2017 Christmas Coda: The Greek Tycoons

by Lucy Monroe

  "If that were true, I believe, my sister, who is so good with children, who talked all the time about the family she was going to have until she went away to college, the type of mother she was going to be, would already have children." Oh, Chrysanthos sounded sure of his hypothesis.

  "No," Phoebe said firmly. "No. I have enjoyed my career, but I didn't want to be a mother when I was working fulltime. Spiros understood that."

  Chrysanthos fisted his hands. "I would never have allowed our father to trade you for our company. If I'd been older, none of this would have happened."

  "You make it sound like our marriage was a tragedy when I assure you, it was not." Every word vibrated with furious affront from her husband.

  She turned so she could look up at him, holding his hand tightly against where their baby grew inside of her. "That's not what he's saying."

  "Do not speak for your brother, you are doing fine speaking for yourself." Spiros golden brown eyes were dark with anger as he stared at her.

  Phoebe gasped. "What are you so angry about?"

  "Am I angry?"

  "Furious, more like."

  "Why would I be angry? You and your brother have agreed that you would not have married me if you had a choice."

  Well, darn it. "I didn't say I wouldn't marry you ever, just not right out of university. You know I loved you, but marrying because of the money, to save my family, being pressured into marrying Dimitri by everyone, not knowing how you felt. It hurt me."

  "Would you want the same for your child?" Chrysanthos demanded indicating her belly with his hand.

  Spiros gave her brother a sulfuric glare. "I would never put my child in that position, but that does not mean Phoebe should not have married me."

  "Neither of us said that." Phoebe implored her husband's understanding with her eyes. "But do I wish we'd dated like other people? That you'd asked me to marry you with words of love? Yes."

  "How long?"

  "How long, what?"

  "How long would you have wanted to wait? How long would you have wanted to date?"

  "Months, a year, I don't know. I loved you so much, it wouldn't have been long."

  "But it would have been different. Better for you."

  "I don't regret a single day of our marriage."

  "I am glad to hear that." He didn't sound glad. He sounded…off.

  "Spiros?"

  "What, yineka mou?"

  "I am your wife. I am glad I'm your wife. I'm excited about this baby."

  "But you wish we had gotten to this point a different way."

  "It doesn't matter, Spiros. We are here. Married, having our first child."

  He looked down at her and leaned forward, kissing her until she snuggled against him.

  "You two." Chrysanthos laughed. "I'm still furious with our dad, but there's no question you two were meant for each other."

  #

  Chrysanthos couldn't stay overnight. He had too many things going on with Leonides Shipping to take any extra time away from the company. And apparently as upset as he'd been by the contracts he'd found and read, he was content now to believe that Phoebe was married to the man she was meant for.

  Her husband wasn't so sanguine and Phoebe didn't know how to make it better.

  She was still thinking about it when she got home from work. She'd planned to ride with Spiros today, but had ended up taking a car instead because he went in early and said he'd be leaving at a different time than her.

  He had, leaving the office a couple of hours before he usually did, so she was surprised to find the apartment empty when she got there a few hours later. Only a gorgeous dress by one of her favorite designers was on the bed, along with a note.

  The note told her to be dressed and ready to go out…she looked down at her watch, in thirty minutes. She'd left work a few minutes late, then her car had arrived even later. Phoebe was sure her husband had intended her to have more time to get ready. She didn't and if she didn't get a move on, he'd show up and she'd still be in her slip.

  Which wasn't such a bad scenario, but Phoebe was curious what her husband was going to happen.

  What happened was that her perfect, romantic, loving husband dated her. At least once a week until their baby was born, Spiros courted her with dinners, live theater, trunk shows (they lived in the fashion capital of the world after all), concerts, date-night movies, and gifts. Lots and lots of little and big gifts that showed just how well he knew her, how much he thought about her.

