Xenakis's Convenient Bride

by Dani Collins

  “I want to make you crazy,” she told him, smiling the sly grin of a woman exalting in the power of her femininity. She was both beautiful and terrifying. He swelled with pride at being the man who gave her this confidence while he feared what he had unleashed.

  He had stopped worrying about his mortality years ago, but in that moment of glorying in the goddess that held him in thrall, he was petrified. At some point, this would end. Not just their faux marriage, but their lives. They would age and die, and this woman was far too precious not to live forever. He was far too greedy not to demand an eternity with her.

  If only...

  He tamped down the thought. Rather than grow urgent, he slowed his movements even more. Drew out every caress and cherished every sensation. He tasted her gasps of pleasure and listened for the music beneath her skin as he stroked her. He gave himself up to whatever she chose to take, watching, experiencing her wrench of climax like it was his own, even though he held back, stunned by her glorious release as she rode his hips.

  Then he rolled her beneath him and gave more. More of himself, more attention and assurance and assuagement. Everything in him was hers. And when he finally gave up the last piece of himself and poured himself into her, as she clenched and cried out her own joy, it was not only the most potent and satisfying climax of his life, it was worth all that it would cost him when he had to let her go.

  * * *

  As if Stavros hadn’t already pulled her apart and put her back together a million times, he did it again when he asked her to go to the anniversary party for his friend Sebastien.

  “Antonio and Alejandro will be there. They’re all good friends. I’d like to see them.”

  He wasn’t saying he wanted her to meet his friends, precisely, but it seemed significant. Although he had introduced her to his family despite their marriage having an expiry date. Maybe he was just as blasé about bringing her into his social circle.

  Things had shifted since she had told him about Dorian. Stavros was the same dynamic man who didn’t stop working unless it was to make love, but he scaled back their appearances to a few smaller dinners with people she had already met. When Friday came, he drove them out to Galíni, where much of the weekend was spent lazing by the pool with his family, talking about everything and nothing.

  As relaxing as it was for her, Stavros kept working, drawing his grandfather into several conversations about this or that initiative.

  “You always make Edward sound like such a hard case, but he seemed really supportive of all the things you’re planning,” she remarked as they drove back to the city.

  “Things were a lot different when I was younger. Even a year ago.” His expression was difficult to read behind his sunglasses, but she had the impression he was somewhere between perplexed and concerned. “I guess he’s retiring from riding my ass along with the rest.”

  She snickered, but he didn’t.

  “Why did he tell me to bring you back in one piece from Oxfordshire?”

  He scratched his cheek, saying drily, “He might have had reason to ride my ass. Sending me to Greece is one of the tamer things Sebastien has goaded me into.”

  That made her curious, but now she was thinking about the trip itself. “England seems a long way away,” she murmured.

  “Norma knows to call if something turns up with Dorian.”

  The way he spoke her son’s name as if he was a real person and not some dirty secret turned her inside out all over again. It made her all the more susceptible to him. She reminded herself daily that he was only holding up his side of their bargain by hiring Norma, but she couldn’t help wondering if it was a signal he was growing to care for her.

  It had been two weeks since she’d told him, and she jumped every time her phone buzzed with a text or he took a call in front of her. She agreed to the anniversary party simply because she needed the distraction of another weekend away.

  Waldenbrook, the two-hundred-acre estate in Oxfordshire, was certainly a distraction. She nervously double-checked her appearance in the mirror behind the visor as the car slowed to amble up the long drive toward Sebastien’s majestic estate house. It was right out of a period drama, lovingly maintained since its erection in Georgian times, and scrupulously groomed for a weekend celebration of their hosts’ first wedding anniversary.

  “I’m nervous,” she admitted as he parked before the waiting footmen.

  “Why? It’s a garden party with a few friends.” He set the brake and turned off the engine.

  She bit back a blurted “Pah!” because her door opened.

