* * *
Takis knew when he stepped into the kitchen that Spiros was out, probably drunk and brawling in a bar. The tensions at home evaporated when his father was not there.
His stepmother was peering into the cracked mirror over the sink as she painted her mouth with lipstick. He leaned against the door frame and watched Marina. His gaze was riveted on her glossy lips and he felt embarrassed that he could not control the hardness beneath his jeans. His eyes met hers in the mirror and he felt an illicit thrill of desire.
Marina was only a few years older than him. And not technically his stepmother as his father had never married her, even though she had given Spiros another son. It was whispered in the village that Giannis was a bástardos, but people were careful not to say so in front of Takis, who loved his little half-brother fiercely.
Marina spun round from the mirror. ‘Do you like my lipstick?’
He stared at her scarlet lips, and powerful, urgent feelings throbbed inside him. ‘Yes.’
‘You want to kiss me, don’t you?’ Her hips swayed as she walked across the room. She stood so close to him that her breasts pressed against his chest, and he almost forgot to breathe. ‘I know you are planning to go away from here. Take me and Giannis with you, and every night you can do more than kiss me. You can have me, Takis.’ She brushed her tantalising red lips over his. ‘Help me escape from this godforsaken village and your father, and I’ll make a man of you.’
* * *
Takis had been powerless to resist his stepmother’s advances. Helplessly caught up in his teenage crush on her. He could not have predicted that his actions would have diabolical consequences for her and Giannis...
He swallowed hard and forced his mind away from the past and the little boy who would be a man now, had he lived. The memories were too painful and his guilt too great a burden. Something inside him had died with Giannis, and Takis had vowed on the day his brother had been buried that he would never again lose control of his emotions. For nearly twenty years he had found it easy to keep his pledge, and in truth he’d never met a woman who had tempted him to break it.
‘You have missed the road where we are meant to turn off.’ Lissa’s voice jolted Takis from his thoughts and he cursed beneath his breath as he braked and turned the car around.
‘You’re very quiet,’ he drawled once they were heading in the right direction. Lissa’s chatter about people he’d never met and had no interest in would be better than wallowing in the black pit of his past. ‘Have you run out of things to say?’
‘I talked about myself quite enough at the reception,’ she said with a rueful smile that had a peculiar effect on his heart rate. ‘It’s your turn to tell me about yourself.’
‘What do you want to know?’
‘Are you married?’
He laughed despite himself. ‘Subtlety is not your strong point. I’m not married, and I have no plans to marry, ever.’
‘Surely you will get married when you have children?’
‘I do not want children. The responsibility of fatherhood holds no appeal for me.’ Takis kept his eyes on the road but he sensed that Lissa gave him a curious look.
‘I thought all Greek men hope for an heir to continue their family name.’
‘Not me. I am the only living descendant of my father.’ His fingers involuntarily clenched around the steering wheel as he pictured the heartbreakingly small coffin that had contained his brother’s body. ‘It is my intention that there will be none after me to carry the name Samaras.’
‘Is your father dead?’
‘Yes.’
‘What about your mum?’
‘She died a few years ago.’ He had paid for his mother’s funeral when he’d been informed of her death by the man she’d been living with. But Takis had not attended to pay his respects because he’d felt nothing for the woman who had abandoned him before he’d been old enough to go to school. Like he had abandoned Giannis. Guilt tasted like bitter bile in his throat.
‘My parents are both dead too. They died when I was a child, and me and my brother and sister went to live with my grandparents. Nana Francine died not long after. She was heartbroken at losing Mum. I think my grandfather resented the responsibility of bringing up three children.’
‘I have heard that Kostas Pangalos was a formidable character.’
‘Pappoús was a bully,’ Lissa said flatly. ‘He made a fuss of Eleanor because she reminded him of our mother, but he didn’t care about Mark or me.’
There was a faint tremor in her voice and Takis sensed that she had been hurt by her grandfather’s rejection. He could not help feeling sympathy for the little girl who had suffered the devastating loss of both her parents and had felt unloved by her grandfather. He knew what it was like to grow up without love.
He frowned, acknowledging that Lissa was not what he had expected. According to the various online platforms that had been obsessed with her latest hairstyle and the clothes she wore, she was as hard as nails, a beautiful heartbreaker and rampant social climber. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her run her fingers through the jaw-length blonde hair that framed her striking features. Theos! She was insanely beautiful.
He forced his attention back on the road. At the wedding reception, men had watched her. Takis had noticed the leering looks they’d given her, as if she were somehow public property, and he’d felt furious and inexplicably possessive.
His turned his head towards her once more and his gaze collided with her deep blue eyes. She hastily looked away and he was intrigued by the blush that stained her cheeks. Her air of innocence had to be an act, but for what purpose? he mused. It was wasted on him. He knew all the manipulations and the games that women liked to play.
‘You said that you have known my brother-in-law for some time.’ Lissa broke the tense silence that filled the car.
‘We met while we were working as labourers on a building site. I had no family, and Jace took care of his mother after his father died. We were both desperate to earn money, but we were teenagers and lied about our age so that the site foreman would employ us.’
