The Greek Tycoon's Tarnished Bride (Men of the Zodiac)

by Rachel Lyndhurst

  Erica giggled. “And beer is an absolute necessity, sure.”

  “It was that night. I think my mother permanently damaged my eardrums with her screaming.”

  “So the beer made you do it?”

  “The guys did egg me on, but there was something about her…and after talking to me for a while the idea of having a tattoo marking the passage into my new life seemed right. And she said she’d do it for free because she liked the look of me.”

  “I can believe that!”

  “So I had it done and the next day I packed my bags for university and left home for good.”

  “What does it mean: Sapere aude?”

  “It means ‘dare to be wise.’ She gave me the idea when I told her what I was going to do the next morning, and it’s kind of become my own personal motto. The whole twenty-four hours after that was daring because my parents didn’t know I had been planning on leaving. I had to keep it a secret or they would have found a way to stop me. I remember it like yesterday. That morning, just as the sun was coming up, the air was cool and everything was quiet. The tattoo buzzed under the dressing, and my brain buzzed with the excitement of what I was doing. I was escaping, leaving for good and the world was at my feet. The best feeling I’ve ever had.”

  Erica nodded. “I know that feeling. Scary, but the best.”

  Tito flopped back onto his pillow and smiled at the ceiling. “So we both love freedom.”

  “Looks like we do,” she said quietly as her untamed mind poured something sour over that thought. He was free to come and go as he pleased, she had never been so caged in her life and suddenly she felt claustrophobic. “Can we go out tonight? Outside these castle walls wherever we are?”

  “If that’s what you want, of course we can. And I can’t believe I never told you; we are on the outskirts of Rethymnon in the north of Crete. The town has more castles like this one with Venetian influences. There’s a pretty harbor full of restaurants and miles of sandy beach. There are lots of tourists because of all that, but I can get us the best table in the best restaurant, if you like.”

  “I like!”

  “It will be noisy and crowded so we’ll get Mary and Fermina to look after Nick. I’m not sure he’d enjoy it and…you would feel stressed. Unless we bring the nannies with us?”

  “Oh no, it would be like a grand tour getting us all down there. I trust Mary and Fermina now, and Nick loves them. It’s good for him to be left with new people now he’s getting older.” She sat upright and clapped her hands happily. “And I am so excited about going to dinner with you!”

  “I guess that means it’s my turn to pay,” he said lazily and ducked before the pillow she threw at him hit home. “Any more questions or demands for me?”

  Erica thought carefully and then remembered. “Yes! Just one more. What on earth made your mum think it was okay to give her son the middle name Kenobi?”

  He shook his head. “I have no idea, but I do know she loved Return of the Jedi which was released the year I was born. And she’s never been the kind of person to think too hard before she does something really stupid. She is also a bitch. All done?”

  Erica nodded. His mum sounded like a nutcase.

  Chapter Twelve

  Rethymnon Harbour never failed to dazzle Erica and it was her place of choice once a week when she and Tito went out on their own for a few hours to eat, drink, or just have a stroll around the streets and shops. It had been three weeks since she and Tito had first tumbled into bed and that afternoon seemed to have changed everything between them. It might have been her imagination but they felt like a real couple. She missed his company when he had to leave the castle for business, but he came home every night and they made love as often as opportunity allowed.

  She knew it couldn’t go on like this forever as he had mentioned his overseas assets on a number of occasions, so it was only a matter of time before he had to stay away overnight, but for now everything felt perfect. Khloris Frangos visited Nick weekly, and he had grown seemingly attached to the old woman who would sit him on her knee and tell him stories or sing songs. Often she would get a lift with one of Nick’s aunties, and they would play more physical games until he was exhausted and there was always a basket of fresh goat products and wild greens for the kitchen. The Frangos women reserved their affection for Nick and Tito alone though, but Erica did her best to ignore the clumsy insults and asides that were intended to hurt, shame, and remind her that she would never be good enough in their eyes. They never dared to do it when Tito was in earshot because he always took Erica’s side and defended her. Always.

