PROLOGUE

“More coffee?”

Nick shook his head before casting a speculative glance at his one-time boss and long-time best friend.

They were sitting on the back terrace of Ray’s magnificent Point Piper mansion, enjoying a leisurely lunch together, as they always did whenever Nick returned to Sydney.
Ray had asked all the right questions about Nick’s island resort project, had seemed genuinely thrilled when Nick told him it was going to be huge success and he’d promised to fly up and see the place in the near future.

But Nick had a nose for trouble. Always had, right from his childhood days.

“Is there something wrong, Ray?” he asked quietly.

Ray turned his head towards Nick, his grey eyes clouding over.

“Nothing I can put my finger on,” came his guarded reply. “But I have this gut feeling that I’m not long for this world.”

Nick was totally taken aback. “Have you been to see a doctor?”

“I had a full check-up not long back.”

“And?”

Ray shrugged. “I was advised to lose a few pounds. And to drink a little less.”

“But there’s nothing seriously wrong with you.”

“Not that they could see without more invasive tests.”

“Have you been feeling unwell?”

“No. Not really. But you can’t live forever, Nick.”

“You’re not old, Ray.”

“I’m sixty one this year.”

So that’s it, Nick thought. Ray was finally going through the mid-life crisis which most men went through at forty, or fifty.

 “I’ve decided to redo my will,” Ray announced. “I should have done it after Jess died. But I just couldn’t seem to get round to it.”

“You’re not going to go leaving me anything, I hope,” Nick warned. “You’ve already done enough for me, Ray.”

Hell, he’d been responsible for giving him a chance in life, making sure he got an education, then giving him a job when no one would. And that was just for starters. Ray had taught him everything he needed to know to succeed in the entrepreneurial and entertainment world. To top it off, he’d given Nick the unique opportunity to invest in a movie which had been Australian’s most successful to date.

Outback Bride had been one of those films which no one had wanted to back beforehand but which everybody wished they had afterwards.  It had made Ray a massive fortune up to date, with Nick’s meagre five percent investment raking in over twenty million so far.

“I thought you might like the Rolls,” Ray said. “It still runs like a charm. I do realise you prefer sports cars these days, but there’s nothing to touch a Rolls Royce.”

Nick smiled. “Okay. You can leave me the Rolls.” Man, but he’d loved that car. He’d spent countless hours washing and polishing it, feeling like a prince every time he’d sat behind the wheel. The only minus had been the chauffeur’s uniform he’d had to wear.

Nick hadn’t liked that. Hadn’t liked the way some people had treated him when he was wearing it. Like he wasn’t their equal. But he’d never told Ray that.

Ray, of course, had always treated him like an equal. There again, Ray was a man in a million. Nick thought the world of him.

“I’d like to name you as executor of my will,” Ray went on. “If you don’t mind, that is.”
“Of course I don’t mind,” Nick replied. “I’d be glad to do it.”

“Good. I’d also like to make you Sarah’s legal guardian till she reaches the age of twenty-five.”

Nick stiffened in his chair for a split second. Till he reminded himself that this was just a hypothetical role. Sarah was some years away from turning twenty-five.

Also, the odds of Ray dying before he turned seventy was extremely remote.

Yet it was possible, he supposed. If by some incredibly unfortunate occurrence Ray did die in the foreseeable future, things could get very awkward indeed.

Nick had been avoiding his friend’s one and only daughter, ever since she’d shown up at Christmas lunch that year looking very different to the thin, gawky teenager of the year before.

Talk about the ugly duckling turning into a swan!

Where had those luscious curves come from? And that long, blond-streaked hair? And that incredibly sexy walk?

Her eyes had been different, too.

Up till then, Nick hadn’t thought of Sarah’s eyes as particularly beautiful. Cat-shaped and a murky green colour, they had seemed deeply set under thick straight brows, with dark shadows around them which had often given her a tired look.

Suddenly, under finely plucked brows and with the right make-up, they’d taken on an exotic beauty which was very striking. 

