‘But—’ Alex began to protest.
Lissa turned to the junior chef. ‘Jo, you will be sous chef. Everyone else will muck in and help, including me.’
She picked up an apron and was about to put it on when a voice that had haunted her dreams came from the doorway.
‘You should not be in the kitchen. Do I need to remind you that your duty as manager of the hotel is to be front of house to greet the guests?’
Lissa spun round, and her heart leapt into her throat as she stared at Takis. It was too soon. He shouldn’t be here. Not yet. Not before she’d had time to steel herself.
‘I... I wasn’t expecting you,’ she stammered.
His brows rose but the expression on his hard-boned face was unreadable. ‘Evidently not,’ he drawled. ‘I arrived a little while ago and waited for you in your office. But I find you refereeing a fight between the kitchen staff.’
‘I—’
‘Are you going to call the staff agencies and request a replacement chef?’
‘The recruitment offices will be closed now.’
Takis frowned. ‘So what are you going to do?’
‘I’m sure we can manage,’ Lissa assured him, trying to sound more confident than she felt with the torrent of emotions building inside her. ‘I’ll see if I can get hold of Ben and persuade him to come back to work.’
‘Don’t bother. I never give second chances.’ Takis’s hard gaze swept around the room and every one of the staff stood a little straighter. ‘My name is Takis Samaras, and I am the new owner of Francine’s. Tonight you are all on trial. Do well, and you will keep your jobs. But if you fail to meet my expectations, you’re out.’
No one said a word, and everyone suddenly became very busy plating up the first course. Lissa hurried out of the kitchen after Takis. He was talking on his phone and she took the opportunity to study him.
He was wearing black trousers and a matching roll-neck sweater, topped with a black leather jacket, and he was as gorgeous and sexy as she remembered. She fancied that his face was leaner, his sharp cheekbones more pronounced, and the predatory gleam in his eyes made him look even more wolflike.
Her body responded to his rampant masculinity. Her nipples tightened and she felt an ache between her thighs. With a flash of despair she wondered why he still affected her so powerfully. Her hand moved involuntarily to her stomach and she tensed when Takis’s eyes roved over her. Would he guess her secret? She was conscious that her black velvet dress was a little tight over her breasts.
He slipped his phone into his jacket. ‘I’ve just spoken to the manager of the hotel I own in London. They have a chef available who could take the head chef’s place, but the journey time to Oxford is an hour and a half, and it would probably be nearer to two hours because of some local flooding where the river has burst its banks.’
Lissa suddenly remembered a gastropub beside the river that had had to close temporarily after the cellar had flooded. ‘I have an idea,’ she told Takis. She took out her phone and found the number for the White Hart. Five minutes later she had arranged with the pub’s manager for the head chef to work at Francine’s for the evening.
‘Good,’ Takis said when she explained that she had found a replacement chef. ‘But the argument between the kitchen staff should have been dealt with before now. It was your responsibility to take charge of the situation.’
‘Ben has had some personal problems...’
‘He should not have brought them into the workplace. Your role as general manager is to ensure the smooth running of the hotel. It is not only the kitchen staff who need to impress me if they want to keep their jobs. I expect one hundred percent commitment from everyone, including you.’
‘You’re a fine one to talk about commitment,’ Lissa burst out angrily.
His gaze narrowed on her flushed face. ‘I suggest you set aside your personal feelings while you are at work.’
‘That won’t be hard. I do not have any personal feelings for you.’
He closed the space between them and stared down at her. Lissa had forgotten how tall he was and felt glad that she was wearing four-inch heels.
‘We will continue this discussion later,’ Takis said in a low, intense voice that sent a quiver of awareness through her.
‘Don’t,’ she whispered, as much to her foolish pounding heart as to him. Her conscience prodded her to tell him about the baby they had conceived that night in Greece. But she could not bring herself to blurt out her momentous news while they were standing in the busy hotel foyer.
‘I must go...and do my job,’ she said stiltedly as she stepped away from him and hurried off to the cocktail bar to greet the town’s mayor and other local dignitaries.
Much to Lissa’s relief, there were no further problems, and the dinner-dance was a great success. The guests began to depart at midnight, but it was another hour before the last car to leave turned out of the hotel’s gates. Lissa went into the kitchen to check that the staff had transport home. She phoned for a taxi for one of the young waitresses who had stated her intention to walk through the city centre at night alone.
‘It’s only a ten-minute walk, Miss Buchanan. Taxi drivers charge the earth after midnight.’
‘I’ll pay for the taxi, Becky. I want to be sure you arrive home safely.’ Lissa glanced across the kitchen and discovered that Takis was leaning against a counter. He was frowning and she guessed he had overheard her conversation and no doubt disapproved. She would let him know that she had paid the waitress’s taxi fare personally, and not out of hotel expenses.
By the time she had locked the front door after everyone had gone, Lissa felt sick with tiredness, and her heart sank when she walked past her office and saw Takis sitting behind her desk. His desk now, she silently amended as she stepped into the room.
‘These are very good,’ he murmured, flicking through her folder of interior design ideas.
‘You have no right to look through my private folder,’ she said stiffly.
