by Abby Green
Maggie arched a brow. ‘And was any of this going to be discussed with me? I know this marriage is just for show, and for Daniel’s sake, but I do deserve to know what’s happening.’
To her surprise, Nikos said, ‘Yes, you’re right, and I’m sorry. I’m not used to having to explain my schedule to anyone else.’
She was a little mollified by his response.
And then he asked, ‘Do you think it’s feasible for us to do the tour with Daniel?’
Maggie shrugged lightly. ‘If we have Marianne with us it should be okay. He’s portable at the moment. Obviously as he gets older things will be much trickier. We’ll have to have more of a base.’
Maggie felt a pang as she said that. Nikos’s apartment wasn’t exactly the kind of home she’d envisaged. But maybe she needed to be more accepting of this new life and give it a chance.
After that they were sucked into a round of greeting people. Maggie was aware of lots of stares and whispers and did her best to ignore them. At first she tried to remember names and faces, but it soon became impossible so she gave up.
She noticed that Nikos had an assistant on hand, to help jog his memory with a name in case he forgot. What hope did she have?
‘Ready to go?’ asked Nikos.
Maggie looked at him, feeling guilty. Had he noticed her moving from one foot to the other to relieve the ache in the balls of her feet? Had she looked as bored as she’d felt over the past couple of hours?
‘Can we?’ she asked.
He nodded, then took her hand to lead her through the crowd. When he stopped suddenly she collided with his back.
He turned around. ‘You did really well this evening.’
Maggie looked up at him, feeling a ridiculous flush of pleasure warming her insides. ‘Really?’
He nodded and, to her surprise, reached out and tucked a wayward lock of hair behind one ear. His hand lingered and then caught behind her head. Before she could prepare herself his mouth was covering hers in a searing brand of heat.
Maggie swayed towards him, the kiss making her feel more drunk than the half-glass of champagne she’d had at the start of the evening.
When he pulled back she looked up. ‘What was that for?’ He didn’t strike her as the sort of guy to indulge in a PDA.
‘There’s a photographer over there. I thought it would be good to give him something.’
The flush of heat in Maggie’s body drained away. He’d kissed her for a photographer. Not because he hadn’t been able to help himself. Of course a man like him wouldn’t indulge in PDAs.
Maggie tugged herself free. ‘I need to get back to Daniel.’
She walked towards the entrance.
Nikos watched her go for a second. It had been harder than he’d expected or appreciated to pull back from that kiss just now. It might have started as something strategic, but it had become something else as soon as their mouths had touched.
She cut an effortlessly graceful figure now, walking through the crowd with a sensuality Nikos felt she wasn’t even aware of. Who could have known that such a swan had been hidden under that casual appearance?
For a man who would usually abhor kissing a woman in public—even a lover—it had been surprisingly easy to turn to Maggie and kiss her. Not just because of the opportunity presented but because he’d needed to after an evening of her surprisingly easy presence by his side.
The crowd was closing in behind Maggie and she’d disappeared from view. Nikos moved to catch up, not liking the way he couldn’t see her bright hair. He was almost at the entrance before he saw her again, and the feeling of relief that went through him was uncomfortable.
What was wrong with him? She wasn’t going anywhere. She was his. Daniel was his. And he would make this work.
They were almost back at the hotel when Nikos asked, ‘What is it, Maggie? You’ve barely said a word since we left.’
She was still angry—hurt by the calculated kiss. ‘I don’t appreciate being used as a PR stunt. If you’re going to do that again then please tell me in advance.’
When she glanced at him she saw he looked blank.
‘The kiss?’ she prompted.
Comprehension dawned. ‘You thought I just kissed you for that?’
‘That’s what you said.’
‘I took advantage of an opportunity that presented itself—but, believe me, I didn’t kiss you just for that.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means that right now there’s nothing strategic to be gained but still I want to kiss you.’
‘Oh.’
‘But this isn’t the right place.’
Maggie’s heart palpitated. ‘No.’
He took her hand and lifted it up. His warm breath feathered across her palm. She shivered with awareness. He pressed his mouth there, his tongue flicking out to touch her skin, inducing another shiver.
As the car stopped outside the hotel he said in a low voice, ‘That kiss might have started out as a strategic thing, but it didn’t end up as one. I never do anything I don’t want to, Maggie.’
He let her go then, and got out of the car.
She didn’t even look at him the whole way up to the apartment in the lift. She went straight to her bedroom, firmly closing the door behind her. She rested against it for a moment before she went to check on Daniel, her pulse racing, skin prickling all over.
Damn Nikos. She would have to be so careful around him or he would incinerate her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE DAY OF the wedding a week later was warm and sultry. Maggie and Nikos were travelling together to the civil register office. Daniel was in the car behind them with Marianne.
Nothing so romantic as her groom waiting at the top of an aisle to greet her. She was surprised at the pang of regret she felt that she wouldn’t get to have that experience of watching someone she loved turn to greet her as she walked towards them.
It irritated her that the only person she could envisage in that scenario had all too familiar dark and devilishly handsome features. Thick curling hair...
‘Why are you scowling?’
