by Maya Banks
Tears filled Isabella’s eyes again. “I’m sorry I hurt you,” she said. “I hope you’ll be happy.”
She turned to walk back out of the house.
“Isabella, wait,” Alannis called. “You don’t understand.”
All Isabella understood is that if she didn’t get out soon, she was going to come completely unraveled. She just prayed the taxi would be waiting as she’d arranged.
“Please show me out,” she choked out to the security guard who’d escorted her inside. “I have a taxi waiting out front.”
As soon as the guard opened the front door, Isabella hurried down the drive toward the wrought iron gate. They opened automatically as she neared, and to her relief, a taxi waited outside on the street.
“The airport,” she said as she climbed in. As she pulled away, she saw Alannis waving to her to stop. Isabella ignored her, turning away.
No one had ever told her doing the right thing would hurt so much.
“How long can it possibly take for the damn pilot to get out here?” Theron demanded as he ran his hand through his hair for the tenth time in an hour.
Frustration beat at him. He was stuck here on the island until Chrysander’s pilot could come out. Now, finally, he was supposedly on his way.
Chrysander put down the phone and turned to Theron. “Isabella’s pilot took her to the Gianopolous estate.”
Theron stared at him in utter confusion. “Why on earth would she have gone to see Alannis? I had no idea she even knew where she lived.”
“She’s trying to make things right,” Marley said softly. “First with you and now with Alannis.”
He dug for his phone to retrieve Alannis’s number. If he could reach Alannis before Isabella left then he could have her detained until he could go after her himself.
Chrysander handed Theron his phone, and Theron hastily punched in the numbers. A few seconds later, Sophia answered the phone.
“Sophia, thank goodness. Has Isabella been by there? What? She left in a taxi?” Sophia filled him in on where Bella was headed then he hung up and turned to Chrysander. “Now where is your damn pilot?”
It had been impossible for Isabella to purchase a ticket leaving the country anytime soon. All the outgoing flights for the next few hours were booked. In the end, she’d gone to the charter service counter, plunked down her credit card, which she hoped was as platinum as the name stated, and hired a private jet to fly her to London.
At least she was on board now, waiting as the jet was fueled and was placed in the queue for takeoff. Exhaustion seeped into her bones. Not sleeping the night before coupled with the emotionally draining day had taken it all out of her.
She leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. She heard shuffling in the distance and assumed it was the pilot, but then warm lips pressed gently to hers, and her eyes flew open.
Theron drew away, cupping her face in his hands as she stared at him in astonishment. He looked…well, he looked bedraggled. His clothing was dusty and rumpled, his hair was in disarray, and his golden eyes burned with feverish intensity.
Before she could say anything, he kissed her again, this time foregoing the gentleness of before. He dragged her to him, kissing her until she was left completely and utterly breathless.
Then he pulled away and uttered a command in Greek directed at the cockpit. To her increasing shock, the plane began to move. With Theron in it.
“Theron, wait,” she protested. “This plane is going to London. You can’t just leave here. What about Alannis? And your family?”
He pulled her out of her seat, maneuvered to the couch, then pulled her down onto his lap.
“Shouldn’t we be in our seatbelts for takeoff?” she asked dumbly, still unable to comprehend that he was here.
“I’ll catch you if there is any unexpected turbulence,” he said silkily. “Now that you can’t run anywhere and I have you all to myself, you’ll have to listen to every word I’m about to say.”
Her eyes rounded, and her mouth fell open. He traced her lips with his finger then pulled her down to replace his finger with his mouth.
“Foolish, impetuous, beautiful, frustrating woman,” he murmured. “If you think you’re going to get rid of me after you’ve hooked me and reeled me in, then you have another think coming, Bella mou.”
Hope stuttered and made a soft pitter-patter in her chest. She stared at him unsure of what to say. So many things raced through her mind that she was absolutely speechless.
Then he rotated, sliding her off his lap and onto the seat next to him. He got to the floor on one knee and took her hand in his.
“I love you, my beautiful Isabella. I adore you. I can’t imagine my life without you. Will you marry me and make me the happiest man alive?”
He slid the ring that she’d given him back on her finger. Then he leaned down and kissed her knuckle.
“This was never another woman’s ring, pethi mou. I never gave Alannis a ring, and the one I intended for her was replaced by this one. I chose it for you. I never asked her to marry me. I was yours from the day you walked into my office. You turned my world upside down, and it’s never been set to rights.”
“You didn’t propose?” she croaked around the swell of tears knotting her throat.
He looked back at her solemnly. “I would have never made love to you belonging to another woman. I intended to propose the night of the party. I had the ring. The moment was arranged. But all I could see was you. All I wanted was you. The morning after we made love, I went to see Alannis. I told her that I was going to marry you.”
Isabella’s face fell. Theron smiled and touched her cheek. “How tenderhearted you are, agape mou. Alannis isn’t in love with me and is in fact, quite anxious for me to find you and put this ring back on your finger.”
