Bride by Day

by Rebecca Winters

  The problem was, she was already experiencing those searing emotions, and he’d only been gone twenty minutes. She couldn’t abide the thought of his never coming back...

  Though she tried to stay busy straightening her apartment, and still keep her injured hand raised, the next hour passed with agonizing slowness.

  By five after ten, she’d worked herself up to a crisis state thinking that maybe he wasn’t going to come back, that he’d only been playing with her emotions as final punishment for removing the note from his office in the first place.

  When the front door buzzer rang at ten-fifteen, she was convinced it had to be the building super who was probably returning the key Perseus had taken.

  Before she could reach the door, it opened, and Perseus let himself inside, shutting it again. She was too happy to see him, and had to avert her eyes so he wouldn’t guess how she felt.

  “I got caught in traffic. Have you made your decision?” he asked in his deep voice.

  Her softly rounded chin lifted. “I wouldn’t dream of holding you to my first two wishes, but I do need to get started on a career as soon as possible. Naturally I’d want to prove myself to the person who interviews me, but if you could arrange for a first meeting with the head of personnel of your textile company, that’s all I would ask. In return for that favor, I—I’ll marry you for a temporary period, Mr. Kostopoulos.”

  “Perseus,” he fired back. “I expect you to use it from here on out.”

  He murmured something else in his native tongue which needed no translation. The triumphant glitter in those black orbs said it all, bringing her out of the spell he’d cast over her.

  Her body quivered in terrified reaction. What had she done?

  “Where will your graduation take place?”

  Her mouth had gone dry. “At Washington Square Park next Friday.”

  “Are your tests over?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Then we’ll be married the next day. You’ll have to give your notice to Manhattan Cleaners. In the meantime, we’ll purchase you a wardrobe and wedding dress. We’ll also arrange to have your furnishings packed, and put into storage.

  “If you’ll tell me where your mother’s body is interred, I’ll deal with everything so we can take her body back to Wyoming on the company plane after our wedding.

  “Once we arrive in Cheyenne, we’ll buy the stone you had in mind for your mother’s grave and have it made according to your design. When it’s finished we’ll give her a proper burial, and have the stone put in place before we leave for Athens, which should be about two weeks from now. After we’re settled on Serifos, you can send out wedding announcements to anyone you want.”

  Sam stood there thunderstruck. He’d touched on so many issues, she couldn’t compute them all. What made the greatest impression on her mind was his incredible generosity and determination to see her wishes fulfilled where her mother was concerned.

  As for everything else, he’d rendered her breathless by the speed with which his mind had worked out every detail. No wonder he was held in awe by the international business community. In a matter of seconds, he’d mapped out their entire life, leaving no stone unturned. All she could do was nod her head in acquiescence.

  The next week Perseus kept them so busy with movers, visits to the designer shops for clothes, a trip to the university to return her collage, appointments with the doctor to get their blood tests and have her stitches removed, that her graduation day came around before she knew it.

  Since her mother’s death, she’d thought her commencement would be a bittersweet experience because her parent wasn’t there to see her graduate. What she hadn’t counted on was Perseus being in the audience among all the proud parents and families to watch her receive her diploma.

  She found it amazing that he would bother to come and support her. It deepened her feelings for him as nothing else could have done. Yet she didn’t dare express them. All she could do was thank him for being there, for sharing in her happiness over a hard-fought personal battle in which she’d finally triumphed. His presence turned it into a major highlight she would always remember. And treasure.

  On the night of her graduation, they stayed at the penthouse atop the Kostopoulos building. Sam went to bed in the guest room, so exhausted she was asleep by the time her head touched the pillow.

  The next morning at ten, she found herself being chauffeured in Perseus’s private limo to the church. He’d dressed for their wedding in a midnight blue suit and immaculate white shirt. She wore a knee-length white lace dress he’d picked out for her, a spray of gardenias on her shoulder and a shoulder-length lace mantilla.

  When she questioned why they were having a religious rather than a civil ceremony, he explained it was the only way to avoid unwanted publicity. As a personal favor to Perseus, the priest would close the doors of the church to the public while he conducted the forty-five-minute ceremony.

  Sam started to panic. “I—I won’t know what to do.”

  “All you have to do is imitate me,” he explained in his deep, vibrant voice. “We’ll both wear a garland of orange blossoms linked by ribbons, and we’ll carry a candle. When the time comes, we’ll follow the priest around the altar and drink wine from the common cup. At that point you will be Kyria Kostopoulos.”

  It seemed like a sacrilege to take part in such a beautiful and sacred ceremony when Sam knew their marriage was a sham. As they entered the old, beautiful Greek church, and their footsteps resounded in the quiet interior, Sam had the sudden urge to turn and run.

  Perseus must have sensed her turmoil because she felt a firm hand clasp her elbow and escort her to the front where the priest and the two witnesses awaited them.

  Dr. Strike greeted her warmly. The other gentleman, Mr. Paulos, turned out to be one of Perseus’s New York attorneys. Until Perseus told her that the other man was his legal right hand in the States, she hadn’t realized how much she’d been living in a fantasy world for the last week.

