Modern Romance Collection May 2024 Books 5-8

CHAPTER ONE

TRAVELLINGBYPRIVATE jet was every bit as amazing as Kate Hawkins had imagined. The cabin crew catered to her every need and whim, serving her an array of food that passengers on commercial airlines could only dream of along with every possible drink her tastebuds could fancy, alcoholic and non-alcoholic alike. She had her own lounge, a dining room, a bathroom and even a bedroom with a mattress so comfortable you’d have to be a world-class insomniac not to fall into a dreamless sleep on it. Or too frazzled with the task you’d volunteered yourself for to switch your brain off enough to sleep.

In the space of thirty-eight hours Kate had travelled to seven different countries over two continents, zipped through so many different time zones she’d no idea if it was currently Sunday or Monday wherever in the sky she was, and if Leander Liassidis wasn’t to be found at the next stop, there was a high probability she would do more than stamp her feet and scream in frustration like she’d done in Manhattan.

She pulled out the list Helena had written, the paper now a crumpled, grubby mess, and stared moodily at the places still to be crossed off. How could one man own so much? Kate’s property empire consisted of her childhood bedroom, which she’d moved back into full time after completing her veterinary degree two years ago. Leander, wildly successful technology tycoon worth billions, owned fourteen properties, and if it turned out he’d bought another one that Helena knew nothing of then there was an excellent chance Kate would throw herself out of the plane. Cabin fever had well and truly hit.

By the time it was politely requested that she buckle up for the landing, she couldn’t be bothered to ask where the private airport they were flying into was located. All of Leander’s properties were located within a thirty-minute drive of an airfield. She couldn’t even be bothered to summon a glimmer of interest at the view as they descended of the Pacific Ocean lapping onto California’s sandy shores. At least when descending over New York she’d grunted appreciation at the iconic skyline. Now her body clock was too shot to give a hoot.

‘Grand Cayman next,’ she said to her favourite of the crew with a weary smile as she left the plane. Kate was convinced she’d have to travel to every ruddy country listed before she found the runaway groom and dragged him back to Greece. The way she was feeling, she’d have to resist killing him. Maybe just settle for maiming him.

‘We will await your call.’

As at all her previous stops, the efficient crew, who’d thus far organised everything, had arranged for a car to meet her at the foot of the plane. She had time to be grateful that she hadn’t stepped into a furnace as she’d done in Manhattan before slumping into the back of it.

They hadn’t left the airfield before her heavy eyes started fighting with her wired brain to stay open. Or was that to close? Images flickered in her retinas of the wedding, voices from it echoing in her head. The shock of seeing the wrong Liassidis twin waiting at the altar, the surrealness of hearing Leo recite his vows in Leander’s name, time skipping to Helena, the beautiful bride, ashen faced with shock at what Leander had done, Kate’s vow to find him and bring him back, of Leo giving her access to a company jet and...

Her eyes suddenly sprang open. She’d drifted into one of those vivid waking dreams and now found herself being driven through high trees on a road with No Trespassing signs displayed at intermittent intervals. High up in front of them loomed a huge glass-fronted property. As they drew closer, she saw that although framed by trees, the mansion faced the ocean. The driver glided to the smoothest of stops at the foot of a wide, curving path that led up to what she assumed was the main entrance.

Climbing out, Kate craned her neck upwards, trying to take it all in, trying to spot signs of life, waiting for the security guard that would appear at any moment and politely inform her that Mr Liassidis was not in residence and that he was unable to make contact with him because Mr Liassidis was on his honeymoon.

Mr Liassidis certainly was on his honeymoon. The only problem was, it was the wrong Mr Liassidis.

She supposed any of the security guards in Athens, Rome, Milan, Vienna, Frankfurt, London, New York and Toronto could have been lying to her but she hadn’t sensed life behind those closed doors. Here though...

Exhausted legs dragging halfway up the path, she was just thinking that this was the most perfect of secluded hideaways when the requisite security guard appeared in front of her.

Leander Liassidis spotted the black four-wheel drive appear through the foliage and grimaced.

He supposed this meant his brother’s minion had finally found him.

