What the Greek's Money Can't Buy

by Maya Blake

  ‘How?’

  Her tongue darted out to lick her lips. Sakis felt the lash of desire and crushed it dead. ‘I signed some papers he asked me to and—’

  ‘Did he force you to?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You say you signed papers, which I assume implicated you. Did he force you to sign them? Did he stand over you with a gun or threaten you in any way?’

  ‘Um...no, he didn’t. He tricked me.’

  His disbelieving snort stopped the flow of her words. ‘You expect me to believe that the ruthlessly efficient executive assistant who’s been in my employ these last eighteen months was the same person who would sign papers without first checking them in triplicate? I assume you were so in love with him, you believed every saintly word that fell from his lips?’

  She flinched but remained silent and her hands dropped.

  Sakis was glad his rage had ravaged every other emotion otherwise he’d have felt the drowning desolation of that silent confirmation. The woman he loved...loved someone else.

  Jerking to his feet, he rounded his desk and called his head of security. Once he’d hung up, he stared down at the papers on his desk, willing his frozen mind to focus. ‘Give me your phone.’

  She frowned. ‘What?’

  ‘Your phone. I know you’ve got it in your pocket. Hand it over.’

  Almost in a daze, she did as he asked. ‘What are you going to do with it?’

  He threw it in his desk drawer, locked it and pocketed the key. ‘As of right now, it’s evidence of your duplicity. I’ll hand it over to the police when the time is right.’

  She sucked in a frightened breath. ‘No! Please, Sakis. I can’t...I can’t go back to prison.’

  Despite thinking he was too numb to feel, the torment and horror in her eyes sent a shaft of pain through him.

  His gaze dropped to her hip, to the place where her scar resided. ‘That’s where you sustained that injury, wasn’t it? In jail?’ he asked, feeling another shot of scalding pain.

  ‘Yes. I was attacked.’

  Theos! He turned to face the window so she wouldn’t see his eyes clamp shut or the steadying breath he took.

  When he heard the knock on his door, relief flooded him. Sheldon entered and Sakis shoved unsteady hands deeper into his pocket and turned around.

  ‘Escort Miss Moneypenny off my property. Put her on the same plane returning the other company employees. I want her under twenty-four-hour guard until you hear from me. If she tries to run, you have my permission to physically restrain her and call the police. Is that understood?’

  A stunned Sheldon nodded. ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Sakis, I know you don’t believe me, but please be careful. Greg’s a slippery bastard.’

  He didn’t turn around.

  ‘Sakis!’ Her desperate plea made him flinch but her betrayal cut too deep.

  Nevertheless, he allowed himself one last look. Her face was devoid of colour and her lips trembled uncontrollably. But her eyes, even though they pleaded with him, held a condemnation that made his fists curl in his pockets.

  Sakis wasn’t sure how long he stood there. It might have been minutes, it might have been hours.

  When his door was thrust open, he turned slowly, his body feeling alien and frozen.

  ‘Is everything okay?’ Ari asked as he sauntered in, Theo close behind. There was an almost pitying note in his voice that made Sakis’s belly clench hard.

  ‘No, everything is not okay.’

  ‘Ah, that’s too bad, brother. Because all hell’s broken loose.’

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  BRIANNA DRAGGED HERSELF out of bed and walked to her window, hoping for a miracle but knowing hope was useless.

  Sure enough, Sakis’s guard dog was in place in the dark SUV, just like he’d been for the last three days. She didn’t bother looking out of her kitchen window because she knew there would be another SUV stationed in the back alley behind her building, should she get the notion of flinging herself out of her second-floor apartment window and making a run for it.

  Forcing herself to enter her kitchen and turn on the kettle, she sagged against the counter and tried to breathe through the waves of pain that had become her endless reality since she’d been marched from Sakis’s Greek office.

  She clamped her eyes shut to block out the look on his face after her confession.

  You lied to me.

  Such simple words, yet with those words her world had fallen apart. Because there was no going back. Sakis would always see her as the woman who’d worked her way into his bed only to betray him, especially when she’d known just how much betrayal and lies had ruined his childhood.

  The kettle whistled. About to grab a mug from the cupboard, she heard the heavy slam of a car door, followed almost immediately by another. When several followed, she set the mug down and moved closer to the window.

  The sight of a paparazzo clinging to the side of a cherry picker as it rose to her window was so comical, she almost laughed. When he raised his camera and aimed it towards her, Brianna dived for her kitchen floor. Through the window she’d opened to let in the non-existent summer breeze, she heard him shout her name.

  ‘Do you have a comment on the allegations against you, Miss Simpson?’

  Crawling on her belly, she made her way to her hallway just as someone leaned on her doorbell.

  The realisation that Sakis had truly thrown her to the wolves sent a lance of pain through her, holding her immobile for a full minute, until her pride kicked in.

  She refused to hide away like a criminal. And she refused to be trapped in her own home.

  If nothing else, she had a right to defend herself. Gritting her teeth for strength, and ignoring the incessant, maddening trill of her doorbell, she dashed into her room.

