The Millionaire's True Worth

by Rebecca Winters

  “Let’s head down to the village and have lunch at my favorite taverna. Elpis, the older woman who owns it, knew my parents before I did.”

  Raina chuckled over his little joke. Deep inside she was filled with new excitement to meet someone with whom he had a past connection. “I bet you’re her favorite visitor.”

  “When Vasso and I were young, she cooked loukoumades fresh every day and saved half a dozen for us to eat on the way home from work. She knew we couldn’t afford them.”

  “I love that woman already. What are they?”

  “Donuts soaked in honey and cinnamon. She’ll serve you one. No one on the island makes them like she does.”

  Raina was so happy, she was surprised her feet touched the ground as they made their way down to the harbor. He pointed out the school where he and Vasso attended when they could. His life story was incredible.

  The second they appeared at the blue-and-white outdoor café she heard a woman call out to Akis and come running. She hugged and kissed him in front of the people sitting at the tables. This woman had done her part for two young boys who’d lost their mother and had to work so hard.

  When Akis introduced her to Raina, the older woman with gray in her dark hair eyed her for a minute and spoke in rapid Greek. Raina asked him what she said. His eyes narrowed on her face.

  “You are a great beauty.”

  “That was kind of her.”

  For the next half hour they were plied with wonderful food while several tourists took pictures of them. Raina winked at him. “You’ve been found out. Smile pretty for the camera, Akis.”

  “Every eye is on you,” came his deep voice.

  Pretty soon Elpis appeared with a sack for Akis. Raina knew what was in it. “Efharisto,” she said to the older woman who kissed her on both cheeks.

  “You are his fiancée?”

  Raina didn’t have to think twice. “I want to be.”

  A huge smile broke out on her face. “Ahh.” She looked at Akis and said something in Greek, poking him in the chest.

  After she went back inside he pulled some bills out of his wallet and put them on the table. His black brows lifted. “Are you ready to leave?”

  “If I can get up. I ate so much, I’m afraid I’m nailed to the chair.”

  He came around to help her. By the lack of animation on his face, she couldn’t tell if he’d understood the expression or not. The whole time more people were taking pictures of them with their phones. Akis was a celebrity. A lot of people had seen pictures of the Milonis wedding on TV, but he and his brother had been in the news long before that because of what they’d achieved in business.

  The sun had grown hotter. When they boarded the cabin cruiser and took off for Anti Paxos, Raina welcomed the breeze on her skin. She stood at the railing all the way to the smaller island, wondering what he thought about her comment to Elpis. It appeared to have caught Akis off guard. That had been her intention. She needed him to know how she felt. But his silence had unnerved her. By the time they’d made it back to his house, she’d started to be afraid.

  After setting down her suitcase, he put the sack of donuts on the counter and stared at her. “Do you have any idea what you said to Elpis?” His voice sounded unsteady.

  She clung to one of the chair backs. “Yes. I’m in love with you, Akis. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. It was evident how deeply Elpis cares for you, and I didn’t want her to think that I just sleep with you. If I embarrassed you I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “The fault’s on me.”

  He cocked his dark head to the side. “What if I were to take you up on it?” His eyes were slits. “Aren’t you afraid I might be your third mistake?”

  The question produced a moan from her. “No. For once in my life I know clear through to my soul that you’re the real thing.” Her voice shook. “The only fear I have is that you don’t have that same profound feeling for me. I saw the expression in your eyes when I blurted that I wanted to be your fiancée. I could read it so clearly.

  “It was as if you’d said to me, ‘Raina? We’ve been having a heavenly time together, but to take it to the next step is a completely different matter.’ Deep in your heart of hearts you yearn to find a woman who’s like the woman your father married—someone sweet and innocent with no divorce in her background.”

  “That’s not true!”

  “Oh, yes, it is. I understand why your brother was concerned enough to find out what he could about me. Some foreign woman with scandal in her past flies into Athens and disrupts the tenor of your lives. I never had a sibling. But knowing the story of you and Vasso, any woman either of you chooses will impact both your lives because you’re family. I envy you that.”

  He moved closer, putting his hands on his hips in that potent male way. Her heart thudded mercilessly in response. “Let’s talk about what I bring to your life. As I told you the night of the reception, my brother and I are in business together. That’s the sum total of our existence.”

  Her eyes misted over. “You bring so much, I don’t know where to start.”

  “Why not start with the obvious. You run an empire.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t do anything. My grandfather put people in place who do all the work. Since his death I’ve been the titular head. If I walked away from it tonight, there wouldn’t be as much as a ripple. As for my job in the lab, there are dozens of scientists who’d fill my spot in a heartbeat.”

  His jaw hardened. “You’re telling me you could leave it all behind? Just like that?”

  Raina tried to swallow. “That’s what I’m telling you. My parents and grandparents are gone. There’s nothing to hold me.” She couldn’t control the throb in her voice. “To put it all in the hands of the capable people already in place and come to you would be my greatest joy.”