Hauling himself out of the pool, he rubbed a towel over his soaking body. He didn’t need to tell Mason to send the visitor away. He’d already made his instructions explicit on this. Leander wasn’t there. Leander was on his honeymoon. His visitor would leave Marina Sands empty-handed.

He briefly wondered how many of his properties the minion had visited to get this far. He could find out if he wanted but he was on a self-imposed communications blackout. Since satisfying himself that Leo had stepped up and taken his place, Leander hadn’t wanted to know anything about the outside world.

For the first time in his life, Leander needed solitude. Outside his Californian household staff, whose loyalty and discretion was assured, only his PA knew his location. Sheree had been with him for ten years. Practiced at lying for him, her loyalty and discretion were also assured.

Slinging the towel around his shoulders, he popped the lid off a cold beer and drank a good slug of it. The bitter taste matched the way he felt towards himself for not going through with the wedding.

Leander loved Helena. An incredibly ugly baby who’d turned into an incredibly cute toddler and then a delightful child who’d followed him about like a puppy whenever their families had got together—which had been a lot, their families in business together and as close as if they were bound by blood—she was the one non-blood female constant in his life. She’d turned into a beautiful and smart woman, and he always looked forward to meeting up with her, adored being in her company. One thing he didn’t have was any romantic inclinations towards her. Maybe it was over-familiarity, maybe it was because she was like a sister to him, whatever the reason, he’d never looked at Helena with the same eyes he looked at other women, and even if he had and even if it had been reciprocated—which it wasn’t, being platonic ran both ways—he would never have acted on it for the simple reason that he loved her too much to hurt her.

And now he had hurt her. He’d broken his promise, and it tore his heart to think of the hurt and bewilderment that absconding the way he’d done must have caused her.

At some point in the near future he would return to his Greek homeland and face her, face his brother too, and step into the role of husband that he’d promised to play for her, but that point wasn’t yet, and he downed the rest of his beer to drown the burn of bile in his throat at the thought of putting on a loving display to the world until Helena got her inheritance sorted and they could dissolve their sham marriage.

He had to get his head together.

Popping the lid off another beer, Leander settled his mind with the promise of spending the rest of the day getting rip-roaring drunk. About to head inside to shower, a lull in the ocean breeze carried the whisper of a voice up to him.

The hairs on the nape of his neck rose.

In four quick strides he was at the glass balustrade that overhung the path to his home.

Kate took one look at the security guard’s face and pulled her own. ‘Let me guess, Mr Liassidis isn’t here?’

‘Mr Liassidis is on...’

‘His honeymoon,’ she finished for him. ‘And you are unable to contact him.’

‘I’m sorry for your wasted journey.’

It was exactly what she’d expected, exactly what she’d experienced during her pitstops at Leander’s other homes. And yet...

There was nothing in the security guard’s demeanour or expression to make her think he was lying but something felt different, different enough for Kate to fold her arms over her stomach and flatly say, ‘I don’t believe you.’

‘I can’t help what you believe, ma’am, but Mr Liassidis isn’t here and now I’m going to have to ask you to leave.’

She looked around him and up, trying to see through the glass that so effectively blocked the viewer from seeing anything of the beautiful home’s interior.

‘You need to leave now.’

Ignoring him, she continued scrutinising the exterior of what had to be the most spectacular home she’d ever seen.

‘I must insist.’

‘Must you?’ she murmured absently. Kate’s instincts were telling her loud and clear that the security guard was lying. Someone was resident in this house, she could feel it in her bones.

‘Ma’am, I don’t want to have to use force.’

That snapped her back to attention. ‘Lay one finger on me and I’ll sue you to kingdom come, got it?’ Cupping her mouth, she shouted, ‘I know you’re in there, Leander Liassidis. Get your backside out here and stop hiding!’

‘This is your last chance. You are trespassing. Either leave voluntarily or I carry you to your car. I can give you directions to the nearest law enforcement offices if you want.’

Her hands flew to her hips. ‘What I want,’ she stressed, her patience stretched way past boiling point, ‘is for your boss to stop hiding away like a big baby.’

‘Mason, let her up.’

Kate’s gaze shot back up to where the heavily accented gravelly voice had rumbled from.

There, hands gripping the darkened glass balustrade, stood Leander.

