To lie next to him like this was ecstasy. While his powerful legs twined with her jean-clad limbs, she ran her hands through his black hair and kissed every feature, not able to get enough of him. Everywhere he touched her, he set her body on fire.
“I love you, Andreas. I love you so much it frightens me.” The words poured out of her. She couldn’t stop them.
“We have to get married, Zoe. I need you desperately.” He stared down into her eyes. “Say you’ll be my wife as soon as the divorce goes through.”
Before she could answer him, they both heard Ari, who’d awakened without their knowledge and had gotten to his feet. He was shaking the crib railing and calling out “Baba!”
Andreas had to let her go and got up from the bed to reach for his son. “It’s about time your mother brought you back so you could sleep in your own bedroom.” He kissed him half a dozen times while Zoe sat up to watch the tender way he dealt with his boy.
Ari’s cheeks were rosy from sleep. Andreas changed his diaper and put him in a darling swimming suit. Once dressed, he slipped sandals on him and carried him over to her. “Do you remember Zoe?”
His son didn’t act interested or say her name. “I think he’s disoriented to see me here.”
“He’ll get used to it since you’re going to be an integral part of our lives.”
Zoe hadn’t said she’d marry him. He still hadn’t told her where things really stood with Lia, but just hearing Andreas say what he did sent a shiver of excitement through her.
“Come on. We left your bag in the foyer. Let’s collect it and I’ll show you to the guest bedroom where you can change.”
His villa was a marvel of modern design; open, airy and full of light. The use of plants and paintings provided the color against the white walls. He showed her to the guest bedroom and waited while she put on her swimming suit and beach jacket in the en suite bathroom.
When she walked out, his lingering gaze on every part of her face and figure set her heart pounding. She followed him as they walked on fabulous Greek tiles to the immaculate kitchen that was a housewife’s dream. Ari looked over Andreas’s shoulder at her. “Are you beginning to remember me, Ari? I’m Zoe.”
To her delight he finally said her name, producing happy laughter from Andreas. “We’ll take out a drink and some snacks for him. Would you like a soda?”
“That sounds wonderful. I’ll get it.” She reached in the fridge for a cola. “Do you want one, too?”
“Yes, please.”
She trailed him through an alcove to some doors that opened onto more tiles surrounding the rectangular pool. It was a glittering blue in the afternoon sunlight.
“This has to be the reason you stay in such fabulous shape.” Like a Greek god.
He grinned. “I don’t know about fabulous, but I try to work out here every morning before I leave for work.”
“What heaven!”
There were two umbrella tables with chairs and lounge chairs in a blue-and-white design that would always remind her she was in Greece. He’d already brought some towels and things out here, including a few water toys for Ari that included a little raft and a ball.
His daddy lowered him to the tiles and he ran to get the ball, which he immediately threw in the pool. They both laughed at his son’s antics.
Zoe removed her white beach jacket. While she’d been in Greece she’d bought a Grecian-designed swimming suit. It was a white one-piece that zipped up the front with some one-inch black stripes around the torso and hips. Being full-figured, she liked it for its modesty, plus the fact that she was crazy about black and white.
Again she felt Andreas’s eyes play over her. This time it made her cheeks go hot. To hide her face, she walked over to the side of the pool and dived in, thinking the cooler water would help. Instead, the temperature rivaled the water in a bathtub. Ari would love it.
Zoe swam around while she watched Andreas carry Ari into the pool and put him facedown on the raft. He spoke to him in Greek. The love of father and son was something special to behold.
“Come and join us.”
She moved to the shallow end and got on the other side of the raft. “How do you say ‘Is it fun?’ in Greek?”
When he told her, she imitated the words a couple of times, then asked Ari, who couldn’t answer, but his smile did. “You do like the water, don’t you?”
Andreas pushed him around and they worked together. “I think he’s ready to try getting wet.” He pulled him off the raft into his arms and started walking with him, splashing him a little bit.
