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The Bridegroom's Vow
Rebecca Winters
Dimitrios Pandakis has vowed that, unlike his older brother, he will never be trapped into marriage.And this millionaire businessman has been so true to his word that - despite his reputation as a heartbreaker - he has yet to take a woman to bed! But now his new secretary is sorely testing his resolve.Alexandra Hamilton, for all her plain-Jane appearance, has somehow worked her way under his skin. And Dimitrios knows only one thing will satisfy him - marriage!
Award-winning author
Rebecca Winters
is known and loved for her unique characters and intense, deeply emotional stories.
Here is just some of the praise her books have received….
“Rebecca Winters’ latest is full of emotional scenes, fantastic characterization and endearing romance.”
—Romantic Times on His Very Own Baby
“Winters weaves a magical spell that is unforgettable,”
—Affaire de Coeur on The Nutcracker Prince
“An emotionally intense premise…dynamic characters, heartrending scenes and wonderful romance.”
—Romantic Times on Undercover Baby
Look out in Harlequin Romance
in June for
His Majesty’s Marriage (#3705)
by
Lucy Gordon and Rebecca Winters
Harlequin Romance
is delighted to invite you to
It’s the countdown to the Big Day: the guests are invited, the flowers are arranged, the dress is ready and the sparks between the lucky couple are sizzling hot….
Only, our blushing bride and groom-to-be have yet to become “engaged” in the bedroom!
Is it choice or circumstance keeping their passions in check? Read our brand-new miniseries WHITE WEDDINGS to find out why a very modern bride wears white on her wedding day!
Look out in May for
Emma’s Wedding (#3699)
by
BETTY NEELS
Readers are invited to visit Rebecca Winters’s Web site at www.rebeccawinters-author.com.
The Bridegroom’s Vow
Rebecca Winters
My story takes place in Greece, a country of incredible history and beauty. My favorite living artist, Thomas McKnight, fell in love with Greece, too.
He has created one masterpiece after another of Mykonos, Chora, Kalafati, the Aegean and much, much more. It is to him and his wife, Renate, that I dedicate this book.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
DIMITRIOS heard footsteps in the passage outside his door. It was the middle of the night. Curious to know what was going on, he flung his covers aside and hurried out into the hall.
“Leon?” he whispered when he saw his adored elder brother carrying a suitcase. “What’s happening?”
Leon spun around. “Go back to bed, Dimi.”
Ignoring the command, he rushed up to Leon. “Where are you going?”
“Lower your voice. You’ll find out soon enough.”
“But you can’t just leave!” He worshipped Leon who’d been father, brother and protector all rolled into one this last year. “Wherever you have to go, I’ll come with you. I can be ready in two minutes.”
“No, Dimi. You have to stay here with Uncle Spiros and our cousins. I should be back in a week.”
Tears filled his eyes. “The cousins aren’t fun like you, and Uncle Spiros is too strict.”
“Since our parents died, he’s been good to us in his own way, Dimi. It won’t be so bad.”
Panic-stricken, Dimitrios threw his arms around Leon, trying to prevent him from leaving. “Please let me come with you.”
“You can’t. You see, I’m getting married before the night’s out. It’s all been arranged.”
Married?
Dimitrios felt like his world had come to an end. “Which one of your girlfriends is it?”
“Ananke Paulos.”
“I’ve never heard of her. Will you bring her here?”
“No,” he said on a heavy sigh. “We’ll be living in our parents’ villa.”
“Then I’ll come and live with you. I can sleep in my old room like always.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Dimi. A woman likes her own house.”
“But that means you and I’ll never live together again!”
“Hey—we’ll always be brothers. I’ll visit you every day, and you’ll come to visit us.”
The pain kept getting worse. “Do you love her more than me?” His voice wobbled.
Leon stared down at him with eyes full of anguish. Dimitrios didn’t know his brother could look like that. It terrified him.
“Not at all. In fact I would give anything in the world if I didn’t have to marry her. But she’s pregnant with my child.”
Dimitrios blinked in astonishment.
“She’s going to have your baby?”
“Yes.”
“You made a baby with a woman you don’t love?” He couldn’t comprehend such a thing.
“Oh, Dimi—listen to me. You’re only twelve, not quite old enough for a man’s feelings to have taken over inside you yet. When that day comes, your body will react when you see a beautiful woman. You’ll want to hold her, make love to her. The pleasure a woman can bring you is to die for.”
Dimitrios frowned through the tears. “To die for?”
A sound of frustration came out of Leon. “I only mean that when a man and a woman make love, it’s wonderful beyond your imagination.”
“Was it that way with Ananke?”
“Yes.”
“But if you don’t love her?”
“You can feel great desire for a woman without loving her. I would never have married her but for the baby. Now I have to do my duty as a Pandakis.”
“No, you don’t!” Dimitrios cried from the depths of his soul. “What kind of a woman would want to live with you if she knew you didn’t love her?”
A groan escaped Leon’s throat. “Dimi? There are other reasons she wants to marry me.”
“What reasons?”
“Money, status.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You know our family has run a successful financial empire in Greece for generations. Our reputation is known throughout the corporate world. Uncle Spiros meets with important, influential people, just like our father did before he died.
“That’s the reason Ananke tricked me. She was hoping to have my baby so she could belong to our family. Now she’s going to get her wish, but it won’t be the wedding she imagined. We’re going to be married at the church by the priest with no one there but her grandmother to watch.”
“I hate her!” Dimitrios blurted in fresh pain.
“Don’t say that, Dimi. After tonight she’ll be part of our family.”
“I will say it!” With tears streaming down his face, Dimitrios backed away from his brother. “Do you think our mother married our father because of his money?”
Dimitrios had to wait a long time to hear a response.
“Probably.”
Leon was always brutally honest. His answer crushed Dimitrios. Sick with grief over what his brother had just told him, he said, “Can’t a rich man find a woman who will love him for himself?”
“I don’t know the answer to that question. The point is, I don’t want you to make the same mistake I did. Unfortunately that’s where you’ve got a problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“One day you’ll be the head of the Pandakis Corporation because Uncle Spiros says you’ve got the smartest head on your shoulders of anyone in the family. You’re also better looking than all the Pandakis men put together.
“You’ll be able to have your pick of any woman in the world. They’ll throw themselves at you. You, little brother, will have to be more careful than most men to make certain no woman gets pregnant with your baby and tricks you into marriage.”
Dimitrios ground his teeth. “That will never happen to me.”
Leon gave him a sad smile. “How do you know that?”
“I won’t ever make love to a woman. Then I won’t have to worry.”
“Of course you will.” He tousled Dimitrios’s curly black hair. “We’ll continue this conversation next week when I take us hiking.”
Dimitrios watched his brother disappear around the corner of their uncle’s villa. It was just like the night a year ago when they learned that their parents had been killed. Dimitrios had wanted to die then, too.
Alexandra Hamilton didn’t trust anyone to dye her hair except Michael at the Z-Attitude hair salon in her home town of Paterson, New Jersey.
He was a genius at his craft. That went without saying. But more to the point, she trusted him with secrets the way she would a father confessor.
Today he was wearing his hair in blue spikes. Michael wasn’t a mere coiffeur par excellence. He entertained everyone who flocked to his busy salon. Women adored him, young and old.
Her green eyes met his in the huge mirror with its border of stage lights.
“When are you going to emerge from this boring brown chrysalis and reveal your natural blond mane to his wondrous gaze?”
“Not until he falls in love with me as I am.”
He meaning Dimitrios Pandakis, of course. Alex loved him with every fiber of her being.
“I hate to tell you this, but you’ve been saying that ever since you went to work for his company. Four years now, isn’t it?”
Alex stuck her tongue out at him.
“Sorry,” he said in the most unrepentant voice she’d ever heard.
Her softly rounded chin lifted a good inch. “I’m making progress.”
“You mean since you slipped a little poison into his private secretary’s coffee six months ago?”
“Michael! That’s not funny. She was a wonderful woman. I still miss her and know he does, too.”
“Just kidding. I thought the trip to China went without a hitch.”
“It did. He gave me another bonus.”
“That makes quite a few. He’d better be careful or he might just find himself on the losing end of a very clever takeover orchestrated by none other than his own Ms. Hamilton.” A devilish expression broke out on Michael’s face. “Are you still making him call you that?”
She tried to hide her smile. “Yes.”
“It gives you great pleasure, doesn’t it.”
“Extreme. I must be the only woman on seven continents who doesn’t fall all over him trying to get his attention.”
“Yes, and it shows.”
“What it does is make me different from all the other women,” she defended. “One day he’s going to take notice.”
“Let’s hope it happens before he marries one of his own kind to produce an heir who’ll inherit his fortune. He’s not getting any younger, you know.”
A familiar pain pierced her heart. “Thank you for playing on my greatest fear.”
“But you love me anyway for telling you the truth.”
She bit her lip. “He has a nephew he loves like a son. Mrs. Landau once told me Dimitrios’s brother died, so he took over the guardianship of his nephew. There’s this look he gets on his face whenever Leon calls him from Greece.”
“Well, then—” He fastened her hair in a secure twist. “I guess you have no worries he’s anxious to start a family of his own.”
“Oh, stop!”
He grinned, eyeing her from the darkened roots of her head to the matronly black shoes she wore on her feet.
“Only your hairdresser knows for sure. I must say I did a good job when I transformed you.”
“It doesn’t suit you to be modest, Michael. Why not admit you created a masterpiece.”
Thanks to his expertise in doing hair and makeup for a lot of his friends in the theater, he’d come up with a disguise that made her look like a nondescript secretary much older than her twenty-five years.
“Possibly,” he quipped. “However, I may have gone too far when I suggested those steel-rimmed glasses you wear. You could walk on the set of a World War Two film being produced as we speak and fit right in.”
“That’s been the idea all along. You know I’m indebted to you.” She handed him a hundred-dollar bill, which he refused.
“We worked out a deal, remember? In return for some free hair appointments, my friends and I get to stay free at your hotel suite in Thessalonica during the fair.”
She shook her head. “I’ve been thinking about it and have decided I’m getting the better end of that deal.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Do you even know how much a suite in that place costs for one night?”
“No.”
“I guess you don’t have to know when you’re the private secretary of Dimitrios Pandakis. Oh, if the rest of the world had any idea how you really live these days,” he said dramatically.
“You know I don’t care about that.”
His expression grew serious for a moment. “Is it really worth it to be the bridesmaid, but never the bride?”
He’d touched a painful nerve and knew it. “I can’t imagine not seeing him every day.”
“You’re hopeless, darling.”
“Tell me about it.” She got out of the chair and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “See you in Greece next week.”
“We’re coming as Mysian troubadours. Are you sure I can’t bring you a costume along with his? There’s this marvelous gold affair—Italian renaissance. I can borrow it from the opera company.”
She shook her head. “Ms. Hamilton doesn’t do costumes. It’s not in her character.”
“Pity.”
Alex chuckled. “Have a safe trip over, Michael.”
“You mean with three hundred of us on our charter flight squashed like Vienna sausages in the can? Lucky you, riding in the Pandakis private jet.”
“I’ll admit that part’s nice. Bye for now.”
She left the salon, grateful that the disguise Michael had created for her had worked perfectly during the four years she’d been in Dimitrios’s employ. She’d won the man’s confidence. But the thought that it was all she might ever win from him wasn’t to be considered.
As for her other fear, it was foolish to worry that when she arrived in Greece, Giorgio Pandakis might recognize her from the past. Not when Dimitrios had never shown any signs of remembering.
Nine years was too long a time for a man who’d been drunk to recall accosting an unsuspecting sixteen-year-old girl. Thankfully someone had been outside the silk museum in Paterson that night looking for him and had heard her screams.
Alex could still see her protector’s face as it had appeared in the shadowy moonlight. Like a dark, avenging prince, Dimitrios Pandakis himself had pulled his cousin off her before knocking him to the ground, unconscious.
Assisting her to her feet, he’d told her he would help her press charges if she wanted him to. Alex, who stood there on trembling legs thankful for deliverance, had been shocked that he would defend an anonymous teenage girl over his cousin.
Dimitrios didn’t accuse her of encouraging the situation. He didn’t try to pay her off. He showed no fear of the scandal that would naturally ensue once her father heard about it. With a name as famous as Pandakis, that kind of news would make headlines. Yet he’d been willing to put his family through embarrassment for her sake.
In that moment, she loved him.
Once her sobs began to subside, she assured him it wouldn’t be necessary to call in the police. He’d come to her rescue before things had gone too far. All she wanted was to forget it had ever happened.
After thanking him again for saving her, she ran off across the garden to her house, clutching the torn pieces of the silk blouse to her chest.
Just before she disappeared around the corner, she watched him throw his loathsome cousin over his shoulder with the ease only a tall, powerful man possessed.
