She was cool inside the limo, but the bright blue skies outside made her feel hot.
She’d worn some white jeans and a loose pink top, and wished she’d had the foresight to wear a dress instead.
The views from the limo had been beautiful, but from the buzzing helicopter the unfolding panorama was so much more spectacular.
Transported into the air and gazing down from giddy heights—while next to her Annalise clutched her hand for dear life, barely able to keep still—Sophie fell silent at the distant view of the sea, glittering and turquoise, unbelievably Technicolor-bright.
They swooped over coves nestled in steep, rocky enclaves that were lush with bushes and green with outcrops of trees.
A brief flight before the spectacle of vessels once more dotting the ocean blue preceded a sharp, giddy descent, and for a few seconds Sophie squeezed her eyes tightly shut, but not before she understood very clearly that in a sea of boats there was only one massive mothership, to which the helicopter was descending.
Niccolo wasn’t the young upstart in the jungle. Niccolo was the roaring lion who sat at the top of the pecking order.
Just like that, nerves and wild anticipation replaced carefree excitement as the frantic swirl of the rotor blades stopped and the door was pushed open, and there he was, devastating in a pair of cream shorts and a faded striped T-shirt, barefoot and wearing dark sunglasses, which he immediately removed.
He moved towards them and stooped down as Annalise began running towards him before slowing to a more grown-up, sedate pace.
Sophie hovered and looked at him, and on cue he raised his dark eyes to hers above Annalise’s head before vaulting upright and lifting his daughter up in one swoop that made her squeal with pleasure.
‘Trip okay?’ he asked, and Sophie nodded while every nerve in her body went into crazy overdrive.
How on earth could a guy look so sexy? He was the picture of bronzed, muscular beauty, his dark hair curling at the nape of his neck, his dark eyes lazy and penetrating and his wide, sensuous mouth promising untold pleasure.
The last thing Sophie wanted was to think of any kind of pleasure with the man who was employing her to look after his daughter.
‘It was great. Annalise could barely contain her excitement.’ She stroked Annalise’s satin-smooth cheek and was rewarded with a dimpled smile as she rested her head against her father’s shoulder, clearly overjoyed at this uncustomary display of physical affection.
They began walking away from the helicopter into the bowels of the superyacht, where Sophie stood completely still and gazed around her at a vision of ridiculous luxury.
Annalise had drawn back from her comfort zone and was doing the same, but hours of travel were taking their toll and she was yawning widely, eyes staying open with difficulty.
Leather and teak and glass dominated the space. Everything was pale.
‘I’ll show you to your rooms.’ Niccolo began moving through the living area, chatting to her about the yacht as they headed deeper down a circular flight of stairs. ‘Custom-built,’ he said, ‘with four decks and a top speed of twenty-one knots. There’s enough space for everyone coming and the crew, including two chefs. If you need anything, then you just have to ask.’
‘First thing I’ll need is a satnav to work my way around this. It’s absolutelymassive.’
‘Never been on a yacht before?’
‘Never. I don’t think many people have.’ She didn’t quite know where to look because it was all so magnificent. ‘Where is everyone?’
‘Due tomorrow evening. Complex arrangements delivering them all here in various stages. Tonight, there will just be the two of us. I would include my daughter in the equation, but she’s already asleep on my shoulder.’
‘I...I should stay with her.’ Sophie’s heart sped up. She thought about them dining together and then realised that with that one thought came a spiralling cyclone of more dangerous ones. ‘She’ll be confused if she wakes up and she doesn’t know where she is.’
Niccolo frowned. ‘I could get one of my staff to sit in the adjoining room, so someone is at hand if she wakes up and is disoriented.’
‘But she won’tknowwhoever it is.’
‘Annalise is accustomed to a variety of different people on the scene,’ Niccolo said wryly. ‘Evalina lives with me and is at hand ninety per cent of the time, but there’s still that ten per cent when she’s not around and occasionally neither am I.’
They had begun strolling through the mega-yacht. Everything was pristine. There were seating areas in places where the view of the open ocean was uninterrupted, and they walked past an entire section that included more informal seating and a bar.
‘What happens when you’re not using all of this?’ Sophie asked, knowing that she would return to their conversation about Annalise but too distracted by her surroundings to pursue anything at the moment.
He’d grown up without much and she was beginning to realise just how ambitious he would have been and probably still was, when it came to ensuring that a life ofbeing withoutwould never be his fate. More so, she suspected, because it wasn’t just about himself but about his daughter as well, about ensuringshehad everything he had not.
But what had been sacrificed?
