A frustrated frown crossed his brow. “You don’t need a job.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “You’ve got everything you could want here.” His hand lifted, waving at the riches surrounding them.

  “I don’t belong here.” Swiveling away from him, she started walking down the hallway. “I need some independence.”

  She felt him behind her, a looming, disgruntled presence.

  Worry, mixed with anger, zigzagged inside her.

  Rafe was rich and clearly powerful. She didn’t think he had any connections with the hotel industry. Still, if he didn’t want her to get a job, was it possible he could get her blackballed?

  Stopping at the top of the stairs, she turned to confront him. “Don’t you dare stand in my way.”

  “What?” Pure puzzlement crossed his features.

  “Don’t go throwing your weight around with friends so no one will hire me.”

  Puzzlement turned to shock. “I wouldn’t do that.”

  “You would.” She took a first step down. “I’m sure you would.”

  “Are you also sure, kardiá mou,” his voice lilted with sudden amusement, “that I know every hotelier in Athens?”

  Ignoring him and his humor, she stomped down the last of the stairs. The hallway was filled with a bevy of laughing children, scolding mamas and aunts, and Nephele and the twins. All of them turned quiet as they watched her and Rafe approach.

  “Mi̱téra.” His voice came from behind her, the amusement still curling on the edges of the words. “I find myself unable to convince Tamsin to join us today.”

  At the look of disappointment on Nephele’s face, Tam rushed in. “I’m very sorry—”

  “She is insistent on getting a job,” he continued.

  “A job?” His mother’s expression filled with astonishment. “Why would she need a job?”

  “Apparently, she doesn’t like our hospitality.” The words came off as teasing, yet this couldn’t be true, could it? The Rafe she knew now didn’t have a teasing bone in his rigid body. There had to be an ugly intent. She became sure of it when she watched the effect his statement had on his family. They didn’t see the joke at all.

  The silence after his words went hostile immediately.

  “No, that’s not exactly…” She stumbled to a halt.

  Rafe walked to her side. She felt his heat along her body and took in a deep breath. Which made it all worse when the smell of him—heated chocolate, sweet and spice—filled her lungs.

  “Come on, Tam.” Aarōn gave her a worried frown. “You don’t need a job.”

  “I do,” she said. “I really do.”

  The silence deepened. She glanced around and met a fleet of flinty glares.

  Her gaze stopped at Nephele, who was staring at her son. A smile flashed across her face. “Stop your teasing, gios mou.”

  The silence changed in an instant from hostile to confused.

  And then amused.

  “What would a girl want with a job when she has all this?” One of the aunts tutted. “Foolishness.”

  “Raphael is always teasing.” Another aunt smiled at him and wagged her finger.

  Always teasing? This man who’d been filled with barely contained rage from the moment she’d seen him again—this man teased? Tam looked over and met two dancing black eyes.

  A sudden shot of memory tore through her. These same eyes years ago, looking up at her from the garden. His teasing words that made her laugh as he laughed with her.

  “Come on, Tamsin.” His voice was low and quiet, but the slightest whiff of long ago tease clung to his plea. “Come with us.”

  Eláte.

  The oh-so-familiar entreaty echoed from her past, pulling her into a present she knew she should fight. Fight for her independence. Fight any lingering hope there was any of the old Rafe in this new one standing before her.

  Straightening, she pushed herself to fight.

  Something moved in his eyes, something alive with memories and yet also full of new promise. The something clutched in her throat and made every promise she’d made to herself inconsequential.

  “Okay.” The word pushed through her turmoil.

  His eyes blazed.

  With what? Triumph at the fact he’d stopped her from establishing her independence? Or happiness she was coming with him?

  He turned before she could figure it out. “She’s coming with us after all.”

  Rhachel laughed. “Not only is Rafe the ultimate tease, he’s able to charm anyone into doing what he wants them to do.”

