Claiming His Hidden Heir

by Carol Marinelli

  For Luka, though, the anger was fading, and he was remembering how much he had missed Cecelia this past year.

  And now the red mist of anger was clearing, he knew that what he felt for Cecelia had not changed.

  Still, he was aware that he could be bullish and knew that to push her too fast would be wrong. She was as jumpy as a cat and a new mother too.

  ‘Cecelia, before the world finds out we have a daughter, I think we should use that time to explore where we stand.’

  ‘I’m not with you.’

  ‘The desire is still there.’

  He stated it as fact.

  And it was.

  Her nails were digging into her palms just from the effort of facing him calmly—the impact of Luka close up was as devastating now as it had been on the day they’d met.

  ‘Perhaps, but sex isn’t much to build a relationship on.’

  ‘Why not?’ Luka shrugged. ‘We both enjoy it and it got us this far.’

  She was about to say no but Luka would not be put off.

  ‘Tonight we are going out on our first date.’

  Second, she wanted to correct, for her birthday last year had been the most romantic night of her life.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  THE SPA WAS gorgeous and perhaps more than a little overdue.

  Instead of more foils, Cecelia had some length cut off, so that her strawberry blonde hair fell to just below her shoulders, and because it was shorter it coiled into waves.

  ‘How about adding some more waves and wearing it down?’ the hairdresser said, but Cecelia shook her head and asked for it to be straightened and put up.

  There was an almost imperceptive tut from the hairdresser but she did as asked and smoothed it out and pinned it up.

  Though her hair was redder than before, Cecelia felt a small sense of order returning to her world as she eyed her reflection, for she looked more like the Cecelia during her Kargas Holdings days.

  Returning to the villa, she took for ever to choose what to wear—everything was too loose and to her mind too sensual.

  It isn’t work, though, she reminded herself as she found her hand linger upon the sheer rose-gold silk dress.

  But it may well be work for Luka.

  He adored Pandora, and she was terrified that he might be merely attempting to do the right thing by his daughter. Cecelia doubted that even his best intentions could last.

  She came upon the requisite little black dress and decided it was safer and closer to her usual fare. For a splash of colour she added a little sheer grey silk cardigan that she had packed herself—a throwback from her working days. dpg!

  She looked at the birthday necklace and wondered if she should wear it, for it was absolutely her favourite thing.

  Yet she did not want him to know that he meant everything to her. Luka had made a chance for them sound like a grim reality they ought to face.

  Even as he came to her door, Cecelia was holding onto her heart.

  Luka was immaculate in a suit and tie, and he had, did, and always would, take her breath away.

  ‘You look very beautiful,’ Luka duly said as she closed the door on the villa and they walked towards the speedboat that would take them out to his yacht.

  Yet somehow it felt rather like heading to a formal work dinner than a romantic date. And Luka noted she was wearing another damned cardigan.

  ‘How’s Pandora?’ Cecelia asked, for it felt like for ever since she had seen her. But if tonight didn’t work then being apart from her daughter for prolonged stretches was something she would have to get used to.

  Yes, there was an awful lot of pressure on this date.

  ‘She is being spoiled by her yia-yia and also her great-aunt, my father’s sister,’ Luka said, and he took out his phone and showed her a photo he had taken just before he left.

  If ever there was a baby who was doted on it was Pandora. She had on a cerise dress and was a splash of gorgeousness between the two doting women dressed in black.

  ‘My mother is so happy and relaxed. I cannot tell you the balm that our daughter is to her.’

  As she boarded his stunning yacht, Cecelia couldn’t help but think of all the wild debauched parties that had taken place here.

  Tonight, though, there weren’t the half-naked, sun-kissed and oiled bodies, or the pulse of music to dance to. And there was only one champagne cork that popped and no raucous laughter.

  It wasn’t so much his past that she loathed, more the certainty that he would tire of her and go back to it someday.

  It was a gorgeous night, the sky as navy as Pandora’s eyes and pierced with endless stars.

  The deck was romantically lit and it was soft music that greeted her as they were led to a beautifully dressed table.

  The waiter placed her napkin in her lap and Cecelia did her absolute best to relax.

  They ate the best squid she had ever tasted—or kalamari, as the waiter called it—and she looked out at Xanero and saw the gorgeous buildings from her view on the water.

  ‘It really is the most beautiful place,’ Cecelia said.

  ‘It has been both a blessing and a curse,’ Luka said. ‘It’s a blessing now.’

  ‘You mean now that your father’s gone?’ Cecelia tentatively asked, alluding to what he had said on the beach.

  He nodded. ‘My mother would say I should not speak ill of the dead, but there is nothing good that I can say about him. He was work-shy and a bully...’

  ‘I thought you and he worked together in the restaurant, that he passed on all he knew.’

  ‘He probably put in twelve hours tops in his entire lifetime,’ Luka said. ‘But my mother had always wanted a family business. I could have had him removed, but she pleaded with me not to. It was easier to stay away and run it from a distance.’ He looked out across the water and then he told her something he could not explain, even to himself. ‘And yet his death has rocked my world and I feel like I’m grieving.’