  “It’s even more beautiful here tonight than the last few times we’ve been,” Erica said as she pulled the head off a gigantic garlicky shrimp and licked the buttery juices off her fingers. “Just look at that sky!”

  Tito smiled and took his eyes off her for a second to look at the orange, purple, and gold sky that glowed behind the black silhouette of the fortezza at the mouth of the harbor. “I have always loved it down here, even as a boy when I had no money to spend.” He gestured to the black blue semicircle of water that sizzled with the reflected harbor lights. “I’d perch on the edge and listen to the music and laughter, dreaming that one day I would be able to sit at the best table in Stavros’s place here eating the best of the day’s fishing catch with a beautiful woman.”

  Erica lifted her glass to be refilled. “Two out of three ain’t bad.”

  He poured the pale green organic white wine carefully and smiled. “You are beautiful, Erica. Heads turn everywhere we go.”

  “I rather think that people might be looking at you, actually, but I’ll take the compliment.” She grinned. “And the wine.”

  “So Greece isn’t so bad in the end, is it? Do you miss England?”

  “Not right now. I’m loving every bit of the sunshine and being able to spend so much time with Nick. It’s a dream come true, really, a dream I never dared to have.”

  He nodded and then looked across the harbor as a fake pirate ship full of drunken revelers came into view. “Nick is doing well in Crete, too, don’t you think? He’s pretty much swimming already, and Mary tells me it’s only a matter of time before he’s running around like a little tornado.”

  “Yep, it’s going to happen soon now he’s well and truly found his feet. You’d better lock up all your valuables.”

  “He’ll be fine.”

  Erica still felt preoccupied by the thought that Tito would have to jet off soon and leave her and Nick in that big old castle with just the staff and weekly black-robed visitors. She needed to have a little dig for information to hopefully quell her darker thoughts. “So one of your dreams came true at least. You’re sitting here with a silver platter of empty sea shells, and I know about the scholarship thing you want to set up, but was there something else you have on your to do list? I’m sure you said you had a couple of plans.”

  He raised an eyebrow and shot her a questioning look. “Nosy tonight for some reason?”

  She shrugged innocently. “No, I just got to do quite a lot of thinking today while I was lying next to the pool soaking up the sun.”

  “And even though you’ve been slapping on the suncream you have turned a stunning color. Really suits you, and your hair has lightened too.”

  She flicked back her hair playfully. “I’ll be a proper little Barbie doll soon if I’m not careful.”

  He grinned and took a sip of his wine. “You’re too wild for that, Erica.”

  “Maybe so,” she said and straightened her back to show she meant business. “But, come on, tell me all about your other plan.”

  Tito looked pained for a second and his smile faded. “It’s a grim one, but something I think can make a real difference. That baby on the motorway…I can never unsee that, but with enough money I can set up a private emergency response service here in Greece. It would have to work in tandem with the official network somehow, but looking at the state the country is in anyway, throwing some mo
ney at the emergency services can’t be a bad thing. If we can get more ambulances and qualified staff on the road, then things should improve. Nobody should have to die because help wasn’t there or was just too far away.”

  Erica whistled out a puff of air. “Wow, that is a big project.”

  “It’s not a new idea. Most of the air ambulances in the UK rely on an element of charitable funding. Crazy, but a fact. There’s just not enough money to go round, so I intend to pitch in when the time is right and the financial pot isn’t going to run out.”

  Erica felt a little pain in her chest. “Money makes the world go round, doesn’t it? If my dad had a load in the bank, he probably wouldn’t have killed himself, simple as that.”

  Tito stared at the stem of the wine glass he was rolling from side to side between his fingertips. “Sorry to ruin the mood but you did press me on this.”