Pretty soon he lay Ari against his chest with his face up so more water crept around his little body. Zoe stayed right with them as his daddy slowly swirled him this way and that. Ari let out a few nervous laughs, then reached for Zoe, who pulled him into her arms. He held her tight.
“Did that make you scared?” She kissed his cheek. “It’s okay, darling. One of these years you’ll swim rings around your father.”
A smile broke on Andreas’s striking face. He put his arms around both of them, taking turns kissing her and Ari. “I could do this all day.”
“So could I,” she said, giving him another peck on his hard jaw.
All three of them moved around the pool with Andreas holding them secure. Ari kissed his daddy several times. His sweetness touched her heart. This was a moment she would treasure her whole life.
After a few minutes, his son started to squirm. “I think maybe my boy has had enough for the time being.”
Zoe handed him over to his father and they all got out of the pool. She reached for a towel to cover Ari, then plucked one for herself to dry her hair. Andreas put him in one of the lounge chairs and handed him a sippy cup filled with juice. He’d also brought out a banana, which Zoe peeled for him. He took a few bites.
“He’s so cute I can hardly stand it, Andreas. I don’t know how you handle the hours and days between visitations.”
“I haven’t done it well, but it’s a fact of life I have to deal with.”
“You do it superbly. He seems so well-adjusted. It shows he gets so much love from you and Lia. He’s a very lucky boy.”
“Do you know how remarkable you are to give her credit?”
She smiled at Andreas. “Why wouldn’t I? Her lack of judgment cost her her marriage, but you can see she takes perfect care of Ari. Besides, how could I forget you fell in love with her, which means she has wonderful qualities? Otherwise you wouldn’t have been attracted enough to marry her.”
Lines darkened his face. “I wish I could be as generous about your ex-husband. I know he hurt you terribly.”
“Some men just aren’t ready for marriage. I’ve been thinking about Guion. Maybe he had to go through this experience to learn how priceless the right kind of love is. For his sake, and the sake of his wife and child, I hope he wins her back.”
“Do you have any instincts over what he’ll do about Ari?”
She shook her head. “Do you?”
“Lia asked me the same thing today. I told her I don’t think he’s going to want visitation rights. She’s praying he doesn’t so her parents will never find out. Which brings me to the one thing I haven’t told you as a result of her coming to Patras.”
Zoe didn’t know why exactly, but she got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. “What is it?”
“To paraphrase Lia, ‘I’ll tell my attorney we’re waiting to hear from Guion. Everything hinges on him should he decide to exercise his rights and turn this into a public scandal. After you bring Ari back on Sunday, don’t plan to come to Athens again until his attorney talks to mine.’”
“Or?” Zoe prompted him. She was waiting to hear the rest.
“I’ll have a restraining order denying you visitation.”
“So now this whole thing hinges on what Guion does or doesn’t do.”
<
br /> “In her mind yes, but her stalling tactics won’t work. The next step will be to inform her parents. That will end any problems with visitation. Once they know the truth, they’ll refuse to pay her attorney fees. But I’d rather use it as a last resort.”
None of this would be happening if Lia hadn’t seen Zoe in Athens with Andreas. If she said as much to him now, he’d tell her they’d been over this ground before. That was because all roads led back to the starting point.
But what if Guion couldn’t make decisions right now? What if it took him a month or more before Lia’s attorney heard from him? Her jealousy could hold Andreas hostage in a visitation mess that could very well destroy him.
Zoe understood that he didn’t want to tell Lia’s parents the truth because he was such an honorable man. But there was something she could do—she had to do—and she put on her beach jacket.
“Andreas? While you deal with Ari and feed him, I’m going to go in and get cleaned up. After that I’ll make us dinner.”
“I think you’ll find what you need in the fridge.”
“I’m counting on it.” She leaned over to kiss Ari’s forehead. He was just finishing the last of his banana. “See you in a few minutes, cutie pie.”
