by Jennie Lucas
She reached for a wide-brimmed hat on the edge of the stone table. Her nearly nude body stretched beneath the bikini, revealing the side swell of her breasts.
Mrs. Burbridge nearly ran into him as she hurried around the courtyard doorway.
“Oh! Excuse me, sir.”
He’d been so intent on watching Anna that he hadn’t heard the plump woman come up behind him. He straightened. “My fault, Mrs. Burbridge.”
“I was just going to ask Mrs. Stav—er, Miss Rostoff—” she flushed with embarrassment as she tripped over the name “—if she wanted me to take the baby inside. She didn’t sleep well last night, so I thought perhaps she’d like a bit of a rest.”
“She didn’t sleep well?”
“She has the room next to mine. I heard her pacing. Jet lag, I suppose, poor dear.”
So Anna had slept as badly as he had. Nikos would be willing to bet money it hadn’t been jet lag that had troubled her all night.
His lips curved up in a smile. Perfect. It was all coming together. By the end of the week—by the end of the day, if he was lucky—Mrs. Burbridge would never have to trip over Anna’s name again. She would be Mrs. Stavrakis.
Anna was barely back in the pool with Misha when she saw Mrs. Burbridge standing by the water’s edge. But it wasn’t the appearance of the Scotswoman that set her hackles on edge. It was the man behind her, who was staring at her like an ant under a microscope, as if he’d never seen a woman in a swimsuit before.
“Would you like me to take the bairn, Miss Rostoff?” Mrs. Burbridge asked. “I thought you might like a wee rest.”
Since it was only ten o’clock in the morning, she was sure the “wee rest” was Nikos’s idea. He wanted to get her alone, so he could finish his seduction and convince her to be his bride.
Not in this lifetime.
Anna turned to wade in the other direction, holding the baby close as if she feared the older woman might fling herself in the pool, orthopedic shoes and all, and wrestle Misha away. “No, thank you, Mrs. Burbridge. We’re happy as we are.”
She waited for Nikos to demand that she give up the baby, but to her surprise he didn’t. “Obviously she’s not tired,” she heard him tell the nanny. “I think we’ll just spend some time together as a family.”
Anna heard Mrs. Burbridge leave and looked back, hoping that Nikos had left too. No such luck. He was standing by the pool, watching her with an inscrutable expression. His presence was like a dark cloud over the sun. It made her tense, remembering how easily she’d almost given herself to him last night, how much she still wanted to feel him inside her. The argument between longing and fury had kept her up all night. Twice she’d nearly weakened and gone to his room. It was only by the sheerest self-preservation that she hadn’t woken up this morning in his bed, with a big engagement ring on her finger.
At least then she’d also have woken up with a big smile on her face. She shook the thought away.
“Well?” she said, giving him her haughtiest stare—the one her mother had used to give to other people’s servants when they sneered at their family as “charity cases” and purposefully ruined their meals or their laundry behind their employers’ backs. Until Anna was eighteen, when her father had returned the family to New York and gone into business with Victor, their life had been full of insult and insecurity.
And after that Victor had had power over them. That was why she would never allow herself to be dependent upon someone else for her livelihood again. Better to starve in a garret and have her pride.
At least that was what she’d thought before she became a mother. Now she wasn’t so sure. What was her own pride compared to the safety and well-being of her child?
“What do you want?” she demanded irritably.
Instead of answering, Nikos sat down on the tiled edge of the pool. He folded his legs Indian-style, looking strangely at ease, almost boyish. Her eyebrows rose at the sight of Nikos, in his elegant Italian wool trousers and crisp white shirt, sitting on the dusty tile floor of the courtyard. “I want you to teach me how to be a parent.”
Her jaw dropped ever so slightly. “What do you mean?”
He glanced at Misha. “You know I never had a father. Not a real one, at any rate. I have no idea how to be one. I’m afraid to hold my own son.”
Anna waited for him to point out that it was all her fault for stealing Misha for the first four months of his life, but again Nikos surprised her. He said instead, in a tone that was almost humble, “I need you to teach me how to be a father.”
It’s a trick, she warned herself, but for the life of her she couldn’t see how. She licked her lips nervously. She glanced at the precious babe in her arms. He needed a good father, and, although she was far from a parenting expert, she was at least an expert on her own baby. How could she refuse?
“I suppose I could try,” she said reluctantly.
“So you agree?”
“When do you want to start?”
“Now.”
“Get a swimsuit, then.”
“That would take too long.” In a fluid motion, he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. Kicking off his shoes, he looked at her, and she suddenly realized what he was going to do.
“You can’t be serious!”
“Anna, you know I’m always serious,” he said, and jumped into the pool, trousers and all.
She turned away, protecting the baby from the enormous splash as he landed in the deep end of the pool. When he rose from the water his hair was plastered to his head. He spouted water like a fish, and his expensive Italian trousers were almost certainly ruined, but he was laughing.
Oh, my God. The sound of his laugh. She hadn’t heard that for a long, long time. Nikos’s laugh, so hearty and bold and rare, like a fine Greek wine, had first made her love him.
