THE ALEXAKIS BRIDE by Anne McAllister

by Anne McAllister

  THE ALEXAKIS BRIDE by Anne Mcallister

  ELIGIBLE TYCOON SEEKS PERFECT BRIDE!

  Damon Alexakis had looks, wealth, power. What he didn't have was a suitable wife. And Damon needed a wife.

  Kate McKee was the perfect choice. Beautiful, intelligent, she was the adored nanny of his sister's twins' and she was stunned by Damon's proposal!

  But what choice did she have? To fend off her father's matchmaking efforts, she'd invented a mystery lover. The only solution was to accept Damon's extraordinary deal: for one year only, she'd share his life, but not his bed -- at least that was Kate's interpretation.

  Damon had other ideas.

  THE ALEXAKIS BRIDE by Anne Mcallister

  CHAPTER ONE

  "A man can never have too many women." Damon Alexakis could remember his father saying that as far back as he was able to recall. The old man's rich baritone practically caressed the words as he said them. And then he would look at his only son and give him a conspiratorial wink. At the ripe old age of thirty-four, when a single man in possession of all the right instincts might most likely have been expected to concur wholeheartedly, Damon Alexakis begged to differ. It wasn't that he didn't like women. He did. The sort he could take to dinner, take to bed, and forget about the next morning. It was the other women who were the bane of his existence the women Aristotle Alexakis had most adored. But then Aristotle had never been surrounded by and responsible for a widowed mother and six count them, six hellish sisters. Not to mention five-year- old twin nieces. The old man had died when Damon was only eighteen, while the girls were still charming everyone in sight. His father, Damon often thought grimly, didn't know what he'd missed. Now, as Damon drummed his pen on the top of his broad teak desk, then stared distractedly out the window at the midtown New York skyline, he wished, not for the first time, that he were an orphaned only child. He could have done without them all without his 6 mother, who was trying to settle him down and provide him with the Perfect Alexakis Bride, without Pandora who had lately dashed off with a shifty Las Vegas blackjack dealer, without Electra who was shedding her clothes in that off-colour, off-off-off Broadway production in the name of art, without Chloe who had taken off for darkest Africa without a word, without Daphne who'd bought all those chinchillas on the hoof because she was sorry for them and not because they'd make lovely coats, without Arete who just this morning had stalked into his office and quit to take a job with Strahan Brothers, Importers, his biggest competitors, and most especially, at the moment, without his eldest sister, Sophia, whose pregnancy was at present complicating his life. Why, Damon lifted his eyes and asked the heavens, should any man have to worry about his sister's pregnancy? Why shouldn't it be her husband's problem? Because, he answered on behalf of the heavens, her husband, Stephanos, was the problem. He and Kate McKee. Kate McKee. The woman even sounded like trouble. A fiery and frolicsome Titian-haired temptress--exactly the sort of woman that his philandering brother-in-law would be eager to take to bed. Had no doubt already taken to bed, Damon reminded himself savagely, stabbing his pen into the desk blotter. All those other mother's helpers Stephanos had hired- Stacy and Tracy and Casey and whoever else had come and gone keeping an eye on his and Sophia's impish twins in the last two months--had been mere red herrings. It was Kate McKee whom Stephanos had been intent on installing in his and Sophia's Park Avenue apartment. And in his bed. Damon knew he should have been suspicious from the moment Stephanos had announced that the doctor recommended a nanny. His brother-in-law was never eager to lay out a penny more than necessary, much less voluntarily pay someone to help not him but his wife. But Stephanos had been all soulful eyes and deep concern when he'd come into Damon's office that afternoon two months ago. "The doctor is worried about Sophia. He says she's in danger of miscarrying. She needs someone to keep an eye on the twins." "I'll take care of it," Damon had promised, phone against his ear. He scratched Sophia's name on a pad at the same time he was trying to catch the particulars on a crystal shipment due from Venice that afternoon. But Stephanos had given Damon an airy wave of his hand. "It's not your problem. I'm just telling you. I'll interview the girls myself." Damon ground his teeth now. He should have known