Her green eyes stayed fastened on him until she couldn’t see the outline of his silhouette any longer. But even if he’d gone, the man was unforgettable.
By the time she climbed into bed that night she determined that one day, when she was older, they would meet again. It would be under vastly different circumstances, of course. And no matter what it took, she’d make certain he found her unforgettable, too.
As Dimitrios buttoned his shirt, he heard a rap on his bedroom door. Assuming it was Serilda, the housekeeper who’d been like a favorite aunt since he was a little boy, he told her to come in.
The door opened, but the usual burst of information about the weather and the state of the world wasn’t forthcoming.
Unless she’d sent a maid to him with coffee and rolls, it wouldn’t be anyone else but his nephew.
Dimitrios felt great love for the twenty-two-year old whose build and mannerisms were a constant reminder of Leonides Pandakis, Dimitrios’s deceased elder brother.
By some miracle, his pregnant bride survived the car crash that took Leonides’s life on their honeymoon. Their unborn child, christened Leon at birth, had also been spared.
Like his father, he was a happy boy with a friendly, outgoing nature. A typical teen with his share of problems, he’d survived those years and had grown into a fine young man who was halfway through his university studies and showed a healthy enthusiasm for life. Or so Dimitrios had thought.
But since Dimitrios’s return from China yesterday, he’d seen a big change in his nephew. Normally Leon sought his company at the slightest opportunity, giving him chapter and verse of anything and everything happening in his world.
This time he’d only greeted his uncle with a hug, then disappeared from the villa without a word of explanation. It was totally unlike him. Dimitrios had glimpsed shadows in the brown eyes he’d inherited from his mother.
Something was wrong, of course. He hoped it wasn’t serious. Maybe now he’d find out.
“You’re up early, Leon,” he called to him. “That’s good because I was about to come and find you. I’ve missed you and have been looking forward to one of our talks.”
After shrugging into his suit jacket, he emerged from his walk-in closet, hoping his nephew would reveal whatever had been troubling him. But when he discovered it was Ananke still in her nightgown and robe who’d crossed his threshold uninvited, revulsion rose like bile in his throat.
He’d always felt a natural antipathy toward the woman who’d tricked his brother into marriage, and never more than at this moment. Yet love for his brother’s son had tempered that destructive emotion enough for him to tolerate her presence in the villa while acting as guardian to young Leon.
Plastic surgery had removed all traces of the scars on her forehead left by the accident. Would that it could as easily erase the scars in Dimitrios’s heart. But nothing could take away the memory of a mercenary female who’d lured Leon to her bed for the express purpose of begetting a Pandakis. Because of her, his brother was dead.
Back then Ananke had been a precocious eighteen-year-old, aware of her assets and how to use them. Now she was a forty-one-year-old female, only six years older than Dimitrios. A woman most men found attractive, yet she showed no interest in them.
Not for the first time had he wondered if she was hoping to become his bride. Though she’d let it be known to family and friends that she refused to consider marriage until she saw her son settled down with a wife of his own, Dimitrios knew it was an excuse to stay on at the villa. No other man could offer her the Pandakis lifestyle.
At a recent family birthday party, his cousin Vaso had speculated with similar thoughts to him. Dimitrios’s eyes must have reflected his abhorrence of the subject because the eldest of Spiros Pandakis’s sons didn’t broach it again.
Unfortunately nothing seemed to slake Ananke’s ambition. Her temerity in seeking him out in a place as private as his own bedroom at seven in the morning gave him proof that she had few scruples left.
Out of love for his brother and nephew, he’d treated her with civility all these years. Regrettably this morning she’d stepped over a forbidden line and would know his wrath.
“You have no right to be in this part of the villa, Ananke.”
“Please don’t be angry with me. I have to talk to you before Leon finds you.” She looked like she’d been crying. “This is important.”
“Important enough to put false ideas in the minds of the staff, let alone my nephew?” he demanded in a quiet rage. “From here on out, if you have something to say to me in private, call me at my office.”
“Wait,” she cried as he swept past her and strode down the corridor toward the entrance to the villa, impervious to her pleading.
“Dimi!” She half-sobbed his nickname in an effort to detain him.
The use of the endearment only his parents and brother had ever called him had the effect of corrosive acid being poured into a wound that would never heal.
Compared to the sound of his ever-lengthening footsteps, the rapid patter of her sandals while she tried to catch up with him made the odd cadence on the marble tiles. To his relief, the patter finally faded.
He’d just shut the front door and had headed for the parking area around the side of the villa when Leon called to him.
Dimitrios wheeled around, surprised to discover his nephew following him.
“Uncle.” He ran up. “I need to talk to you. Alone,” he added in a confiding voice. “Would you let me drive you to the office?”
For a fleeting moment Dimitrios felt guilty for dismissing Ananke. She had obviously been trying to alert him to something. But when he considered her reckless actions, which would be misconstrued by his staff no matter how loyal they were to him, he wasn’t sorry he’d cut her off.
Years ago Leonides had married Ananke to do the honorable thing and give his child the Pandakis name. After his brother died, Dimitrios determined no breath of scandal would ever touch his nephew if he could help it.
Of course Leon was a free agent, capable of getting into trouble on his own—if that were the case. Under the circumstances, Dimitrios knew he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on business until he’d learned what was plaguing his nephew.
“Work can wait. Why don’t we take a drive and stop somewhere for lunch. I’ll call Stavros and tell him I won’t be in until afternoon.”
“You’re sure you wouldn’t rather spend time with one of your women friends now that you’re back from China?”
“No woman is more important than you, Leon.”
“Are you sure? When I was at Elektra the other night, Ionna went out of her way to ask me when you were coming home. She said it was urgent that she talk to you. She even asked me for your cell phone number, but I told her I didn’t remember it.”
Dimitrios shook his head. “If she was that forward with you, then she has written her own death sentence.”
His nephew eyed him steadily. “She’s very beautiful.”
“I agree, but you know my rule, Leon. When a woman starts to take the initiative, I move on.”
“I think it’s a good rule. I’ve been using it, too, and I must say it works.”
For some strange reason, the admission didn’t sit well with Dimitrios. It sounded too cynical for Leon.
“To be frank, I’m glad you’d rather be with me this morning,” came the emotional response.
Dimitrios gave his nephew a hug. Minutes later their car was headed into the hills of Thessalonica overlooking the bay. While Leon drove, Dimitrios checked in with his assistant.
“Stavros? Can you spare me for a few hours longer?”
“The truth?”
His question surprised Dimitrios.
“Always.”
“Ms. Hamilton and I may work an ocean apart, but since she became your private secretary, I’ve begun to feel superfluous.”
“You’re indispensable to the company, Stavros. You know that,” he rushed to assure him. The sixty-six-year-old man had kept the Greek end of the Pandakis Corporation running smoothly for decades.
Ms. Hamilton, the understudy of his former private secretary in New York until Mrs. Landau’s unexpected passing, was a six-month-old enigma, still in her infancy. Yet Dimitrios could understand why Stavros made the remark.
In a word, she was a renaissance woman. Brilliant. Creative. A combination of a workaholic and efficiency expert who, though she was no great beauty, happened to be blessed with a pleasant nature. She was many things—too many, in fact, to put a label on her. Mrs. Landau had known what she was doing when she’d hired her.
Before their trip to China, Dimitrios had wondered how he’d ever gotten along without her. During their week’s stay in Beijing while he’d watched her weave her magic before their inscrutable colleagues with the finesse of a statesman, he finally figured it out.
She had a woman’s mind for detail, but she thought like a man. Best of all for Dimitrios, she had no interest in him.
“Ms. Hamilton brings her own genius to the company, just as you brought yours many years ago and tutored me, Stavros. I’m looking forward to next week when the two of you meet for the first time. She holds you in great reverence, you know.”
“I, too, shall enjoy making the acquaintance of this American paragon. Spring greets Winter.”
“Since she’s in her late thirties, it would be more accurate to say summer, and you’re sounding uncharacteristically maudlin, Stavros.”
“You have to allow me the vicissitudes of my age.”
Dimitrios chuckled, but beneath the banter he could sense his assistant’s vulnerability. Perhaps a word in Ms. Hamilton’s ear that she leave something important for Stavros to handle for the fair would help.
“Just so we understand each other, I won’t allow you to retire until I do. See you later this afternoon.”
“What’s wrong with Stavros?” his nephew asked as he clicked off the phone.
Putting his head back to relax, Dimitrios murmured, “He’s suddenly aware of growing older.”
“I know how he feels.”
Dimitrios would have laughed if Leon hadn’t sounded so serious. “You said you wanted to talk. Since you brought up Ionna, I have to wonder if you’re not about to tell me you’ve fallen for a girl your mother doesn’t like.”
Leon shook his head. “That’s not why we argued. I told her I dislike my business classes and want to drop out of the university. It’s only September. I can still withdraw without penalty before the fall semester starts in three weeks.”
Dimitrios schooled himself not to react. “To feel that strongly, you must have a very good reason.”
“My heart isn’t in it!” he cried. “I don’t think it ever was. Mother’s always had this vision of me taking my place in the family corporation. She says I owe it to my father’s memory. But business doesn’t appeal to me. Do you think that makes me some sort of traitor?” he asked in an anxious voice.
“Of course not,” Dimitrios scoffed.
At this point he could have told his nephew a few home truths. Like the fact that Leon’s father hadn’t been interested in the family business, either.
There was information Leon didn’t know about his mother that would shed more light on her determination to make certain he held onto his birthright.
But Dimitrios’s hands were tied, because telling his nephew the truth about the past would hurt him more than it would help.
“What do you want to do with your life, or do you even know yet?”
His nephew heaved a sigh. “It’s just an idea, but it’s grown stronger with every visit to Mount Athos.”
Mount Athos.
“You took me there the first time. Remember? We did a walking tour, and ate and slept at the various monasteries.”
Yes. He remembered. Especially his nephew’s fascination with the monks…
Dimitrios straightened in the seat.
Like a revelation he knew what Leon was going to say before he said it.
“Uncle? Last night I told mother I’m thinking of entering an order. That’s when she ran out of my bedroom in hysterics. I’ve never seen her react like that to anything. Would you talk to her about it? You’re the only person she’ll listen to.”
Lord.
Was it possible that Leon’s hero-worship of him had caused his nephew to dismiss a woman’s love as unimportant?
Ananke’s unprecedented visit to his bedroom this morning was beginning to make sense in a brand-new way.
Since the death of Leonides she’d lived on sufferance under Uncle Spiros’s roof until his passing, then under the protection of Dimitrios.
If her son renounced all his worldly goods and went to live on a mountain, Ananke wouldn’t only have lost a son to the church, she would have no choice but to move into a house Dimitrios would provide for her. A comfortable enough pied-à-terre befitting the widow of Leonides. All her dreams smashed.
“Before I say anything to your mother, I’d like to hear more about how you feel.”
“As I said, I’m only thinking about it.”
“Our trip to Mount Athos took place ten years ago. That’s a long time to give a young man to think.”
Leon blushed. The reaction tugged at Dimitrios’s heart. Perhaps his brother’s son truly did have a vocation for the religious life. If it was the path he was meant to travel, far be it from Dimitrios to try to dissuade him.
Then again, like greener pastures, the monastic life might sound good to him because he was still young and lost.
Dimitrios had never questioned what direction his own life would go. He couldn’t relate to Leon in that regard, but he was his guardian. As such, he felt it incumbent to listen as his nephew poured out his heart.
Afterward he would point out the ramifications of a decision that a twenty-two-year-old mind wasn’t capable of envisioning yet. For one thing, it would break his mother’s heart. Ananke might be many things, but she loved her son.
For another, it would destroy something inside Dimitrios if he thought his own tormented past had anything to do with the drastic step his nephew was contemplating.
Suddenly Dimitrios felt older than Stavros.
CHAPTER TWO
ALEX’S family always complained that she didn’t stay long enough when she came to Paterson for visits. Her parents had never approved of her intentionally making herself look older in order to get hired by the Pandakis company. It was a sore point Alex argued with her mother every time they got together.
“Surely after four years you could start easing back to your normal self by lightening your hair in increments, wearing clothes that suit your age. I haven’t seen my own daughter for so long, I don’t remember what you look like.”
“Mom…” Alex took a deep breath. “I wanted to be hired so badly, I would have done anything to gain Mrs. Landau’s approval. I thought if I looked like a solid, more mature, dependable type, I’d have a better chance with her. Mr. Pandakis may have the reputation of being a womanizer, but he’s totally professional with the staff at the office.
“But Mrs. Landau’s not there anymore, darling. Now that you’ve taken over her duties, it seems to me you can start being our daughter again.”
“You don’t understand, Mom.”
“Oh, but I do. You’re not willing to risk anything that would prevent you from being around him. He’s a man to turn any woman’s head, and he has, especially yours.”