“She’s not? You’re not? In love with her, I mean?”
She closed her eyes and shook her head, sure she had to be dreaming.
“I’m in love with you,” he said softly. “Only you.”
“But I heard what you told Chrysander, about you wanting what he and Marley had, a family, a wife. I don’t fit into that anywhere,” she said bitterly.
“What I want is you,” he said simply. “Everything that I ever wanted, what I was so restless for and hoping to find was staring me in the face. I think I knew it that first day you came into my office. I saw that tattoo and it drove me crazy. I wanted to strip every piece of your clothing off so I could see more of it. But I had already started things rolling with Alannis. I fought my attraction to you because I was supposed to be acting as your guardian, not trying to think of ways to get you out of your clothing.”
She raised a shaking hand to his face and cupped her palm to his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. Then he turned so he could press his lips to her fingers.
“Marry me, Bella.”
“You want to marry me even if I don’t want children right away?” she challenged.
“I have a feeling you’ll keep me far too busy to think of children anytime soon,” he said with an amused smile. He leaned in and kissed her again, his lips melting warm and sweet over hers. “We have all the time in the world, my precious love. Just promise me that we’ll have it together.”
She was sure that her smile lit up the entire universe as she stared back at him in awe.
“I love you, too,” she whispered. “So much.”
He sobered for a moment as he cupped her face lovingly. His expression serious, he said in a quiet voice, “You could already be pregnant. Will it upset you very much if you are?”
She grinned, her heart lightening with every breath. “I’m not pregnant.”
“Oh, then you’ve already…it’s that time of the…”
“No,” she said with a slight laugh. “I’m on birth control.”
His brows came together in confusion and then he glared at her, but there was no heat in his scowl. “You little minx.”
“Are you a
ngry that I didn’t tell you when you informed me before that we were to be married?” she asked a little nervously.
“If you can forgive my dimwitted actions and the fact that I didn’t give you the most romantic proposal before, then I can forgive you for effectively capturing me, hook, line and sinker.”
“Yes,” she said as she threw her arms around him.
He laughed. “Yes, what, pethi mou?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you. I love you so much.”
He stood and swept her into his arms. She blinked in surprise when she realized that she’d completely missed their takeoff.
“Now, if that’s settled, why don’t you and I go join the mile high club,” he said wickedly.
She smiled as he carried her into the small bedroom in the back of the plane, her heart overflowing with sweet, unending joy.
And as they came together in body and soul, they whispered their love again and again.
Epilogue
The bride—and the groom—showed up to their wedding bare-footed. Theron stood on the beach of Anetakis Island waiting next to the priest as Chrysander escorted Isabella to him.
She was dressed in a bikini top, and a floral sarong floated delicately down her legs. Her toenails—which Theron had painted himself in a night full of decadence—shone a bright pink. An ankle bracelet caught the sun and shimmered above her foot, and Theron knew that it was his name engraved in the small silver band.
His gaze traveled upward to the diamond teardrop belly ring that he too had purchased and delighted in putting on her. But what took his breath away was her radiant smile. Just for him.
She was so beautiful she made his chest ache.
Piers stood to Theron’s left, having flown in again for the wedding. Alannis and Sophia both were standing on the bride’s side next to Marley.
There was a festive air, and everyone wore broad smiles. He could even detect the glimmer of tears in the women’s eyes.
And then he reached out and took Isabella’s hand, pulling her to him. It didn’t matter that the vows weren’t spoken, or that the priest cleared his throat cautiously. He simply had to kiss her.
Their lips met in a heated rush, soft against hard, sweet against salt. When he finally pulled away to allow the priest to officiate, tears shone in Isabella’s eyes.
There was an odd catch in Theron’s throat as he recited his vows. The words carried on the breeze, firm and clear.
Finally they were pronounced man and wife, and she became his.
There was much dancing on the beach, and later they moved to the gardens. Sophia and Alannis took great delight in teaching both Marley and Isabella traditional Greek dances while the men looked on, their smiles indulgent.
Later the helicopter came and whisked Theron and Isabella away to the bridal suite he’d arranged, a cottage on a cliff overlooking the sea.
He carried her to bed, where she whispered she had one last wedding gift for him.
Intrigued, he reared back as she untied the sarong and pulled it from underneath her.
“Do you remember telling me I should get another tattoo?” she asked with a mischievous glint.
His brow furrowed. “You didn’t. Bella, tell me you didn’t go to some tattoo parlor alone and undergo pain to get another tattoo.”
“I didn’t go alone. Marley went with me.”
“And does Chrysander know this?” Theron asked incredulously.
Isabella laughed. “He might have had a thing or two to say when he barged in after us.”
Theron muttered in Greek as he shook his head.
She hooked her thumbs in her bikini bottom and slowly, sensuously worked it down. There just above the juncture of her legs, right in the center, a straight line down from her belly ring, was an angel holding a pitchfork.
