Husband By Request

by Rebecca Winters

  In private, she’d told Dominique before the wedding that Theo thought it very courageous of Andreas to marry her. According to him, not all men could have handled Dominique’s problem.

  At the time Dominique had refused to let Olympia’s comment sting because she was so gloriously happy. In fact she’d felt ashamed that she’d ever fallen into that terrible state of feeling sorry for herself because she’d been diagnosed with cancer.

  If it hadn’t been for the disease she would never have started running marathons, would never have been rescued by the man she loved to the last atom of her being.

  The honeymoon had continued when they returned to Zakynthos. Then had come August, when Andreas had to get back to work. They’d left for Athens and there her happiness had slowly been crushed, until there had been nothing left of their marriage.

  One evening Andreas had called her from work and told her he wouldn’t be home until the next day. To her surprise he hadn’t confided the reason why.

  For the next two weeks when he joined her in bed, after she’d gone to sleep waiting for him, his lovemaking had become more primitive. Yet he wouldn’t tell her what was going on in his life to change him so drastically. All he’d asked her to do was trust him.

  One night she hadn’t been able to stand the suspense any longer and had demanded to know what was wrong.

  He’d levered himself from the bed and stared down at her. “I’ve wanted to protect you, but you have a right to know that Theo has brought a lawsuit against me.”

  What? With her heart skidding to a stop, she got to her knees and looked up at him. “Why on earth would he do that when you’re such good friends?”

  Andreas’s mouth tightened. “No. We’ve never been good friends. He’s always been jealous of my relationship with Olympia. Now he’s charging the two of us with adultery.”

  The blood pounded in her ears. “Why does he feel so threatened?” She couldn’t disguise the tremor in her voice.

  He studied her features for a long time. “Because he found us together at my flat a few weeks ago.”

  She felt her heart die. “What flat?” she whispered.

  “I keep one in the Plaka, for business contacts when they have to stay over.”

  “And you never told me?”

  “I didn’t intentionally keep it a secret from you, Dominique. The truth is I have flats in various places in Greece for when I travel on business.”

  When she groaned at this oversight he dismissed as unimportant, he said, “The situation with Olympia isn’t what Theo thinks. I swear it. But I can’t talk about it yet. You know I love you.” He reached for her and crushed her in his arms. “It’s until death, agape mou.”

  Yes, she knew he loved her. She also knew a lot of men who had wives they loved and mistresses they enjoyed on the side.

  Olympia was seven years older than Dominique. Beautiful, full-figured, strong-willed. Dominique sensed she’d hero-worshipped Andreas for years. The attraction had probably been there since Olympia’s early teens, when her relationship with Maris had thrown her into Andreas’s company.

  Yet reason told her that if he’d wanted to marry Olympia he would have done so, before Dominique had ever run in a marathon that happened to pass by his villa.

  So what had happened to change him? Had he discovered too late that Dominique’s disfigurement was a turn-off? Was it pity he’d ended up feeling for her, and he’d waited to give her a divorce until he felt she could handle it?

  Maybe he’d found her so lacking physically he’d discovered Olympia was the woman he should have married after all.

  It took no imagination to understand why Andreas had sought the other woman out when he wanted a change from his child bride, who some people mistook for a boy from a distance.

  Dominique turned away from the porthole.

  She might no longer be his waif-like bride, but she was still his wife. If pity wasn’t the reason he’d taken so long to give her a divorce, maybe it had more to do with Theo. Maybe Andreas had been waiting for Theo to grant Olympia her freedom first. Theo was a proud Greek too.

  In pain at the trial, he might have decided to make his wife suffer by exposing her affair with Andreas yet still keeping her bound to him. If Ari was Andreas’s son, then Theo’s pain would have made him crazy for a while.

  Dominique couldn’t pretend she wasn’t shocked by the child’s existence, but she’d come back to Greece to ask her husband’s forgiveness for not trusting him.

  If she were to run away now, and not give Andreas a chance to explain why Olympia and Ari were installed in the bedroom Dominique had once shared with him, then she’d learned nothing over the past year.

  Determined that this time she would fight fire with grit, she climbed under the covers, willing oblivion to come.

  At some point the phone rang by her bed, jerking her from a sound sleep. She was surprised to discover it was morning. Only one person would be calling her, and it wouldn’t be Andreas.

  Still, her heart raced as she picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

  “It’s Paul. May I come by your room?”

  “Of course.”

  “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

  Dominique scrambled out of bed to get dressed. She quickly put on new lingerie and slipped into a pair of khaki shorts and a sleeveless cotton top in a plum color.

  By the time she heard his knock she’d run a brush through her hair and applied a pink frost lipstick.

  “Come in, Paul.” She held the door open for him. He’d shown up with the file he’d pulled from his briefcase yesterday morning. “Why don’t you sit down at the table?”

  Without waiting for his reply she started packing things in shopping bags. She felt his eyes on her. When he didn’t say anything, she took the initiative.

  “I’ll make this easy for you. Andreas needed time before he was ready to grant me a divorce. Now I’ve discovered I need time to think about it, so I’m not going to sign anything yet.”