The weeks and months after he had left his village had been tough. He had been homeless, penniless and half-mad with grief at the loss of his brother. Jace’s friendship had saved him from sinking further into a dark place, Takis acknowledged silently.
‘Jace and I supported each other as we developed our careers,’ he told Lissa. ‘Fate lent a hand when we were lucky enough to share a substantial prize on a lottery ticket. The money allowed Jace to set up his property development company, and I established Perseus, my hospitality and leisure business.’
‘Perseus is a character in Greek mythology, isn’t he?’
‘Yes, he was the slayer of monsters.’
‘It seems an odd name for your hotel business. You could have had Zeus, the King of Olympus. Or Hephaestus, the Master of Construction, as you once worked on construction projects.’
Takis silently owned to feeling surprised. ‘Have you studied Greek mythology?’
‘Not formally, but I’m fascinated by ancient Greek history and I’ve read a lot of books about it. The Acropolis Museum and the Parthenon are on my wish list of places to visit. Have you been there?’
‘No,’ Takis admitted. His apartment in Athens overlooked Greece’s most famous heritage sites, but he rarely took time off work for leisure pursuits.
He had no intention of explaining that he’d chosen Perseus, the monster slayer, as a constant reminder of the monster who had lurked inside his father, and perhaps resided within him too.
Spiros had become violent when he’d lost his temper and Takis had endured many beatings from him. He did not know if his father’s behaviour was the result of a genetic mutation or if it could be passed down from one generation to the next. But Takis was not prepared to take the risk of having a child of his own
. The world would be a better place when his bloodline died with him.
Without a family, or any emotional ties, he had single-mindedly set about making his fortune. He’d been hungry for success, determined never to return to the village close to Greece’s border with Albania. The region was blighted by poverty and unemployment and his father had scraped a living by rearing goats—the only livestock suited to the rugged landscape. But life as a goat herder had held no appeal for Takis.
Giannis’s death had left a void in his heart, but he’d discovered that his lack of emotions allowed him to be hugely successful in his business dealings. Taking risks did not scare him when he’d already lost the only person he had loved. He’d earned a reputation for ruthlessness as he’d built his empire. From the outside he appeared to have it all. Money, several homes around the world and a constant stream of beautiful women in his bed. But it all felt meaningless. His success meant nothing to him when he carried a secret so dark and shameful that he had never spoken of it to anyone.
Takis mentally shoved his memories back into a box labelled Do not open. ‘The first hotel I bought in Mykonos was in a bad state of repair. I developed it into an award-winning, five-star hotel, and I own four other luxury leisure complexes located in the Cyclades islands, as well as two high-end hotels in Athens.’
He frowned when he heard a tiny snore and glanced at Lissa. Evidently she had been unimpressed by his achievements for she was fast asleep. He grimaced. Evidently, the only subject that Lissa Buchanan was interested in was herself.
The Pangalos Beach Resort was up ahead now. He turned on to the driveway lined with tall cypress trees and parked the car next to the flight of steps leading up to the main entrance. Light from an overhead lamp streamed through the car window and highlighted Lissa’s exquisite features.
Her sideswept fringe had fallen across her face, and Takis had to restrain himself from reaching out to brush her hair off her cheek. Her long, spidery, black eyelashes flew open and her gaze locked on his. The shadows disguised the blue of her eyes, but he saw her pupils dilate and heard her breathing quicken—or was it his own breaths that were unsteady?
Takis swore silently. He did not want to feel so aroused that his erection strained beneath his trousers. He could not remember being so profoundly affected by a woman—except for one woman a long time ago when he had been young and fired up with testosterone. His stepmother had taken advantage of his feelings for her. He had longed for tenderness and affection, but Marina had seen him as a means of escaping her life with his father.
Lissa blinked and Takis sat back in his seat as she came fully awake. ‘Sorry.’ She yawned. ‘I remember you were talking and then I must have nodded off. Did I miss anything?’
‘I apologise for boring you with my life story,’ he said drily.
‘Oh, I always fall asleep on car journeys.’ She sat upright and shook her head so that her baby-fine hair swirled around her jaw, drawing his attention to her slender neck. The atmosphere inside the car was combustible, sexual tension lacing the air, and Takis was sure she must be aware of the intense attraction between them.
He was relieved when Lissa opened the door and climbed out of the car. He did the same, but when he followed her across the gravel driveway she stumbled and would have fallen if he had not shot his arm out and caught her.
‘Ow! My ankle.’
He helped her over to a low wall so that she could sit down and hunkered in front of her as she rubbed her ankle. ‘Why do women wear ridiculous shoes?’ he asked impatiently, inspecting her high-heeled sandals.
‘I love my heels. I’m too short without them.’
‘You had better take your shoes off in case your ankle swells.’
He watched her unfasten the delicate straps and slide the impractical sandals off. She gave a deep sigh as she wriggled her toes.
‘Can you manage to walk?’ He straightened up and tore his eyes from her cute toes with the nails painted in sparkly pink varnish.
