by Lucy Monroe
He moved quickly to stand beside her, his arm going around her waist in a way that was not at all appropriate for a business meeting. But then calling her by Greek endearments hadn’t been either.
Andreas pulled her into his side. “Pleasure, Hawk. I put my own proposal forward to Kayla yesterday. If she agrees, you can consider your terms acceptable.”
Kayla nearly choked on the air she was trying to drag into her lungs. He had not just said that. Peeking up at his profile, she was snagged by an all-too-serious green gaze.
She bit back her own epithet. Oh, he’d said it all right. And just like everything else he said, he meant it.
“Whatever you proposed must be very important to you.” Sebastian was back to looking at her quizzically.
Kayla gave him a sickly smile. “Goodbye, Sebastian.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
KAYLA FOLLOWED ANDREAS into the suite. She’d maintained radio silence since his pronouncement at the restaurant, but there was plenty she wanted to say. Plenty.
Once the door closed behind them, she spun to face Andreas, but words actually failed her.
He shrugged out of his perfectly tailored jacket and even went so far as to tug off his tie before undoing a couple of buttons on his shirt.
“Well?” he prompted, when she just stood there in the center of the living area, her business suit wholly inadequate armor against the emotions he provoked in her.
“What do you mean, well? How could you say something like that?” Yes, her voice was a few decibels above normal and maybe she was waving her arms like a madwoman, but who would blame her?
“Something like what? Goodbye? Talk to you later?” he replied with totally inappropriate facetiousness.
“You know what! You told Sebastian Hawk you’d agree to his terms if I agreed to marry you.”
Andreas shrugged, appearing supremely unconcerned. “Yes, I did.”
“You don’t want to keep any percent of the company.”
Andreas undid another couple of buttons on his shirt. “As Sebastian so astutely pointed out, your positive answer to my proposal is very important to me.”
Now was not the time to notice how attractive the slice of hairy chest he revealed was.
“Enough to sell yourself?” she demanded, feeling like she was the one being sold.
“That is not how I see it.” Andreas indicated she should sit on the plush cream sofa. Once she did, he lowered himself into the spot right beside her. “While you may dislike the negotiation side of things and find our methods cutthroat, I excel at them.”
She knew that. She did. And having him on her side in negotiations was something powerful. “But using yourself in terms I know you can’t want...”
“I knew what Sebastian would ask for before we went into that meeting. He’s made no secret that he would prefer I maintain a nominal connection with the business since we started talks.”
“When did you start those talks?” she couldn’t help asking.
“Talks grew serious a couple of months ago.” Andreas laid his arm across the back of the sofa, bringing his body that much closer to hers.
Which was enough of an answer. “I should have realized what you were up to. I knew your long-term plan,” Kayla admitted to him and to herself.
Andreas only nodded in agreement, his expression serious and watchful.
“You consider my agreement to marry you important enough to keep that part of your assets tied up in the company?” she asked, still unable to believe that was the case.
“I do.”
“Why?” He’d made it clear he did not love her.
He grimaced. Whether because he didn’t want to answer the question or thought she should already know the answer, she didn’t know. “Six years ago, I brought you into my business to keep you in my life.”
In a way he understood and that he considered more permanent than the relationship they’d had at the time. She got that. Now.
“When you made me see that you would not be coming into my new company with me, I realized there had to be another answer to keeping the one person I consider family in my life in a significant way.” He brushed her neck with his thumb, his expression oh, so serious.
“You never take time off,” she observed.
His brows rose in mockery. “Pot? Meet kettle.”
She smiled. “That’s not what I mean. It’s just, you came tearing after me when you realized I was in New York.”
He’d reacted very badly to her being out of his sphere, almost panicked. She saw that now too.
“I hopped a plane, but your point is taken.”
“Because I’m that important to you?”
“As I have said.” His tone implied he didn’t think he should have had to say so, then or now.
“But you don’t love me.”
“Is that a deal breaker for you?” he asked, rather than answer her.
She thought about it. Andreas would not let himself love her. And while that hurt, badly,she considered how it would impact their life together.
Sex between them was off the hook. They were best friends. Andreas got her in a way that no one else did. And she understood him in a way she hadn’t before, in a way she knew no one else could.
But probably most importantly, she could not imagine her life without him in it. Oh, she was sure she could survive without the Greek tycoon, but honestly? She didn’t want to. With every fiber of her being she did not want to build a life without Andreas Kostas in it.
“Kayla?” he prompted after her long silence.
“I had to think about it.”
His other hand came to rest on her hip, surrounding her with his presence. “And?”
“No, it is not a deal breaker.” She swallowed against a suddenly dry throat.
Green eyes flared with satisfaction and maybe just a little joy. “I am glad.”
“You are not allowed to fall in love with anyone else either.” She glared at him, letting him know she meant what she said. “I’m not marrying you only to be set aside later because you changed your mind about love.”