  “I figured as much when you didn’t act on it in Sarajevo.”

  She nodded. “Andreas told me I could have whatever I wanted, be it money or one of his properties. So until further notice I’ll be staying at the villa on Zakynthos.”

  Andreas would be furious. Hopefully he would follow her there, where they could talk in private.

  “If you’ll arrange for the helicopter to pick me up, I’m ready to go now.”

  “It’s waiting for you.”

  Naturally. Andreas had said he wanted her gone this morning.

  Paul got to his feet. “You don’t want breakfast first?”

  “No. I’ll worry about eating later.”

  She reached for her things and walked out the door. Paul followed closely behind.

  All was quiet as they climbed to the top deck. It was only seven-thirty a.m.—the beginning of another beautiful day. She made her way to the port side, where she could see the launch bobbing up and down in the cobalt blue water.

  As she reached the bottom step Paul took her bags while Myron greeted her and assisted her into the tender. After handing her a life preserver he started the motor, and they headed for the shore in the near distance.

  When they arrived at the pier Paul was kind enough to take her bags and walk to the helicopter with her.

  Dominique refused to look back. From now on her motto was to forge ahead without entertaining negative thoughts, no matter if it killed her. She’d learned a lot in her battle with cancer.

  There had been a time when she hadn’t thought she’d even be alive today. But by some miracle she’d survived those months of chemo—months she wanted to forget, because her body had been so drained and weak she hadn’t been able to lift her head off the pillow.

  Now she was strong and healthy again, ready to fight another kind of battle that would test her emotional mettle.

  As she turned to thank Paul, he surprised her by climbing inside after her.

  “I’ll be fine from here. Andre
as will be waiting for you.”

  He strapped himself in the seat behind the pilot. “I’ll accompany you to make certain there’s no problem.”

  For some reason he was going out of his way to help her. She didn’t understand it, but she was grateful for it and had no right to question his agenda.

  “Thank you very much.”

  She proceeded to take her place in the co-pilot’s seat. Once she’d buckled up, the rotors whirred and she felt the helicopter rise into the balmy air.

  Soon the yacht was only a tiny speck in the ocean of blue. She experienced a sharp pain at realizing she was flying away from Andreas once more. But this time it wasn’t out of his life. Not yet. Hopefully never.

  With a feeling of déjà vu she found herself gazing out over the familiar scenery below on their flight south to Zakynthos, one of the largest islands in the Ionian. Before long it came into view.

  Andreas had once told her that the Venetians, who’d ruled it for three hundred years, called it the flower of the orient. She could see why—especially from the air.

  The eastern side was lushly vegetated, with many fertile groves of olive and citrus trees spreading to incredibly sandy beaches. The mountains on the western side, with their high-walled white cliffs, swooped down to the sea.

  Andreas’s modern white villa lay hidden in the sparsely populated region to the north, where the steepest cliffs gave out on a breathtaking vista of Shipwreck Beach, with its crystal blue waters.

  Soon she could make out the estate and the oval swimming pool. Dominique marveled at the pilot’s ability to set them down on the landing pad with the precision of an eagle coming to rest on a mountain crag.

  She turned to Paul, who’d jumped down behind her to give her the bags. “I’m aware you’ve gone against Andreas’s wishes by helping me. Thank you for being my friend, even though it goes against your instincts.”

  There was a moment where she sensed he wanted to say something, then thought better of it. She would have urged Paul to speak his mind, but she couldn’t with the pilot there.

  In the distance she could see Eleni, the family retainer in charge of Andreas’s staff at the villa. She’d emerged from the east entrance of the house, spry as ever despite her advanced years.

  Dominique started walking toward her. A little closer, the gray-haired woman recognized Dominique. Her hands flew to her face in surprise. She made a sound of surprise.

  “Good morning, Eleni. How are you?”

  “Kyrie Stamatakis didn’t tell me you were coming.”

  “He doesn’t know yet, but it’s all right. Paul brought me.”

  She stared at Dominique. “You look different.”

  “Not exactly like the injured marathon runner you nursed a long time ago? I’ve never forgotten your kindness to me, especially during those first few days.”

  A softness entered the older woman’s expression. “You were sick after your accident.”

  “Not anymore.”

  “The cancer has stayed away?”

  Dominique nodded. “Hopefully for good.”

  The older woman’s eyes grew suspiciously bright. “How long will you be here?”

  “I’m not sure yet.”

  At that point Paul said something to her in Greek. Dominique had learned some elements of the language, but she couldn’t follow their rapid conversation.

  Whatever transpired, Eleni didn’t ask any more questions. She simply took the shopping bags from her and said, “Come with me.” The emotion in her voice warmed Dominique’s heart.

  “I’ll put you in the blue room where Kyrie Stamatakis carried you after your accident on the road.”

  If that was Eleni’s subtle way of shielding Dominique from any unpleasant surprises in the master bedroom, like more evidence of Olympia and Ari, then Dominique was grateful for that small mercy.

  She and Paul followed the housekeeper inside the home where she’d known such great happiness with Andreas. It was here they’d fallen in love.

