“You should be asleep.”
She jumped at the sound of his sleep-husky voice and instinctively drew the bed sheet further up over her chest and under her chin.
“Sorry, Nick woke me. Can you hear that?”
Tito grunted. “Yes, I can hear it. Is he all right?”
“He’s always done it,” she whispered. “I call it creaky door. Really gets on your nerves after a while, but he can’t help it.”
“It’s better than your snoring.”
“Snoring? Me?”
He rolled over to face her and his bright green eyes were like a cat’s, glittering and beautiful, almost glowing in the half-light. But they were alert and with an agenda working in the brain tucked neatly behind them. His expression gave nothing away. “Has nobody ever told you?”
“No!”
He grinned. “Well, there you go. I’m the most honest man you have ever shared a bed with.”
“Hmpf. I think you’re lying.”
“I’ll record it on my phone if you want.”
“Tricky if this is the last time we will ever have to share the same bedroom.” She was ridiculously embarrassed. She had flaunted her near naked body to complete strangers for money and it hadn’t bothered her but the fact that she might snore? Loudly like a hippo? Or like some other ugly beast. Another feather in her cap for being Number 1 Not Good Enough for Anything Much. “But I do apologize as I had no idea.”
“I was joking!”
“Hilarious,” she said and frowned.
“Made me laugh.” He swung his body upright, rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand, and then grabbed his cell phone off the bedside table. “Shit. Two hours until we get married. I need to go.”
“Two hours? Are you kidding me again?”
“Nope. We need to get moving.”
“Bloody hell, I’ve not even picked my outfit!”
“Then you’ll have to be quick. The nannies have been on standby for an hour to whisk Nick off your hands so you can deal with all that.”
“But where are all my clothes?”
“In the nannie’s suite because it’s a bit bigger than ours. They are waiting with breakfast, a hairdresser, a stylist, and a makeup artist so all you have to do is walk over the corridor, sit in a chair, and let the professionals get to work.”
“For real?”
“For very real.” He stood up, and she could feel his heat and smell the maleness of him that radiated from his skin, his hair, and his breath. “Okay if I just scoop up Nick and deliver him next door?”
“I don’t seem to have much choice because if I don’t accept some help I will be scuppered.”
“No scuppering permitted.” He stepped around the end of her bed to reach Nick’s cot. He was still half asleep, and he paused for a second to look down on him. “Creaky door,” he whispered. “And he’s shoving his fist in his mouth.”
“Hungry as usual,” she whispered back, and her heart leapt into her throat as Tito gently picked him up, blanket and all, tucking the whole warm package close to his broad chest. “Be careful with him.”
Tito’s dark eyebrows rose. “Careful is an understatement with this little one. Not only is he the most important person in my life, he’s going to cost me millions.”
Presumably that was a reference to the prenup. “Good. At least you can afford it,” she said, but realized at the same time that Tito Makris was looking like the best stepfather she could ever have wished for. He would lay down his life for Nick just like she would, and that had to be good enough for anyone. “Now clear off so I can get ready.”
The Glade was utterly beautiful, like a secret place for fairies and kind spirits. The trickling stream, verdant foliage, and fragrant blooms with just the sound of birds made for an idyllic and intimate wedding venue. Erica stood next to Tito on a stone circle in front of the celebrant and the registrar. The champagne-colored dress she had chosen felt like her own skin and had tiny shells and pearls sewn on with silver thread. She particularly loved the fishtail skirt that skimmed everything like magic and with the smell of the sea in the air, she could almost be part mermaid. She had been given a small bouquet to hold, for which she was grateful because she was trembling a little. The fragrance of the yellow freesias, white roses, and ivy was divine, and it was so pretty that it tugged at her heart.
Her father was watching her. He’d been dead since she was thirteen years old but he was there, she could just feel it, and the sight of a robin hopping along the path next to them confirmed it. He had loved the robins that used to visit their small urban garden; its sudden appearance was definitely a sign, a sign that he was looking after her, she hoped, not a sign that she was doing something terribly wrong in going through with this marriage.
