Tempted by Her Greek Tycoon

by Katrina Cudmore

  ‘I’ll get the bill.’

  He waved away their objections and went inside to pay, trying to ignore the stab of envy at how close his brothers were and knowing how excluded he was from their lives.

  When he returned to the table both brothers thanked him with a stiff formality more in keeping with the thanks they might give to a boss they’d had no choice but to dine with and left the restaurant together. Probably to head to a nearby bar.

  If their parents had still been alive would his relationship with his brothers be different? Would they treat him as an equal rather than constantly being guarded around him? Or would his parents’ expectations of him as the oldest son—especially his father’s—always have driven a wedge between them?

  He was about to suggest to Georgie and Angeliki that he walk them home when Angeliki leant across the table, all wide-eyed, her mouth fixed in an OMG expression, her fingers twirling, twirling, twirling the jet-black ends of her hair.

  ‘So, Loukas, tell me about your hot date earlier this week, when you were in Athens.’

  * * *

  Despite being disarmed by the way her stomach hit the floor, Georgie forced herself to smile, as though amused by Angeliki’s playful question.

  Loukas eyed his sister warily. ‘What date?’

  Angeliki’s eyes were alight with mischief. ‘Tuesday night at Funky Gourmet. A friend of mine works there. She told me.’

  For a moment Loukas glanced in Georgie’s direction, those intelligent brown eyes sweeping over her as though gauging her response.

  Georgie tried to position her features in a professional pose. But in truth it was physically killing her to keep up the pretence of an easy smile when there was a lump of envy stuck in her throat.

  Shifting his attention back to his sister, Loukas shrugged, ‘It was just dinner with a friend. Nothing else. I have no idea why you’re even interested.’

  Angeliki laughed and said. ‘You’ve no problem interfering with my relationships.’ Looking in her direction she added, ‘Georgie, Loukas is always telling me that I date the wrong guys—he even personally took one of my dates home on his boat within five minutes of him arriving on the island.’

  Shaking his head in annoyance, Loukas growled, ‘He was drunk.’

  ‘No, he wasn’t. He had had a single beer on the ferry over here. And he was hot. Georgie, you should have seen him. He was so beautiful.’

  On an exasperated sigh, Loukas looked at his sister gravely. ‘He’d had more than one beer.’ Then, his voice softening, he added, ‘He should have had more respect for you. I’m not going to let you get hurt, Angeliki.’

  ‘You’re the one always saying I need to be more independent.’

  ‘I want you to be more independent in how you live...in your career choices. You should have gone to university last September, with all your friends. But you insisted on staying here. Going out with boys who don’t treat you well isn’t a sign of independence.’

  Angeliki’s chin rose defiantly. ‘At least I date. Unlike you.’

  ‘Well, that’s going to change... I’ve started dating.’

  For a brief second his gaze met Georgie’s, his eyebrows lifting as if to say I’m still waiting for you to produce the goods before he gave his sister a meaningful look and added, ‘I’m hoping to meet someone who will help me to keep you in check.’

  Angeliki flicked her hair back, her expression outraged. ‘I don’t need to be kept in check!’

  Loukas threw her an incredulous stare. ‘Who did you meet in Athens on Wednesday night, when you told me that you would be here—working?’

  Angeliki pursed her lips, her gaze moving up to the string of lights hanging above the courtyard. Then she glanced back at Loukas, a look of rebellion in her eyes. ‘Dimitris Fafaliou.’

  Loukas placed an elbow on the table and sank his forehead into his palm. ‘Please tell me you’re joking—after the way he treated you...’

  Angeliki crossed her arms and shrugged, refusing to look at Loukas.

  Since meeting her, Georgie had grown fond of Angeliki, enjoying her easy good humour and enthusiasm for life. But Georgie had also glimpsed a young girl with a constant need for approval—a girl who could easily be hurt. Loukas had asked her not to interfere, but she had to say something—even if it annoyed her boss.

