Kelly Hunter - Paradise Nights

‘Fool,’ she muttered.

‘There she goes again,’ said Sam, looking up from his inspection of the net and shooting Nico one of those man-to-man looks. ‘Talking to herself.’

‘Let it be a lesson to you, Sam,’ murmured Nico. ‘Wear a hat.’

‘How do you know I’m not talking to you?’ she said to Nico, reloading her brush with paint before spearing him with a dark glare. ‘It’s possible. Extremely possible.’

Nico rolled his eyes at Sam. Sam grinned back. ‘I saw that,’ she said darkly.

‘She’s been twitchy for days,’ continued Nico with a sigh. ‘Moody. Some might even say pining. One might even hazard a guess as to what she’s been pining for.’

‘Oh, good. A man with a death wish,’ she said with a toss of her head. ‘And I am not pining for anything. I’m just … contemplating the universe.’

And then a helicopter appeared on the horizon where sea met sky, heading towards them low and fast.

‘Look! It’s Pete,’ said Sam, and Nico sniggered.

The chopper drew closer. Close enough for Serena to see Pete and two passengers. Sam leapt to his feet and waved. Chloe waved too. Even Nico looked up and grinned.

Serena gritted her teeth and turned her attention back to the Greek word for Plenty .

‘Can I go see if he’s staying over?’ asked Sam as the chopper headed for the landing pad behind the hotel. ‘He might want to come and mend nets too.’

‘If he’s staying,’ she muttered. ‘Sometimes he doesn’t.’ Sometimes he just dropped by to torture her.

‘If he is staying he’ll probably be after a room at the hotel,’ Nico told Chloe.

‘You banished him?’ said Chloe.

‘You banished him?’ demanded Serena.

‘Had to,’ he said. ‘By order of Marianne and Theo. They fear for your virtue.’

‘Quite right,’ said Chloe. ‘A girl can’t be too careful. Not on this island. You have no idea how people gossip.’

‘We went swimming,’ said Serena. ‘That’s all we did.’

‘That’s not what I heard,’ said Chloe dryly. ‘Marianne had to save you from total ravishment at the cove. She got there just in time. One second later and he’d have had his hands all over you. That’s her story and she’s sticking to it.’

‘It’s a good story,’ said Serena with a wistful sigh. ‘I even vaguely recognise some parts of it.’ She turned to Nico and eyed him narrowly. ‘Exactly when did you banish him?’

‘The day you went swimming,’ he said amiably. ‘I phoned him and explained the situation and he offered to bunk down at the hotel straight away. Said he had his reputation to think about. And yours. Mentioned the word discreet a few times. Mentioned something about a whale shark and a yellow-flowered bathing cap.’ Nico shuddered. ‘I didn’t want to know.’

Serena sniggered.

‘So he’s staying at the hotel?’ Sam asked Nico, his eyes bright.

Nico nodded. ‘Most probably.’

Sam took off across the beach with an unguarded enthusiasm Serena envied, only to halt abruptly some ten metres away. Serena watched as he turned back, not towards her or Nico this time, but towards Chloe. It was the first time he’d paid her the slightest attention all morning. ‘What room can we give him?’ he asked her. ‘The big one? Number seventeen?’

‘Provided no one’s in it,’ she said, looking up at him from her spot on the sand, her hands full of fishing net as she considered his question. ‘Otherwise he can have number two. That’s another one we sometimes use for upgrades. Tell Reception to put it through at the discount rate.’

Sam left at a run and Chloe watched him go, her face alight with happiness. ‘Did you hear that?’ she said in wonder. ‘Sam said we. As in him and me. He didn’t even think about it. He just said it.’

‘You give the pilot your best room?’ demanded Nico. ‘At a discount rate? For what?’

‘I like him,’ she said, pleasure easing to puzzlement.

Nico glared at her.

Serena glared at her too.

‘Well, I do,’ she said defensively. ‘He’s nice to Sam. He talks up the hotel to his passengers … ‘

‘Yeah, but what else do you know about him?’ muttered Nico.

Chloe’s eyes took on a decidedly teasing gleam. ‘He’s handsome, polite—?

‘Almost penniless, not Greek, a lapsed Catholic …’ added Serena, although the penniless bit was probably a stretch. Not if he co-owned an air-charter business. ‘And, oh, yeah, he’s running from something. Don’t forget to factor that in.’

‘How romantic.’ Chloe slid her a sideways glance. ‘What do you think he’s running from? A tragedy? A world full of injustice? A woman?’

‘A life of crime?’ muttered Nico. ‘Come on, Chloe.

He’s not a saint. He flies tourists around the sky, for heaven’s sake.’

‘And before that, he used to fly air-sea rescue helicopters,’ said Serena.

Nico stared at her in silence. So did Chloe.

‘All right,’ her cousin said finally. ‘So he hasn’t always been a penniless drifter. That’s quite a job. Some women might even think it sounds romantic—although they’d be wrong.’ He glared at Chloe. ‘But can he fish?’

PETE was five steps from the front door of Chloe’s hotel, his duffel slung over his shoulder and his mind on a dark-eyed goddess he’d promised to court discreetly, when Sam hightailed it past him to hold the door open for him before making a beeline for the reception desk. The passengers Pete had flown to the island were staying with family, he had no need to help anyone else check in, no one else’s belongings but his own to carry, no one to answer to until mid-morning the following day. Nothing to do but suit himself.

As far as Pete was concerned, suiting himself involved checking in, grabbing something to eat at some stage, and finding Serena.

Furious whispering ensued as he headed towards the desk. Maybe they were booked out? Maybe that was what all the fuss was about? Because, without question, they were fussing about something. Sam beamed. The receptionist blushed.

‘Checking in, sir?’ she said. ‘Do you have a booking?’

‘Not yet. I’m after a room for the night. If you have one.’

‘Certainly, sir. One person?’

Pete nodded.

‘You’ll be in room seventeen.’

He handed over his credit card and she processed his payment and handed him a key. ‘Enjoy your stay.’

‘You want me to carry your bag?’ asked Sam.

‘Why? You working here now too?’

‘Nope.’ Sam paused as if to consider the notion, his eyes brightening. ‘Not yet. But I could. Do you think she’d pay me?’

‘Who? Your Aunt Chloe? Maybe.’ He studied the boy. ‘You need money?’

‘Doesn’t everyone?’

‘What for?’

‘Stuff.’

‘What kind of stuff?’

The boy shrugged. ‘Just stuff.’

Pete opened the door to room seventeen and looked around. ‘Nice room,’ he said.

Sam’s smile broadened.

Pete dumped his duffel on the end of the bed and deliberately turned to survey the minibar. ‘Do you drink, Sam?’

Sam’s mouth set into a thin stubborn line. ‘No.’

‘Smoke?’

‘No.’

‘Shoot?’

‘I said no!’

‘Good for you,’ he said mildly. ‘Then why are you so determined to start work and earn money?’

Sam didn’t answer him, just stood silently in the doorway with a stubborn set to his jaw that Pete was more than familiar with having grown up in a household full of siblings who were anything but malleable. He held Sam’s gaze and waited, not stern, not demanding, just waiting. Borrowing the technique from Jake—hell, it always seemed to work for him .