‘I’m sure I can.’ She stood up carefully, but when she tried to bear weight on her injured ankle she gave a yelp and sat back down. ‘I’ll stay here for a bit. The pain will probably go in a few minutes.’ She tilted her head and looked up at him. ‘Thanks for the lift.’
Takis exhaled slowly. ‘I can’t leave you out here. I’ll carry you into the hotel.’
‘There’s really no need.’
He ignored her protest and leaned down to scoop her into his arms. She weighed next to nothing, and he was struck by how fragile her slender figure felt beneath her silk dress as he held her against his chest.
‘Put your arms around my neck,’ he ordered, puzzled by the tension he could feel in her body. She was behaving as if she had not been this close to a man before. An idea he immediately dismissed when he reminded himself of the tabloid stories about her energetic love life with interchangeable boyfriends.
‘There is an entrance to the private apartment at the back of the hotel,’ Lissa told him as he was about to walk up the front steps of the hotel.
Following her directions, Takis came to a door in a secluded courtyard and waited while she retrieved a key from her purse and gave it to him. He inserted the key in the lock, shouldered the door open and stepped into a hallway where a lift took them to the top floor and directly into the apartment.
He carried Lissa into an airy sitting room and glanced around curiously, aware that Jace had lived in the apartment when he was a boy and his parents had part-owned the hotel, until Kostas Pangalos had conned Dimitri Zagorakis out of his rightful share of the business.
Takis deposited Lissa on the sofa and had every intention of bidding her goodnight and leaving. Except that his body refused to obey his brain. He stared down at her as she leaned back against the cushions. Her hair framed her face like a pale golden bell, and her eyes were astonishingly blue, while her glossy, red mouth promised carnal delights that sent a throb of desire through him. She threatened his self-control more than any other woman had done.
‘Would you like a drink? My brother left a bottle of whisky behind when he left.’ Lissa stood hesitantly then walked across the room without any sign of discomfort. ‘Or there is some brandy,’ she said as she opened a cabinet and inspected the contents, ‘but it has probably been here some time. My grandfather used to drink brandy. What do you prefer?’
‘I don’t want a drink. I see that your sprained ankle has miraculously recovered,’ he said sardonically.
She shrugged. ‘The pain has worn off. When I was younger I used to compete in gymnastics competitions. I fractured my ankle during a routine, and it still twinges occasionally.’
‘Are you sure you did not pretend to injure your ankle to lure me into your apartment?’
‘Of course not. Why would I?’ Lissa sounded genuinely surprised. But she was as changeable as a chameleon, Takis thought grimly. He was bored with playing games. Did she really not feel this desire between them? He stepped closer to her and saw her eyes widen, the pupils dilating.
‘Because of this,’ he said thickly. His heart was banging against his ribs. He had to kiss her. He wanted to taste those lush, red lips that pouted prettily at him. But he was in control, he assured himself as he slid his arm around her waist.
She gave a soft gasp but did not pull away from him. Her tongue darted over her lips in an unconscious—or was it a deliberate?—invitation.
Lissa had captivated him from the moment he’d seen her at his best friend’s wedding, and with a low groan Takis hauled her against him.
CHAPTER THREE
THIS TIME HE was actually going to kiss her. Lissa saw the intent in Takis’s eyes as he tightened his arm around her, bringing her body into even closer contact with his. She was conscious of his hard thigh muscles and the solid wall of his chest. She heard the unsteadiness of his breaths and found that she could hardly breathe at all.
Sh
e had wondered what it would be like to be kissed by him. To experience his wickedly sexy mouth sliding over hers. And now the fantasy was about to become reality. Her heart clattered against her ribcage. She could not allow a stranger to kiss her. It was crazy and so out of character for her. But he did not feel like a stranger. Takis had fascinated her the instant she’d seen him at her sister’s wedding, and even though her brain advised caution it was outvoted by the torrent of desire that swept through her. She sagged against him and tilted her face up to his.
Takis made a low noise in his throat and brushed his mouth over hers. Once, and then again, taking little sips as he teased her lips apart with the tip of his tongue. Lissa’s senses were assailed by his evocative scent, sandalwood cologne and something earthier and male that was uniquely him. She could hear her blood thundering in her ears and felt the hard thud of his heart beneath her hand when she laid it on his chest.
With a soft sigh she parted her lips and capitulated to his sensual demands. His kiss was beyond anything she had imagined in her virginal daydreams. It was not the first time she had been kissed. But she had not had anywhere near the number of boyfriends as had been reported in the gossip columns. She had cultivated a party girl reputation to rebel against her grandfather, who had cared so little about her, but the truth was that at twenty-three she was embarrassed by her inexperience.
Takis pulled her even closer, making her aware of his powerfully muscular physique. His hands felt cool through her silk dress and yet left a trail of fire across her skin as he feathered his fingers down her spine and then clamped hold of her hip to pull her against his hard thighs. His other hand shaped her jaw, angling her mouth so that he could deepen the kiss. His lips were firm and masterful, and she melted in his fire. He had awoken her desire, which had been dormant since she was seventeen, when her first boyfriend had cruelly destroyed her trust along with her reputation.
Nine Months to Tame the Tycoon--An Uplifting International Romance Page 2