Perhaps he had somehow followed her back from the club, but how did he know her real name? Unless one of the other girls had been persuaded to part with the information… “I don’t know who you are or what you want, but you must have the wrong address.”
His foot jammed the door open, and he wedged a shoulder inside her flat. “We need to talk.”
“How dare you! If you don’t leave immediately—”
His voice dropped to a murmur and the corner of his full mouth quirked up a millimeter or so, but not enough to qualify as a smile. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Have we met?”
“You were stunning a few hours ago in the Ruby Unicorn, so yes we have. Kind of.” He pushed a large, tanned hand through the door as if he expected her to shake it. “But you look prettier without the mask and all that makeup. Makris. Tito Makris.”
She recoiled from his greeting and swallowed down a stab of fear. “I don’t work outside the club, it’s against the rules for both me and you. And…and that suits me fine because I don’t do extras.”
He raised a dark eyebrow. “Not even at a price?”
“No. Never.”
He tipped his dark head to one side and rested it nonchalantly against the doorframe. His voice was husky. “I’m not sure I believe you.”
Erica didn’t like the shiver that had stroked up and down her spine at the way he’d just spoken to her. He oozed sex, and she couldn’t forget how exciting his touch had been. “Believe what you like. Now bugger off, or I really will call the police.”
His short-nailed fingers slid down the wooden doorframe toward the handle she was clutching and their fingers brushed. “I’m sorry, that was rude of me,” he said. “It’s not what you think.”
The renewed contact stole her breath, and she flicked her forearm away as if she received an electric shock. It certainly felt as if she’d been erotically tasered. “Yeah, right.”
“I’m not here to—”
“To what? Try to shag me in some unspeakable way that your regular prostitute won’t agree to?” She muffled the wicked voice inside her head that said this man could get whatever he wanted from most women for nothing. All he needed to do was click his immaculate fingertips. “I’m not for sale or hire.”
“Yannis sent me.”
Her blood ran cold. “You’ve come all the way from Greece on his behalf?” A fiery mist of fury suddenly descended and she flung the door wider in her anger. “Yannis and me are over, didn’t he tell you? Have been for the last eighteen months since he deactivated all his social networking accounts, turned off his phone and…and well, I can take a bloody hint!”
“Please. May I come in?” Her gaze was drawn to the slow movement of his Adam’s apple and the dark stippling of beard that was visible on his sleek-boned jaw. He was at least six foot two, if not taller.
“I haven’t got any money, if that’s what you’re after. He can settle his own debts.”
He shook his head and lowered his eyes to the floor, as if he was hiding something that she might spot in the depths of those green irises. “No, nothing like that.” He sighed wearily and then looked up hopefully into the tiny flat. For some reason he suddenly seemed less threatening. “May I? Please?”
“I’ll probably regret this.” She frowned and opened the door completely. “Okay, come in, you’re letting all the cold air in standing there.” She closed the door behind him and crossed her arms. “So what does Yannis want? What’s so important that he’s getting in touch after all this time but can’t be bothered to come himself? Don’t tell me he’s in prison or something!”
“Perhaps you should sit down,” he said flatly and rammed his hands into his coat pockets.
She coughed lightly and loaded sarcasm into her reply. “Perhaps I should stand, considering I have to leave the building in five minutes, and I’m not even dressed yet.”
His emerald gaze flickered over her like a searchlight. “If you want to put some clothes on—”
She shook her head. “I want you to say what you’ve come to say and then leave.”
“Okay. I’m here regarding the child you have, the year-old baby that is Yannis’s only child. Your son.”
It felt like the Victorian plaster ceiling had suddenly caved in on her, but she did her best to hide the sickening anxiety rising in her by tossing back her head and sighing loudly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The tall Greek picked up a packet of baby wipes from the kitchen table and made a show of turning it over in his hands. “Yes you do. Births, marriages, deaths…all public documents. And you named Yannis Frangos as the father on the birth certificate even though he wasn’t there to countersign.”
“Okay…” Panic was now building like a silent toxin inside her. “I only did that for Nick, for when he was older and in case his useless father ever took an interest in him. I couldn’t deny him his heritage, a path to his roots if anything ever happened to me.”
He looked down at her with a questioning expression. “You called him Nick?”
“Short for Nikolaos, Yannis’s father. It was sentimental of me, I realize that now…”
He blinked slowly, and she noticed for the first time how very long and thick his eyelashes were. “It was a selfless, thoughtful thing to do.”
“Yes, it was considering Yannis broke off all contact when I was three months pregnant. The money dried up, his promises turned out to be a bloody joke… I tried everything to contact him, which wasn’t very dignified, but my conscience is clear on that front. So why now? What does he want?” She let out a hollow laugh. “Marriage?”
“Yannis died.”
“What do you mean he died?”
His jaw tightened, and she could see tension bunching in the muscles of his shoulders beneath his coat. “A bomb at a wedding eighteen months ago.”
Shock kicked in and her voice became shaky. “That’s when the contact stopped.”
