Tempted by Her Greek Tycoon

by Katrina Cudmore

  He chuckled at the glee in her voice. This was exactly how they needed to play this. Keep it light. Accept that it was nothing more than a kiss shared between two adults who, despite how much they’d fought it, were attracted to one another. Nothing more.

  ‘True...but you’re only a temp.’

  Mischief danced in her eyes. ‘Maybe you should think of me less as an employee and more as your matchmaker.’

  The idea of Georgie setting him up on dates after the kiss they had just shared felt absurd. But it was more than that kiss. The closeness he had felt for her in her house also made it feel all wrong. Her sadness over her father had touched something in him, and for the first time ever he had admitted his guilt over his father’s death.

  Now he felt torn about sharing something so intimate with her. Was he somehow making himself vulnerable to her? Was he letting his guard down too much around her? But it had brought a sense of relief to share those thoughts with her.

  He decided to keep all those thoughts to himself. Wanting to keep this playful, and quirking an eyebrow, he said, ‘That’s quite a personal service you’re offering, Ms Jones.’

  ‘I aim to please—and now I can guarantee to any potential dates that not only are you a nice guy but you’re also an exceptional kisser.’

  He bit back a smile. ‘“Nice guy”? I think you can do better than that.’

  ‘I suppose some might call you gorgeous—but you can be on the grumpy side at times, so we need to allow for that.’

  He lifted his hand and gently rubbed it against the sand sticking to her cheek like glitter. Her eyes widened in surprise. She tried to speak but stopped, biting down on her bottom lip instead.

  He cleared his throat, but his voice was still a husky murmur when he said, ‘Stick with “gorgeous” and “exceptional kisser”.’

  She angled her head and he cradled her cheek against his palm. He should step back. Of course he should. But the ache in his body to press against hers was too powerful.

  On a low sigh she said softly, ‘I’ll think about it. Of course we can never repeat our kiss... Kissing a client once for research purposes is okay, but after that I’ll have to protect my professional reputation.’

  His mouth shifted and floated over hers. His heart thumped against his chest, and he felt dazed with the need to feel her lips again. Faintly he whispered, ‘And of course you have to think about your intolerance too...or is kissing okay? Is it only relationships that you’re intolerant to?’

  ‘I have to admit that I’m feeling slightly light-headed...’

  He moved his hand from her cheek to her forehead. ‘You do seem a little warm.’

  The movement of his hand broke whatever crazy spell they had found themselves in, and with a roll of her eyes she stepped away and looked up into the cloudless blue sky, her arm reaching up to point skywards.

  ‘I blame the sun,’ she said

  She twisted around so that they were both facing out to the rolling surf of the cove.

  They fell into silence until he said, ‘This intolerance of yours is pretty intense, isn’t it?’

  Her eyes met his before shifting away, and she raised her hand to brush at the last few remaining grains of sand stubbornly sticking to her cheek. ‘I guess...’

  He grimaced at the sadness in her voice and asked, ‘When did you first realise that you had this intolerance?’

  She shrugged and ran her hand along the opposite arm. Up and down. Up and down. Was the sea salt drying on her skin too?

  ‘I think it was always there, but it became particularly acute with my first serious relationship...my only one, in fact.’ Her jaw tightened and she glanced up again into the deep blue depths of the early afternoon sky. ‘Alain was my boss, and the owner of the restaurant where I was training to be a pastry chef in Lyon. We dated for a while, but when Alain asked me to move in with him I panicked. I felt claustrophobic, as though I couldn’t breathe.’

  ‘Why did you panic?’

  ‘I’ve spent my entire life moving around—I like the excitement and the freedom, the thought of settling in one place, committing to another person for ever, overwhelms me.’

  He tried to keep his voice nonchalant, not sure why he felt so compelled to ask all these questions. ‘This intolerance...do you think it’s curable? Can you ever see yourself in a permanent relationship?’