  “Absolutely, yes I did.” Erica set down her knife and fork and wiped her hands on her napkin. “Would you excuse me for a few minutes? I want to pop to the bathroom.” Erica had been having the best time in ages, years probably up until that point. Now she had gone and spoiled it a little by sticking her nose into Tito’s plans. Perhaps she should have left well alone. She weaved quickly in and out of the closely packed tables so she could get right back to the front of house view, gloss over their depressing conversation, and enjoy dessert. A minute or so later she was washing her hands in the sink outside three empty cubicles when the main door crashed open so violently she almost jumped out of her skin.

  The woman staring at her like a crazed maniac was quite beautiful in a classically Greek way with long, black glossy hair, full red painted lips and fine olive skin, but the whites of her eyes were pink and her mouth was set in an ugly line.

  “I don’t suppose Tito has ever mentioned me,” she snarled. “I’m Valeta, and he should have married me, but clearly I’m not good enough for him right now. This baffles me, and everyone else who knows him because I am a virgin and you…you are a tsoula, a slut, damaged goods.” She sniffed haughtily. “I suppose you serve a purpose right now and no doubt he feels sorry for you, but make no mistake the only reason he married you was to keep control of Yannis’s boy and bolster his own empire through the Frangos businesses. And he gets sex on tap, presumably.”

  Erica calmly dried her hands on a paper towel as she spoke. “I’ve been called a lot worse than that in my time, princess, and you won’t be surprised to know I can fight pretty dirty if I have to. Now piss off back to wherever you came from and leave me alone.”

  “You don’t even know him properly, his history, his vulnerabilities. How can you be right for him without knowing things like that?”

  This was getting very tiresome. “How do you know what goes on between us? Mind your own business. He’s told me everything.”

  Valeta laughed triumphantly. “Liar! Tito is way too proud to tell you about his condition.”

  Erica’s hands stilled, and her heart thudded harder. “You don’t give up do you?”

  “Only those closest to him know about his cleithrophobia, those who surrounded him with love and cared for him after a motorway accident in Germany. He’s never recovered from it and Yannis was my brother, remember? I know everything.”

  Erica turned slowly to face the crazy woman. “So if you’ve finished now?”

  Valeta reached out and grabbed Erica’s upper arm and pinched hard. “You don’t even know what cleithrophobia is, do you? It’s fear of being trapped or locked in an enclosed space. Do the decent thing, let him go. We won’t stop you seeing your baby if you divorce Tito. You are the only thing trapping him these days. Please, set him free.”

  Erica tugged her arm free. “You’ve had your say, now let me go.”

  “I’ve not finished speaking to you yet,” the gorgon hissed and went to grab at Erica’s hair. “You disgust me, you’re an opportunistic little bitch, and somebody needs to teach you a lesson.”

  Erica took a long, deep breath and then stepped close enough to her aggressor that she could almost smell the green poison seeping out of her powdered pores. “Is that right?”

  “I just met Valeta in the loo.”

  He scratched his forehead with a thumbnail and frowned. “Valeta?”

  “Yes, you know, the woman who you should have married apparently.”

  His frown turned to an expression of shock. “Great…what did she want?”

  “Apart from you? I think she just wanted to kill me, frankly. Anyway, she should have a very black eye by now, and you can probably expect a dry cleaning bill because I shoved her top half right down the toilet and flushed it hard.”

  Tito’s eyes widened as he looked towards the toilet door but there was no sign that a tussle had occurred. “Hm, I’ll tip Stavros very well tonight and warn him to keep an eye out for her in the future. He’ll make sure she’s barred, and the word will spread around the harbor. Don’t worry about her anyway. She’s a nutcase.” He gestured irritably for Erica to sit back down at their table. “Her family will find her a husband eventually. There must be someone on the island who values her virginity and her crazed mind.”

  Erica still had adrenaline coursing through her system from the unseemly scrap she had just endured and the information she had learned about him. “Are there many more like her lurking around the place or do I need to start getting one of your bodyguards to stand outside the ladies’ washroom?”

