The Greek's Tiny Miracle. Rebecca Winters

sake, she hoped Dev would be curious enough to find her on his own.

      “Thank you for your time.”

      “You’re welcome,” he said with a smile.

      After putting the pictures in her purse, she left the office and walked down the hallway to the entrance of the building. If she hurried, she’d be in time to make the next boat going back to Chios. Her trip hadn’t been wasted. She’d done her duty for her child. That was all that really mattered.

      She made her way through picturesque winding streets paved with slabs. En route she passed mansions and villas with tiled roofs built in the Aegean island architectural style. Dev lived in one of those mansions, but she feared she’d never see the home where he’d grown up, and they’d never share anything again.

      Stephanie kept going until she arrived at the landing area, where she sat on a bench and raised her face to the sun. This island was its own paradise. Evidently the lure of scuba diving had caused Dev to leave it. Being born here, he would have been a water baby, which explained his natural prowess above and below the surface.

      Was he a true playboy? Or maybe a hardworking shipping tycoon who took his pleasure on occasion where he could find it around the world, as in the Caribbean? She knew nothing about him. He might even have a wife and children.

      Stephanie shuddered to think she could have been with a married man. If that were the case, she would never forgive herself for sleeping with someone else’s husband. If he had a wife, it could only hurt her to see Stephanie’s business card. She was glad she hadn’t left it.

      Face it. You took a huge risk being with him at all.

      Disturbed by her thoughts, she reached in her purse for some food to help abate her nausea. She ate a sandwich and drank some bottled water she’d brought with her. The doctor told her she needed to eat regularly, to maintain her health. For once she was hungry, probably because she finally knew Dev Harris was a Vassalos and could be reached here.

      After finishing her sandwich, she pulled out a small bag of grapes she’d purchased in a fruit market. On impulse she offered to share them with an older woman who’d just sat down by her.

      The woman smiled and took a few. “Thank you,” she said in heavily accented English.

      “Please take more if you like.”

      She nodded. “You are a tourist?”

      “No. I came to visit someone, but he wasn’t here.”

      “Ah. I wait for a friend.”

      “Do you live here?”

      “Yes.”

      Stephanie’s pulse raced. “Do you know the Vassalos family?”

      “Who doesn’t! That’s one of their boats.” She pointed to a beautiful white boat, probably forty-five to fifty feet long, docked in the marina. “Why do you ask?”

      “It’s their son I came to see.”

      “They have two sons. One works here. The other I never see. He’s always away.”

      Did that mean he was always doing family business elsewhere?

      Unable to sit there after that news, Stephanie got to her feet. Maybe all wasn’t lost yet. “It’s been very nice talking to you. Keep the grapes. I think I’ll take a walk until the boat gets here.”

      Without wasting another second, she headed in the direction of the moored craft. Maybe one of the crew would tell her where she could reach Dev. She’d come this far....

      Closer now, she realized it was a small state-of-the-art recreational yacht, the luxurious kind she occasionally spotted in Florida waters, but she saw no one around. After walking alongside, she called out, “Hello? Is anyone here?” But there was no answer.

      Upon further inspection she took in the outdoor lounge with recliners and a sun bed. Beyond it was the transom, with water skis, a rope and scuba gear. The sight of the equipment brought back piercingly sweet pain.

      She stepped closer and called out again. Still no answer. Since the boat that would take her back to Chios wasn’t in sight yet, she decided to wait a few more minutes for someone to come.

      Praying she wouldn’t get caught, she sat down facing the open sea and hooked her arms around her upraised knees. Before long she spotted the boat in the distance, headed toward the harbor.

      Time to go.

      Her spirits reached rock bottom because she’d come to the end of her journey. With her head down, she retraced her steps along the pier. “Oh—” Stephanie cried out in surprise as a hard male body collided with hers. She felt a strong pair of hands catch her by the upper arms to prevent her from falling.

      Through the wispy cotton of her white blouson top the grip felt familiar. But when she lifted her head, nothing was familiar about the narrowed pair of glittering black eyes staring into hers as if she were an alien being.

      “Dev—”

      It was him, but he was so changed and forbidding, she couldn’t comprehend it. He released her as if she’d scorched him, and kept walking.

      “Dev!” she called in utter bewilderment. “Why won’t you even say hello? What’s happened to you?”

      He continued walking, not fast or slow, never turning around.

      She thought she’d been in pain when she’d opened the box of gardenias to discover he’d gone, but this pain reached the marrow of her bones.

      Let him go, Stephanie. Let it all go.

      Turning away from him, she kept walking, and had almost reached the beach area when he called to her in his deep voice. “Stephanie? Come back.”

      She looked over her shoulder at him. “When you left the Caribbean so fast, I worried you were ill or even dying, but obviously you’re fine. Don’t worry. I’m leaving and won’t venture near again.”

      “Come back, or I’ll be forced to come after you.”

      She heard the authority in his voice that left her in no doubt he’d do exactly that. With her heart thudding, she started toward him. By the time she reached him, her khaki-clad legs would have buckled if he hadn’t helped her onto the nearest padded bench aboard the yacht.

      The last time she’d seen him he’d been in his bathing suit after their dive. His eyes had smoldered with desire as he’d kissed her passionately, before they’d parted to get ready for dinner. He’d told her to hurry, then had pressed another long, hot kiss to her mouth. Neither of them could bear to be separated.

      Or so she’d thought.

      This brooding version of Dev looked formidably gorgeous. He was wearing white cargo pants and a gray crew-necked T-shirt. His black wavy hair had grown longer, setting off the deep bronze of his complexion. With his height and fit physique, he bore the aura of a man in command, just as she and the girls had supposed. But he’d lost weight.

      He lounged against the side of the boat, his hands curled around the edge, his long legs extended. Legs he’d wrapped possessively around hers, whether under the water or in bed. But there was a gauntness to his handsome, chiseled features that suggested great sorrow or illness. She’d been right about two things: he’d left the Caribbean on some kind of emergency, and was a native Greek down to every black hair on his head.

      “I heard you showed up at the shipping office, but I never dreamed I’d find you outside the Diomedes. What are you doing here?”

      Stephanie could hardly fathom the frigidity of his words. “I told you. After what we shared, you left so fast without an explanation I could live with, I feared something terrible must have happened to you. I—I needed to see for myself,” she stammered.

      “I thought the card I left with the flowers summed things up.”

      “It did, but