  When the time came, Mr. Paulos would probably be the one to handle their divorce. No. Not divorce. In all probability an annulment, since Perseus had made it perfectly clear they wouldn’t be sleeping together.

  That knowledge brought her down to earth with a vengeance, and robbed her of the joy she’d been feeling. Foolish, foolish girl.

  The predominantly English ceremony began with occasional passages in Greek. There was an air of unreality as they began their walk behind the priest, symbolic of their walk through life. Each time they stopped, the sweet smoke of the incense he carried permeated the air she breathed.

  Between that and the strong scent of the flowers, she started to feel faint, but an ever-watchful Perseus clasped her around her slender waist. He didn’t let go when they stood before the priest to exchange vows.

  “Do you, Samantha Telford, take Perseus Kostopoulos to be your wedded husband?”

  “Yes.” With all heart, she murmured inwardly. No matter how bogus this wedding might be, she loved Perseus. Her part of the ceremony would not be a lie.

  The pressure of his hand seemed to tighten a fraction before the priest asked in a solemn voice, “Do you, Perseus Kostopoulos, take Samantha Telford to be your wedded wife?”

  “I do,” came the fervent response. Perseus was such a wonderful actor, he sounded as if the vows actually meant something to him.

  As much as she wanted to look at him, she didn’t dare because her greatest fear was that she’d give herself away when he kissed her. To her shock, that moment never came, nor did she hear the priest say anything about pronouncing them man and wife. Instead, he extended her a cup of wine.

  Her hands trembled as she lifted it to her lips and took a sip. Then it was Perseus’s turn. She watched him drink from the same spot where her lips had been.

  At that moment his gaze collided with hers. Maybe it was the shadowy light of the interior, but for a brief second his dark eyes seemed to hold a possessive, even primitive gleam that acted
like a jolt of electricity to her sensitized body.

  In the next instant he removed the flower garland from her lace-covered head. A strange smile hovered at the corner of his compelling mouth as he found her left hand and placed a ring with one exquisite teardrop-shaped diamond on her finger.

  “Make no mistake, Kyria. We’re married in the eyes of God and the world. I’m your husband now.”

  Until you no longer need me, her heart cried out in fresh anguish because she wanted this wedding to be real.

  Robbed of even the traditional ceremonial kiss, she averted her eyes and began accepting the congratulations of their small audience. In a few minutes, Perseus was escorting her from the church, explaining that his private plane was waiting to take them to Wyoming. A celebratory lunch had been prepared on board.

  The events of the next week passed by in a kind of blur. Not only did they take care of the headstone and her mother’s burial, Perseus insisted on being at her side as she visited with distant relatives and a few old friends of her mother’s. Then they were winging their way to Greece.

  Sam had never been out of the U.S. before. Her husband of two weeks, seated across from her on the plane, could have no comprehension of the tumultuous emotions warring within her since his entry into her life.

  Everything was happening to her for the first time, increasing her ecstasy as well as her trepidation: marriage, her ride in his company jet, the stringent taste of retsina, the promised view of the ancient Acropolis she’d only glimpsed from history books, or through films.

  Since she didn’t own a TV set or a VCR, she hadn’t watched that many videos. In ways, she felt like a child who’d just been born, marveling at every precious new moment of life unfurling.

  Perhaps because of the pace Perseus had set, combined with the emotional upheaval he’d brought into her life, Sam was too exhausted to do anything more than go straight to his apartment and bed when they reached Athens.

  She half heard him say something to the effect that now they’d returned to his native land, she was to begin playing her part as his bride by day.

  Since she’d thought that was what she’d been doing all along, she didn’t understand what he meant. The problem was, she was too dead on her feet to ask for clarification. Before closing her bedroom door, she assured him she would follow through on their contract. He would have nothing to complain about.

  He murmured something she didn’t understand before he told her to go bed. She gladly obeyed him, and fell into a dreamless sleep, knowing nothing for the next fifteen hours.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  SAM loved it all—the heat, the overcrowding, the smells, the traffic jams, the cacophony of sounds produced by loquacious city dwellers huddled together in charming, shady cafés at various neighborhood squares.

  As she darted a farewell glance to Athens through the smoked glass of the Kostopoulos limousine, she heard her husband say, “Forget Archbishop Kominatos’s assertion that one cannot look upon Athens without tears. Instead, recall the words of Pericles who told us to remember the greatness of Athens as she really is, and fall in love with her.”

  “I see no faults,” Sam protested, loving every new experience since they’d left his downtown apartment.

  “Then you’re one of those rare tourists blessed to ignore her defects,” came the wry rejoinder. “We can still take the helicopter to Serifos. All you have to do is say the word and I’ll instruct the chauffeur to drive us to my office where there’s a helipad.”

  Her head whipped around, and she put out a placating hand. It didn’t quite touch his arm with its golden brown skin she could see through the dark hairs. “Oh, no, Perseus. Please—I’m longing to take the ferry.”

  “It’s a five hour ride in ninety-five degree heat.”

  “But I love the water. I’ve only ever been on the ferries in Hudson Bay which isn’t the same thing as you well know. This is Greece!” she cried with all the enthusiasm of her soul.