  This particular “garden” would host five hundred “friends” tomorrow night. Of course she was intimidated. The feeling grew worse as they were shown to the suite of rooms that Stavros said he always used, pointing out the ones reserved for Antonio and Alejandro, bringing their bride and fiancée respectively.

  Flowers and a basket of wine, fruit, cheese and crackers put the finishing touch on a beautifully decorated apartment with a balcony overlooking the pool and a huge four-poster bed beneath a pair of Gauguins.

  “He doesn’t greet me like this,” Stavros said, handing her the envelope from the flowers.

  Calli opened it to read their hostess’s elegant script.

  Calli,

  I hope you will join me in the Rose Room for breakfast at eight tomorrow morning. I’ve invited Cecily and Sadie. I’d like to take this opportunity to get to know all of you better.

  Monika

  “Don’t they know our marriage isn’t...?” Real. Forever. She handed him the note and gripped her elbows.

  “It’s only breakfast. If you don’t want to go—”

  “She’s the hostess. Of course I’ll go. I just feel like I’m misleading her. It doesn’t matter,” she insisted, snapping into unpacking her few things. “This is the role I agreed to.”

  * * *

  Stavros didn’t know what their roles were anymore. When he had first begun parading Calli on his arm, he had experienced simple pride in having such a beautiful woman at his side. She carried herself well and he had enjoyed the lack of politics. She didn’t fish for compliments or act possessive. They were already married, so there was no fishing for that, either. It was easy.

  Now he knew the pain she hid behind her quick wit and unassuming demeanor. There wasn’t a mercenary bone in her, and playing the role of his wife plagued her conscience. It left him seeing her as far more human than he had at first credited her as being. In fact he saw her as quite fragile, which shifted him into the role of protector.

  The last thing his friends would call him was anyone’s knight in shining armor.

  Still, as they moved downstairs and onto the terrace for cocktails with the guests, Stavros stayed close to his wife. She had already introduced herself to Antonio and Sadie, when she had run downstairs in search of the phone she had misplaced.

  Sadie was a stunning blonde with eyes that tracked back to her husband as though magnetized, and Antonio gave her the same close attention when she spoke. His friend was in love?

  The obvious chemistry surprised Stavros. He had understood the marriage to be a convenience so Antonio could have access to his three-year-old son.

  “You were right,” Sadie assured Calli as they chatted. “I checked in with the nanny and Leo is fine. I’m worrying for nothing.”

  “You’re a mother. It’s your job to worry,” Calli said with a reassuring smile.

  All of Stavros’s defensive hackles rose. He started to make an excuse to draw her away, but Alejandro arrived with his fiancée. Cecily was a leggy blonde and Stavros couldn’t fault his friend’s taste. No wonder they had been necking in the hallway when Stavros had brought Calli down. They still wore a glow.

  Their arrival defused his tension until he overheard Alejandro murmur something to the waiter about bringing Cecily a sparkling cider. Cecily was pregnant? She wasn’t showing, but it explained his friend’s sudden desire to marry.

  In another life, Stav
ros would be pleased for his friends and hopeful that all their wives could become as close as they were. As it was, he was too intent on shielding Calli from further heartache. He drew her into a quiet corner.

  “I didn’t mean to do that to you.”

  She frowned with incomprehension. “What?”

  “It must be hard for you. Talking to women with children. I didn’t mean to set you up for that.”

  “People have kids,” she dismissed, sweeping her lashes down to hide her gaze, but he saw her flinch. “Envy doesn’t change my situation. They can talk about them and I can be happy for them. That’s just life.”

  Stavros was still worried and was relieved to go back to a familiar dynamic when she turned in early. He retired to the snooker room with the usual suspects, where Sebastien toasted their successful completion of their recent challenge.

  Their friend seemed determined to be smug about having “won,” even though he was now committed to giving away five billion dollars.