“Cutie pie?”
“Yes. With your phenomenal command of English, I’m shocked you haven’t learned that endearment.”
She heard his deep laughter while she headed for the guest bedroom to shower and wash her hair. After she put her jeans and top back on, she walked to the kitchen and found ingredients for omelets and salad.
In a minute Ari came in dressed in a playsuit and babbling in Greek. He walked over to her. Seeing someone here besides his mother had to be surprising to him. She looked down with a smile. “Yassou, Ari.”
“Yassou to you, too.” Andreas, so handsome it hurt, had just come in the kitchen wearing khaki pants and a sport shirt. He set the table and put on a loaf of the crusty Greek country bread she loved.
“Come on, Ari.” He swung him in the high chair and gave him a piece of the bread and a sippy cup with some milk. “He’ll eat what we eat.”
Dinner turned out to be a riot. His son was very talkative, but it was unintelligible to Zoe. Andreas taught her how to say ghala for milk and salata for salad so she could practice on Ari. He squirmed a lot and kept saying one expression over and over. Zoe glanced at Andreas for a translation.
“He wants to get down.”
“Ari shows all the signs of believing he’s grown up and would rather sit in a regular chair. Look what you’ve got ahead of you.”
“I am looking, and I love it.” The way he was eyeing Zoe turned her heart over. It was time for her to leave.
“Andreas, I need to get back to the apartment.”
His frown showed the first sign of tension. “I’m planning on you staying here tonight.”
She shook her head. “You know perfectly well why I can’t, so let’s not talk about it again. If you’ll send for the limo, or I can call for a taxi.”
“Not yet. Ari wants you to play with us first.”
For the next hour the three of them played hard on the floor in the nursery. Andreas got out one toy after another and they had wars until Ari laughed so hard he got the hiccups again. But he was getting tired.
“I believe he’s as worn out as I am.” Zoe stood up and started putting toys away while Andreas got his son ready for bed. Then she walked over to the crib. “Kalinikta, Ari.”
She’d been practicing a few words to add to her vocabulary. As she started to leave the room, he called her name. It brought tears to her eyes she tried to hide before hurrying to the guest room.
Zoe tidied up and gathered her things into her bag. With that done she went back to the kitchen to clean it and put the dishes in the dishwasher. A sober Andreas walked in. “The limo is outside.”
“Thank you for this wonderful day.” She didn’t dare say more. He was waiting to hear her tell him she wanted to be his wife, but she couldn’t say it. Too much of his troubled life still lay unresolved. Nothing was fair.
He drew in a deep breath. “Tomorrow morning Ari and I will be by for you in my car at eight thirty. We’ll have breakfast and drive to a great park for children. He loves going down the slides and sitting on the round top that whirls.”
“I think with you he loves anything. What a joy he is.”
Without actually answering him, she picked up her bag and they walked to the foyer. Once outside, he opened the rear door to the limo and helped her in. Before she could take a breath, he kissed her for a long time. When he finally relinquished her mouth, he whispered, “I dare you to get any sleep tonight.”
“I haven’t slept well since we met,” she confessed, hearing the tremor in her own voice. “I love you, Andreas. Now you’d better go in. Ari might not be fully asleep and cry out for you. If he does, give him another kiss for me.”
Don’t look at me like that, Andreas.
To leave him was killing her, too.
He blew her a kiss as the chauffeur drove the limo away. The second he was out of sight, she phoned the Adonis hotel downtown where she’d first stayed until she’d found a bedsitter. They had a single room for one night. She booked it and told them she’d be arriving within the hour. But first she needed to pack her bags. Then she’d leave for the hotel in a taxi.
CHAPTER TEN
ANDREAS WENT BACK in the villa, but something wasn’t right. Her I love you had sounded more like...goodbye.
He checked on Ari, who’d played so hard he’d passed out.