“Yes,” she admitted. “He’s—”
“Bigger than life?” her mother preempted her. “I know. He’s the reason you’ve stopped dating and no longer have a social life.”
“I can’t right now. But when the trade fair is over, he’s taking a three week vacation. I’ve been ordered to do the same.”
“Which means all you’ll do is mope around here waiting until you can be back with him.”
Her mother knew her too well.
“Alexandra? I’ve tried not to interfere in your life too much. But it’s obvious to me you’re in love with the man. Because of that you’re blind to certain truths.”
Alex didn’t want to hear them.
“Darling— Can’t you see he’s not normal?”
“You mean because he’s not married with three or four children by now?” she cried.
“Yes. He’s a person who’s been blessed with so many gifts, I think he got lost somewhere along the way.”
Alex shook her head emphatically. “If you knew him, you’d never say such a thing.”
“I’m not talking about his business prowess. There’s something in his makeup that isn’t right. My guess is he was marred in childhood and it stunted his emotional growth.
“How else do you explain his inability to settle down with one woman? Or for that matter, why Mrs. Landau seemed to choose only plain women to work for him. He’s simply not an ordinary sort. Don’t you agree? Honestly?”
Tears prickled Alex’s eyes. “Yes,” she whispered.
“Darling.” Her mother put an arm around her. “All I want is your happiness, but I’m afraid if you continue to work for him, he’ll go on taking advantage of your generous nature and you’ll never find joy in being a wife, or a mother.”
Alex broke down for a minute, then wiped her eyes. “Mom? There’s something I have to tell you. Maybe then you’ll understand why I can’t seem to let him go. I—I didn’t apply for a job at the Pandakis Corporation by chance,” she stammered.
“I suspected as much. When their people came to Paterson for the international silk seminar your grandfather hosted ten years ago, I remember the huge impact so many wealthy, dark-haired men made on everyone. Not a bad place to start a career for a girl right out of college.”
“Actually it was nine years ago.”
Her mother sent her a shrewd regard. “What went on that night? Did Dimitrios Pandakis’s wandering eye light on you? Did he tell you to come and see him when you were all grown up?”
“No!” Alex cried out. “If only it had happened like that, I wouldn’t have been forced to resort to subterfuge. It was Giorgio Pandakis—”
In a torrent of words she explained what had gone on nine years earlier when Dimitrios had saved her from his cousin. After confiding everything she said, “He was willing to stand by me, Mom. He offered to help me because that’s the kind of man he is.”
“No wonder you fell in love with him,” her mother murmured in a saddened voice. “I’ve tried to imagine what hold he’s had over you all this time. Everything you’d done since than has been with him in mind.”
“I’ve never been able to look at another man. I couldn’t!”
“But what has it really gotten you except heartache? This has to stop, darling. A teenage fantasy is one thing. But he’s become your obsession. Surely if it was meant to be, he would have returned your feelings by now.”
She knew her mother was right. Everyone was right. Michael. Her friend Yanni.
But the pain was killing her.
“I’m afraid for you to go to Greece with him. It can only put you on a more intimate footing with him without getting anything back in return.”
“I know, but I have to go. I’m in charge of the trade fair.”
“I realize that. Oh, Alexandra, you’ve gotten yourself in way too deep. I particularly don’t like the idea of your being anywhere near his cousin. Obviously he’d caused trouble in their family long before he set eyes on you, otherwise your boss wouldn’t have been so straightforward in dealing with the situation.”
It had taken Alex a few years before she’d figured that out.
“Don’t worry, Mom. Giorgio’s been married a long time and has a family. Besides, I’m not a teenager anymore, and he wouldn’t give me a second glance now.”
Her mother stared at her with anxious eyes. “I’m not so sure of that. You may look older now, but you’ll always be a beautiful girl. Even so, lies have a way of surfacing. How do you think Mr. Pandakis will react if he finds out you intentionally disguised yourself to get hired?”
“Literally speaking it was Mrs. Landau who gave me the job.”
“You know what I mean.”
Alex sucked in her breath. “I have no idea how he’d feel.”
“Yes, you do. You’ve just told me he’s an honorable man when it comes to business. Men like that expect honor in return. Mark my words, Alexandra. Every minute you’re in his employ, you’re playing with fire.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” she blurted in agony. “I—I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. Between you and Michael, I’m convinced that the only thing to do is resign.”
“If you really mean that, then go to Greece. Do your job. Don’t go near his family, then come straight home on the first available commercial flight and hand in your resignation. He’ll have three weeks to find another secretary within the company to replace you.”
“You’re right,” she whispered brokenly. “My assistant Charlene would give anything to have my job. As soon as I get back, I’ll look for something around here.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.” She gave her mother another hug. “Kiss Daddy for me. I have to run.”
“Call me as often as you can.”
“Okay. I love you, Mom. Thanks for the advice.”
“It’s more than advice, darling. It’s a warning.”
Tears swamped Alex’s cheeks as she left the house and drove off with those words ringing in her ears. All the way to New York she relived the conversation with her mother. The fissure had cracked open wide, wide, wide.
What a fool Alex had been. Four years had come and gone. She was still forgettable to Dimitrios.
But if he never gave her another thought after she left his employ, she was determined he’d remember the fruit of her labors.
For the last eight months she’d given the international textile fair her all. She hoped it would make Greece the forerunner in establishing business relations on a global scale.
Before Mrs. Landau had passed away, she’d told Alex that Dimitrios had been asked to host the trade fair at the behest of the Greek government. They needed a name guaranteed to bring success.
It was a project dear to Alex’s heart in more ways than one. She immediately went to work on it and received glowing praise from Mrs. Landau. But before the older woman could present the complete project to Dimitrios for his approval, she suffered a fatal heart attack at her home.
Her death affected everyone in the company, especially Dimitrios, who’d considered her his right hand away from Greece. Suddenly he was trying to do Mrs. Landau’s work plus his own.
When he’d asked Alex to take over as best she could, she’d sensed he felt she was a lightweight who couldn’t handle the enormous trade fair project along with her normal duties.
Fearing she’d miss the one big opportunity to make her mark, Alex rushed to assure him that she’d already worked out most of the details with Mrs. Landau. Whenever he gave the word, she would start implementing the plans.
She remembered that evening so clearly. Her mind’s eye could see the way he lounged back in his swivel chair and unfastened his tie. Fatigue lines had darkened his attractive face whose shadowed jaw gave evidence that he’d been going too hard, traveling too much without proper rest.
He stared at her with incurious eyes, causing her heart to plummet. Although he hadn’t told her no, she realized he had little faith in her abilities to take on something of such vital importance.
“Have you ever been to Greece, Ms. Hamilton?”
“No, but I have a history degree.”
In the uneasy silence that followed her response, she watched him rub his forehead as if he had a headache. No doubt he did and was barely holding on to his patience.
“Do you have something written up you can show me now, or do you need more time?”
She took a deep breath. “I’ll get the portfolio out of my office and be right back.”
Upon her return she asked if she could spread the materials out on his desk. He nodded.
The second she positioned the first twenty-by-twenty-four inch drawing in front of him, the complacency left his face. As he sat forward, his well-shaped black brows drew together.
“This isn’t Athens.” His voice trailed off.
“Was your heart set on it for the trade fair?”
Instead of answering her, he continued his perusal.
Swallowing hard she said, “That’s a rendition of medieval Thessalonica during the great Byzantine fair held in the twelfth century. Everyone came—from Constantinople, Egypt, Phoenicia, the Peloponnese.”
His head finally lifted. This time his eyes reminded her of twin black fires. “You drew this?”
“It’s only a sketch. I thought because Thessalonica is your home, it would be exciting and fitting to recreate that same fair with colorful merchant booths and flags from every country participating. The whole city can get involved by providing local foods and drinks, everyone in native costume. Troubadours, music, dancing.
“Since it was the great cultural center then and still is today, I can’t think of another place in Greece more appropriate to host a trade fair, certainly not one of this magnitude.”
She placed a sketch of a closeup of the bay in front of him. “We could invite the countries around the Mediterranean and as far away as Scandinavia to bring their restored ships and anchor them here like they once did. Everyone can go aboard to see their wares.
“It will be like stepping back in time, but the products will be the latest in materials and textiles from around the world.
“We’ll launch a massive ad campaign on the Internet with each country having its own Web page to list their products. I’ve already procured Web addresses. People who aren’t able to attend can place orders.
“Think what it would mean economically to the Greek Island cottage industries for example, not to mention new world markets. Of course the pièce de résistance will be this.” He hadn’t interrupted her yet, so she whipped out her next drawing.
“Follow the silk road from Thessalonica to Soufli. At various points along the route, the delegations will set up their silk exhibits. Visits to the mulberry tree farm and the silk mansion in Soufli will be the highlight of the tour.
“The weather will be warm and perfect in September. Imagine the streets of Soufli lined with booths showing every stage from the secretions of the silkworm, to the silk thread ending up as a cravate or a gown.
“We’ll woo the media ahead of time so there’ll be a blitz that hits airwaves around the wor—”
“Ms. Hamilton.” He cut in on her.
Her body broke out in a cold sweat. He didn’t like it. Afraid to look at him, she said, “Yes?”
“What you’ve put together here is nothing short of sheer genius. In fact I’m having difficulty assimilating everything all at once.”
Alex had been ready to pass out from disappointment. She still felt light-headed, except that now it was for an entirely different reason.
“Unfortunately none of this can happen without hotel space,” he muttered. “Every place of lodging in Macedonia and Thrace should have been notified months ago in order to carry out such a fantastic plan.”
“They were.”
His dark head reared back in stunned surprise.
“In Athens and the surrounding regions, too. I also notified the head of all the businesses involved, the restaurants, the universities, the musicians’ network, the transport services, port authorities, police, so they would set aside the time and plan ahead how to accommodate the huge crowds.
“I assume this is what it’s like mobilizing for war, except that in this case everyone will enjoy the spoils of victory.”
“Lord,” she heard him whisper.
“It’s a good thing we’re talking about this tonight,” she informed him. “The day after tomorrow is the final date for me to confirm or cancel everything without penalty.
“I’ve been waiting to discuss the fair with you until you’d recovered from Mrs. Landau’s passing. She was extremely fond of you, too. It should please you to know that every contact person has assured me they wouldn’t have held on this long for anyone but Dimitrios Pandakis. It’s an honor to work for you.” She had a struggle at the last to keep the emotion out of her voice.
In an unconscious gesture he raked his hands through the luxuriant black hair she longed to touch. “Here I was beginning to think you were perfect, Ms. Hamilton. Now I can see you’re not above bribery to get what you want. For that flaw, you’ve won yourself a full evening of work that could take us well into the night.”
With those words he’d just given her the first taste of her heart’s desire.
“While you arrange to have our dinner sent up, I’ll cancel my plans to attend the symphony and we’ll start again. I want to hear this from the beginning.
“Slowly this time. Detail by detail until I’ve picked that brilliant brain of yours. I can see I’ve also underestimated the value of your American university education. Did you study any languages?”
“My degree specialized in classical European history, so there were several classes I had to take in Latin and Greek.”
“You speak and understand Greek?” He sounded incredulous.
“No. But since I came to work for your company I’ve been trying to do both with the help of a tutor.”
“Who?”
“A graduate student from Athens who lives in my apartment building. He trades me lessons for meals.”
“You cook, too?”
“Yanni’s not particular.”
Alex couldn’t remember Dimitrios ever smiling at her before now. What a gorgeous man he was.
“When you call downstairs, tell the kitchen to send a gallon of coffee with the food.”
“Which brand of decaffeinated do you prefer?”
He lifted a sardonic brow. “Forget everything you learned from Mrs. Landau.”
“You don’t really mean that. I happen to know she had your very best interest at heart.”
Once more his black eyes flashed fire. “You happen to know a lot more than I thought possible.”
I sincerely hope so. Otherwise how will I ever become unforgettable to you?
More tears dripped down Alex’s face as she remembered that evening with him. He’d loved her idea and had let her run with it. But nothing else had changed in the intervening months. Nothing personal.
Her mother was right about him not being normal. Even Alex knew it was time to give up. The trade fair would have to be her swan song.
Unless she died of pain first…
Dimitrios left his New York office with the morning newspaper under his arm and rode the elevator to the parking garage level of the building.
“Ms. Hamilton hasn’t arrived yet?” he asked his driver who was waiting for them with the limo.
“I haven’t seen her, Mr. Pandakis.”
He checked his watch. No crime had been committed because it was a only few minutes past eight. It surprised him because she was the most punctual person he’d ever met.
At the end of work yesterday he’d told her he would drop by her apartment on the way to the airport to pick her up. To his surprise she’d said it wouldn’t be necessary because she’d be coming by the office early to take care of some last-minute business.
“Mr. Pandakis?”