Theron couldn’t contain his chuckle. Then he leaned down and brushed his lips across the design. “My own little demon angel,” he said as he worked downward with his mouth.
The Tycoon’s Secret Affair
Maya Banks
To Dee, who loved Piers from the start
Prologue
Jewel Henley shifted on the hospital bed, one hand curled around her cell phone, the other hand pushing aside hot tears. She had to call him. She had no choice.
Having to depend on the man who couldn’t get her out of his life fast enough after their one-night stand wasn’t a prospect she relished, but for her baby, she’d do anything. Swallow her pride and try to let go of the burning anger.
Her free hand dropped to rest on the burgeoning swell of her belly, and she felt the sturdy reassurance of her daughter’s kick.
How would Piers react when she told him he was going to be a father? Would he even care? She shook her head in mute denial. Surely, no matter his feelings for her, he wouldn’t turn his back on his child.
There was only one way to find out and that was to push the send button. His private phone number was already punched in. She may have been fired from her job, but for some reason, she’d held on to the phone numbers she’d been provided upon her hiring.
And still she couldn’t bring herself to complete the call. She let the phone drop to her chest and closed her eyes. If only there weren’t complications with her pregnancy. Why couldn’t she be one of these beautiful, glowing women who were pictures of health?
Her thoughts were interrupted when her door swung open and a nurse bustled in pushing a cart with the computer she used to log her charts.
“How are you feeling today, Miss Henley?”
Jewel nodded and whispered a faint, “Fine.”
“Have you made arrangements for your care after your release?”
Jewel swallowed but didn’t say anything. The nurse gave her a reproving look.
“You know the doctor won’t release you until he’s satisfied that you’ll have someone to look after you while you’re on bed rest.”
A sigh escaped Jewel’s lips and she held up the phone. “I was just about to make a call.”
The nurse nodded approvingly. “Good. As soon as I’m done I’ll leave you alone to finish.”
A few minutes later the nurse left, and once again Jewel lifted the phone and stared at the LCD screen. Maybe he wouldn’t even answer.
Taking a deep, fortifying breath, she punched her thumb over the send button then closed her eyes and put the phone to her ear. There was a brief silence as the call connected, and then it began to ring.
Once. Twice. Then a third time. She was preparing to chicken out and cut the connection when his brusque voice filled her ear.
“Anetakis.”
It came out more of a growl than anything else, and she quickly lost courage. Her breath came stuttering out as more tears welled in her eyes.
“Who is this?” he demanded.
She yanked the phone away and clumsily jabbed at the buttons until the call ended. She couldn’t do this. Issuing a silent apology to her unborn baby, she decided that she’d find another way. There had to be something she could do that didn’t involve Piers Anetakis.
Before she could dwell too long on such possibilities, the phone pulsed in her hand. She opened it automatically, a second before she realized that he was calling her back.
Only her soft breathing spilled into the receiver.
“I know you’re there,” Piers barked. “Now who the hell is this and how did you get my number?”
“I’m sorry,” she said in a low voice. “I shouldn’t have bothered you.”
“Wait,” he commanded. Then there was a long pause. “Jewel, is that you?”
Oh God. She hadn’t counted on him recognizing her voice. How could he? They hadn’t spoken in five months. Five months, one week and three days to be exact.
“Y-yes,” she finally said.
“Thank God,” he muttered. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Just like a damn female to disappear off the face of the earth.”
“What?”
“Where are you?”
T
he questions came simultaneously.
“Me first,” he said imperiously. “Where are you? Are you all right?”
She laid there in stunned silence before she gathered her scattered wits. “I’m in the hospital.”
“Theos.” There was another rapid smattering of Greek that she couldn’t have followed even if she understood the language.
“Where?” he bit out. “What hospital? Tell me.”
Completely baffled at the turn the conversation had taken, she told him the name of the hospital. Before she could say anything else, he cut in with, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
And then the line went dead.
With shaking hands, she folded the phone shut and set it aside. Then she curled her fingers around the bulge of her abdomen. He was coming? Just like that? He’d been looking for her? None of it made sense.
Then she realized that she’d never told him the most important piece of information. The entire reason she’d called him to begin with. She hadn’t told him she was pregnant.
Chapter One
Five Months Earlier…
Jewel paused just outside the perimeter of the outdoor bar and stared over the sand-covered floor to the blazing torches lining the walkway down to the beach.
Music played softly, a perfect accompaniment to the clear, star-strung night. In the distance, the waves rolled in harmony with the sultry melody. Soft jazz. Her favorite.
It was pure chance that had directed her to this tiny island paradise. A vacated seat on a plane, a bargain ticket price and only five minutes to decide. And here she was. A new place, a vow to take a few days for herself.
Not being completely impulsive, the first thing she’d done when she’d arrived was to find a new temporary job, and as luck would have it, had learned that the owner of the opulent Anetakis hotel was going to be in temporary residence here and needed an assistant. Four weeks. A perfect amount of time to spend in paradise before she moved on.