by Jennie Lucas
“Did you have my baby, Holly?”
Facing the worst news imaginable, Stavros seeks oblivion in an incredible encounter with Holly. And a year later, he discovers she’s had his child! In his mind, nothing could be more logical than legitimizing his heir with a ring.
Yet he’s stunned when Holly disagrees! Yes, he rejected her after their night together, but she deserved more than he could offer. He’s spent years building his emotional walls, he can’t possibly break them down... This Christmas, to claim his bride and son, will Stavros take the ultimate risk?
He was even more handsome than Holly remembered. Even more dangerous.
“I heard a rumor.” Stavros looked slowly around the cabin, with its roaring fireplace and homemade Christmas decorations. Pulling off his black leather gloves, he tucked them into his pockets and turned to her with narrowed eyes. His voice was colder than the frigid winter air outside. “Is it true?”
“Is what true?” she whispered with a sinking heart.
Stavros’s jaw was tight as he looked right through her. “Did you have my baby, Holly?”
Her blood went cold. Teeth chattering, she stared at him. The man who’d once seduced her, who’d wooed her with words and languorous kisses, was now looking at her with hatred in his eyes.
She tried to laugh. “Where did you hear that?”
“You’re a terrible liar,” he said softly. “Is it possible you’ve lied to me for nearly a year?”
USA TODAY bestselling author Jennie Lucas’s parents owned a bookstore, so she grew up surrounded by books, dreaming about faraway lands. A fourth-generation Westerner, she went east at sixteen to boarding school on a scholarship, wandered the world, got married, then finally worked her way through college before happily returning to her hometown. A 2010 RITA® Award finalist and 2005 Golden Heart® Award winner, she lives in Idaho with her husband and children.
Books by Jennie Lucas
Harlequin Presents
Conveniently Wed!
Chosen as the Sheikh’s Royal Bride
One Night With Consequences
Nine Months to Redeem Him
A Ring for Vincenzo’s Heir
The Consequence of His Vengeance
Claiming His Nine-Month Consequence
Secret Heirs of Billionaires
Carrying the Spaniard’s Child
Secret Heirs and Scandalous Brides
The Secret the Italian Claims
The Heir the Prince Secures
The Baby the Billionaire Demands
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
Jennie Lucas
Christmas Baby for the Greek
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
EXCERPT FROM HIS CONTRACT CHRISTMAS BRIDE BY SHARON KENDRICK
CHAPTER ONE
WAS THERE ANYTHING worse than a wedding on Christmas Eve, with glittering lights sparkling against the snow, holly and ivy decking the halls and the scent of winter roses in the air?
If there was, Holly Marlowe couldn’t think of it.
“You may now kiss the bride,” the minister said, beaming between the newly married couple.
Heartbroken, Holly watched as Oliver—the boss she’d loved in devoted silence for three years—beamed back and lowered his head to kiss the bride.
Her younger sister, Nicole.
The guests in the pews looked enchanted at the couple’s passionate embrace, but Holly felt sick. Fidgeting in her tight red maid-of-honor dress, she looked up at the grand stained-glass windows, then back at the nave of the old New York City church, lavishly decorated with flickering white candles and red roses.
Finally, the newly married couple pulled apart from the kiss. Snatching her bouquet back from Holly’s numb fingers, the bride lifted her new husband’s hand triumphantly in the air.
“Best Christmas ever!” Nicole cried.
There was a wave of adoring laughter and applause. And though Holly had always loved Christmas, striving to make it magical and full of treats each year for her little sister since their parents had died, she thought she’d hate it for the rest of her life.
No. A lump rose in Holly’s throat. She couldn’t think that way. She couldn’t be selfish. Nicole and Oliver were in love. She should be happy for them. She forced herself to smile as the “Hallelujah” Chorus pounded from the organ in the alcove above.
Smiling, the bride and groom started back down the aisle. And Holly suddenly faced the best man. Oliver’s cousin, and his boss. Which made him her boss’s boss.
Stavros Minos.
Dark, tall and broad-shouldered, the powerful Greek billionaire seemed out of place in the old stone church. The very air seemed to vibrate back from him, moving to give him space. He hadn’t been forced to wear some ridiculous outfit that made him look like a deranged Christmas lounge singer. Of course not. She looked over his sleek suit enviously. She couldn’t imagine anyone forcing Stavros Minos to do anything.
Then Holly looked up, and the Greek’s black eyes cut through her soul.
He glanced with sardonic amusement between her and the happy couple, as they continued to walk down the aisle to the cheers of their guests. And his cruel, sensual lips curved up at the edges, as if he knew exactly how her heart had been broken.
Holly’s mouth went dry. No. No, he couldn’t. No one must ever know that she’d loved Oliver. Because he wasn’t just her boss now. He was her sister’s husband. She had to pretend it never happened.
The truth was nothing had happened. She’d never said a word about her feelings to anyone, especially Oliver. The man had no idea that while working as his secretary, Holly had been secretly consumed by pathetic, unrequited love. No one had any idea. No one, it seemed, except Stavros Minos.
