to the woman occupying a bedroom only a few doors down from his own.
Talia Di Sione was an impossible, aggravating mystery. He had never had someone speak to him with such flippant irreverence as she had, and he found himself, to his own irritation, to feel both appalled and reluctantly admiring of her spirit. And yet she’d seemed positively terrified when they’d boarded the helicopter, and she’d practically fainted in his office. The woman was an utter contradiction, and he still knew very little about her.
He knew Maria would tell him if Talia was unsuitable in any way; she’d kept an eye on the previous nannies, most of them unfortunate young women who had taken the post in the hopes of becoming the next Kyria Mena. A few of those women Angelos had had no choice but to fire; others had left in a huff when their cringingly obvious seduction attempts had failed.
Talia, at least, didn’t seem interested in him that way, if her snappy comebacks were anything to go by. Yet before he could keep himself from it, he imagined what a seduction attempt by Talia Di Sione would look like. Her hair loose and wavy about her face, her hazel eyes sparkling, her lips parted invitingly as she walked towards him, hips subtly swaying, that sundress sliding over her slight curves...
Horrified by the nature of his thoughts and his body’s insistent and alarming response, Angelos quashed the provocative image immediately. He slammed the lid of his laptop down and rose from his desk, pacing the confines of his study in an attempt to keep his body under tight control. It had been a long time since he’d been with a woman, but he wasn’t so desperate or deprived that he needed to fantasise about his nanny.
Shaking his head in self-disgust, he left his study and headed back upstairs. The hall was quiet, no light shining from under any of the doors. His body now firmly under control, Angelos walked past Talia’s bedroom to his daughter’s, quietly opening the door and slipping inside the darkened room.
Sofia was asleep in bed, her knees tucked up to her chest, one hand resting palm upwards on the pillow next to her face. Lying as she was, her scarred cheek against the pillow, she almost looked whole. Healthy in both mind and body. Angelos could almost believe she hadn’t been burned, that he hadn’t damaged his daughter for ever.
Gently he smoothed a tendril of curly dark hair, hair just like Xanthe’s, away from her forehead. She stirred slightly, her lips pursing in a frown before her expression smoothed out and she settled back into sleep.
‘S’agapo, manaria mou,’ he whispered. His little lamb. With a sad smile Angelos touched his daughter’s cheek and then quietly left the room.
TALIA WOKE TO sunlight streaming through the latticed shutters of her bedroom and the sound of the surf outside. Buoyed by both the light and sound, she threw off the covers and went to the window, opening the shutters wide.
The sight that greeted her was enough to make her sigh in pure pleasure. Sunlight gilded a perfect paradise: blue-green waters and soft white sand, the riot of pink and red flowers tumbling all the way to the beach. Leaning her elbows on the sill she inhaled the scents of flowers and sand and sea, the prospect and possibilities of the next six weeks filling her with something close to joy.
When had she last had an adventure or felt excitement at what the day might bring? Smiling at the thought, she reached for her smartphone to send a quick email to her grandfather.
Arrived in Greece safely. Having a surprising and wonderful time.
Love, T.
Tossing her phone on the bed, she acknowledged that she wasn’t actually having a wonderful time. Yet. The memory of her dinner last night with Angelos and his scathing assessment of her still stung. But Angelos was leaving today, and she’d be spending most of her time with Sofia. Wonderful might be just around the corner.
She was just getting dressed in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt when the loud, insistent sound of a helicopter starting up sent her to the window again. She watched as the helicopter she’d flown in last night lifted off the helipad and like some large, ugly insect rose in the sky and began to move away.
Angelos was leaving already? It wasn’t even eight in the morning. Clearly he couldn’t wait to get away from Kallos, a thought that made her frown. She wondered how much time Angelos spent with his daughter, if any. And then she reminded herself, as Angelos had told her last night, that it wasn’t her concern.
Dressed, her hair caught back in a practical ponytail, Talia headed downstairs. She found Maria in the kitchen, chopping vegetables for lunch. She barely glanced at Talia before nodding to the table, where two places had been set. Talia could see from one of the settings that Sofia had already eaten, and so she sat at the other and spooned yogurt and honey into a bowl.
‘Sofia?’ she asked the housekeeper, searching for some of the Greek phrases she’d tried to memorise. ‘Apu pu iste?’ she tried, and Maria looked at her, clearly amused.
‘Where am I from?’
‘Oh.’ Talia stared at her, nonplussed. ‘You speak English.’
‘A bit,’ Maria answered. ‘I am from Naxos.’
‘Sorry, I meant where Sofia is. Currently.’ Talia shook her head. ‘I admit, my Greek is severely limited. But last night you seemed like you didn’t speak English at all.’
‘Well.’ Maria let out a huff of breath. ‘I wasn’t sure of you.’
Talia laughed at that. ‘And now you are?’
‘No,’ Maria answered bluntly, ‘but you didn’t make eyes at Kyrie Mena last night, so I am reassured that you are not trying to seduce him.’
‘Seduce...’ Talia nearly choked on her mouthful of yogurt. ‘I most certainly am not. He is doing his best to terrify me though.’
Maria nodded sagely. ‘That is what Kyrie Mena does. And rather well.’
‘You speak more than a bit of English,’ Talia exclaimed, and Maria smiled slyly.
‘I’m a quick learner.’
Talia laughed again and shook her head. Somehow she seemed to have made an ally of the housekeeper, and for that she was glad. She had a feeling she would need allies. ‘So...are you telling me that some of the other nannies have tried to...to seduce Kyrie Mena?’
Maria pursed her lips and then turned back to her vegetables, beheading a bunch of carrots with one swift chop. ‘You could say that. If a woman crawls naked into a man’s bed, it is a seduction, ne?’
This time Talia did choke on her yogurt. She grabbed a napkin and pressed it to her mouth, gazing at Maria in stunned disbelief. ‘Not really...’ she finally managed.
Maria nodded grimly. ‘It is true. The woman was shown the door that night. Kyrie Mena did not even wait until morning to have her back on the mainland.’ She gave Talia a quick, sideways glance. ‘But I do not gossip.’
‘No, of course not.’ Talia took another spoonful of yogurt, her mind now full of rather salacious images of some eager nanny spread out like a centrefold, lying in wait for Angelos. And Angelos coming into his darkened bedroom, loosening his tie, unbuttoning his shirt...
Before