  Grabbing the first set of clothes that came to hand, she pulled them on. Unfortunately, trainers and her suit didn’t go, so she forced her feet into four-inch heels, grabbed her bag and pulled a brush through her hair.

  She opened the door and shot past Sakis’s shocked guards before they had a chance to stop her.

  ‘Miss Moneypenny, wait!’

  She rounded on them as they caught up with her at the top of the stairs. ‘Lay a finger on me, and I’ll be the one calling the police. I’ll hit you with assault charges so fast, you’ll wonder what century it is.’ She felt a bolt of satisfaction when they gingerly stepped back.

  She hurried down the stairs, noting that they gave hot pursuit but didn’t attempt to restrain her.

  The glare of morning sunlight coupled with what seemed like a thousand camera flashes momentarily blinded her.

  Questions similar to what the first cherry-picker-riding pap had flung at her came her way, but she’d been doing her job long enough to know never to answer tabloid questions.

  With her sight adjusted, she plunged through the crowd and headed for the high street two hundred yards away. When she heard the soft whirr of an engine beside her, she didn’t turn around.

  ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, making yourself paparazzi bait?’ came the rough demand as rougher hands grasped her arms.

  Brianna’s heart lurched. The sight of him, right there in front of her, fried her brain cells with pleasure and pain so strong she couldn’t breathe for a few precious seconds.

  She’d missed him. God, she’d missed him.

  Then memories of their last meeting smashed through. Sucking in a painful breath, she pulled herself away. ‘Nothing that concerns you any longer, Sakis.’

  He caught her elbow. ‘Brianna, wait.’

  ‘No. Let me go!’ She managed to pry her hand away and walk a few steps before he caught up with her again.

  ‘Didn’t my security people warn you about the pres
s headed your way?’

  ‘Why should they have? Wasn’t that what you planned?’

  The hand he reached out to her shook. Or at least she thought she saw it tremble. She was feeling very shaky herself and could’ve imagined it. ‘No, it wasn’t. I had nothing to do with this. Brianna, please come with me. We need to talk,’ he said urgently.

  ‘Not in this lifetime. You made your feelings about me abundantly clear—’ She gave a yelp of shock as Sakis pulled her in the limo. ‘What the hell—?’

  ‘The paparazzi are increasing by the second. My security won’t be able to hold them back for much longer. And I really need to talk to you. Please,’ he tagged on in a ragged voice.

  The mouth she’d opened to blast him with clamped shut again. Glancing closer at him, she noticed the shadows in his eyes and the pinched skin bracketing his lips. Against her better judgement, her heart lurched but she still pulled away until her back was braced against the door. He saw her retreat and his lips firmed.

  ‘You have two minutes, then I’m getting out of this car.’

  Before she’d finished speaking, the car was rolling forward. Half a minute later, they were in a school yard three streets away parked in front of a familiar aircraft.

  ‘You landed your helicopter on a school compound in the middle of London?’ she asked as he helped her out of the car.

  ‘Technically, this isn’t the middle of London, and the school is shut for the holidays. I’ll pay whatever fine is levied and, if I have to go jail, well, it’ll be worth it.’

  ‘What will be worth it?’

  He didn’t respond, only held the door to the chopper open. With the paparazzi within sniffing distance, it would be only a matter of time before they pounced again.

  She got in. Sakis followed her. When he reached over to help her buckle her seatbelt, she shook her head. Having him this close was already shredding her insides. His touch would completely annihilate her.

  The journey to Pantelides Towers was conducted in silence. So was the journey in the lift that took them to his penthouse.

  ‘What am I doing here, Sakis?’

  He closed his eyes for a second and Brianna remembered how he’d said the sound of his name on her lips made him feel. But that had all been an illusion. Because his unforgiving heart had cast her away from him with the precision of a surgeon wielding a scalpel.

  ‘Where were you going when you left her your apartment?’

  ‘None of your damned business. You can’t push me around any more, Sakis. My life is my own—but go ahead, do your worst. I’ll fight whatever charges you bring against me. If I lose, so be it. But from here on in, I control my destiny.’

  She ground to a halt, her breath rushing in and out. Sakis glanced from her face to the phone he’d taken from his pocket.

  Belatedly, she realised it was her phone. ‘What are you still doing with that? I thought you were going to turn it over to the authorities.’ Her voice trembled but she raised her chin and glared at him.

  ‘Not after I saw what was on it.’

  ‘What...what did you see?’

  He walked slowly towards her, contrition and desperation in his eyes as he held the screen in front of her face.

  ‘I saw this.’ The shaken reverence in his voice sent an electrified current through her. Almost fearing to, she glanced down.

  You can go rot in hell, Greg. You once tricked me into taking the fall for something you did. And now you want me to betray the man I love? No chance.

  She looked up from the screen, her heart hammering against her ribs. ‘So what? You shouldn’t believe everything you read. For all you know, I could’ve sent that text just to throw you off the scent.’

  He glanced down at the screen again and stared at the words as if imprinting them on his brain for all time. ‘Then why did you warn me about him?’

  She shrugged.

  ‘Brianna, Greg confessed that he coerced you into signing the papers he used to divert funds into his offshore account.’

