Crowned for the Drakon Legacy

by Tara Pammi

  Giving Andreas a chance. Giving his father a chance.

  And maybe giving Mia a chance too. Whether any of them deserved it or not.

  He’d made a huge commitment to her.

  She also understood only now that he made it without any emotional attachment to her. If it weren’t for their unborn child, Nikandros wouldn’t have given her another thought. Any woman he’d tangled with—he would treat the same way.

  He’d shower them with gifts, he’d give them time or whatever the hell they asked for, and in return, he’d expect the same commitment.

  For all his defiance of conventions, Nikandros at his core was very much a traditional man. He believed in family, and friendships, everything that tied people together.

  But his heart—would she ever have a place in it? Or had they all trampled the generous heart of that vulnerable twenty-year-old he’d been? Had that woman forever stolen his ability to love?

  Suddenly, that Nikandros had been forced to choose her because of her pregnancy sat like a thorn under her skin.

  Seeing him walking around the courtyard of the palace from their bedroom, Mia felt an ache like she’d never known. It was a sharp, powerless beat in her chest to do something to make it right for him.

  To be something more to him than the woman who carried his child.

  Ignoring the protocol Eleni had been drilling into her for weeks now, Mia knocked and entered the office of the man she had taken an instant dislike to from that first lunch.

  Andreas was seated behind a huge mahogany desk, the sheer, polished sheen of it fading in contrast to his richly dark olive skin.

  No man hid behind that cool reserve and arrogance better than the Crown Prince of Drakon. The pain in Nik’s eyes as he’d told her what Andreas had said and what he’d driven Nik to all those years ago—she wondered if there was truly nothing behind that facade.

  “What have you decided?” she asked without preamble. She heard Eleni gasp, saw two of his aides jerk their heads in her direction. She didn’t give a damn.

  His gaze took her in, and with a nod, he dispatched all of them, including his sister. If he’d felt any surprise at her barging into his office when she avoided him at every cost usually, he didn’t show it.

  “Good afternoon, Mrs. Morgan.”

  “I wish I could say the same, Your Highness,” she said. He didn’t quite smile but there was a gleam of something in those unblinking eyes. “I want to know your decision.”

  Pushing away from the desk, he walked around it. “About what?”

  Power vibrated around him, making her wonder again if there was anything else to him. “About Marquez Holdings Inc. investing in Drakon.”

  “It has nothing to do with you. Not a stretch to even say it’s a highly confidential state matter at this point. You...have no status with my brother, Mrs. Morgan. For some reason that I don’t fathom, Nik is giving you time. But then, he’s always been the kinder one between us.

  “In the scheme of Drakon and its future, you’re, right now, inconsequential.”

  Mia was aware he was riling her, but anger bubbled over anyway. The pain in Nik’s eyes scraped at that anger. “My daughter or son is the next generation of your bloody country. I’m going to be Nikandros’s wife so I have every right to know what kind of game you’re playing this time.”

  “Does my brother know that you’ve decided to marry him then?” he inquired silkily.

  Mia clutched the back of a dark leather seat, only now realizing what she’d betrayed. When had she decided to marry Nikandros? How had he stolen under her defenses so well?

  As long as it was a commitment they both could honor for their child, as long as she didn’t pin all her hopes and dreams on a man who craved challenge in every aspect of his life, she could take this step. She could build a life with him.

  But the warning didn’t calm the panic spiraling through her.

  “I care about making sure Nikandros does not feel alone when you betray him.”

  “Betrayal? That sounds very dramatic, Mrs. Morgan.”

  “No, I don’t think so. Because I’m beginning to put things together. You made sure to tell Nik that I was pregnant. You leaked the news to the press giving Nik and I no choice but to reconcile to it. And then you dangled a new challenge in front of Nikandros and hooked him. All for what?”

  “Really, Mrs.—”

  “Jesus, Andreas, enough!” Mia was more shocked than him at her raised voice. “What the hell do you truly want? What is this, revenge for what he did with Isabella?”

