The Greek Billionaire's Innocent Princess (16 page)

demand to stop.

‘Someone must have recognised the car and tipped them off,’ Stavros growled after he had

opened the rear door for them to scramble inside, and then leapt into the driver’s seat, pulling

away from the kerb with a squeal of tyres.

‘Then it’s time to change the car,’ Nikos replied tersely as he glanced out of the back window at

the press-pack following close behind. He was used to a certain amount of media attention, but

his marriage to a princess had been headline news around the world. Pictures showing him and

Kitty together were selling for big money, and the photographers were growing increasingly

aggressive as they fought for the shot that could make them a fortune. ‘See if you can lose them,

Stavros.’

‘Aren’t we going back to the apartment now?’ Kitty queried, glancing at Nikos’s shuttered

expression.

‘I’m afraid you are not going to like where we are going next,’ he replied dryly, aware that the

camaraderie between them was about to be blown to pieces. ‘But the matter of your wardrobe

has to be addressed,
agape
, and we are going shopping.’

Stavros was a skilled driver who seemed to know every back street in Athens. Eventually he lost

the bikers and drew up in Kolonaki—an affluent district of the city famed for its designer

boutiques. For the next couple of hours Kitty trailed around the shops while Nikos selected

armfuls of outfits that she could tell from the bright colours and overtly sexy styles were not

going to suit her.

‘Try them on,’ he bade her, the steely glint in his eyes warning her that arguing would be

useless. The head saleswoman was clearly overawed by him and whisked them off to a private

room so that Kitty could change in comfort. But when she stepped out from behind the curtain in

a tightfitting dress that left nothing to the imagination, she halted abruptly at the sight of Nikos sitting comfortably on the sofa, waiting for her.

‘What are you doing?’ she muttered beneath her breath, supremely conscious of the saleswoman

nearby, and the fact that her breasts were in danger of spilling out of the dress. She had enjoyed

his company at the museum, but shopping was a torture he had instigated, and she glared at him

crossly.

‘Giving my advice on what suits you,’ he replied blandly. ‘And having seen the clothes you

brought from Aristo, believe me, you need help.’ He trailed a deliberate path over her shapely

figure, his dark eyes scorching her, and to Kitty’s horror she felt her nipples harden.

‘Very nice.’ Nikos felt a shaft of desire surge through him as he pictured unlacing the ribbons

that held the front of the dress together and releasing her magnificent breasts. He shifted slightly in his chair. ‘We’ll definitely take this one,’ he told the saleswoman, his eyes still focused

intently on Kitty as sexual tension crackled between them. She could feel her face grow hot, and

her blush deepened when he gave her a mocking smile. ‘Go and try on the next one,’ he ordered.

‘I haven’t got all day.’

By the time they left the boutique, followed by three of the shop staff laden with bags, Kitty was

flustered and furious. ‘I hope you enjoyed humiliating me,’ she muttered as they fought a path

through the crowd who had gathered to see one of Greece’s richest tycoons, and his royal bride.

‘How did I humiliate you?’ Nikos demanded impatiently.

‘By making me try on all those things and parade around in front of you as if you owned me.’

Kitty had felt excruciatingly self-conscious and convinced that he must have been comparing her

voluptuous curves with his numerous skinny, blonde ex-lovers. ‘None of the outfits you insisted

on buying suited me, and it was a waste of money. They’ll just sit at the back of the wardrobe

because I’ll never wear them.’

‘Oh, but you will,
agape
.’ He put a protective arm around her shoulder as someone in the crowd jostled her. Startled, Kitty glanced up and her eyes clashed with his mocking gaze. ‘In fact you’ll

wear the red silk evening dress tonight. We’ve been invited to a party in aid of one of the

charities I support, and all eyes will be on my wife.’

Kitty’s horrified protest died on her lips when they emerged from the shop and were half

blinded by the flash of a dozen cameras. The paparazzi had caught up with them. But fortunately

Stavros was there and used his massive frame to shoulder a path to the car where he wrenched

open the door so that Nikos could bundle Kitty inside.