  She stepped towards the edge of the water, only briefly glancing back towards him. ‘I like being independent. Being single suits me.’

  He moved beside her. ‘Why?’

  ‘When I left I hurt Alain. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t want to cause him pain. But I realised that there’s a toughness in me... It’s not something I’m proud of, but I put my happiness before his. I dated some other guys after Alain and it was the same thing: I always grew restless and needed to move on. Basically, I’m not cut out for relationships.’

  He stared at her, taken aback not only by how candid she had been in what she’d said, but also the solid resolve in the way she’d said it.

  The water lapped against his ankles. He snapped a foot against it, sending an angry spear of water upwards, feeling thrown not only by her resolve but by the way the fierce competitiveness within him always to get what he wanted in life felt somehow thwarted.

  He gritted his teeth. He needed to focus on what was the reality of this situation—Georgie Jones was nothing more than his PA and a matchmaker. ‘So—why did you choose Katia and Nina for me to date?’

  She turned and stared at him. Clearly taken aback. But then, lifting her chin as though readying herself for something she didn’t particularly want to do, she answered in a gentle tone, ‘Because they are both smart and strong woman who won’t be afraid to question and challenge you.’

  He sneered. ‘The last thing I need is someone else challenging me—my siblings do that enough... What I need is someone who’s tough and who will support me in the business and in getting my siblings to toe the line.’

  She crossed her arms and looked him steadily in the eye. ‘Aren’t you tough enough on yourself and on the others already? Do you really need someone who will add to that?’

  This conversation was verging on the ridiculous. It was time to end it. ‘Maybe we should leave the matchmaking to my agency in Athens. This is all getting—’

  Before he could add any more, Georgie interrupted him. ‘I’d like to see you happy, Loukas.’

  He was about to protest, insist that he was happy. But the words stuck in his throat. There was an honesty, a genuineness in Georgie’s eyes, in her tone, that hit him sideways. It was as if she really, truly, deeply meant that she wanted him to be happy.

  He stared at her, at a loss as to what to say. His heart smacked against his ribs. Again and again and again. Had anyone ever looked at him with such truthful affection and tenderness before?

  Confused, unable to handle the emotions swirling inside him, he walked further out into the water until it was at waist height, and waited for Georgie to join him before they dived down into the turquoise sea together.

  * * *

  It was Thursday lunchtime and The Korinna had officially reopened its doors earlier that day.

  The day had started pre-dawn, with all the staff attending a final employee briefing from Loukas in the conference centre. The atmosphere had been tense, but excited. The buzz in the room had felt the same as the adrenaline rush Georgie got every time she stood at an airport departures gate, part-excited part-daunted at the prospect of starting a new life in a new city, in a new country.

  Loukas had kept the briefing short and to the point, his cool demeanour showing none of the tension she had witnessed in him over the past few days in the lead-up to the opening. He had been withdrawn, tetchy.

  His dates with Katia and Nina had not been a success. And that, quite possibly, was the understatement of the year. He had texte
d Georgie half an hour into his dinner date with Katia, insisting that she join them in the restaurant, and she’d understood why when she’d got there. The normally bubbly Katia had been unable to string together any sentence more than three words long.

  The following day Katia had admitted to Georgie that Loukas’s dark good looks had reduced her to a gibbering wreck.

  And then apparently Nina had spent their dinner grilling Loukas on the business. He had stormed into the villa after their date, poured himself a brandy and, when she had nervously asked how the date had gone, had growled, ‘I want a wife—not an aggressive auditor.’

  Georgie knew she should be disappointed—should feel some level of embarrassment and professional failing—but instead she felt a lightness because both dates hadn’t worked out.

  Which she knew was totally wrong. So she had thrown herself into the task of finding some other suitable dates, glad to have something to focus on other than replaying their kiss in her mind over and over again.