  Stavros dodged Sebastien’s attempts to make them admit what they had “learned” from their challenge and muttered, “I think your real intention was to get us married off so you’re not the only one wearing a ring.”

  “And I managed it.”

  “How is yours working out? With your grandfather?” Antonio asked Stavros.

  “Most of the handoff is completed,” Stavros replied as he circled the table, planning his next shots. “He’s officially retiring at the end of the month, staying on the board in an advisory role.”

  His grandfather was surprisingly comfortable with all the changes, the marriage included. He must know it was a ruse. The old man wasn’t stupid, but he had actually asked if Calli was pregnant the last time they’d spoken, saying, “She looks pale.”

  Since she was on the Pill and they’d only just stopped using condoms, Stavros would have to be superhuman to have gotten her pregnant, but his grandfather had seemed genuinely disappointed to hear she wasn’t.

  And even though he had long decided his sisters could continue the Xenakis dynasty in his stead, Stavros had felt like he’d let the old man down. Again.

  Sebastien was topping up drinks and Stavros heard Antonio say something about being grateful to have found his son.

  “I always assumed my grandfather was the fallback if anything happened to me,” Stavros admitted. “He kept such an iron grip, I thought the company would be his forever. Now I see why he was so determined to whip me into shape.” He sipped, inhaling the oaky bite into the back of his throat. “And why he held back letting me have control.”

  The other men smirked, well aware that Stavros had been a loose cannon in his youth.

  Stavros was seeing the old man’s heavy-handedness in a new light, though. Over the years, Edward had railed on about how people would depend on Stavros for their livelihood and, given the types of drugs they manufactured, even their lives. It had sounded like rhetoric, but as Stavros took his grandfather’s chair, he was seeing the old man’s perspective more clearly.

  All the responsibility was his and it was enormous.

  He wasn’t one to entrust such responsibility to others without due regard, either. He could appreciate why his grandfather had been so determined that Stavros’s father come home to help him run it, and that his grandson prove his dedication.

  He kind of understood why his grandfather was hopeful he would make a baby with Calli, but still felt the kind of empire-building his grandfather had in mind wasn’t for him. Stavros was the outlier, the strain of the bloodline that shouldn’t be replicated.

  He had promised Calli a son, but it was the one she already had.

  * * *

  Calli woke to cold hands pulling her into chilled, naked skin. She reflexively squirmed to get away. “Stav—What?”

  “Warm me up.” He dragged her into a tight spoon against his damp body. “I asked Sebastien what he wanted for a bottle of sauterne and he threw it in the pool. Bastard.” He pressed cold lips to her neck. His hair was wet.

  “There’s a bottle of wine in that basket,” she reminded, wriggling her backside into him, hoping the friction would take the sting out of contact with his cold skin.

  “It’s not a Château d’Yquem 1921. I need that vintage for a vertical I’m compiling. One more and I could auction it for a million. Do you want to make love?” His hand slid to cup her breast, cool fingers fondling gently.

  “Do you?” She rolled to face him and ran her hand down to where he was hardening. Growing warm and ready.

  His response was wonderfully reassuring when she had spent an evening growing more and more aware of how completely she didn’t belong in his world. The people here weren’t just business contacts, but friends. People he liked.

  “Always.” He climbed her nightgown up her body, hands caressing along the way.

  She moaned approval, slithering against him to help expose her naked skin, opening her legs so he could nestle into place between them.

  In this way, at least, she felt confident and cherished. She felt like this was exactly where she belonged.

  They fell asleep still joined. He woke when she disentangled herself some hours later and pinned her in place with a heavy arm.

  “Where are you going?” His voice was muffled in the pillow.

  “Breakfast.”

  He grunted a noise of dismay. “I can’t think about food right now.” He let her go and rolled away.

  She smirked, showered, then tentatively made her way to the appointed room. She had taken care with her appearance and wore one of her prettiest day dresses. It had a floral pattern suited to a weekend brunch, but she hadn’t realized how much she had begun to rely on Stavros’s presence at her side until she didn’t have him to lean on.