‘Why are they so interested?’ Kitty cried as the car accelerated away and she watched the

photographers weaving dangerously in and out of the traffic on their motor-scooters, in hot

pursuit. ‘It’s not as if I’ve done anything to warrant such attention. I haven’t done something

wonderful for charity, or saved a life. I’m just drab, boring Kitty Karedes, who happens by an

accident of birth to be a princess.’

‘You are Kitty Angelaki now,’ Nikos reminded her, ‘and you are neither drab nor boring. But I

agree that people seem to be increasingly celebrity obsessed.’

‘The people on Aristo aren’t,’ Kitty muttered. ‘Nothing like this ever happened to me there. I

even used to ride around the island on my bike and the most attention anyone ever paid me was a

smile or a wave.’ She leaned her head back against the leather seat and placed her hand

protectively on her stomach, more shaken than she cared to admit by the overwhelming media

fascination with her. She felt desperately homesick for the peace and tranquillity of the palace,

and the freedom that she had taken for granted on Aristo. Of course she’d had her royal duties to

perform, but attending the opening of a new wing of the hospital had attracted only mild interest

from the Aristan press and she wasn’t used to being in the constant glare of the media spotlight.

She wished she could go home, back to where she felt safe. But home was now Nikos’s elegant

but characterless apartment that felt more like a five-star hotel than a comfortable bolt hole, and

her misery was compounded by the news that tonight Nikos was taking her to a party where she

would meet many of his sophisticated friends.

Sotiri greeted them when they walked into the apartment. ‘Some boxes have arrived from Aristo

for you, Miss Kitty,’ he said, throwing open the door to the living room where four huge trunks

were stacked.

‘My books…’ Kitty forgot the horrors of the shopping trip as she tore open one of the boxes and

smiled at the sight of the dozens of books packed inside.

‘
Theos
! Are
all
these crates full of books?’ Nikos picked up a battered hardback. ‘Where are you going to put them all? The apartment is spacious, but it’s not big enough to house an entire

library.’

‘They’re the books that I use for my research work, and I need them here,’ Kitty said

stubbornly.

‘Well, there’s no room for them in my study. I’ll ask Sotiri to move the boxes into one of the

spare bedrooms, and I suppose we can turn it into an office for you if you intend to carry on

working—although I doubt you’ll have much free time, and of course financially there is no need

for you to work.’

‘I definitely want to carry on writing my book about the early history of the Adamas Islands,

and I’d like to continue with my advisory work for Aristo’s museum, certainly until the baby is

born,’ Kitty said slowly. ‘If you are at your office all day, what else will I do?’

‘I assumed you would want to get involved in charity work. A friend of mine, Melina Demakis,

is a well-known social hostess in Athens who organises lunches and other fund-raising activities

for a number of charities. I’ll ask her to contact you.’

Kitty’s heart sank at the prospect of filling her days lunching with wealthy and no doubt well-

meaning doyennes of worthy organisations, and ‘doing her bit’ for charity. There had to be

something more worthwhile she could do with her life, she thought heavily. ‘I was thinking

perhaps that I could volunteer to help out at the local hospital—visiting patients and maybe

working a few hours in the coffee shop like I used to do at the hospital on Aristo.’

‘You mean where you were once subjected to a vicious attack by a mentally ill patient?

Sebastian told me that your father forbid you to go back there after the incident,’ Nikos said in a

scathing tone that showed what he thought of her idea.

‘It wasn’t a vicious attack. The patient lashed out and caught my cheek, but he didn’t know what

he was doing, poor man. My father was always rather overprotective,’ Kitty added ruefully.

‘As I am,’ Nikos replied. ‘How could you possibly work at a hospital with the paparazzi tailing

your every move as they did today? You would be a hindrance rather than a help.’

‘The paparazzi wouldn’t know my whereabouts if I didn’t draw attention to myself by turning

up in a limousine, with a bodyguard at my side.’

