by Jennie Lucas
Also, he had a major upcoming business deal, the acquisition of a local technology business-management firm for nearly two billion dollars, which he knew would keep him busy the last weeks before Christmas.
And as in all acquisitions, Stavros had learned from experience that speed was key. Once a man knew what he wanted, there was nothing to be gained from waiting. Better to strike fast, and possess what he wanted, before anyone else could take it. That was true in business—and marriage.
Holly had agreed to be married as soon as they could get the license. Her only request was that they invite her sister to the wedding. Apparently when she’d phoned Nicole with the news, her little sister had begged to bring Oliver to the ceremony, too. Stavros was none too pleased. He cynically expected his cousin, who’d been unemployed for months, to ask him for money. But having her sister there seemed important to Holly’s happiness, and her happiness was important to his.
When Holly had said she’d marry him, Stavros thought he would explode with joy.
No, not joy, he told himself. Triumph. He’d achieved his objective. His son was secure. Or he would be, as soon as they were married today. They’d be a family. And Holly would be in his bed.
Stavros pictured how she’d looked in the moonlight, so unabashedly emotional. She didn’t seem to realize how foolish it could be, to show feelings, to even have them at all: it left you vulnerable. He felt uncomfortable remembering everything he’d shared with her in Greece. He’d never been that open with anyone.
He’d only done it to achieve his objective, he reassured himself. There was no danger of him giving his heart to Holly, no matter how tempted any other man would be. Stavros’s heart had been charred to ash long ago.
He’d meant it when he’d told her she’d never regret marrying him. But he’d have to walk a careful line. He wanted to make her happy, but not so happy she fell in love with him. He couldn’t be that cruel, when he’d never be able to return her love. And he couldn’t bear the thought of hurting her. Dread went through Stavros at the thought.
He remembered how she’d spoken so dreamily about how her parents had loved each other.
My father always said loving my mother changed his life. She made him a husband. A father. More than he ever imagined he could be. He always said she changed his stars.
Holly knew that love wasn’t something that Stavros—or any Minos man—was capable of, he told himself firmly. She’d still chosen to marry him. Therefore, she’d accepted him as he was.
He might not be able to experience love, or give it, but damn it, he’d be faithful to her. He’d be a solid husband and father. He’d always provide for her and the baby.
He’d made sure of that in their prenuptial agreement, much to the dismay of his lawyers. His terms had been far more generous than needed. But he wanted Holly to know she’d never be left penniless by a divorce, as his own mother had.
If he couldn’t love Holly, he’d make damn sure she was always cared for.
Stavros could hardly wait to make her his wife and make love to her. It was all he’d been able to think of on the flight from Greece. He would have taken Holly back to the jet’s bedroom while the baby slept, if it hadn’t been for the presence of Eleni. Nothing like a sharp-eyed, grandmotherly former nanny aboard to keep one’s basest desires in check.
A judge would be arriving later today to marry them at his penthouse, which was already decorated with candles, flowers and Christmas holly and ivy. The rings had been bought, the wedding dress and tuxedo secured and the food arranged by the wedding planner.
Somewhat to his shock, Holly had let the planner sort out everything.
“You don’t even want to pick out your dress?” Stavros had grinned. “You are the most easygoing bride in the world.”
She’d shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter.”
He’d sobered. “Are you sure? If a big wedding is important to you, Holly, we can be married in a cathedral and invite the whole damn city.”
She shook her head. “I had my dream wedding last year, for Nicole. And I’m not sure it made any difference for them.” She lifted her gaze to his and said, “Our marriage is what I care about, not the ceremony.”
Cradling her head in his hands, he gently kissed her. “But you deserve a party...”
She’d looked at him for a long moment. “I’d rather have this day just be about us. But if you really want to throw me a party, you know what I’d really like? A birthday party on the twenty-third of December, with all my friends.”
“The twenty-third?” He was ambushed by the memory of that date last year, when he’d gotten his fatal diagnosis.
She’d smiled. “It’s why my parents named me Holly, because my birthday’s so close to Christmas.” She tilted her head. “For just one time, I’d love to have a real birthday party, without Christmas taking over...”
Then she happily told him a story he barely heard, something about everyone always wrapping her birthday gifts in Christmas paper, or giving her a single gift for a combined Christmas/birthday present, or forgetting her birthday entirely. But he was distracted by memories of the shock and weakness and vulnerability he’d felt last year. He never wanted to feel like that again.
Especially now. As a father, soon to be a husband, he couldn’t afford to ever feel weak or vulnerable again. He wasn’t afraid of the cancer returning. His recent checkup had placed him in full remission. But emotionally, he’d have to be strong to make sure he never totally let down his walls. He didn’t want to hurt Holly. Or be hurt himself...
“Of course.” As she finished her story, Stavros gave her a charming smile. “The best birthday party you’ve ever seen.”
Then they went to city hall, where a very bored-looking city employee gave them a marriage license, and an excited paparazzo took their picture as they left.
