Excerpt

SEBASTIAN PAGONIS, TECH BILLIONAIRE, vaulted out of his helicopter on the Indonesian island. His big, powerful body sheathed in chinos and a khaki shirt, dwarfed everyone around him by virtue of his six-foot, five-inch height. His shock of black hair was anchored in a messy man bun, thin steel rings glinted in both earlobes, and he turned heads wherever he went because he looked so downright dangerous.

Glittering dark eyes that gleamed like polished swords in the sunshine scanned his surroundings with vigilance and he was greeted in the shadow of the hangar by an old schoolfriend, Andreas Zervas, who ran the Asian manufacturing side of his business. Andreas, his short, somewhat rounded counterpart, in a light summer suit, grinned up at him with familiar warmth.

‘I intended to meet you off your jet in Bali but our newborn ignored etiquette and arrived early and suddenly. Why right now do you look as if you’re expecting a hitman to be hiding in the shadows?’

‘That would literally be the only option my relatives haven’t yet attempted,’ Sebastian retorted in frank exasperation.

Andreas frowned because he knew exactly what his friend was talking about.

Sebastian’s paternal grandmother, Loukia Pagonis had died some weeks earlier and her last will and testament had given her family, including Sebastian, a resounding shock. Without any warning, she had made Sebastian, the outcast in the Pagonis tribe and a man already rich beyond avarice, the heir to her vast international property empire. Ever since then, Sebastian had been fighting off lawsuits and enraged and embittered accusations. The family who had long treated him like a curse on their name and an intolerable social embarrassment were currently reaping the rewards of having treated him like a leper throughout his childhood.

‘Don’t joke about it,’ Andreas reproved, an unusual frown on his good-natured face. ‘Stranger things have happened and when you’re planning a week off-grid without security, it makes my blood run cold.’

‘It’s a week off and I…need it,’ Sebastian admitted grudgingly, intense fatigue briefly bowing his broad shoulders and weighting his dark, deep voice. ‘Did you make the final arrangements?’

Andreas sighed as he escorted him towards a top-of-the-range SUV. ‘I did but I still think it’s a crazy idea. You can’t go back. You think you can but you can’t. You’re not that seventeen-year-old boy without a home any more. You’re not used to roughing it now either. This experience will be a penance for you, which is why I’m breaking your rules and giving you a burner phone to take with you. You’ll be screaming for escape within forty-eight hours. Your nature is too driven not to be and you’ll be pining for your superyacht even quicker. It isn’t easy to move from the fast lane to the slow sailing life.’

‘I have to adapt for the sake of my sanity,’ Sebastian growled, irritated by that negative forecast from someone who knew him well. ‘But I’ll take the phone if it makes you worry less…as long as yours is the only number in it.’

‘It is,’ Andreas confirmed, taking the wheel to drive them out of the private airfield and down a rural road edged by paddy fields contained by low walls. The car entered a small village to thread slowly through narrow, crowded streets with dust flying up to cloud the windscreen. From there they drew into a small, shabby harbour.

‘Give my love to Zoe and the children. What gender is the newborn? You still haven’t told me—’

‘A little girl after our three boys. We are both over the moon,’ Andreas told him happily.

‘I’ll stop in for the night on my way back next week,’ Sebastian promised as he gathered his stuff.

‘Look after yourself…and try to be a good loser when you’re climbing the walls to get back on shore by tomorrow,’ Andreas quipped.

‘It’s not going to happen,’ Sebastian asserted with amusement.

* * *

‘So, who is this guy, Sebastian Whatever-You-Call-Him?’ Bunny asked the skipper of the catamaran Merry Days.

For the past month, she had been crewing for Reggie, taking daily parties of tourists out to sail round the islands, serving drinks and providing lunch.

Sadly, however, Indonesia was the very last stop on her world travels. She had neither the time nor the money to explore further. Whether she liked it or not, home was beckoning. In just two weeks, she would be starting work back in the UK as a librarian and that was her cue to settle down and concentrate on her career.

Reggie Davis grinned above his imposing long white beard, bright blue eyes sparkling with satisfaction. ‘He’s Greek born. According to my source he’s also filthy rich but prefers to be treated like he’s ordinary, for goodness’ sake. I mean, can you believe that? I’m giving him my cabin because it’s more private and I don’t think he’ll want to be eating with us, so I’m afraid you’ll have to serve him his meals.’

‘How does that come under the heading of treating him like he’s ordinary?’