  Tito winced. “I think she’s as bad as it gets, don’t worry. I never set out to cause trouble with women. I’m not a tease, and I don’t make promises I can’t keep. There are moments I’m not proud of before I turned eighteen, but I was penniless then and, well, I prefer not to think about those days. Everything was casual, consensual, and…quick.”

  Erica had lost her appetite. She shivered and wondered if she should tell him everything that Valeta had said. “Can we skip dessert and go back?”

  He nodded. “Yes, let’s do that. We’ve still a ton of candy to plough through from that first Frangos visit and Nick can’t get through all of it on his own.”

  “Not on top of all the olives and goat’s cheese he’s been getting though, no! He certainly likes the food out here.” And then she felt a pang of guilt that she hadn’t been able to afford nice interesting foods for him to try when they’d been on their own. She was beyond grateful that she didn’t have to worry about his little tummy rumbling now. “Maybe you could divert some of your cash to the people in Greece who have no money for food as well?”

  He shot her a cold look as he paid the bill for dinner with a large wad of notes and waved the waitress away. “You think so?”

  She must have stepped out of line somehow. “I wasn’t criticizing what you’ve planned to do already. It’s just we’re so fortunate to be able to eat all this nice food in such a lovely place when, for example, there are people in Athens almost starving through austerity.” He was silent. “But it’s your money, obviously.”

  “Perhaps it’s time for me to let you have some money of your own, and you can patronize whatever causes you choose. Nothing political though, that way promises almost definite problems and it might become embarrassing for me, possibly even detrimental to the projects I’m involved in. And steer clear of anything anti-religion. I don’t want a coach load of Frangos women or any other lunatics having a go at me.”

  “I’d never deliberately embarrass you,” she replied and the tone of her voice was forlorn. “And I don’t really need the money. I have everything I need.”

  “I disagree. You at least need your own credit card so you can start buying your own clothes and things, and stuff for Nick. I simply won’t have time to deal with that kind of thing going forward. And your ‘running away fund,’ the hundred pounds I slipped into your underwear, won’t get you very far.”

  He seemed serious and for some reason she suddenly had a sense of foreboding. “The ‘running away fund’ phrase was just a joke, Tito.”

  A stiff smile cracke
d his features. Why was he so grumpy? “And I’ll need your bank account details so I can give you a suitable allowance.”

  “Haven’t you forgotten something?” She tipped her head to one side. “I never get to go out on my own to spend anything.”

  His tone was gruff as a waitress came back and left a silver dish on the table with his receipt and some mints. “You can get just about anything via the Internet and postal services these days, but point taken. You can take a couple of the bodyguards and a driver on my payroll out with you whenever you like. Three well-built, highly-trained men should suffice.”

  The back of her neck prickled. “So you’re abandoning me, finally?”

  “No, Erica, but the honeymoon is coming to an end, and I need to get back to business just like any other husband.”

  He didn’t even seem to notice the irony of what he’d just said. Honeymoon. Husband. The last few weeks had been like a honeymoon, and Erica had sleepwalked into believing it was all for real. She had needed that wake up call, obviously, and was furious with herself that he appeared to be gently hinting that she should back off, that she was deluding herself about what was happening between them. Not only had the appearance of Valeta been a catalyst for this sudden cooling, but everything she had said now rang true. What was happening to Erica was all about Tito and Nick, Tito and the Frangos empire, Tito and his own empire, Tito and his own quest for retribution and revenge, Tito’s need for sexual release, and Tito’s horrible guilt. She was, as she always had been, just Erica Silver, a means to an end.

  Erica was silent in the car on the way home, but the driver was smart enough to pick up on the mood and turned the local radio on. Tito was in no mood to coax her back to her usual happy self either, as he was disturbed by the text message he had received while Erica had been cat fighting in the restaurant toilet.