My Greek Island Fling

by Nina Harrington

  ‘A birthday present? I like that idea. Can we have birthday cake and bubbly?’

  ‘I’m astonished that you have to ask. And a monster-sized birthday card. Just tell me what kind of cake takes your fancy and I’m your girl.’

  ‘My girl? Is that right? Well, how could I possibly resist an offer like that?’ His face relaxed and he blinked several times. ‘Lemon drizzle. She liked lemon-drizzle sponge. With a dusting of icing sugar. No fancy cakestands or anything. Just an ordinary lemon-drizzle sponge. And a gallon of boiling hot tea to wash it down with. I’d completely forgotten about that until this minute.’

  ‘Crystal Belmont’s lemon cake,’ Lexi replied in a faraway voice. ‘Oh, my. That’s lovely.’

  Lexi sat up so quickly that she felt dizzy, and Mark’s head dropped onto the cushion. ‘That’s it! You are so clever.’ She bent forward and touched her lips against his.

  ‘It’s been said before, but not frequently in this particular situation. Please explain before my head explodes.’

  ‘The title for the memoir! I’ve been racking my brain all week to come up with an interesting title which will make your book stand out on the shelves.’ She beamed down at Mark and shook her head slowly from side to side. ‘I hate to say I was right, but sometimes I amaze myself. You have everything you need to write this story inside your head. My job is to make it into a book. And I can’t wait to get started.’

  Lexi flung back the light cover from her legs, swung her body off the sofa, and was on her feet and reaching for her sandals in an instant.

  ‘Right. Time to make a list. So much to do and so little time.’

  ‘Lexi?’

  She looked back at Mark, still lying flat on the sofa with a certain smile on his face.

  ‘Can’t we do that later?’ he implored. ‘Much later?’ And he waggled his eyebrows at her.

  She sniffed at his cheeky grin. ‘Work now, cuddle later, you scamp. You have a lot to do today. I’ll get the coffee started while you’re in the shower—then straight to the computer so we can start dictation. This is going to be so much fun!’

  Lexi skipped out of the door before Mark could grab her and employ his best powers of persuasion to make her stay.

  He could hear her humming happily as the plain leather sandals he’d bought her clapped along the tiled floor towards the ground-floor bathroom.

  Telling Lexi about his mum’s birthday parties? That was new. But maybe she was right? Maybe there was a chance he could write this biography as a celebration of her life and make it a positive, happy thing, with only a tinge of sadness.

  Mark linked his hands under his head and lay back as the sun filled the room with bright morning light. It was going to be another hot sunny day on Paxos, and from deep inside his body came a warm feeling of contentment that bubbled up and emerged as a smile that surprised his face.

  He had slept for eight hours straight on a very uncomfortable sofa with a woman in his arms. For the first time in many years he hadn’t snapped awake to reach for some electronic gadget and check his email, compulsively making sure he hadn’t missed an important message about the business while he wasted time sleeping.

  He could hear Lexi moving around in the kitchen. The hiss of water into a kettle. Cups rattling on the worktop and metal spoons hitting the olive wood tray. Was this the soundtrack to happiness he’d been looking for all his life? Or simply the joyful noise that came with sharing your home with this whirlwind of a girl?

  He had found someone he wanted to be with in the last place on the planet he’d ever expected to. In this wonderful house that held so many memories of his mother and happy childhood holidays.

  How could he have known that the path to happiness would lead right back to where he’d once been so happy? How ironic was that?

  Belmont Investments and the manor were not important any longer.

  This was where he wanted to be. Needed to be. With Lexi.

  And now she was here. And he felt an overwhelming, all-powerful connection.

  Finally. It had happened. He’d known lust and attraction. But this sensation was so new, so startling, that the great Mark Belmont floundered.

  He was falling for Lexi Sloane.

  ‘Mark?’ Lexi popped her head around the door. ‘Perhaps you should telephone your dad. He might need to hear your voice today of all days.’

  And then she was gone, back to the kitchen before he had a chance to answer, singing along to a pop song, oblivious of the fact that she had thrown him a bomb and he’d caught it single-handed.

  Telephone his dad? On his mother’s birthday?

  Oh, Lexi.

  This lovely girl really had no idea whatsoever just how much it would take for him to lift the telephone and make that call. What would he say to his father? What could he say?

  All his father cared about was the heritage of the estate and how his only remaining son was going to ensure their lineage was carried on. And Mark’s failure to get married and produce an heir was starting to become a problem.

  Mark swung his legs over the sofa and ran his hands down over the creases in his trousers.

  His engagement had been a catastrophe—a disaster meant to placate his parents. He knew that his father blamed him for letting his fiancée go.

  Failure. Yet again.

  And here he was, falling for a girl who couldn’t give him children. Couldn’t give him the heir that he was supposed to provide.

  More failure.

  What was he doing with Lexi? What was he thinking?

  The answer was only too clear. He wasn’t thinking at all. He was living and reacting and loving life, and he had Lexi to thank for that.

  It didn’t matter what happened in the future. It didn’t matter one jot. He’d have to deal with the consequences when they happened. They both lived in London. They were both single. And, unless he had completely misread the signals, she felt the same way about him. And that was too special to give up.

