The Passionate Greek
By
Catherine Dane
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012 by Catherine Dane
Author: Hazel Slater, pen name Catherine Dane.
Email: [email protected]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter One
The house nestling in the English countryside looked just as it always had. Not much changed in two hundred years and certainly no different from when Melanie had first seen its beautiful mellow stone façade. Then she had been at the side of the man she loved. His arm in hers he had led her round to the paved terrace circling the back of the house and shown her the sweeping view of the valley below.
‘Our children will have a wonderful life here,’ he had told her with a loving smile and Melanie thought she had never been happier.
‘Do you want me to wait for you?’ The taxi driver’s query broke into Melanie’s past and propelled her into the present as she counted out the fare and tried to calculate whether she could afford to have him wait. It was a long way back to the train station.
Her taxi had pulled up behind a small car and Melanie saw that the girl at the wheel wore the smart uniform of a children’s nanny. Perhaps another interviewee for the job thought Melanie and a potential lift back to the station when the interviews were over. Dismissing the taxi Melanie mounted the stone steps and stood side by side with the girl who was pulling at the old bell rope. It took all of Melanie’s self control not to say that it didn’t work. Smiling at the girl she said, ‘Let’s try this one as well,’ and she reached for the small bell push at the side which she knew would ring inside the vast hall and at the back of the house in the staff quarters. Melanie hoped fervently that whoever came to answer it would not know her.
‘I’m coming for an interview with the big cheese Mr billionaire himself,’ said the girl cheerfully. Her hand flew to her mouth and eyeing Melanie’s well cut coat and skirt said, ‘Oo, sorry, didn’t mean to be impolite. ‘You must be a friend of his. Me and my big mouth. They don’t call me gobby Gabby for nothing,’ she giggled, not really put out. ‘He’s interviewing three of us nannies today. We all got through the first stage with one of his assistants – and a right tartar she was,’ she grimaced. ‘Now he’s going to choose one of us himself. I hope it’s me. We’ll be spending the summer on a private Greek island. Imagine that!’
Melanie could do more than imagine it. She knew Skiapolos intimately, remembered the Villa Leandra, the sharp white profile of its walls edged against the deep blue skies, the vine clad terraces descending to the sandy white bay lapped with the almost purple sea. How that sea was warm to bathe in, the sun so hot on their languid limbs after she had made love with the man she adored in long, drowsy afternoons when the world seemed only to belong to them. Oh, yes she knew Skiapolos and there was one reason and one reason only that she wanted to go back there again and it wasn’t Nikos Chalambrous.
The door was opened by a black-coated manservant whose face Melanie was relieved to see was unfamiliar to her. Melanie’s breath caught in her throat as he showed them into a small informal drawing room leading off the main hall. She had whiled away many happy afternoons in that room, stretched out on the window seat reading and gazing out of the mullioned windows down to the valley serenely happy to be carrying a baby for the man she loved.
Gabby cast an amazed look at Melanie. ‘You’ve never come for the job, have you? She squealed. ‘With your looks you could be a model or an actress. Whatever do you want with being a nanny? I bet you got that lovely designer suit from the last mother you worked for. We don’t get paid enough to buy clothes like that,’ she laughed.
Across the room seated bolt upright, ankles demurely crossed, hands folded in her lap, was, Melanie guessed, another prospective nanny who cast a reproving glare at Gaby.
Melanie wanted to explain that her desighner outfit was several seasons old and she could certainly no longer afford such luxuries but was saved by the re-appearance of the manservant.
‘Mr Chalambrous will see you all in rotation,’ he announced. ‘Miss Gabriella Hinckley, please come this way,’ he intoned, for all the world as if he was ordering her to execution. Gabby, suppressing a giggle, whispered ‘I’ll wait for you after and we can compare notes.’
Melanie’s attempts at conversation with the remaining interviewee were not welcomed and she subsided into silence. Maybe this other girl was nervous. ‘Well, she can’t be as nervous as I am,’ Melanie thought to herself.
Some half an hour later the second prospective nanny was summoned and Melanie was left alone in the blue drawing room desperately trying to calm her nerves. Now she was here the plan that she had thought in her desperation might just have some small chance of success seemed increasingly foolish the nearer she came to confrontation with Nicos Chalambrous.
Just as she was sure her nerve would desert her the manservant was back and beckoning her to follow him. Melanie’s heart was beating a rhythm so loud she was sure the manservant would hear it over the click of her high heels on the parquet floor. In a few seconds she was standing before the double doors, which she knew, opened to the spacious study where Nicos Chalambrous conducted his business. No turning back now. She was being announced.
‘Miss Stephanie Brooks, Sir,’ said the manservant and withdrew.
The man seated behind the vast leather topped desk did not look up straight away. Melanie’s treacherous heart turned over at the sight of his dark head, powerful shoulders and the familiar way his bronzed, lean long fingered hands held the paper before him.
‘I see you speak some Greek,’ he said his English faintly accented in the way Melanie had always found so attractive and was disturbed to find she still did. He did not look up, but continued to leaf through the CV’s pages.