  A flush of mortification heated her skin. Charm? It hadn’t been charm choking her throat. It had been old stupid memories and wishes. Ones she should have ignored. “Wait. I think—”

  “That’s great.” Isaák bounced around her, a big grin on his face. “Rafe says his office is ultra cool.”

  “We’ve missed you.” Aarōn mouth twisted, the admission clearly disturbing to his teenage masculinity.

  The words stopped her from fighting any further. What did it matter if she took this one day off from hunting for the elusive job? The boys were still in a new world and needed her.

  “I’ve missed you guys too.” She patted Aarōn’s shoulder. Isaák threw his arm around her waist as his twin leaned in to give her a quick kiss on her cheek. For a moment, she basked in their certain love, a smile coming to her face.

  She dared a peek above their heads and met two dark eyes that no longer danced or blazed. That something moved again in the black. The something she couldn’t put a name to and yet it touched her just as powerfully as the love for her boys did.

  * * *

  “This is so cool.” Isaák’s excited voice echoed in the long, brightly lit hallway.

  The office was cool. The air-conditioning wafted across Tamsin’s skin, making her shiver.

  “We need to keep this area chilly,” Rafe had said moments ago as he’d ushered the twins, his mother and sister and Tam into the medical section. “This is where we run various experiments that react poorly to heat.”

  She peered into one room, stunned again at the high-tech machinery and white coated scientists peering into microscopes and busily typing into wide-screened computers. Everything gleamed with icy superiority. Whitewashed walls curved above them as they kept walking up and up the slanted walkway. She felt as if she were hiking into a space tube.

  “So what are they doing here?” Aarōn stared into a particularly large room staffed with a dozen people.

  Rafe stopped his march with an abrupt jerk. He’d wanted to show all of them his work. He’d been clear about that and almost seemed excited about the outing. His mother and sister had admitted they hadn’t been to his new facility and were glad to take the time to go on the tour with the boys and herself. But ever since they’d tumbled into the limo—the twins, his mother, Rhachel, and Tamsin herself—he’d grown quiet.

  Why?

  Tam watched as he turned and moved slowly to Aarōn’s side. Now that she had a second to analyze this outing so far, it had seemed as if he marched through his building like he wanted to finish the tour in less than five minutes.

  Why?

  “They are testing a new product I’m thinking of investing in.” Rafe’s voice was as cool as the air around them.

  “What’s the product?” Isaák piped in.

  “A microscopic enzyme that can be injected into cancer patients.” Finally, for the first time since they’d left his home, the edge of Rafe’s mouth lifted in a smile. “It’s used with a neuron-electronic device that we’re also testing.”

  Aarōn cocked his head, disbelief crossing his face. “An injection? Like a shot?”

  “I hate shots.” His brother frowned.

  “You’d want this shot if you had cancer.” Their uncle’s smile turned into a grimace. “At least, I believe you would. We still have to run more tests.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  Rafe stared at his eldest nephew. “If the tests come back the way I hope, it will show these microscopic enzymes will kill the cancer. No need for surgery or radiation or chemotherapy.”

  “Wow!”

  The man kept his eyes on Aarōn even though Isaák had started dancing around his uncle in excitement. “We’re not sure it works, but if it does, we’ll buy the patent.”

  Aarōn nodded. “And make a ton of money.”

  “Also help many, many people.” Nephele’s quiet voice insinuated into the conversation.

  A look of frustration shot across her son’s face. “Nai, Mi̱téra.”

  Yet the undercurrent beneath his short agreement was rejection. This was an old disagreement, Tamsin could tell. Not by anything Nephele did. The woman gazed at her son with a faint smile, her eyes mild, her stance soft and accepting. However, Rafe’s whole attitude screamed dismissal and repudiation.

  Why? Why would he object to helping people when his entire being had been about helping anything and anyone years ago?

  “It must take a bunch of money to run this place.” Aarōn tapped his fingers on the glass separating them from the medical scientists. “Tons.”