‘Reckon he’s one of those odd, reserved types with quirks because who would hire the whole boat sooner than have to share the facilities?’ Reggie asked in wonderment, being a man who had never met anyone he couldn’t make into a friend and who flourished best in a crowd. ‘But what do we care? Take him sailing, diving, fishing, snorkelling, whatever he wants…mostly just a taste of freedom, I suppose.’

‘I’d better get your cabin cleared out,’ Bunny said abruptly. ‘And maybe I should go to the market.’

‘No, if he wants to be ordinary, he eats what we eat even if he does choose to eat alone,’ Reggie decreed squarely. ‘Nothing fancy, just the norm. He’ll not be complaining when he’s sitting with one of your curries in front of him.’

‘Let’s hope not,’ Bunny agreed, already on her feet, a small, slightly built blonde with luminous green eyes set in a heart-shaped face and a deep tan from her travels over the past year. She was in her last job at her final destination and about to deal with her last customer. Why did that knowledge sadden her? She went topside to access Reggie’s cabin behind the wheelhouse, scolding herself for being spoilt. After all, she had finally enjoyed the year of travel she had first craved when she was eighteen and had been denied.

Her family were naturally overprotective. She was the youngest of six and the only girl. As a result, she had been babied long beyond childhood. Her desire to travel alone for a year between school and university had horrified her family. Their preaching, nagging and genuine concern had finally talked her out of her plans and she had gone to university and completed her degree before taking her year out. In truth that had ended up being the better plan, she conceded, because she had spent four years saving up everything she earned in part-time jobs to finance her travels. She had also taken casual work in every country that allowed her to do so, ensuring that she had a safety net of cash available should she need it.

* * *

The next day, Bunny was down on her knees scrubbing the deck when their passenger arrived, the fast slap of his booted feet on the steps sending her head rearing up, fine blonde hair flying back from her face because she was hot and damp with perspiration in the humid afternoon heat.

Simply stunned by the vision of the man in front of her, she leant back and stared at the guy who had boarded. He was so off-the-scales magnificent that he might have stepped out of a Viking fantasy onscreen. Incredibly tall and broad, not to mention jaw-droppingly gorgeous. One look and her mouth ran dry and her brain seized up.

‘Could you just give me two minutes until I finish the deck?’ she asked breathlessly.

‘No,’ Sebastian responded succinctly as if he were still in his busy office. ‘You’re in a service industry and you should be aware that clients expect immediate attention.’

Even as her slender spine stiffened, Bunny smiled brightly at him. So, he was one of those, was he? Oh, joy, she thought, pained to the bone by that warning. ‘Thank you for the reminder, sir. Please come this way…’

‘Where’s the skipper?’ Sebastian scrutinised her, unimpressed. He had recognised the shellshocked, dazed look of feminine appreciation in her gaze for what it was and it had annoyed him. Not only had he not expected there to be a woman onboard, but he also didn’t want her looking at him like that, flirting or hovering or aiming to impress. He got enough of that nonsense every day of the week and he wasn’t about to put up with it on a tiny boat where there were few places to escape unwelcome attention. The sooner any such notion of hers was nipped in the bud, the better.

On the other hand, she was surprisingly attractive in a girl-next-door way even if she wasn’t his type. Did he even have a type, though? She was naturally blonde, naturally everything he suspected. Cute little face, enormous green eyes the colour of fresh spring leaves, freckles on her small nose above a generous pink mouth. Ridiculously pretty but rather small and thin with modest curves. And cheeky, even if she was striving to hide the fact. Didn’t she know yet that her eyes blazed green fire when she was angry?

‘Skipper Reggie takes a nap mid-afternoon. I’m afraid I’m on service duty. I’ll show you to your cabin.’

Awkwardly wiping her hands on the back of her denim shorts, Bunny offered to take his bag. He frowned, spectacular dark eyes hardening. ‘Your hands are dirty.’

‘Are you willing to wait while I wash them?’

‘No, just lead the way. I’ll retain my luggage,’ Sebastian retorted curtly.

Charming, she thought grimly as she showed him to his cabin. It was the largest on board and benefited from private facilities but it was still pretty small and he was so very tall; he’d be lucky if he could stand upright any place but in the open air. Richie Rich, she labelled him, just dripping with condescension and gilded expectations that were unlikely to be met on a forty-odd-foot catamaran with a crew of two.

‘We usually have dinner at seven. I’ll bring it to you. Would you like a drink now or anything else?’

‘Water, please,’ he said flatly. ‘And…don’t speak to me unless you have to.’