His laughter was rich and very comforting. “That will not happen.”
“We will adopt?”
“As soon as you like.”
“But you want to try for a baby, as well.”
“Melia Kostas’s DNA deserves to live on to the next generation.”
She laid her own hand against his chest, reveling in the warmth of his skin under his fitted dress shirt. “You know your father will consider the child his grandchild, as well.”
“His arrogance would allow nothing less.”
“Will you let our children have an extended family?” she asked, not sure the answer mattered to her decision, but curious all the same.
“So long as the Kostas and Georgas clans accept all of our children equally, yes.”
“You didn’t even have to think about that.” She’d thought he would have a lot more trouble with the idea.
“Family is very important to you. Withholding myself and our children from my family would hurt you. I will not do that.”
“You’re really kind of amazing, you know that?”
“I’m very glad you think so.”
“I’m not signing a prenup.” Neither of them were going into this marriage with some kind of perfectly contracted-out clause.
His smile was wry. “Genevieve would have a coronary.”
“She’s no longer your bride pimp. You fired her.”
“For good reason.”
“Yes?” Kayla supposed Andreas would consider Genevieve’s threat to come to New York in pursuit of him a good reason.
“She upset you.”
“I thought you fired her because she threatened to come to New York.”
“That was just the final straw, but you do not think I could have dealt with her desire to follow us here?”
Andreas could handle anything.
“I suppose.” She smiled at him. “You can certainl
y handle your family now.”
Which probably explained why he was willing to have the Georgas clan in his children’s lives. Andreas was confident in his ability to protect his family from those who claimed the same status.
“Yes.”
“Your dad let you go when you were eighteen. He didn’t have to do that,” she reminded him.
“He’s a smart businessman. He’s in the long game. Nothing else he had tried had worked to bring me into the fold. He believed that by supporting my desire to attend university in America, he might gain some favor with me finally.”
“I’m not convinced that’s all. After all, you changed your name back to Kostas, which was a slap in the face. He never threatened to remove your funding for school.”
Andreas had told her that six years ago.
“No, but do not believe for one minute his arrogance was diminished in any way. He simply realized that my will in regard to who I am was greater than his.”
She still thought there was more to it, but telling Andreas that his father loved him was going to go over like a lead balloon.
Love was not something Andreas Kostas wanted to consider as a motivation for life. But that didn’t stop Kayla from being helplessly, hopelessly in love with him.
Maybe not so hopeless if he wanted to marry her.
He wasn’t offering a love match, but he was offering his commitment, the kind of commitment that Andreas Kostas would never break. She really wasn’t worried about him falling in love with someone else, because she knew that if he said he wouldn’t look outside their marriage for companionship, he wouldn’t.
His business took up far too much time and energy for him to have any left over for liaisons. And Kayla intended their home life to be everything Andreas dreamed of it being. Everything his mother had taught him to value.
“Okay, I’ll marry you.” She sighed and considered how deeply she loved this man. “And you do not have to make that deal with Sebastian for me to say yes. I would have regardless.”
“As I explained to both of you, I will not entertain a deal now that does not allow you to maintain a stake in the company.”
“You could go public with the shares, hire a CEO to take over for you.”
“That would not make the same guarantees for our employees that Sebastian has agreed to do.”
Not unless Andreas kept a controlling interest. “You really have been trying to look out for everybody.”
“As head shark, that is my job.”
She laughed, but the sound was cut off by his lips. When the passionate kiss ended, she asked, “What are you doing?”
“Celebrating your answer in the best way I know how.”
And they did.
* * *
The next morning, Kayla woke up next to the man of her dreams with the certain knowledge that he was hers. No matter why he wanted to marry her, they were going to wed and that meant a lifetime commitment for Andreas Kostas.
His handsome features were relaxed in sleep, the square jaw not too big-shark-businessman intimidating, his eyelashes sweeping under his eyes in peaceful repose. For once, he did not look ready to conquer the world, vulnerable in sleep just like any other man. Not that Andreas Kostas was average by any definition.
Larger-than-life, he’d been filling hers right up since they first met eight years ago on a university campus.
And now their lives would be joined. He wasn’t interested in marrying a socialite or someone from an ancient family. Not even another shark, of the female variety. Andreas wanted to build a real family with Kayla.
Maybe some things were bigger than the concept of romantic love.
Green eyes opened, alert at once in a way she rarely woke up. “You are watching me in my sleep.”
“That’s usually your gig, I know.”
He flashed her a very sexy smile. “It is so pleasurable to watch you when you’re all soft and quiet.”
She shook her head. “Crazy man.”
“I assure you, I am as sane as the next man.”
“Other men do not come off favorably when compared to you,” she teased with the truth.
Andreas’s gaze flashed emerald. “Good to know.”