Erica looked up into the flawless blue sky as the official celebrant began to shuffle paperwork, cough politely, and send the tiny ensemble warm but loaded glances. It shouldn’t be like this, nothing should have turned out this way. If her dad hadn’t killed himself, everything would have been different. But she wouldn’t have Nick, and she wouldn’t have discovered just how self-interested her mother was.
There’s no going back…
Her head was spinning as the stranger began to speak and she followed his instructions, repeating the words he told her to say. Tito did the same before sliding a cold band of platinum onto her ring finger, and she did the same to him. Her hands shook but his did not, and she was annoyed with him for that. At least he could show some kind of emotion even if it was revulsion at what was happening. No choirs of angels sang in her head, and it felt more like an iron key had been turned in the lock to her gilded cage. And then it was time for the mandatory kiss before she officially signed her name on the marriage contract. That was the official wording: contract and it resonated that she was feeling just as much elation in this deal as someone who had just discovered they had been overcharged for a few tons of gravel.
Everyone was waiting for the big moment, all four of the watching adults. Nick was oblivious, sat on the grass in his little mock sailor’s uniform playing with a pile of wooden shapes. She lifted her head to see Tito gazing down at her. There was a smile on his lips that hinted more at resignation and pity for his new bride or maybe even himself, but as those lips touched hers something changed between them. There was a connection, their bodies were warm and Erica yielded as he pressed his body into hers and the kiss deepened. His hand slid around the nape of her neck and held her there for much longer than was necessary, and a fire was ignited low down and deep in her pelvis as he let her slip her tongue just inside his mouth for a second or two. His tongue touched hers briefly and the feeling that shot through her body was like a bolt of sexual lightning before he gently pulled away and smiled at the nannies who were clapping like dewy-eyed seals.
Just as Tito had promised, their signatures on the paperwork concluded a ceremony that had lasted under ten minutes, and they were free to leave even though they were no longer actually free. Mary and Fermina giggled and threw biodegradable rice paper confetti over them, which attracted a flurry of pigeons much to the officials’ annoyance. Nick was helped up to join in and did so with great gusto, his chubby knees looking completely adorable peeping out from his navy blue shorts.
“Congratulations!” Mary trilled as Fermina clicked away with a camera and wiped away emotional tears. “Such a beautiful couple and now an adorable family!”
Dear God, they had no idea. They must think it was all genuine, a whirlwind romance, a secret baby, and then an intimate wedding. Wow. On the face of it the whole thing was very cool. It was also wincingly sentimental and horrendously proper. A ten-minute contract signing episode and everything was suddenly legitimized in the eyes of the world. She had even married the father of her baby’s best friend, not wildly dissimilar to the best man marrying the bride if something happened to the groom… Crikey, she had turned all feudal.
However, the wedding had been nice, in its way, certainly better than any
wedding she could have dreamed of even before she fell pregnant. It had been quick, quiet, sophisticated, and no family had been invited, which was perfect. Perfect and very practical. Families always threw a spanner in the works, and it was an ideal time to reopen old wounds and stir the extended family pot for a bit until somebody drank too much sherry and there was a massive argument. Perhaps she was more like Tito Makris than she thought. Or he had summed her up to a tee after investigating every part of her life barring her conception. But she was Mrs. Makris now.
She swallowed as the reality of it all hit her; married, contracted, and now morally bound in so many ways. But she had finally found out what his middle name was and, so it seemed, had everyone else judging by the registrant’s awkward pause and shocked expression. It had been all she could do not to burst out laughing, but she was going to give him a grilling about it later when they had some privacy.
His arm threaded around her waist and pulled her against him as the nannies fastened Nick back into his buggy for the next leg of their journey. “Well done, Kyria Makris, you can relax now.”
