The Renegade Billionaire (HQR Romance)

by Rebecca Winters

  “Maybe my father won’t fire the first shot after all.”

  “Maybe not. One lives in hope.”

  Yes, one does.

  “Stavros? Why do you think he’s the way he is? You know what I mean.”

  “Leon and I have asked each other that question dozens of times. Our grandfather, his own father, didn’t understand him either. He always has to be right. I don’t know where that comes from.”

  “Do your parents go to church?”

  Her question made him want to laugh and cry at the same time, because she was trying to understand the complex relationship he had with his parents, which not even he could fix.

  “On the important holidays. How about your father?”

  “The same.”

  Stavros was curious. “Does he expect you to go?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “When we were living in Venezuela, I went to a Catholic school and a couple of nuns befriended me. For a while I thought I might like to be one when I grew older. When I told my dad, he had a fit.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “That was one of the few times I’d ever seen him really upset. He said he loved me so much he never wanted me to go away from him. At the time I believed him and gave up on the idea. But as I matured, I realized he really wanted me to grow up with the opportunity to be married and have children. He said children are a parent’s greatest blessing.”

  “I know you are,” Stavros said moodily.

  “I’ve tried to be.”

  The trend in their conversation had become painful for him. Her father wanted his daughter to be married, but only on his terms? Father, daughter and son-in-law all under the same roof in Denver, Colorado?

  “We’ve arrived at the first quarry on the list.” She got out and came around to open his door. “I’ll go inside and see if the manager will come out to talk to you. Wish me luck.”

  “There isn’t enough money to pay what I owe you, Andrea.”

  “Don’t be silly.” She headed for the quarry office. He experienced pure pleasure just watching the womanly way she moved. Her hair shimmered in the sun.

  He’d wanted to get a head start finding new sources of marble material, but feared this wouldn’t work if he didn’t make the initial introduction. The doctor had told him not to walk around on his bad leg until tomorrow. His wound was feeling better, so he’d be a fool not to follow his advice.

  Soon, he saw Andrea accompanied by an older man. Stavros lowered his legs to the floor and got out so at least he was standing. They both joined him. She’d given the manager one of his business cards.

  “When your beautiful assistant said Kyrie Stavros Konstantinos himself was outside waiting with a proposition for us, I couldn’t believe it. You were stung by a stingray?”

  “That’s right. I still have trouble walking.”

  “You’re lucky to still be alive. I could tell you stories.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Andrea smiling.

  “Thankfully my story has a happy ending, otherwise I wouldn’t be standing here, but it’s all I can manage.”

  The quarry manager scratched his head. “This is a very unusual way to do business. You were very smart to send her first.” His mouth widened into a grin. “So you are now in business for yourself. No more papa?”

  Stavros had to smother a groan. “I still have a papa, but no more ties to the Konstantinos Corporation. My partners and I are in business producing a new product called Marma-Kon.” He took advantage of the moment to explain why he wanted to buy their marble waste.

  “I’ll email you the contract today so you can read it over. It should answer all your questions. If you are in agreement to do business, contact Theo Troikas, whose name is on the card. He’s the contracts manager.”

  “I tell you what. I have to talk to the owner. He owns two quarries. I think he will say yes, but I’ll get back to you. Thank you, and get well.” He shook Stavros’s hand.

  After he’d walked away, Stavros climbed in the backseat once more and Andrea closed the door for him. Then she got back in the driver’s seat and turned around. “What do you think?”

  Stavros stretched out to rest his leg. “Do you even have to ask? With you as my ambassador, it was like taking candy from a baby. The hitch will come when he talks to the owner.”

  “Why wouldn’t he agree? They’ll be making money off you.”

  “You never know. Prejudice maybe, because I’m the son who’s no longer working for his father. The owner’s a proud Greek, remember? We’re a pretty patriarchal bunch.”

  She nodded. “With the god Zeus serving as the role model, you are. His autocratic handling of his son Arcas was a great example of fatherly love. That poor boy was so upset he said, ‘If you think you’re so clever, Father, make me whole and unharmed.’ That relationship got nowhere in a hurry.”

  That was a little-known part of the myth. The fact that she could pull such information out of her head at a moment’s notice astounded him.

  “Stavros—” Her eyes clouded over. “I’m trying to get you to ease up on yourself. You’re not actually buying into your own pathetic fiction about not living up to your father’s expectations? As far as I’m concerned, you’ve exceeded any dreams a father might have for his son. The respect everyone has for you should warm your heart.”

  “Does it warm yours?” He couldn’t see her face.

  “I told you the other night that I’ve chosen to believe in you.”

  Stavros put his head back. “If only I’d heard that kind of faith come from my father, even one time...”

  “Please don’t torture yourself.” She had tears in her voice. “You need to stop! Your brother, Leon, is your champion or he wouldn’t have come to the house the other night to warn you. Even if you didn’t notice it, I saw the manager’s eyes gleam while you told him about your product. He stood there wishing he’d thought of it first and probably wished he had a son like you.