  ‘I still grieve for my mother,’ she admitted. ‘Sometimes I think I miss what could have been.’

  And then her eyes flicked away because, although they were talking about their parents, she was suddenly thinking of them and what might be, perhaps.

  ‘I want you to love it here too,’ Luka said, and she put down her fork. ‘You’ve had a good week?’ he asked.

  ‘It’s been better than I thought it would be.’

  ‘There could be many more.’

  ‘There’s no could about it.’ She looked at him and reminded herself who she was dealing with. ‘Given that you’ve told me to be here one week a month or you’ll see me in court.’

  ‘I meant this, Cecelia. Us.’ He saw her jaw tighten but he reached across the table and took her hand. It was as rigid as ever, her professional façade still in place. Yet as he toyed with her, she found her fingers intertwining with his and then he voiced her thoughts exactly.

  ‘I’m going crazy, knowing you’re here but not in my bed.’

  He watched as her eyes screwed closed and assumed he had pushed too hard when in truth Cecelia was also fighting desire.

  ‘We don’t have to rush things,’ he corrected, ‘but maybe when you bring Pandora here, when there is no chance of us being seen, then away from prying eyes we can date, get to know each other, see how we work as a family...’

  She felt like the only car in the showroom about to be taken on a reluctant test drive. ‘And if we don’t work?’ she asked.

  ‘Cecelia....’

  ‘No, Luka, what you’re basically proposing is that I be your mistress during the time Pandora and I are here in Xanero.’

  ‘What I’m proposing is that we give us a try. I’m going to attempt to let go of the fact that you kept Pandora from me...’

  ‘You’re never going to forgive me for that, are you?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he admitted.

  It killed her to hear that for it gave them such a lousy start and so she kicked back. ‘Can you really blame me fo
r not telling you?’ Cecelia could no longer hold it in. ‘Have you any idea the hell you put me through, dealing with all your cast-offs? I was crazy about you and you were into everyone but me!’

  ‘And you didn’t think to tell me?’

  ‘You were my boss then!’

  ‘Well, I’m not now.’

  ‘No, but it’s no better here, knowing what went on aboard this yacht and by the bloody pool...’

  ‘Don’t turn this around on me. You never gave me a single indication you were interested in me. In fact, you were engaged when I first hired you. I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t. You were the one in a serious relationship, remember?’

  ‘And you were the one screwing around.’ She flung down her napkin and there was the scrape of her chair as she stood. ‘I need to get back.’

  ‘We need to speak.’ Luka took her wrist.

  ‘No, I want to get off...’

  ‘Fine.’

  He snapped his fingers to prepare the speedboat that would take them back to shore. ‘Do you know something,’ Luka said. ‘I’m sick and tired of seeing the disproval in your eyes...’

  ‘Well, someone has to be responsible,’ she spat.

  ‘And you elect yourself at every turn.’

  ‘Because I’m scared that if I let go, then I might turn into my mother!’ she shouted.

  ‘Cecelia...’ he was about to tell her that she was being ridiculous but then he looked at it from her side, the chaotic upbringing, the uncertainty, the abandonment. ‘You will never be her. And I promise you this, the day you hit the cocaine, I shall put you over my knee...’

  She almost laughed.

  Almost.

  But her throat was thick with tears.

  ‘We’re in this together,’ Luka said. ‘Did she leave you at night?’

  ‘Many times.’ Cecelia nodded. ‘I would wake up and not know where she was. That’s why I don’t want Pandora—’

  ‘The difference is,’ Luka cut in, ‘that, though it might not be her mother she wakes to, she will have family there, or a nanny who has been carefully chosen. Cecelia, there’s a world of difference between having a night out and living the life your mother lived.’ But Cecelia turned away and he shook his head for she would never see it from his point of view. ‘We’ll go and fetch her now.’

  As the boat sped them to shore, Cecelia felt like an utter failure—back from a romantic night out before ten. As he helped her onto the pier she did not know how to explain it—she knew he was right, that Pandora was safe and loved, but it was about more than just that. ‘Luka, you don’t have to wake her. Leave her with your mother and Roula. I know she’ll be fine.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  Cecelia nodded.

  ‘You’re a wonderful mother, Cecelia.’

  But as a lover she knew she had failed.

  The night was over for them.

  ‘Luka,’ she tried to explain how she felt, ‘I’m scared of us getting together and confusing her when we break up...’

  ‘How about if we break up?’ Luka asked. ‘How about we don’t ever break up? You’re so bloody negative and contained.’

  ‘Because the one time I lived a little, look what happened! The one time I made a mist—’

  She stopped there because she didn’t ever want to describe Pandora and what had happened as a mistake because she wasn’t.

  But Luka got there first. ‘The one time you let your hair down and lived a little, to my mind, something rather beautiful happened.’

  And then he looked down at her and he was angry, for she had refused on so many occasions to give them a chance.

  ‘Cecelia, I’m not going to beg. You have to want it too.’

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  LUKA STRODE OFF.

  She watched him walk angrily along the beach and she knew it was she who had messed up the night.

  Yet the cheek of him!

  On-call sex whenever she was here?

  Or, a little voice to her heart said, could it serve as the start of being a real family?

