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CHAPTER ONE

‘YOU KNOW, IT’S you I blame’

Bastiaan’s aunt tried to laugh as she spoke, but it was shaky, Bastiaan could tell

‘It was you who suggested Philip go and stay in your villa at Cap Pierre!’

Bastiaan took the criticiset range to finish his university vacation assignments in peace and quiet’

His aunt sighed ‘Alas, it see pan into the fire He may have escaped Elena Constantis, but this female in France sounds infinitely worse’

Bastiaan’s dark eyes took on a mordant expression ‘Unfortunately, wherever in the world Philip is he will be a target’

‘If only he were less sweet-natured If he had yourtoughness,’ Bastiaan’s aunt replied, her gaze falling on her nephew

‘I’ll take that as a cohen up, don’t worry’ He’ll need to, he thought caustically Just as he himself had had to

‘He’s so impressionable!’ his aunt cried ‘And so handsoirls make a beeline for him’

And, of course, so rich, Bastiaan added cynically—but silently No point worrying his already anxious aunt further It was Philip’s wealth—the wealth he would be inheriting from his late father’s estate once he turned twenty-one in a couple of erous than the e princess Elena Constantis The real danger would come from a very different type of female

Call them what one liked—and Bastiaan had several names not suitable for his aunt’s ears—the ers Fe, impressionable and soon to be very rich cousin and licked their lips in anticipation

That was the proble her lips over Philip And the danger was, Bastiaan knew, very real For Philip, so Paulette, his housekeeper at Cap Pierre, had infor his essays, had taken to haunting the nearby town of Pierre-les-Pins and a venue there that was most undesirable for a twenty-year-old Apparently attracted by an eventhere

‘A singer in a nightclub!’ his aunt wailed now ‘I cannot believe Philip would fall for a woman like that!’

‘It is so of a cliché’ Bastiaan allowed

His aunt bridled ‘A cliché? Bastiaan, is that all you have to say about it?’

He shook his head ‘No I could say a great deal ot to his feet He was of an i well over six feet, and powerfully built ‘Don’t worry’ henow ‘ I’ll deal with it Philip will not be sacrificed to a greedy woman’s ambitions’

His aunt stood up, clutching at his sleeve ‘Thank you,’ she said ‘I knew I could count on you’ Her eyesboy, Bastiaan He has no father now to look out for him’

Bastiaan pressed his aunt’s hand sympathetically His maternal uncle had succumbed to heart disease when Philip had just started at university, and he kne hard her husband’s death had hit his aunt Knew, too, with a shadowing of his eyes, how losing a father too young—as he himself had when not much older than Philip—left a void

‘I’ll keep Philip safe, I promise you,’ he assured his aunt now, as she took her leave

He saw her to her car, watched it head down the driveway of his property in the affluent outskirts of Athens Then he went back indoors, his