Dimitrios turned in time to see one of the parking attendants approach him.
“Your secretary just called. She said she was running late and her friend would drive her straight to the airport.”
He blinked. No doubt Ms. Hamilton had many friends, but the only one he’d ever heard about was Yanni. A compatriot.
Besides cooking him meals in exchange for language lessons, was she his pillow friend? It might explain why she’d chosen not to call Dimitrios on her cell phone to tell him about the change in plans. Particularly not if her tutor were lying next to her having a hard time saying goodbye.
The idea that Ms. Hamilton might have a love life made her more of an enigma than ever because she’d never let it interfere with her work. For quite some time he’d been aware that she wasn’t like most women. That’s why she’d become so valuable to him.
He climbed in the back of the limo. “Let’s go to the airport.”
“Yes, sir.”
Dimitrios unfolded the paper. The first thing he noticed on the front page of the Times was a fantastic shot of three ships. At closer inspection they turned out to be a Viking longboat plus a Greek and a Roman galley moored in the bay of Thessalonica awaiting the fair. A nice-size article accompanied the photo.
He saw Ms. Hamilton’s hand in the write-up. Except to give her the okay on the project, Dimitrios really hadn’t been—
His thoughts were interrupted by the ring of his cell phone. He pulled it from his pocket and checked the caller ID. It was someone from the villa.
“Yassou?”
“Kalimera, Uncle. You are coming home today aren’t you?”
His nephew sounded anxious. “I’m on my way to the airport now.”
“Good. There’s a lot I have to talk to you about.”
“I take it things are still at an impasse with your mother.”
“Yes. She refuses to discuss anything with me when she doesn’t even know what I’m going to say.”
“You and I have been over this before. She’s afraid of losing you, Leon.”
“How do I convince her that couldn’t possibly happen?”
I’m not sure you can. He rubbed his eyes. “Tell you what. Tomorrow morning the three of us will sit down together and talk this out.”
“Thank you. Mother’s much better with you there. Can I pick you up at the airport?”
Dimitrios wasn’t immune to the pleading in his nephew’s voice. “It will be late. I’ll have my secretary with me.”
“Where’s she staying?”
“I’ve booked her at the Mediterranean Palace.”
“No problem. We’ll run her by there on our way home, but it may take us a while. The traffic’s horrendous. You’re going to be surprised at what you see when you get here. The city’s been transformed while you’ve been in New York.”
“I’m looking forward to viewing the finished product.”
“Besides all the booths that have gone up, the buildings and churches, even the White Tower is festooned with pennants and medieval banners. The city’s been invaded with people, and there are six ships in port now.
“Wait till you get a look at the Egyptian barge from Cleopatra’s time on loan for the event! Five days aren’t going to be enough for people to see everything.”
“I think five days is about all our fair city will be able to handle.”
“That’s what Vaso said. We had lunch with some government officials from the prime minister’s office who were looking around yesterday. They said they’d never seen anything like this in their lifetime. The praise for you is pouring in already and the fair hasn’t even started yet.”
“My secretary will be gratified to hear it. She’s the mastermind behind the entire concept.”
“You’re just saying that because you never like to take credit for anything.”
“No. If you don’t believe me, I’ll have Ms. Hamilton show you the contents of her portfolio after we get there.”
“I’m glad you’re coming home, Uncle.”
“Me, too. See you soon.”
Dimitrios clicked off.
One look at her artwork and Leon wouldn’t believe his eyes. The drawings were remarkable. When everything was over he intended to have the first sketch framed for his office.
As his private jet came into view, his cell phone went off again. “Leon? Obviously you forgot something important.”
“It’s Ananke.”
Dimitrios should have known better than to answer that way, but his mind had been on Ms. Hamilton.
“Yassou, Ananke.”
“It doesn’t surprise me my son reached you before I did,” she began without preamble. “I have to know—Is he willing to stay in school one more semester? Please tell me yes,” she cried.
Her desperation found a vulnerable spot inside Dimitrios. He wasn’t exactly enchanted by the bombshell his nephew had dropped on them.
“I’m still working on it.”
“How soon are you coming home?”
“Late tonight. I told Leon we’d all sit down and discuss this in the morning.”
“Thank you.” Her voice trembled.
“Ananke? Just remember, there’s only so much I can do.”
“You can stop him!”
Dimitrios heaved a sigh. “If this is his destiny, then no earthly power will make a difference.”
The sobbing on her end meant the conversation was over, for the time being, anyway.
He undid his seat belt. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he murmured before ringing off.
As the vehicle pulled to a stop, Dimitrios levered himself from the back of the limo and hurried up the steps of the plane.
“Kalimera, Kyrie Pandakis.”
Instead of his pilots or his steward speaking to him in Greek, it was Ms. Hamilton who greeted him in his native tongue as he entered the plane. It was a first for her. She never failed to surprise him.
“Kalimera,” he said back to her, relieved she was here.
“Hero poli.”
“It’s nice to see you, too.” He responded in Greek once more, impressed by this latest display of her many talents. She’d spoken with barely a trace of accent. Continuing in the same language he said, “Shall we carry on this fascinating conversation after we’ve fastened ourselves in?”
“I’m sorry.” She reverted to English. “I didn’t understand anything else you said after you told me it was nice to see me, too.”
Her honesty was so refreshing, he burst out laughing. For a moment it dispelled the cloud that had enveloped him since his nephew had confided in him.
The rest of his crew welcomed him aboard, but he was barely aware of them as he gave the nod to prepare for takeoff.
“What I just said to you, Ms. Hamilton, was that I was looking forward to a lengthy discussion in Greek, but thought it would be wise to strap ourselves in first so the pilot can do his job.”
“Oh.” She took the seat opposite him and fastened her seat belt. “I’m afraid you’ve heard my full repertoire until we reach Greece. Then I’ll impress you by asking where the post office is, how much does a stamp cost, that sort of thing.”
His chuckle got lost in the scream of the jet engines.
After a smooth liftoff it didn’t take long until the plane had attained cruising speed and they could unstrap themselves.
Out of the periphery he saw that she already had her nose in the notebook she called her bible. He noticed it went everywhere with her.
“Your friend didn’t mind bringing you to the airport so early?”
She lifted her head. “Yanni’s on his way to Athens, so it worked out fine.”
“To be with family?”
“That, and to attend the fair.”
The steward chose that moment to serve them tea. Dimitrios thanked him, then sat back in his seat, wondering why her answer mattered. It was none of his business if she planned to be with her lover in Thessalonica.
As soon as the brew had cooled, he took a long swallow. It was so delicious he drank the rest without pause, then requested more.
Speaking in Greek, he complimented his steward who murmured in the same language, “She brought it on board. Insisted on steeping it herself.”
Intrigued, Dimitrios flicked his gaze to his secretary. For once she had irritated him by being too absorbed with her work. “My compliments, Ms. Hamilton. This tea tastes like the proverbial nectar of the gods.”
She raised her head in his direction. “According to Yanni who won’t drink anything else, that’s the name of it in Greek. He says it comes from the sage that grows wild on the mountains of the Peloponnese. I told him you have a sweet tooth, so he said to add honey instead of sugar. I’m glad you like it.”
Dimitrios should have been appreciative of her desire to please him with a special treat. He was pleased. But for some reason it irritated him that Yanni had any part in her thoughtful gesture.
She opened her laptop computer. “Shall we go over the timetable of events now? I’ve made a hard copy for you. If there’s anything you want to change, I’ll enter it and print it out when we reach Greece.”
In an oddly rebellious mood Dimitrios adjusted the seat so he could fully relax and close his eyes.
“Why don’t you read it out loud instead. I’ll interrupt if I think of something you haven’t.”
He sounded tired, bordering grumpy.
Alex had thought the tea might sweeten him up. Normally he was very even-tempered for a man who shouldered so much responsibility.
But she’d worked closely with him over the last six months and had started to notice a pattern to his change in mood. It only came on when he was getting ready to fly home to Greece.
If her mother was right about his past, he probably had hidden demons still to be conquered.
It happened to a lot of people. Alex’s only unmarried sister chose to feel like a victim. Except for the occasional visit, she preferred to remain in California rather than come home and deal with family on a more frequent basis.
Deciding it would be best to humor her boss, Alex began reading the countdown of the first page out loud. Halfway through, she detected a change in his breathing. He was asleep.
Zeus at rest.
That’s how she thought of him.
This was only the second time she’d flown in the Pandakis jet with its eagle emblem. As on her first flight with him to San Francisco, she had the feeling she was being spirited away by the legendary Olympian god to his private kingdom in the sky.
Through her lashes, she studied his long, powerfully built body stretched out in his seat opposite her, his piercing black eyes closed for the time being.
She wished she were a painter so she could capture him on canvas. He had the bold facial structure of his Macedonian ancestors, and that beautiful olive skin born from the kiss of a hot Mediterranean sun. Yet there was something childlike in the quiet way he slept.
More handsome than the young god Adonis. The paparazzi claimed he was the lover of many women, yet faithful to none. Alex could vouch for a goodly number of females who called the office anxious to talk to him.
However, she really had no idea what he did after she left for her apartment at the end of the day. Presumably there was a certain amount of truth to the gossip in the tabloids.
But Alex regarded him in a different light. To her, raven-haired Dimitrios Pandakis could well be the supreme ruler of the gods who shaped the corporate world below. One word of displeasure from his sensuous lips was like the proverbial thunderbolt hurled at those who lied or broke oaths.
The experience nine years ago had already provided her with firsthand knowledge that he was the god of justice and mercy and a protector of the weak.
After saving her from the unwanted attentions of his cousin, he’d shown her kindness before removing the other man from her sight. But he’d taken away a lot more than that. He’d gone off with her young girl’s heart.
Quite simply, his intervention changed the course of her life.
As her eyes took their fill of him, the ache to touch him intensified. More than ever she realized it would never be enough to be just his private secretary. Reason declared that the end of the fair would have to be the end of the road for her. The cessation of all fantasy.
Exhausted from too little sleep and her emotional struggle, she put her things away and lay back, willing oblivion to come if only for a little while.
It was a shock to finally wake up to her surroundings and discover that the interior lights had come on. Outside the plane they were cloaked in darkness.
She checked her watch. Heavens. How could she have been asleep seven hours?
Though alone for the moment, she was conscious of the sound of male voices coming from the cockpit area. Judging by their chuckles, someone was telling an amusing tale.
Probably she’d snored, or her stomach had growled so loudly they’d all heard it. Either possibility was so humiliating, Alex shot out of her seat and used the time to freshen up in the bathroom.
While she was repinning her hair to secure it better after her long sleep, she noted that the plane had started to encounter some turbulence. She didn’t pay much attention to it until the Fasten Seat Belts sign flashed overhead.
Alex put in the last pin, then left the bathroom and hurried to her seat. As she strapped herself in, she saw Dimitrios emerge from the cockpit, his expression sober.
“I was about to do that for—”
But she wasn’t destined to hear him say anything else because the plane hit an air pocket, sending him flying. He crashed against the wall. By the position of his body, he’d been knocked unconscious. She saw blood.
“Dimitrios!”
They were dropping out of the sky as if being pulled toward a giant lodestone.
Please, God. Don’t let anything happen to him.
CHAPTER THREE
“HE’S coming around.”
“Don’t let him move his head.”
“No. I’ve got him.”
“An AirMed helicopter will meet us when we land.”
“The bleeding’s stopped.”
“That’s good. Keep that compress over the wound.”
“Do you think his arm is broken?”
“No. Nothing’s broken that I see, but he’s going to have an ugly bruise on his shoulder for a while.”
Dimitrios had been hearing voices for the last few minutes. Now he was aware of stinging at the crown of his head. Slowly his body was coming back to life.
Mingled with the smell of alcohol was a delicious scent, like pears, that permeated his nostrils. It came from a smooth, cool hand cupping his jaw along the side of his face. He seemed to be resting on something soft and warm. His eyelids fluttered open.
Waves of dizziness assailed him. He blinked several times until his gaze focused on a pair of soulful green eyes staring down at him. They seemed to take up her whole face.
Good Lord. What were they both doing on the floor of the plane with his head in her lap?
“Ms. Hamilton?”
“Thank heaven you know me,” she whispered emotionally.
“Welcome back,” came the voice of his copilot. Both he and the steward had to be standing somewhere near his feet.
Dimitrios blinked again. Maybe it was the angle of the recessed lighting that made him think moisture clung to his secretary’s long, silky lashes. He’d never seen her without her steel-rimmed glasses. She had flawless skin and a beautifully shaped mouth.
“What happened?”
“We hit an air pocket before you could make it to your seat,” she explained.
“I remember now,” he muttered on a groan. “How soon before we land?”
His copilot hunkered at his side. “We’re approaching Macedonia International now.”