  She moved closer to Angeliki and said, ‘Angeliki, please don’t let any boy hurt you. You deserve so much better. You’re beautiful and intelligent, with a huge heart—don’t allow anyone to disrespect you or treat you badly.’

  Angeliki gave a reluctant shrug, refusing to look up, her attention now on her phone, her fingers swiping against the screen. ‘I suppose...’

  Loukas glanced at Georgie and gave her a slow, grateful smile. Her heart rocketed through her chest in relief. She smiled back...and there it was again, that something between them.

  But then he looked away and leant towards Angeliki. ‘You’re not to see Dimitris Fafaliou again.’

  For a moment brother and sister stared at each other. In comparison to her brother Angeliki was tiny in size, but she made up for it in defiance. ‘I’m eighteen. You can’t tell me what to do.’

  A muscle in Loukas’s cheek twitched.

  He stood and glanced in Georgie’s direction and said, ‘We’ll walk Angeliki home.’

  * * *

  Instead of going home, Angeliki insisted on joining Nikos and Marios at a nearby bar. Angeliki begged Georgie to join them but she took a rain check, tired after her long day and in truth, even though she understood that Angeliki was smarting after her earlier argument with Loukas, cross with her for not inviting Loukas too.

  After they’d dropped Angeliki at the bar, they turned back in the direction of The Korinna.

  Along the harbour front, which was festooned with bunting to celebrate the upcoming Holy Week, the restaurants were busy, and a light scattering of early new-season tourists were drifting in and out of the boutiques and souvenir shops.

  Out in the harbour the wooden fishing boats bobbed in a light swell. She inhaled deeply, loving the floral warmth of the mid-April air. Beside her, she could see Loukas’s expression was tense.

  She drew in some more air and asked, ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

  Despite his terse glance she felt her heart kick against her chest as she heard the tiredness, the weariness he couldn’t hide in his voice.

  ‘I’m guessing being responsible for an eighteen-year-old can’t be easy. I know I was a nightmare back then.’

  He stopped by the harbour wall, at the junction of the road and the pretty laneway that led up to The Korinna and asked, ‘In what way?’

  ‘I thought having a boyfriend would sort out all my problems.’ She gave him a self-deprecating smile. ‘It took me a few years to wake up to the fact that boyfriends only added to them.’

  He backed up against the hip-height whitewashed harbour wall, his foot touching the cast-iron of one of the many cannons that still stood guard, relics of the island’s strategic maritime position in the Mediterranean. He reached his arms back and flexed them tight as his palms rested on the stone, the movement emphasising his broad frame beneath the white polo shirt he was wearing tonight, with navy chinos.

  ‘And now? Are you in a relationship? Do you date?’

  His questions came out in a low rumble.

  ‘I’ve come to the conclusion that relationships and I don’t agree... It’s like having a gluten intolerance, but for me it’s a relationship intolerance. I end up with brain fog and nausea.’

  Her skin prickled at the awareness of his eyes on her. And he wasn’t returning her smile or laughing at her feeble attempt at a joke.

  ‘That’s why you said the other night that you’re not wife material?’

  She tried to keep her voice cheery. ‘Exactly. Talking of
relationships—I have two potential candidates I would like you to meet. I thought you should start with meeting women who are already on the island. Katia Gogou is Human Resources Manager for the ferry company. She’s smart and ambitious and she loves Talos. And Nina Fischer moved to Talos from Frankfurt last year—she was a partner in a private equity fund that was bought out, and she’s running her own small fund from here now.’

  ‘They sound like interesting candidates.’

  They were... Why, then, did he sound so unenthusiastic about meeting them?

  ‘Earlier Angeliki mentioned that you haven’t dated until now—is that really true?’

  His steady, potent, one hundred per cent male gaze met hers. ‘I haven’t lived the life of a monk, if that’s what you mean.’