  His eyes closed tightly for a moment. “We couldn’t even have a baby that could grow up to run the Maywood Corporation one day.”

  “We could have several babies through adoption who could one day head the Giannopoulos Company. You could call it Giannopoulos and Sons, or Daughters.”

  A strange, anguished sound came out of him. “I could swear the gods are playing a monstrous trick on me.”

  Her spirits sank. “In other words, Aphrodite is a monster in disguise.”

  “No, Raina. Your grandfather left you a legacy you can’t ignore.”

  “I won’t ignore it, but you’re making an erroneous assumption. The difference between you and me is this... I didn’t create the Maywood Corporation with my bare hands. I didn’t do one thing to build it from scratch a hundred years ago. I’m a recipient of all the hard work that my great-great-grandfather started. That’s all.

  “But you and your brother started your company from scratch. You poured blood, sweat and tears into it every day, all day for years. It’s your monument to your parents who gave you life and a father who taught you what was the most important thing in life.”

  “So what are you saying?” he ground out.

  “That you can’t leave your brother to live with me in California. You wouldn’t want to and I wouldn’t want you to. Furthermore I hate the idea of flying back and forth so we can see each other for a weekend here and there. It would be ludicrous.

  “Since I don’t want an affair, either, the simple solution is to live here with you for as long as you want me. I’d rather be married to you, but if you can’t bring yourself to do that, then I’ll be your lover and deal with it. As long as I know where I stand with you, no one else’s opinion matters to me.”

  “It does matter.” He sounded exasperated.

  “Then what you’re saying is nothing will fix our problem, so I should plan to go back to California? If that’s the case then so be it.” She wheeled around and grabbed her suitcase.

  “Where are you
going?”

  “To change into my swimming suit and enjoy your pool. I need to work off the calories from our delicious lunch. Thank you for allowing me a glimpse of your early beginnings. It meant the world to me. Let me know when you’re ready to pack in this vacation and get back to work. I can be ready in no time at all.”

  He followed her down the hall to the bedroom. “Will you stay until Chloe gets back?”

  So he was anxious to get back to Athens. “Where else?” she said over her shoulder and plopped her suitcase on the bed. “I don’t want to disappoint her parents.”

  “Do you want to leave in the morning? I’ll send for the helicopter.”

  Her back was still to him. “That’s entirely up to you.” She opened the lid and pulled out her bathing suit.

  “Don’t be like this, Raina.”

  She whirled around. “Like what?”

  “You’re not thinking with your head. No one with a background like yours just walks away from everything because the man she loves lives on another continent.”

  She drew in a quick breath. “This one does, but you don’t know me well enough to understand. If I leave California for good, money will continue to pour into my personal account Grandpa set up for me. Most of that money will be used to do research for a cure for stomach cancer and heart disease.

  “As for everything else, I’ll be available over the phone whenever one of the heads of the various departments wants to discuss a problem. I’ll step down as CEO but remain on the board. If there’s a vote to be cast that requires my physical presence, then I’ll fly over. That’s it. Not at all complicated.”

  He stood in the doorway unconsciously forming his hands into fists. “What about the estate? How could you contemplate leaving your home?”

  Her chin lifted. “Before I ever heard from Chloe that she was getting married, I’d decided to move to a condo and turn the mansion and estate into a hospital. One wing for heart failure patients and the other for stomach cancer patients who can’t afford health care. When I fly back to Carmel, I’ll get the process going.”

  “You’d get rid of everything and live in a condo?” He was clearly incredulous.

  “I already told my grandpa what I was going to do when he was gone. He gave me his blessing. I don’t need an estate. To live one day in every room would take me a year.”

  She hoped he’d laugh, but his expression was inscrutable. “Look at this villa—it’s the perfect size for you. That’s why I love it so much. When you took me to the penthouse, I couldn’t see you in it.”

  “Vasso and I use it out of necessity when we do business and have to stay on site in Athens.”

  “Ah, that explains it. Where does he live?”

  “In a villa about this size on Loggos. But it’s a beach house on the other side of the village.”

  She blinked. “You see? He doesn’t need masses of square footage to be happy, either. Why do you think I would be any different?”

  “But to come here and live isn’t you.”

  His arguments were getting to her. “Because I’m a lousy linguist? I know I only know twelve words and don’t pronounce them well, but I can learn. Just like you learned English!”

  “We had to learn it in order for our business to succeed.”

  “Well, I’ll have to learn Greek for marriage to you to be successful. What’s the difference?”

  “What kind of work would you do here?”

  “If you opened up a new store along the harbor here on Anti Paxos, I could help manage it. If you hired another clerk, I could learn Greek from him.”

  He shook his head. “A job like that isn’t for a woman like you.”

  “Akis—you have a strange idea of who I am. I’m flesh and blood and need work like everyone else. I think it would be fun. Your mom and dad worked together.”

  “That was different.”

  “How?”

  “Because you’re a physicist!”