Energised vindication overrode her shock at his appearance, and she couldn’t resist poking her tongue out at the security guard as she skipped past him. Moving as fast as her short legs would carry her, afraid the man she’d been sent on a wild goose chase to find would disappear as suddenly as he’d appeared, Kate wasn’t sure if relief or fury was the strongest emotion raging through her. At least her instincts were working, so that was one plus. She’d known Leander was here the second she’d stepped out of the car. Known it, known it.

The top of the path led onto wide marble steps that fanned out, one side leading to the balcony, the other to the house itself. Leander had opened a section of the balustrade for her, and she steamed through it, more than ready to let rip at him. Except all the abuse she wanted to hurl suddenly tied itself on her tongue when she rounded to face him and was confronted with Leander wearing nothing but a pair of tight black swim shorts. The towel around his neck hardly covered any of him.

‘Whoa!’ Immediately she turned her back, scrunched her eyes closed and covered them with her hand for good measure. ‘Put some clothes on, will you?’

‘If my state of undress disturbs you, you know the way back to your car,’ he said sardonically from behind her.

‘I’ve just spent the best part of two whole days trying to hunt you down. I’m not going anywhere without you and you know it, so put some clothes on before I’m sick everywhere.’

She heard a put-upon sigh and then, ‘You can look now. I am decent.’

‘You’re sure?’

‘The floor tiling out here cost a fortune. I don’t want it ruined with your vomit.’

Gingerly lowering her hand, Kate unscrewed her eyes and turned her head, only to immediately squeeze her eyes back shut. All he’d done was wrap the towel around his waist. ‘That is not decent.’

‘I didn’t realise you were such a delicate flower.’

‘Only when my eyes are bleeding.’

‘Have you travelled all this way to insult me?’

Still keeping her back to him, she tightened her hold on her small handbag and imagined it was his neck. ‘Leander, I’m moving to Borneo in a week and as you very well know, I’ve a million and one things I need to do before I go, so stop mucking about and put some ruddy clothes on. You’ll need to be dressed for the flight back to Greece so do it now, otherwise you’ll find I haven’t even got started on the insults.’

There was a short but heavily loaded silence.

‘How can I put this...? No.’

‘What are you saying no to?’ she asked indignantly.

She felt rather than heard him walk away.

‘All of it,’ he replied. ‘I’m not going anywhere so why don’t you save your breath and my ears and get back in your car, drive back to the airport, fly home, and start packing for your new life.’

Furious, she spun back around.

Leander had sat himself on one of the light grey L-shaped outdoor sofas that surrounded the swimming pool, both arms resting lazily along the back of it, a bottle of beer in hand, long tanned legs stretched out. He’d put a pair of shades on, his gaze fixed musingly at the sky as if judging what the weather planned to do. If Kate could command the weather she’d make it chuck it down with freezing rain on him.

‘Well, I’m not going anywhere without you,’ she snapped. ‘I promised Helena and that brother of yours that I’d drag you back to Greece and that’s what I’m going to do.’

‘Tell that brother of mine that I’ll return to Greece as promised before the honeymoon is over but it will be at a time of my own choosing, so fly away, little flower, and ruin someone else’s day.’

‘Nope.’ Spotting an unopened bottle of beer in a bucket of ice on the table, Kate snatched it up and removed the lid with her teeth.

‘Neat trick.’

‘Isn’t it?’ She flopped onto the sofa closest to his and mimicked his pose, although keeping her gaze trained on his face. ‘One of my brothers taught me that on my eighteenth birthday.’

‘Sounds like my kind of guy. Go and ruin his day.’

‘I’ve ruined many of my brothers’ days over the years which means I’ve had mucho practice in annoying men, and now I’m going to stay here and annoy you until you give in and fly back to Greece with me.’

His jaw clenched but his gravelly voice retained the sardonic calm that had laced it since her arrival. ‘Kate, go home. I’m not leaving.’

‘I promised Helena I would drag you back,’ she repeated stubbornly. ‘And unlike some people, I don’t break promises.’

‘I told Leo I would be back before the honeymoon is over and I meant it.’

‘Yes, I heard the message you left for him—aren’t you lucky he heard it in time to take your place?’ she retorted. ‘You also told Helena you would be waiting at the altar for her. You promised her.’