  Maybe this was a doomed mission. But if she’d faced cancer with such a negative outlook she would never have survived. Hopefully in this ambience Andreas would come to her and let go of his anger long enough to really talk to her. Right now that was all she could hope to expect.

  “Is there anything else I can do for you before I leave for Athens?”

  Dominique swung around to face Paul. “You’re not going straight back to the yacht?”

  “No. I have business to attend to.”

  “So do I. Could I fly with you?”

  He blinked. “You want to go there today?”

  “Yes.”

  Before any more time passed Dominique wanted clarification on several vital points. Theo was the only person who could answer those questions for her.

  “Just allow me to change into something suitable.”

  “Of course.”

  She didn’t require Eleni’s help to find the blue room. As soon as she was alone she put on the white sundress with café-au-lait swirls she’d purchased the day before. When she looked in the mirror, she noted with satisfaction that the sun she’d picked up yesterday had made an improvement in her coloring.

  After joining Paul in the foyer, she turned to Eleni. “Depending on how long it takes me, I’ll be back tonight or tomorrow.”

  “Very good.”

  “Let’s go, Paul.”

  Andreas frowned when he glanced at his watch. It was noon. Paul should have reported to him by now. He got up from the desk in his study and walked down the hall to his friend’s stateroom.

  When he didn’t answer the door, Andreas concluded Dominique was being difficult. It wasn’t like Paul to let any problem stand in his way. If it was taking this long, then he needed help—something Andreas never imagined would happen.

  Though he hadn’t intended to see Dominique again, he feared she might still be in her room, hammering out the details of the divorce settlement with Paul.

  His features grim, Andreas headed for her cabin, steeling himself not to react to the sight of her. Without bothering to knock, he let himself inside.

  No one was there.

  The bed was still unmade—evidence of where she’d spent the night. He fought the image of her lying in it, all that warm femininity he’d been denied for the last year.

  Where were they?

  As he turned to leave, his gaze fastened on the manila legal file lying on the table in the corner. He reached for it and seized the papers inside.

  She still hadn’t signed them.

  Paul was nowhere around.

  Sucking in his breath, he headed for his study, where he’d left his cellphone. The pilot would tell him what he wanted to know.

  In a minute he heard the other man say, “First I flew her to Zakynthos.”

  First?

  Andreas swore softly.

  “Where’s Paul?”

  “Mr. Christopoulos flew on to Athens. At the last minute Mrs. Stamatakis decided to go with him.”

  He grimaced. “Did you put them down at the airport?”

  “No. Your office building. She said she had business in the city.”

  What business?

  His jaw hardened. “I see. Fly back to Fiskardo and pick me up. I’ll be waiting for you.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He pocketed his phone, gathered the file, and went up on deck to find Olympia. She was sitting on the edge of a sunbed watching Ari, who was lying on a quilt while he played with some toys.

  Normally Andreas would have hunkered down to tickle him, but the news that Dominique hadn’t left Greece had come as a stunning surprise.

  Olympia eyed him expectantly. “Did she sign the divorce papers?”

  He gazed out over the water with unseeing eyes. “No.” Her mystifying behavior had him completely baffled.

  “I think I know why.”

  “Then you know a hell of a lot more than I do.” His hands formed fists.

  “When she asked you for a divorce sh
e made it clear she didn’t want a financial settlement, but I believe something has happened to change her mind.”

  “Like what?” Andreas questioned.

  “For one thing it’s obvious she’s undergone reconstructive surgery, which is a huge expense.

  “For another, having contracted cancer so early in her life, I’m sure her doctor has told her it’s more than possible it’s going to come back. For all we know her physician may have suggested she have another mastectomy as a preventative measure. She may need more money for that.”

  Andreas cringed, because Olympia had just touched on the one area that filled him with terror.

  “If the cancer spreads, it’s inevitable she’ll be facing more battles in the future. When you think about it, her hospital bills could end up being enormous.”

  Bile rose in his throat.

  “We both know she’s not a mercenary person, and would never beg you for anything. She has too much pride for that—otherwise she wouldn’t have left the courtroom without hearing any testimony. Her abandonment of you reveals an immaturity which shouldn’t have surprised you, considering her young age.”

  Dominique had abandoned him all right. The memory of it ate at him like a corrosive acid.

  “But I’m thinking that now you’ve finally decided to give her the divorce, she’s panicked. After looking ahead at the years to come, she probably decided to fly here in order to ensure there’ll be some kind of a medical fund set up for her care. Just think if she has to go into the hospital over and over throughout her life, for chemo treatments or more surgery.”

  Haunted by the thought, Andreas’s mind flooded with memories of last night, when he’d told her he never wanted to see her again. What if Olympia was right and Dominique was facing more surgery, but hadn’t been able to bring herself to tell him?

  “I recall her mentioning how much she hated being a burden on her parents,” Olympia continued, unaware of the tremendous upheaval going on inside him. “With her father a salaried government employee, it only makes sense she would seek you out for financial help, even though she didn’t think about that when she first asked for the divorce. But a year has gone by, and with it probably more surgery. No doubt paying more doctor bills has forced her to ponder her precarious position.”