Lily glanced round the villa, which was by far the most luxurious and exclusive place she’d ever stayed.
She had a feeling the only thing she was going to need was a reality check.
* * *
He hadn’t been back here since that summer five years before. It had been an attempt to put the past behind him, but ironically it had succeeded only in making things worse.
The memory of his last visit sat in his head like a muddy stain.
Nik strolled out onto the terrace, hoping the view would relieve his tension, but being here took him right back to his childhood and that was a place he made a point of avoiding.
With a soft curse, he walked back into the room he’d had converted into an office and switched on his laptop.
For the next hour he took an endless stream of calls and then finally, when he couldn’t postpone the moment any longer, he took a quick shower and changed for lunch.
Another day, another wedding.
Mouth grim, he pocketed his phone and strolled through the villa to find Lily.
She was sitting in the shade on the terrace, a glass of iced lemonade by her hand and a book in her lap, staring out across the bright turquoise
blue of the bay.
She hadn’t noticed him and he stood for a moment, watching her. The tension left him to be replaced by tension of a different source. That one night he’d spent with her hadn’t been anywhere near long enough.
He wanted to rip off that pretty blue sundress and take her straight back to bed but he knew that, no matter what she said, she wasn’t the sort of woman to be able to keep her emotions out of the bedroom so he gave her a cool smile as he strolled onto the terrace.
‘Are you ready?’
‘Yes.’ She slid her feet into a pair of silver ballet flats and put her book on the table. ‘Is there anything I should know? Who will be there?’
‘My father and Diandra. They wanted this lunch to be family only.’
‘In other words your father doesn’t want your first meeting for a long while to be in public.’ She reached for her glass and finished her drink. ‘Don’t worry about me while we’re here. I’m sure I can find a few friendly faces to talk to while you’re mingling.’
He looked down at the curve of her cheeks and the dimple in the corner of her mouth and decided she was the one with the friendly face. If he had to pick a single word to describe her, it would be approachable. She was warm, friendly and he was sure there would be no shortage of guests eager to talk to her. The thought should have reduced his stress because it gave him one less responsibility, but it didn’t.
Despite her claims to being made of Kevlar, he wasn’t convinced she’d managed to manufacture even a thin layer of protection for herself.
He offered to drive her to avoid the heat but she chose to walk and on the way up to the main house she grilled him about his background. Did his father still work? What exactly was his business? Did he have any other family apart from Nik?
His suspicion that she was more comfortable with this gathering than him was confirmed as soon as he walked onto the terrace.
He saw the table by the pool laid for four and felt Lily sneak her hand into his.
‘He wants you to get to know Diandra. He’s trying to build bridges,’ she said softly, her fingers squeezing his. ‘Don’t glare.’
Before he could respond, his father walked out onto the terrace.
‘Niklaus—’ His voice shook and Nik saw the shimmer of tears in his father’s eyes.
Lily extracted her hand from his. ‘Hug him.’ She made it sound simple and Nik wondered whether bringing someone as idealistic as Lily to a reunion as complicated as this one had been entirely sensible, but she and his father obviously thought alike because he walked towards them, arms outstretched.
‘It’s been too long since you were home. Far too long, but the past is behind us. All is forgiven. I have such news to tell you, Niklaus.’
Forgiven?
His feet nailed to the floor by the past and the weight of the secrets his father didn’t know, Nik didn’t move and then he felt Lily’s small hand in his back pushing, harder this time, and he then stepped forward and was embraced by his father so tightly it knocked the air from his lungs.