JEMMA BARNES, pencil in hand, doodled in the notebook
in front of her on the table, paying little attention to
the conversation going on around her. Her father, MD of
the company Vanity Flair, had insisted that she attend
this board meeting now that she was heir to her late Aunt
Mary's estate, and therefore now one of the principal
shareholders in the company. She had no idea why he wanted
her there — stock flotations and the like were a foreign
language to her. In fact, she had enough trouble coping
with the monetary side of her own business — as Liz, her
best friend and partner in the florist shop they jointly
owned in Chelsea, would readily confirm!
"Jemma?" The strident tones of her father's voice cut
through her reverie. "Do you agree?"
Lifting her head, she realised the dozen or so people
around the table were all staring at her. Her amber eyes
clashed with the twinkling brown ones of the man opposite —
a Mr Devetzi from Greece. Her father had introduced Jemma
to him earlier and she rather liked the old man.
Apparently he had once met her aunt Mary at her holiday
home on the island of Zante — the same place that Jemma
had spent her last holiday with her aunt. It wasn't a
holiday she liked to recall for a variety of reasons — one
being that her aunt had died a few months later.
Now a hint of a smile played around the old man's mouth,
and she knew he'd realised from her panicked expression
that she had no idea of the question. His smile broadened
reassuringly, and with a wink and a nod of his white head
he gave her the answer.
"Yes, of course, Father," Jemma agreed, and the meeting
ended.
"Why on earth didn't you get in touch with me?" Luke
Devetzi demanded forcibly in Greek, and stared down at his
grandfather, lounging back on the sofa with one heavily
bandaged ankle propped up on a footstool. "You know I
would have come the minute you called." He raked
frustrated fingers through his dark hair. "And what are
you doing in London anyway? After your last heart scare I
seem to recall your doctor forbidding you to travel."
"Business," Theo Devetzi declared bluntly. "But you
retired from the fish business years ago," Luke reminded
him.
"Not that business. As a matter of fact I did call you six
days ago, but I was informed by some woman in your New
York office that you had already left for a long weekend
in the Hamptons and were not to be disturbed unless it was
a dire emergency." The old man arched one sardonic
eyebrow. "As it was only a courtesy call, to tell you I
was going to use your London apartment for a few days, I
saw no reason to bother you."
Luke stifled a grimace, but he had no defence; he had left
just such instructions, and he felt guilty as hell. His
grandparents had turned their lives upside down thirty-
eight years ago when Anna, their only daughter, had got
pregnant by a yachtsman visiting the Greek island where
they lived. Unwilling to subject Anna and her unborn child
to the censure of the small community, they had relocated
to Athens, where no one knew them. Then, when Anna had
died in childbirth, they had been left to bring Luke up on
their own.
Luke had never known who his biological father was until
after he'd graduated from university at the age of twenty-
one, with a degree in Business Studies. He had refused to
follow his grandfather into the wholesale fish business,
instead signing up as assistant purser on a luxury cruise
liner. In a fit of temper Theo had declared he was just
like his feckless French father — a so-called aristocrat
who spent his life sailing around in his yacht seducing
young girls. In the ensuing argument Luke had discovered
his grandfather had known his father's name all along.
Luke had stormed out and gone to find his father. He had
discovered the man living on a large estate in France —
with his wife and two sons both older than Luke. When Luke
had confronted him he had sneered and disowned him with
the words, "I have had dozens of women in my life, and
even if I had been single at the time I would never have
married your Greek peasant of a mother." Then, with the
help of his two equally obnoxious sons, he'd had Luke
thrown off his land.
Luke had gone ahead and joined the cruise liner. There he
had struck up a friendship with an elderly New York
banker, who had enlisted Luke's aid in reading the stock
market. When the ship had docked in New York, impressed by
Luke's natural ability to spot a winner, the same man had
offered Luke a job with his firm. Luke had become the
proverbial whiz kid, and four years later had started his
own investment banking company — Devetzi International.