better. Everything that even vaguely affected the lives of any of the Alexakis women ended up being his problem sooner or later! What the hell was he going to do about her? Fire her tail. That was what he'd like to do. He'd like to drop-kick her from here to Siberia, and send his miserable brother-in-law spiralling the South Pole while he was at it. He couldn't. Because Sophia, heaven help him, adored her dear Miss Kate! "She's such a competent person. So clever. So cheerful. And she takes such good care of the girls. You can't know what a relief it is. Knowing Kate's in charge makes me feel so much better. " Sophia had said all that to him just this morning. She'd said other equally enthusiastic things about her husband's mistress in the past two weeks. But then Damon hadn't realised what Stephanos was up to. Now he knew. He'd heard the rum ours like everyone else. Except so far, thank God, Sophia. He was going to make sure she never heard them. And he'd have loved to deal with both Stephanos and his lady love in the way they so richly deserved, except-- "The doctor says I'm doing much better since Kate came," Sophia had gone on to say. "She makes all the difference. I don't know what I'd do without Kate." So his hands were tied. For the moment at least. But that didn't mean he was going to tolerate such underhanded goings-on. There was no way he was going to stand by and watch his brother-in-law make a fool of Sophia. His hands clenched into fists as he contemplated what he'd like to do to Stephanos. Would the competent Miss McKee find her lover quite so attractive with his face rearranged? But again, he couldn't do that. Because Sophia would find out. And now, of all times, the high-strung Sophia needed shielding. No, he couldn't shift Stephanos's nose for him, and he couldn't blacken his eyes. But he could do a little bit of rearranging. And Damon intended to start with Kate McKee's expectations! The phone buzzed. He picked it up, cradling it against his shoulder. "I thought you'd gone home," he said to Lilian, his secretary. "I live here," Lilian said drily. "We both do." "It seems like it," Damon admitted. "What's up?" "Your mother. On line two." "Now?" He glanced at his watch, frowning. "It's almost two in the morning in Athens." He sighed. "All right. Put her through." He wondered what disaster had befallen Helena Alexakis this time. His mother was the original clinging vine, a woman who counted on her man to solve everything. And since her husband had died, she never made a move without discussing it with her son. Except, Damon thought grimly, in the case of her search for his perfect bride. "Damon? Is that you, my son? You are not home? You are still working?" "Yes, Mama, I'm still working. What's wrong?" "Nothing. Not one little thing." He could hear her good cheer even above the transatlantic crackle on the line. "I'm calling to tell you the good news." Damon straightened up, flexing his shoulders, smiling, too, relieved that for once there was no problem. "Good news, Mama? What's that?" "I am coming to New York." A dramatic pause. "And I am bringing Marina." "Your brother wants to meet me?" Kate stopped paring the apple she held in her hand and looked at her employer a bit dubiously. "This afternoon at three," Sophia agreed, lounging complacently on the sofa, her knitting untouched in her lap while she watched Kate prepare the twins' lunch. Kate shook her head. From everything she'd heard about hard-driving, arrogant Damon Alexakis during the three weeks she'd worked for his sister, he didn't seem the sort to waste his precious time on a mother's helper. Even if the mother's helper in question actually owned Kid Kare, Inc. and didn't just work for it. Unless, she thought with a hint of amusement, he wanted to buy in and start exporting nannies. She supposed, given his penchant for buying and selling, it might be possible. She almost wished it
were. Heaven knew it would give credibility to her business's vitality. "Why would he want to meet me?" "Damon likes to (enow everyone involved with the family. It's his way," Sophia said. "He feels responsible." "Not for me. I'm responsible for myself." "Of course. I admire your independence," Sophia said wistfully. "I could never be like you. But Damon is a bit old-fashioned, and it's important to humour him. You don't mind, do you? " "No, of course not." Kate was aware of the fragility of Sophia's temperament. She had learned quickly not to do or say anything that would make Sophia worry needlessly. She gave the older woman a quick smile. "I'll be delighted to meet him." It would be a chance to