Within twenty minutes of the photo getting posted online, he’d started getting phone calls from shocked acquaintances and ex-girlfriends around the world, demanding to know if it was true and the uncatchable playboy was actually getting married. He’d ignored the messages. Why explain? Silence was strength.
But now that Stavros was about to speak his wedding vows, he felt oddly nervous. He’d told himself that he was different from the other Minos men. He was determined to be an excellent husband and father. But what if he was wrong? What if he broke Holly’s heart?
He’d make sure it didn’t happen. If he cared for her, respected her, honored and provided for her, how could it matter if he loved her or not? How would she even know the difference?
Stavros was distracted by a hard knock at his penthouse bedroom door. Turning, he saw his cousin, who’d arrived with Nicole an hour before, looking shifty-eyed in his well-cut tuxedo.
“I say, old man,” Oliver said with an artificially bright smile. “Before you speak vows and all that, I wonder if I could have a word?”
Stavros checked his expensive platinum watch.
“I have five minutes,” he said shortly.
He’d regretfully agreed to Holly’s suggestion that his cousin could be best man, as Nicole had begged her to be matron of honor. It made sense, the two of them returning the favor after Stavros and Holly had done it for them the previous year.
But Stavros and his cousin had never been particularly close, and Oliver had been a very unsatisfying employee at his company. And since the other couple’s awkward arrival at the penthouse, Oliver had seemed to be working up to something. Stavros had a good idea what it was. He set his jaw.
“You might have heard,” Oliver began, “that I’ve rather had trouble finding work...”
“Because your employers actually expect you to work?”
His cousin gave a crooked grin. “Turns out I’m not good at it.”
“Or interested in it.” Checking that he had the wedding ring in his pocket, Stavros looked at hims
elf one last time in the full-length mirror and adjusted his tuxedo tie. “So?”
“I never thought you’d get married, Stavros. I always figured I’d be your heir.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.” Since he was only a few years older than Oliver, it was a little disconcerting to realize his cousin had counted on his death as a retirement plan.
Oliver paused. “It’s funny to see you in love. I never thought you’d fall so hard for any woman.”
Stavros didn’t bother to disabuse him of the notion he was in love with his bride. It seemed like bad form on their wedding day. “What did you want to ask me?”
“Right. Well. Since it’s obvious how much Holly’s happiness means to you...” Oliver gave his most charming grin. “I wonder if you’d be willing to pay me ten million dollars to stay married to Holly’s sister.”
CHAPTER NINE
“COME ON, HOLLY. Please! You have to help me!”
Her little sister’s insistent, whining voice hurt Holly’s ears as she sat in the chair of the penthouse’s guest bedroom, waiting for the stylists to finish doing her hair and makeup for her wedding.
When Nicole had begged to be her matron of honor, Holly had actually hoped it was because she wanted them to be close again. Instead, she’d spent the last twenty minutes blaming Holly for her marriage problems and asking for money.
“I’m sorry, Nicole. I can’t just tell Stavros to hire Oliver back.” She hesitated. “We both know he wasn’t a very good employee...”
“Oh, so you don’t care if my marriage is ruined? If we both starve? How can you be so unfeeling? You’re my sister!”
Holly’s cheeks were hot as she glanced at the two stylists, who were pretending not to listen. “Fine,” she sighed. “I have five thousand dollars in my retirement account. It will be a little hard to get it out but if you really need it—”
“Five thousand dollars? Are you out of your mind?” Nicole cried. “That’s nothing! My handbags cost more than that!”
The two stylists glanced at each other. Holly’s cheeks burned even hotter. She asked the makeup artist, “Am I done?”
“Yes.” The woman put final touches on her lips. “Now you are.”
“Thank you.” She looked around for her bag. “I’ll get my wallet—”
“We’ve already been paid by your husband,” the stylist said, smiling at her. “And lavishly tipped, I might add.”
“Congratulations, Mrs. Minos,” the other stylist said warmly. “I hope you will be very happy.”
Mrs. Minos. Just the name caused a flutter inside Holly’s belly. As the stylists gathered their equipment and disappeared, she looked at herself. She hardly recognized the glamorous bride in the mirror, with her glamorous makeup and unruly red hair tamed into an elegant chignon beneath a veil.
She was wearing expensive lingerie, a strapless bustier and white panties, and a white garter holding up old-fashioned white stockings. The long, translucent veil stretched behind her. For a moment, she was lost in a dream, picturing a lifetime as Stavros’s wife, the two of them in love forever—
In love? Where had that idea come from?
“It’s easy for you to be happy,” Nicole said resentfully. “With all your money.” Lifting Freddie, who was whining in a similar tone, from his nearby crib, she said to the baby, “You’re the luckiest kid in the world.”
Lifting her simple white wedding dress from where it was spread over the bedspread of the guest bed, Holly said distractedly, “You don’t believe that, Nicole. You know it’s not money that makes a happy home, but love. And your money problems will work themselves out. You have a college degree. You could always look for a job yourself...”
“It’s not just money.” Cuddling her nephew close, Nicole closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. “Oliver’s cheating on me, Holly.”
Holly stiffened as she held her simple strapless white dress over her undergarments. “Oh, no!”