He swam over towards the shallow end, until his feet touched the bottom, and then he walked towards her, parting the water like a Greek god. He was six feet two inches, and the water only lapped his waistband when he reached her. His muscular torso glistened in the hot sun, and rivulets of water ran down his body. She nervously licked her lips as he put one hand on her bare shoulder and with the other gently caressed their baby’s head.
“Will you show me how to hold him?”
She carefully set Misha in his arms, showing him how to hold the baby close to his chest.
“Hi,” he said, looking down at the baby in his arms. “I know you’ve never had a father. This is my first time being one. We’ll learn how to do this together.”
Carefully, he moved deeper into the pool, until the baby laughed at the pleasurable feeling of the water against his skin. Nikos joined in his laughter as Misha joyfully splashed the water with his pudgy hands.
He kissed the baby’s downy head and whispered, so low that Anna almost didn’t hear, “I will always be here to help you swim, Michael.”
Anna watched with her heart in her throat. She’d thought she was in danger before. But now, watching him with their son, holding him tenderly, she saw in Nikos everything she’d ever wanted. A strong man who wasn’t afraid to be playful.
This was the father she wanted for her child.
The husband she’d always dreamed of for herself.
She tried to push those troublesome thoughts away. It wasn’t the real Nikos, she told himself. He was trying to trick her, to lure her in for the sake of his revenge. He wouldn’t stop until he’d crushed her, heart and soul.
For the rest of the morning she waited for Nikos to revert to his usual arrogant, cold personality, but he never did.
They were like a happy family. It left her amazed. And shaken.
When she left the pool to go feed and change Misha for his nap, he climbed out behind her. The ruined Italian trousers dripped and sloshed water behind him. She glanced at them with a rueful smile. “Sorry about your pants.”
“I’m not.” He gave her a grin. He looked relaxed and something else…contented? Had she ever seen h
im look that way before? “Besides, I can get more. I haven’t had that much fun in ages. I felt like a kid again.”
She snorted. “If it was that great, maybe next time in the pool I’ll wear a snowsuit.”
“Please don’t,” he said lazily. “I like the bikini.”
The look he cast over her made her suddenly feel warm all over, in a way that had nothing to do with the hot desert sun.
“You didn’t like my outfit last night.”
“That was different,” he said. “That was for another man.”
She waited for him to lash into her accusingly, demanding that she never see Sinistyn again, but he just turned away to head back into the house. “I’m going to slip into something a little less wet,” he said with a wink. “After Michael’s asleep come see me in the office, will you? I have a proposal.”
A proposal? Thank heavens, she thought as she hurried back to the nursery with her cranky, yawning baby. Nikos’s behavior had been starting to confuse her. But she knew that as soon as she met him in the office he would start tossing out demands. He’d try to kiss her senseless until she agreed to his marriage proposal.
That she could deal with. It was his new playfulness, his kindness and love for his son, that she didn’t know how to handle.
She showed up at the office with a T-shirt and shorts over her bikini, ready for battle. She was so ready, in fact, that she could hardly wait for him to take her in his arms. All the kisses in the world wouldn’t convince her to marry him, but since she’d managed to get through last night unscathed, she was willing—no, eager—to let him try…
But he didn’t touch her. The enormous mahogany desk that filled his home office had a light lunch spread at one end, while he sat working at the other, surrounded by piles of disorganized papers that were also stacked on the floor. He somehow managed to ignore the mess, focusing on his laptop.
He was dressed now, in a T-shirt and casual button-down shirt. He greeted her with a smile and nodded toward the food. “I had the housekeeper bring lunch. I figured you’d be hungry.”
“You figured right,” she said, and went straight for the gourmet sandwiches and the fruit and cheese tray. Nursing left her hungrier than she’d ever been before, and thirstier too. She gulped down some sparkling water. She waited, but he still seemed intent on his laptop. She cleared her throat.
He looked up, as if he’d forgotten she was there.
“Um…why did you want me to join you here?” she asked, confused at his behavior. “You said you wanted to ask me something?”
“Oh. Right. I need your help. I’m closing my bid on the land lease for a new casino in Singapore, and since I fired Lindsey I have no executive assistant.”
A thrill went through Anna. He wanted her back! She’d always taken such pride in her work, and she and Nikos had connected creating L’Hermitage. She tried to temper her growing hope. “But what about Margaret? Or Clementine in your New York office? They could quickly come up to speed.”
“I need them where they are. The New York office are up to their necks getting zoning approval for the Battery co-op. And Margaret has her hands full with L’Hermitage. I need to hire someone new as my personal assistant, and I’ll be leaving for Singapore in ten days. I need your help.”
Her heart started to beat, thump, thump. Returning to work for Stavrakis Resorts would be a dream come true. She wondered if the baby would like traveling around the world.
“All right,” she said, trying to hide her elation. “Since you need me.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” He pushed a piece of paper down the desk.
To her confusion, Anna saw that it was a résumé. “What’s this?”
“The first candidate.” He looked at her with his velvety brown eyes, and a warm smile traced his lips. “To replace you.”