Dimitrios started to get up, but all three of them held him down. “Don’t move,” his steward ordered. “You have a lump on the top of your head and must be seen by a doctor.”
“I heard you say nothing was broken. Let me up,” he ordered.
Still they restrained him. Damnation.
He felt the tightening of his secretary’s diaphragm before she asked, “How many stones are there in my ring?”
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Rebecca Winters
Dimitrios Pandakis has vowed that, unlike his older brother, he will never be trapped into marriage.And this millionaire businessman has been so true to his word that - despite his reputation as a heartbreaker - he has yet to take a woman to bed! But now his new secretary is sorely testing his resolve.Alexandra Hamilton, for all her plain-Jane appearance, has somehow worked her way under his skin. And Dimitrios knows only one thing will satisfy him - marriage!
Award-winning author
Rebecca Winters
is known and loved for her unique characters and intense, deeply emotional stories.
Here is just some of the praise her books have received….
“Rebecca Winters’ latest is full of emotional scenes, fantastic characterization and endearing romance.”
—Romantic Times on His Very Own Baby
“Winters weaves a magical spell that is unforgettable,”
—Affaire de Coeur on The Nutcracker Prince
“An emotionally intense premise…dynamic characters, heartrending scenes and wonderful romance.”
—Romantic Times on Undercover Baby
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It’s the countdown to the Big Day: the guests are invited, the flowers are arranged, the dress is ready and the sparks between the lucky couple are sizzling hot….
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The Bridegroom’s Vow
Rebecca Winters
My story takes place in Greece, a country of incredible history and beauty. My favorite living artist, Thomas McKnight, fell in love with Greece, too.
He has created one masterpiece after another of Mykonos, Chora, Kalafati, the Aegean and much, much more. It is to him and his wife, Renate, that I dedicate this book.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
DIMITRIOS heard footsteps in the passage outside his door. It was the middle of the night. Curious to know what was going on, he flung his covers aside and hurried out into the hall.
“Leon?” he whispered when he saw his adored elder brother carrying a suitcase. “What’s happening?”
Leon spun around. “Go back to bed, Dimi.”
Ignoring the command, he rushed up to Leon. “Where are you going?”
“Lower your voice. You’ll find out soon enough.”
“But you can’t just leave!” He worshipped Leon who’d been father, brother and protector all rolled into one this last year. “Wherever you have to go, I’ll come with you. I can be ready in two minutes.”
“No, Dimi. You have to stay here with Uncle Spiros and our cousins. I should be back in a week.”
Tears filled his eyes. “The cousins aren’t fun like you, and Uncle Spiros is too strict.”
“Since our parents died, he’s been good to us in his own way, Dimi. It won’t be so bad.”
Panic-stricken, Dimitrios threw his arms around Leon, trying to prevent him from leaving. “Please let me come with you.”
“You can’t. You see, I’m getting married before the night’s out. It’s all been arranged.”
Married?
Dimitrios felt like his world had come to an end. “Which one of your girlfriends is it?”
“Ananke Paulos.”
“I’ve never heard of her. Will you bring her here?”
“No,” he said on a heavy sigh. “We’ll be living in our parents’ villa.”
“Then I’ll come and live with you. I can sleep in my old room like always.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Dimi. A woman likes her own house.”
“But that means you and I’ll never live together again!”
“Hey—we’ll always be brothers. I’ll visit you every day, and you’ll come to visit us.”
The pain kept getting worse. “Do you love her more than me?” His voice wobbled.
Leon stared down at him with eyes full of anguish. Dimitrios didn’t know his brother could look like that. It terrified him.
“Not at all. In fact I would give anything in the world if I didn’t have to marry her. But she’s pregnant with my child.”
Dimitrios blinked in astonishment.
“She’s going to have your baby?”
“Yes.”
“You made a baby with a woman you don’t love?” He couldn’t comprehend such a thing.
“Oh, Dimi—listen to me. You’re only twelve, not quite old enough for a man’s feelings to have taken over inside you yet. When that day comes, your body will react when you see a beautiful woman. You’ll want to hold her, make love to her. The pleasure a woman can bring you is to die for.”
Dimitrios frowned through the tears. “To die for?”
A sound of frustration came out of Leon. “I only mean that when a man and a woman make love, it’s wonderful beyond your imagination.”
“Was it that way with Ananke?”
“Yes.”
“But if you don’t love her?”
“You can feel great desire for a woman without loving her. I would never have married her but for the baby. Now I have to do my duty as a Pandakis.”
“No, you don’t!” Dimitrios cried from the depths of his soul. “What kind of a woman would want to live with you if she knew you didn’t love her?”
A groan escaped Leon’s throat. “Dimi? There are other reasons she wants to marry me.”
“What reasons?”
“Money, status.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You know our family has run a successful financial empire in Greece for generations. Our reputation is known throughout the corporate world. Uncle Spiros meets with important, influential people, just like our father did before he died.
“That’s the reason Ananke tricked me. She was hoping to have my baby so she could belong to our family. Now she’s going to get her wish, but it won’t be the wedding she imagined. We’re going to be married at the church by the priest with no one there but her grandmother to watch.”
“I hate her!” Dimitrios blurted in fresh pain.
“Don’t say that, Dimi. After tonight she’ll be part of our family.”
“I will say it!” With tears streaming down his face, Dimitrios backed away from his brother. “Do you think our mother married our father because of his money?”
Dimitrios had to wait a long time to hear a response.
“Probably.”
Leon was always brutally honest. His answer crushed Dimitrios. Sick with grief over what his brother had just told him, he said, “Can’t a rich man find a woman who will love him for himself?”
“I don’t know the answer to that question. The point is, I don’t want you to make the same mistake I did. Unfortunately that’s where you’ve got a problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“One day you’ll be the head of the Pandakis Corporation because Uncle Spiros says you’ve got the smartest head on your shoulders of anyone in the family. You’re also better looking than all the Pandakis men put together.
“You’ll be able to have your pick of any woman in the world. They’ll throw themselves at you. You, little brother, will have to be more careful than most men to make certain no woman gets pregnant with your baby and tricks you into marriage.”
Dimitrios ground his teeth. “That will never happen to me.”
Leon gave him a sad smile. “How do you know that?”
“I won’t ever make love to a woman. Then I won’t have to worry.”
“Of course you will.” He tousled Dimitrios’s curly black hair. “We’ll continue this conversation next week when I take us hiking.”
Dimitrios watched his brother disappear around the corner of their uncle’s villa. It was just like the night a year ago when they learned that their parents had been killed. Dimitrios had wanted to die then, too.
Alexandra Hamilton didn’t trust anyone to dye her hair except Michael at the Z-Attitude hair salon in her home town of Paterson, New Jersey.
He was a genius at his craft. That went without saying. But more to the point, she trusted him with secrets the way she would a father confessor.
Today he was wearing his hair in blue spikes. Michael wasn’t a mere coiffeur par excellence. He entertained everyone who flocked to his busy salon. Women adored him, young and old.
Her green eyes met his in the huge mirror with its border of stage lights.
“When are you going to emerge from this boring brown chrysalis and reveal your natural blond mane to his wondrous gaze?”
“Not until he falls in love with me as I am.”
He meaning Dimitrios Pandakis, of course. Alex loved him with every fiber of her being.
“I hate to tell you this, but you’ve been saying that ever since you went to work for his company. Four years now, isn’t it?”
Alex stuck her tongue out at him.
“Sorry,” he said in the most unrepentant voice she’d ever heard.
Her softly rounded chin lifted a good inch. “I’m making progress.”
“You mean since you slipped a little poison into his private secretary’s coffee six months ago?”
“Michael! That’s not funny. She was a wonderful woman. I still miss her and know he does, too.”
“Just kidding. I thought the trip to China went without a hitch.”
“It did. He gave me another bonus.”
“That makes quite a few. He’d better be careful or he might just find himself on the losing end of a very clever takeover orchestrated by none other than his own Ms. Hamilton.” A devilish expression broke out on Michael’s face. “Are you still making him call you that?”
She tried to hide her smile. “Yes.”
“It gives you great pleasure, doesn’t it.”
“Extreme. I must be the only woman on seven continents who doesn’t fall all over him trying to get his attention.”
“Yes, and it shows.”
“What it does is make me different from all the other women,” she defended. “One day he’s going to take notice.”
“Let’s hope it happens before he marries one of his own kind to produce an heir who’ll inherit his fortune. He’s not getting any younger, you know.”
A familiar pain pierced her heart. “Thank you for playing on my greatest fear.”
“But you love me anyway for telling you the truth.”
She bit her lip. “He has a nephew he loves like a son. Mrs. Landau once told me Dimitrios’s brother died, so he took over the guardianship of his nephew. There’s this look he gets on his face whenever Leon calls him from Greece.”
“Well, then—” He fastened her hair in a secure twist. “I guess you have no worries he’s anxious to start a family of his own.”
“Oh, stop!”
He grinned, eyeing her from the darkened roots of her head to the matronly black shoes she wore on her feet.
“Only your hairdresser knows for sure. I must say I did a good job when I transformed you.”
“It doesn’t suit you to be modest, Michael. Why not admit you created a masterpiece.”
Thanks to his expertise in doing hair and makeup for a lot of his friends in the theater, he’d come up with a disguise that made her look like a nondescript secretary much older than her twenty-five years.
“Possibly,” he quipped. “However, I may have gone too far when I suggested those steel-rimmed glasses you wear. You could walk on the set of a World War Two film being produced as we speak and fit right in.”
“That’s been the idea all along. You know I’m indebted to you.” She handed him a hundred-dollar bill, which he refused.
“We worked out a deal, remember? In return for some free hair appointments, my friends and I get to stay free at your hotel suite in Thessalonica during the fair.”
She shook her head. “I’ve been thinking about it and have decided I’m getting the better end of that deal.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Do you even know how much a suite in that place costs for one night?”
“No.”
“I guess you don’t have to know when you’re the private secretary of Dimitrios Pandakis. Oh, if the rest of the world had any idea how you really live these days,” he said dramatically.
“You know I don’t care about that.”
His expression grew serious for a moment. “Is it really worth it to be the bridesmaid, but never the bride?”
He’d touched a painful nerve and knew it. “I can’t imagine not seeing him every day.”
“You’re hopeless, darling.”
“Tell me about it.” She got out of the chair and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “See you in Greece next week.”
“We’re coming as Mysian troubadours. Are you sure I can’t bring you a costume along with his? There’s this marvelous gold affair—Italian renaissance. I can borrow it from the opera company.”
She shook her head. “Ms. Hamilton doesn’t do costumes. It’s not in her character.”
“Pity.”
Alex chuckled. “Have a safe trip over, Michael.”
“You mean with three hundred of us on our charter flight squashed like Vienna sausages in the can? Lucky you, riding in the Pandakis private jet.”
“I’ll admit that part’s nice. Bye for now.”
She left the salon, grateful that the disguise Michael had created for her had worked perfectly during the four years she’d been in Dimitrios’s employ. She’d won the man’s confidence. But the thought that it was all she might ever win from him wasn’t to be considered.
As for her other fear, it was foolish to worry that when she arrived in Greece, Giorgio Pandakis might recognize her from the past. Not when Dimitrios had never shown any signs of remembering.
Nine years was too long a time for a man who’d been drunk to recall accosting an unsuspecting sixteen-year-old girl. Thankfully someone had been outside the silk museum in Paterson that night looking for him and had heard her screams.
Alex could still see her protector’s face as it had appeared in the shadowy moonlight. Like a dark, avenging prince, Dimitrios Pandakis himself had pulled his cousin off her before knocking him to the ground, unconscious.
Assisting her to her feet, he’d told her he would help her press charges if she wanted him to. Alex, who stood there on trembling legs thankful for deliverance, had been shocked that he would defend an anonymous teenage girl over his cousin.
Dimitrios didn’t accuse her of encouraging the situation. He didn’t try to pay her off. He showed no fear of the scandal that would naturally ensue once her father heard about it. With a name as famous as Pandakis, that kind of news would make headlines. Yet he’d been willing to put his family through embarrassment for her sake.
In that moment, she loved him.
Once her sobs began to subside, she assured him it wouldn’t be necessary to call in the police. He’d come to her rescue before things had gone too far. All she wanted was to forget it had ever happened.
After thanking him again for saving her, she ran off across the garden to her house, clutching the torn pieces of the silk blouse to her chest.
Just before she disappeared around the corner, she watched him throw his loathsome cousin over his shoulder with the ease only a tall, powerful man possessed.
Her green eyes stayed fastened on him until she couldn’t see the outline of his silhouette any longer. But even if he’d gone, the man was unforgettable.
By the time she climbed into bed that night she determined that one day, when she was older, they would meet again. It would be under vastly different circumstances, of course. And no matter what it took, she’d make certain he found her unforgettable, too.
