had brought Dell back into his life? Right at the time when he needed help to launch something different and she was in need of a job? At a time when he was growing weary of punishing himself for something that had been out of his control.
Dell looked up at him, her green eyes direct. ‘What exactly does the job entail?’ she asked.
Fact was, there wasn’t a job vacancy as such. He would create a role for her.
Alex looked around the café, filling up now as lunchtime approached. Lizzie had left them to return to the kitchen. ‘We need to go somewhere more private where we can talk.’
Dell nodded with immediate understanding. ‘What about the harbour front?’ she said.
He put cash on the table to cover both his coffee and a very generous tip. ‘Good idea.’
He followed her out of the café. She looked good in shorts with her slender legs and shapely behind. In fact she was downright sexy. How had he not noticed that sensuous sway before? Alex forced his gaze away. This was about business.
He walked with her past the adjoining bookstore towards a lookout with a view across the stone-walled harbour with its array of fishing and pleasure craft. The scene was in some ways reminiscent of the fishing village his Greek ancestors came from, in others completely different.
He’d been born and grown up in Australia and thought of himself as Australian. But his Greek heritage was calling to him. He was back here just for a quick visit to help celebrate his father’s sixtieth birthday and to take a look at Bay Breeze. Greece was where he wanted to be right now. He didn’t think he could ever live back in Sydney again. Not with the memories and regrets that assaulted him at every turn.
‘No one will overhear us here,’ Dell said when they reached the lookout. ‘Fire away.’
He looked around to be sure. His success hadn’t come about by sharing his strategies. ‘I would usually require you to sign a confidentiality agreement before discussing a new project.’
She shrugged. ‘I’m good with that. Just tell me where to sign.’
Through his dealings with her as an adversary he’d also come to a grudging admiration of her honesty. According to the judge, her review had been scrupulously within the boundary of fair comment. And his lawyers had been unable to dig up even a skerrick of dirt on her.
‘I wasn’t expecting this, so I don’t have an agreement with me,’ he said.
‘You can trust me,’ she said. ‘I’m good at keeping secrets.’
He had been accused of being a ruthless and cynical businessman—never taking anyone on trust. Yet instinct told him he could talk to this woman without his plans being broadcast where they shouldn’t.
Still...he hadn’t changed that much. ‘I’ll email a document to you when I’m back at the resort.’
‘Of course,’ she said with a tinge of impatience. ‘I’ll sign it straight away. But right now I’m dying of curiosity about the role you have in mind for me.’
Alex leaned back against the railing. ‘I’m not at Bay Breeze for the yoga and the parsnip tea,’ he said.
Dell’s green eyes danced with amusement. ‘I kind of got that,’ she said.
‘I’m a stakeholder and I wanted to see what my investment has got me. The more I’m involved, the more I like the well-being concept. It seems right for the times.’ And for his time.
‘You want to start a similar kind of resort?’
He nodded. ‘It’s already under way. On a private island. Upscale. Exclusive. To appeal to the top end of the market. But my experience is all in restaurants and nightclubs. A resort is something different and challenging. I need some help.’ Alex had to force out the final words. He never found it easy to admit he needed help in anything. Had always seen it as a weakness.
‘That’s where I come in?’
He nodded. ‘But I don’t have a job description for the role. I wasn’t expecting someone like you to come along at this stage.’
‘You mean you’re making the job up as you go along?’
She was direct. There was another thing he’d found interesting about Dell during their legal stoush. He added another, less tangible asset to the list of her attributes. He would enjoy working with her.
‘Yeah. I am. Which is good for you as I can shape the role to your talents. I have input from top designers and consultants for the building and fit-out. I’ve got my key hospitality staff on contract. But I want someone to work with me on fine-tuning the offer to guests and with the publicity. Establishing an exclusive well-being resort on a private island is something different for me.’
‘That is quite a challenge,’ she said.
‘Yes,’ he said. And a much-needed distraction. He’d go crazy if he didn’t throw himself into a big, all-consuming project.
He’d thought he could walk away from his business. The business he blamed for Mia’s death. She’d been a chef in one of his restaurants when he’d met her. There had been a strict company rule against fraternising between staff in his businesses. He’d instigated it and he’d broken it when he’d become beguiled by Mia. They’d been living together—her pushing for marriage, he putting it off—when the chef at his busiest city lunchtime venue had been injured in an accident on the way to work. Mia was having a rostered day off. Alex had pulled rank and insisted she go into work that day to replace the chef. He could not take that memory out again, to pick and prod at it, a wound that would never heal.
Since he’d been away, he’d discreetly sold off his Sydney venues one by one. All except Athina. He couldn’t bear to let his inheritance from his grandfather go. Financially he never needed to work again. But he had to work. He hadn’t realised how much his work had defined him until he hadn’t had it to occupy himself day after lonely day.
Dell’s auburn brows drew together in a frown. ‘Why me? There must be more experienced people around who would jump at the chance to work with you on such a project.’
He didn’t want to mention fate or kismet or whatever it was that had sent her here. The hunch that made him think she was what he needed right now. ‘But it’s you I want. And you need a job.’
‘The role does interest me,’ she said cautiously. ‘Although I’d want to keep my blog. It’s important to me.’
‘I see your blog as an asset, complementary to your work with me,’ he said. ‘You could utilise it for soft publicity, along with social media.’
She nodded. ‘I’ll consider that.’
‘I’m thinking the title of Publicity Director,’ he said. He named a handsome salary.
She blinked. ‘That definitely interests me,’ she said.
‘I pay well and expect utmost commitment in return.’
‘I have no issue with that,’ she said. ‘I’ve been described more than once as a workaholic.’
Her