  “You’re really onto something big, Stavros. As long as you’re searching for new sources, why not buy some quarries no longer being used? You know the old saying about one man’s trash being another man’s treasure.”

  “They cost money, but I hear what you’re saying, Andrea.” Every single brilliant word.

  “Good. Then let’s drive on to the next target.”

  * * *

  Andrea marveled at the scenery after they reached the place where they were spending the night. Outside the door of her hotel room, which adjoined Stavros’s, she looked south and east to the pine trees and sweet chestnut forests. They surrounded the village sitting at the foot of Mount Ypsarion. Its charm lay in the old houses with their stone walls and wooden roofs.

  While he got ready for bed, she went to a local taverna for oven-baked pizza that was chewy like focaccia bread and topped with gyro meat in a sauce tasting strongly of basil. After she returned, they drank fruit juice in lieu of wine with their meal. Knowing Stavros had a sweet tooth, she’d picked up some baklava.

  Before she got ready for bed, she went back to his room to make sure he’d taken his pills and was settled. She knew he was tired, but he seemed in better spirits than when they’d stopped at the first quarry.

  She felt his eyes on her the second she entered his room. “How do you feel after meeting with managers from three different quarries?”

  “I’ll know better when contracts come in, but I’m satisfied we’ve made a dent.”

  “Do you think you’re up to more visits tomorrow?”

  “Are you?” he questioned right back. “You must be exhausted after all you’ve done today.”

  “I’m not the one with the wound. If you don’t mind, I’d like to check it before you go to sleep, just to be on t
he safe side.” She pulled a clean dressing from the box.

  He threw the covers aside. For his convenience, obviously, he’d put on a pair of shorts for bed. Nothing else. The dusting of black hair on his well-defined chest reminded her of those hours on the beach when they’d gotten tangled in each other’s arms. As if reading her mind, he turned over. She sucked in her breath and leaned down to make an inspection.

  Relief swept through her. “It’s healing, Stavros. There’s almost no drainage.”

  “That means I can do my own walking tomorrow.”

  “Within reason,” she reminded him. After discarding the old dressing, she washed her hands and came out of the bathroom to affix a new one. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  “Stay with me tonight, Andrea,” he asked in a compelling voice. “Lie by me.”

  “Stavros—”

  “I swear I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do. We don’t have a lot of time left before you’re gone for good.”

  She knew that a lot better than he did. She’d had nightmares about never seeing him again. But what he was asking would be a mistake for both of them, a voice inside warned. Stavros had no idea how much she’d come to love him. To spend more time with him was only going to make it harder to leave. After losing Ferrante, she was terrified of loving another man again.

  “Can’t we at least have this night together like we had out in the woods when we were looking for Darren? I don’t know about you, but I remember every moment of it lying next to you. I remember your fragrance. You always smell divine, did you know that?”

  Andrea could hardly breathe. “Let me think about it.” She darted toward the door that separated their two rooms. Once inside hers, she reached in the duffel bag for her nightgown and robe. During her shower, her brain screamed at her to remain in her room until morning. But by the time she’d brushed her teeth and was ready for bed, her heart had won out. Stavros was right. This would be their last night together before she had to fly back to Thessaloniki.

  On legs that trembled, she turned off the light and went into his bedroom. His light was off too. She drifted through the semidarkness to the bed. Without removing her robe, she got in on the other side. No sooner had she rested her head on the pillow than she felt his arm snake around her waist and roll her into his strong body.

  “Finally,” he said in an unsteady voice and buried his face in her hair. “I’ve been willing you to come to me. I love you, agape mou.” His hand roved over her arm and back possessively. “I fell in love with you that day on the mountain. I’m a different man because of it. Don’t tell me it’s too soon to say those words to you.”

  Tears trickled out of her eyes. “I won’t. I love you too. But you already know that, in the same way you know everything else,” she murmured against his lips. “I adore you.” She kissed him over and over again. “I knew it when you got out of your car to castigate me for losing one of my students.”

  “Forgive me, darling.”

  “There’s nothing to forgive. I didn’t think a man like you existed, yet there you were, bigger than life and so handsome I didn’t think my heart could take it. When I thought I might never see you again, I asked if I could look for Darren with you. It was so bold of me I should be ashamed, but I couldn’t help myself.”

  “Do you think a lesser woman could ever hold me?” Stavros kissed her long and hard before he lifted his head. She moaned in protest. “We need to talk, my love. About us.”

  “Let’s not ruin tonight with talk,” she begged.

  “There are other ways of communicating.” He covered her face with kisses. “It’s all I can do to keep myself from making love to you, but I made you a promise.”

  She loved him more fiercely for honoring it. Once again, she was the one spinning out of control. This wasn’t fair to him.

  “If I stay in this bed any longer, then I’ll pay a price for giving in to my desire. It’ll be too heavy a price considering I’ll be gone soon. It’s already tearing me apart to imagine leaving you. But my agony will never end if I sleep with you tonight. After knowing your possession, nothing will ever be the same for me again. I know myself too well.”