As Dimitrios buttoned his shirt, he heard a rap on his bedroom door. Assuming it was Serilda, the housekeeper who’d been like a favorite aunt since he was a little boy, he told her to come in.
The door opened, but the usual burst of information about the weather and the state of the world wasn’t forthcoming.
Unless she’d sent a maid to him with coffee and rolls, it wouldn’t be anyone else but his nephew.
Dimitrios felt great love for the twenty-two-year old whose build and mannerisms were a constant reminder of Leonides Pandakis, Dimitrios’s deceased elder brother.
By some miracle, his pregnant bride survived the car crash that took Leonides’s life on their honeymoon. Their unborn child, christened Leon at birth, had also been spared.
Like his father, he was a happy boy with a friendly, outgoing nature. A typical teen with his share of problems, he’d survived those years and had grown into a fine young man who was halfway through his university studies and showed a healthy enthusiasm for life. Or so Dimitrios had thought.
But since Dimitrios’s return from China yesterday, he’d seen a big change in his nephew. Normally Leon sought his company at the slightest opportunity, giving him chapter and verse of anything and everything happening in his world.
This time he’d only greeted his uncle with a hug, then disappeared from the villa without a word of explanation. It was totally unlike him. Dimitrios had glimpsed shadows in the brown eyes he’d inherited from his mother.
Something was wrong, of course. He hoped it wasn’t serious. Maybe now he’d find out.
“You’re up early, Leon,” he called to him. “That’s good because I was about to come and find you. I’ve missed you and have been looking forward to one of our talks.”
After shrugging into his suit jacket, he emerged from his walk-in closet, hoping his nephew would reveal whatever had been troubling him. But when he discovered it was Ananke still in her nightgown and robe who’d crossed his threshold uninvited, revulsion rose like bile in his throat.
He’d always felt a natural antipathy toward the woman who’d tricked his brother into marriage, and never more than at this moment. Yet love for his brother’s son had tempered that destructive emotion enough for him to tolerate her presence in the villa while acting as guardian to young Leon.
Plastic surgery had removed all traces of the scars on her forehead left by the accident. Would that it could as easily erase the scars in Dimitrios’s heart. But nothing could take away the memory of a mercenary female who’d lured Leon to her bed for the express purpose of begetting a Pandakis. Because of her, his brother was dead.
Back then Ananke had been a precocious eighteen-year-old, aware of her assets and how to use them. Now she was a forty-one-year-old female, only six years older than Dimitrios. A woman most men found attractive, yet she showed no interest in them.
Not for the first time had he wondered if she was hoping to become his bride. Though she’d let it be known to family and friends that she refused to consider marriage until she saw her son settled down with a wife of his own, Dimitrios knew it was an excuse to stay on at the villa. No other man could offer her the Pandakis lifestyle.
At a recent family birthday party, his cousin Vaso had speculated with similar thoughts to him. Dimitrios’s eyes must have reflected his abhorrence of the subject because the eldest of Spiros Pandakis’s sons didn’t broach it again.
Unfortunately nothing seemed to slake Ananke’s ambition. Her temerity in seeking him out in a place as private as his own bedroom at seven in the morning gave him proof that she had few scruples left.
Out of love for his brother and nephew, he’d treated her with civility all these years. Regrettably this morning she’d stepped over a forbidden line and would know his wrath.
“You have no right to be in this part of the villa, Ananke.”
“Please don’t be angry with me. I have to talk to you before Leon finds you.” She looked like she’d been crying. “This is important.”
“Important enough to put false ideas in the minds of the staff, let alone my nephew?” he demanded in a quiet rage. “From here on out, if you have something to say to me in private, call me at my office.”
“Wait,” she cried as he swept past her and strode down the corridor toward the entrance to the villa, impervious to her pleading.
“Dimi!” She half-sobbed his nickname in an effort to detain him.
The use of the endearment only his parents and brother had ever called him had the effect of corrosive acid being poured into a wound that would never heal.
Compared to the sound of his ever-lengthening footsteps, the rapid patter of her sandals while she tried to catch up with him made the odd cadence on the marble tiles. To his relief, the patter finally faded.
He’d just shut the front door and had headed for the parking area around the side of the villa when Leon called to him.
Dimitrios wheeled around, surprised to discover his nephew following him.
“Uncle.” He ran up. “I need to talk to you. Alone,” he added in a confiding voice. “Would you let me drive you to the office?”
For a fleeting moment Dimitrios felt guilty for dismissing Ananke. She had obviously been trying to alert him to something. But when he considered her reckless actions, which would be misconstrued by his staff no matter how loyal they were to him, he wasn’t sorry he’d cut her off.
Years ago Leonides had married Ananke to do the honorable thing and give his child the Pandakis name. After his brother died, Dimitrios determined no breath of scandal would ever touch his nephew if he could help it.
Of course Leon was a free agent, capable of getting into trouble on his own—if that were the case. Under the circumstances, Dimitrios knew he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on business until he’d learned what was plaguing his nephew.
“Work can wait. Why don’t we take a drive and stop somewhere for lunch. I’ll call Stavros and tell him I won’t be in until afternoon.”
“You’re sure you wouldn’t rather spend time with one of your women friends now that you’re back from China?”
“No woman is more important than you, Leon.”
“Are you sure? When I was at Elektra the other night, Ionna went out of her way to ask me when you were coming home. She said it was urgent that she talk to you. She even asked me for your cell phone number, but I told her I didn’t remember it.”
Dimitrios shook his head. “If she was that forward with you, then she has written her own death sentence.”
His nephew eyed him steadily. “She’s very beautiful.”
“I agree, but you know my rule, Leon. When a woman starts to take the initiative, I move on.”
“I think it’s a good rule. I’ve been using it, too, and I must say it works.”
For some strange reason, the admission didn’t sit well with Dimitrios. It sounded too cynical for Leon.
“To be frank, I’m glad you’d rather be with me this morning,” came the emotional response.
Dimitrios gave his nephew a hug. Minutes later their car was headed into the hills of Thessalonica overlooking the bay. While Leon drove, Dimitrios checked in with his assistant.
“Stavros? Can you spare me for a few hours longer?”
“The truth?”
His question surprised Dimitrios.
“Always.”
“Ms. Hamilton and I may work an ocean apart, but since she became your private secretary, I’ve begun to feel superfluous.”
“You’re indispensable to the company, Stavros. You know that,” he rushed to assure him. The sixty-six-year-old man had kept the Greek end of the Pandakis Corporation running smoothly for decades.
Ms. Hamilton, the understudy of his former private secretary in New York until Mrs. Landau’s unexpected passing, was a six-month-old enigma, still in her infancy. Yet Dimitrios could understand why Stavros made the remark.
In a word, she was a renaissance woman. Brilliant. Creative. A combination of a workaholic and efficiency expert who, though she was no great beauty, happened to be blessed with a pleasant nature. She was many things—too many, in fact, to put a label on her. Mrs. Landau had known what she was doing when she’d hired her.
Before their trip to China, Dimitrios had wondered how he’d ever gotten along without her. During their week’s stay in Beijing while he’d watched her weave her magic before their inscrutable colleagues with the finesse of a statesman, he finally figured it out.
She had a woman’s mind for detail, but she thought like a man. Best of all for Dimitrios, she had no interest in him.
“Ms. Hamilton brings her own genius to the company, just as you brought yours many years ago and tutored me, Stavros. I’m looking forward to next week when the two of you meet for the first time. She holds you in great reverence, you know.”
“I, too, shall enjoy making the acquaintance of this American paragon. Spring greets Winter.”
“Since she’s in her late thirties, it would be more accurate to say summer, and you’re sounding uncharacteristically maudlin, Stavros.”
“You have to allow me the vicissitudes of my age.”
Dimitrios chuckled, but beneath the banter he could sense his assistant’s vulnerability. Perhaps a word in Ms. Hamilton’s ear that she leave something important for Stavros to handle for the fair would help.
“Just so we understand each other, I won’t allow you to retire until I do. See you later this afternoon.”
“What’s wrong with Stavros?” his nephew asked as he clicked off the phone.
Putting his head back to relax, Dimitrios murmured, “He’s suddenly aware of growing older.”
“I know how he feels.”
Dimitrios would have laughed if Leon hadn’t sounded so serious. “You said you wanted to talk. Since you brought up Ionna, I have to wonder if you’re not about to tell me you’ve fallen for a girl your mother doesn’t like.”
Leon shook his head. “That’s not why we argued. I told her I dislike my business classes and want to drop out of the university. It’s only September. I can still withdraw without penalty before the fall semester starts in three weeks.”
Dimitrios schooled himself not to react. “To feel that strongly, you must have a very good reason.”
“My heart isn’t in it!” he cried. “I don’t think it ever was. Mother’s always had this vision of me taking my place in the family corporation. She says I owe it to my father’s memory. But business doesn’t appeal to me. Do you think that makes me some sort of traitor?” he asked in an anxious voice.
“Of course not,” Dimitrios scoffed.
At this point he could have told his nephew a few home truths. Like the fact that Leon’s father hadn’t been interested in the family business, either.
There was information Leon didn’t know about his mother that would shed more light on her determination to make certain he held onto his birthright.
But Dimitrios’s hands were tied, because telling his nephew the truth about the past would hurt him more than it would help.
“What do you want to do with your life, or do you even know yet?”
His nephew heaved a sigh. “It’s just an idea, but it’s grown stronger with every visit to Mount Athos.”
Mount Athos.
“You took me there the first time. Remember? We did a walking tour, and ate and slept at the various monasteries.”
Yes. He remembered. Especially his nephew’s fascination with the monks…
Dimitrios straightened in the seat.
Like a revelation he knew what Leon was going to say before he said it.
“Uncle? Last night I told mother I’m thinking of entering an order. That’s when she ran out of my bedroom in hysterics. I’ve never seen her react like that to anything. Would you talk to her about it? You’re the only person she’ll listen to.”
Lord.
Was it possible that Leon’s hero-worship of him had caused his nephew to dismiss a woman’s love as unimportant?
Ananke’s unprecedented visit to his bedroom this morning was beginning to make sense in a brand-new way.
Since the death of Leonides she’d lived on sufferance under Uncle Spiros’s roof until his passing, then under the protection of Dimitrios.
If her son renounced all his worldly goods and went to live on a mountain, Ananke wouldn’t only have lost a son to the church, she would have no choice but to move into a house Dimitrios would provide for her. A comfortable enough pied-à-terre befitting the widow of Leonides. All her dreams smashed.
“Before I say anything to your mother, I’d like to hear more about how you feel.”
“As I said, I’m only thinking about it.”
“Our trip to Mount Athos took place ten years ago. That’s a long time to give a young man to think.”
Leon blushed. The reaction tugged at Dimitrios’s heart. Perhaps his brother’s son truly did have a vocation for the religious life. If it was the path he was meant to travel, far be it from Dimitrios to try to dissuade him.
Then again, like greener pastures, the monastic life might sound good to him because he was still young and lost.
Dimitrios had never questioned what direction his own life would go. He couldn’t relate to Leon in that regard, but he was his guardian. As such, he felt it incumbent to listen as his nephew poured out his heart.
Afterward he would point out the ramifications of a decision that a twenty-two-year-old mind wasn’t capable of envisioning yet. For one thing, it would break his mother’s heart. Ananke might be many things, but she loved her son.
For another, it would destroy something inside Dimitrios if he thought his own tormented past had anything to do with the drastic step his nephew was contemplating.
Suddenly Dimitrios felt older than Stavros.
CHAPTER TWO
ALEX’S family always complained that she didn’t stay long enough when she came to Paterson for visits. Her parents had never approved of her intentionally making herself look older in order to get hired by the Pandakis company. It was a sore point Alex argued with her mother every time they got together.
“Surely after four years you could start easing back to your normal self by lightening your hair in increments, wearing clothes that suit your age. I haven’t seen my own daughter for so long, I don’t remember what you look like.”
“Mom…” Alex took a deep breath. “I wanted to be hired so badly, I would have done anything to gain Mrs. Landau’s approval. I thought if I looked like a solid, more mature, dependable type, I’d have a better chance with her. Mr. Pandakis may have the reputation of being a womanizer, but he’s totally professional with the staff at the office.
“But Mrs. Landau’s not there anymore, darling. Now that you’ve taken over her duties, it seems to me you can start being our daughter again.”
“You don’t understand, Mom.”
“Oh, but I do. You’re not willing to risk anything that would prevent you from being around him. He’s a man to turn any woman’s head, and he has, especially yours.”
“Yes,” she admitted. “He’s—”
“Bigger than life?” her mother preempted her. “I know. He’s the reason you’ve stopped dating and no longer have a social life.”
“I can’t right now. But when the trade fair is over, he’s taking a three week vacation. I’ve been ordered to do the same.”