‘I do if you were working on your designs when you should have been carrying out your job as the hotel’s manager.’
‘Those particular sketches are my ideas for refurbishing some of the hotel’s bedrooms.’ Lissa bit her lip. ‘I heard you tell the staff at the end of the shift that their jobs are secure. But what about me? Will I continue to manage Francine’s?’
He drummed his fingers against the desk. ‘I plan to install an experienced manager from one of my other hotels. Francine’s is dated in the way it operates, and frankly it fails to provide the high quality of service that I demand.’
Shocked and dismayed, Lissa closed her eyes, desperate to stop the tears that threatened to spill from them. She couldn’t lose her job. Not now. When she opened her eyes again Takis had moved and was standing in front of her. ‘I proved tonight when I found a replacement chef that I can think on my feet. I’m good at my job. You can’t fire me,’ she pleaded.
He lifted his hand and tucked her hair behind her ear. ‘I have other plans for you, koúkla mou.’
The spicy scent of his aftershave assailed her senses, and a tremor ran through her when he slid his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face up to his. Lissa’s body responded wildly to the sensual promise glittering in his grey eyes as he lowered his mouth towards hers.
With a low cry she pulled away from him. ‘No. You don’t understand. I need my job at Francine’s because I... I’m pregnant.’
Takis rocked back on his heels but he said nothing. His muted reaction was worse than if he’d exploded in rage. Lissa wished he would say something. Anything would be better than his ominous silence.
‘Congratulations,’ he drawled at last. ‘Is the father of your child pleased?’
His voice dripped ice, and a shiver ran through Lissa. Did he really not understand what she was telling him?
Shakily sh
e tried again. ‘You are the father. I’m having your baby, Takis.’ His furious expression shredded her nerves, but she continued. This time with conviction. ‘I realise that you probably don’t welcome the news. But I intend to support the child on my own. That’s why I’m asking you to allow me to keep my job.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
THERE WAS A roaring noise in Takis’s ears. He could not think or breathe. He felt the hard thud of his pulse, of his temper rushing like boiling lava through his veins. It could not be true. Lissa must be playing a cruel trick. Hadn’t he learned years ago that all women were manipulative? And had once believed Lissa to be the same?
He realised that she was waiting for him to say something. But he could not bring himself to speak. Did not dare. His throat had closed up and his heart was trying to claw its way out of his chest. He stared at her, searching for some sign on her slim figure that she was expecting a child.
There was something different about her, he realised. Earlier tonight when he had seen her again for the first time, he had been stunned by her radiant beauty. The way she had seemed to glow from within.
Theé mou!
Even if she was pregnant, there was no way it was his baby, he reassured himself. He held on to that. His vocal cords relaxed, and he bit out one word. ‘No.’
‘For God’s sake, Takis. There are employment laws in England. Pregnant women have rights, and you can’t simply dismiss me.’
‘No,’ he repeated harshly, trying to convince himself as much as her. ‘I am not the father of your baby.’
Lissa seemed to grow taller and she lifted her chin and met his gaze proudly. ‘You know damn well that I was a virgin until I met you.’
He could not deny that indisputable fact. But he wasn’t fooled by her look of wide-eyed innocence. He couldn’t be. ‘You must have taken another lover after you slept with me,’ he said coldly. The sensation of an iron band crushing his chest was lessening as his brain kicked into gear.
‘Do you really believe I hopped into another man’s bed immediately after I’d had my first sexual experience with you?’ Lissa demanded.
Takis wanted to believe it. The alternative was unthinkable.
‘You are the only man I’ve ever had sex with, and whether you like it or not I am expecting your baby.’ She took a step towards him. ‘Please believe that I never meant for this to happen. I only found out today and I am as shocked as you.’ She placed her hand on her stomach and said softly, ‘An accidental pregnancy is not such a terrible thing. We are going to have a baby.’
Rejection roared through Takis. And fear. Gut-wrenching fear. He could not be responsible for a child. Not again.
‘I do not want a child. I told you that fatherhood holds no appeal for me.’
He did not doubt that she was pregnant. And now that the initial shock was subsiding, he realised that he did not doubt quite so strongly that the baby was his. Even as he fought against the very idea. He was the most untrusting man on the planet, and yet he had no reason not to trust Lissa. He did trust her. She had never lied to him. But how could he be a father after he had behaved so irresponsibly in the past? Takis was certain that he did not deserve to have a child. A child did not deserve him.
‘Fine.’ Lissa spun round and marched across the office. She had almost reached the door before he realised that she actually intended to walk out.
‘Where are you going?’
‘To bed.’ She put her hand on the door handle and sent him a withering glance over her shoulder. ‘I started work at six a.m. yesterday and it is now a quarter to two in the morning, which means that I have been on duty for nearly twenty hours. Does that show enough commitment to my job?’ Her sarcastic tone made Takis grit his teeth.
‘We have things to discuss,’ he bit out.
‘What things?’ She opened the door. ‘I have informed you that I’m pregnant and you stated that you do not want to be a father. So don’t be.’
Cursing beneath his breath, he strode after her and slammed the door shut before she could walk out. ‘What do you mean? Am I not the father? Do not play games with me, Lissa,’ he warned her darkly.