But it shouldn’t surprise her the billionaire Greek playboy might see things no other person could. Nearly twenty years ago, as a teenager, he’d single-handedly started a tech company that now owned half the world. He was often in the news, both for his high-powered business dealings and conquests of the world’s most beautiful women. Now, as organ music thundered relentlessly around them, Stavros looked at Holly with a strange knowing in his eyes.
Wordlessly, he held out his arm.
Reluctantly, Holly took it, and tried not to notice how muscled his arm was beneath his sleek black jacket. His biceps had to be bigger than her thigh! It seemed ridiculously unfair that a man so rich and powerful could also be so good-looking. It was why she’d carefully avoided looking at him whenever she’d liaised with his executive assistants—he had three of them—at work.
Shivering, she avoided looking at him again now as they followed Oliver and Nicole. The faces of the guests slid by as Holly smiled blindly at everyone in the packed wooden pews until she thought her face might crack.
Outside the old stone church, on a charming, historical lane in the Financial District, more guests waited to cheer for the couple, tossing red and white rose petals that fell against the thin blanket of snow on the ground.
The afternoon sunlight was weak and gray against the lowering clouds when Holly reached the safety of the waiting limo. Dropping Stavros�
��s arm, she scrambled inside and turned to stare fiercely out the window, blinking fast so no one would see her tears.
She couldn’t be sad. Not today. Not ever. She was happy for her sister and Oliver, happy they’d be leaving her today to start new adventures together around the world. Happy.
“Whew.” Nicole flopped into the seat across from her in a wave of white tulle that took most of the space in the back of the limo. She grinned at her new husband beside her. “We did it! We’re married!”
“Finally,” Oliver drawled, all lazy charm as he looked down at his bride. “That was a lot of work. But then, I never thought I’d let anyone put the marriage noose round my neck.”
“’Til you met me,” Nicole murmured, turning her face up to be kissed.
Smiling, he lowered his head. “Exactly.”
Holly felt her own seat move as Stavros Minos sat beside her. As the door closed behind him, and the limo pulled away from the curb, she unwillingly breathed in his intoxicating scent of musk and power.
Oliver turned smugly to his cousin. “How about it, Stavros? Did the ceremony give you any ideas?”
The Greek tycoon’s handsome face was colder than the icy winter air outside. “Such as you can’t imagine.”
How dare he be so rude? Holly thought incredulously. But then, the commitment-phobic playboy famously despised weddings. He obviously was unhappy to be forced to attend his cousin’s wedding. And unlike Holly, he didn’t feel any compunction to hide his feelings. Luckily, the happy couple didn’t seem to notice.
Oliver snorted. “I was going to invite Uncle Aristides today, him being family and all that, but I knew you wouldn’t like it.”
“Generous of you.” His voice was flat.
Holly envied Stavros Minos’s coldness right now, when she herself felt heartbroken and raw. Her sister’s pressure for Holly to move with them to Hong Kong after they returned from their honeymoon in Aruba had been ratcheted up to an explosive level. Oliver had already quit at Minos International. If Holly stayed, she’d soon be working for the notoriously unpleasant VP of Operations. Or else she had a standing offer from a previous employer who’d moved back to Europe.
But if she was going to leave New York, shouldn’t she move to Hong Kong, and work for Oliver in his new job? Shouldn’t she devote herself to her baby sister’s happiness, forever and ever?
“You really hate weddings, don’t you, Stavros?” Oliver grinned at his cousin. “At least I won’t have to see your grouchy face at the office anymore, old man. Your loss is Sinistech’s gain.”
“Right.” Stavros shrugged. “Let another company deal with your three-hour martini lunches.”
“Quite.” Oliver’s grin widened, then he licked his lips. “I can hardly wait to explore Hong Kong’s delights.”
“Me, too,” Nicole said.
Oliver nearly jumped, as if he’d forgotten his bride beside him. “Naturally.” He suddenly looked at Holly. “Did Nicole convince you yet? Will you come and work as my secretary there?”
Feeling everyone’s eyes on her, her cheeks went red-hot. She stammered, “D-don’t be silly.”
“You mustn’t be selfish,” Oliver insisted. “I can’t cope without you. Who else can keep me organized in my new job?”
“And I might get pregnant soon,” Nicole said anxiously. “Who will take care of the baby if you’re not around?”
The ache in Holly’s throat sharpened to a razor blade. Watching her sister marry the man she loved and then leave for the other side of the world was hard enough. But the suggestion that Holly should live with them and raise their children was pure cruelty.
As of her birthday yesterday, she was a twenty-seven-year-old virgin. She was a secretary, a sister, and perhaps soon, an aunt. But would she ever be more? A wife? A mother?
Would she ever meet a man she could love, who would love her in return? Would she ever be the most important person in the world to anyone?
At twenty-seven, it was starting to seem unlikely. She’d spent nearly a decade raising her sister since their parents died. She’d spent the last three years taking care of Oliver at work. Maybe that was all she was meant to do. Take care of Nicole and Oliver, watch them love each other and raise their children. Maybe Holly was meant only to be support staff in life. Never the star. The thought caused a stab of pain through her heart.