tell him a few home truths, she thought. Like what a philandering jerk his brother- in-law was. If she hadn't known she'd be leaving Sophia in the lurch at a dangerous time, Kate would have left in the middle of the second week, the second she'd escaped from Stephanos's marauding hands and mouth the night he had cornered her in the kitchen. She'd hoped a bit of cold-shoulder treatment would solve the problem. But from the way he was watching her, almost leering whenever Sophia's back was turned, she feared he was biding his time. If Damon Alexakis was the superman everyone seemed to think he was, maybe he could put a stop to Stephanos's lechery before Kate stopped it herself with a well-placed knee which would cost him some pain, her some embarrassment, and Sophia the woman she needed to keep the twins under control. Kate wasn't quite sure how she was going to tell Damon Alexakis that, however. She was still mulling it over when the taxi let her off outside the midtown building where Alexakis Enterprises had its offices. The building was forty storeys marble and glass. Very sleek and modern-looking, exuding a sort of wealthy energy that reminded Kate all too much of the building four blocks north where her father had his own corporate headquarters. It made her own tiny office in a converted floor- through brownstone apartment from the mid-seventies seem a store-front venture indeed. She'd certainly been pipe-dreaming when she'd thought he might be interested in it. Damon Alexakis would never be concerned with a small potatoes business like hers! No, Sophia had to be right. He only wanted to look her over, make sure that Kate McKee wasn't the sort of Irish serving girl whose backward ways and bog- bred brogue might corrupt his precious nieces! Well, she had no fears of facing him about that. Lifting her chin and smoothing her hair as best she could, Kate marched into the lift and punched the button for the twentieth floor. "Mr Alexakis is expecting you," the secretary, a competent-looking woman in her fifties, told her when Kate gave her name. "Come with me." Turning, she led Kate down a short hall and rapped briskly on the door at the end. "Ms McKee is here," she announced, opening it and stepping aside so Kate could enter. The room was more welcoming than Kate had imagined. The furniture was all streamlined modern teak, but the shelves held more than the requisite books and papers. On them Kate also saw beautifully crafted Greek pottery, olive wood carvings and a set of jade chessmen. Hanging from the ceiling in the corner of the room was a mobile of various fantastic fish, glittering and iridescent, moving gently now as the door opened and closed. Damon Alexakis didn't seem to notice. He was sitting at his desk, scanning an invoice. He didn't look up until he'd finished it and signed it at the bottom. Then his gazed lifted and Kate found herself staring into a pair of dark brown assessing eyes. He didn't smile. Kate 'did. It was the first thing she told all her prospective employees. "Smile. First impressions are important. And our clients want to know they're entrusting their children to happy people." She'd always been sure that smiles swayed people's opinions. She was quite sure hers had no effect on Damon Alexakis. "Mr Alexakis," she began determinedly, offering her hand, 'it's a pleasure to meet you. " He didn't rise, didn't take her hand. He stayed right where he was, his only movement the lifting of one dark brow. "I can't imagine why." The slight hint of a Greek accent she'd been expecting, the cold disbelief in his tone she had not. Kate pulled her hand back and frowned. "Sophia has spoken of you a great deal." "Indeed? And did she tell you I won't tolerate adultery." Kate straightened up sharply. "I beg your pardon?" He gave a harsh laugh and stood up. She took a step backward. He was far taller than she'd expected. Stephanos was only an inch or two taller than she was. Sophia was a tiny woman. "Nervous, Ms McKee?" he drawled. "Should I be?" "Damned right you should. I know you've pulled the wool over Sophia's eyes. She thinks you're God's gift." His mouth twisted bitterly. "The more fool she. But I know different." "And what exactly is it that you think you know, Mr Alexakis?" "All about you. And Stephanos." "Stephanos? And me?" She didn't have to guess what he thought any longer. It was all too clear. Be calm, she always told her prospective nannies. Be steady and rational. Kate saw red. "You think Stephanos and I?