  “That’s not the only thing I do. I’m a master scuba diver and could give lessons to people on the island.”

  “You never told me that,” he accused.

  “Because it never came up.”

  “Be serious, Raina. You’d go crazy being stuck here.”

  “Not if you came home to me at night.”

  “I can’t always be here.”

  There was an edge of resolution to his delivery. A brittle laugh rose from her lungs like a death cry.

  “I’d hoped you would want me here so much that I could convince you. But it hasn’t happened, so you win. There’s still some daylight left. Why don’t you send for your helicopter and we’ll fly back to Athens by dark. I’ll phone Chloe’s parents and alert them.”

  His lips had thinned to a white line. “Is that what you want?”

  “You know what I want, but it doesn’t matter. Go ahead and call your pilot. I’ll take a swim, but I’ll be ready when he arrives. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like my privacy to change.”

  At first she didn’t think he was going to leave. She could feel the negative vibes emanating from him. If he didn’t go, she was in danger of screaming the house down.

  Finally he disappeared and she got ready for her swim. For the next hour she played in the pool and lay back on the lounger. She had no idea what Akis was doing. Until the last second she prayed he hadn’t sent for the helicopter. But then she heard the faint sound of rotors and knew it was coming. A stake driven through her heart couldn’t have done more damage.

  * * *

  “Raina—you’re back!” Chloe’s mother clasped her with love and gave her kisses on both cheeks. “You’ve gotten a lot of sun.”

  “We’ve been so many places. It was wonderful.” She hooked her arm through Nora’s and they walked through the house to the guest bedroom. They’d left Akis and Socus having a private conversation at the helicopter pad.

  “I have good news for you.”

  “What is it?”

  “Chloe and Theo are having such a wonderful time, they’re going to extend their honeymoon another week. Which means you have to stay with us longer than you’d first thought. She knows you’re here and won’t hear of your leaving Greece until after they get back.”

  Raina gave her a hug. “How about this? I’ll fly home in the morning to do business. But I’ll fly back when Chloe and Theo have arrived and we’ll have our reunion.”

  “You promise?”

  “Of course. I plan to leave early in the morning. Since it’s getting late, I’m going to go to bed now.”

  “I’ll have breakfast waiting for you before you leave.”

  “You don’t need to do that.”

  “I want to.”

  “Thank you, dear Nora.” She hugged her hard, already feeling a loss so excruciating, she didn’t know how she would handle it.

  After Nora left, Raina got ready for bed. The nightmare flight from the island with a taciturn Akis had pretty well destroyed her. When they’d landed on the pad, he’d helped her down and had whispered goodbye to her.

  Just like that he’d let her go from his life. His words about Althea at the reception came back to haunt her. You saved me from being caught. For that, I’m in your debt.

  “You’re welcome,” she whispered to the air before she buried her face in the pillow and sobbed.

  * * *

  As soon as the helicopter took off for the penthouse, Akis phoned his brother. Vasso picked up on the third ring. “How’s the vacation going?”

  “It isn’t. Everything’s over.”

  “What do you mean? Where are you?”

  “I’m headed for the penthouse.”

  “I’ll meet you there in ten minutes.”

  Akis hadn’t been in the apartment five minutes before his br
other arrived, but he’d already poured himself a drink. He held up the glass. “Want to join me?”

  “No. You look like hell. Sit down and talk to me.”

  “There’s nothing to say. I just said goodbye to Raina. She’s going back to California in the morning.”

  Vasso sat down next to him. “Why?”

  “It won’t work.”

  “What won’t work?”

  “Us!”

  “Doesn’t she love you?”

  He poured himself another drink. “She says she does.”

  “So what’s the problem?”

  “Look at me, Vasso!”

  “I’m looking.”

  “Do you see a man who’s worthy of her?”

  Vasso’s brows knit together. “Worthy—give me a definition.”

  “I’m not in her league and couldn’t be in a hundred years. She’s everything I’m not. In time she’ll start to notice all that’s missing and fall out of love with me. I couldn’t handle that, so I let her go tonight.” Exploding with pain, Akis got up from the couch. “I’ve got to go.”

  “At this time of night?”

  “I need to be alone. I’m going to fly back to Anti Paxos.”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  “No. I release you of the promise you made Papa to watch out for me. It’s time I took care of myself.”

  “Wait—”

  “Sorry, bro. I need to be alone.”

  * * *

  It wasn’t until Raina heard her phone ring in the middle of the night that she realized she’d been asleep.

  She came wide awake and grabbed it off the night stand without looking at the caller ID. “Akis?” she cried.

  “I’m sorry, Raina. It’s Vasso Giannopoulos.”

  His big brother was phoning her? Her heart ran away with her. She clutched the phone tighter. “What’s happened to him? Has there been an accident?”

  “Not an accident, but he needs help and you’re the only one who can fix this. I know it’s three in the morning, but I had to call you. When he left me at the penthouse, he was in the worst state I’ve ever seen in my life.”