“Yes.”
“But I left messages on his phone, his Facebook account—”
He stepped forward and lightly touched her forearm with the broad palm of his hand. “The phone was with him when it happened, and it was felt that all his social networks should be closed under the circumstances. It has taken this long for the lawyers to sort out the family estate and allow access to his personal effects. I’m sorry.”
She looked down at where their bodies were joined in a gesture of comfort and solidarity. She didn’t shake him off immediately; her limbs felt like water. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“You must be shocked, but there was no other way to do this.”
Her throat tightened. “No, I understand. So we missed his funeral…”
He nodded. “But it was an empty coffin anyway.”
Erica eased back so that his hand fell away, and then every part of her felt as cold as ice. “I feel sick.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank you for coming all this way to let me know. It means a lot.” She rubbed at her forehead, willing the fuzz of incomprehension to clear. “If there’s any way our child, Nick, could maintain some kind of link to his father’s family—”
“That’s the reason I’m here.” His chin jutted up and his green gaze fixed hers for a tense moment before he continued. “There is a legacy.”
“A legacy?” This was another bolt out of the blue. “But Yannis told me he was a student with no assets and no permanent job, that’s why there could be no us. His family would disown him. A good marriage with a good Greek girl had already been arranged…”
“The world is now a different place. It’s turned on its axis for Nick. Four generations of the male side of the Frangos family were wiped out that day. He is the sole heir to a multi-billion euro fortune.”
She shook her head and let out a harsh laugh. “I don’t believe you. This is some kind of sick joke.”
“No.” He pulled a sheaf of documents out from his inside pocket. “Here is a copy of the death c
ertificate and…if not exactly an official will, Yannis’s wishes if he should die.”
Erica took the pieces of paper with shaking hands and checked the date. “This was the day before I was due to go for the first pregnancy scan. He’d said he’d try to get over for it once he’d seen to some family business. He said he was so excited…”
“He would have been,” he replied, his tone grave.
“But he never came and ever since I just assumed he’d been lying to me.”
“And now you know the real reason why. I’m sorry, but he never abandoned you like you must have thought he did. He wasn’t like that. He…he just couldn’t. He was no longer with us. Yannis asked me to look after you both.”
She folded her arms across her body and glared into his impassive but beautiful face. “So what took you so long?”
“I only found out you both existed a week ago. It took months for the lawyers and court system to establish who was the ultimate heir after the atrocity in Athens. The entire male line was obliterated at that wedding. And the Frangos dynasty only recognizes the males as legitimate heirs. There was a lot of groundwork to do.”
“Is that kind of sex discrimination even legal these days?”
“I have no idea, but Nick is the nearest male relative left alive.” He took a deep breath and looked out the window at the rain now lashing down outside. “His mother and sisters kept Yannis’s room like a shrine until it became clear he was where the trail stopped. They couldn’t bear to go through his things themselves, so I offered to help and found that.”
Erica followed his gaze to the bundle of documents he had laid on the kitchen table. “I don’t suppose he’d ever thought about a proper will, not being so young and healthy.”
“I guess not, but clearly the news he was to become a father did force him to take at least one practical step. He left us guidance. The Frangos women are not contesting Nick’s right to inherit once his claim has been verified. They are respecting Yannis’s wishes.”
She was suspicious at the edge to his voice. “Verified?”
“DNA test.”
Erica frowned as her brain whirred in different directions. “So Nick has aunties and a grandmother who are interested in him?”
He loosened the top button of his coat, and she caught a glimpse of the pewter-colored tie he’d been wearing in the club. That garment alone should have made her suspicious about why he was there on his own. Watching her every move. “More than interested,” he said, his tone lightening. “They’re desperate to meet him and guide him into adulthood when he will assume control of his legacy. They are devoted to him already.”
“What is this legacy?”
Tito shrugged, and the movement of his shoulders made her notice how broad they were. “Cash, investments, property…the Frangos Empire currently provides thousands of Greek families with jobs and incomes. It’s important all this is protected in these hard economic times.”
“Nick is only just over a year old! He can’t possibly—”
“There are trustees to look after his interests and care for the businesses until he is old enough to take control. And that won’t be before he’s twenty-one.”
It was starting to feel like there was a plan set out for her son that she had no part in, and she didn’t like the feeling at all. “Trustees? Like who?”
“The family court in Athens appointed the most appropriate people, and I am one of them. In fact, I have the privilege of being asked to take complete charge of all this on the others’ behalf. I have their complete trust.”
So this impressive-looking Greek had more than just physical power. “But I’m his mother. Have I no say?”
He shook his head and looked away, his voice dropping to barely more than a whisper. “You were not married to Yannis, so I’m afraid not.”
“Marriage isn’t such a big deal these days, surely?”
“In Greece it is still a very big deal, especially when it comes to vast amounts of money. Tradition is strong, and there are many legal considerations, which brings me to a difficult point in all this.”
He suddenly looked gaunt, his lips pressed into a thin line. “Keep going,” she said firmly.