  Shock ricocheted through her body. ‘He came clean? Why?’

  ‘He’s facing charges in three countries for bribing Lowell to crash the tanker. I told him I would delay the Greek charges if he gave me any useful information. He gave up the dates, figures and codes to his Cayman Islands accounts and confessed he tricked you into helping him siphon off the money.’

  The handbag she clutched slipped from her fingers. ‘So...you believe me?’

  Pain washed over his face. ‘Wasting time feeling sorry for myself gave Landers time to spill your real identity to the tabloids. But I shouldn’t have doubted you in the first place.’

  ‘I don’t really care that everyone knows who I was. And, given the overwhelming evidence, you would’ve been a saint not to doubt me.’

  He flung the phone away and stalked to where she stood. He started to reach for her then clasped both hands behind his nape. ‘Then I should damn well have applied for sainthood. What he did to you...what I did...Theos, I’m even surprised you agreed to come here with me.’

  ‘I was heading here anyway,’ she confessed.

  Surprise flared in his eyes, along with hope. ‘You were?’

  ‘Don’t flatter yourself, Sakis. I wasn’t on my way to beg you for my life back, if that’s what you think. I was coming to clear my desk, or ask security to clear it for me if I was still barred from entering these hallowed grounds.’

  ‘You’re not barred. You’ll never be barred, Brianna.’

  ‘You don’t have to call me that. You know who I am now.’

  The hard shake of his head made a lock of hair fall over his eyes. ‘You’ll always be Brianna to me. She was the woman I fell in love with. The woman who possesses more strength and integrity in her little finger than anyone else I know. The woman I stupidly discarded before I got the chance to tell her how much I love her and treasure her.’

  Her legs finally gave way beneath her. Sakis caught her before she crumpled onto the sofa. They fell back together. His gaze dropped to her mouth that had fallen open with wordless wonder, and he groaned. ‘I know what I did was unforgivable but I want to try all the same to make it up—’

  ‘You love me.’

  ‘To you. Name your price. Anything you want, I’ll give it. I’ve already put steps in place to have your conviction revoked—’

  ‘You love me?’

  He paused and gave a solemn nod but it was the adoration in his eyes that struck pure, healing happiness into her heart. ‘I love you more than I desire my next breath. I need you in my life. I’ll do anything, anything, to have you back, agapita.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘What does what...? Oh—agapita? It means “beloved”.’

  She pulled back. ‘But you started calling me that even before we slept together. It was that day when you took me for pancakes.’

  He seemed startled by the remark. Then a smile warmed his stricken face. ‘I think my subconscious was telling me how I felt about you.’

  She caressed a hand down his rough jaw. ‘When did the rest of you catch up?’

  ‘In Greece, after I withstood Ari and Theo’s ribbing and I admitted that I didn’t want to live without you. I intended to tell you after the party.’

  ‘Tell me again now.’

  He repeated it, then pulled back after kissing her senseless, his gaze dark with a vulnerability she’d never seen. ‘Can you ever forgive me for what I did?’

  His cheeks were warm and vibrant beneath her hands. ‘You took steps to find out the truth about what happened to me. You could’ve walked away and condemned me, but you came back for me. I told you about my past, about my mother, and you didn’t judge me or make me feel worthless. I loved you for that. More than I already did before I sent Greg that text.’

 
The shock on his face made her smile. It was the shock that made her get away with kissing him thoroughly before the alpha male in him took over. When he pulled away from her, she gave a groan of protest.

  ‘Do you have one of those go bags ready for a trip? If you don’t, we’ll manage, but we need to leave now.’

  ‘I do, but—?’

  He was up and striding towards her suite before she could finish the question. He returned, two bags in one hand and the other stretched out to her.

  ‘Where are we going?’ Hurriedly, she straightened her clothes and hair.

  ‘I’ve blocked off my calendar for a month. I believe there’s a Swiss chalet waiting for us.’

  ‘You think a month is going to be enough?’ Happiness made her saucy, she discovered.

  Pulling her close, he kissed her until they were both breathless. ‘No chance. But it’s a damned good start.’

  * * *

  The fire roared away in the enormous stone hearth as Sakis pulled the luxury throw closer around them and fed her oysters from the shell. Brianna wrinkled her nose at the peculiar taste.

  ‘Don’t worry, agapita. You get used to it after a while.’

  ‘I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it; I’m not afraid to admit this is one lost cause to me.’

  His eyes darkened. ‘I’m glad you didn’t condemn me as a lost cause.’

  ‘How could I, when you tell me you fought your own board for me? How hellish was it to keep them from crucifying me?’

  ‘I almost resigned at one point but, when I pointed out that you deserved all the credit because you saved the company from another stock market slide, they came round to my way of thinking.’

  Her eyes widened. ‘I did?’

  He nodded. ‘Telling me about Greg saved the investigators a lot of time. Once we knew who we were looking for, finding him hiding away in Thailand with Lowell was easy. Didn’t you see the arrests on the news?’

  ‘Sakis, I could barely get out of bed to feed myself. Watching the news and risking seeing you was too much.’