“Which means all you’ll do is mope around here waiting until you can be back with him.”
Her mother knew her too well.
“Alexandra? I’ve tried not to interfere in your life too much. But it’s obvious to me you’re in love with the man. Because of that you’re blind to certain truths.”
Alex didn’t want to hear them.
“Darling— Can’t you see he’s not normal?”
“You mean because he’s not married with three or four children by now?” she cried.
“Yes. He’s a person who’s been blessed with so many gifts, I think he got lost somewhere along the way.”
Alex shook her head emphatically. “If you knew him, you’d never say such a thing.”
“I’m not talking about his business prowess. There’s something in his makeup that isn’t right. My guess is he was marred in childhood and it stunted his emotional growth.
“How else do you explain his inability to settle down with one woman? Or for that matter, why Mrs. Landau seemed to choose only plain women to work for him. He’s simply not an ordinary sort. Don’t you agree? Honestly?”
Tears prickled Alex’s eyes. “Yes,” she whispered.
“Darling.” Her mother put an arm around her. “All I want is your happiness, but I’m afraid if you continue to work for him, he’ll go on taking advantage of your generous nature and you’ll never find joy in being a wife, or a mother.”
Alex broke down for a minute, then wiped her eyes. “Mom? There’s something I have to tell you. Maybe then you’ll understand why I can’t seem to let him go. I—I didn’t apply for a job at the Pandakis Corporation by chance,” she stammered.
“I suspected as much. When their people came to Paterson for the international silk seminar your grandfather hosted ten years ago, I remember the huge impact so many wealthy, dark-haired men made on everyone. Not a bad place to start a career for a girl right out of college.”
“Actually it was nine years ago.”
Her mother sent her a shrewd regard. “What went on that night? Did Dimitrios Pandakis’s wandering eye light on you? Did he tell you to come and see him when you were all grown up?”
“No!” Alex cried out. “If only it had happened like that, I wouldn’t have been forced to resort to subterfuge. It was Giorgio Pandakis—”
In a torrent of words she explained what had gone on nine years earlier when Dimitrios had saved her from his cousin. After confiding everything she said, “He was willing to stand by me, Mom. He offered to help me because that’s the kind of man he is.”
“No wonder you fell in love with him,” her mother murmured in a saddened voice. “I’ve tried to imagine what hold he’s had over you all this time. Everything you’d done since than has been with him in mind.”
“I’ve never been able to look at another man. I couldn’t!”
“But what has it really gotten you except heartache? This has to stop, darling. A teenage fantasy is one thing. But he’s become your obsession. Surely if it was meant to be, he would have returned your feelings by now.”
She knew her mother was right. Everyone was right. Michael. Her friend Yanni.
But the pain was killing her.
“I’m afraid for you to go to Greece with him. It can only put you on a more intimate footing with him without getting anything back in return.”
“I know, but I have to go. I’m in charge of the trade fair.”
“I realize that. Oh, Alexandra, you’ve gotten yourself in way too deep. I particularly don’t like the idea of your being anywhere near his cousin. Obviously he’d caused trouble in their family long before he set eyes on you, otherwise your boss wouldn’t have been so straightforward in dealing with the situation.”
It had taken Alex a few years before she’d figured that out.
“Don’t worry, Mom. Giorgio’s been married a long time and has a family. Besides, I’m not a teenager anymore, and he wouldn’t give me a second glance now.”
Her mother stared at her with anxious eyes. “I’m not so sure of that. You may look older now, but you’ll always be a beautiful girl. Even so, lies have a way of surfacing. How do you think Mr. Pandakis will react if he finds out you intentionally disguised yourself to get hired?”
“Literally speaking it was Mrs. Landau who gave me the job.”
“You know what I mean.”
Alex sucked in her breath. “I have no idea how he’d feel.”
“Yes, you do. You’ve just told me he’s an honorable man when it comes to business. Men like that expect honor in return. Mark my words, Alexandra. Every minute you’re in his employ, you’re playing with fire.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” she blurted in agony. “I—I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. Between you and Michael, I’m convinced that the only thing to do is resign.”
“If you really mean that, then go to Greece. Do your job. Don’t go near his family, then come straight home on the first available commercial flight and hand in your resignation. He’ll have three weeks to find another secretary within the company to replace you.”
“You’re right,” she whispered brokenly. “My assistant Charlene would give anything to have my job. As soon as I get back, I’ll look for something around here.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.” She gave her mother another hug. “Kiss Daddy for me. I have to run.”
“Call me as often as you can.”
“Okay. I love you, Mom. Thanks for the advice.”
“It’s more than advice, darling. It’s a warning.”
Tears swamped Alex’s cheeks as she left the house and drove off with those words ringing in her ears. All the way to New York she relived the conversation with her mother. The fissure had cracked open wide, wide, wide.
What a fool Alex had been. Four years had come and gone. She was still forgettable to Dimitrios.
But if he never gave her another thought after she left his employ, she was determined he’d remember the fruit of her labors.
For the last eight months she’d given the international textile fair her all. She hoped it would make Greece the forerunner in establishing business relations on a global scale.
Before Mrs. Landau had passed away, she’d told Alex that Dimitrios had been asked to host the trade fair at the behest of the Greek government. They needed a name guaranteed to bring success.
It was a project dear to Alex’s heart in more ways than one. She immediately went to work on it and received glowing praise from Mrs. Landau. But before the older woman could present the complete project to Dimitrios for his approval, she suffered a fatal heart attack at her home.
Her death affected everyone in the company, especially Dimitrios, who’d considered her his right hand away from Greece. Suddenly he was trying to do Mrs. Landau’s work plus his own.
When he’d asked Alex to take over as best she could, she’d sensed he felt she was a lightweight who couldn’t handle the enormous trade fair project along with her normal duties.
Fearing she’d miss the one big opportunity to make her mark, Alex rushed to assure him that she’d already worked out most of the details with Mrs. Landau. Whenever he gave the word, she would start implementing the plans.
She remembered that evening so clearly. Her mind’s eye could see the way he lounged back in his swivel chair and unfastened his tie. Fatigue lines had darkened his attractive face whose shadowed jaw gave evidence that he’d been going too hard, traveling too much without proper rest.
He stared at her with incurious eyes, causing her heart to plummet. Although he hadn’t told her no, she realized he had little faith in her abilities to take on something of such vital importance.
“Have you ever been to Greece, Ms. Hamilton?”
“No, but I have a history degree.”
In the uneasy silence that followed her response, she watched him rub his forehead as if he had a headache. No doubt he did and was barely holding on to his patience.
“Do you have something written up you can show me now, or do you need more time?”
She took a deep breath. “I’ll get the portfolio out of my office and be right back.”
Upon her return she asked if she could spread the materials out on his desk. He nodded.
The second she positioned the first twenty-by-twenty-four inch drawing in front of him, the complacency left his face. As he sat forward, his well-shaped black brows drew together.
“This isn’t Athens.” His voice trailed off.
“Was your heart set on it for the trade fair?”
Instead of answering her, he continued his perusal.
Swallowing hard she said, “That’s a rendition of medieval Thessalonica during the great Byzantine fair held in the twelfth century. Everyone came—from Constantinople, Egypt, Phoenicia, the Peloponnese.”
His head finally lifted. This time his eyes reminded her of twin black fires. “You drew this?”
“It’s only a sketch. I thought because Thessalonica is your home, it would be exciting and fitting to recreate that same fair with colorful merchant booths and flags from every country participating. The whole city can get involved by providing local foods and drinks, everyone in native costume. Troubadours, music, dancing.
“Since it was the great cultural center then and still is today, I can’t think of another place in Greece more appropriate to host a trade fair, certainly not one of this magnitude.”
She placed a sketch of a closeup of the bay in front of him. “We could invite the countries around the Mediterranean and as far away as Scandinavia to bring their restored ships and anchor them here like they once did. Everyone can go aboard to see their wares.
“It will be like stepping back in time, but the products will be the latest in materials and textiles from around the world.
“We’ll launch a massive ad campaign on the Internet with each country having its own Web page to list their products. I’ve already procured Web addresses. People who aren’t able to attend can place orders.
“Think what it would mean economically to the Greek Island cottage industries for example, not to mention new world markets. Of course the pièce de résistance will be this.” He hadn’t interrupted her yet, so she whipped out her next drawing.
“Follow the silk road from Thessalonica to Soufli. At various points along the route, the delegations will set up their silk exhibits. Visits to the mulberry tree farm and the silk mansion in Soufli will be the highlight of the tour.
“The weather will be warm and perfect in September. Imagine the streets of Soufli lined with booths showing every stage from the secretions of the silkworm, to the silk thread ending up as a cravate or a gown.
“We’ll woo the media ahead of time so there’ll be a blitz that hits airwaves around the wor—”
“Ms. Hamilton.” He cut in on her.
Her body broke out in a cold sweat. He didn’t like it. Afraid to look at him, she said, “Yes?”
“What you’ve put together here is nothing short of sheer genius. In fact I’m having difficulty assimilating everything all at once.”
Alex had been ready to pass out from disappointment. She still felt light-headed, except that now it was for an entirely different reason.
“Unfortunately none of this can happen without hotel space,” he muttered. “Every place of lodging in Macedonia and Thrace should have been notified months ago in order to carry out such a fantastic plan.”
“They were.”
His dark head reared back in stunned surprise.
“In Athens and the surrounding regions, too. I also notified the head of all the businesses involved, the restaurants, the universities, the musicians’ network, the transport services, port authorities, police, so they would set aside the time and plan ahead how to accommodate the huge crowds.
“I assume this is what it’s like mobilizing for war, except that in this case everyone will enjoy the spoils of victory.”
“Lord,” she heard him whisper.
“It’s a good thing we’re talking about this tonight,” she informed him. “The day after tomorrow is the final date for me to confirm or cancel everything without penalty.
“I’ve been waiting to discuss the fair with you until you’d recovered from Mrs. Landau’s passing. She was extremely fond of you, too. It should please you to know that every contact person has assured me they wouldn’t have held on this long for anyone but Dimitrios Pandakis. It’s an honor to work for you.” She had a struggle at the last to keep the emotion out of her voice.
In an unconscious gesture he raked his hands through the luxuriant black hair she longed to touch. “Here I was beginning to think you were perfect, Ms. Hamilton. Now I can see you’re not above bribery to get what you want. For that flaw, you’ve won yourself a full evening of work that could take us well into the night.”
With those words he’d just given her the first taste of her heart’s desire.
“While you arrange to have our dinner sent up, I’ll cancel my plans to attend the symphony and we’ll start again. I want to hear this from the beginning.
“Slowly this time. Detail by detail until I’ve picked that brilliant brain of yours. I can see I’ve also underestimated the value of your American university education. Did you study any languages?”
“My degree specialized in classical European history, so there were several classes I had to take in Latin and Greek.”
“You speak and understand Greek?” He sounded incredulous.
“No. But since I came to work for your company I’ve been trying to do both with the help of a tutor.”
“Who?”
“A graduate student from Athens who lives in my apartment building. He trades me lessons for meals.”
“You cook, too?”
“Yanni’s not particular.”
Alex couldn’t remember Dimitrios ever smiling at her before now. What a gorgeous man he was.
“When you call downstairs, tell the kitchen to send a gallon of coffee with the food.”
“Which brand of decaffeinated do you prefer?”
He lifted a sardonic brow. “Forget everything you learned from Mrs. Landau.”
“You don’t really mean that. I happen to know she had your very best interest at heart.”
Once more his black eyes flashed fire. “You happen to know a lot more than I thought possible.”
I sincerely hope so. Otherwise how will I ever become unforgettable to you?
More tears dripped down Alex’s face as she remembered that evening with him. He’d loved her idea and had let her run with it. But nothing else had changed in the intervening months. Nothing personal.
Her mother was right about him not being normal. Even Alex knew it was time to give up. The trade fair would have to be her swan song.
Unless she died of pain first…
Dimitrios left his New York office with the morning newspaper under his arm and rode the elevator to the parking garage level of the building.
“Ms. Hamilton hasn’t arrived yet?” he asked his driver who was waiting for them with the limo.
“I haven’t seen her, Mr. Pandakis.”
He checked his watch. No crime had been committed because it was a only few minutes past eight. It surprised him because she was the most punctual person he’d ever met.
At the end of work yesterday he’d told her he would drop by her apartment on the way to the airport to pick her up. To his surprise she’d said it wouldn’t be necessary because she’d be coming by the office early to take care of some last-minute business.
“Mr. Pandakis?”
Dimitrios turned in time to see one of the parking attendants approach him.
“Your secretary just called. She said she was running late and her friend would drive her straight to the airport.”
He blinked. No doubt Ms. Hamilton had many friends, but the only one he’d ever heard about was Yanni. A compatriot.