‘It is essential that whoever looks after my daughter can speak to her in my language. I need someone who will stay with her from babyhood and into her school years. So the successful applicant will be very committed. Electra must grow up knowing her Greek roots and speaking the language. Only her mother is English,’ he said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
‘So, Miss Brooks, I will be putting a lot of trust in the person who is looking after my daughter and I need to be absolutely confident that they will always put her welfare first.’
‘Who better to do that than her mother?’ The anguished retort burst unbidden from Melanie’s lips. All the self-restraint she had schooled herself to show gone in the first few seconds. ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid,’ she mentally castigated herself.
But even then he did not raise his eyes from the paper in front of him, only the sudden whitening of his fingers on the pages he held betrayed him.
‘Perhaps you would like to tell me the meaning of this charade?’ His tone was icy. Melanie could not know that the sound of her voice had pierced him with a searing regret. Somehow he had known it was her. Something intangible when she had walked into the room; the scent of her. He could not say what.
For the first time he raised his head and looked at her. Tawny hair a little shorter now, eyes just as green, lips as full, cheekbones more sharply planed than he remembered. Her face had lost some of its youthful vulnerability, but perhaps that was to be expected after how she had spent the last few months. She was still beautiful but
the pull of her beauty was a trap and he was not going to be caught in it again.
Melanie remained furious with herself. This was not how she had planned it. She had thrown away all chances of a reasonable discussion. ‘What a fool I am,’ she told herself. ‘What chance was there ever going to be of a reasonable discussion with this man? He was in control, always was, always would be. She was trying hard to hate him but inside she was crying ‘Oh, Nicos, Nicos, how did this happen to us?
His dark stare was daunting and it took all her courage to hold his gaze.
‘I apologise for the deceit,’ she said, surprised at how cool she sounded even though it was taking all the self-control she had so nearly lost.
‘Oh, Please don’t apologise.’ he said, irony heavy in his voice. ‘Deceit is your stock in trade, isn’t it?’
Melanie resisted the urge to lash out. She resolved there would be no more outbursts. Cool control was the order of the day. She had started badly and now she knew she had to do anything she could to try to retrieve the situation.
‘I knew you wouldn’t let me talk to you face to face,’ she went on determinedly. ‘You would just refer me to your lawyers as you have done before. I have no desire to deceive you but there was no other way you would see me.’
‘Very resourceful of you,’ he said flatly. ‘Now I would like you to leave.’
‘Not until you have listened to me,’ said Melanie, determined to stand her ground.
‘What is it you want?’ he said. ‘And please keep it brief. As you know I am a very busy man.’
Melanie was having difficulty in keeping her fury in check. Who was this cruel implacable man? This was not the Nicos she had known, the kind generous man she had loved so passionately. Could she have been so wrong?
‘I’m waiting,’ he said. ‘What is so important that you have to say to me that cannot be better said to my lawyers?’
Melanie took a deep breath and hardly daring to look at him, said, ‘I want to take care of our daughter.’
It seemed to Melanie that Nicos towered from behind his desk as he rose to his feet. His faced darkened and suddenly he was standing in front of her, so close she caught the scent of him, a sensual animal aroma that was all his own. All her senses were alive to the closeness of him. Sexual longing for him shot through her shocked body. She still desired him.
‘You want what?’ His tone was a whispered incredulous hiss.
Melanie flinched at his fury but she ploughed on rushing her words.
‘You have to listen to me. I know I gave her up to you voluntarily but I was under enormous stress and I thought it was best for her to forget me. But I’ve had time to think things through. I want to be near my baby. I want to hold her in my arms again. Let me have a few months with her. It’s all I’m asking.’
The harshness of his reply rocked her. ‘I will not put my daughter into the care of a jailbird,’ he hissed.
Rage and shame swept through Melanie at his words and all she knew was that she wanted to hurt him as much as he was hurting her. She struck out at him, catching him unawares the first rake of her nails across his cheek. He grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. Reaching out blindly her fingers grasped the heavy paperweight on his desk. He knocked it easily from her hand and grabbed hold of both her shoulders, pulling her roughly towards him.
Melanie sagged against him and felt his grip tighten. He was so close now she could feel his breath on her cheek. His arms snaked around her and pulled her body to his. His mouth pressed down on hers and his probing tongue teased her lips open. She was responding to him the way she always had, like nothing had ever come between them.
He was shrugging off her jacket, stroking her breasts through the silk of her camisole top and lifting her urgently up on to the desk behind her. Melanie was lost in sexual need of him. She could feel him hard against her. She felt his hand moving up between her thighs easing her legs apart. His breath came in short gasps and she knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him. Time seemed to go backwards. This is how it had always been between them when they had made love whenever and wherever they had wanted.
The ringing of the desk telephone broke the spell between them, its drilling ring breaking through the mists of desire and sending shock waves of shame through Melanie. How could she have let that happen?
