by Nina Milne
‘I’ll pass on the parsnip tea, thank you,’ he said, suppressing a grimace. ‘What I want is coffee—strong and black.’ He couldn’t keep the yearning from his voice.
‘No such thing here, I’m afraid,’ she said, with a wry expression that he couldn’t help but find cute. Cute. It was incomprehensible that he should find Adele Hudson cute.
He groaned. ‘No coffee at all?’
She shook her head. ‘Not part of the “clean food” ethos of the spa. You’ll have to sneak out to the Bay Bites café. They serve Dolphin Bay’s finest coffee. I can personally vouch for it.’
‘I might follow up on that.’
His friends the Morgan brothers, Ben and Jesse, had made the once sleepy beachside town of Dolphin Bay into quite a destination with the critically acclaimed Hotel Harbourside, Bay Bites, Bay Books and now the eco-friendly Bay Breeze spa in which Alex had invested in the early stages. It would not be long before he saw a return on his investment.
The new resort was still in its debut phase but had been an immediate success. It had been booked out for Easter a few weeks back. The Morgans had read the market well. In just one day Alex had picked aspects he liked about the operation and ones he didn’t think would translate to his new venture. What worked in Australia might not necessarily work in Greece.
‘Escaping for coffee is hardly in the spirit of eating clean food.’ Adele sounded stern but there was an unexpected gleam of fun in her eyes. Eyes that were green like the olives growing on the island in the Ionian Sea that had once belonged to his ancestors and that he had bought so it once more was owned by a Mikhalis.
He couldn’t help his snort of disgust at her comment. ‘So does “clean food” mean that all other food is “dirty”? I don’t like the idea of that. Especially the traditional Greek foods I grew up on.’
‘I think that term is debatable too,’ she said. ‘I wonder if—?’
Adele’s grey-haired companion chose that moment to pick up her cup of herbal tea and make to move away. ‘I want to say again how much I love your blog,’ she enthused. ‘My daughter told me about it. Even my granddaughter is a fan, and she’s still at school.’
Adele flushed and looked pleased. As she should—it was no mean feat to have her site appeal to three generations. ‘Thank you. I hope I can keep on bringing you more of what you enjoy.’
‘You’ll do that, I’m sure,’ the other woman said. ‘In the meantime, I’ll leave you two to chat.’ She departed but not without a speculative look from Alex to Adele and back to him again.
Alex groaned inwardly. He recognised that gleam in her narrowed eyes. The same matchmaking gleam he’d seen often in the women of his extended Greek family. This particular lady had got completely the wrong end of the stick. He had no romantic interest whatsoever in Adele Hudson. In fact he had no interest in any kind of permanent relationship with any woman—in spite of the pressure from his family to settle down. Not now. Not ever. Not after what he’d endured. Not after what he had done.
Besides, Adele was married. Or she had been three years ago. He glanced down at her left hand. No ring. So maybe she was no longer married. Not that her marital state was of any interest to him.
Adele had obviously not missed that matchmaking gleam either. When she looked back at him, the undisguised horror in her eyes told him exactly what she thought of the idea of anyone pairing her with him.
Alex had taken worse insults in his time. So why did that feel like a kick to the gut? He decided not to linger any longer at the tea station. Or to admit even to himself that he would like lovely Adele Hudson to look at him with something other than extreme distaste.
Copyright © 2017 by Kandy Shepherd
ISBN-13: 9781488014925
Claimed by the Wealthy Magnate
Copyright © 2017 by Nina Milne
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