  Stavros propped his head on his hand to look at her. “You’re talking about Ferrante.”

  “No. When Ferrante found out I’d never been intimate with a man, he said he wanted me to be his wife before he took me to bed. I loved him for loving me that much. For several months after his death, I was angry because I felt I’d been cheated and it was my own fault.

  “But because I didn’t have that memory, I’m convinced it helped me to heal. Otherwise, how can I explain falling in love with you so fast? After meeting you, I can’t imagine loving another man again whether we sleep together or not.”

  He smoothed some hair off her forehead. “So what are we going to do about us? Does your father expect you to stay with him for always?”

  “It isn’t a case of expect, Stavros. I’m the one who doesn’t want him to be alone.”

  “Why? It’s normal for a grown woman to fall in love with a man and set up her own household.”

  She buried her face in his neck. “I know, but— Oh, you just don’t understand.”

  “Try me. Please.”

  “He’s so selfless and has never asked for anything for himself. I can’t bear to think of him alone to live out the rest of his life. His parents were killed in a train accident when he was young. He had to live with an aunt, but she died before he met Mom. Then she died giving birth to me. I’m all he has left in this world.”

  The words came out in heavy sobs. Stavros held her closer, kissing her hair and cheek. Ferrante had loved her enough to know what he had to do to keep her. Maybe there was another way around what seemed to be an insoluble problem, because Stavros flat-out refused to lose her.

  * * *

  When the sobs subsided, Andrea rolled away from him and stood up, realizing she’d taken him by surprise. “I’ve given you all the honesty I have in me, but now I know what I have to do. I’d only be torturing myself to stay the rest of the night with you. Our meeting at the quarry was accidental. We’ve had some very precious moments together, but we need to get on with our lives since they’re going in different directions. Try to get some sleep. We have two more quarries to visit tomorrow.”

  Andrea hurried to bed. She tossed and turned most of the night. After awakening early, she dressed and slipped out to bring breakfast back. She avoided Stavros’s eyes as she put their food on the table in his room and reached for a roll. He’d dressed in white lightweight trousers and a collared tan shirt. He looked terrific and could walk a lot better this morning.

  After eating, she packed up the duffel bag and turned to him. “Have you taken your medicine?”

  He reached for his coffee. “I took it when I got out of bed. Thank you for the reminder and the food.”

  “You’re welcome. I’ll just take this bag out to the car and wait for you.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  In another few minutes, he climbed into the passenger seat next to her and they drove away.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t be more comfortable in back?” After driving around in the Jeep with him, it was a strange experience with him sitting next to her in his elegant car. She was so aware of him, it was hard to concentrate.

  “I’m fine. But after we’ve stopped at the next quarry, I want to go back to the house. I’ve decided I can accomplish much the same thing by making phone calls from home.”

  She frowned. “Do you wish you hadn’t come?”

  “No. It was necessary for me to see if my physical presence has made a difference. But in every case, the person I really need to convince isn’t on the premises. Part of the reason I wanted to do things this way was so I could spend more time alone with you.”

>   She’d loved this time with him more than he would ever know.

  “However, since I don’t need any more help, and because being together has put an unbearable strain on both of us, I’ll let you get back to your office. The helicopter will be waiting to take you. I daresay your boss will be thrilled to see you walk in.”

  Andrea’s heart plunged to her feet. Stavros admitted he’d fallen in love with her, but sometime between last night and this morning, he’d had some sort of epiphany. She knew what he was like. Once he’d made up his mind, that was it. He’d made a decision about the two of them, the only one that made sense.

  There was no going back to the way they had been before last night and they both knew it. But she was so devastated it took all her strength to focus while negotiating the mountain roads. Stavros worked on his laptop, not interested in talking to her. They’d run out of words. He was able to freeze her out, an ability she’d give anything to possess.

  By noon they’d visited the quarry before heading back toward Panagia. She had no idea if he’d felt it was a successful morning or not. En route, they stopped for food, which they ate in the car. He turned on some typical soft rock music, his way of letting her know the music wouldn’t bother him while he did work on his computer.

  They arrived at his villa just after two o’clock. His fabulous house felt more like home to her than any furnished apartment she and her dad had ever lived in over the years. Her heart was in so much pain, she wondered if it could literally break.

  Andrea let Stavros off in front. Even if he was walking better, he shouldn’t have to climb a lot of steps yet. After he shut the door, she drove around to the back and parked the car next to the Jeep. His posh Mercedes had been a sheer pleasure to drive. When she let herself in the back door, she found he’d gone straight to his den.

  Taking advantage of the time, she went to his bedroom and unpacked the duffel bag. Toiletries in the bathroom, medicine on his side table. As for her own packing, there was very little to do. In ten minutes, she was ready to go. The sooner, the better, because she was on the verge of breaking down.