  “Nikandros belongs in Drakon.”

  It was the first thing the arrogant Prince had ever said that Mia completely agreed with.

  She dug her fingers into the soft leather. “Then why the hell can’t you keep your word? Why are you doubting him now? Will you ruin what little happiness he hopes to gain now?”

  “And does his happiness matter so much to you, Mrs. Morgan? Now that he’s decided to be Prince of Drakon again?”

  A cold chill poured down Mia’s spine. “Nik is right. You are truly your father’s son. He should cut his losses with you, with this bloody country. And I’m going to—”

  If Mia’s ire hadn’t been so focused on him, she’d have missed his flinch.

  “I know my brother better than anyone else,” he finally said after so long that Mia thought she was imagining his deep voice in the thick silence. “Still, I didn’t realize how much my...how much Drakon consumes him.

  “Whatever I do today... I will lose him, Mia. And I have lost much already.”

  His tone unsettled Mia to the core of her being. But she had committed herself to this path now. To Nikandros and their child, and this time, she’d do anything to make it work. And she’d take on anyone for him. That fierceness ran rampant in her veins. “You think to corral him while keeping him in Drakon?

  “Be careful, Andreas. If he decides he doesn’t want this enough, you’ll never get another chance.”

  “My father’s hold on us, it’s... I only want the best for him.”

  As she walked away from the Crown Prince, Mia knew without doubt that she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life without Nikandros in it. She wanted to marry him. She wanted to raise their child along with him. She wanted to be the woman he chose because he needed her, not because of the accident of their child.

  She was damned if she lost this...before she had even started playing. But she was nervous as hell too, because after soccer, she’d never wanted anything this desperately.

  CHAPTER NINE

  DAYS BLURRED INTO weeks and got longer as spring slowly gave way to summer. Nikandros had forgotten how much he liked the long summer days in Drakon, how the very city seemed to come alive. But he’d barely taken notice of any of it after Andreas agreed to change the investment policy that had dictated Drakon’s economy for decades.

  Giving the reins of it to Nikandros.

  He had no room to breathe once he had set the wheels in motion to sign a deal with Marquez Holdings Inc. to invest in Drakon. He’d had flown out to see Gabriel in Barcelona two more times. Continuous talks were being held with financial advisors and cabinet members to forge new tax laws for companies that invested in the country.

  As ruthless as Gabriel was, Nikandros had the fierce satisfaction of dictating his own terms.

  In another week or two, Gabriel and his team would move to Drakon for the initial scouting. No project he’d ever taken on consumed Nikandros’s attention quite like this new venture.

  His office had been inundated with visits from members of cabinet to the Crown Council, some to greet him, some to take his measure. Some to make bets on whether Andreas had signed off on Drakon’s ruination by giving him power over the country’s portfolio.

  By the time one week merged into the next, invitations to royal balls and garden parties, from all the power players in their small municipality had stacked up.

  He had to pick an administrative assistant, a social secretary, a
PR aide—staff completely unnecessary to his actual work.

  From how he looked to what he wore to who he was going to talk to and what he was going to say to them, everything was a state-level decision that had him spewing obscenities. If one more old-timer reminded him that King Theos did it this way or that the Crown Prince always took the traditional way, he was going to explode.

  Within two weeks, Nikandros was already smarting at the confines of decorum and diplomacy, whereas Andreas had spent all of his life, since he’d been a boy, mired in this. With no one to even share his thoughts with except Theos, who had been power mad and obsessed with Drakon’s security. For the first time in his life, Nikandros had a small glimpse into what life had been for his brother.

  To the growing unease of most of his advisors and staff, he damned decorum and protocol when it got in the way of getting things done.

  Life changed at a rapid pace for Nik and not just on the work front. If he was a man with a mission, it seemed Mia had one of her own, though what it was he had no idea.