  Cecelia was terrified of loving him.

  Yet she already did.

  More, she was terrified of admitting to loving him and then losing him.

  Of waking in the dark and it being him that was gone.

  Or, worse, the cold pretence of normal, and pretending there was love, as her uncle and aunt had done.

  Sex was all they had and when that novelty dimmed he would be back to his old life....

  She walked along the white sandy beach, straying a little from the boundaries of the complex. This would be home for a while, she realised.

  Not all the time, but for a year or so she would be here for a week every month.

  And then not at all.

  She was terrified to enjoy it and relax into it, knowing all the while that it would all soon be taken away from her.

  He would always be there for Pandora, though.

  She was starting to believe that things would be different for her daughter than they had been for her. That, despite her carelessness that one morning, she had chosen well for he was proving to be an amazing father—completely rearranging his world to accommodate his daughter.

  ‘Live a little.’

  She recalled his words as he had moved her little pottery jar and then she winced as she remembered her No, thank you response.

  She remembered him throwing her into the pool and then joining her, his eyes imploring her to loosen up and be free.

  He had been offering a chance for them, and rather than embrace that chance she was hiding from it. Rather than living the life she wanted to with him, she was running from it at every turn.

  Yet Luka was right, the one time she had let her hair down and lived a little, something rather beautiful had happened.

  She recalled his words. ‘You have to want it too.’

  Oh, she did, she very much did, and she had to show him that somehow.

  And so instead of heading back to the villa to spend the night feeling sorry for herself, Cecelia decided it was time to head out.

  While she did head back to the villa it was only to change. She peeled off the cardigan and little black dress and instead of flesh-coloured knickers and a bra, she pulled on the rose-gold bikini.

  For she might want a midnight swim!

  She thought of Luka naked and wet and dripping water over her, as had been her fantasy for so long.

  Over the bikini she pulled on the rose-gold dress that was so loose and flowing, and yet so sensual.

  Her hair when she took it down was wavy and wild thanks to the salt spray of the ocean.

  Her cheeks were flushed and her green eyes finally had their sparkle back after a week of doing nothing and actually sleeping.

  Or did it have more to do with a week spent closer to him?

  There could be many more weeks, if she had the courage to try....

  A monthly tryst with Luka didn’t sound so terrible now. They were like a little family, and being together in the pool once a month, rather than her lying lonely poolside on the other side of the complex, would be much better, wouldn’t it?

  Pandora would have the best mother, the best co-parents—and if Luka couldn’t forgive her for not telling him about their baby that was his right.

  She put on the necklace, the one he had given her and the one she would adore for ever, feeling the cold metal against her heated skin. Then Cecelia headed to the restaurant she had never so much as visited, preferring instead to hide away in the villa.

  It was stunning and, yes, full of couples, but there at the bar was Luka, with his back to her.

  ‘Your table is ready for you, Madam,’ the greeter said, and she recalled it had been reserved for her all week.

  The bar manager told Luka that Cecelia had arrived. He frowned, glanced over and saw that she was being seated—only it was not a Cecelia he recognised.

  Well, perhaps the one he met at times in his dreams, for she looked amazing and relaxed an
d sexy too as she laughed at something the greeter said.

  He looked over but she did not catch his eye. He was trying to work out what was going on when the bar manager spoke and placed in front of him a glass of the best champagne.

  ‘Gia eséna kýrie, apó tin kyría.’ For you, sir, from the lady.

  And it was like in days of old, but so much better now. As he turned, Cecelia met his eyes and raised her own glass, adding a slight gesture of her head.

  A gesture that invited Luka to join her.

  She smiled a slow smile that was familiar from many years ago.

  A flirt.

  An offer.

  Yes, Cecelia was a curious mix indeed, for never would he have envisaged this.

  He walked over, his eyes never leaving her face. ‘It’s far too nice a night to drink champagne alone,’ Luka said.

  ‘I agree,’ she said. ‘Would you care to join me?’

  ‘I would love to.’

  He took a seat and looked over at a woman who had, from the day they had met, intrigued him. Never more so than now, and he slipped so easily back into the game. ‘How long are you here for?’

  ‘I fly back to London tomorrow,’ she said. ‘Although I believe it won’t be the last time I’m here.’

  ‘That’s good to know,’ Luka said. ‘And are you here alone?’

  ‘It’s a little complicated, I don’t really want to go into it.’

  ‘That’s fine.’

  But this time it was not disapproval in her eyes, for it was like he was back staring into that aurora and he started to understand her some more. There was a wild side to Cecelia, one she had fought all her life to temper.

  Not tonight.

  She could be free around him.

  ‘I have a daughter,’ she said, ‘but she’s being taken care of tonight.’

  ‘So you’re on your own.’

  ‘Yes,’ Cecelia said. ‘All night.’

  ‘Poor you.’ He gave her a smile, the one that had churned her heart since the day they’d met. ‘I didn’t catch your name.’

  ‘Cece.’

  He smiled that slow smile that made her stomach fold.

  ‘I’m Luka. So, where are you staying.’

  ‘At the Beach Side apartment.’

  ‘Nice,’ he said.