-- Let roe tell you something about your precious brother-in- law, Mr Alexakis! Stephanos Andropolis is a woman ising creep. It's no wonder you can't keep a mother's helper, the way he acts! Every one of my girls had the same complaint." It was Damon Alexakis's turn to look astonished. Still his eyes narrowed and he paused before he asked, "What are you saying, Ms McKee? Are you denying that you and Stephanos--' " I most certainly am! " He gave a rude, disbelieving snort. "You didn't meet him at the Plaza Hotel last Wednesday?" Oh, hell, Kate thought. She knew her cheeks were reddening. It was the curse of her ivory complexion. "I was meeting my father," she said stiffly. "Your father looks a lot like Stephanos?" "No, of course not. I had met my father for lunch. It was my day off. He was there with a business associate and--' she didn't want to explain this, didn't want to even think about the foolishness she'd committed last Wednesday '--and as we were leaving, I--I ran into Stephanos." "Who just happened to be there, too. A coincidence?" Damon asked in a silky tone. "I don't know what he was doing there," Kate said flatly. She had only thanked heaven at the time that he was. "You must have been very glad to see him," Damon said. His eyes were watching her intently. "I was, as a matter of fact," she said irritably. "So glad that you tucked your arm in his and kissed him? So glad that you went off with him towards the rooms?" "I never went to his room! I didn't even know he had a room!" "Of course you didn't," Damon said with patent disbelief. "If you think I'm having an affair with your brother- in-law, you're a fool." "You're the one who's the fool, Ms McKee," Damon said flatly. "Stephanos won't marry you, if that's what you're hoping for." "I don't want to marry Stephanos! I don't even like him! He makes me sick!" "Protesting a bit much, aren't you?" he asked with deceptive mildness. Kate sighed. She wanted to tear her hair. Damn Stephanos. Damn her father, whose plans she'd been trying to thwart by pretending to be glad to see Stephanos. And damn Damon Alexakis for putting his own construction on what had been an act of desperation on her part, and certainly not encouragement to Stephanos. The last thing Kate wanted was an affair. No, that wasn't quite true. The last thing she wanted was to get married--and that was her father's plan. She ventured a look at Damon. He was looking at her, his expression harsh and sceptical. She remembered everything she'd ever heard about him how clever he was, how smart, how, according to her father, a man would have to get up damned early in the morning to put anything over on Damon Alexakis. She didn't imagine he was going to be satisfied with anything less than the truth. Did she want to tell him the truth? No. Did she have a choice? Not really. Not when a man as powerful as Damon Alexakis thought she was out to ruin his sister's marriage. All it would take would be a few words from a man like him and Kate's fledgling business, which she had worked so hard to develop, would die without a prayer. Her father, disapproving all the while, had at least vowed not to act against her business venture. "I won't stop you, Kate," he'd said when she'd announced her plans to open Kid Kare. "I won't have to. You'll see how hard it is, and you'll come around. You'll stop yourself." His certainty that she would fail had done more to encourage her determination than anything. She'd begun Kid Kare the next week, and had worked now for three years. At last she was getting a reputation for placing competent, well-mannered, responsible people in child care situations. She was succeeding in spite of his prediction of failure. Eugene DeMo may didn't acknowledge it, and he certainly hadn't ever
given his daughter his blessing. But it was a sure sign of her success, that he was now taking another tack he was proposing a marriage between her and Jeffrey. There was no way Kate was marrying Jeffrey. Or anyone else. Not after her marriage to Bryce! If her father wanted a male successor, he'd have to adopt one. Kate's future was all tied up with Kid Kare--provided Damon Alexakis left it standing. "I can explain," she said quietly now, composing herself as best she could. "Oh?" Once more he lifted that mocking brow. "It will take a little time." "If it's an entertaining story, I suppose I can make the time," he said with a hint of irony. He gestured towards the chair facing the desk, inviting her wordlessly to sit down. Kate did. He sat down opposite her on the other side of the desk. He looked as tough and intimidating sitting down as he had standing up, as if he could squash her entire future with a phone call. That thought gave her the courage to begin. "You