Nick had looked into those eyes and been struck with a case of instant lust which had made even him feel shockingly guilty. Things had gone from bad to worse later than day when she’d collared him under some mistletoe and given him a sweet and innocent kiss.
His reaction to her kiss had been far from innocent, however. It had taken all of his will-power not to pry her lips open and send his tongue deep into her oh so sweet mouth.
If she’d known what other forbidden thoughts had filled his head, she would not have looked up at him with such hero-worship.

Knowing his character better than anyone, Nick had steered well clear of Sarah after that, cleverly keeping his visits to Ray’s home to those times when she was away at boarding school.

Except for Christmas Day, which inevitably drew him back to the one home where he felt accepted and respected.

But he’d always brought a girlfriend with him after that episode under the mistletoe. Which was just as well, as, with every passing year, Sarah was becoming even more desirable to him.

As Nick gazed down the terrace steps at the pool below, an image filled his mind. That of another incident last Christmas, when Sarah had sashayed down the terrace steps towards the pool below, wearing an extremely brief emerald green bikini which had raised his testosterone level considerably.

He’d been in the pool himself at the time, trying to keep cool on what had to be the hottest Christmas Day on record. Unfortunately, Jasmine hadn’t been in the water with him. She hadn’t wanted to get her hair wet.

No such reservations for Sarah. She’d stepped up to the side and dived straight in, surfacing too close to him for comfort, her lovely green eyes sparkling with pleasure as she’d slicked back her long blond hair and smiled at him.

“Want to have a race,” she’d said, reminding him of the many times when they’d done just that during the years he’d been her father’s chauffeur and she’d been just a kid.
The trouble was she wasn’t a kid any more. And he wasn’t a chauffeur. He could have any woman he wanted these days. Except Sarah, who looked like a woman, but wasn’t.
But hell on earth… he’d wanted her at that moment. Way way too much.

He’d seen the hurt in her eyes when he’d made some lame excuse and climbed out of the pool. Had felt her eyes burning into his back as he’d reached for a towel and hurried off.
By the time she’d emerged from the pool he’d collected Jasmine and left.

He hadn’t seen Sarah since.

But he would see a lot of her if Ray died and he became her guardian.

“You don’t seem too pleased about the prospect,” Ray said. “Look, I know it’s a lot to ask but…”

“Not at all,” Nick broke in hurriedly. “You know I’d do anything for you, Ray. I just wonder if I’m the best man for such a job.”

“Why? Because of your lack of fathering experience?”

“That, and other things.” Like I’m having enough trouble keeping my hands off your daughter as it is. But how could he say that?

Nick could not have borne to have Ray look at him with dislike and disgust. His mentor’s trust and faith in him meant a lot to him.

“Don’t you think Flora and Jim would be better suited?” he suggested.

Ray’s housekeeper and her handyman husband had been with Ray for years. Although childless, they were decent people and would make better parental substitutes than an ex bad boy.

“I don’t agree,” Ray said. “They’re not family.”

“Neither am I.”

“You’re like a son to me, Nick. Look, I know exactly what’s bothering you.”

Nick’s head jerked back. “You do?”

“Yeah. A man would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to notice that Sarah has a school-girl crush on you. Has had for years. But she’ll get over that once she leaves that all-girl boarding school and gets out into the big bad world. With her looks, she’ll have the boys fighting over her. Not just boys, either. There’ll be older men with their eye on my daughter, too. Men with more on their mind than just satisfying their carnal urges. Which is where your real-life experience will come in.”

“I’m not sure I know what you’re getting at,” Nick said, struggling to overcome an unexpected stab of jealousy. But he’d honestly never thought about what it might be like to see Sarah with a boyfriend. Or, heaven forbid, some older guy…

The image did not sit well on him.

“You know the dark side of life, Nick,” Ray explained. “You’ve seen it first hand.”
And lived it first-hand, Nick could have added.

“You know what some men will do to get their hands on the kind of money which will one day be Sarah’s.”

