Paradise Nights: Taken by the Bad Boy

‘That’s me.’ Damn but he was appealing. ‘And my grandparents are visiting both sides of the family on the mainland at the moment. They left this morning, so you can count them out of the equation for a couple of months. You?’

‘I’ll be flying these skies until Tomas recovers the use of his leg. Six.eight weeks. Maybe longer.’

‘And then?’

He shrugged. ‘There’s an offer from an Australian mining company to run a charter-flight operation for them in Papua New Guinea. It’s a good offer.’

‘Yes, but is it ethical?’

‘What they’re doing or what I’d be doing?’ he countered with a quick smile, and Serena figured she had her answer.

‘So you flit,’ she said dryly. ‘From one flying job to another.’

‘I like to think there’s a big-picture plan somewhere in amongst it all,’ he said mildly.

‘Ever thought about settling down?’

‘You mean some place permanently or with a woman?’

‘Either.’

‘No.’

Serena closed her eyes, muttered a prayer. As far as potential short-term romantic interludes were concerned, the man was utterly, mouth-wateringly perfect.

‘Did you just whimper?’ he said, eyeing her closely. ‘I thought I heard someone whimper.’

‘No whimpering here.’ Much. ‘What can I get you to drink? Water, wine?’ She gestured towards the glass of white wine already on the bench. ‘I’m already set.’ She didn’t wait for an answer, just headed for the fridge. She thought it best to keep busy, keep that whimpering to an absolute minimum. Water, wine, she grabbed both and set them in front of him. ‘Help yourself.’

He did, reaching for a couple of tumblers on the shelf nearby before pouring water for them both. He snagged another glass, a wineglass this time, and filled that too, his fingers long and lean around the neck of the bottle … fingers that looked as if they could deliver anything a woman could possibly want, from a feather-light stroke to firm and knowing pressure in all the right places.

‘There it goes again,’ he said. ‘That sound.’

‘Could be the tabby cat hereabouts. She’s very noisy.’

Pete looked at the curled and sleeping cat over in the corner of the kitchen, her head firmly tucked beneath one paw. ‘You mean that cat?’

‘Yes.’ She said it with an utterly straight face and Pete’s admiration for her rose immeasurably. ‘That cat.’

They ate from the picnic table in the courtyard, with the cottage nestled into the hillside behind them and the sea spread out before them like a promise.

‘So how many brothers do you have?’ Pete asked between bites of truly divine roast chicken. Chicken like this could quite conceivably make a man change his mind on the issue of not wanting a woman to come home to each night.

Serena held up two fingers and he smiled. Two brothers and an overprotective cousin wasn’t so bad.

‘I saw that smile,’ she said darkly. ‘And if you figure you can handle them you’re wrong. They’re half Greek. And if you’re talking extended family—and with my family you should—I also have two brothers-in-law, a father, three uncles, and half a dozen male cousins my age or older. Nico is the most liberal-minded of the lot.’

‘Ah.’ That was quite a list of protective males. Doubtless she’d driven them insane during her teenage years. ‘Bet your first date went well.’

‘You have no idea,’ she muttered. ‘I thought he’d be all right. He had a very cool car and a bad-boy reputation. A smile that promised heaven. They were waiting for him out in the front yard when he came to pick me up. My father and my uncle.’ Her eyes flashed with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. ‘They’d brought home a fish from the morning’s catch and were gutting it when he pulled up. With ten inch boning knives.’

‘Sounds reasonable,’ said Pete. ‘Although I can see how you might consider the knives a touch melodramatic.’

‘It was a six-foot shark.’

‘Oh.’ He felt a smile coming on.

‘And don’t you dare laugh!’

‘No, ma’am. But I am impressed.’

‘We didn’t even get to the cinema. The poor boy took me to a burger drive-through, fed me hot chips and a sundae, and had me home within half an hour. He’s probably still running.’

‘Just for the record, I’d have bought you a burger as well.’ He topped up her wineglass, reached for another slice of bread. ‘I have three brothers, a father, and one sister. Hallie’s the youngest.’

‘No mother?’

‘Nope. She died when I was a kid. My father took it hard, pulled back. My brothers and I took over the raising of Hallie. You’d like her. You could swap stories. My youngest brother could get downright creative when it came to deterring her more persistent suitors. He works for Interpol these days. He’d have loved a shark as a prop.’

‘Are you sure you don’t have any Greek ancestry in you?’

‘Not a drop.’

‘What’s your position on trust and honour?’

‘As in Nico trusting me not to hit on you?’

She nodded.

‘It’s damn near killing me.’

Her smile sliced through him, wicked with challenge. ‘But you are sticking to it.’

‘Barely.’ The meal had more than satisfied Pete’s appetite for food, and dusk was warming up the crowd for the coming of night. The air lay heavy with the scent of jasmine and he was self-aware enough to know that if he didn’t leave soon his honour wouldn’t be worth a drachma. ‘Close your eyes,’ he told her. ‘Think back to that bad boy with his own car and a smile like a promise.’

‘Why?’ But she did as he asked, her back to the table, her elbows resting behind her, and her head tilted back a fraction as if to catch the moonlight.

‘Work with me here,’ he murmured. ‘You’ve been to the cinema and you’re on your way home. The car stereo’s blaring, the windows are down, the wind is in your hair, and your bad boy has forgotten all about your father’s shark-carving skills. He’s young and reckless, and so are you.’

Her lips curved. ‘And then?’

‘He pulls up outside your front yard.’

‘Does he stop the engine?’

‘No. He’s not insane. He’s planning on a quick getaway.’

Her eyes were still closed. ‘Where’s the shark?’