Bunny nodded in tight-mouthed silence, spun on her heel and left him to it while she went to fetch the cold water. She was a minion, she realised wryly, and minions were not supposed to have a voice that was heard. Returning with the bottle of chilled water, she knocked on the door. He answered with a towel wrapped round his impressively lean waist and she stepped back immediately from that intimacy. Confronted by a masculine torso that was undeniably centrefold material, she was uncomfortable and she extended the bottle in silence, not bothering to speak since he had already told her that speech from her corner was undesirable.

She went back down to the galley to make a start on dinner. She heard male voices, registering that Reggie had emerged from his nap and was getting acquainted with his passenger. Steps moved overhead as the catamaran moved sleekly through the water. Reggie came down and took a couple of beers out of the fridge.

‘Sebastian’s okay,’ he told her cheerfully. ‘Very down to earth, no front to him. We’re getting on like a house on fire. Oh, remind me to post the change to our route. You’ll enjoy it. We’re heading somewhere rather remote and I haven’t been there in a few years. There’s a great fishing spot waiting for us. We’ll definitely have the barbecue up on deck that night.’

Bunny kept on smiling. No front to him? Sebastian? She gritted her teeth and when it was time she took the men’s meals up on deck and left them there to eat, discreetly ignoring Reggie’s suggestion that she join them. As she ate alone, she listened to the distant chatter and the laughter and thought that possibly Sebastian just didn’t like female crew members. Or maybe it was just her, her face, her personality, whatever, she thought, irritated that she was even thinking about such a thing. Life was too short for her to be that sensitive. What did it matter what a guy she would never see again thought of her? Everybody got on with Reggie though. Maybe she personally needed to work a little harder on that score, she thought next.

As usual she was up at dawn the next morning, taking care of all the little jobs that were hers before making breakfast. By seven she was knocking on Sebastian’s door with a tray.

‘Come in!’ he called.

One arm balancing the tray, with difficulty she got the door open and saw him sitting up bare-chested in the bed. Moving closer, her face hot at that amount of exposure to male nudity, she extended the tray to him. He grasped it one-handed, being better balanced and stronger than she was and then frowned down at the plate. ‘What is this gloop?’ he demanded.

‘It’s a Spanish omelette,’ she told him curtly on the way back out. ‘Reggie’s favourite. It’s always eggs for breakfast. If you prefer them prepared another way, let me know.’

‘Scrambled, plain,’ he specified.

In silence, Bunny nodded, her heart-shaped face flushed with annoyance, Sebastian noticed with growing amusement.

‘How did you get a nickname like Bunny?’ he asked out of sheer badness.

‘My family thought it was cute when I was a baby. It’s on my birth certificate,’ Bunny admitted with a stiff and decidedly grudging smile before she withdrew.

Sebastian grinned. She hated him and she couldn’t hide it… Mission accomplished: she would be staying out of his way all week. This was not the right moment to acknowledge that she had fabulous legs and a mouth made for, well, what a man usually hoped a woman’s mouth was made for. There was just something surprisingly sexy about her modest curves and prim, quiet movements. That had to be why he had a hard-on. Determined not to think about that weird glitch in his libido, he tucked into his first Spanish omelette and was surprised by how good it was. Possibly he owed her an apology.

Would he admit that? Probably not. A woman who couldn’t even give him a first glance without revealing her every reaction to him was not the kind of woman he bedded. Too young, too naïve, too…soft. And he didn’t ever do soft. As he had once learned to his cost, he reflected grimly, decent and honest intentions didn’t always win the best results. He had got burned, badly enough burned by Ariana to ensure that he never went near that type of woman again. If he was the kind of guy who believed in love, he might have felt differently, but Sebastian had never believed in love outside familial love. A parent could love a child, and a child could love a parent. While that might not have been his experience, he had seen enough of the world to accept that he had got the birth parents from hell.

Love between a man and a woman? Just no. He almost shuddered in disgust at the thought of being caught up in such a lie, such a cruel fabrication, coined to cover greed, lust, infidelity and ambition, all of which he had witnessed within his own un-family circles. He wasn’t likely to ever be the kind of idiot who fell for that love fantasy with a woman. He was stronger than that, he knew better. He would be alone on his deathbed. Alone, he functioned better. Alone, he was happiest, hence his current solo voyage. When a woman asked him if he was a commitment-phobe, he just laughed because he was something worse than that. He had never needed anyone else in his life, not even as a child, and he could not imagine ever wanting a woman beside him for anything other than occasional sex.