  She tried not to blush, but there was an intensity, a dangerous sexiness in his tone that made her gulp.

  ‘My life up till now has been dominated by work and family responsibilities...’ He paused and hit her with another dark look that had her imagining him all hot and sweaty and naked. ‘My relationships have been brief.’

  She nodded. Scratched the side of her neck. Nodded again. Then she took a deep breath and asked, ‘You mentioned before that you’re not looking for love...but would it be a bonus if you found it?’

  His gaze narrowed. ‘I’m looking for a marriage of convenience and the opportunity to recruit a senior executive into the business—not love. My life is complicated enough with all my responsibilities—I don’t have the time for or the interest in a full-blown relationship and all the complications that would involve.’

  He sounded so certain, so emphatic. And for reasons she couldn’t understand she felt as deflated as a popped balloon by that certainty.

  In the distance she could hear the regular rhythmic trot of a horse approaching. Horse-drawn carriages and bicycles were the main modes of transport on the island.

  She swallowed and said, in the best breezy voice she could muster, ‘Should I arrange for you to have dinner with Katia tomorrow night?

  ‘Please.’

  She nodded and asked, ‘And are you going to meet your date from earlier this week again? The one Angeliki mentioned?’

  ‘Her name is Marinella.’ He waited until a white open-top carriage passed by, pulled by a regal grey and carrying a young couple who waved to them enthusiastically, before he added, ‘No... Angeliki was right. Marinella’s future is in Athens, not here. But my account manager at the dating agency is continuing to source candidates alongside you.’

  She forced herself to smile at him. ‘With both of us working on it you should have a wife in no time.’

  She’d have no problem setting him up on dates, even seeing him married—right?

  They climbed the cobbled laneway lined with terracotta pots brimming with pelargoniums and hibiscuses in silence. Halfway up, some of the island’s elderly residents were sitting outside on wooden chairs, chatting amongst themselves. Their faces were lined after lives well lived, and illuminated by the lights shining through their open doors.

  Loukas stopped and shook the hands of the men. Georgie followed his lead, and all the women pulled them both down into tight hugs. The last woman she hugged tapped Georgie’s cheek fondly, and then said something to Loukas which Georgie didn’t catch but that caused everyone else to laugh raucously and stare in her direction. Loukas shook his head and Georgie smiled back, at a total loss as to what was being said.

  When they’d moved away she asked, ‘What did that lady say? I couldn’t understand her.’

  They passed under a street light and she saw an amused glint in his eye.

  ‘She said that you were very sweet...and that she hoped you were the same in bed.’

  Georgie gasped. ‘She did not!’ She laughed. ‘She looked so innocent.’

  Beside her Loukas laughed, a deep baritone laugh that lightened something inside her. They made it to the top of the hill, both still laughing.

  At the entrance gates to the resort her platform shoe caught against a stone and she tumbled against him. He put out an arm to steady her, his hand landing on her waist. Butterflies flew around her stomach at the warmth of his touch.

  She pulled away and turned back towards the lights of the town and the sea beyond. A large cruiser was far out, heading in the direction of Piraeus. The chatter of the residents on the lane was the only sound.

  ‘It’s so lovely here. The air is different from anything I ever experienced before—it’s light, floral... I feel as though I can breathe properly for the first time in years.’

  ‘Talos is often called the island of fragrances.’

  She turned to him, ‘That’s a wonderful way of describing it—and so right. I grew up in cities. I’d never realised just how freeing it is to live without air and noise pollution...and where my farmhouse is there’s no light pollution either. At night the sky is dazzling. I lie on the ground and just stare and stare at it. A million stars stare back at me.’

  Loukas smiled at her description. ‘You’re falling under the island’s spell?’

  She knew she should stop gazing up at him, stop itching with the desire to touch him, stop wanting to know if touching her lips against his would ease the yearning ache that was twisting inside her.

  ‘I think I already have.’

