The Greek Tycoon's Tarnished Bride (Men of the Zodiac) (13 page)

His arm threaded around her waist and pulled her against him as the nannies fastened Nick back into his buggy for the next leg of their journey. “
Well done,
Kyria Makris
, you can relax now.”

Relax? Erica was just about to have her first ever panic attack, she felt sure of it.

Chapter Nine

“I
’
m sorry to get you out of bed, but I wanted you to know that I got married today.” Tito fixed Khloris Frangos, his friend Yannis
’
s mother, with a challenging stare. “Before I make any announcement or before the news leaks out.”

The elderly woman, dressed head to toe in black, breathed in slowly before taking a seat on the terrace of her Cretan villa. The night sky was clear and sprinkled with diamond bright stars. Her voice was gravelly with age. “Married?” She tapped her bony fingers impatiently on the rough wooden table and beckoned for Tito to sit with her. “Why do that?”

“Why do people normally get married?”

“You
’
ve never been normal. Don
’
t treat me like a fool. You swore you would never marry, just like Yannis after what happened in Germany.” She leaned forward and glared at him. “Tell me the truth.”

“It was a marriage to achieve an end, not of love.”

“Of course not love. Explain.”

“Kyria Frangos, I did as you and the trustees asked. I have brought Nick, Yannis
’
s son, to Crete to live. But there was a cost.”

“How much?”

“My freedom. Is that enough for you? I married the child
’
s mother.”

“The whore?” Khloris Frangos shook her head bitterly. “You fool.”

The breeze picked up and made the candle on the table flicker. “She wouldn
’
t agree to let me take him from her, and even I don
’
t have the power and resources to kidnap a British citizen, a baby, and smuggle him into Greece.”

“So the creature demanded marriage? She smelled your money, make no mistake about that.”

“Actually, I suggested it.”

“What! Have you gone mad? My daughter, Valeta, would saw off her own feet to be your wife and mother to Yannis
’
s son. And
she
’
s
a virgin! Whatever possessed you?”

“With respect, you
’
ve not been listening. She wouldn
’
t let me take him, and you and the trustees wouldn
’
t let Nick have his inheritance if she was part of the deal. It was the only solution I could come up with quickly.”

“It was?”

“As my new wife, nobody in Cretan society or the trustees can object to her presence. She is here as my wife,
not
as Nick Frangos
’
s mother. It was the only way to get Nick here to claim what is rightfully his and have her come with him to live. What you all asked of me was too much. I couldn
’
t separate mother and child either morally or legally.”

“Alexis would have found a way.”

“I
’
m not your husband, Alexis, and besides, if he was still alive we wouldn
’
t have to sort out this mess.” He reached out and touched her hand gently; he hadn
’
t overlooked how much the matriarch had lost in that murderous bomb blast. Her grief was devastating. “I brought your first grandchild home. I did it for you, for Yannis, and for the future of all the families that rely on the businesses surviving. Nothing else matters.”

“The trustees will be angry with you.
I
am angry with you.”

Tito sighed and pulled his hand away. “
I don’
t care about them right now. I did my best, and now we should be focusing on Nick and his future. I will make sure he is properly looked after. You have nothing to fear.”

“With that woman still in his life? She
’
s not fit to be his mother.”

“So you have all said many times, but what evidence is there? The report of some hired private investigators? Sometimes things are not as they seem when written down in black and white.”

Khloris Frangos wiped the back of her hand across her mouth and made a snorting noise. “So she suddenly doesn
’
t sell her body for money, huh?”

“She is not a whore, never has been, and she has no need to earn her own money anymore. I will provide for her financially.”

“This will not end well, my boy, but—” The elderly woman shook her head sadly. “I see your heart is in the right place, but no doubt she is telling you what you want to hear. She is taking full advantage of your kindness. She is clever. It
’
s just whoring in another way.”

“You
’
ll change your mind when you get to know her.”

