BoughtGreeksBride

by Lucy Monroe

  Besides, she’d said she loved him. He knew she’d meant it. If she was capable of turning off her emotions, she would have stopped loving her father a long time ago. She never had and it gave Sandor hope.

  Hawk called the next morning with the news that he’d found Ellie’s sister. She went by the name Amber Taylor and she was staying on Miguel Menendez’s yacht with him. They’d just come into port after spending more than a week at sea.

  Once Hawk knew her sister’s name, he’d learned quite a bit more about her. She was a model, successful, but not with supermodel status. Which was why Ellie had never seen her on the cover of any major magazines. Amber did mostly fashion shoots and trunk shows with a few commercials. Ellie’s lack of public profile had contributed to the fact that no one had ever latched onto her resemblance to a fairly successful model.

  In addition, Amber had grown up in a small town in Southern California with her mother, Helen Taylor. Father deceased. Or supposed father. She’d only recently moved into international modeling circles and at twenty-four, her career was only a few years from peaking.

  She didn’t date much and her current relationship with Miguel Menendez was the first evidence Hawk could find of her living with a lover. There was no evidence of a formal adoption, but that had been expected. What had not been expected was that she was living under the identity of the baby daughter Helen Taylor had given birth to.

  A baby who had been born premature and died soon after birth despite the best efforts of the doctors at the time.

  “I don’t want the authorities brought in on this right now, Hawk.”

  “I didn’t think you would, Miss Wentworth.”

  “You aren’t going to tell my father you’ve found her, are you?” She wasn’t sure how she wanted to deal with the information, but she didn’t want to risk another shock that could lead to a heart attack.

  “You are my client, Miss Wentworth. Not your father.”

  “Right. Okay. Give me the information you have on her current location.”

  She scribbled down what Hawk told her. Then she hung up the phone. Considering how she was living, Ellie doubted very sincerely that Amber knew anything about her real family or that she even had another family.

  Hawk was investigating the circumstances of her kidnapping further and trying to figure out how Amber had ended up with Helen Taylor, who did not fit the profile of a kidnapper in any shape or form. From all accounts, she was a dedicated mother who had sacrificed a great deal for her daughter to succeed in her chosen profession.

  Not really sure why she did so, Ellie picked up the phone to call Sandor after hanging up with Hawk.

  He picked up on the first ring. “Ellie?”

  “I just got off the phone with Hawk.”

  “Has he found your sister?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where?”

  “In Spain. She’s been at sea on her lover’s yacht, but they put to shore yesterday.”

  He said nothing.

  “I don’t know what to do, Sandor. Do I just show up out of the blue with no warning? Do I call her first and tell her I want to meet her? Her mom might very well be her kidnapper. How is she going to feel about that?”

  “Tell me everything Hawk said.”

  Ellie did, leaving nothing out.

  “Her mother does not sound like a criminal. In fact, she sounds very much like a woman who cares deeply for her daughter.”

  “I thought so, too.”

  “There must be extenuating circumstances.”

  “I don’t want to hurt Amber.”

  “But the circumstances of her birth cannot be ignored.”

  “I know.”

  “Perhaps it would be best to wait until Hawk has discovered more about how Amber entered Helen Taylor’s life.”

  And that’s what she did, but as each day went by Ellie’s stress levels increased. She missed Sandor, though he called her several times a day. At night, she craved the comfort of his arms around her. And no matter how many times she reminded herself that comfort was a false one, the feeling would not go away. She did not realize how much an integral part of her life he had become until he was gone.

  She was the one the pushed him away. He invited her to dinner, to lunches, to the theater, and she turned down every invitation. He never got angry with her. Just reminded her that when the time was right, he was going to corner her and there was nothing she would be able to do to get out of it. The most frightening realization of all was that she wasn’t sure she wanted to. In fact, a big part of her wanted him to take the choice out of her hands and simply show up at her apartment.

  But he didn’t and she didn’t sleep, spending both the dark hours of night and the spare moments of her days worrying.

  She wanted to tell her dad that Amber had been found, but was afraid of what it would do to him to hear the news.

  Hawk called and said he couldn’t find any indication of how Amber had come to live with Helen Taylor as her daughter.

  “If she’s not the kidnapper, Miss Wentworth, then I have no idea how she came to be your sister’s mother.”

  Hawk had learned more about Helen and Amber Taylor during his investigation and it all pointed to Helen being as good a mother as Hera. It hurt to think it had all started with a kidnapping. She couldn’t imagine how her sister would feel to find that out. Choking out a goodbye to Hawk, Ellie was already mentally dialing Sandor’s number when she disconnected her call with the world renowned investigator.

