‘Where are you going?’
‘I’m going to Nicky.’ But he was letting her go nowhere.
‘He’s safe. I’ve had security guards watch you both from the moment you set foot on the island.’ He smiled, apologetic. ‘Longer, in fact. Even in Manhattan. You lessened the risk by telling Demos he could have the throne but even then we didn’t trust him.’
‘We?’
‘There are many islanders whose livelihoods hang on you inheriting,’ he said. ‘Demos’s heavies don’t have it all their own way. For if Demos succeeds…’
‘You really think he’d hurt Nicky?’
‘Yes.’ It was a flat statement with no equivocation.
‘Then I’m leaving. He can have it. I don’t want it. Not if it puts Nicky in the slightest danger. Let me go!’
‘Thena, do you really want Demos to destroy these islands?’
His voice was grave, low and urgent, and something about his tone stopped the rising hysteria, the rising panic.
This was the real Nikos. The Nikos she’d spent her teenage years with. The Nikos who cared about this place so passionately that he’d taught her to care as well.
Until she’d met Nikos she’d been taught to feel as trapped as her mother was trapped. ‘We’d leave if we could afford it,’ her mother had told her. ‘I’m so sorry you have to stay here. I’m so sorry the royals are destroying your life as well as mine.’
That was how she’d been raised, but then along came Nikos, with his passion, his fire, his certainty that they could make things right.
She’d fallen in love with his fire.
And she heard that fire now, the sheer single-minded determination to create justice for this island, to do whatever needed to be done to achieve that end.
‘I can’t care,’ she whispered. ‘Not if Nicky’s in danger. You’d feel the same if it was Christa.’
‘I feel the same that it’s Nicky,’ he said. ‘He’s my son, too.’
Once again he’d taken her breath away. He was still holding her, hand to hand, his hold imparting warmth, strength and urgency.
‘He’s not…I mean, how can you care?’
‘I would have cared for ten years if you’d let me.’
And the old anger stirred. For ten long years…‘Not one call, Nikos.’
‘Not one letter, Thena.’
‘Dammit, this is past history.’
‘It’s not. It’s here and now. It’s two kids we care deeply about, an island we care deeply about, and our future.’
‘My future’s in Manhattan.’
‘You won’t be safe in Manhattan. I can’t protect you there. Thena, there are six diamond mines at stake. We’re talking billions. That money has to be held in trust for the island for ever. It can’t stay in royal hands. We need to get the royal thing sorted, the government sorted, so we can finally transfer the mines to the community. So these mines are no longer owned by one man-or one woman-but the island as a whole so they can be worked sensitively as the community needs them. You need to stay for three reasons. One, so I can protect you. Two, so we can keep the mines safe. And three…’ He hesitated. ‘Three, because Nikos is my son. I’ve missed ten years of his life, and I believe I have the right to know him now.’
This was doing her head in. The impersonal and the personal were mixing in a combination that was threatening to overwhelm her.
Nikos had been her first love. For the last ten years she’d tried to forget him, but she never could. Every man she’d dated she’d compared with Nikos and they’d fallen short.
She’d finally decided Nikos was a figment of a young girl’s romantic longings. Impossible to be true, but also impossible to leave behind.
But here was the dream, come spectacularly to life. Nikos, with a body to die for, a smile to die for…And words so blunt and decisive that she believed him.
There was no reason to believe him, she told herself desperately. Christa. Remember Christa.
‘Why can’t I sign the diamond mines over now?’ she demanded. ‘Put them in a community fund or something?’
‘There’s no community fund. Everything’s owned by the Crown.’
‘Then set one up.’
‘I can’t set one up, Princess. Only you can do that.’
‘Then I’ll do it,’ she said wildly. ‘Tomorrow. And don’t call me Princess.’
‘It can’t be done tomorrow. You think you can just hand that amount of wealth to the town council and walk away? I need to tell you now that it would be a catastrophe. It’ll take years to get this right. So how about it, Thene? Say you’ll stay and let me protect you. I’ve told Demos I’ll protect what’s mine and I mean just that.’
And amazingly, infuriatingly, he was smiling. That smile was so…so…Seductive. He was seducing her with his voice and with his smile, she thought wildly.
‘I’m not yours,’ she managed.
‘You’re the mother of my son.’
Oh, great. What sort of answer was that? One that joined them at the hip for ever?
‘You saw the press here tonight,’ he said. ‘The world has another princess. Do you think you can escape that? The press will follow you all the way to Manhattan. And so will Demos.’
‘You’re scaring me.’
‘You need to be scared.’ His smile faded. ‘I’m sorry, Thena, but you need to face facts.’
‘You didn’t tell me these facts when you conned me into coming here,’ she snapped. ‘That there’d be threats to Nicky…’
‘You wouldn’t have come.’
‘Exactly.’
‘You had to come. And I will protect both you and Nicky.’
‘You’re still angry I didn’t tell you about Nicky.’
‘How can I not be?’
She wrenched her hands back so strongly that this time he did let her go. ‘Well how do you think I feel? You betrayed me in the worst possible way. I thought you were my best friend as well as my lover-and nothing. Nothing!’
‘It was your decision to walk away.’
‘It wasn’t.’
He stilled. ‘What do you mean?’
But she wasn’t going there. Some things were best left unsaid.
‘I need to go to bed, Nikos,’ she said wearily, knowing it was true. ‘I’m exhausted. It’s been some day.’
‘You will think about what I’ve said?’
‘I will think about it,’ she said. ‘Of course I’ll think about it. You’ve scared me. You seriously think Demos could harm me? Yes, he’s greedy and shallow, but he’s my cousin. I don’t know what you stand to gain by my staying…’
‘I told you. Nicky.’
‘You think I trust you enough to think that’s the only reason?’
‘You can trust me, Thene.’
‘This is nonsense, Nikos,’ she said wearily. ‘Once upon a time we trusted each other, but that was a long time ago. I’m so confused I can’t think straight. So let me be. Tomorrow I’ll think about arrangements for when I return to Manhattan. I’ll do my best to protect the island from Demos. I’ll talk to lawyers-I’ll do what I have to do. But trust you? How can I ever do that?’
And she turned and walked back into the ballroom, her gown swishing around her.
Leaving Nikos in the shadows, watching with troubled hooded eyes.
Knowing she was walking further into danger. Knowing there was only one real way he could protect her but to
