The Secret Behind the Greek's Return

by Michelle Smart

  Propping herself on an elbow to face him, she had a sip of the cocktail while he stretched out on the sunbed placed inches from hers, and felt heat crawl over her face as his eyes, also hidden by shades, swept over the length of her swimsuit-clad form.

  ‘Your body’s changed,’ she said. ‘You’re more muscular.’

  He grinned. ‘I lived in a log cabin in the Alaskan Mountains for eighteen months. If I wanted heat, I had to chop trees for firewood. Trust me, in the winter months it gets very cold.’

  About to ask about his time in exile, her words were stolen when he extended a hand and encircled one of her breasts. ‘Your body’s changed too.’

  She shivered at his touch and put her glass on the table at the top of the adjoining sunbeds. ‘Having a baby does that to a woman.’

  He smiled knowingly and rubbed his thumb over a nipple. ‘Having a baby has only made you more beautiful.’

  She couldn’t help her snort of derision at this.

  He caught a curl in his fingers. ‘Why do you find that funny?’

  ‘You haven’t seen me naked in the light yet.’

  ‘Yet?’ He quirked his eyebrows. ‘Then I have something to look forward to?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  He put his head in the crook of his elbow and inched his face closer to her. ‘There is no one here now...’

  She put a finger to his lips without thinking. He kissed it.

  ‘Nikos...’ She sighed.

  He rubbed the tip of his nose to hers. ‘Yes, agapi mou?’

  The warmth of his breath seeped into her pores and it took more effort than she would have believed possible to keep her thoughts on track. ‘What we were talking about last night... Your idea of marriage.’

  He rubbed his nose against her cheek. ‘Have you decided it’s an excellent idea?’

  She moved away a little and rolled onto her back but that attempt at distance did nothing to stop his hands roaming over her body. Pressing her thighs tightly together, she tried to tune out the sensations skipping over her skin at his touch. ‘If I’m going to agree to it, we would have to live in Valencia.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘I know Mykonos is your home but it’s too far from the business and too far from my family. My mama loves Niki. She’s been the most wonderful support to me. I can’t take him from her.’

  He made slow circles around a hard nipple with his finger. ‘I’ve already agreed to that, agapi mou.’

  ‘Oh.’ She swallowed. She should slap his hand away but it felt too good. ‘So you have. Sorry.’ She had to swallow the moisture filling her mouth again. ‘I was so prepared and ready with arguments that I didn’t listen properly to your answer.’

  His fingers dragged down her belly. ‘I would want us to spend a good amount of time here too,’ he told her as he gently cupped her pubis. ‘I want Niki to know this as his home too. But I agree, it is more practical for us to make Valencia our main home.’

  His fingers drifted away from her as he rose to his feet. He pinched the sides of his shorts and fixed his hooded eyes on her. She hadn’t even noticed him remove his shades. ‘Anything else?’

  He tugged his shorts down. His enormous erection sprang free.

  She could hardly think, never mind speak through the lust rampaging through her. ‘I want Niki to go to school in Valencia.’

  He sat on the edge of her sunbed and pulled the straps of her swimsuit down. ‘He is too young for us to worry about school yet. We can decide that nearer the time.’

  ‘And...’ He’d pulled the top of her swimsuit past her breasts and immediately taken one in his mouth while he slowly pulled the rest of the suit down.

  ‘Yes, agapi mou?’

  ‘No...taking...’ She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to concentrate, even though he’d tugged the swimsuit down past her thighs. Only dimly did she realise she’d actively helped him in removing it and that it was her kicking the suit away.

  He climbed between her legs and gazed down at her. ‘No taking...?’

  ‘Charge,’ she breathed.

  ‘Like this?’ He slid inside her, long, deep, all the way to the hilt. Then, before she could really savour the sensation, immediately pulled out. ‘No taking charge like that?’

  ‘Nikos...’ His name sounded like a moan from her lips.

  He plunged inside her again. ‘Is that what you meant?’

