The Greek's Forbidden Innocent

by Annie West

  Alexei shook his head. ‘Stop trying to distract me. It won’t work.’

  ‘Distract you?’

  Alexei’s face lowered till his lips almost touched hers. ‘I’m going to kiss you, Mina, till you stop throwing up objections. I’m going to kiss you till you agree to let me into your life so I can prove how good we’ll be together.’ All tension was gone from his face, replaced with a smug determination that made Mina want to laugh. For the first time today he looked like the man she’d fallen in love with.

  For the first time since she left the Caribbean she felt happy.

  ‘And if I don’t agree?’

  ‘Then, my sweet, sexy, Princess, I’ll have to keep kissing you till you do.’ There he was again, the confident tycoon with lurking humour in those slumberous eyes. But the tension humming through him, and the racing flick of the pulse at his temple, revealed Alexei took nothing for granted. He was still tense, waiting.

  That, most of all, showed the change in him.

  His lips brushed hers and Mina’s knees went weak. Her arms tightened around his neck.

  ‘If I agree, we need to take things slowly, get to know each other properly. We barely know each other.’

  ‘I believe we know each other in the ways that count.’ Alexei nuzzled the base of her throat and delight shuddered through her. ‘But I won’t rush you.’

  ‘I should warn you, I’m no pushover.’ Yet she arched against him.

  Alexei lifted his head, his smile wickedly knowing. ‘I’m counting on it. I’m here for the long haul.’ Then he took her mouth with his and Mina entered a world of bliss.

  Ages later she heard a man clear his throat. Huseyn. It had to be. But Alexei didn’t react and Mina was too lost in a haze of delight to pull back.

  Her brother-in-law wasn’t used to being ignored. Would he march over and pull them apart? Then she heard Ghizlan murmur something and the door clicked shut.

  Alexei pulled back enough to look down at her. The gleam in his eyes made her heart tumble. ‘So, your family is tactful as well as protective? I like them better all the time.’

  Mina dragged air into starved lungs. ‘Don’t think they’ll make it easy for you. They’ll give you the third degree about your life, goals and intentions.’

  His smiling eyes held hers. ‘I can’t think of anything else I’d rather discuss.’ He stepped back the tiniest fraction, unhooking one of her hands from his neck and bringing it to his lips. ‘My intention is to be the man who’ll make you happy. Always.’

  EPILOGUE

  A YEAR LATER, to the day, Alexei entered their Parisian home. Not the cramped place Mina had rented, but a spacious, high-ceilinged house with space for a studio. He smiled. That was where she’d be, working, even though there was barely time for him to shower and change before they headed to tonight’s exhibition.

  He ripped off the tie he’d worn for a press conference and tossed it over the back of a settee. His pulse quickened as he headed for the studio. Thinking of Mina filled him with a heady excitement he didn’t think would ever fade.

  But for once his sweetheart wasn’t up to her elbows in clay or working with metal. The place was empty, save for the usual clutter. A half-finished piece stood near the window. Sketches were pinned to one wall near a scuffed workbench.

  Alexei’s eyes went to a small, familiar piece in bronze on a nearby table. A man’s hands, his hands, cupped and holding the slim fingers of a woman. Mina’s. Though he appeared to support her hands, their fingers were intertwined as if sharing strength. Sharing a bond.

  Whenever he saw the piece, Alexei felt a thump in the region of his heart. An awareness of how lucky he was to have Mina. This year had been everything he could have hoped and it made him more determined to keep what he had.

  Smiling, he put his hand to his pocket and turned towards the door, only to pull up short.

  The woman he adored stood there, wearing a curiously unreadable expression and a stunning dress of flame red. Alexei’s lungs expanded on an appreciative breath as he took in the tiny shoulder straps and flirty skirt that were an invitation to explore.

  ‘Mina! You look stunning.’ He imagined his hands skimming her taut thighs beneath the fabric. Heat circled his chest and drove straight to his groin.

  ‘You don’t look so bad yourself.’ She crossed the room and kissed him. Alexei gathered her up, relishing the fire that ignited between them and the sweet sensation of coming home. Coming to Mina.

  When he ended the kiss, he kept his arms around her. Her exotic spice and cinnamon scent was warm in his nostrils and he savoured how right this was.

  ‘I heard from Carissa today.’

  ‘Hmm?’ He looked down into velvety eyes. She was smiling.

  ‘She and Pierre are visiting Ralph in Jeirut. He’s thriving and even picking up some of the language.’

  Belatedly Alexei caught the thread of the conversation. Ralph Carter. In Jeirut.

  Mina walked her fingers up Alexei’s chest, making him wish she’d found him naked in the shower.

  ‘It was a stroke of genius, getting him involved in your programme there.’

  Alexei shook his head. ‘It was as much your idea as mine. You suggested Jeirut.’ Because the opportunities for gambling there were limited, so Ralph would have less temptation.