The circumstances of his birth no longer bothered Luke,
and hadn't done for years. He viewed his grandfather's set
features now with a mixture of frustration and
love. "Nothing you do or want can ever be too much trouble
for me, Theo. You only have to ask and it will be given.
You must know that."
Theo was getting old. His heavily lined face showed the
signs of his seventy-seven years, and yet his deep brown
eyes still held the determination that had seen him build
up a business with his best friend Milo. Luke owed his
life to this man.. as far as he was concerned Theo was the
only family he had.
"Humph. Fine words, Lycurgus, but they cut no ice with me."
Luke stiffened. He knew the old man was always either
angry or after something when he used Luke's full name —
chosen for him by his grandmother because it meant wolf-
hunter, and his silver-grey eyes had reminded her of a
wolf.
"What I wanted was to see you married with children, to
see the continuation of our bloodline. But given your
apparent aversion to marriage and your choice in women I
have almost given up hope." Lifting a magazine from the
coffee table, he waved it at Luke. "Just look at your
latest woman — probably the one you have spent the last
few days with." He flicked to the centre page. "Davina
Lovejoy is about as likely to make a good wife and mother
as fly," he snorted.
Theo was right — Luke had been dating Davina for the last
few weeks and had spent a long weekend with the lady in
question. He could tell his grandfather that he had no
intention of marrying the lady anyway.. but, dammit, why
should he? He didn't exactly appreciate Theo interfering
in his sex life. And, as for marriage, Luke had little
trust in women for the long term. In his experience he had
found the married ones just as eager to get into his bed
as the single women he met, if not more so — not that he
was at all interested in getting involved with married
women. The only exception to that particular rule still
nagged his conscience to this day…
Belatedly he tuned back in to Theo's rapid-fire Greek. "…
and I thought you had more taste, but obviously I was
wrong. Have you read this?" Theo waved the magazine
again. "She had a nose job at nineteen! That I can
understand, and even the breast enhancement I could
tolerate, but this last thing… Well, I have never heard of
anything like it in my life! A false bottom! You might as
well take a plastic doll to your bed," he exclaimed.
"What? Let me see that," Luke snapped, and took the
magazine from Theo's hand. A quick glance told him his
grandfather was right. A photograph of Davina and himself
leaving a restaurant — a month earlier, if he wasn't
mistaken — followed by an article all about Davina, her
physical enhancements, and the new man in her life.
A vitriolic Greek curse escaped him, and he flung the
magazine back on the table in disgust.
"My sentiments exactly," Theo agreed, with the slightest
of smiles lightening his leathered face.
Luke ran his hand through his dark hair again. "I never
even realised," he muttered. And, as he considered himself
something of a connoisseur of women, that was some
admission!
Sinking down onto the sofa beside Theo, he gave the old
man a wry smile. "I met Davina because she's an interior
designer, and my PA in New York hired her to redecorate my
apartment in the city. Propinquity did the rest." He
didn't add that it had only been when showing the woman
around his apartment it had suddenly struck him he had not
bedded a woman in over a year and it was time he did
something about it. "But if it gives you any satisfaction,
Theo, I have no intention of marrying her."
When the apartment was finished, in a couple of weeks, so
would be his involvement with Davina. Beautiful and
intelligent though she was, this last weekend had not been
the roaring success he had hoped for. Davina was a very
experienced lover, and the sex had been good, but for some
reason it had left him feeling oddly unsatisfied.
"Good! In that case you can do me a favour," Theo
stated. "Since your grandmother's death I've been making a
few discreet enquiries about buying back my family home on
Zante. I sold it to the local butcher when we moved from
the island to Athens, but the house and the cove had been
in my family for generations. I want it back," he declared
emphatically. "I was conceived on that beach, I courted
your grandmother there, and your mother was conceived on
the same beach. It has a thousand happy memories for me,
and when you get to my age that is about all you have
left."