  He made to pull out of her again. She grabbed hold of his buttocks with both hands to keep him in place.

  ‘You win,’ she breathed, wrapping her legs tightly around him. ‘Take charge.’

  ‘And you’ll marry me?’

  ‘Yes.’ At that moment she would have agreed to anything to stop him pulling out of her again.

  ‘Then I take charge with pleasure.’

  * * *

  ‘Time to get up.’

  Marisa opened a bleary eye and found Nikos perched on the edge of the bed beside her. ‘What time is it?’

  ‘Nine.’

  She lifted her head. A cup of coffee had been placed on her bedside table beside the baby monitor. ‘Why didn’t you wake me?’

  ‘Because you’re adorable when you sleep.’ He placed his lips to her ear and whispered, ‘If our son hadn’t woken so early, I would have woken you in a much more pleasurable manner.’

  She found it incredible that she’d slept so late and slept through the early morning babbling she’d always been so attuned to. Either she’d been exhausted from making love until the early hours or her subconscious had let her sleep soundly, knowing Nikos was taking care of their son. The latter, she decided as she tilted her head for a kiss and breathed in his freshly showered and shaved scent.

  ‘Where is he?’

  ‘With Seema in the nursery. And you need to get up. We have an appointment to attend.’

  ‘Have we?’

  He kissed her mouth. ‘Yes, agapi mou. An appointment to register our intention to marry. We can book the wedding too. Get everything in hand.’

  The last of her sleepiness flew away. Sitting upright, she stared at him. ‘Since when are we getting married?’

  ‘You agreed to it yesterday.’

  So she had. Under sexual duress. After she’d said yes, they’d made love hard and fast on the sunbed then gone to bed and made love at a much more leisurely pace until Niki had woken from his nap. The early evening had been spent with their son and then, the minute he was asleep, they’d gone straight back to bed.

  Truth was, they’d been far too busy talking with their bodies to speak verbally.

  Truth was, she’d happily shoved her agreement to marry him to the back of her mind rather than confront the magnitude of what she’d done, and now that she was confronted with it, darts of panic were making their way through her.

  ‘I didn’t agree to marry you immediately.’

  ‘The decision has been made so why wait?’

  Because you don’t love me!

  Love? Since when had she started thinking about Nikos along those lines again? She didn’t love him. She loved their son and she wanted him to have the same happy childhood she’d had, and Nikos deserved to be a father to him every bit as much as she was a mother to him. He’d hurt her badly, something she would never forget, but now she understood him better, she was prepared to move on from that hurt for their son’s sake. Hadn’t Nikos proved he deserved that chance? He’d swiftly bought into the business, installed his top people to assist her and take the load off her—she wouldn’t be here in Mykonos now if he hadn’t done that—and he’d proved his devotion to their son. Those were the reasons she’d agreed to marry him. She’d been prepared to marry Raul for the business and Niki’s sake, so why not marry Niki’s actual father? The damage he’d inflicted had been too great for him to hurt her again but the passion between them was every bit as strong as it had
always been. At least marrying Nikos meant marrying a man she was happy to share a bed with!

  What she must not do, under any circumstance, was think about Nikos as a child in desperate need of someone to love and care for him, and think she could be the woman to do that.

  ‘I agreed on the proviso you didn’t take charge,’ she said.

  He raised a brow, the look in his eyes as he brought his face to hers making her pelvis contract. ‘Really? Because I seem to remember you begging me to take charge.’

  She leaned into him, her lips tingling from the whispered heat of his breath...

  ‘You’re not doing this again.’ She darted away from him and jumped off the bed, hurrying to the far wall.

  ‘Doing what again?’

  ‘Using your magic penis to stop me thinking properly.’

  The look he gave her was one of incredulousness. And then his gorgeous face broke into a grin and he burst into a deep rumble of laughter.

  Nikos laughed so long and so hard his chest hurt. ‘I have a magic penis?’ He chortled, wiping mirth-induced tears from his eyes.