  Sadie was already there. When Calli had met her yesterday, with Antonio, she had thought them an intimidating couple, utterly beautiful in the way Italians managed without effort, then she had realized Sadie was English, but still very poised and elegant.

  Cecily arrived. She was a firecracker who was obviously deeply in love with her fiancé. It made Calli feel even more of an outsider to be the only one in a loveless relationship. The women were incredibly warm and welcoming, though. They were the kind of women she would have very much enjoyed developing long-term friendships with, but she held back, knowing there was no point.

  She kept the conversation light, mentioning Stavros’s midnight swim for lack of other topics.

  Monika chuckled. “That’s the sort of thing they do. They thrive on challenging each other. Of course, this most recent challenge takes the cake.”

  Calli realized all three of their men had been set up to go without credit cards for two weeks. Antonio had posed as a mechanic in Sadie’s garage and Alejandro had gone to work as a groom at Cecily’s stable.

  Calli exchanged looks with the other two women, who both seemed shocked, especially Cecily.

  “This is something they do a lot?” Sadie asked, astonished.

  “For years,” Monika told them. “Sebastien’s first real venture was a zip line in Costa Rica. He was in his last year of university. In order to get the company off the ground—pun intended—he sent out invitations to specific students at different universities here and in the US. He chose the risk takers, but the ones with money. He comes across as impulsive, but he’s shrewd. He dared them to try it, knowing full well most young men can’t resist something like that. He made some excellent connections as well as enough profit to start his next business. That original zip line expanded into the extreme sports club they all belong to today.”

  “What were the stakes in the bet?” Cecily asked Monika, clearly still dumbfounded.

  “If Sebastien won, the men would give up one of their most prized possessions. Alejandro’s private island, for instance. If Sebastien lost, he promised to donate half his fortune to charity.”

  “And all three men completed their challenges?”

  Monika nodded. “Sebastien will be making the an
nouncement of the donation in a few weeks’ time. He plans to set up a global search and rescue team with it, something that’s close to his heart given his near-miss last year.”

  He’d been caught in an avalanche, Calli learned, and his friends had saved his life by digging him out.

  The conversation moved along to the horse trials that would be run today.

  “Will you ride today?” Sadie asked Cecily.

  Cecily was a show jumper, but she dismissed the idea, saying something about preferring to spend her time getting to know the three of them, but she looked out the tall windows at the dew-laden grass and bright blue sky like a prisoner longing for freedom.

  Pregnant, Calli suspected, and experienced a pang, then turned her attention to Sadie’s question about what she and Stavros would do today.

  “I promised his sister I would take some photos of the grounds, but I imagine we’ll wind up joining the crowd watching the show.”

  Calli was still thinking about the club and the bet and whether Stavros was a horseman when she returned to the room.

  He was sitting on the love seat, feet propped on the ottoman. He was showered and had pants on, but was barefoot and his shirt was open. He had a cup of coffee steaming on the side table and was flicking through messages on his phone.

  “Sunglasses?” she teased. “Feeling poorly?”

  “Just a headache. Sebastien wanted us to try some port after we’d been drinking whiskey all night. I know better.” He set aside his phone and motioned her to come to him. “How was breakfast?”

  “Fine.” She let him draw her down to straddle his thighs and splayed her hands across the fresh-washed planes of his chest as she kissed him. He tasted faintly of mint and more strongly of coffee. “Monika told us how the club was started. I didn’t realize your swim was the latest in a long line of stunts. What else have you done?”

  He let his head relax onto the back of the sofa, expression rueful behind his sunglasses. “Swimming after a bottle is nothing. We’re usually rock climbing without gear or scaling vertical ice slopes. Cave diving. Whatever tests of intestinal fortitude Sebastien can dream up. This past winter was a paragliding ski event. I expect wing suits will be next.”