have, perhaps, heard of Eugene DeMornay?" She saw a nicker of surprise in Damon's eyes at the start of her story. "I've met him," he acknowledged. "He's a barracuda." "Takes one to know one," Kate muttered. "He's also my father." This time there was no concealing the surprise in his expression. He scowled and leaned forward to look at her ring less hand. "McKee an assumed name?" "I'm a widow. My husband died four years ago in an accident." He looked momentarily taken aback. "I'm sorry." "I've recovered now." "Obviously." "By throwing myself into my work," Kate said firmly through gritted teeth. It wasn't entirely the truth, but she wasn't detailing her disastrous marriage to Bryce for Damon Alexakis. "After Bryce died, I needed something to keep me busy. I was an early childhood education major in college. I have a graduate degree in psychology. I decided to start Kid Kare because I believe very strongly that with so many families in which both parents work, it is essential for parents to have loving, caring people to entrust with their children." "Like you?" His sarcasm was clear. "Exactly like me," Kate said. "And like Tracy Everson, and Stacy Jerome and the three other girls whom I sent to take care of your nieces. But trust is a two-way street, Mr Alexakis. And your brother-in-law violated it in every case." He stared at her. "You're telling me Stephanos was after all of them?" "That's exactly what I'm telling you." He didn't say a word. A line appeared between his brows as he continued staring at her. Kate stared back, determined not to look away. Finally he shrugged. "Go on." She blinked, then coloured. "Go on? With what? You want me to tell you what he did?" A faint smile touched Damon's mouth. "If you like. Or you could tell me why you were after him." "I was not " after him"," Kate said sharply. He steepled his fingers and looked at her over the tops of them. "Then suppose you tell me what you were doing." Kate sighed. "I had just finished having lunch with my father and his associate, Jeffrey Hardesty. We were having a slight. . difference of opinion, and I. . well, I. . needed an excuse to get away. I looked up and saw Stephanos. I don't know why he was there. But I went up to him and I she stopped for a moment, gathering courage, then plunged on I acted more enthusiastic about seeing him than I felt." "Linked arms with him? Kissed him? That sort of thing?" The sarcasm was evident in every word. "I didn't kiss him. He he kissed me," she muttered, looking down at her fingers for a moment before lifting her gaze and staring at him, defying him to dispute it. "And if I believe that, you're going to sell me the Acropolis, right?" "Oh, forget it!" Kate got to her feet. "I don't know why I'm bothering. You've already decided what sort of person I am. And given that, no doubt you'll convince Sophia to fire me. Well, fine. I'll save you the trouble. I quit." She turned and started for the door. "Ms McKee!" His voice cracked through the air like a whip. "Sit down." She barely glanced over her shoulder. "No, thank you." She reached for the doorknob. A second later, she was nudged aside and Damon Alexakis had positioned himself between her and the door. "I said, sit down." The words were measured and menacing. Kate didn't budge. "I'm not one of your employees, Mr Alexakis. I don't have to obey you." She met his gaze defiantly. He was standing so close now that she could count the breaths he took, could see the tautness around his mouth and could even notice the way a muscle ticked in his jaw. She wanted to take a step back. She stood her ground. "We teach children politeness, Mr Alexakis. Did no one teach you? " She saw his mouth tighten even further. "Please, Ms McKee," he said after a long moment. "Sit down." There was no sarcasm in his tone this time, but no friendliness either. He had given an inch, but no more. "I won't sit here listening to y^u throw accusations at me." "But I should sit here and listen to you throw them at Stephanos?" "You accused him first." A corner of his mouth twisted when he caught her point. "So I did." "Then do my accusations seem entirely unreasonable?" He shoved a hand through his black hair. "I don't know. I suppose not," he said reluctantly. "But some of those girls were no more than sixteen!" "They were at least eighteen, all of them. I only place adults. Not that that excuses your brother-in- law," Kate added quickly. "Why do you keep sending them, if he's such a lecher?" "I'm not sending them for him! Your sister needs someone to help with the girls. And--' Kate gave a tiny shrug '--placing a mother's