  Eyes alight with amusement, she sniggered. ‘Why else do you think I agreed to marry you?’

  He got to his feet.

  She shot a hand out in warning. ‘Stay back. Do not touch me until we’ve discussed this.’

  He loved a challenge. Especially when given by a sexy, sleep-tousled redhead who thought he had a magic penis.

  ‘I want to marry in Spain.’

  Locking his gaze on her, he took a step towards her. ‘Why?’

  ‘That’s where my family are.’

  He took another step. ‘They can fly here. I want to marry here on Mykonos.’

  ‘Why?’

  Because I can marry you quickly here, and the sooner I marry you, the sooner I know my rights as a father are protected. The less time I give you to think about it, the less time you have to change your mind.

  He took her extended hand and pinned it above her head, staring deep into the lust-riven dark eyes. ‘We have better beaches.’

  He cut her protest away with a kiss.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  MARISA WAS ADDING blusher to her cheeks when Nikos walked into her bedroom. Her heart thumped to see him and she had to concentrate hard to affect nonchalance at his appearance and stop her hand from reacting to the thump and splodging blusher over her nose.

  After they’d made the wedding arrangements that morning, Nikos had casually mentioned they would be going to his nightclub on the island that night to celebrate their engagement.

  She’d been unable to think of one good reason to refuse.

  Not having bothered to pack any going-out clothes, she’d got him to drop her at the main shopping district in Chora so she could buy herself an outfit to party in. She’d wandered through designer boutiques and more touristy shops with no idea why the thought of celebrating made her feel so bereft.

  She’d agreed to marry him. She’d agreed it would happen in Mykonos. She’d agreed it would happen this coming weekend. She didn’t have a clue how he’d got the officials to agree for it to happen so quickly, but here she was, a day after she’d told him one of her terms for agreeing to marriage was that he had to stop taking charge, just five days from actually doing the deed.

  To make the day extra special, they would be marrying on their son’s first birthday. She thought this fitting. The stars were aligning to approve her decision.

  On top of all that, Nikos had agreed to her stipulation about them living in Spain. So what did she have to feel bereft about?

  And why had she found herself wandering away from the shops and into the more residential areas with the strings of her heart tugging manically to imagine a small Nikos playing on the uneven cobbled streets?

  He walked over to where she sat at the dressing table, lifted her hair and placed a kiss to the nape of her neck. Sensation quivered deliciously over her skin.

  ‘You smell gorgeous,’ he murmured, ‘and look spectacular.’

  She met his reflection in the mirror and smiled through the ache growing in her chest. He looked pretty spectacular himself. Dressed in black chinos, dark grey shirt unbuttoned at the throat and a charcoal blazer, he managed to look smart, casual, elegant and devilishly handsome all at once.

  ‘Did you get hold of your mother?’ he asked.

  She nodded as she opened her palate of eyeshadow.

  ‘And?’

  ‘She said to tell you that if you hurt me, she’ll personally see that you never father another child.’

  There was a flickering in his eyes but his tone remained casual. ‘And what did you say to that?’

  ‘That I’m not stupid enough to let you hurt me again.’ She picked up a brush and dabbed it into the glittering deep brown colour and met his gaze again before applying it to her eyelids. ‘Our marriage is for Niki’s sake. We both know that. And now she knows that.’

  ‘But is she supportive of it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And your sister?’

  ‘She thinks I’m mad, but she’s coming to the wedding.’

  ‘Why does she think you’re mad?’

  She shrugged, taking a fresh brush and dabbing it into the glittering gold colour. She wouldn’t repeat her sister’s furious rant about Marisa throwing her life away on a man who’d happily discarded her like unwanted trash. But Elsa wasn’t a mother with a child who would thrive much better with his father a permanent part of his life. ‘Elsa’s in love. She thinks only people in love should marry.’

  ‘And what do you think?’