  Sandor swore in Greek when Ellie told him what she had learned. “I’m so sorry,agape mou . But we will not let this situation tear lives apart.”

  He said it with such confidence that she believed him.

  “What am I going to do?”

  “We begin by telling your father.”

  “We?”

  “Naturally. You do not think I would leave you to do this thing alone, do you?”

  She had no right to call on his support since their breakup, but she wasn’t about to turn him down. “Thank you.”

  Sitting in his favorite armchair close to Ellie’s place on the couch in his oversize living room, her father paled as Ellie told him all that Hawk had learned so far.

  “So, this woman…Helen Taylor…most likely kidnapped my daughter and brought her up to believe she was the baby she had lost two months before?”

  “Yes, that’s what we think.” Sandor held Ellie close to him with one strong arm and she wasn’t about to protest.

  Nor did she protest him answering for her. She was shaking inside from the stress and worried that talking about her sister was once again going to prove too much for her dad.

  Ellie added, “Her husband had died in the tragic car accident that sent her into early labor. Hawk thinks the similar circumstance surrounding mine and Amber’s births may have triggered the kidnapping.”

  “But the woman was a good mother?” her dad asked in a hoarse voice.

  “From all that Hawk could discover, she was exemplary in every way. She really loves her daughter. She lives for her.” Ellie kept the wistfulness from her voice.

  It was wrong to envy her sister a lifetime with a loving parent, especially knowing that she would face the pain of difficult revelations soon enough. But part of Ellie couldn’t help wondering what it would have been like to be raised by someone who considered her more than an adjunct in his life.

  “I think we should approach Helen Taylor first,” Sandor said.

  “I agree.” Her dad ran his hand over his face and sighed. “She’s no doubt been living in abject terror of being caught out for more than two decades. We need to deal with her first.”

  Ellie had reached the same conclusion. “It’s going to be awful for everyone. I’ve never met the woman, but I can’t help but pity her. Whatever led to her taking Amber, she really seems like a decent person who loves her daughter.” She took a deep breath and said what needed saying. “I don’t want the authorities brought in. This is going to be hard
enough on everyone without that.”

  Her dad nodded. “We will find out what happened…why she took my daughter and kept her…and we’ll go from there.”

  Relief that he was taking the news so well and that her father was being so tolerant flowed through Ellie. “You’re a lot more understanding about this than I expected you to be.”

  He grimaced, his light blue eyes shadowed with guilt and pain. “I can’t get past the fact that she gave Amber the love I withheld from you. Maybe you would have been better off if she’d taken you both.”

  Ellie didn’t know what to say. She was a poor liar, so she could not claim she’d hadn’t had the same thought. Until her dad had “gotten human” she would have questioned whether losing her would have impacted his emotions at all. She felt guilty for thinking that way and knew it was wrong, but she’d spent most of her life believing that if she were to disappear—for whatever reason—the only thing her father would feel is a sense of failure in living up to his responsibilities.

  She was beginning to believe she meant more than that to him now, but twenty-four years of thinking a certain way did not disappear overnight.

  Letting her heart lead, she dropped to her knees beside his chair and hugged him. “I don’t regret the fact that you raised me.”

  That, at least, wasn’t a lie. No matter what strange thought had flitted through her head upon discovering each new aspect of this situation, she loved her dad. She always had. The more he told her about her mom, the more Ellie realized in that way, she took after the woman who had died before she’d had a chance to hold her babies.

  His laugh was hollow, but his return embrace was tight. “You’re a gentle soul, Eleanor Wentworth. Very much like your mother,” he said, echoing her thoughts. “I didn’t deserve her and I don’t deserve you.”

  “Maybe,” she allowed with a small smile as she returned to her seat beside Sandor, leaning against him slightly and drawing on his strength. “But you’re stuck with me regardless.”

  “We’ll fly to California to see Helen Taylor tomorrow,” her dad decided.

  Sandor’s arm returned to her shoulder and squeezed. “I am going with you.”

  Ellie didn’t even consider arguing. She craved his support. She turned to meet his dark gaze. “I would appreciate that.”

  He kissed her, his lips tender, his expression unfathomable. “Then it is settled.”

  They flew in Sandor’s private jet to a small airport near the town that Helen Taylor called home. She wasn’t sure why they’d taken Sandor’s plane instead of her father’s. But when Ellie asked, her father said only that Sandor preferred to do so. He and her dad worked while Ellie fretted, but hid it behind a facade of relaxed boredom while flipping through one of the fashion magazines that featured shots of her sister.

