‘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.