  Alexei had revised his view of Ralph when he learned of his gambling addiction, a coping mechanism to deal with overwhelming grief at his wife’s death.

  After hearing of the older man’s shame and desperate plan to pay back the money by gambling more, and his near suicidal despair when that failed, Alexei hadn’t pressed charges. Prison wouldn’t get his money back. Instead he’d co-opted Ralph into the initiative he and Sheikh Huseyn had begun to give unemployed youth the skills and confidence to start up innovative businesses.

  After a rocky start, Ralph, with his financial expertise, pernickety attention to detail and genuine interest in his budding entrepreneurs, was a surprise hit. It helped them and gave him back a sense of purpose and self-respect.

  ‘But you were the one who suggested including him.’ Mina’s fingers reached his chin and traced his jaw, teasing. ‘You gave him a second chance. Not many people would do that.’ The way she looked at him stirred Alexei’s soul. His chest swelled.

  ‘Everyone deserves a second chance, sweetheart.’

  She smiled and Alexei felt the radiance of it all the way to the centre of his being. ‘Which shows how right I was about you, Alexei Katsaros. You might be savvy and übersuccessful, but there’s more to you than business.’

  ‘Oh, much more.’ He slid his hands down Mina’s back, over that pertly rounded rump, and pulled her against him. That was better. Much better.

  Mina wriggled and Alexei was tempted to forget their plans to attend a new exhibition. Except he had other plans too. A romantic dinner for two in one of the city’s best restaurants as a prelude to something much more significant.

  But looking into Mina’s smiling face, Alexei knew it wasn’t a picture-perfect setting that mattered. It was her. And how she felt. Suddenly he couldn’t wait.

  ‘Mina.’ He swallowed, trying to eradicate the betraying husky edge to his voice. ‘I have something for you.’

  She blinked. ‘That’s a coincidence. I have something for you too. Over there—’

  ‘Sweetheart.’ Alexei turned her head back towards him and reached into his pocket. ‘I’ve waited a whole year to give you time to be sure of me and what you feel. I’m in love with you, Mina. I want to spend my life with you.’

  He’d spent hours thinking of how to say this, searching for something unique and memorable. But when he looked into Mina’s warm gaze, each carefully crafted word disintegrated and he was left with the bare truth. ‘Will you marry me?’

  He lifted his hand and showed her the ring he’d had made for her. A unique, mode
rn piece of white gold and a square-cut ruby. Sparks shot off the facets as it trembled in the light.

  Mina’s hand closed around his and he realised they were both shaking. He heard a muffled gasp and saw her eyes were overbright.

  ‘Mina? Sweetheart?’

  She shook her head and smiled, her mouth a crumpled curve. ‘That sounds like a wonderful plan. I love you too, darling. And yes, I want to be with you, always.’

  Elation surged so high he felt ten feet tall. Alexei bent to kiss her but her fingertips on his lips stopped him. ‘You don’t want to see my gift?’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘My gift.’ Mina reached over to a nearby table and picked up a small box. She flipped the lid and there were two matching wedding rings. ‘I thought a year was time enough. I want you with all my heart, Alexei.’ She laughed, the sound like liquid crystal, shining with promise. ‘It seems we both had the same idea.’

  ‘Because we’re perfectly matched.’ He spared an appreciative glance for the finely crafted wedding bands, then lifted her hand and slid the engagement ring onto her finger. Emotion threatened to overwhelm him.

  ‘We definitely are.’ She moved her fingers, admiring the ring. ‘Thank you, Alexei. I never thought I could be so happy.’

  ‘Nor did I.’ He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. ‘And this is just the beginning.’ Then he scooped her up and swung her round till the room rang with her delicious laughter. It was a sound he looked forward to hearing for the rest of his life.

  * * *

  If you enjoyed The Greek’s Forbidden Innocent why not explore these other stories by Annie West?

  His Majesty’s Temporary Bride

  The Greek’s Forbidden Princess

  Contracted for the Petrakis Heir

  Inherited for the Royal Bed

  Available now!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Greek Claims His Shock Heir by Lynne Graham.

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  The Greek Claims His Shock Heir

  by Lynne Graham

  PROLOGUE

  STAMBOULAS FOTAKIS, KNOWN as Bull—but only behind his back, because nobody wanted to offend one of the richest men in the world—studied the new photograph on his desk. It featured his three granddaughters and his great-grandson, none of whom he had even known existed until a few weeks earlier. His competitors would have been shocked by the softness of the older man’s gaze as he looked with pride and satisfaction at his only living relatives. Three beautiful girls and a handsome little boy...

  At the same time—and it had to be faced—those three girls’ lives and that little boy’s life were in an almighty mess, Stam acknowledged with bristling annoyance. If only he had known they were out there, orphaned and growing up in state care, he would’ve given them a home and raised them. Sadly, he had not been given that choice and his granddaughters had suffered accordingly. But he didn’t blame them for their chaotic lives, he blamed himself for throwing his youngest son, Cy, out of the family for defying him. Of course, twenty-odd years ago, Stam had been a very different man, he conceded wryly, an impatient, autocratic and inflexible man. Possibly, he had learned a thing or two since then. His late wife had never forgiven him for disowning Cy. In the end, all of them had paid too high a price for Stam’s act of idiocy.