  Since Edmund had died Mark’s life had been filled with obligation and duty. He loved his family too much to let them down. But Lexi was right. They were both living second-hand lives.

  All that mattered was right here and right now.

  Living in the moment. He quite liked the sound of that.

  Without a second’s further delay, Mark stretched up to his full height and headed off to the kitchen. Time to entertain the cats and drink coffee on the terrace with the woman he simply couldn’t bear to be apart from.

  CHAPTER TEN

  ‘YOU have a whole hour to titivate yourself,’ Mark joked, jumping into Lexi’s hire car and cranking down the anti-cat-invasion window, ‘while I’m on my perilous, swashbuckling mission to track down two bottles of champagne and the local version of lemon-drizzle cake. I’ll be back with the swag before you know it.’

  Lexi stuck her head through the window and kissed him swiftly but firmly on the lips. ‘You’d better be.’ She grinned. ‘I have my favourite dress ready and waiting, and matching shoes that the cats haven’t peed on yet.’ She winked at him. ‘It’s going to be a lovely birthday party. And please bring back more doughnuts for breakfast.’

  She kissed him again, and again and one more time for luck, before waggling her nose against his with a giggle, then standing back and waving as he sped off down the road towards the biggest town on the island.

  Lexi stood and watched the car until it turned the corner onto the main road, carrying inside it the man she was already longing to see again. She felt as though part of her was somehow missing without Mark by her side.

  The cool and unhappy man she had met only a few days earlier was gone, replaced by a remarkable, talented, gentle-hearted man who loved to laugh and enjoy himself.

  He knew her faults, her history and he certainly knew about her dad. And yet he still wanted to be with her. Which was so very amazing that it made her head spin.

  And now she had a lovely birthday-party dinner to look forward to, followed by drinks on the terr
ace watching the sun go down, and then maybe a little stargazing. If they weren’t otherwise occupied.

  Delicious!

  Was it any wonder that she adored him? Perhaps a little too much, and way too fast … But she adored him all the same.

  Well … Now it was her turn to dazzle and give him a treat in return.

  Lexi skipped up the steps to the house, waving at the sun-kissed cats on the way, and took the stairs to the first floor two at a time.

  Clothes first. Then hair and miracle make-up. Mark Belmont would not know what had hit him—because tonight he was going to get the full works.

  Let the titivation ensue.

  Twenty minutes later Lexi was still humming a pop song under her breath as she jogged from the shower to her bedroom and flung open the wardrobe door.

  Her designer cream-lace lingerie would have to do. But she hadn’t been kidding about her favourite dress.

  No wild patterns, flowers or multi-coloured designs this time. Just a completely sweet confection of flowing gold lace over a plain cream-silk shift dress picked out by her mother with her expert eye.

  Elegant. Understated. Knockout.

  She had only worn the dress once before, at the Valentine’s Day party when her mother had announced her engagement. Somehow it had never seemed lively or colourful enough for any of the movie functions in Hong Kong, but now—in this villa, on this tiny island, with only Mark and the cats to see it—yes. She was glad she had hauled it through so many airport departure lounges.

  The cream silk felt cool and luxurious against her moisturised skin. Sensuous and smooth and just what she needed. She smoothed down the lace overskirt and admired herself in the full-length mirror, turning from side to side for a few seconds before smiling and giving herself a quick nod in admiration.

  ‘Not too bad, girl,’ she whispered to herself with a wink. ‘You’ll do nicely.’

  But now for the killer touch. Lexi reached into a shoe bag with the name of a famous Asian shoe designer on the front and pulled out a pair of pale gold kitten-heeled satin mules.

  They were limo shoes and always would be. No excuses. These shoes were designed for fine wool and silk carpets, not country stone patios, and had cost more than she’d ever paid for shoes in her life even if they had been on sale. But she didn’t care.

  So what if they’d only ever seen red carpets before now? She was wearing them for Mark, who was all that mattered.

  A little giggle of happiness bubbled up from deep inside her chest and Lexi bit her lower lip in pleasure as she slipped on the mules and posed in front of the mirror.

  It had been such a long time since she had felt so light. So joyous. So very happy.

  Yes. That was it. Happy.

  This was so strange. Before this week, if anyone had asked if she was happy she would have answered with some glib statement about her magical, awesome life.

  Not now. Not any longer. In a few short days Mark had shown her what real happiness could be like.

  Until now she’d been living her life through other people’s experiences, and now it was her turn to love. Not simple contentment, not settling for the best she could but true happiness with someone she loved.

  Lexi inhaled sharply and pressed her fingertips to her throat.

  Loved?

  Was that it? Was that why she felt that she had been waiting for Mark all her life?

  Breathing out slowly, Lexi tottered the few steps across to Crystal’s library and ran her fingers down the rows of photographs Mark had chosen to feature in the opening chapters of the book.

  They’d spent three glorious days together, laughing and chatting, and all the while Mark had dictated wonderful anecdotes, happy memories of his mother’s life and the people she’d met, the things she’d done.