  Something flashed in his eyes, but then he stepped away. ‘Why did you decide to come to Talos and renovate a property?’

  His question was gentle, but it held a trace of doubt, even suspicion. They began to walk down the narrow avenue towards the hotel. It was just wide enough to take the island’s horse-drawn carriages. Deliveries and guests who opted not to use the water taxis were brought to the hotel by carriage via the ring road that skirted the town and took a gentler ascent up to the hotel.

  ‘My dad bought the old Alavanos farmhouse late last year, with the intention of renovating it.’ She swallowed against the tightness in her chest and added quickly, ‘He died just before Christmas, so I decided to go ahead with his plans instead.’

  His hand on her elbow drew her to a stop. Even in the thick darkness of the pine forest surrounding them she could see the compassion in his eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  She nodded and moved away, feeling too raw and vulnerable to handle the softly spoken sincerity of his words. She was not going to cry in front of her boss.

  She stopped when he called her name.

  ‘Georgie... We’ve got that in common—wanting to fulfil our parents’ dreams. You renovating your dad’s house...me buying a hotel in Florence.’

  ‘You’re buying that hotel because of your parents? Why?’

  ‘My dad promised my mum he’d buy it if it ever became available—he was penniless at the time, but my dad liked to dream big.’

  Taken aback by his reason for wanting to buy the hotel, Georgie asked, ‘Would they expect you to marry, though, just to buy it?’

  ‘No, but I want to do it in their memory.’

  For a moment Georgie considered arguing with him, telling him that it was too much of a sacrifice, but she knew about love and grief and how it compelled you to do things that others might question.

  With a shrug, she looked at him and said quietly, ‘I really hope it works out for you.’

  Loukas’s mouth twisted. ‘So do I.’

  ‘You don’t sound convinced that it will?’

  For a moment she thought he was going to answer her, but instead he muttered, ‘It’s getting late,’ and walked away.

  They swung down to the left, away from the main avenue, to follow the path through the orchard, where low solar lights guided their way to the villa. Loukas seemed lost in thought, and it wasn’t until they entered the villa’s walled garden that he spoke again.

  ‘Losing a parent is hard... Sometimes I don’t think I really understand how much it has impacted on
Angeliki. I want the woman I marry to be a strong role model, to be strict with her, push her to achieve something in life.’

  Georgie could understand why Loukas would want his sister to be independent, but after their earlier conversation about the boys she dated strictness was the last thing she reckoned Angeliki needed.

  ‘I think she needs love and attention above everything else.’ Standing beneath the portico of the front door to the villa, Georgie hesitated a moment before adding, ‘It can’t have been easy on any of you when your parents died.’

  She’d been twenty-seven when she’d lost her dad. What must it have been like for Angeliki to lose both her parents before she was even ten years old? What must it have been like for all four of the siblings to lose both parents so tragically?

  Loukas opened the front door. A table lamp in the wide hallway was already switched on, illuminating the villa’s dark wooden stairs that reminded Georgie of all the Christmases she had spent watching Scarlett O’Hara sweep down that grand Southern staircase.

  Her own Rhett Butler turned and eyed her darkly. ‘Georgie, I appreciate that you’re trying to help, but I know what Angeliki needs.’ He looked at her for a long moment, his jaw working, before he added, ‘In fact, I would appreciate it if you kept your distance from her.’

  He’d what? He had to be kidding her!

  ‘What do you mean, keep my distance from her?’

  ‘Angeliki becomes too attached to people. I’ve seen it with past boyfriends, staff who’ve worked here. She gets upset when people leave.’

  ‘I’ll be on the island for the rest of the summer. In the winter months I’ll always be at the end of a phone, and Angeliki can visit me wherever I’m living.’

  Running a hand along the evening shadow of his jaw, Loukas arched his neck. ‘Why don’t you want to stay here on Talos permanently?’

  How could she explain to him the constant restlessness in her bones? The need to explore? Not to belong to anyone or anywhere?