Relax? Erica was just about to have her first ever panic attack, she felt sure of it.
Chapter Nine
“I’m sorry to get you out of bed, but I wanted you to know that I got married today.” Tito fixed Khloris Frangos, his friend Yannis’s mother, with a challenging stare. “Before I make any announcement or before the news leaks out.”
The elderly woman, dressed head to toe in black, breathed in slowly before taking a seat on the terrace of her Cretan villa. The night sky was clear and sprinkled with diamond bright stars. Her voice was gravelly with age. “Married?” She tapped her bony fingers impatiently on the rough wooden table and beckoned for Tito to sit with her. “Why do that?”
“Why do people normally get married?”
“You’ve never been normal. Don’t treat me like a fool. You swore you would never marry, just like Yannis after what happened in Germany.” She leaned forward and glared at him. “Tell me the truth.”
“It was a marriage to achieve an end, not of love.”
“Of course not love. Explain.”
“Kyria Frangos, I did as you and the trustees asked. I have brought Nick, Yannis’s son, to Crete to live. But there was a cost.”
“How much?”
“My freedom. Is that enough for you? I married the child’s mother.”
“The whore?” Khloris Frangos shook her head bitterly. “You fool.”
The breeze picked up and made the candle on the table flicker. “She wouldn’t agree to let me take him from her, and even I don’t have the power and resources to kidnap a British citizen, a baby, and smuggle him into Greece.”
“So the creature demanded marriage? She smelled your money, make no mistake about that.”
“Actually, I suggested it.”
“What! Have you gone mad? My daughter, Valeta, would saw off her own feet to be your wife and mother to Yannis’s son. And she’s a virgin! Whatever possessed you?”
“With respect, you’ve not been listening. She wouldn’t let me take him, and you and the trustees wouldn’t let Nick have his inheritance if she was part of the deal. It was the only solution I could come up with quickly.”
“It was?”
“As my new wife, nobody in Cretan society or the trustees can object to her presence. She is here as my wife, not as Nick Frangos’s mother. It was the only way to get Nick here to claim what is rightfully his and have her come with him to live. What you all asked of me was too much. I couldn’t separate mother and child either morally or legally.”
“Alexis would have found a way.”
“I’m not your husband, Alexis, and besides, if he was still alive we wouldn’t have to sort out this mess.” He reached out and touched her hand gently; he hadn’t overlooked how much the matriarch had lost in that murderous bomb blast. Her grief was devastating. “I brought your first grandchild home. I did it for you, for Yannis, and for the future of all the families that rely on the businesses surviving. Nothing else matters.”
“The trustees will be angry with you. I am angry with you.”
Tito sighed and pulled his hand away. “I don’t care about them right now. I did my best, and now we should be focusing on Nick and his future. I will make sure he is properly looked after. You have nothing to fear.”
“With that woman still in his life? She’s not fit to be his mother.”
“So you have all said many times, but what evidence is there? The report of some hired private investigators? Sometimes things are not as they seem when written down in black and white.”
Khloris Frangos wiped the back of her hand across her mouth and made a snorting noise. “So she suddenly doesn’t sell her body for money, huh?”
“She is not a whore, never has been, and she has no need to earn her own money anymore. I will provide for her financially.”
“This will not end well, my boy, but—” The elderly woman shook her head sadly. “I see your heart is in the right place, but no doubt she is telling you what you want to hear. She is taking full advantage of your kindness. She is clever. It’s just whoring in another way.”
“You’ll change your mind when you get to know her.”
She glared at him, her hands curling into papery brown fists. “I do not wish to meet her.”
Tito glanced up at the moon and damped down the irritation he was feeling. He knew this was going to be a difficult conversation and that the adult head of the Frangos family wasn’t known for ever backing down. The old woman was tough, had to be over the decades while the family businesses were built up and she was raised in the poverty that was the scourge of Greece once the Nazis had left. And family, along with religion and marriage, was sacred.