“For Nick to inherit, it is a condition that he must come to Greece to take his position in society. It has been decided that he should be educated and nurtured by his blood family.”
Erica jerked up her chin with incredulity. “I’m his blood family too, and I’m not moving to Greece just because you and a bunch of old-fashioned matriarchs say so.”
“Then that makes what I’m going to say a little easier, because right now it’s Nick that comes to Greece, not you. Unfortunately, you are not welcome to take a position in the Frangos hierarchy with him as things stand. You are entirely unsuitable. The trustees insist he must come with me alone to gain his inheritance. However…” His emerald eyes glittered dangerously. “There is one possible solution to that if you want be with Nick and still ensure he gets what is due to him before he’s an adult. I don’t like it, and you won’t like it, but it’s the least I can do for Yannis and his son.”
“Spit it out, Makris.”
“We marry.”
Chapter Two
“Get married? Get out.” Her eyes blazed into him, sparking violently. “Get out and never come back.”
“I understand that you’re upset—”
“Upset? Are you for real? You must be a robot if you can’t see why I’m a whole load more than upset!”
He tipped his head to one side and frowned. “Upset and confused. And not thinking clearly.”
Her jaw stiffened. “I’m angry and insulted and not going to play ball with you and those hags back in Greece. As for the ridiculous suggestion that we should get married—”
“I realize it’s a drastic solution but there is no other way.”
“Because I’m entirely unsuitable to raise my own son? What the hell does that mean anyway, entirely unsuitable?”
“Look at yourself, at how you live, and what you do to earn your money.”
“I beg your pardon?” So, this was another person who felt quite comfortable looking down on her. Well, she was getting used to that and wasn’t afraid to bite back when she needed to. “Nick doesn’t care. He has no idea and by the time he’s old enough to understand I won’t be doing what I am now. Things will be better, and besides, everything I do is perfectly legal. It’s just dancing for money.”
“Dancing without any clothes on. Dancing in a way that you wouldn’t want your child to see when he’s older.”
She tried not to shout at him with anger because his words cut deep. “I don’t ever take my underwear off, for what it’s worth. I’m not a stripper.”
His black eyebrows arched. “You might as well be naked for all the coverage that underwear gives you.”
Anger flared inside her, not just at his ridiculous prudery, but the fact that so many people would judge her this way. “Honestly, there are bare breasts all over the beaches of Europe, and much smaller G-strings than I wear. What’s the difference?”
“Those women don’t make money by being stared at by strangers.”
She let out a hollow laugh. “So that makes me a worse person? You have a very strange set of standards in that outdated head of yours.”
“Not me, Erica, the other trustees of your son’s inheritance. The Frangos women. They are old-fashioned, I agree, but they have centuries of tradition and heritage to protect. They have strict orthodox values: no sex outside marriage, marriage for life, subservience to husbands, and a healthy fear of God.”
The picture he had painted of the old crones was a cold and unfriendly one. She shuddered in the chill of the room. “They sound like the life and soul of the party.”
“They are ideal people to guard the interests of a small, but very wealthy, child in an uncertain world.”
“In your opinion. I think a mother’s love is the one thing a child needs. Nick has that already, and we will b
e better off financially soon.”
“And what will miraculously happen to change your fortune along the way?”
She nodded towards a pile of books on the windowsill. “I’m studying for professional qualifications.”
His lip curled. “In what? Advanced lap-dancing?”
“Psychology.” She shot him a defiant look. “It will secure me more respectable work even if it is in some sort of an office environment.”
He shook his head. “You’re dreaming. And all the time you do that Nick is growing, watching, and becoming a part of this life you lead. It can be so much better for him. Better tomorrow, not in a few years’ time when you’ve sorted your life out. If in fact you ever do. It’s not fair to him. This isn’t about you or what you want.”
Her heart ached at the thought of her tiny son, who was still probably fast asleep down the road. “So you’d deny a child his mother?”
His brow pleated for a second with thought. “If it were for the greater good in the end, then yes, I would have to. He’s still tiny. He won’t remember.”
“You’re a monster. Get out. Get out or I’ll—”
“Cut me into ribbons? Shoot me? Stab me? You won’t be much of a mother if you’re in prison, and he’s put into care.” His face twisted into a grimace. “You need to start thinking rationally. I’m sure you manage to do that when you’re trying to get those rolled up bank notes stuffed into your bra.”
“It’s not how it looks at the club. I just dance.”
“Of course you do,” he said.
She needed to claw back some territory here. He was talking her into a corner, manipulating her words, making her feel cheap and dirty. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
“Why should I? The evidence is there for all to see.” He picked up a study text that was lying on the corner of an armchair, turned it over in his hands, and then let it drop back down. “You’ve been watched. In the eyes of Nick’s trustees you live an immoral life and because of that can never be considered a fit mother for such an important and vulnerable child. My concern is only for Nick Silver, Yannis Frangos’s son and heir.”
The Greek Tycoon's Tarnished Bride (Men of the Zodiac) Page 2