Theo sighed deeply, then went on, "I did some digging and
discovered the butcher died eight years later, and his
family sold it for cash to a nameless businessman from
Athens. According to gossip, he then gifted it to his
mistress — an Englishwoman called Mary James; a botanist
from London. I caught up with her on the island one time.
She was a lovely lady, and she told me about her work and
the company she had founded with her sister called Vanity
Flair, producing a line of homeopathic, anti-allergenic
make-up. Later, her sister married the company accountant,
one David Sutherland, and he was instrumental in expanding
the business into retail outlets all over Europe.
"But when I asked her if she would sell me the house on
Zante she flatly refused, and closed up like a clam. So
when I heard the company was to be floated on AIM — the
alternative investment market in London — with the
intention of raising money to fund expansion into America,
I bought a block of shares on the off-chance that at some
point they might give me some leverage in trying to
persuade Miss James into selling my family home back to
me."
Luke frowned. Most of the companies floated on AIM were
high-risk businesses. "Take my advice — sell up and get
out now. As for your old home — forget it. Anyway, I
thought you liked living in the house I had built for us
all? You have never complained."
"No, but, beautiful as it is, since your grandmother died
I find it a bit lonely — you're rarely there."
"A good point," Luke conceded. The fact that he'd had no
idea Theo was interested in buying back the property on
Zante shamed him, and revealed just how little real
attention he had given his grandfather in the past few
years, how much he had taken him for granted. "I promise I
will try to get home more often, Theo. But it doesn't
alter the fact that Zante is a very popular tourist
destination now. It's nothing like when you lived there —
you'd hate it." Luke knew because he had berthed his yacht
for one night on the island last summer, and, beautiful
though the scenery still was, he had departed quickly the
next morning.
"No, you're wrong. At last I can see a way to recover what
was once mine." Theo's eyes sparkled with more excitement
than Luke had seen in a long time. "I discovered that Mary
James died some months ago, and I immediately started to
buy up more stock." Theo held up a veined hand. "And
before you say it, I know the stock has been falling
recently — but that was to my advantage because I got it
cheap."
If the company went down the tubes it wouldn't be cheap,
but Luke shook his head and kept his mouth shut, not
wanting to argue further with Theo.
"I received a call last week to attend a special board
meeting of Vanity Flair, as one of the larger stockholders.
I went to the meeting on Friday, and I had a drink with
Sutherland afterwards. The only reason I've stayed on here
the last few days was because he's invited me to dinner at
his house this evening, and also to his daughter's
birthday party this coming weekend."
"That's very interesting, but it doesn't explain how you
sprained your ankle, nor that if Milo hadn't contacted me
in New York last night I would have known nothing about
it."
"Yes, you would. Because I was going to call you myself as
soon as I got back from the hospital but Milo preempted
me. Incidentally, I sprained my ankle yesterday, tripping
down the steps of this damn fool sunken living room of
yours." He looked disdainfully around the plush curving
black hide seating arrangement in the obviously bachelor
penthouse.
"Well, at least you had the sense to bring Milo with you,"
Luke murmured. "This is a service apartment, and I hate to
think what might have happened if you'd been on your own."
"Naturally he came with me," Theo said. "Milo is just as
keen as I am to see me get my family home back. Zante is
where he and I first met and became friends. He used to
stay with your grandmother and I whenever his fishing boat
came into the harbour. I always thought he had a soft spot
for your mother, but it wasn't to be…"
Luke almost groaned, wishing Theo would get to the point,
but he knew from experience that there was no way to hurry
him. "So, how are you going to get it back, then?" he
enquired.
"I'm not. You are," Theo declared with a broad grin. "I
met Sutherland's daughter at the board meeting. She's a
delightful woman who knows nothing at all about the family
business — though she does run her own. We had an
interesting conversation, and I discovered she was
attending the meeting only because her father had told her
to. She inherited everything from her aunt — shares in the
company and, more importantly, the property on Zante."