helper in such a prestigious family would be a coup for the agency. The business is only three years old. We need all the recommendations we can get. Besides, it was a matter of pride." "No job too dirty?" Kate flushed. "Something like that." "So you took it on yourself?" "I thought perhaps he was attracted because the girls were relatively young." "And you're so old." "I'm twenty-eight." "A veritable ancient," he mocked. "Old enough to handle your brother-in-law." "Apparently not. He doesn't seem to be able to keep his hands off you, according to Alice." Alice was the cook. Kate wondered how many other spies Damon had in his network. "He will. I'll make sure of it. I hadn't intended to be there long anyway. I have a perfect woman for the job, Mrs Partridge. She's nearly sixty. A delightful grandmotherly type. Unfortunately she's finishing up a temporary assignment at the moment and so I was filling in." Damon didn't comment on that. He cocked his head. "Tell me more about this disagreement with your father." Kate groaned inwardly, having hoped he'd forgotten about that. "It wasn't important." "Liar." Kate bristled. "What makes you say that?" "Either you're having an affair with Stephanos or you're using him as a decoy to get away from Daddy. Which is it?" "He had just suggested that Jeffrey and I get married," she admitted. "What did Jeffrey have to say?" "He didn't. Not then. But I suppose he was willing." | She was crimson, embarrassed as usual at the crassness of her father's tactics. "And you weren't?" "No!" "Not in love with Jeffrey?" "Certainly not. Besides, I'm not interested in marrying again. I don't want any husband." He considered that. She knew what he was concluding--that she had loved Bryce too much, that she was" sure she'd never love again and be able to replace hiiBt| It was what everyone thought, and Kate was quit willing to let them think it. "Interesting," Damon said. He looked at her ass ingly for a moment, then his gaze moved to the cl "If I move away from the door are you going to again?" "Are you through accusing me?" He nodded. "For the moment." Kate, who had begun to relax, stiffened again at his words. He smiled grimly. "Sit down, Kate McKee. We have things to talk about." "What things?" He nodded at the chair and moved towards the desk himself. But this time, instead of sitting down behind it, he hitched one hip up on the corner of it and waited until she'd come and sat. "Things like what you told your father when you hit on--excuse me--when you " approached" Stephanos so, shall we say, enthusiastically." "What difference does that make?" "It makes a difference." "I don't see how," she said stubbornly. Tell me. " "Oh, good grief. You can guess, can't you?" She glared at him irritably. "I can make a fair stab at it, yes. Something about not possibly being able to marry Jeffrey because Stephanos was your man?" He said it all with just enough mockery in his voice to make her cringe. "Something like that," Kate mumbled, mortified to hear it all spelled out. It had been such a spur-of-the- moment thing! And so incredibly stupid. She had been horrified at her father's suggestion, had made desperate excuses, met her father's doubting gaze, then glanced up and spotted Stephanos--the rest had simply happened! Kate had never lied in her life. And with good reason, she thought now, if every time she did so, she was g
oing to get caught up in a mess like this one! "I know it was stupid," she admitted gruffly, She expected he'd agree with that, but all he asked was, "Did you tell your father his name?" "Of course not! Do you think I'm a complete idiot? I just said "There he is now," and jumped up and ran i over to him. I certainly didn't introduce them! " "What will happen when Daddy finds out you lied?" i She shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "I'll cross | that bridge when I come to it." "How?" ; "I don't know yet," she said crossly, looking away | across the room. Beyondthe mobile she could see the Empire State Building, the lights beginning to gleam as the sun set. She focused on them, trying to blot out the man leaning^ on the desk barely eighteen inches from her. "Perhaps I can help you out." She blinked and looked back at him. "Why should you?" He shrugged. "I'm a businessman, Ms McKee. If I can help you and help myself at the same time, I think that's good business." He looked almost bored as he spoke. Kate couldn't imagine any sort of dealings the two of them might conduct that would be mutually beneficial. But then he was the business tycoon, not her. "What did you have in mind?" "I want you to marry me."