  His deep chuckle found its way to her insides. He must think her an absolute idiot, but she didn’t care. She was quite certain this was one great big dream, that one day she’d wake up in her tiny New York apartment frantically looking for a real job to afford the necessities of life now that she was a college graduate.

  Everyone knew that once you had your degree, it took at least two to five years to find a decent job. Even then, you might never work in your chosen field of endeavor.

  But if this dream didn’t vanish right away, she was going to be able to market her best designs and create new ones, thanks to the enigmatic man seated next to her reading the daily newspaper in a language she was determined to learn as quickly as possible.

  “What are you concentrating on so hard?” he queried unexpectedly.

  Sam thought he’d forgotten she was there. “I’m working on my Greek. According to one of the brochures your maid brought with my breakfast, we’re going to the limani to take a vapori.”

  He threw his head back and actually laughed. The sound thrilled her. “Excellent, Kyria Kostopoulos.”

  Mrs. Kostopoulos. She loved her new title. Her secret prayer was that she’d never have to relinquish it.

  “I’m pleased you took the time to look through them. Now say the words after me, and you will be able to make yourself understood to any of my countrymen.”

  Throughout the short seven-mile drive to one of the three harbors of Piraeus, she was given her first lesson in Greek by a master.

  By the time they’d arrived at the port, she was able to say kalimera which meant good morning, chero poli, which meant how do you do, and ya sas, which meant goodbye. All of which she tried out on their chauffeur who grinned from ear to ear, then complimented her before whispering something in rapid Greek to Perseus whose broad smile made him appear years younger and much more attractive than ever.

  She didn’t like to think about him being younger because that brought up the past, the reason why she was here posing as his temporary wife. In reality, he would go to his grave loving the fiancée who’d once spurned him, and now wanted him back.

  Well, she wasn’t going to get him back. Sam was here to see to that. Already she felt territorial and protective of her bridegroom, and if that woman dared try anything...

  A warm, solid arm unexpectedly slid around her shoulders and he hugged her to his chest.

  Sam’s heart started to hammer.

  What was Perseus doing? The pleasure was too great.

  “Such fierce thoughts on this beautiful summer morning,” he whispered against her neck, sending a tingling sensation of delight through her body. “What could have turned your eyes the color of smoke?” The soft pressure of his lips on her tender skin was almost her undoing.

  Steady, Sam. He warned you that he expected you to act like his enamored bride while he played the role of the loving husband in public. Never forget that pertinent fact for a second

  He’s not taking you to the island via the ferry for your sake. He’s using this opportunity to create gossip which will precede him to Serifos. To the woman he still loved...

  Before Sam had ever met Perseus, she knew he was hounded by the news media, but she had no idea how bad it was until now. Every step they took, some reporter was lurking nearby to take a picture and exploit him any way they could.

  For once however, it seemed he wanted it known that he was returning to his native village with a new bride in tow. And all for the sake of the fiancée who was awaiting him with open arms, prepared to grovel for his forgiveness.

  Over my dead body...

  “To be honest, Perseus, I’m overwhelmed by so much attention,” she answered back, clutching the lapel of his cream-colored sport shirt to steady herself while they were stopped partway up the gangway of the crowded ferry.

  Despite the chaos surrounding them, the clean tang of the soap he’d used in the shower filled her senses. The heat tended to bring out its subtle, lemony fragrance. His masculine appeal drowned out her awareness of anythin
g else. Because he was wearing sunglasses, she couldn’t see into his eyes. Maybe it was just as well since she’d started making a habit of it.

  He smoothed a thumb over the curve of her cheek. “You’ll learn to forget that everyone’s watching. Just concentrate on me, and follow my lead. When we reach Serifos, we’ll be left alone.”

  Except that she’ll be there, Sam lamented inwardly.

  With his hand against her back, he urged her forward and they took their place on deck among the crowd.

  He’d had their luggage sent on ahead. Except for her tote bag, they carried nothing with them. She clasped the rail, enjoying the gentle breeze as the ferry worked its way out of the harbor. The day would prove to be a scorcher, but right now the temperature was bearable and the fantastic view of the boats and water beyond her power to describe.

  Perseus stood behind her with his arms wrapped around her slender waist, his chin buried in her hair. Today a white ribbon contained her gleaming gold mane.

  She’d never worn white before and had been surprised at the shop that the modest sundress and sleeveless jacket with its colorful embroidery on the bodice and hem looked good on her. A perfect fit down to the underwear, hose and leather sandals, he’d purchased an entire wardrobe for her. Except for a few items, everything would be waiting for her on Serifos.

  To anyone looking, they were typical honeymooners whispering to each other, staying as physically close together as decency permitted. That was the stipulation he’d laid down before they’d taken vows at the church. Whenever there was an audience, she was to become the besotted bride and hold nothing back.

  To her shock, the role of playing wife came naturally to her. Too naturally. She was enjoying every moment of their time together. His strong heartbeat against her back dictated the pounding of her own.

  Within the confines of his arms she experienced a sense of rightness and security she’d be loathe to give up when their marriage ended. How could that be when she’d only known him a few weeks?