‘Well, you are certainly not stepping foot outside this apartment without Stavros,’ Nikos said

tersely. ‘You are pregnant, Kitty, and I won’t allow you to put yourself and our child in danger.’

‘I have no intention of putting me or the baby in any sort of danger. But what do you mean by

“won’t allow”?’ Kitty saw red as the empathy she had felt with him at the museum evaporated.

‘Since when did you have authority over me?’ she demanded furiously.

‘Since you became my wife—and, more importantly, since you conceived my baby,’ he replied

in a tone that brooked no further argument. He glanced at his watch and strolled down the hall. ‘I

have an hour’s work to do in my study. I suggest you start preparing for the party. From past

experience I know how long it takes women to get ready.’

That final reference to his previous women— with emphasis on the plural—was the final straw,

and Kitty was seriously tempted to fling the porcelain figurine of Aphrodite that stood on the hall

dresser at his head. But Nikos had disappeared into his study, and after a few minutes she trailed

down the hall and through the master bedroom to her dressing room, carried on into the en suite

and ran herself a bath, hoping that a long soak in fragrant bubbles would relieve her growing

tension at the prospect of socialising with a hoard of people she had never met before.

An hour later she stood in front of the mirror and studied her reflection with dismay. The floor-

length evening gown made from rich ruby-red satin had a strapless, tight-fitting bodice, and an

even tighter fitting skirt that clung to her hips and bottom and flared out from mid-thigh, with a

side split that at least enabled her to walk. It was the most daringly sexy dress she had ever seen, let alone possessed— and it made her look like a tart, she decided grimly as she turned sideways

to the mirror and sucked in her stomach. Any woman who wore this dress would attract

attention. But that was the last thing she wanted to do at tonight’s party.

If she had realised how much of her body was displayed by the plunging neckline she would

have sneaked it back on the rail in the shop, Kitty thought fiercely as she tugged the zip down

and stepped out of the dress.

The black evening dress she’d brought from Aristo was not unattractive, and at least it didn’t

make her look as if she walked the streets for a living. Even better, it would draw no attention at

all, and with luck she could slink into a corner and remain there for the evening.

She swept her hair up into a knot on top of her head, exchanged the four-inch stilettos that

matched the red dress for black two-inch kitten heels, and walked through the connecting door

just as Nikos emerged from his bathroom.

He was devastating in a black tuxedo and a white silk shirt, his bow tie as yet unfastened and

hanging open at his throat. He looked every inch the urbane, sophisticated, billionaire tycoon,

with a raw sex appeal that would make every woman at the party go weak at the knees. Kitty felt

a fierce tug of sexual awareness that made her heart race and her breath catch in her throat. But

from the expression on his face, he was clearly not impressed by her appearance, and his brows

lowered in a slashing frown as he walked towards her.

‘Not quite what I had in mind,
agape
,’ he drawled as his eyes slid down from her severe

hairstyle to her prim, plain dress. ‘I thought we had decided that you would wear the red dress?’

‘No, you decided I would wear the red dress,’ Kitty snapped. ‘But I refuse to go out looking like

a hooker you’ve picked up from some bar.’

‘You prefer to go out looking as though you are on your way to a funeral?’ His brows rose, and

Kitty itched to wipe the arrogant expression from his face. ‘You have five minutes to change,’ he

said in a dangerously soft voice. ‘You are my wife, Kitty, and I expect you to dress accordingly,

not wear something that makes you resemble a maiden aunt.’

Kitty’s temper had been simmering since their argument about her working at the hospital, and

it ignited at his heavy-handedness.

‘I feel more comfortable wearing clothes of my choice,’ she began, and then emitted a startled

cry when his hands shot out and wrenched the front of her dress open so that the buttons running

from neck to waist pinged in all directions.

‘What do you think you’re doing?
How dareyou
?’ She was breathing hard, her chest heaving so that Nikos’s attention was drawn to her breasts, which were barely contained in a semi-transparent black bra.