  “Nai.” Rafe crossed his arms and tapped a finger on his dark suit.

  “Where’d you get it?”

  His uncle’s mouth tightened. “When my father died—”

  Nephele took a quick breath and her daughter stepped close to her side, slipping a hand into hers.

  Her son stopped and frowned, but when his mother nodded her head, he kept talking. “There wasn’t much left.”

  “Yeah?” Aarōn, with typical teenage obliviousness, only wanted the story.

  Tam felt the vibrations of pain coming from Nephele and Rhachel. “Aarōn, it’s not our business—”

  “Actually, it is.” Rafe cut through her words, his dark scowl stopping any further protest bubbling in her throat. “The boys need to know the past so they can prepare for the future.”

  “A future here?” Isaák’s black eyes widened.

  “If you wish.” Leaning on the glass wall, the uncle gazed at his two instantly amazed nephews.

  “Like…” Aarōn glanced back at the scientists. “Like we could run this place?”

  “Raphael.” Nephele stepped in. “Tell them the past before talking about the future.”

  Her son stared at her. “You are sure you can take this, Mi̱téra?”

  “I’m sure.”

  Rhachel tightened her grasp on her mother’s hand and nodded.

  Rafe straightened, his gaze flashing back to Aarōn and Isaák. “After my father died, there wasn’t much left.”

  The grief edging his words filled Tam’s throat with tears. The boys looked at each other before focusing again on their uncle.

  “But I found a small fund apart from the family’s finances.” His mouth twisted. “The finances that had crumbled into dust.”

  “A fund?” Aarōn’s question was quiet but insistent.

  “Money in only my name.” Rafe ran a hand across his mouth before palming the glass wall, a slight tap of one finger plunking a soft sound into the hushed silence.

  My money. My gift to my love.

  She let out a short, harsh gasp.

  Everyone turned to stare at her.

  “Are you alright, Tamsin?” Nephele inquired, a worried expression replacing the stoic one she’d held as her son had told his tale.

  “Tammy?” Isaák moved to her side and took her hand.

  “I’m fine,” she managed to choke out.

  Rafe gave her one of his opaque glances before continuing. “No one knew where it came from, but it couldn’t be confiscated by my father’s creditors.”

  “The money was yours,” Tam whispered before she could help herself.

  “Nai.” He leaned on the wall again; his body relaxed, his eyes hard and sharp. “I used it to start this company.”

  “And saved the family home,” his sister stated with pride.

  “And saved us.” Resolve shone in his mother’s eyes. “Yet, did it save you, Raphael?”

  The query shot out, soft and deadly at the same time. Her son shot back a frown of more than frustration. A look of anger and annoyance. A look of simmering resentment.

  “A question,” he said, a hard layer of wrath in his tone, “that is meaningless.”

  A sudden rush of tears threatened to wash Tam away. Before she could betray her emotions, she jerked around and walked down the hallway.

  “Tam?” Isaák’s voice followed her.

  “Bathroom.” She flung over her shoulder.

  Conveniently, she saw one a dozen steps later. She pushed the door open and sighed with relief when she found it empty. Swiping some tissues off the sink stand, she stared into the mirror.

  This place was amazing. A sleek, well-organized machine whirring in ideal order, in impeccable synchronization. The business was a testament to the tenacious will and steely determination of its owner. Yet in the last few minutes, she’d seen so clearly, knew so surely, this wasn’t what he should be doing. The owner didn’t belong here.

  Her money was the foundation for this fabulously wealthy company.

  And it appeared her money had trapped Rafe into a life he wasn’t meant to live.

  Chapter 12

  “You won’t have to worry about school clothes.” His sister’s voice was filled with sugary spite. Rhouth was at it again. “We’ll take care of that for the boys.”

  Rafe sliced into the leg of lamb, breathing in the familiar spices of garlic and rosemary. He ignored the hush spreading across the family dinner table. It wasn’t his job to protect Tamsin.