She turned to face him. ‘This baby might be unplanned, but he will be loved, is already loved by me. I told you about my pregnancy because it was the right thing to do, but I don’t want anything from you. I’ll go away somewhere, and you will never hear from me again. When my child is older and asks about his father, I will say that you are dead. Better that than for him to find out that he was not wanted by his father.’
Did she mean it? Takis’s jaw clenched. Just because Lissa had not made demands yet, it did not mean that she wouldn’t do so. He hadn’t wanted a child, but a child had been conceived. His child. Could he really walk away from his own flesh and blood? The answer hit him like a punch in his solar plexus. Of course he couldn’t.
Takis felt the same sense of being caught in a trap that he’d felt when his stepmother had played a cruel game with his teenage emotions. One he had tried to escape by leaving home, leaving the half-brother he’d adored behind. He could never forget or forgive himself for abandoning Giannis to such a terrible fate. Had never confessed what his actions had led to.
He raked his fingers through his hair, unsurprised that his hand was unsteady. ‘Why did you refer to the baby as him?’ he asked Lissa.
She shrugged. ‘I just have a feeling that it’s a boy. I’ll be able to find out the baby’s sex when I have a scan and I can text you the result if you would like to know.’
She was so cool, Takis thought savagely, aware that his own emotions were dangerously close to exploding. He placed his palms flat against the door on either side of her head and watched her eyes widen in response to the sexual chemistry that had always been a potent force between them, and still was, he acknowledged.
Lissa stared at him. ‘If you give me twenty-four hours to pack up my things and write me a reference so that I will be able to get another job, I promise you will never see or hear from me again.’
He believed her. She’d left without waking him after she had given her virginity to him. Lissa was perfectly capable of disappearing, and he would spend the rest of his life wondering if his child was safe or needed his protection. It would be a new kind of hell, a different version of his nightmares.
She sagged against the door and closed her eyes. Takis was struck by how fragile she looked. The dark smudges beneath her eyes were a stark contrast to her pale skin. ‘I’m exhausted,’ she whispered. ‘We both need to calm down. Perhaps we will be able to talk more rationally tomorrow.’
Concern replaced his anger. Lissa was pregnant and Takis acknowledged that his behaviour was unacceptable. Without saying another word, he scooped her off her feet and held her against his chest.
Her lashes flew open. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
‘You were about to collapse,’ he said gently as he opened the door and carried her through the hotel foyer.
Her blue eyes flashed with anger. ‘I don’t need your help.’
‘Yes, you do.’ His jaw clenched, determined. Lissa and the baby were his responsibility. God help them, he thought grimly. ‘You will have to direct me to your living quarters.’
She sighed as if she realised that it was pointless to argue with him. ‘Go through the door marked Private and there is a lift up to the apartment on the top floor.’
Her head dropped on to his shoulder and she was asleep by the time Takis carried her into the apartment and located her bedroom. He looked down at the silky blonde hair that curled against her delicate jawline. She was so beautiful. He felt a fierce tug of desire in his groin and was furious at his unbidden response to her. This was not the time.
He resented the hold Lissa had over him. He’d come to Oxford intent on rekindling their passion so that he could get her out of his system. But she had dropped the bombshell of her preg
nancy and he had no idea how to proceed.
He laid her on the bed and unzipped her dress. She hardly stirred when he removed the dress and her shoes but left her bra and knickers in place. When he pulled the duvet over her, he thought how young she looked. He swore softly. What a goddamned mess.
Takis knew he should try to sleep, but his thoughts were too chaotic. He explored the apartment and in the kitchen found a bottle of brandy, which he carried into the sitting room. Getting blind drunk was tempting but would not solve anything. Lissa was pregnant with his baby. It was his worst nightmare come true.
He remembered the first time he had met his baby half-brother. He had loved Giannis from the moment he’d looked inside the pram and seen a tiny infant with huge, dark eyes. Giannis had grown into a sweet-natured little boy who had adored his big brother.
Takis took a long swig of brandy, unable to hold back the memories that surged into his mind. He had not discovered what had happened until a few days after he’d left his home and travelled to Thessaloniki, where he’d happened to meet someone from the village.
‘Will you go back for the funerals?’ the man had asked him. ‘You haven’t heard? There was a fire. Your father tried to escape from the burning house, but he was killed when a wall collapsed on top of him.’
Takis had not cared about the fate of his father. ‘You said funerals.’ Sick dread had curdled in the pit of his stomach. ‘Did my stepmother...? And Giannis? Not him, please, no, not him.’ A howl of agony had been ripped from his throat when the villager shook his head.
‘Marina and her little son both died in the flames. It’s lucky you were not there, or you could have lost your life too.’
Guilt was his punishment, Takis brooded now as he refilled his glass. He should have stayed at home to protect Giannis, but in a fit of pique and fury with his stepmother he’d run away. Oh, he’d told himself that he was leaving because he wanted a better life than that of a goat herder, but the truth was that he’d wanted to pay Marina back for breaking his heart.
Nine Months to Tame the Tycoon--An Uplifting International Romance Page 8