CHAPTER SIX
ANNA felt as if she’d just been sucker-punched.
“Replace me?” She thrust the résumé back at him, as if it burned her fingers. “Why would I help you replace me? This job was my life. Why would I help you give it away? I’m not going to lift a finger for you.”
“Good point,” he said briskly, then pushed another official document toward her. “Would this convince you?”
She picked up the attached papers, frowning. “Another résumé will hardly—”
But, as she read the first words on the page, her jaw fell open and she collapsed back against the hard wooden chair.
“It’s a custody agreement,” she gasped when she could speak.
“Yes,” he said pleasantly.
She fumbled through the pages, but her hands were shaking and the paperclip fell to the floor. Bending to pick it up, she looked up at him. “You’re going to give me joint custody?”
“Call it incentive.”
“What do you want in return?” she said guardedly.
“I’ll sign the custody agreement if you help me find a good executive assistant within ten days.”
She stared at him. “That’s all? I just have to help you find a new secretary and you’ll give me joint custody of Misha? You’ll let me leave?”
He gave a graceful shrug. “I’m a desperate man. I need this settled by the time I leave for Singapore.”
She could hardly believe her ears. It was way too good to be true. “I thought you said you were going to make me suffer for betraying you?”
“As I said yesterday, I’ve come to appreciate your love and care for my son.”
Yeah, right. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“So suspicious,” he said, then closed his laptop with a sigh. “You will, of course, agree never to see Victor Sinistyn again.”
She nearly laughed aloud. At last it made sense. Perhaps he did want her help finding a new secretary, but it was Victor that really worried him. Her plan had worked better than she’d ever dared dream.
She opened her mouth to tell him she’d be perfectly happy to cross Victor’s name permanently off her Christmas card list, but closed it as another thought occurred to her.
What if Nikos changed his mind before she found him a new assistant and he signed the custody agreement? If she agreed to stop seeing Victor she’d lose her only hold on Nikos. She couldn’t play out her hand so easily.
“I’m not sure I can do that.” She tilted her head, as if considering his offer. “Victor is a hard man to forget.”
She saw a glint of something hard and flinty in Nikos’s eyes, then it was veiled beneath a studiously careless expression. “It’s your choice, of course.”
“Whether I’m friends with Victor?”
“Whether you want joint custody of our son.”
Hardly able to believe her own daring, she said, “Of course I do. But I’ll need more than your signature on a custody agreement to give up a man who might be the love of my life.”
His eyes were decidedly hard now, glittering like coal turning to diamonds under pressure. “What do you want?”
“You want a new secretary to replace me. Understandable. I want a new boss to replace you. Give me a glowing reference so I can find a good job in New York.”
“I never agreed you could take our son to New York.”
“What do you care? You’ll be in Singapore—”
“And you’ll never need to work again,” he interrupted, not listening. “I will supply you with all the money you could possibly need to raise our child in comfort. Do not insult me.”
“It’s hardly an insult to wish to work.”
“Your job now is to take care of our son.”
“That’s your job too, since you’re his parent as well, but I haven’t noticed you putting Stavrakis Resorts up for sale.”
“The company is my son’s legacy,” he said. “I have no choice but to work.”
“Neither do I.”
“I will always support Michael. And you as well, for the rest of your life. I protect what is mine. You need never fear for money again.”
�
��And my family, too? Will you support my mother and sister for all their lives as well?”
“A reasonable amount…” he started, then his gaze sharpened. “Why do you ask? Is your family in some kind of trouble?”
She really didn’t want to discuss this. Backtracking furiously, she said, “I appreciate your offer of support, Nikos, I really do, but I don’t want to be beholden to you for the rest of my life.”
He drummed his fingers impatiently on the table. “So let me get this straight. You want our son to be raised by a nanny just so you can work as a secretary?”
“Are you implying my job is less important than yours?” she countered.
“No, I’m flat-out saying it. Stavrakis Resorts has thousands of employees around the world, all depending on the company for their salary. It’s not even close to the same. In your case, I think the world can survive with one less typist.”
“You know perfectly well there’s more to what I do!” she said, outraged.
“Nothing in your job description could possibly be as important as—” He visibly restrained himself. He sat back in his leather chair and gave her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Anna, there’s no reason we have to discuss this now. Until you help me find your replacement, it’s all a moot point.”
“I want to discuss it now,” she said mutinously.
He sat in stillness, then gave a sigh. “Fine. Find me a new secretary—a good one—and I’ll give you your job reference, if that’s really what you want. God knows you deserve it.”
“Even though I was just a typist?”
“You know I didn’t mean that.” He scowled. “Let me explain.”
That surprised her. Nikos never explained, he just gave orders. “I’m listening.”
Raking back his hair, he looked through the window. Outside, a gardener was riding a lawnmower across the expansive heavily watered lawn, a slash of green against barren brown mountains and harsh blue sky. “I barely saw my mother growing up. She was always working three jobs to keep a roof over our heads. By the time I was old enough to help support us she’d died. I never knew her except as a pale ghost with a broken heart.”