The Greek Tycoon Box Set: The Complete Serial: Books 1-10 (28 page)

“I definitely feel more prepared,” she added.

Atreus glanced at her.

“Well, she’s happy. And when she’s happy, I’m happy.”

“Bagged yourself a good one there,” Laura said, winking at Carla.

Carla and Atreus got up to leave. Carla slipped her hand into Atreus’ and beamed up at him.

“I know.”

*****

“Oh, Mothercare!” said Carla, pointing out the store’s sign. “Let’s go!”

Atreus swung the rental Mercedes into the retail park lot and Carla practically jumped out of the car. She glanced back to see Atreus shake his head, smiling, before jogging after her.

They walked in with their hands squeezed together, assaulted by a mass of white and sky blue and baby pink cotton, flannel fabric and just about every baby accessory you could imagine.

“Oh my goodness, how adorable!” Carla squealed, holding up the smallest pair of white patent leather shoes she’d ever seen, no longer than her forefinger.

“Tiny,” Atreus said.

Carla glanced around, trying to take it all in.
 

“There’s so much you need when you have a baby,” she said. “Changing tables, Moses baskets, cots, nappies, bottles, bottle sterilizers, clothes, car seats, strollers … it’s almost overwhelming.”

Atreus pulled her close and planted his lips on hers.
 

“Listen, darling,” he said as he pulled away. “Becoming a parent can be daunting, but I have total faith in you.”

“And you’ll be there every step of the way?”

He backed up, a shocked look playing on his face.

“Carla, how can you even ask me that? Of course I’ll be there…until there’s a dirty diaper to change!”

She slapped him gently on the chest.

“I just like to hear it,” she explained. “My hormones have my emotions running wild.”

He slipped his hand back into hers.

“Of course, I’ll be there, my love. I will
always
be there for you.”

“I know,” she said, snuggling into him.
 

They strolled over to the baby book section. Carla cast her gaze over the sleep manuals, the feeding guides, the recipe books, the masses of parenting tomes. She knelt down to peruse the bottom shelf. Baby Massage, Dealing with Challenging Children, and Pregnancy Yoga were the first titles to catch her eye. It felt strange and exciting all at once.

“What’s it like to be a parent?” she asked.

“What a question,” Atreus replied, then blew a stream of air from barely-parted lips. “It’s almost impossible to explain but I guess I could say it’s nothing like you’ve ever experienced before. It’s kind of like falling in love, but in a totally different way.”

Carla looked up at him, her heartbeat audible in her ears, though if pressed she wouldn’t have been able to explain why.

“When they’re first in your arms, it’s like … this rush of protective love, the fiercest kind of love you’ve ever felt,” Atreus continued. “And as it dawns on you how much responsibility you have for them, it just blows your mind. It’s like the scariest and most rewarding thing at the same time. It’s so,
so
rewarding, my love.”

*****

“So, this is it,” Olivia said.
 

Her hands shook as she gathered her folder and handbag from the foot well of the rental BMW Brian was driving.
 

“You have to arrive in style,” he’d announced.

She flipped down the sun visor and slid the plastic cover to the side to reveal a mirror. Inspecting her lipstick and sucking in her cheeks to find cheekbones to apply blusher to, she kept glancing over at Brian. He wore an expression of enthusiasm and encouragement.

“Do I look okay?” she asked, for perhaps the one hundredth time that morning.

“Babe, you’re a knockout.”

She took a shuddering breath and managed a smile.
 

“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. Here you are, you booked us a hotel, drove hundreds of miles yesterday, dragged yourself out of bed at the crack of dawn to bring me here, and I’m complaining about how I look.”

Brian reached over and rubbed her thigh.

“I would do anything for you, babe. Now you go in there and smash it.”

He glanced in all his mirrors, scoping the flagstone parking lot of the upscale Wellington Hotel, where the interviews were to be held.

“What are you looking for, babe?” Olivia asked, running one manicured finger up and down his forearm.

“Just seeing who your competitors are,” he replied, not missing a beat.

“I know, right,” Olivia said. She watched a couple of men in suits ascend the marble steps to the entrance and felt her stomach tighten. “I hope they’re not going for the interview. They look so experienced.”

Brian leaned over and nibbled at her ear.

“Don’t you worry about them, my sexy babe. You’ll go in there and blow them all away. Now get out.”
 

He grinned at her and reached over for the car door handle.
 

She giggled, rested her head in the crook of his neck and batted her eyelashes up at him.
 

“I love you.”

“You, too.”

She got out of the car, straightening her skirt and feeling the warm glow of Brian’s love surrounding her.

Or, so she thought.

“Good luck,” he said, “not that you’ll need it.”

She crossed her fingers.

“Thanks.”

He watched her for a moment as she wiggled up the stairs, though it didn’t do much for him as they’d already had sex that morning.
 

As soon as she was out of sight he whipped out his smartphone.

You better not be bloody late
, he hammered on the screen, then sent it to Tom.

A text came back at lightning speed.

I’m already there so stop your bitching.

Do good.
Brian replied.

Get lost.
Came back to him. Then a couple of minutes later,
Your bird looks super sexy today.

Brian grinned.

Do good and I might let you have a go on her.

You’re a dog.
Brian read, followed by,
You’re on!

What can I say?
Brian typed, laughing to himself.
Woof.

In his rearview mirror he caught sight of an executive Mercedes pulling into the parking lot, a flash of blond hair in the passenger seat and a deeply bronzed man driving. Brian knew immediately who it was.
 