She glared at him, her hands curling into papery brown fists. “I do not wish to meet her.”

Tito glanced up at the moon and damped down the irritation he was feeling. He knew this was going to be a difficult conversation and that the adult head of the Frangos family wasn
’
t known for ever backing down. The old woman was tough, had to be over the decades while the family businesses were built up and she was raised in the poverty that was the scourge of Greece once the Nazis had left. And family, along with religion and marriage, was sacred.

“Please try to understand the position I was in, am still in. I gain nothing from this. Nothing but a ton of grief, but with your help I hope I can keep that to a minimum.”

Khloris nodded, a subtle softening in the lines of her face gave Tito hope he was making some ground in this delicate situation. “What you have done, the sacrifice you have made, honors my dead son. It also honors his son.” Her small gray eyes flickered over his face as she hesitated for a second. “I will say nothing about the true identity of your wife to the others, but if they find out…”

“I will deal with that.”

She nodded. “Very well, I will visit the child in due course. With the others, you understand? It is only right.”

An outward breath of relief and trepidation left Tito
’
s body. “Just let me know when you want to come.”

“Soon. We will visit very soon.” The matriarch
’
s eyes sparkled and a small smile cracked her face. “Get your new wife to prepare us a feast.”

E
rica sat up in the silent darkness. Reluctantly because her body was saying she
’
d just had the best night
’
s sleep in years even though it felt like drums were banging her head. The sheets were crisp, the mattress like a cloud, and the pillow beneath her cheek was so soft yet supportive…perhaps she was dead and this was what the afterlife was? Dark and comfortingly quiet, but there was the steady pulse of breathing, and the wonderfully familiar creaky nasal sound. Nick was asleep in the room with her, which steadied her heart rate a little. He was safe and snug even if she felt as if a truck had run her over.

Now her eyes had adjusted there was a shaft of blue-gray light filtering through a vertical slit to her left—a window? Yes. Then reality gradually seeped through, coloring her consciousness like saffron in hot water. Her right hand flew to the left and the cold ring of metal was there. She hadn
’
t dreamed it; she had married Tito Makris, a virtual stranger, and had traveled thousands of miles on his private jet to be where she was now, in the land of her son
’
s father. The Greek island of Crete.

Was this her destiny all along? Who knew, but she
’
d not had time to think things through before she
’
d fully committed herself. Erica carefully got out of bed as silently as she could, not wanting to wake Nick, and she could now make out the outline of a door opposite the chink of light from the window. The floor tiles were smooth and cool on her bare feet as she reached for the door handle, pushed it down and it opened. She wasn
’
t a prisoner at least.

A quick blink into the light of the illuminated corridor told her there was nobody there. Her surroundings seemed vaguely familiar from the night before when she had been half asleep and groggy from the flight and transfer from the airport. The floor was polished hardwood, the walls a creamy uneven plaster with blue and white uplighters. At the end of the corridor sunlight poured in from what was presumably a skylight but a small one to keep out the fierce Cretan sun. An invisible thread connected to Nick stopped her venturing further down the corridor, and she bit both her bottom and top lip in turn with anxiety. Shit, it was just the two of them at the mercy of her new husband and the family of a man she had known for less than a week. She retreated back into the darkness to hide for a little longer and discovered that her phone battery was completely dead. A small detail and quickly fixable once she got her hands on the charger, but it compounded her feelings of isolation and made the portentous gnawing in her stomach feel even worse.

She padded over to Nick
’
s cot. She could make out his cheeks in the gloom, which were gorgeously round. His peach-like skin was softer than a marshmallow beneath her touch and his long black eyelashes lay like an exotic feather fan above them. How she loved him. She smiled to herself and felt better. Perhaps today they would get the daily swim that Tito had promised her.