  ‘That love marriages are, historically speaking, a recent thing.’ She reached for her mascara. ‘History is littered with successful marriages built without love.’ And she’d spent an hour sitting on the beach terrace of his nightclub, which was a café by day, searching her phone for examples of them while waiting for Nikos to collect her.

  ‘I bet those successful marriages had great sex at their core.’

  ‘But only with each other.’ She held his gaze a moment longer before applying her mascara, trying her hardest to keep her hand steady so she didn’t poke herself in the eye at the lie she’d just uttered.

  Most of the successful non-love marriages she’d read about had only been successful because both spouses had either turned a blind eye to other lovers or explicitly agreed to them.

  She knew there was no way she could tolerate or accept infidelity—just the thought of Nikos in the arms of another woman made her stomach churn violently—and had searched even harder for the faithful marriages. But those had brought no comfort either. They had been successful because the couples had fallen in love with each other.

  Nikos heard the unspoken warning and put his hands on her shoulders to drop a kiss into her hair. ‘Then I am ahead of you on this one,’ he said silkily. ‘There has been only you since the day we met and while you wear this, there will be only you.’

  She twisted to face him.

  He dug into his back pocket and pulled out a black velvet box. He flicked the lid open and held it out to her. ‘Your engagement ring.’

  She stared at it for the longest time. He wondered if she was waiting for him to drop to one knee. That, of course, would be ludicrous.

  Strangely, when he’d found the ring—and he’d scoured every jewellery shop in Chora before finding his gaze drawn to this one—he’d examined it closely with an unbidden fantasy playing out in his mind. In that fantasy he’d dropped to one knee. In that fantasy, Marisa had cupped her cheeks in delight then thrown her arms around him. In that fantasy, she’d said she loved him.

  He’d pulled himself out of the fantasy with his guts twisting. They twisted now to remember it. It had to be fatherhood causing this unseemly sentimentality. Nikos’s love for his son was like a garden of drab weeds suddenly filled with beauti
fully scented colourful flowers. It was not unreasonable to suppose his subconscious would try to extend that love to the mother of his son.

  ‘Are you going to try it on?’ he asked when she made no move to touch the ring.

  She plucked it from the box and slid it on her wedding finger. Then she got to her feet and held it out to him. ‘It’s perfect.’

  For a moment he was too taken with the whole effect to respond. Wearing a short black sequined wrap-around dress that hugged her curves and exposed just the right amount of cleavage, she glittered; an exotic shimmering mirage. She must have sprayed something in her hair too for, under the ceiling light, it glimmered too.

  At that moment, all he could think was that she was perfect.

  * * *

  Stratos, who’d taken his lady friend out to dinner, was getting out of his car as Marisa slipped into the back of Nikos’s. She waved. The lady friend waved back. Stratos pretended not to see her.

  ‘Why does your grandfather hate me?’ she asked Nikos when his driver set off.

  ‘He doesn’t hate you.’

  ‘Haven’t you noticed? He barely acknowledges my existence.’

  After a moment, he sighed. ‘He is angry you didn’t tell him about Niki.’

  She tried to keep her composure but his unexpected answer pierced straight through her.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell him?’ The question was asked amiably enough but she could see the curiosity in the light brown eyes.

  ‘Nikos...’ About to tell him how she’d fallen to pieces when he’d been presumed dead, she stopped herself. ‘Your death... I was grieving you when I learned I was pregnant.’ It had suddenly struck her, the only moment of clarity in two weeks of desolation and anguish, that her daily bouts of nausea might have a different cause to grief: The food poisoning she’d suffered the month before his disappearance and the realisation it could have affected the contraceptive pill she took faithfully.

  Had she blocked out the effects it could have on the pill because she’d subconsciously wanted a baby...?

  Shaking off the ridiculous thought, she said, ‘The pregnancy came as a shock...’ The biggest shock but also the most miraculous. ‘But a good shock.’ Good enough to pull her out of the pit of despair and give her focus.