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for being so superficial.
    Returning to the cabin, she saw Dio’s impossibly long and powerful length sprawled at a most uncomfortable angle across one of the fancy leather seats. Her now tenderised and conscience-stricken heart smote her.
    Shorn of his formal jacket and tie, his silk shirt open at his strong brown throat and his jawline darkly shadowed by stubble, he looked so much younger and less intimidating. He also looked absolutely exhausted, and if it hadn’t been for her presence he would naturally have enjoyed the comfort of his own bed.
    Ellie tensed even more. To think the cabin staff had clearly been nervous of intruding on his grief! She herself had done nothing but intrude! Recalling every angry combative word she had slung at the airport, Ellie cringed with guilt and shame. So the poor guy had been in a rough mood. In the circumstances, that was hardly a surprise, and his preoccupation had been equally understandable.
    With a gentle hand on his shoulder, she shook him awake. His incredibly long lashes lifted off his flushed cheekbones, and with a soft sigh, he lifted his tousled head to check hiswatch. With a stifled expletive, he then plunged forcefully upright and headed for the sleeping compartment.
    â€˜Mr Alexiakis…?’
    He stilled, but he didn’t turn round.
    â€˜I didn’t know you were attending a funeral,’ Ellie said awkwardly. ‘I wish somebody had mentioned it.’
    He swung back, frowning at her in genuine surprise. ‘Don’t you read newspapers?’
    â€˜I don’t get time to read them.’
    â€˜It’s my father’s funeral,’ he responded curtly, and strode away.
    Ellie slowly breathed in deep, but it didn’t make her feel any better. His father! What could be worse? Of course he hadn’t wanted to be lumbered with a total stranger over the next couple of days. So why on earth had he insisted that she had to accompany him?
    Those extremely confidential business plans he was so fired up about, this pretending to be interested in one company while really being interested in another, she recalled in exasperation. She wished she understood how that information could be as hugely important as he seemed to think it was. A spy, she thought afresh, shaking her head in wonderment. Cops and robbers. Thriller territory. Way beyond anything she could even imagine.
    But then Dio Alexiakis lived in a gilded world of immense wealth and privilege. He wheeled and dealed in incredibly high-powered circles. Even the night before his own father’s funeral he had still been talking business. Had it been a very sudden death? Whatever, on reflection, Ellie was surprised that he hadn’t already been in Greece. Even before she had entered the equation and complicated matters, hadn’t he been cutting things a bit fine?
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    It was after seven in the morning and a bright and beautiful day when Dio Alexiakis and Ellie finally walked into Athens airport.
    Wearing the suit combined with the long dramatic gloves, the extravagant-brimmed hat and the designer sunglasses which Dio had given her, Ellie felt as if she was taking part in a fancy dress parade. They were waved on by grave-faced officials. But as they passed through the barriers a wave of shouting men with cameras surged forward, held at bay only by a squad of equally determined security guards.
    Ellie just froze in the glare of flashing cameras. Dio closed a powerful arm round her and carried her on through the crush as if it wasn’t there, impervious to the questions being thrown in several different languages.
    â€˜Who’s the woman?’ she heard a man roar loudly in English.
    Ellie was unnerved by the aggressive behaviour of the paparazzi. Dio was coming home to his father’s funeral. What had happened to privacy? The giving of a little respectful space? For goodness’ sake, was Dio hounded like this everywhere he went? Ellie hadn’t the slightest