  The one thing he knew was that there was something different about her. She was coming into her own with Eleni and Andreas, he realized as he watched her easily put his brother and sister in place when they interfered. He caught her looking at him more than once, her perusal thorough and lacking artifice in a way that always told him she was looking at him.

  But all they’d traded were polite exchanges—he inquired after her health and she about his work. He’d even taken to avoiding their suite until after midnight.

  The stubborn woman still slept on the chaise, determined to push him to the very last thread of his control. If he had to spend the rest of his life carting her off to his bed, he would do it. Except it was only getting harder and harder to walk toward his cold shower.

  Especially when Mia had the habit of tucking up against his side while asleep. Sweat beading his brow, he’d been more than tempted to take that lush mouth, to drift his hand down her alluring curves. She wanted him as much as he wanted her; he could so easily seduce her. But he didn’t want her like that.

  She hadn’t bristled at the ultimatum he’d given her on the beach that day. Not called him a ruthless bastard as he deserved to be. Simply congratulated him the night when Andreas announced that he was opening Drakon’s economy.

  He’d been so angry with Andreas, frustrated with being thwarted at every action he took, yes. But threatening Mia, who’d done nothing but anchor him that day, with a custody battle, it was a low he never wanted to sink to again.

  It was far too reminiscent of tactics his father had used on him and Andreas. It smacked too much of losing control, of becoming that weak man who’d seduce a woman betrothed to his brother just to prove he could.

  So for the first time in his life, he’d avoided Mia. He needed distance and perspective. Straddling the fine line between Gabriel’s risk-laden strategies and Andreas’s conventional wisdom was a challenge that took all the perspective he could summon.

  And luckily, for him, focusing on something to the exclusion of everything else came very easily.

  * * *

  The twelfth strike of the clock bore into his thoughts when Nikandros stood up from his desk after another long day and found Mia standing at the open door. In a white cover-up that fell to her toned thighs and left a deep V at her chest, giving him a hint of the valley beneath.

  Lust was a visceral punch to his gut as he stared at her. Other concerns followed soon after. “Mia, what is it? Are you unwell?”

  “I haven’t seen you all this week, Nikandros.”

  “I have been busy.”

  “I know. I just thought you might join me for a swim. And we can spend some time together.”

  He raised a brow and she flushed. “You’ve been avoiding me. I thought once Andreas settled things, you’d relax. Unless you’ve changed your mind about marrying me, you can’t avoid me forever, Nik.”

  Nikandros pushed a hand through his hair. She was right. “I have been postponing having to apologize to you.”

  “For what?”

  “For breaking my word and throwing that outrageous threat at you about custody.”

  “Knowing how angry you were, I didn’t give it any credit. From the beginning, I think I always trusted your intentions, Nikandros. It’s what happens when we both mix that scares me.”

  “It’s been a long, dry spell but I have vague memories of that night, and I’d say what happens when we mix is fantastic, Mia.”

  Eyes wide, she fought the curve of her mouth. But eventually, her smile broke through. “So, will you join me in that swim or what?”

  Suddenly, nothing was more inviting than a midnight swim and tormenting Mia as she did him.

  * * *

  The water was cold and crisp, but not icy.

  In black swimming trunks, he was cutting through the water with long strokes when Mia took off her wrap and made a smooth dive into the water.

  In an orange two-piece bikini. Three triangles at the top and two at the bottom that made his breath hitch in the water.

  Slender shoulders rising over the water, she raised a brow when he stared at her soundlessly. An impish smile followed. The minx knew how stunning and sexy she looked in those orange scraps.

  Was she taunting him on purpose? That this was probably Mia’s way of communicating that she was ready for things to go forward between them filled his blood with a heated rush.

  She was a graceful swimmer, easily matching his stride in the water in an unspoken challenge. He felt her gaze on him, almost a caress.

