Paradise Nights: Taken by the Bad Boy. Kelly Hunter

me to the door,’ he murmured to Serena as Nico made his farewells to Chloe and Sam.

      ‘I’m sorry the evening didn’t quite go to plan,’ Serena said to him when they reached Chloe’s front step. ‘It probably wasn’t what you had in mind. It certainly wasn’t what I had in mind.’

      ‘I’m not unhappy with the way it turned out,’ he told her.

      ‘The lack of mind-blowing sex doesn’t bother you?’

      ‘Is this a trick question?’ Because he didn’t have the faintest idea how to answer it.

      ‘No, it’s just a regular question.’

      He still didn’t know how to answer it. ‘Hell, Serena.’ He opted for the simple unvarnished truth. ‘I just wanted to see you again.’

      ‘Are you courting me, Pete Bennett?’

      ‘Damned if I know.’ He thought he might be. He thought he might just keep that bit of information to himself.

      ‘When are you leaving in the morning?’ she asked.

      ‘Early.’

      ‘When will you be back?’

      ‘Soon. Alternatively, you could come up with another reason to get off this island. You could come with me in the morning.’

      ‘You do miss the mind-blowing sex!’

      Pete reached out to run a wayward strand of her hair through his fingers, noting with interest the way her eyes seemed to darken at his nearness and his touch. ‘Maybe a little.’ Maybe he wasn’t the only one.

      ‘The need is there, don’t get me wrong,’ she told him. ‘But practically speaking it’s just not possible to get away right now. I have Nico and Chloe to throw together… Vespa hire to arrange so I don’t let my grandparents down. How about we aim to meet up in Athens in a few days’ time?’

      ‘We can do that,’ he said. And with more bravado than sense, ‘It doesn’t bother you that I had to come and see you tonight?’

      ‘Should it?’ she whispered, her eyes dark and fey.

      ‘I don’t know,’ he muttered. ‘But it sure as hell bothers me.’

      ‘Where’s Nico?’ Serena asked Chloe when she came back into the kitchen. ‘And Sam?’

      ‘Nico’s gone to talk to Theo about fish-hooks for tomorrow,’ said Chloe. ‘I dare say he’ll also find a way to casually mention that dinner’s over, Pete’s back in his hotel room, and that you and he are about to head back to the cottage. He’ll be back in a few minutes. Sam’s putting the rubbish out.’

      Serena started stacking plates in the dishwasher while Chloe found containers for the remaining food.

      ‘I was watching you with Pete Bennett tonight,’ said Chloe, uncharacteristically hesitant. ‘He’s more than passing fond of you, Serena.’

      Serena shook her head. ‘He’s playing a game, that’s all. And he’s very, very good at it.’

      ‘Maybe he is,’ murmured Chloe. ‘Maybe that’s exactly what he’s doing. But for what it’s worth I think you should start thinking about what you’re going to do if he ever decides to stop.’ Sam swung in through the back door and Chloe turned towards him. ‘Thank you, Sam.’

      Sam shrugged awkwardly.

      ‘Had enough to eat?’ Chloe said next.

      He nodded.

      ‘Then it’s bedtime.’ Chloe paused awkwardly. ‘Would you like me to come up with you?’

      ‘I’m not six,’ he said scathingly, shooting her a dark glare before scooping up his schoolbooks and heading from the room.

      ‘I thought things were improving,’ said Serena into the silence Sam left in his wake.

      ‘They are. This is one of our better days,’ said Chloe with a strangled laugh. ‘I don’t know how to help him, Rena. He wants nothing from me. He’s so defensive. So fiercely independent.’

      ‘Maybe he’s had to be,’ she said gently. ‘It can’t have been easy looking after his mother.’ Watching her die.

      ‘I know.’ Tears welled in Chloe’s eyes. ‘I hate the thought of it. There was no need for it. One phone call from my sister, one single phone call, and I’d have been there. She knew that, but no. She was too proud for that; too damn selfish. Even if she wanted nothing for herself why didn’t she ask it for Sam, Serena? Why? What kind of mother makes an eleven-year-old bear the brunt of her illness alone?’

      There was a slight shuffling noise in the doorway and Serena turned just in time to see Sam’s retreating form. Her stomach clenched. The kitchen and dining area was a large one. The doorway stood a fair distance away. He probably hadn’t heard them. And yet.

      ‘He heard us.’

      ‘No,’ Serena muttered, desperately trying to believe it. ‘He was too far away. And even if he did hear us, we didn’t say anything wrong.’

      ‘I criticised my sister.’ Chloe’s eyes were like bruises. ‘I shouldn’t have done that, even if I believed it. Not in front of Sam.’

      ‘He didn’t hear you.’ Serena held Chloe’s panicked gaze with her own. ‘He couldn’t have,’ she said firmly. And prayed that it was so.

      CHAPTER NINE

      THERE was something to be said for sitting beneath a stripy blue beach umbrella next to a little tin shed half full of Vespas and dreaming about a man. It helped pass the time, decided Serena. It kept a brain agile and a body … aware. The breeze playing with her hair put her in mind of Pete’s hands in it, the sun on her skin reminded her of the warmth of his body. She wanted to be back in his arms. Soon. That was a given. The trick lay in figuring out how to get there without disgracing her family in the process.

      Nico delivered her lunch a little later than usual. He looked tired, subdued. As if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders and then some. But he handed her the day’s mail and her lunchbox, same as usual, and hunkered down in the chair beside her.

      ‘Chloe was waiting down at the docks when the boats came in this morning,’ he said finally.

      That sounded promising. ‘Moon kissed roses will do that to a girl.’

      ‘Sam’s not at school.’

      That didn’t sound promising at all.

      ‘She thought he might have been waiting for the boats to come in. Waiting for me. He wasn’t.’

      ‘Oh.’

      ‘Chloe told me what she’d said about his mother. She thinks Sam overheard her.’ He ran a hand through his already untidy hair. ‘Some of his clothes are gone. His wallet … Chloe thinks he’s gone.’

      ‘Gone where?’

      Nico shrugged helplessly. ‘I checked the ferry terminal, the ticket office. He didn’t buy a ticket off the island, no one saw him getting onto a ferry. Chances are he’s somewhere on the island. I thought I’d take a Vespa out and look around. He’s probably just gone for a swim, or a walk. He does that sometimes. Skips out for a while. That’s probably all that’s happened.’

      Serena nodded. ‘Yeah. He’ll be around.’ She looked up at the hill, looked out over the sea. ‘Where could he go?’

      By mid-afternoon all the Vespas bar the one Nico had taken out were back in the shed. None of Serena’s customers had seen Sam; no one had seen Sam, according to Chloe, and Serena had decided to shut up shop for the rest of the day.

      Chloe was helping her.

      When Nico rode up and told them