  It was a kiss that they had both brushed off as being inconsequential. What other option did they have? Loukas was looking for a wife—in his words, an assertive career woman who would be an asset to the business. Qualities that Georgie, with the best will in the world, could never lay claim to. Not that she was in the market to be in a relationship anyway, never mind become someone’s wife.

  Today things had started off calmly. Loukas had stood in Reception, personally welcoming the first of the guests to arrive. But bit by bit cracks in the new systems and procedures of The Korinna had started to show.

  Guests had arrived on their own private motorboats and yachts at the marina well ahead of the time they had been given when booking in, and as a result the water taxis at the harbour had struggled to transfer them all to The Korinna.

  Georgie had rung for reinforcements from the water taxi drivers who had not yet started work, while Nikos had rushed down to greet the stranded guests on the marina and organised as many horse-drawn carriages as had been available to bring some of them to the hotel.

  Then the hotel’s Wi-Fi had decided to become sporadic in its service—much to the consternation of the high-profile journalists and bloggers who were attending the opening of The Korinna and unable to post to their social media websites.

  Seeing what was unfolding, and realising that The Korinna was losing valuable publicity, Georgie had invited them all upstairs to the HQ offices, where they had full internet access and great photo opportunities for the entire hotel from Loukas’s office balcony. Meanwhile the IT department had worked frantically to sort out the Wi-Fi access.

  They had just fixed the Wi-Fi when the new check-in system had started to act up. Loukas had tasked her and a number of other headquarters staff with transferring the arriving guests to the terrace for refreshments and liaising with Reception to complete the required check-in paperwork, then escorting their assigned guests to their bedrooms.

  Thankfully the guests had seemed oblivious to the issues unfolding as they were greeted and managed at every stage of their arrival. Everyone was in an excited, first-day-of-freedom holiday mode, and eager to see the renovated Korinna and spend time with family and friends over the Easter weekend.

  Most of the guests—to a person elegantly dressed, with immaculate grooming that spoke of wealth and pedigree—had seemed to know one another, and the terrace had been a perpetual round of handshakes and cheek-kissing.

  The guests had seemed especially happy to meet Loukas. Throughout the morning he had remained in Reception, greeting each guest with a perfectly judged balance of warmth and professional courtesy. Only when he’d been briefed on the issues unfolding had he shown his exasperation, which had usually been with an unhappy stare in the direction of one of his unfortunate siblings before he had quickly given instructions on what needed to be done to remedy the situation.

  Each time Georgie had arrived in Reception to escort new arrivals out to the terrace they’d all been slow to leave Loukas—the female guests especially. And Georgie hadn’t really been able to blame them. Ridiculously handsome in a light grey suit that emphasised his powerful body, with his hair recently cut by the in-house barber, Loukas had looked like a Hollywood star walking the red carpet. And every time she’d spotted him, especially when he was smiling down at the female guests, she’d thought of their kiss...and how she would never feel his lips on hers again.

  Now, after escorting to their room a delightful elderly couple from Portugal, Mr and Mrs Dias, who had first visited The Korinna to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary the year it had first opened its doors, Georgie raced back down the stairs to save time. But on entering the reception area her footsteps faltered when she’d seen Loukas and a dark-haired petite woman embrace.

  The woman was touching Loukas’s head, running her fingers against the closely cropped hair as though teasing him for having had it so tightly scissored. There was a familiarity, an affection between them that would usually have had Georgie smiling fondly at just how cute they looked together, but right now she just wanted to shout, Hands off!

  She rolled her eyes at her own idiocy.

  The woman was part of a large party, made up of at least fifteen others, ranging from an elderly grandmother down to the toddler crawling along the marble floor. Her daffodil-yellow dress was catching beneath her knees, but that didn’t deter her in the least as she dashed towards the reception area fountain, with her amused but harassed-looking father giving chase.

