The Kyriakos Virgin Bride by Tessa Radley

was empty.
    No sign of Maria cleaning…and she’d seen Zac heading for the boathouse.
    Her gaze hurriedly scanned the desk, the bookshelves, taking in the bank of computer ware, the clean, organised surfaces…but no sign of her cell phone or Zac’s.
    About to leave, she noticed the flicker of the screen saver. Feeling like a thief, she scuttled around the desk and perched on the edge of Zac’s big black leather chair. With a sense of nervous elation, she hit the enter button and waited.
    A document opened. Zac had not logged out. Fingers shaking, she minimised the document and hit the Internet connection icon. A home page opened. Relief and a kind of shaky guilt made her sag. She cocked her head. Only silence. No sound of the pantherlike tread of Zac’s returning footsteps.
    She tapped in a Web-mail address and waited a moment before keying in her log-in and password.
    Pandora stared at the screen. A list of unread messages sat in her in-box, several containing subject headers congratulating her on her marriage. No time to read them now.
    Hurriedly, she clicked on the new message tab and typed in her father’s e-mail address. After a moment’s reflection, she filled Need your help into the subject line. It was much more difficult to find the words than she had expected. She wanted to tell her father that her marriage was over, that she needed him to rescue her from this mess.
    But how to explain it all? She hesitated. How could she tell her father that she’d lost her virginity after some stupid visit to a nightclub with a man she’d barely known three years ago? Her father had trusted her to go stay with Nicoletta and to behave as he expected. How could she disappoint him?
    And what would happen about the lucrative contract her father had signed with Zac? He’d walk away from it, putting her first.
    No, she couldn’t let her private failures screw up her father’s business relationships. She had to sort this out herself. Her twenty-first birthday was less than a month away. She was an adult now, not a child who needed to run home to Daddy every time something went wrong.
    Zac had brought her here against her will. To talk, he’d said. She’d been bitter, too angry to talk, and had flung her loss of virginity in his face. The diversion had worked. And she’d retreated to her room to sulk, wasting three days waiting for him to come seek her out.
    It was way past time to grow up, to take control of her life and her future. She had to find Zac and have it out with him.
    But first she owed her father a chatty, upbeat e-mail. He’d been so happy about her marriage. With a small sigh, she started to type.
    â€œWhat the hell are you doing?”
    Pandora jumped when Zac’s voice exploded behind her. Spinning the high-backed leather chair around, she blurted out, “E-mailing my father. He’ll be worried—and hurt—if I don’t keep in touch.”
    â€œDaddy to the rescue,” Zac said, but the deep lines of tension around his mouth receded.
    â€œI don’t need my father to fight my battles.”
    The glint in his eyes changed to something that she thought might be reluctant admiration. Then he spoiled it by saying, “I want to read what you have written.”
    Her chin went up. “Don’t you trust me?”
    His eyes flickered to the screen.
    Pandora scooted the chair forward, blocking his view of the screen. “It’s private, my communication to my father. I’m simply assuring him that I am well and that we are on an island—how do you spell Kiranos by the way? It would look strange if I didn’t get it right.”
    After a fleeting hesitation Zac, spelled it out.
    â€œThanks.” Pandora bent her head and continued to type. Tense now, she waited for Zac to move closer, to peer over her shoulder…to stop her sending the e-mail. But he didn’t move. Finally she clicked the send button and