Feeling a little buoyed by her burst of optimism, she pulled open the drapes to find there were wooden shutters partially closed over the windows. She opened the shutters and light flooded into the room like a searchlight. She blinked a few times and then opened the painted wood windows to the glorious feel of a warm breeze on her face and the sound of seabirds. And the sea! A small giggle of delight escaped her lips as she breathed in the scents of salt, ozone, and sunbaked shells. She looked over her shoulder to check on Nick but he was still asleep, bless him. The previous couple of days must have completely worn him out as he was usually up and ready to go by dawn, whatever the season.

The furniture was all dark honey-colored wood frames with cream and tan upholstery. Bursts of red and lemon accessories broke up the plain walls along with some modern seascape oil paintings, and there were two doors on the interior as well as the door she had ventured out of earlier. Another set of curtains caught her eye now that the room wasn
’
t dark. They were floor length and she caught her breath. It could only mean one thing: a balcony or terrace lay beyond. She was correct. A wide balcony was set up with a luxurious round table and chair set under an orange silk gazebo for shade. To the side there were sun loungers draped with thick cushions and dark blue towels. A water feature trickled against an old stone wall, and all the edges of the terrace were softened by gigantic urns spilling over with brightly-colored flowers.

Their room and the terrace were on the ground floor so there were no worries about falling from a great height or out of windows, but she would have to be careful to watch Nick didn
’
t tumble too often on the hard stone. As she turned three hundred and sixty degrees it became apparent that beyond her room
’
s terrace was a courtyard to each side, some formal gardens and a cobbled pathway that linked them all but disappeared in a winding fashion into a grove of orange and lemon trees. The building was a mixture of rounded towers and square Turkish-looking architecture jumbled and rambling, disappearing in and out of deep green conifers and stone steps with black railings.

But beyond what was almost like a mountain village in Middle Earth was a huge ancient looking wall, a construction that surrounded everything and had to be at least twenty feet high. She had just stepped out of her bedroom into what appeared to be the inner courtyard of what could only be described as a castle! Tito had said they would be safe in Crete, but she had never expected anything like this.

And then movement caught her eye. It was Tito leaning with both hands forward in rolled up sleeves against a second floor balcony. He wore a plain white shirt that was open at the neck and its fine fabric moved with the breeze. She could see the dark tanned triangle beneath his throat and a hint of chest hair. It was as black and silky as the hair on his head. He appeared to be staring out toward the sea, or at least she guessed it was the sea as there were mountains rearing up behind the property in the opposite direction. She raised her hand to catch his attention, but as she did his head dropped as if he was staring at his feet. Her heart sank; it wasn
’
t the kind of body language that spelled out deep joy. She wondered if she should call out, but before she summoned the courage he had disappeared back inside and Erica felt hollow.

“Forget him,” she muttered to herself. “Let him have his little mood if that
’
s what it is. He wanted this after all.” Stepping back in through the double doors herself she couldn
’
t help but wonder for a second if Tito
’
s apparent misery was down to her and whether she should feel bad about it. She shook herself and took a deep breath. “Don
’
t even think about turning into a good little Greek Wife doormat, missus.”

Erica suddenly realized she was thirsty and wiped the back of her hand across her gritty feeling mouth as she shut the double doors behind her. It might be a castle, but she was still on edge about security and needed to know exactly what the set up was before she could properly relax. “There has to be some water around here,” she muttered and opened secret door number one. It was a bathroom, a very large and very nice bathroom, but it wasn
’
t wise to swig straight out of the tap.

“
Abracadabra,
” she exclaimed and pushed open door number two. “Yes!” It was a kitchen come living room with three more doors leading off from it. This place was like the Tardis. She left the door open so she could hear if Nick stirred and opened the tall American-style fridge. “Wow.” It was fully stocked with a whole range of things, certainly enough to keep a family of four going for a week at least, but her immediate need was for hydration not the tempting bottles of white wine, beer, and champagne that twinkled in the specially designed rack inside.

She twisted the cap off a mineral water and drank deep, but before she could swallow more than two gulps, her senses went into overdrive. She heard the swish of a door opening and spun round to see Tito striding toward her.