  They also took birthing classes together, shopped for the nursery and made plans for the future in this amazing bubble of happiness she'd never realized could be as wonderful as it was.

  And the night she delivered their baby, a beautiful little girl they named Clea (which meant gift of God) because she was their gift, timed to their life and their love, that happiness bubble was complete.

  #

  "She is beautiful," Alexandra told Phoebe as she looked down into the face of her new niece, delighted Phoebe had allowed her to be one of the first people to hold Clea. "And her name is perfect."

  Dimitri put an arm around Alexandra's waist and looked down at the hours-old-infant like the besotted uncle he was. "She's got your looks," he said to Phoebe, who glowed with a giddy, infectious happiness. "Which she will no doubt be grateful for, but she's got my brother's eyes."

  "She's perfect," Phoebe replied, reclining in her private hospital bed, wearing a lovely nightgown that Spiros had helped change her into after she gave birth to Clea.

  Spiros, who sat on the bed beside his wife, touched her lovingly. "Just like her mama."

  "You two are so sweet, I'm going to get a cavity looking at you." Dimitri's teasing tone belied any acerbity to his remark.

  Spiros grinned at his older brother. "Like you and Alexandra are any different."

  Her husband shrugged, his muscular chest rising and falling against her.

  "Do you think Theo will stand in as her big brother?" Spiros asked, emotion lacing his tone. "Only he's been trained in the role by the best. Both Philip and Alexandar are lucky to have him."

  Dimitri went silent beside her, clearly moved by his younger brother's words.

  "He can't wait to meet his youngest cousin," Alexandra answered, giving her husband a minute to collect himself. Madeleine's children were of an age with Alexandra and Dimitri's three. "And he's positively vibrating with the chance to watch over a little girl."

  Dimitri cleared his throat, wiping surreptitiously at his eyes. "He was hoping Alexandar would be a girl."

  "Well, he treats little Alex like a big brother should, being protective and teaching him. You'd never know he wanted a little sister."

  "He didn't, not by the time Alex was born," Alexandra said. "Theo really loves his role as oldest."

  "He certainly shares your protective streak, and willingness to teach his younger siblings." Spiros smiled. "If he has half your ruthless attitude to business, he'll take Petronides International places neither of us have done."

  Alexandra knew how healing these words her brother-in-law was speaking were to her husband. Though Spiros had long ago forgiven Dimitri for almost marrying the woman he loved and being less than honest about his own relationship with Alexandra and what she meant to him, her husband had always harbored a sense of guilt where his brother was concerned.

  "S'gapo, adelfós mou." Dimitri's affirmation of his love for his brother came out in tear-choked Greek.

  Spiros got up from the bed and came to hug Dimitri, his own tears running unchecked down his cheeks. "You have always shown me what it means to be the best in family and I am very glad my daughter will know you as her uncle."

  Alexandra knew Spiros meant his words sincerely. After all, he and Phoebe had packed up their apartment in Paris and moved back to Greece near the end of the pregnancy, so their daughter could be raised near Dimitri, Alexandra and their children. Theopolis was over the moon to have both his grandsons living in the family home again and his excitement at
Clea's birth had actually exhausted him so much, he had to go home to rest.

  At eighty, he was still going strong. He'd even stopped pressuring Phoebe and Spiros into having children after his fight with his youngest grandson five years prior. Most importantly, he'd taken Phoebe aside and apologized profusely to her for ignoring her personal happiness in his quest to see the Leonides and Petronides families united.

  Phoebe still had a distant relationship with her parents, a lot like Alexandra's with her own mother, but like Alexandra, Phoebe was close with her sibling and in-laws.

  They were two incredibly blessed women to have married the men they did. The Petronides brothers were the best Greece had to offer, and she knew Phoebe agreed with that sentiment.

  Sebastian & Rachel Kouros

  from The Greek's Innocent Virgin (2005)

  Aristide & Eden Kouros

  from The Greek's Christmas Baby (2005)

  Not quite 16 years after Sebastian and Rachel wed.