  But that was then and this was now, Stam reminded himself, and it was time he sorted out his granddaughters’ lives. He would begin by righting the wrongs done to his new family members. He had the power and the wealth to do that and for that reality he was grateful. He wasn’t seeking revenge, he assured himself assiduously, he would only be doing what was best for his grandchildren. First he would sort out Winnie, tiny dark-eyed Winnie, who bore such a very strong resemblance to Stam’s late wife, an Arabian princess called Azra.

  At least Winnie already spoke a little Greek, only a handful of words admittedly, but that was a promising start. Her problems would be the most easily solved, he reasoned, although how he would hold on to his temper and deal civilly with the adulterous cheat who had made Winnie a mistress and Stam’s grandson a bastard, he didn’t yet know, for Eros Nevrakis was an infuriatingly powerful man in his own right.

  CHAPTER ONE

  ‘MR FOTAKIS WILL be free in just a few minutes,’ the PA informed Eros Nevrakis as he stood at the window overlooking the bay while she regarded him with far more appreciation than the magnificent view could ever have roused in her. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man in his early thirties, and his legendary good looks had not been exaggerated, the young woman conceded admiringly. He had a shock of black glossy curls and brilliant green eyes that more than one appreciative woman had been heard to compare to emeralds.

  The view from the small island of Trilis would not be half as impressive as that from Bull Fotakis’s private estate, Eros was thinking with rueful amusement. On this particular morning Eros was in the very best of moods. After all, he had made several offers through intermediaries to buy back Trilis from Stam Fotakis and those offers had been royally ignored. That he had finally been awarded a meeting with the reclusive old curmudgeon was a very healthy hint that Bull was finally willing to sell the island back to Eros.

  Trilis, however, was greener and rather less developed than the extensive estate that Fotakis owned outside Athens and maintained as his headquarters, complete with office blocks and employees on-site. Of course, Fotakis had always been a famous workaholic. When Eros’s father had gone bust in the nineties and had been forced into selling his family home, everyone had assumed that Fotakis was planning to build a new base on the private island, only that hadn’t happened. Should he ever contrive to regain ownership of the island, Eros planned to open an upmarket resort on the coast that would generate jobs and rejuvenate the local economy. The old man, however, had done nothing with Trilis but hadn’t seemed interested in selling it either.

  So, what had changed? Eros ruminated, irritated that he was unable to answer that question. He preferred to know what motivated his competitors and opponents because ignorance of such revealing details was always risky. Going in blind wasn’t smart, especially when Fotakis was too rich to be tempted by money. Eros turned the question around, considering it shrewdly from another angle. What did he currently have that Fotakis wanted? Eros asked himself then, reckoning that that was likely to be a far more accurate reading of the situation. Bull Fotakis was notoriously crafty and devious.

  At the same time, Eros was uncomfortably aware that he would pay just about any price to r
egain the island of Trilis because it was the sole possession his father had truly regretted losing.

  ‘It is our family place and if you lose family, you lose everything. I learned that the hard way,’ his father had rasped painfully on his deathbed. ‘Promise me that if you do well in the future, you’ll do everything you can to buy Trilis back. It’s the Nevrakis home and your ancestors and mine are buried there.’

  Eros compressed his sensual mouth, shying away from such sentimental recollections from the past. He had learned from his father’s mistakes. A man had to be hard in business and in his private life, not soft, not easily led or seduced. And a man forced to deal with a Greek icon of achievement like Bull Fotakis had to be even tougher.

  ‘Mr Fotakis will see you now...’

  Stam’s gaze was hard when it zeroed in on Eros Nevrakis. A good-looking louse, he conceded grudgingly, exactly the type calculated to turn a young and naive woman’s head. Nevrakis hadn’t told Winnie that he was married. Stam had drilled every relevant fact out of his reluctant granddaughter. He had recognised her shame, gasping in relief that, despite his initial troubling assumptions about her character, her morals were in the right place. Winnie would never have knowingly slept with another woman’s husband. Nevrakis had lied to her, conning her into a demeaning living arrangement before hanging her out to dry without a single regret.

  Eros saw a small stocky bearded man with eyes as sharp as tacks set in a weathered face. His hair and his neat little beard were white as snow but there was no suggestion of Santa Claus about him. Eros took a seat and refused refreshment, keen to get down to business once the usual pleasantries had been aired.

  ‘You want Trilis back,’ Stam remarked, startling Eros with that candid opening and the complete lack of any social chit-chat. ‘But I want something else.’

  Eros leant back in his chair, long powerful legs carefully relaxed in pose. ‘I assumed as much,’ he quipped.