  Georgie stood to the side, waiting for Loukas to hand the group over to her while he and the woman spoke at length. The tension in Loukas that had upped a notch every time something had gone wrong that morning seemed to have disappeared in her presence.

  I am not jealous. That would be pointless and pathetic. I know the score here. Perhaps she would be a suitable wife for Loukas? She’s obviously family-orientated. She’s sophisticated and beautiful...

  She gritted her teeth and scanned the reception area. She needed to keep busy, do something positive.

  It looked as though she wasn’t the only person feeling invisible—a teenage girl was slouched on one of the sofas, scowling at the group congregating around Loukas in between scanning her phone. Her whole demeanour screamed, Seriously? Do I really have to be here when all my friends are off having fun elsewhere?

  Within five minutes Georgie had befriended the girl, whose name was Arianna. Having spoken to Arianna’s parents and sought their permission, Georgie had then guided Arianna down to the hotel beach, where one of the hotel’s personal trainers was holding a beach volleyball game for the teenage guests. She learnt from Arianna that the woman Loukas was speaking to was her aunt, Sofia Zisimos, a high-powered lawyer who had just moved back from Brussels to Athens. Most crucial of all, she was single.

  Georgie made her way back up to the reception area, knowing she should encourage Loukas to consider dating Sofia but with every selfish instinct inside her screaming, Don’t you dare! She was making for a pretty poor matchmaker. If there was an ethics committee in the matchmaking industry they would undoubtedly strike her off for unprofessional behaviour.

  Exiting the lift at Reception, she passed a stressed-out Angeliki, who didn’t stop as she told Georgie in one long, breathless sentence that the booking-in system was back up and running and the reception staff would be able to manage the few remaining guests by themselves.

  With a pile of emails awaiting her attention, Georgie headed back upstairs. When she reached her desk she saw Loukas, making his way back out of his office, shrugging on his suit jacket.

  ‘That didn’t go too badly.’

  He stopped and stared at her incredulously. ‘Are you serious?’

  She shrugged. ‘It wasn’t plain sailing by any means, but everything got sorted in the end.’ He really didn’t look convinced by her argument so she added with a smile, ‘The guests are happy.’

  ‘Well,
I’m not.’

  What was eating at him? Suddenly annoyed with him, with herself, with that stupid kiss that seemed to have changed everything between them, she said tersely, ‘I assume these hiccups happen whenever a hotel opens.’

  ‘Not in my hotels, they don’t.’ He moved towards the door. ‘I have to go. One of the guests is unhappy with his room allocation. I told Angeliki to ensure that it was the one that he always requests, but she messed up.’

  No wonder poor Angeliki had looked so stressed when she’d seen her downstairs. Loukas swept past her, his stupid big body that she still wanted to grab hold of and his self-destructive bad humour setting her teeth on edge.

  ‘Let Angeliki sort out the problem with the guest by herself.’

  He turned and looked at her as if she had just suggested that they get down and dirty right here on the office floor, in front of the entire HQ staff.

  ‘Why on earth would I want to do that?’

  ‘Because it’s her job, because she needs to know that you trust her, and because you need to learn a little perspective.’

  ‘Perspective?’

  ‘Yes...you can’t be personally responsible for every small failing that happens in all twenty-six of your hotels. Stop pushing yourself so hard.’

  He placed a hand on his hip, and there was nothing light about those brown eyes of his right now. ‘I have to.’

  She stepped towards him and met his stare. ‘No, you don’t.’

  He turned away and stormed through the open-plan office. Makis, the Christou Group’s finance director, spotted him and walked towards him, waving some paperwork in his direction, but he detoured at the last moment, having seen up close Loukas’s scowl.

  When Loukas had swept through the double doors Makis threw Georgie a What’s up with him? look. Georgie shrugged and turned back to her desk. She dropped to her chair and laid her forehead on the white lacquered surface of her desktop.

  Why, oh, why can’t you stop interfering, Georgie? What is it about this family that has you caring about them so deeply?