“Please try to understand the position I was in, am still in. I gain nothing from this. Nothing but a ton of grief, but with your help I hope I can keep that to a minimum.”
Khloris nodded, a subtle softening in the lines of her face gave Tito hope he was making some ground in this delicate situation. “What you have done, the sacrifice you have made, honors my dead son. It also honors his son.” Her small gray eyes flickered over his face as she hesitated for a second. “I will say nothing about the true identity of your wife to the others, but if they find out…”
“I will deal with that.”
She nodded. “Very well, I will visit the child in due course. With the others, you understand? It is only right.”
An outward breath of relief and trepidation left Tito’s body. “Just let me know when you want to come.”
“Soon. We will visit very soon.” The matriarch’s eyes sparkled and a small smile cracked her face. “Get your new wife to prepare us a feast.”
Erica sat up in the silent darkness. Reluctantly because her body was saying she’d just had the best night’s sleep in years even though it felt like drums were banging her head. The sheets were crisp, the mattress like a cloud, and the pillow beneath her cheek was so soft yet supportive…perhaps she was dead and this was what the afterlife was? Dark and comfortingly quiet, but there was the steady pulse of breathing, and the wonderfully familiar creaky nasal sound. Nick was asleep in the room with her, which steadied her heart rate a little. He was safe and snug even if she felt as if a truck had run her over.
Now her eyes had adjusted there was a shaft of blue-gray light filtering through a vertical slit to her left—a window? Yes. Then reality gradually seeped through, coloring her consciousness like saffron in hot water. Her right hand flew to the left and the cold ring of metal was there. She hadn’t dreamed it; she had married Tito Makris, a virtual stranger, and had traveled thousands of miles on his private jet to be where she was now, in the land of her son’s father. The Greek island of Crete.
Was this her destiny all along? Who knew, but she’d not had time to think things through before she’d fully committed herself. Erica carefully got out of bed as silently as she could, not wanting to wake Nick, and she cou
ld now make out the outline of a door opposite the chink of light from the window. The floor tiles were smooth and cool on her bare feet as she reached for the door handle, pushed it down and it opened. She wasn’t a prisoner at least.
A quick blink into the light of the illuminated corridor told her there was nobody there. Her surroundings seemed vaguely familiar from the night before when she had been half asleep and groggy from the flight and transfer from the airport. The floor was polished hardwood, the walls a creamy uneven plaster with blue and white uplighters. At the end of the corridor sunlight poured in from what was presumably a skylight but a small one to keep out the fierce Cretan sun. An invisible thread connected to Nick stopped her venturing further down the corridor, and she bit both her bottom and top lip in turn with anxiety. Shit, it was just the two of them at the mercy of her new husband and the family of a man she had known for less than a week. She retreated back into the darkness to hide for a little longer and discovered that her phone battery was completely dead. A small detail and quickly fixable once she got her hands on the charger, but it compounded her feelings of isolation and made the portentous gnawing in her stomach feel even worse.
She padded over to Nick’s cot. She could make out his cheeks in the gloom, which were gorgeously round. His peach-like skin was softer than a marshmallow beneath her touch and his long black eyelashes lay like an exotic feather fan above them. How she loved him. She smiled to herself and felt better. Perhaps today they would get the daily swim that Tito had promised her.
Feeling a little buoyed by her burst of optimism, she pulled open the drapes to find there were wooden shutters partially closed over the windows. She opened the shutters and light flooded into the room like a searchlight. She blinked a few times and then opened the painted wood windows to the glorious feel of a warm breeze on her face and the sound of seabirds. And the sea! A small giggle of delight escaped her lips as she breathed in the scents of salt, ozone, and sunbaked shells. She looked over her shoulder to check on Nick but he was still asleep, bless him. The previous couple of days must have completely worn him out as he was usually up and ready to go by dawn, whatever the season.
The Greek Tycoon's Tarnished Bride (Men of the Zodiac) Page 11