  “Rhouth,” his mi̱téra’s voice came, cool and calm. “Please pass the patates.”

  He knew if he glanced over he would see only serenity on his mother’s face. She would ignore his sister’s attacks until she didn’t. During the last week and a half, ever since they’d arrived at the family villa, he’d seen it time after time. Nephele always came to the rescue and somehow kept smoothing over any potential minefields his sister tried to plant.

  He merely had to wait.

  He sliced another piece of meat.

  “After all, you won’t be here when the time comes.” Rhouth had always been a child who could do more than one thing at a time. Now as a full-grown woman, the challenge of handing a plate across the table while continuing the attack was not a problem for her in the least.

  “What do you mean?” Aarōn’s sharp tone cut through the last murmur of conversation coming from the end of the table. His two aunts and three uncles, Rhachel and her husband, all the children scattered along the long wooden table, everyone stopped. The hush went to silence. “Tamsin’s not going anywhere.”

  He stared at his nephew. Since arriving in Greece, this was the first time either of the twins had lifted the gallant sword to defend their sister. He was quite sure this was because she’d warned them. He had caught several frowns and heard various quiet whispers from her to confirm his suspicions. But it appeared as if this time, her warnings were going to go unheeded.

  Tamsin had plenty of protectors. Even if she didn’t want them.

  “Aarōn.” Her face carried a slight flush, making her porcelain skin glow in the flame of the sturdy candles lining the middle of the table like a spine. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

  Frowning at his meal, Rafe had to give her credit. Not that he wanted to, yet he had to. She’d done precisely what she’d promised. She could have easily used Rhouth’s continued attacks to sow resentment into the boys. Easing the twins into this family, into a new way of life, could have been a golden opportunity to not only alienate them, but cause friction and tear the Vounó family apart. Instead, she’d smoothed the way, made sure Aarōn and Isaák had plenty of time with their grandmother and cousins. Made sure they found their new life full of hope and happiness.

  “So true,” Rhouth said. “There’s absolutely nothing to worry about for you boys…”

  Her voice trailed off, leaving a very big but lingering unsaid at the end.

  His mother didn’t step in with a cool command or a change of subject. Instead, for some irritating reason, she said nothing.

  Rafe looked down the table again.

  Aarōn and Isaák were both glaring at him.

  He slanted a look at his mother. She and Rhachel were staring at their meals as if their food had suddenly turned to gold.

  “Rafe.” His other sister, the one who would not let things be, his other sister demanded his attention.

  “Nai, Rhouth?” He finally glanced her way.

  Her amber eyes were alive with fevered hate. It was as if the presence of her ex-best friend during the last eleven days had steadily stoked the fire of her antagonism instead of dousing it.

  And it should have been doused. Tamsin willingly shared the boys. She’d gone out of her way to be friendly with the rest of the family. True, she’d spent most of her days away, searching for a damned job. But when she was around, she was always charming and cordial.

  Exactly as she’d been as a young girl.

  The memories threatened to swamp him, just as they’d done for days on end. Watching Tamsin interact with his family had brought back the good memories he’d determinedly buried so long ago.

  “Tell them, Rafe.” Rhouth’s expression beamed with heated delight. “It’s really time to tell them, isn’t it?”

  No, it was not time to tell the boys their beloved half-sister was going to take a flight back to London in the near future. True, this had been his original plan. A plan he hadn’t shared with Rhouth. Still, his sister was…his sister. She’d always been able to read his mind.

  Yet it was a plan he’d discarded.

  “Tell us what?” Aarōn’s voice was no longer sharp, it was angry.

  Rafe scowled at his mother. She gazed back. Her face smooth and sedate, her countenance placid, but also pointed.

  She wasn’t going to step in this time.

  “Aarōn. This isn’t the time to have this discussion.” Tam’s voice was insistent.

  “What discussion?” Isaák frowned. “I don’t understand what this is all about.”