Besides cooking him meals in exchange for language lessons, was she his pillow friend? It might explain why she’d chosen not to call Dimitrios on her cell phone to tell him about the change in plans. Particularly not if her tutor were lying next to her having a hard time saying goodbye.
The idea that Ms. Hamilton might have a love life made her more of an enigma than ever because she’d never let it interfere with her work. For quite some time he’d been aware that she wasn’t like most women. That’s why she’d become so valuable to him.
He climbed in the back of the limo. “Let’s go to the airport.”
“Yes, sir.”
Dimitrios unfolded the paper. The first thing he noticed on the front page of the Times was a fantastic shot of three ships. At closer inspection they turned out to be a Viking longboat plus a Greek and a Roman galley moored in the bay of Thessalonica awaiting the fair. A nice-size article accompanied the photo.
He saw Ms. Hamilton’s hand in the write-up. Except to give her the okay on the project, Dimitrios really hadn’t been—
His thoughts were interrupted by the ring of his cell phone. He pulled it from his pocket and checked the caller ID. It was someone from the villa.
“Yassou?”
“Kalimera, Uncle. You are coming home today aren’t you?”
His nephew sounded anxious. “I’m on my way to the airport now.”
“Good. There’s a lot I have to talk to you about.”
“I take it things are still at an impasse with your mother.”
“Yes. She refuses to discuss anything with me when she doesn’t even know what I’m going to say.”
“You and I have been over this before. She’s afraid of losing you, Leon.”
“How do I convince her that couldn’t possibly happen?”
I’m not sure you can. He rubbed his eyes. “Tell you what. Tomorrow morning the three of us will sit down together and talk this out.”
“Thank you. Mother’s much better with you there. Can I pick you up at the airport?”
Dimitrios wasn’t immune to the pleading in his nephew’s voice. “It will be late. I’ll have my secretary with me.”
“Where’s she staying?”
“I’ve booked her at the Mediterranean Palace.”
“No problem. We’ll run her by there on our way home, but it may take us a while. The traffic’s horrendous. You’re going to be surprised at what you see when you get here. The city’s been transformed while you’ve been in New York.”
“I’m looking forward to viewing the finished product.”
“Besides all the booths that have gone up, the buildings and churches, even the White Tower is festooned with pennants and medieval banners. The city’s been invaded with people, and there are six ships in port now.
“Wait till you get a look at the Egyptian barge from Cleopatra’s time on loan for the event! Five days aren’t going to be enough for people to see everything.”
“I think five days is about all our fair city will be able to handle.”
“That’s what Vaso said. We had lunch with some government officials from the prime minister’s office who were looking around yesterday. They said they’d never seen anything like this in their lifetime. The praise for you is pouring in already and the fair hasn’t even started yet.”
“My secretary will be gratified to hear it. She’s the mastermind behind the entire concept.”
“You’re just saying that because you never like to take credit for anything.”
“No. If you don’t believe me, I’ll have Ms. Hamilton show you the contents of her portfolio after we get there.”
“I’m glad you’re coming home, Uncle.”
“Me, too. See you soon.”
Dimitrios clicked off.
One look at her artwork and Leon wouldn’t believe his eyes. The drawings were remarkable. When everything was over he intended to have the first sketch framed for his office.
As his private jet came into view, his cell phone went off again. “Leon? Obviously you forgot something important.”
“It’s Ananke.”
Dimitrios should have known better than to answer that way, but his mind had been on Ms. Hamilton.
“Yassou, Ananke.”
“It doesn’t surprise me my son reached you before I did,” she began without preamble. “I have to know—Is he willing to stay in school one more semester? Please tell me yes,” she cried.
Her desperation found a vulnerable spot inside Dimitrios. He wasn’t exactly enchanted by the bombshell his nephew had dropped on them.
“I’m still working on it.”
“How soon are you coming home?”
“Late tonight. I told Leon we’d all sit down and discuss this in the morning.”
“Thank you.” Her voice trembled.
“Ananke? Just remember, there’s only so much I can do.”
“You can stop him!”
Dimitrios heaved a sigh. “If this is his destiny, then no earthly power will make a difference.”
The sobbing on her end meant the conversation was over, for the time being, anyway.
He undid his seat belt. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he murmured before ringing off.
As the vehicle pulled to a stop, Dimitrios levered himself from the back of the limo and hurried up the steps of the plane.
“Kalimera, Kyrie Pandakis.”
Instead of his pilots or his steward speaking to him in Greek, it was Ms. Hamilton who greeted him in his native tongue as he entered the plane. It was a first for her. She never failed to surprise him.
“Kalimera,” he said back to her, relieved she was here.
“Hero poli.”
“It’s nice to see you, too.” He responded in Greek once more, impressed by this latest display of her many talents. She’d spoken with barely a trace of accent. Continuing in the same language he said, “Shall we carry on this fascinating conversation after we’ve fastened ourselves in?”
“I’m sorry.” She reverted to English. “I didn’t understand anything else you said after you told me it was nice to see me, too.”
Her honesty was so refreshing, he burst out laughing. For a moment it dispelled the cloud that had enveloped him since his nephew had confided in him.
The rest of his crew welcomed him aboard, but he was barely aware of them as he gave the nod to prepare for takeoff.
“What I just said to you, Ms. Hamilton, was that I was looking forward to a lengthy discussion in Greek, but thought it would be wise to strap ourselves in first so the pilot can do his job.”
“Oh.” She took the seat opposite him and fastened her seat belt. “I’m afraid you’ve heard my full repertoire until we reach Greece. Then I’ll impress you by asking where the post office is, how much does a stamp cost, that sort of thing.”
His chuckle got lost in the scream of the jet engines.
After a smooth liftoff it didn’t take long until the plane had attained cruising speed and they could unstrap themselves.
Out of the periphery he saw that she already had her nose in the notebook she called her bible. He noticed it went everywhere with her.
“Your friend didn’t mind bringing you to the airport so early?”
She lifted her head. “Yanni’s on his way to Athens, so it worked out fine.”
“To be with family?”
“That, and to attend the fair.”
The steward chose that moment to serve them tea. Dimitrios thanked him, then sat back in his seat, wondering why her answer mattered. It was none of his business if she planned to be with her lover in Thessalonica.
As soon as the brew had cooled, he took a long swallow. It was so delicious he drank the rest without pause, then requested more.
Speaking in Greek, he complimented his steward who murmured in the same language, “She brought it on board. Insisted on steeping it herself.”
Intrigued, Dimitrios flicked his gaze to his secretary. For once she had irritated him by being too absorbed with her work. “My compliments, Ms. Hamilton. This tea tastes like the proverbial nectar of the gods.”
She raised her head in his direction. “According to Yanni who won’t drink anything else, that’s the name of it in Greek. He says it comes from the sage that grows wild on the mountains of the Peloponnese. I told him you have a sweet tooth, so he said to add honey instead of sugar. I’m glad you like it.”
Dimitrios should have been appreciative of her desire to please him with a special treat. He was pleased. But for some reason it irritated him that Yanni had any part in her thoughtful gesture.
She opened her laptop computer. “Shall we go over the timetable of events now? I’ve made a hard copy for you. If there’s anything you want to change, I’ll enter it and print it out when we reach Greece.”
In an oddly rebellious mood Dimitrios adjusted the seat so he could fully relax and close his eyes.
“Why don’t you read it out loud instead. I’ll interrupt if I think of something you haven’t.”
He sounded tired, bordering grumpy.
Alex had thought the tea might sweeten him up. Normally he was very even-tempered for a man who shouldered so much responsibility.
But she’d worked closely with him over the last six months and had started to notice a pattern to his change in mood. It only came on when he was getting ready to fly home to Greece.
If her mother was right about his past, he probably had hidden demons still to be conquered.
It happened to a lot of people. Alex’s only unmarried sister chose to feel like a victim. Except for the occasional visit, she preferred to remain in California rather than come home and deal with family on a more frequent basis.
Deciding it would be best to humor her boss, Alex began reading the countdown of the first page out loud. Halfway through, she detected a change in his breathing. He was asleep.
Zeus at rest.
That’s how she thought of him.
This was only the second time she’d flown in the Pandakis jet with its eagle emblem. As on her first flight with him to San Francisco, she had the feeling she was being spirited away by the legendary Olympian god to his private kingdom in the sky.
Through her lashes, she studied his long, powerfully built body stretched out in his seat opposite her, his piercing black eyes closed for the time being.
She wished she were a painter so she could capture him on canvas. He had the bold facial structure of his Macedonian ancestors, and that beautiful olive skin born from the kiss of a hot Mediterranean sun. Yet there was something childlike in the quiet way he slept.
More handsome than the young god Adonis. The paparazzi claimed he was the lover of many women, yet faithful to none. Alex could vouch for a goodly number of females who called the office anxious to talk to him.
However, she really had no idea what he did after she left for her apartment at the end of the day. Presumably there was a certain amount of truth to the gossip in the tabloids.
But Alex regarded him in a different light. To her, raven-haired Dimitrios Pandakis could well be the supreme ruler of the gods who shaped the corporate world below. One word of displeasure from his sensuous lips was like the proverbial thunderbolt hurled at those who lied or broke oaths.
The experience nine years ago had already provided her with firsthand knowledge that he was the god of justice and mercy and a protector of the weak.
After saving her from the unwanted attentions of his cousin, he’d shown her kindness before removing the other man from her sight. But he’d taken away a lot more than that. He’d gone off with her young girl’s heart.
Quite simply, his intervention changed the course of her life.
As her eyes took their fill of him, the ache to touch him intensified. More than ever she realized it would never be enough to be just his private secretary. Reason declared that the end of the fair would have to be the end of the road for her. The cessation of all fantasy.
Exhausted from too little sleep and her emotional struggle, she put her things away and lay back, willing oblivion to come if only for a little while.
It was a shock to finally wake up to her surroundings and discover that the interior lights had come on. Outside the plane they were cloaked in darkness.
She checked her watch. Heavens. How could she have been asleep seven hours?
Though alone for the moment, she was conscious of the sound of male voices coming from the cockpit area. Judging by their chuckles, someone was telling an amusing tale.
Probably she’d snored, or her stomach had growled so loudly they’d all heard it. Either possibility was so humiliating, Alex shot out of her seat and used the time to freshen up in the bathroom.
While she was repinning her hair to secure it better after her long sleep, she noted that the plane had started to encounter some turbulence. She didn’t pay much attention to it until the Fasten Seat Belts sign flashed overhead.
Alex put in the last pin, then left the bathroom and hurried to her seat. As she strapped herself in, she saw Dimitrios emerge from the cockpit, his expression sober.
“I was about to do that for—”
But she wasn’t destined to hear him say anything else because the plane hit an air pocket, sending him flying. He crashed against the wall. By the position of his body, he’d been knocked unconscious. She saw blood.
“Dimitrios!”
They were dropping out of the sky as if being pulled toward a giant lodestone.
Please, God. Don’t let anything happen to him.
CHAPTER THREE
“HE’S coming around.”
“Don’t let him move his head.”
“No. I’ve got him.”
“An AirMed helicopter will meet us when we land.”
“The bleeding’s stopped.”
“That’s good. Keep that compress over the wound.”
“Do you think his arm is broken?”
“No. Nothing’s broken that I see, but he’s going to have an ugly bruise on his shoulder for a while.”
Dimitrios had been hearing voices for the last few minutes. Now he was aware of stinging at the crown of his head. Slowly his body was coming back to life.
Mingled with the smell of alcohol was a delicious scent, like pears, that permeated his nostrils. It came from a smooth, cool hand cupping his jaw along the side of his face. He seemed to be resting on something soft and warm. His eyelids fluttered open.
Waves of dizziness assailed him. He blinked several times until his gaze focused on a pair of soulful green eyes staring down at him. They seemed to take up her whole face.
Good Lord. What were they both doing on the floor of the plane with his head in her lap?
“Ms. Hamilton?”
“Thank heaven you know me,” she whispered emotionally.
“Welcome back,” came the voice of his copilot. Both he and the steward had to be standing somewhere near his feet.
Dimitrios blinked again. Maybe it was the angle of the recessed lighting that made him think moisture clung to his secretary’s long, silky lashes. He’d never seen her without her steel-rimmed glasses. She had flawless skin and a beautifully shaped mouth.
“What happened?”
“We hit an air pocket before you could make it to your seat,” she explained.
“I remember now,” he muttered on a groan. “How soon before we land?”
His copilot hunkered at his side. “We’re approaching Macedonia International now.”
Dimitrios started to get up, but all three of them held him down. “Don’t move,” his steward ordered. “You have a lump on the top of your head and must be seen by a doctor.”
“I heard you say nothing was broken. Let me up,” he ordered.
Still they restrained him. Damnation.
He felt the tightening of his secretary’s diaphragm before she asked, “How many stones are there in my ring?”
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