Nick nodded.

“The road to personal happiness is very hard for an heiress,” Ray continued. “I hate to think what might happen to her if I die and she suddenly finds herself too rich at a tender age.”

“Ray, I think you’re worrying for nothing. You’ll probably live till you’re a hundred.”

Ray shrugged. “It’s possible, I suppose. But to be on the safe side, I intend structuring my will so that Sarah doesn’t inherit my estate till she turns twenty-five. All she will get up till then is her educational expenses, which will also cease once she becomes employed.”

Nick frowned. “That seems a little harsh.”

“I don’t believe in children being given great sums of money. Sarah has to learn that money doesn’t grow on trees.”

“What about this house?”

“I will instruct that you can live here, rent-free, till it becomes Sarah’s. Naturally, I will expect you to let Sarah live here, too, if she wishes.”

“You do realise Sarah could contest such a will.”

“She won’t. Not unless she falls into the hands of some scoundrel. Your job will be to protect my little girl from the scoundrels of this world, Nick, the fortune hunters, the con-men. And the corrupt.”

“That could be a tall order.”

“I have every faith in you. You are caring, have the intelligence and the necessary degree of cynicism to keep Sarah safe.”

Nick winced. “I never thought of my cynicism as a virtue.”

“It’s not usually. But my daughter is way too trusting. She needs a guardian who won’t take her admirers at face value. And who won’t turn a hair at having them investigated, if needs be.”

Nick had to laugh. “Set a thief to catch a thief, is that it?”

Ray’s expression carried surprise. “Don’t tell me you still think of yourself as a scoundrel.”

Nick shrugged. “You can take the boy off the street. But you can never take the street out of the boy.”

“You’re not a boy any more. You’re a man, a fine man. I can’t tell you how proud of you I am.”

Nick’s heart contracted. “I wish you’d stop talking like you’re about to die any second, Ray. You have a good twenty years left in you at least.”

“I hope you’re right. But if you’re not and I am… Promise me that you’ll look after my little girl till she turns twenty-five, Nick. Give me your word.”

Nick did the only thing he could do, under the circumstances. He looked Ray straight in the eye and gave him his word.

But at the back of mind, he began hoping and praying that he would never have his word put to the test…

Nick had only been back on Happy Island for three weeks when the telephone came from Ray’s housekeeper. Between sobs, Flora choked out that Ray had passed away the night before.

“Can you fly home, Nick?” came her plaintive request. “I know Ray made you executor of his will. He told me. He made you Sarah’s guardian as well, didn’t he?”

Nick closed his eyes against the wild mixture of emotions which consumed him. Shock. Grief. Frustration.

Life was both cruel and perverse, he decided.

But then, he already knew that.

“Sarah needs you, Nick,” Flora added. “She doesn’t have anyone else.”

This was true. Ray and Jess had had their only child rather late in life, after almost giving up on ever having a baby. Sarah had no siblings and her grandparents on both sides were now deceased. Ray had been an only child and Jess only had one brother, a black-sheep bachelor who only ever came round when he wanted money. The bastard hadn’t even bothered to come to his sister’s funeral.

“The poor love is just devastated,” Flora sobbed.

Nick suddenly saw that his lust for Sarah simply had to be contained, and ignored. For he could not let Ray down. Or Sarah, for that matter. The last thing she needed was some sleazebag guardian taking advantage of her. Nick was pretty sure Ray hadn’t had seduction on his list for things he wanted Nick to do for his daughter.
“I’ll charter a plane straight away,” he told Flora briskly. “Is Sarah still at school?”
“Yes.”

“Best she stays there, till I get home. And Flora, don’t worry about the funeral arrangements. I’ll attend to that.”

“God bless you, Nick.”

Nick wasn’t sure he would ever have God’s blessing. But neither did he aim to start batting for the other side.

The devil could take temptation when it came to Sarah. From this moment on she was off-limits, sexually speaking.

Ray had said to protect her from the scoundrels of this world.

Well, that obviously included him!