  Sebastian Kouros finished signing the deed documents with a sense of great satisfaction. He'd tried to gift the island and Kouros villa on it to his beautiful wife, Rachel, since first courting her. She always refused it, saying she didn't marry him for his billions and real estate, but because she was foolish enough to love him more than life itself.

  He had no problem believing her, not only had she exhibited that love in her giant, giving heart for many, many years, but he felt the same way. A love as powerful as they shared could not be faked or denied.

  But Sebastian was a competitive man and he'd finally found a way to gift the island to the woman who should have always owned it, in his mind anyway.

  He had signed it over to their youngest child, with the stipulation it could not be sold outside the family until she was thirty, and named Rachel as the executor of the property until Phyllida turned twenty-one. Since their youngest had just turned four, that would make Rachel the de facto owner for nearly two decades.

  "What are you up to, Sebastian? You've got that just conquered the world business tycoon look on your face." Rachel came into his office, her beautiful, curvaceous body encased in a long, lightweight, cream-colored sweater and caramel leggings.

  She'd call them mom-clothes, he called them enticing as hell.

  "Just finishing up the children's Christmas gifts."

  "I thought we finished shopping for them in Athens last week?" She gave him a look. The one that said she thought he spoiled their four children shamelessly. "Did you buy them more stuff after we agreed we were done?"

  She'd gotten her way about having more children after Chara had been born, despite his possibly irrational fears about her health. He got his way about spoiling those children. However, that did not mean he was stupid enough to go in direct opposition to his wife's dictates.

  "No, naturally not." He'd already owned all four properties he was signing over to their children.

  He'd bought the Santorini villa with vineyard he was gifting their fifteen-year-old eldest, Chara, the month after she was born. The penthouse in Athens that Sebastian had deeded to their twelve-year-old son, Achilles, had been the first property purchased for himself after becoming an adult. And the villa outside Athens that he put in his son's twin sister, Leto's name had been the first house he bought for him and Rachel to live in.

  She'd thought he'd sold it when they purchased the bigger house, closer to the city center after she unexpectedly became pregnant with Phyllida, seven years after the twins were born.

  "So, what are you giving our children, that you didn't have to buy?" Rachel asked suspiciously.

  "Nothing of which you will not approve, agape mou, but I prefer you be surprised with the children on Christmas morning." His wife had the endearing trait of loving surprises, whether for herself or for someone she cared about.

  She came around his desk and he turned his chair so she could settle onto his lap as was their custom. Rachel laid her arms on his shoulders, locking her hands against his neck and leaning forward to kiss him.

  "Not that I'm complaining, but to what do I owe this mid-afternoon visit to my office?" he asked after returning her kiss in a most satisfying way.

  She nuzzled under his chin and Sebastian's senses went on alert. He'd learned that his wife was a cuddler, but especially when she was upset, or feeling insecure.

  "I wanted to talk to you about something and I didn't want to wait for you to be finished with work," she said, confirming his suspicions that Rachel had something on her mind.

  Something that bothered her.

  "You have my full attention."

  "I got a disconcerting email."

  "From who?"

  "My sister."

  "You don't have a sister."

  "That's what I thought too, but according to this woman. I do."

  Now, Sebastian's instincts were on high alert. "Who is this woman?"

  "Her name is Bethany Stone. She's seven years younger than me. She said Andrea gave her up for adoption. She doesn't know her father is."

  "How did she find out about Andrea?"

  "She hired a private investigator. I guess the adoption records weren't sealed. It was an open adoption, but Andrea never took advantage of the stipulations for visitation."

  "Andrea had another child?" Sebastian asked, just to confirm…because honestly? He was shocked at the very idea.

  His lovely wife didn't look so steady herself. "According to Bethany."

  "Did this Bethany offer any proof, these open records maybe?"

  "So far, she's just emailed me and told me about them."