The strong jaw clenched again. ‘Leonidas stepped in for me.’

‘Yes, and he is not happy about having to pretend to be you, and Helena is worried he’ll pull the plug on the whole charade before the honeymoon’s over, and you know what that means—if she’s not married, she has to wait two more years for her inheritance, and she needs that money now.’

‘Leo will not pull the plug.’ He finally looked away from the sky and turned his shaded stare to her. ‘Everyone should stop worrying. I will return before the honeymoon is over. No harm will have been done.’

‘How can you say that with a straight face? Your brother is furious, your parents are...’ She shook her head. ‘Actually, I don’t know what your parents are thinking—they went along with the pretence but if you looked closely enough you could see their bewilderment, and as for Helena...’

‘Helena got the marriage she wanted.’

‘To the wrong brother! And the wrong brother is not a happy bunny. I get the feeling he likes Helena as much as you like me.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

She laughed. ‘Oh, come on, Leander. Don’t pretend. I know you don’t like me and you know I know because Helena asked what I’d done to offend you.’

In the almost fifteen years that Kate and Helena had been friends, Kate had heard a lot about Leander Liassidis but circumstances meant that until Kate had flown to the Liassidises’ Greek island the week before the wedding, she’d never actually met him. She’d been looking forward to finally meeting the man Helena had always spoken so highly of, had been certain they would hit it off, and for the first days of their acquaintance her hopes had been realised. Leander was as fun, gregarious and charming as Helena had promised. On Kate’s fifth night there, he’d flown the two English women to Athens for a night of food and dancing at an exclusive nightclub near his Athenian apartment. Kate had had the best time, and when they’d ended the night at his apartment, she’d been more than happy for the party to continue, the three of them and a handful of Leander’s friends drinking cocktails, downing shots and dancing until the sun woke up.

It had been early afternoon when she’d finally dragged her hungover body out of the gorgeous spare room she’d crashed—literally—in, and though it had to count as the worst hangover of her life, she’d still been buzzing from the fun they’d all shared. In many ways, it had been the celebration she hadn’t even known she wanted, her chance to whoop it up and celebrate being just weeks away from starting her new life and the fulfilment of all the dreams she’d held since she was a little girl of seven.

She’d practically boogied into Leander’s kitchen and had found him slumped over the kitchen island that was bigger than her bed. She couldn’t remember exactly what she’d said but she’d cracked a joke about hangovers and when he’d lifted his head something had flickered on his face before he’d closed his eyes and in the gravelly voice that had up to that point been warm, icily said, ‘I have a headache. I would appreciate some silence.’

Although stung at his unexpected coldness, she’d assumed it was his hangover talking and tried not to take it personally, expecting gregarious Leander to re-emerge soon enough. And he did. Gregarious Leander was fully back before they returned to the island...but not for Kate.

He didn’t exactly blank her but there was something cool, almost dismissive about his new attitude to her. It had bugged her but it was only when she’d been sunbathing around the Liassidis pool the next afternoon, Helena having popped back to her room to get her portable phone charger, and Leander had appeared on the terrace, taken one look at her and, without a word, turned around and walked away, that she’d known he really had taken a dislike to her.

She’d mentioned it to Helena because it had bothered her and she’d worried she’d inadvertently done something to offend him. If she had, she would have apologised.

‘You told Helena that you didn’t have a problem with me but I’m not stupid, Leander, and quite frankly, I don’t even care about your reasons any more. You need to—’

‘I didn’t want to hurt Helena with the truth but I’m more than happy to tell you my reasons for disliking you,’ he cut in, removing his shades and fixing his dark brown eyes on her. ‘You are like a buzzy bee in my ear.’ He made a snappy gesture with his fingers and thumb for emphasis and leaned forwards. ‘You don’t know when to shut up and the stuff that comes out of your mouth is hardly worth the air you use to expel it. I can only assume you got someone to take your veterinary exams for you because you are a walking, talking template of the dumb blonde that people of our parents’ generation used to make jokes about.’

He rose to his feet and, top lip curved in a sneer, added, ‘Tell Helena and my brother I will be back before the honeymoon is over, as already promised. You can see yourself off my property.’