“He only married me because I threatened to break up with him if he didn’t. But that was when he had an easy job and plenty of money. Now, he regrets he ever married me. I’m not good enough.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Scowling, she whirled to face her little sister. “He’s the one who’s not remotely good enough—”
“He’s going to leave me for someone rich,” she choked out, wiping her eyes. “I just know it. And I’ll be all alone.”
When she saw Nicole’s woebegone face, Holly’s heart broke for her.
“It’ll be all right, Nicky,” she whispered, using her old childhood nickname as she reached out to touch her shoulder. “Everything’s going to be all right.”
“I’m so sorry.” Trying to smile, Nicole choked back her tears. “I’m wrecking your wedding day. We can talk about this all later.”
But as Holly left the guest bedroom a few minutes later, and went into the grand salon of the penthouse, she still felt troubled. And not just by what she’d learned from her sister, who was dressed in a pink bridesmaid’s dress, following her with yawning Freddie, resplendent in a baby tuxedo.
Holly’s teeth chattered nervously as she thought of the irrevocable vows she was about to take. Just this time last year, she’d been planning Nicole’s wedding. She’d never expected she’d so soon be a bride herself. Now, as she walked down the short hallway, she clutched her simple bouquet of pink peonies as if her life depended on it.
She was getting married.
To him.
Stavros stood waiting near the Christmas tree, imposing and breathtakingly handsome in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows with all of New York City at his feet. Next to him stood Oliver, blond and debonair. On his other side was the jocular, white-haired judge who would marry them, smiling broadly in his black robes, and lastly Eleni, in an old-fashioned, formal dress, beaming as if she herself were mother of the groom.
But Holly had eyes only for Stavros.
He was wearing a sleek tuxedo that clung to his powerful, muscular body. Her eyes moved up from his black tie to his powerful neck, his square jaw, his gorgeous face. His dark eyes burned through her.
Their wedding ceremony was simple, lasting only a few minutes. It seemed like a dream.
She couldn’t look away from his face.
“And do you, Holly Ann Marlowe, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband...?”
“I do,” she breathed, trembling as he slid the huge diamond ring over her finger.
“And do you, Stavros Minos, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do,” he growled in his low, sexy voice, looking at her in a way that made her toes curl in her high-heeled shoes. And suddenly, all her nervousness about the permanency of their wedding vows melted away.
“Then by the power vested in me by the State of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife.” The judge beamed between them. “You may now kiss the bride.”
Stavros’s dark, hooded eyes held the red spark of desire as he took her in his arms. As he lowered his lips to hers, her breasts felt heavy, her nipples taut beneath the sweetheart neckline of the silk wedding dress. Tension coiled low and deep in her belly.
For days, he’d been teasing her with butterfly kisses and little touches. Now, his kiss made her forget all her doubts and regrets. It made her forget her own name.
Then she remembered: her name had changed. From this moment forward, she was Mrs. Holly Minos.
She watched the judge sign the marriage license, followed by Nicole and Oliver, as witnesses. She saw Nicole look at her husband nervously, with pleading in her eyes. Oliver gave his wife a warm smile, put his arm around her and kissed her forehead. Nicole looked as if she was about to cry with relief.
Holly exhaled. Her sister must have been wrong. Oliver couldn’t be cheating on her, not if he kissed her like that. Everything would be fine...
�
�Congratulations, you two,” the judge said, smiling at Holly and Stavros. “Now I’ll leave you—” he winked “—to your private celebrations.”
Holly’s eyes went wide. Private celebrations. She looked up at the handsome, powerful man beside her. Her husband.
She’d only had one lover her whole life, and for only one night. She’d never forgotten the way Stavros had made her feel so alive, or the ecstasy of his touch. The night she’d spent with him last Christmas Eve had been the most magical of her life, before it had all come crashing down the next morning.
But there would be no more rejection. They were married now. For better, for worse. For the rest of their lives...
“We’ll head downstairs,” Eleni said happily, holding Freddie, who looked very sleepy in his baby tuxedo. Stavros had hired Eleni as their highly paid part-time housekeeper. Holly wasn’t sure it was necessary, but how could she object to Stavros giving a job to the woman who’d taken care of him in childhood?
Besides, she liked and trusted Eleni, and was grateful the other woman would be watching Freddie tonight in her new suite downstairs, giving them privacy for their wedding night.
Holly shivered. Their wedding night.
“We’ll go now, too,” Nicole said, leaning back against her husband, who cuddled her close.
“Talk later?” Holly said to her anxiously, thinking of their earlier discussion. Her little sister smiled.
“Stop worrying,” she said cheerfully, patting her on the shoulder. “You need to be more selfish. You’re a bride.”
And everyone left at once. For the first time since Freddie had been born, Holly was alone.
Alone with her husband...
“Mrs. Minos,” Stavros murmured. He slowly looked her over, making her shiver inside. Then, without a word, he lifted her up in his arms, against his chest. He looked down at her. “I’ve waited a long time for this night.”
“Days,” she sighed, thinking of the anticipation she’d felt since they’d left Greece.