  "How did she get your email?"

  "She used the one attached to my work with Eden on the Kouros Children's Fund."

  That was better than this unknown woman having Rachel's private email.

  Rachel bit her lip. "I list the KCF on my social media. It wouldn't have been hard for her investigator to find me."

  Sebastian rubbed his wife's back, leaning down to kiss the side of her neck. "How do you feel about all this?"

  "Thank you."

  "For what, yineka mou?"

  "For asking that instead of going all, we need proof, we need to investigate this woman on me."

  "That's coming." He could not pretend otherwise. "But first, tell me what you are feeling at the prospect of having a sister."

  "It's weird. I hated growing up an only child, but it never occurred to me that I could possibly have a sister, or a brother. I mean, my dad could have gotten remarried."

  "But he did not." Not until he'd been reunited with his daughter. He'd met Sebastian and Aristide's mother and married Phillipa about a year later, giving her a new lease on life that Sebastian would always be grateful for.

  "No, but he could have and it never occurred to me. Only that would have been so much more believable than Andrea having another child and giving it up for adoption."

  "So far, you only have this Bethany Stone's word that happened."

  "Right."

  "Do you remember Andrea being pregnant?"

  "It would have been right after we left my father. I don't remember much from those first couple of years, just searching for my daddy, missing him. Hating being with my mom."

  "She was not a good mother. Not like you. Our children know how important they are to you every single day."

  Her smile was so warm, so filled with love for him, reflected love for their children. "I love being a mom. I love being a wife. Our life is so good, Sebastian."

  To hear her say these things, no matter how many times she'd done so, after their painful beginning, always gave him soul-deep pleasure. "It is, fíltatos mou, Rachel mou."

  Her gaze filled with pleasure, reminding him how much she adored when he called her his beloved. She snuggled in closer. "I am yours. And I know it's safe to tell you…" Rachel let her voice trail off, but Sebastian wasn't worried.

  She would share when she was ready.

  He waited patiently while his beloved wife sat in silence, her h
ands kneading his chest in the way she did when she was stressed.

  Finally, she took a deep breath and then let it out. "I'm not sure I want a sister. I'm thirty-eight years old. I have a family now; I have had for the last fifteen years. Bethany could have found me at any time since she turned eighteen. Why now?"

  "You don't trust her?"

  "If she's telling me the truth, she's as much Andrea's daughter as I am."

  "You're afraid Bethany is like Andrea," he said, even more shocked than at the knowledge his kind-hearted wife might have a sister. "Distrustful cynicism is usually my department."

  "I know, right?" Rachel teased, but her emerald gaze reflected worry more than humor.

  "You are nothing like the woman who gave you life."

  "I know that." Her brows drew together as she went silent in thought, parsing what he had said. "So, expecting Bethany to be like her is unfair."

  "But understandable. Your experience with Andrea was filled with pain. This woman claims to be a link to the pain you were finally able to leave behind after Andrea's death."

  "She said she wants to get to know her sister, to find out about our mother."

  "And the last thing you want to do is spend time talking about Andrea." Again understandable. Rachel had gotten a very raw deal when it came to who she'd been saddled with as a mother.

  "Yes. One of the things that gave me comfort about Andrea dying when she did was that she never had the opportunity to hurt my children the way she'd hurt me. I know that sounds awful—"

  He wouldn't let her castigate herself. "No, it sounds human. You never wished your mother ill. You didn't want her to die, but the fact she was not around to manipulate and hurt your children was something you could take comfort in even as you grieved the life she could have had if Andrea had the capacity to care about others."

  "You know me so well."

  "Naturally. You are my wife."

  Rachel grinned, her lovely face so enticing he had to kiss her. When he was finished, she had her hands in his hair and his were settled on her hips.

  "You've still got that arrogant streak."

  He caressed her hip, letting his hand slide around to her backside. "You would have me no other way."