She sat up, pushing the sheet away. “I guess I’d better get packing.”
“Why?” He gave her naked body an appreciative look filled with heat.
She stood, slipped her arms into his robe, knowing he wouldn’t mind sharing, and walked toward the door of his bedroom, away from temptation. “Because I’m sure you’ve already told Bradley to arrange our flight.”
“You know me well.”
She looked around the luxurious suite’s bedroom with something akin to sadness before meeting his eyes again. “I suppose my vacation is over.”
“Who said?” Sitting up against the elegant fabric-covered headboard, he gave her a devil’s grin. “Our flight isn’t until the day after tomorrow.”
“What? Why?” Her hand fell away from the door handle.
“I wanted a chance to do some more sightseeing with you.”
“You? Sightseeing?” she asked, trying to understand this stranger looking so sexy in the bed. This was not Andreas as she knew him.
“We went the day before yesterday. You enjoyed yourself.” His tone implied he thought that was all the explanation need.
She was still flummoxed. “I did.”
“You are on vacation.”
So she’d tried to convince him. “I thought you didn’t believe in vacation.”
His dark brows drew together in a frown. “I never said that.”
“No, you’ve just spent the last six years without taking one.” What else was she supposed to think? Even she had taken time off occasionally, especially when she’d finally been able to launch the shelter she’d always dreamed of.
“Well, I’m about to be married. Start a family. Vacation is something I will have to get used to.”
She almost laughed at the way he said it, like taking a vacation was a painful condition he would have to learn to live with. “Time off to explore new places is supposed to be a good thing.”
“Is that not what I’m saying?” The look of confusion on Andreas’s face was cute, if a six-foot-four-inch business mogul could be called cute.
She guessed it was, as impossible as Kayla found that to believe. “Okay, sure. So, we have two more days?”
“I thought we could take a tour of Central Park today.” He tilted his head, like he was trying to read her reaction. “It is said to be a highlight of visiting New York.”
“You’ve been here several times for business, you never visited Central Park?” And he wanted to take her there?
“I had no reason to do so.”
“But you do now?”
“You will enjoy it.”
She wasn’t sure how to take that, other than to move back to the bed, climb over to him and lay her lips against his, her kiss filled with all the sense of joy and gratitude coursing through her. Happiness soon turned to passion, her body responding to his nakedness, her near nudity and his wondering hands.
It was a couple of hours before they were able to shower and sit down to breakfast.
* * *
Andreas had been right, the pedicab tour of Central Park was amazing, their driver a font of information about New York and the history of the park, his storytelling almost as mesmerizing as the way Andreas insisted on holding her hand and dropping random kisses on Kayla’s temple, cheek and even lips. About halfway through the tour, their guide explained they’d need to walk up to the folly if they wanted to see Belvedere Castle firsthand, as no conveyances were allowed on the narrower path.
Keen to experience all that she could, Kayla looked up at Andreas. “Can we?”
“Definitely.”
The trip up to Belvedere Castle was through a gorgeous English-style garden, worth the walk in itself, Kayla thought, and then said so.
“Agreed.” Andreas stopped her in the middle of the gar
den area. “Are you going to want to sell our condos and buy a house, so we can have flowers?”
“A place for our children to play would be nice, but yes, I’d like flowers.”
“Your collection of African violets on the windowsill in your condo gives you away.”
She shrugged. “Plants make it more homey.”
“Your presence always makes my condo feel more homey.”
“You’re awfully complimentary all of a sudden.”
His expression went serious, his green gaze darkened with sincerity. “It is not sudden.”
Unable to hold his gaze, and frankly uncomfortable with the conversation, Kayla made a show of examining the gardens. “This park really is amazing.” She snapped a few shots with her camera phone. “So beautiful.”
Andreas was looking at her, not the roses. “I know beautiful.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“Speaking the truth is not foolish.”
She rolled her eyes. “You really don’t have to come over all complimentary now, Andreas. I’ve already agreed to marry you.”
“When have I ever not thought you were beautiful?” he asked, obviously affronted. But giving her no chance to answer, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
Deeply. No affectionate peck like while riding in the pedicab was this one. He laid claim to her again with his lips, right there, in front of the other tourists and park visitors.
She found herself responding, and as uncaring of their audience as he obviously was, she buried her hands in his perfect businessman’s haircut, tugging at his hair in her ardor.
After several pleasurable moments, he groaned and set her away from him. “We must stop, pethi mou, or there will be no continuing this excursion.”
She reached up and patted down the tufts of hair her wandering fingers had caused. “Okay, but you owe me.”
“A debt I will always enjoy paying.” He took her hand. “We’d better get going. The pedicab driver is waiting on us.”
She nodded.
They were at the folly, when Andreas spoke again, his words surprising her. “When my father came to get me, he gave me no time to pack, telling me he would provide anything I needed.”