Without hesitation he pulled out his phone to call Zoe. She’d left her voice mail on. That wasn’t like her. She would usually have answered after the first ring. A sense of dread swept through him.
After asking her to call him back, he rushed to the guest bedroom, fully expecting to find a letter telling him she was leaving Greece. He saw nothing!
Breaking out in a cold sweat, he went to his bedroom down the hall from the nursery to phone Gus. The private detective had left his voice mail on. Andreas told him what he needed and asked that he call him back as soon as he could. This was an emergency.
Frantic at this point, he raced to the kitchen to get a beer out of the fridge and call Yorgos. If he didn’t answer, Andreas was going to lose his mind. It was quarter to ten, not that late.
The phone rang until he got a voice mail prompt. On a groan, he said he was calling with an emergency and didn’t care if Yorgos phoned him in the middle of the night. They needed to talk.
While he paced the floor, Gus called him back, thank heaven. “I take it something serious is going on.”
“Life-and-death kind. I need you to track down a five-foot-six dark blonde beauty named Zoe Perkins. She’s a twenty-six-year-old American college professor who was staying at a apartment on Nikita Avenue downtown.” He gave him the numbers. “By now I know she’s left there in a taxi, or is planning to leave.
“I have every reason to believe she’s going to be headed for the airport on the first available flight. She could be flying to the US, Dijon, France, or possibly Venice, Italy. Her ultimate destination is Los Angeles, California.
“Gus—find her! Don’t let her get away. She’s my life!”
“I’m on it!” he exclaimed before hanging up.
He sat on one of the stools at the kitchen bar and called his housekeeper. Gaia had been with Andreas for the last five years. When Ari was born, she took perfect care of him at different times when needed. After she answered, he told her his dilemma. She assured him she’d come right over in her car and stay as long as he needed her.
“I might have to fly to Athens tomorrow.”
“That won’t be a problem. I’ll be there in a half hour.”
“Bless you, Gaia.” She could sleep in the guest bedroom nearest the nursery.
Once
he’d hung up, he phoned Zoe again knowing it was pointless, but he had to do something or go mad with frustration and anxiety.
Too restless to stay still, he finished his beer and walked through the house to look in on Ari again. Those hours that the three of them had been out in the pool had brought him such pleasure, he’d never wanted any of it to end.
By the time Gaia arrived, there was still no phone call from Yorgos. Andreas told her he might have to leave in the middle of the night and got her settled, then went to his bedroom. At eleven he heard his cell ring and clicked on.
“Yorgos? A lot has happened you need to know about. I was going to wait until Monday, but not now.” After filling him in that Lia had brought Ari to Patras and the threat she’d delivered, he said, “I want you to call an emergency meeting with the judge tomorrow that includes Lia’s attorney. The judge has to be told the real reason Lia keeps causing trouble. If you need me to be in court, I’ll fly to Athens.”
“I don’t think your presence will be required. I have all the facts. With this new information I’ll fax to his office tonight and to Lia’s attorney, the judge should be able to decide quickly.”
“He has to, Yorgos. When he learns about the lie and Lia’s need to keep the truth from her parents, he’ll have to rule on my terms of visitation. I’m through playing games and can’t wait any longer. I’ll convince the judge that although I may not be Ari’s biological father, I’m his father in every way that matters.”
“That should work. I’ll press for him to render his final decision tomorrow, but I can’t make promises for him.”
“I know that, and I appreciate everything you’ve done.”
“I’ll contact you the second I hear anything.”
After the line went dead, Andreas took a shower and climbed in bed. Sleep came in snatches. At five in the morning, he dressed in a crew neck shirt and jeans. With a check on his son to make sure he was all right, he left the villa and drove downtown to the apartment.
Maybe Zoe was still there, but not answering her phone. He waited out in front until seven, watching to see if she was leaving. When nothing happened, he went to her door and knocked. No answer.
Wedding The Greek Billionaire (Holiday With A Billionaire Book 3) Page 13
