In Petrakis's Power by Maggie Cox

them out on the terrace, Christos lifted their luggage from the car and he and his wife transported it into the villa to dispatch it to their rooms. Relieved that he could have Natalie to himself for a while, in the privacy of his own home, Ludo guided her through the open-plan living room out onto the large terrace to take in the view. He couldn’t deny the sense of pride it gave him to know that she would adore it.
    The shimmering azure sea glinting in the midafternoon sun just a few feet from the door was like a sheet of sparkling glass it was so still and perfect. And the warm scented breeze that blew in to caress her skin was infused with the most heavenly scent of bougainvillaea. With delight Natalie saw that the radiant red and pink flowers were generously draped over every dazzling white wall in sight. It was hard to believe she hadn’twandered into a dream. For a long time she had yearned to come back to Greece, and to find herself here in this breathtaking idyll with a man as handsome and charismatic as Ludo Petrakis made the experience seem even more like the most incredible fantasy.
    ‘What a gorgeous view! It’s just wonderful! It’s even more stunning than I’d hoped it would be,’ she breathed, letting her hands rest on the sun-warmed railing of the stone-pillared balustrade.
    Her companion smiled fleetingly. ‘Many people call it the Jewel of the Aegean.’
    ‘It must be,’ Natalie concurred.
    Ludo shook his head. ‘Personally, I think that title should go to
my
island.’
    ‘What do you mean,
your
island?’ She wasn’t sure why, but underneath her ribs Natalie’s heart bumped a little faster. It was already racing due to Ludo’s enigmatic smile. Her only regret was that she wished his smiles weren’t quite so rare …
    ‘It is called Margaritari, which is the Greek word for pearl.’
    ‘That’s beautiful. And this island? It’s somewhere that you’re particularly fond of?’
    His chiselled profile was facing out to sea as she asked him this, and a sudden breeze lifted some dark golden strands from his hair and blew them across his forehead. As Natalie stared, mesmerised, a muscle flinched in the side of his carved cheekbone and he went very still.
    ‘I was so enamoured of it that I bought it. Sadly, Iam not so enamoured of it any more, since my brother died there in the boating accident.’
    As she reeled from the shocking admission Ludo left her side to make his way to a cane chair positioned next to a slatted wooden table and sat down.
    ‘I hardly know what to say.’ Immediately she moved to the other side of the table, so that she could see his expression. ‘What a devastating blow for the accident to have happened on the waters of your own island.’
    It was almost unbearable to think of Ludo being consumed not only by grief but also by guilt. Did he blame himself for the accident? Was that why he sometimes looked so troubled and didn’t believe he was as well regarded as his brother Theo had been?
    ‘It was … it is.’ He didn’t bother to try and disguise the painful emotion that gripped him. It was written all over his face. ‘I had often urged him to take a holiday and make free with the island for as long as he wanted. It is so private there that only people I personally invite are allowed to stay. It is a magical place, and I’d hoped it would work its magic on him and help him relax. He rarely took time off from his work and my parents often expressed their concern that he looked so tired.’
    Restless again, Ludo shot to his feet and strode round the table. He stopped directly in front of Natalie, and the look in his diamond-chipped blue eyes was so full of torment it made her catch her breath.
    ‘He finally took up the offer and went to stay there. One day he took a boat out and it capsized. It was hard to understand how it had happened … Theo was a good sailor. But I found out afterwards that there werestrong gusts of wind that day. Apparently they must have