Page 32 of Billion-Dollar Baby Shock

‘Why this island?’Tara asked.

Dion kept his gaze on the road.He took a while to answer, which made Tara curious.She could see the tension in his shoulders and jaw.‘If it’s too personal—’

‘It’s where my father’s family came from.He owned some land here and his business hadn’t been doing well,so I bought it for a knock-off price.Under a company name he wouldn’t recognise.It wasn’t as if I wanted to gloat over his misfortune.’

‘But it would have been understandable.’Who could have resisted crowing over their success with a father who had rejected them?Not many.

He glanced at her and then back to the road.‘Maybe.But the truth is that a part of me was tempted by something I can’t even explain…to own the land that was a link to my ancestors, even though they’re all gone.There are no people belonging to my father’s family here any more.They all went to the mainland for work and didn’t return.Probably after the Second World War.’

‘We’re all pretty tribal when it comes down to it.’

‘Yes, but I hate my father.I hate that I felt compelled to take ownership of something that should have been mine by right.’

‘You’re human, Dion.We behave in ways that aren’t always logical.And now you own a piece of this island where maybe you had ancestors who wouldn’t have shut you out.’

He slid her another look but his eyes were hidden behind shades.‘You believe in fairy tales.’

Tara’s insides clenched.‘I stopped believing in fairy tales when my parents died and left a whole family orphaned.I believe we make our own luck and fortune.’

‘So do I.’

They were silent for a long moment, and Tara absorbed this unexpected sense of affinity.Even though, deep down, she knew guiltily that she had just been harbouring a little fairy-tale dream of being seduced by Dion.

She could see a town in the distance, and the harbour.

Dion’s voice broke into her thoughts.‘This is the main town…the only town at the moment.Nisos.That’s the name of the island too.’

Tara was glad of the diversion.Maybe she was getting sunstroke—she could feel it beating down on her head.The town was very pretty.A big main square with an old church.Dion parked and they got out.

She followed him into cobbled streets, white buildings with bright blue painted trim.Profusions of flowers bursting out of boxes on window sills.There were lots of artisanal shops with crafts and art.

People saw him and called out greetings.Tara realised he must be something of a celebrity with his impressive villa and buying up land on the island.

He stopped outside a boutique.Tara looked in the window where a mannequin was wearing a glittering iridescent midnight-blue sheath of an evening gown.

To her shock, Dion caught her hand and tugged her towards the shop.She didn’t have time to ask what he was doing before he was bringing her inside the cool interior and a very elegant woman looked up and greeted Dion as warmly as everyone else had.

He was speaking in Greek to the woman, who was looking at Tara with a critical expression, taking her in from head to toe.Tara’s toes curled inwards in her scuffed sneakers.Now she felt even more dusty and unkempt and self-conscious.Why hadn’t she changed earlier?

Into what?Another pair of shorts, or jeans?

The woman stepped forward, impossibly cool-looking in cream trousers and a matching silk shirt.

In accentless English she said, ‘Hello, Tara.My name is Michaela.Please, come with me, let’s see what we have.’

Tara shot Dion an expressive look as she was led into the back of the fragrant boutique but he just said, ‘I’ll book us a table for lunch and come back for you.’

A very bemused Tara found herself being measured and then given a stack of clothes and shown into a dressing room.

* * *

‘Was I embarrassing you, or something?I know I’m not the most put-together person on the planet but I didn’t looktooout of place, did I?’

Dion sat on the other side of the table in the restaurant they’d come to after he’d collected her from the boutique just a short while before.She had to admit though that the loose linen trousers and matching waistcoat, worn as a top, together with the wedge espadrille sandals and simple gold jewellery, did help her to feel a little less conspicuous among the very well-heeled clientele of the restaurant.

When Tara had asked Michaela where her own clothes were, after trying on a seemingly endless array of clothes—including evening wear, which Tara had had no choice but to try on because Michaela would disappear before she could object—the woman had given her an arch look and said, ‘I’ll bag them up for you if you really think you want to keep them.’

Tara had muttered something like,No, that’s okay.She imagined they were already on a bonfire for sub-par clothes.