  If only he could come to terms with the sad moments. Then it would be a remarkable biography. And she was happy to help.

  Happy to do anything that meant she spent as much time with him as she could.

  Looking at the photographs now, she could see that each image captured a moment in time when the young Belmont family had been happy together. Before things had changed and they’d lost that easy familiarity.

  Her fingers rested on the photo she’d picked up on her first morning at the villa. The schoolboy Mark and his brother Edmund, arms around each other, muddy, happy and proud on the football pitch.

  There was so much love shining out from the flat matte surface.

  Edmund the older brother. Heir to the estate. The next Baron Belmont.

  A shiver of unease ran across Lexi’s shoulders and she scanned the photographs, looking for some sign of where things had changed.

  And there it was. Mark must have been in his early twenties when this photograph had been taken at some movie award ceremony. He was standing next to Crystal, who looked stunning, but that spark, that easy, relaxed expression that Lexi had come to know on Mark, was missing. Snuffed out.

  It was more than grief at losing his brother. It was as though the heavy weight of being the only son and heir to the Belmont estate was sitting on his shoulders, pressing him down.

  It truly was a shame that Cassie’s boys would never inherit the title.

  An icy feeling quivered and roiled inside Lexi’s stomach and she slumped down onto the nearest hard chair.

  Bad choice. Because the chair faced a small round mirror on the wall opposite. And as she glanced at her reflection all the energy and fun and joy of the day drifted away, leaving behind the cold, hard reality she’d managed to stuff deep into the ‘too difficult to handle today’ box.

  Shame that she’d chosen this minute to let it out.

  Because suddenly her lovely dress and shoes felt like a sad joke.

  She did not have any future with Mark. How could she when she was unable to give him the son he needed to carry on his family name and title?

  Sniffing away the tears, she stared at photo after photo through blurred vision.

  His family meant everything to him.

  It was so unfair. So totally unfair. Just when she thought she’d found the love of her life. Staying with Mark, loving Mark, sharing her life with Mark would force him to decide between his family and her.

  And she couldn’t do that to him. She loved him too much to put him in that position.

  What was she going to do?

  The sun was already low in the apricot-tinged sky when Mark pushed through the cypress and olive trees onto the secluded circle of stones facing the cliffs and the open sea.

  But at that moment not even the view from this special place his mother had used as her escape could compare with the lovely woman sitting so quietly with her eyes closed and her head leaning back on the sun-warmed bench.

  It staggered him that one look at her beautiful face could send his senses into a stomach-clenching, mind-reeling, heart-thumping overdrive.

  What was it about her that made him feel like a schoolboy on a first date?

  His heart raced just at the sight of her, and it was as if he’d dreamt this marvellous creature up out of his imagination—because she was too special to be real.

  Lexi’s skin and dress were lit by golden and pink sunlight, creating the illusion that she was lit from within, that she was the source of the light. Shades of gold. Apricot and pink.

  She looked stunning.

  No amount of clever studio lighting would be able to recreate this unique combination of place and time, and Mark instinctively knew that this image would stay locked in the safe and secure place where he kept his most treasured possessions: wonderful memories of love and happiness forever.

  Not in printed photographs which could be recreated inside the pages of a biography for others to read. But inside his head and heart, where the real Mark Belmont had been kept safe until now.

  Waiting for someone to release him from the constraints he’d made for himself to get him through the obligations he’d accepted for his family.

  That someone was Lexi S
loane.

  And he loved her for it.

  Time to step up and prove that he was good enough for her.

  But as he moved the dry pine needles covering the stones on the gravel path crunched beneath his smart shoes, and her eyes flicked open and she looked at him.

  And in that one single glance any doubt he might have had was wiped away.

  He was in love. Not for the first time—but for the last.

  She was the one he wanted. For good.

  Lexi stretched her arms out so that they rested on the back of the bench and smiled. Waiting for him to speak. As he came closer he saw something more than relaxed confidence in that smile. Confusion, regret. And apprehension. She was nervous.

  Oh, yes. He recognised that look only too well. His stomach was suddenly ice.

  She was leaving him and she didn’t know how to do it without hurting his feelings. He was grateful for that sensitivity, but it wouldn’t make the next few minutes any easier.

  Her fingers started to curl into tight knots of tension, but she instantly blocked the move, stretched out her fingers and turned it into the casual brush of a stray dry leaf from the stonework as he strolled closer.

  ‘Hello,’ she said with a small smile. ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I couldn’t bear to miss my last sunset. Looking for me?’

  Here it comes, he thought, and she doesn’t know how to handle it.

  ‘I’m not used to being stood up,’ Mark replied. ‘Came as quite a shock. Especially since my mission was completely successful, and our party food is ready and waiting back at the villa.’

  She raised her eyebrows. ‘Congratulations. I … er … waited for you.’ Her fingers waved in the direction of the main road. ‘But I got lonely.’

  He winced. ‘Ah. Thanks for the note. It was good to know that you hadn’t been kidnapped by pirates or called back to write some other biography at the last minute. Sorry I was late. I was tied up on the phone to Cassie, trying to organise a surprise thank-you present for you.’