He switched on the engine and zoomed out of the other exit before they got a chance to spot him.

*****

“So Atreus and Carla, here are your final three candidates,” Cressida said, strutting into the room in her impossibly high patent heels, bright mauve this time.

Atreus and Carla just finished the lunch Cressida had catered for just the two of them in the cavernous, wood-paneled conference room. The hotel staff had laid out tartan-checked placemats for them and served a Scottish feast of numerous tiny dishes. There were taster-sized samples of haggis, black pudding, Lorne sausage sandwich slices, a meat pie the waiter called a Forfar bridie, and an assortment of desserts including melt-in-the-mouth shortbread, rich fruit pudding with cream and whiskey, a version of fudge called
tablet
, and a mix of raspberries, honey, whipped cream, toasted oats and a whiskey cream topping called cranachan that turned out to be Carla’s favorite.

That taster meal was only one of Cressida’s innovative offerings, the whole day was packed full of them. There’d been perhaps eighty people crowded into the conference room that morning and, through a series of challenges and tests, Cressida had whittled them down to just three.

They appeared in the doorway after Cressida, one at a time.

“This is Olivia Stonnell,” Cressida announced.

A smiley,
just
slightly rotund girl with an asymmetric bob and a soft gray skirt-suit walked in, clearly nervous but trying to hold herself together.
 

“Hi,” she said, giving Carla and Atreus a little wave.

“Thomas McClean,” Cressida introduced.
 

A young man in a sharp pinstripe suit with close-cut blond hair nodded at them.
 

“Good afternoon,” he said, his voice almost as plummy as Cressida’s.

“And finally, Hugo Reid.”

Looking every bit the refined gentleman, Hugo Reid walked in, his back impossibly straight. He was in his late forties or early fifties, Carla guessed, but he had lovely, dancing hazel eyes and a classic yet somewhat eccentric dress sense, flashes of color at his breast pocket and his neck and his wrist.

Cressida gestured at three chairs and the candidates sat down. Carla noticed Olivia and Hugo glancing at each other, electricity in the space between them.

“So, what’s your opinion, Cressida?” Atreus asked suddenly.

Cressida stopped, unaware she’d be put on the spot in front of the candidates, but didn’t miss a beat.

“I think we should keep all of them,” she replied, flashing her winning smile. “Olivia is a hotel receptionist with plenty of experience in the luxury sector. Tom is a recent graduate from Oxford, which is impressive enough, indeed. And Hugo was the manager of the Radisson’s Boutique Collection in Mayfair.”

“Wow,” said Carla. “Impressive.”

Atreus nodded, scoping out each of the candidates as Cressida continued.

“The way I see it, Hugo should be our main manager and Olivia and Tom would be perfect trainee managers.”

Atreus looked at Carla, for her approval.
 

“We trust your judgment, Cressida,” Carla said.

“But give us a night to sleep on it,” Atreus added. “We’ll put the three of you up in The Caledonian for the night and a driver will be along to pick you up at 8 am and bring you back here.”

*****

Chapter 3

The sauna room misted with steam and after their long day of interviewing, Carla and Atreus were glad to recline on the wooden benches and bask in the healing heat, their whole bodies overwhelmed by its power.

“Successful first day at the office?” Atreus said.

“I would say so, sir,” Carla replied with a giggle. “Would you agree?”

“I certainly would, ma’am.”

Carla ran her fingers over his torso in a provocative manner.
 

“Now that we work together, I guess I could be your sexy secretary.”

“Oh no,” he said, lifting her hand to the back of his neck, where he loved Carla to massage his hairline. “You’re much more than a secretary, my dear. You’re an
executive
. Though, still a sexy one.”

“A
sexy executive
isn’t such a catchy title though, is it?” Carla asked.

Atreus moaned a little and moved his head this way and that in response to her touch. His voice was low and full of passion.
 

“You have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s sexy as hell.”

She went to him and pressed her lips against his neck.

“I love you, Carla,” Atreus said, his voice deep with the intensity of the moment.

“I love you, too, sir” Carla replied playfully in barely more than a whisper.

The hot air of the sauna swirled around them and their lips grazed each other’s in such a sensuous way that Carla felt pulsating between her thighs.
 

“Atreus…” she said, desperate to free herself from the toweling of the robe.

Atreus pushed her up gently, sitting up himself until they sat astride the bench, face to face. Their eyes met for a long moment and she felt every reservation she’d ever had slip away.

He nuzzled into her neck, kissing and sucking as she moaned, then slid his hands underneath her robe and pushed it down her shoulders, the touch of his strong hands titillating against her shoulders.

“Take me,” she whispered, as the robe fell down to her waist. “Take me, my love.”

Her breasts were heavy, ripe, and full, her large, erect nipples begging to be sucked. With the gentlest touch, he tipped her back onto her elbows, then began to suckle in earnest, licking and swirling his tongue around her nipple until it took all of her strength not to scream out. Andria and Lilia were receiving massages in the room next door and all it would take was one wail before both they and the masseurs would hear.
 

Carla stuffed the sleeve of her robe into her mouth and enjoyed the sensation of heat that threatened to melt her. She felt drips coursing down her thighs but couldn’t tell if it was sweat from the heat of the sauna, the droplets of steam vapor that condensed on her skin, or the wetness of her femininity from the pleasure Atreus was heaping upon her.

He moved down to her stomach, making every part of her body tingle with his touch. Soon he reached where her robe was bunched and threw it aside with such passion that she gasped.