She choked out, “You’ll be fine without me.”
“Fine!” Indignantly, Nicole shook her head. “It would be a disaster! You have to come with us to Hong Kong, Holly. Please!”
Her sister spoke with the same wheedling tone she’d used since she was a child to get her own way. The same one she’d used four weeks ago to convince Holly to arrange her sudden wedding—using the same Christmas details that Holly had once dreamed of for her own wedding someday.
Until she’d realized there was no point in saving all her own Christmas wedding dreams for a marriage that would never happen. If any man was ever going to be interested in her, it would have happened by now. And it hadn’t. Her sister was the one with the talent in that arena. Blonde, tiny and beautiful, Nicole had always had a strange power over men, and at twenty-two, she’d learned how to use it well.
But even Holly had never imagined, when she’d introduced her to Oliver last summer at a company picnic, that it would end like this.
Looking at her sister, Holly suddenly noticed Nicole’s bare neck. “Where’s Mom’s gold-star necklace, Nicole?”
Touching her bare collarbone above her neckline, her sister ducked her head. “It’s somewhere in all the boxes. I’m sure I’ll find it when I unpack in Hong Kong.”
“You lost Mom’s necklace?” Holly felt stricken. It was bad enough their parents hadn’t lived to see their youngest daughter get married, but if Nicole had lost the precious gold-star necklace their mother had always worn...
“I didn’t lose it,” Nicole said irritably. She shrugged. “It’s somewhere.”
“And don’t try to change the subject, Holly,” Oliver said sharply. “You’re being stubborn and selfish to stay in New York, when I need you so badly.”
Selfish. The accusation hit Holly like a blow. Was she being selfish to stay, when they needed her? Selfish to still hope she could find her own happiness, instead of putting their needs first forever?
“I...I’m not trying to be,” she whispered. As the limo drove north toward Midtown, Holly looked out the window, toward the bright Christmas lights and colorful window displays as the limo passed the department stores on Sixth Avenue. The sidewalks were filled with shoppers carrying festive bags and wrapped packages, rushing to buy gifts to put under the Christmas tree and fill stockings tomorrow morning. She saw happy children wearing Santa hats and beaming smiles.
A memory went through her of Nicole at that age, her smiling, happy face missing two front teeth as she’d hugged Holly tight and cried, “I wuv you, Howwy!”
A lump rose in Holly’s throat. Nicole was her only family. If her baby sister truly needed her, maybe she was being selfish, thinking of her own happiness. Maybe she should just—
“Let me get this straight.” Stavros Minos’s voice was acidic as he suddenly leaned forward. “You want Miss Marlowe to quit her job at Minos International and move to Hong Kong? To do your office work for you, Oliver, all day, then take care of your children all night?”
Oliver scowled. “It’s none of your business, Stavros.”
“Your concern does you credit, Mr. Minos,” Nicole interceded, giving him a charming smile, “but taking care of people is what Holly does best. She’s taken care of me since I was twelve. I can’t imagine her ever wanting to stop taking care of me.”
“Of us,” Oliver said.
Stavros lifted his sensual lips into a smile that showed the white glint of his teeth as he turned to Holly. “Is that true?”
He was looking at her
so strangely. She stammered, “A-anyone would feel the same.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“Of course you wouldn’t,” Oliver said with a snort, leaning back in the seat. “Minos men are selfish to the bone. We do what we like, and everyone else be damned.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” his wife said.
He winked. “It’s part of our charm, darling.”
But Nicole didn’t seem terribly charmed. With a flare of her nostrils, she turned to Holly. “I can’t just leave you in New York. You wouldn’t know what to do with yourself. You’d be so alone.”
She stiffened. “I have friends...”
“But not family,” she said impatiently. “And it’s not very likely you ever will, is it?”
“Will what?”
“Have a husband or children of your own. I mean, come on.” She gave a good-natured snort. “You’ve never even had a serious boyfriend. Do you really want to die alone?”
Holly stared at her sister in the back of the limo.
Nicole was right. And tomorrow, for the first time in her life, Holly would spend Christmas Day alone.
Christmas, and the rest of her life.
Her eyes met Stavros’s in the back of the limo. His handsome features looked as hard and cold as a marble statue, his black eyes icy as a midwinter’s night. Then his expression suddenly changed.
“I’m afraid Miss Marlowe can’t possibly go to Hong Kong,” he said. “Because I need another executive assistant. So I’m giving her a promotion.”
“What?” gasped Oliver.
“What?” gasped Nicole.
Holly looked at him sharply, blinking back tears. “What?”
His expression gentled. “Will you come work directly for me, Miss Marlowe? It will mean long hours, but a sizable raise. I’ll double your salary.”
“But—” Swallowing, Holly whispered, “Why me?”
“Because you’re the best.” His jaw, dark with five-o’clock shadow, tightened. “And because I can.”
* * *
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