  They swam in silence for a while, the velvety darkness of the night punctured by the meager light from the path. The scent of jasmine was heavy here, coating the air with its fragrance. The night seemed to have come to a standstill along with them, waiting and watching with a pregnant expectation.

  When she reached one edge of the pool and floated on her back there, he joined her. “Tell me why the midnight swim.” He’d meant to make it a gentle question. Instead it came out as a possessive command.

  Sleek limbs gleaming golden in the moonlight, she sighed. “No one’s ever asked me about that.”

  He wanted to know. He wanted parts of her no one had ever known. “Not even Brian?”

  She looked at him then, as though reminding him that he was breaking his own rule. “No. Although I don’t think I’d have told him even if he’d asked.”

  “Why not?”

  “He’d have sold it to some tabloid, or sports magazine. Put a PR spin on it. This is far too private for me.”

  “It is something I’ve always wondered about,” he said, thinking of those early days when he’d met her. He’d been twenty then, and she seventeen. She’d been like a bullet on the field, full of laughter and energy. And shy and reticent off it. “Before I could ask you, you were dating Brian, and then married him.

  “After that, it became imperative that the less I indulged my interest in you, the better. I think it became easier to believe everything Brian said about you and your marriage in the face of my obsession with you, Mia.”

  She flipped with a grace that fascinated him and swam to the edge of the pool. Water droplets followed the long indent of her spine and all he wanted to do was follow the trail with his tongue. The dip of her waist, the flare of her hips, the lush curves of her buttocks, there wasn’t an inch that wasn’t perfection.

  She turned to face him, and the swell of her breasts floated above the water. Hair plastered to her face, her features were starkly beautiful, the same reserved cast to them.

  But tonight, Nik saw more, beyond that reserve. He saw the same loneliness he’d glimpsed in his own eyes when he looked at the mirror, the same restlessness. He saw an innate shyness.

  She’d loved soccer, not the glamour that had surrounded the world. Neither the extravagant, flamboyant lifestyle that Brian had dragged her into.

  Christos, they couldn’t have been more mismatched. “Why did you marry him?”

  �
�You know, I’ve been wondering the same thing the last few weeks. I never thought about it before.”

  He waited. Pulling himself out of the pool, he extended a hand to her. Once she was out, he grabbed a towel and covered her.

  When she stiffened in his arms, he wrapped them around her loosely. It was unbearable to be near her and not touch her.

  “He was the only one who asked me,” she said with a soft smile. “I accepted because he was a safe bet. The Brian I went out with was hardworking, affectionate, and with not a bad habit or weakness in sight.” She scoffed, a jeering mockery that seemed to pain her. “Then his career took off and he began to be obsessed with his own celebrity. High stakes poker games, racing circuits, souped-up vehicles, he threw money at everything. He worshipped you.” When he’d have interrupted, she said, “No. You don’t have to say it. I realized two days after I came here that you and he are nothing alike.”

  “Mia, you don’t have to talk about this.”

  “No, I do. The risks he took, his spending habits, what he did was so reminiscent of my father...that I instantly froze him out. I couldn’t bear to be hurt like that again.

  “I retreated and he was incapable of reaching me. He cheated until it was all one vicious spiral.

  “So, you see, you were right, I was partly responsible. But his death... God, I never wanted him to die, Nik. I...”

  Nikandros held her tighter, feeling powerless against the grief shaking her. To think he’d said those horrible things to her... “It’s okay, agape mou.”

  Instantly, her tension rose, her pulse flickering madly in her neck. “Shh...” he whispered, gently landing his fingers on her shoulders. “I just want to hold you, Mia.” Taking another towel, Nikandros slowly wiped at her dripping hair.

  She stiffened and his hands eased. Continuing the soft movements, he replaced the towel with his fingers and combed out the damp silky locks.

  Her exhale came in a rush and slowly the line of her spine settled against his chest. There was nothing sexual about his touch, and yet, he felt her struggling to relax. Struggling to reach out to him.