mainly fishermen, lived here. My father was born on Aura. But Kea has a bigger harbour, and gradually everyone moved away, leaving the island uninhabited until I bought it three years ago.’
‘So no one lives in those houses?’
‘My household staff and their families live in the village now. Many of the houses were in a bad state of repair, but I have a team of builders who are gradually restoring them. There is also a church where Larissa will be married.’
‘I hope it’s a big one,’ Belle commented. ‘Larissa told me that hundreds of guests have been invited to the wedding.’
Loukas grimaced. ‘Yes, her fiancé has a huge extended family, most of whom Lissa has never met before. The church is tiny, and most of the guests will be seated in the square outside for the actual ceremony, but the reception will be at the villa, where there is much more room.’
Belle gave him a surprised look, wondering how big his villa was. ‘Will there be room for so many guests to stay at your house?’
‘Theos, no!’ His horrified expression at the idea of his home being invaded by guests was almost comical, and made him seem a little more human, she mused, desperately trying to fight her awareness of him as she studied his superbly chiselled features. ‘Most people will stay in Athens or on Kea. I’ve chartered a fleet of helicopters to ferry guests over to Aura, and some people will arrive by boat.’
‘It sounds a logistical nightmare. Wouldn’t it have been easier to have the wedding in Athens?’
Loukas shrugged. ‘Probably. But Larissa wanted to be married here, and I’ll move heaven and earth to give her the wedding she wants.’
Belle stared at him, startled by the sudden huskiness in his voice. There could be no doubt that Loukas adored his sister. The emotion blazing in his eyes was strangely humbling and made her wonder if she had misjudged him. Perhaps he wasn’t as controlling as she had first thought? Certainly it seemed important to him that Larissa’s wedding should be perfect.
They walked on in silence, the path wider now so that they were side by side. The views from the clifftop, of the sea and across the island, were stunning, and Belle was not surprised that Larissa wanted to hold her wedding in such a beautiful place. It was not Larissa Christakis who occupied her thoughts, however, but her brother.
‘You said that your father was born here on Aura, but I take it that you were not?’
‘No, the island had been abandoned long before then. I was born on Kea and spent my early childhood there. Larissa was also born there, but she has no memories of the place because we moved to America when she was very young.’
‘Why did your family leave Greece?’ Belle asked curiously.
‘To make a living.’ Loukas’s mouth tightened as he silently acknowledged the bitter irony of that statement. ‘My father’s fishing boat had been wrecked in a storm and he couldn’t afford to buy a new one. But without a boat he couldn’t fish and make money to feed his family. A distant cousin owned a grocery store in New York. Xenos arranged for us to move there so that my parents could run the shop, and when he died he left it to them.’
‘It must have been a big change, moving from a small island to a city. I moved house dozens of times when I was growing up, because my stepfather was in the army and we lived wherever he was stationed.’ She had hated being the new girl at school, always trying to fit in and make friends, Belle remembered. ‘I would have found it even harder to settle in a new country.’ She glanced towards the turquoise sea shimmering in the sunshine. ‘Didn’t you miss all this?’
‘Every day. But I was young and better able to cope with the change.’ His voice deepened. ‘It broke my father’s heart to leave Greece.’
‘He must have been pleased when you bought Aura—his birthplace.’
Loukas hesitated for a moment, and then shrugged. The basic facts about his background could be found by anyone who chose to research him on the internet. ‘He never knew. My father died eighteen months after we moved to the States, and my mother followed him to the grave two years later.’
His voice was so devoid of emotion that Belle shot him a startled glance. Despite the heat from the sun she shivered, sadness sweeping over her at the thought that Loukas’s father had never come home, never seen again this beautiful place.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know—’ She broke off abruptly. There was no reason why she should have known about the tragedy that had torn Loukas’s family apart. She had met him less than an hour ago, they were strangers, so why did her heart ache for him? And why was she so sure that he concealed his pain behind his unfathomable grey gaze? Perhaps because she had learned to hide her own heartbreak at her mother’s death and pretend that she wasn’t hurting inside, she thought bleakly.
Another thought struck her. ‘Larissa can’t have been very old when your parents died. Who looked after her?’
Loukas had started walking again, and Belle fell in step beside him. ‘I did. There was no one else. She barely remembers our father, and I have tried to be a father figure to her. But she missed having a mother. She still does—especially now, as she prepares for her wedding.’ He gave a heavy sigh. ‘You know how it is—there’s a special bond between mothers and daughters.’
His words touched a raw nerve. A lump formed in Belle’s throat and for a moment she could not speak. ‘Yes,’ she said at last in a low tone. ‘I know how it is.’ She stared at the horizon, the sharp line between the sea and the sky blurring as tears filled her eyes. She had shared a special bond with her mother—or at least she had believed she had. But in all those years that she was growing up, during all those mother-and-daughter shopping trips and girly chats, Gudrun had never revealed the truth about her father. The feeling of betrayal burned in her heart as fiercely as the pain of grief.
‘Belle… Is something wrong?’ Loukas suddenly realised that she had fallen behind and turned to find her standing looking out over the sea. Her face was half hidden beneath the brim of her hat, but he sensed her tangible vulnerability.
What the hell had got into him today? he wondered irritably. He was not one of the sensitive ‘new-man’ types so beloved by women’s magazines; he was a hard-headed businessman who dealt in facts and figures, profit margins and takeover bids. Flights of imagination about the emotional well-being of any woman, let alone his sister’s dress designer, whom he’d met for the first time an hour ago, were not in his nature.
He glanced at his watch and realised he was late to make an important call. He couldn’t blame Belle if he’d missed out on the Tokyo deal, he conceded. But from now on he was determined to concentrate on business and not allow himself to be distracted by her.
‘I was just admiring the view.’ Belle blinked fiercely before she turned to Loukas. She could sense his impatience as he waited for her, and she pushed her dark thoughts to the back of her mind and walked towards him, determined to focus on the job she had come to Aura to do.
They continued along the path for a few more metres before it forked—one branch sloping down to a set of steps cut into the cliff, which led to a white sandy beach below, and the other stopping in front of a set of wrought-iron gates set in a high stone wall. Loukas pressed a button so that the gates swung smoothly open, and ushered Belle through.
‘Welcome to the Villa Elena.’
‘Oh…wow!’