  Hawk had provided a wealth of information on Amber’s career. Ellie had spent countless sleeping hours looking at pictures of her sister in “model mode” and wondering what went on behind her beautiful aqua gaze. Funny how the same color of eyes on Ellie felt like nothing special, but on her model sister, they looked exotic and mysterious.

  She rubbed at her own eyes, wishing she could take a nap, but knowing sleep would be ever elusive. She simply could not turn her brain off. She’d done a good job of keeping up the stoic front she’d spent a lifetime cultivating, but underneath, she wanted to crumple.

  But a Wentworth did not crumple and even if they did, she couldn’t. Her father and her sister needed her right now.

  They were less than an hour into the flight and Ellie was yawning for the fifth time when, without the slightest warning, she felt herself bodily lifted from her seat.

  Gasping, she clutched at Sandor, the magazine fluttering to the floor of the cabin. “What are you doing?”

  “You need rest.” She wasn’t having any trouble reading his expression now. He looked angry. “Have you slept a full night since the day you returned from Spain?”

  “No,” she admitted and let her head drop to lie in the curve of his neck. “But I’m not going to sleep now, either.”

  “We shall see.”

  She found herself smiling against his chest at his arrogance. “I can’t. Honestly, Sandor. Too many things are whirling inside my head.”

  He ignored her words and carried her to the tiny bedroom in the back of the plane, kicking the door shut behind him once they were inside.

  “This is pretty nice. My father’s jet doesn’t have a bedroom,” Ellie remarked.

  “I know. That is why we took mine.”

  “For the bedroom?”

  “Yes. You are not sleeping. That is obvious to anyone with eyes. I was determined you would rest comfortably during the flight.”

  Unused to being cosseted, Ellie found herself swallowing a suspicious lump in her throat. Even if she couldn’t sleep, she appreciated the gesture. A lot.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “You are welcome.” He laid her down on the bed, arranging her so that her head rested on a nice fluffy pillow. “Comfortable?”

  “Mmm…hmmm.”

  “Good.” He sat on the end of the bed and took her shoes and thin socks off.

  She wiggled her toes. “Um…thanks.”

  “Again…you are welcome.”

  But he did not stop there. Before she knew what he was doing, he’d unbuttoned her dark silk slacks and had them halfway down her hips.

  She grabbed his wrists. “What are you doing? You can’t undress me,” she hissed in a fierce whisper, not wanting her father to hear.

  Though it was highly unlikely, even in the well insulated cabin, flying created a lot of white noise that masked conversations even between people seated near one another.

  “You cannot sleep with your clothes on. Relax,pethi mou. I will take care of you.”

  “I’m not going to sleep anyway,” she protested. “There’s no reason for me to get undressed.”

  “You will be more comfortable.” With a deft move of his hands, he broke her hold on his wrists and had her slacks down her legs and off before she could do more than gasp. He folded them on a neat crease and hung them in the miniscule closet before turning back to face her. “Is that not better?”

  Ellie could only gape. Whether it was from sheer shock or that combined with her exhaustion, but her mind wasn’t working properly. She should have scrambled under the covers, but she lay there in her blouse and panties and wondered what he would do next.

  She found out when he sat beside her and began to unbutton her blouse.

  Finally getting some semblance of wits about her, she twisted away and jumped off the bed. “I think I’ll leave my blouse on. In fact, I should probably put my slacks back on and rejoin Dad.”

  The look in his eyes said she was going to get undressed and in that bed, like it or not. Too bad he was on the side by the closet and coincidentally, the door through which she wanted to escape. Though not half-dressed as she was.

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t like being bossed around, Sandor.”

  He leaned back against the door, crossing his arms as well and giving her a look she was fairly certain outdid hers in the intimidation stakes. “I do not like seeing my woman ready to collapse from exhaustion.”

  “I’m not your woman.”

  He crossed that small room with the speed of a Jaguar and then stood towering over her. “We are at odds. I accept this. But youare mine.”

  “No,” she whispered the denial that felt like a lie.

  “Just as I am yours.”

  The words touched her deep inside where she did not want him to go again. And she shook her head, unable to give voice again to the denial her heart said she should not make.

  His hands curved around her shoulders and he stepped closer so their bodies were mere inches apart. “So, you do not care if I bed another woman?”

  Her heart screamed a denial, but she merely said, “Don’t be crude,” in her best approximation at a distant tone.
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br />   “Do not lie to me,” he countered, his tone pure male censure.

  She swallowed, wishing he wasn’t so close…or that his nearness did not impact her so much. “I have no right to stop you from going to bed with another woman.”

  “I give you the right.”

  She opened her mouth, but she could not force a rejection to his offer from her throat.