he’d relaxed and then he’d lowered his guard.

But all he had to do to correct the situation was raise it, and that was what he’d do because he could not afford to let the unsettlingly perceptive Willow and the chaos she carried with her get under his skin. This raging affair of theirs was a purely temporary arrangement. It was not in any way even-keeled and cool, so she was not, and never would be, the one for him.

‘Nothing in particular,’ he said, sliding his gaze from hers back to the horizon and ignoring the shaft of what felt strangely like disappointment that struck him in the chest.

‘You’re being evasive again.’

‘And you’re being nosy.’

‘I’m just curious about the man I’ve been sleeping with for five days,’ she said with a lightness he sensed was deceptive. ‘I’ve answered all your questions. You have a habit of avoiding mine. It makes me wonder what you have to hide.’

‘I have nothing to hide.’ Just things he didn’t intend to share with someone like her. Or with anyone ever, in fact.

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