Nicos grunted with annoyance and rammed his fist onto the machine. Melanie slipped awkwardly down from the desk, pulling down her skirt and adjusting her jacket round her shoulders. When she dared to meet his eyes he looked oddly discomforted.
‘I don’t intend to apologise for that,’ he said stiffly. ‘It was as much your fault as mine.’
‘It seems to me that you made the first move,’ said Melanie hotly.
His reply was sardonic. ‘I didn’t notice any resistance from you.’ There was a flash of black humhumor in his dark eyes and Melanie felt herself flush. She had to get this discussion back on track somehow. He was behind his desk once again, and to her consternation she saw him reach out to the brass bell by the blotter, palm down ready to strike. The bell would summon the manservant and she’d be shown ignominiously out. She had less than a second to stall him.
‘Electra’s not yours,’ she blurted out. His hand froze over the bell, the color draining from his face. Melanie drew in a sharp breath realising too late what she’d said.
‘What in hell do you mean by that?’ he snapped.
‘I meant she’s not only yours, she’s mine as well,’ Melanie amended weakly. Even though he was glaring ominously at her she saw with relief he had withdrawn his hand from the bell. She rushed on. ‘I am only asking to spend some time with Electra while she is still a baby. Perhaps when you have thought about my proposal you might reconsider’
‘What you are suggesting is preposterous. Electra is 9 months old. My requirements for her are that she has a consistency in her life. As you must already be aware my intentions are to hire a capable and loving nanny who will stay with her throughout her childhood. A mother who pops in and out of her life from time to time is not part of my plan, especially a mother whose most recent home was a prison cell and who is a proven liar.’
Melanie flinched visibly but held her ground. ‘Yes, I lied ‘she admitted. ‘I was guilty of that and I paid the price for it. But you have never given me the chance to tell you why. I have never, ever lied to you.’
The look of stubborn disbelief that crossed his handsome face made Melanie wince, but she ploughed on.
‘I don’t want to go over old ground. All I am asking is for three months with our daughter; just for the summer on Skiapolos.’
‘What you are asking for is out of the question. I have already made up my mind. This afternoon I have chosen someone for Electra. As you know, when my mind is made up I never change it.’
Melanie knew that all too well. He had made up his mind about her the day he learned what she had done. That dreadful day when he discovered that the woman who had just given birth to his child was going to jail.
The judge had given her a sentence of one year. Her lawyer had said she was lucky; her sentence could have been much harsher but the judge had taken into consideration her circumstances.
‘You will be out in a few months,’ her attorney had told her consolingly. She heard it all in a fog of misery.
Unforgiving, Nicos through his lawyers had made it clear that if she fought him for custody of their newborn baby she would lose. Melanie knew she had no fight left in her. Electra would be better off never knowing anything about her. In dumb misery she had agreed to let her baby go. Now never a day passed when she didn’t regret that impetuous decision from the bottom of her aching heart.
‘Please, Nicos,’ she begged, almost crying now. ‘Please give me these few months. Whoever you have engaged to look after Electra is never going to love her like me.’
‘Love,’ he almost spat. ‘I know how you love. You loved me so much you jeopardised our whole future in order to lie for another man.’
‘You never let me tell you about him.’
‘I had no wish then and I have no wish now to hear about your paramours,’ he said scathingly.
‘Paramour! That’s ridiculous....’
He held up his hand to silence her. ‘I’m sorry if you find that old-fashioned word laughable, but I am an old fashioned man who believes in loyalty’.
Stung Melanie retorted, ‘I know you find this hard to believe but I too believe in being loyal. Clearly you never really knew me at all.’
‘Oh, very clearly I did not,’ he shot back
Melanie wanted to bite her tongue. Why did she keep arguing with him when it was never going to lead to a precious few months with her baby?
She tried again. ‘Surely it would be a good idea for me to come to Skiapolos and help settle in the new girl since I know the island so well, safe places for bathing, all that sort of thing,’ she improvised desperately ‘I will be able to translate for her with the Greek staff at the villa.'
‘The girl I have chosen speaks fluent Greek – her mother is Greek,’ said Nicos with what Melanie thought suspiciously was a note of triumph in his voice.
Melanie’s heart sunk. He must have chosen that starchy looking girl in the waiting room. With dark hair and olive skin she looked as though she might have Greek parentage. Melanie would have chosen someone who looked much more fun.
Someone who would play lots of games of ‘boo’ with a baby and she didn’t think that was Starchy’s style. Nicos cut into her thoughts. ‘The girl I have chosen has excellent qualifications and I have full confidence in her. You need not concern yourself with matters such as safe bathing. Electra will be perfectly safe with her. I have had the pool fenced off permanently and the path down to the…..’ His voice, which had become animated, trailed off.
Melanie couldn’t help but think how wonderful if would have been if they had been discussing all these plans for Electra together. Which room has he chosen for the nursery? ‘Did you choose the little tower room with its view over the sea and its circular walls’, she wanted to ask. The one she would have chosen for Electra herself. But Nicos was looking ostentatiously at his watch.
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