Maggie looked at Nikos. She’d barely seen him since the other night. He’d been working until late each evening—which Maggie had appreciated but also felt conflicted by, not liking the way she’d noticed his absence so keenly.
But she’d been busy herself—settling in with Daniel. Making sure she had all she needed for him. Doing up his room. Going through the clothes that the stylist had stocked her walk-in wardrobe with, feeling totally intimidated by all the silk and chiffon and elegant trouser suits. Chatting with Mathilde and Marianne, who were becoming good friends.
Mathilde had confided in Maggie that she was glad to see Nikos settle down, because she’d always felt he cut such a lonely figure. Maggie had smiled and said nothing, knowing that Nikos would bristle at the idea that anyone thought he was lonely.
Nikos was looking at her. She rearranged her features into a smile.
‘That’s marginally better. Aren’t you delighted to be marrying the man of your dreams today?’
She could handle this charming Nikos, who mocked her. It reminded her of the man who had seduced her so easily.
Maggie affected a look of surprise. ‘Oh? The man of my dreams is here? Where is he?’
She pretended to look around and Nikos emitted a short laugh. ‘Don’t tell me you’re still holding a torch for Mr Nice and Boring?’
‘It’s a bit late for regrets now—and someone once told me regrets were for losers,’ Maggie said lightly even though she wondered if Nikos was a mind-reader.
‘That someone must have been very intelligent.’
Maggie was sorry for goading him now. It only reminded her of his note, and the fact that she wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Daniel.
The car
was pulling to a stop in a square now. Maggie suddenly felt nervous. Nikos took her hand. She looked at him.
‘You look beautiful. And, for what it’s worth, I hadn’t ever expected to be in this situation, but I’m glad it’s with you.’
Maggie couldn’t tear her gaze away from Nikos’s. She couldn’t fault him for leading her on with false hope and promises. He’d been very clear they were doing this for Daniel.
‘Ready?’
Maggie nodded and tried to swallow her nerves.
She waited till the driver had opened her door and Nikos was waiting to help her out. She was wearing a fitted white blazer over a very simple but elegant white silk dress, cut on the bias. It fell to just below her knees and she wore satin kitten-heel shoes.
Her hair was up and she wore a small hat with a piece of net that came down over her eyes. Clip-on pearls in her ears and her engagement ring were her only jewellery.
Marianne got out of the car behind them and Maggie went over to make sure Daniel was okay. He looked adorable, in a romper suit in a royal blue that matched the same blue in Nikos’s three-piece suit.
She knew she couldn’t delay any longer, so she shot Marianne a smile—the nanny smiled back reassuringly—and went over to Nikos, who took her hand to lead her into the office.
Maggie was surprised to see more than a few people there. She recognised Sharif, and there was another tall man, very lean, with short dark blond hair. Spectacularly gorgeous. He had to be Maks. Beside him was a young woman.
Maggie was too nervous to dwell on who everyone else was and tried to focus on the ceremony, led by a registrar who conducted it in English for her benefit. She made a mental note to learn French as soon as possible. After all, Daniel was a quarter Greek and Italian and would be growing up in France. A true child of Europe.
‘You may now kiss your bride.’
Maggie panicked. It was over already?
She turned to face Nikos. He tipped up her chin with a finger and pulled her close. She cursed him for putting on a show.
He smiled. ‘No regrets, Mrs Marchetti.’
Before she could say anything he was kissing her, and her brain fused with heat. She hadn’t built all the sophisticated defences she’d need around Nikos yet. She probably never would.
When they walked out of the office some minutes later Nikos warned her, ‘There’ll be a few photographers. Not a crowd like the other night, though.’
Sure enough there were a handful, and they stopped and posed for pictures. One of them called out, ‘Baisez!’ and Maggie soon figured out what that meant when Nikos pulled her close for another kiss.
By the time they got to one of the most exclusive Marchetti hotels in the centre of Paris for the wedding breakfast Maggie’s whole body was one big mass of quivering nerve-endings and overload of adrenalin.
‘So you’re Maggie?’
Maggie turned around, a smile fixed on her face. It was the blond man she’d noticed standing near Sharif in the register office.
She held out her hand. ‘Yes—you must be Maks?’
‘Guilty.’ He shook her hand. He was very different from both Nikos and Sharif, and yet similar. More guarded. Intense grey eyes.
‘I’d say welcome to the family,’ he drawled. ‘But that would imply that we’re some kind of functioning unit.’
He looked over Maggie’s head and she followed his gaze.
‘That’s my younger sister, Sasha.’
Maggie took in the woman she’d thought might be his girlfriend. She was beautiful in a way that made Maggie suspect she tried to hide it. She was dressed almost frumpily, in a long skirt and a high-necked blouse, but she recognised the bone structure. Maggie felt an affinity with the girl, even though they hadn’t yet met. She recognised something about the way she was trying to hide herself.
‘You look alike,’ she said.
‘We take after our mother. Nikos and Sharif bear the brunt of the Marchetti genes. Sasha has a different father from me and my brothers. She made a lucky escape in that regard.’
Maggie was just absorbing this, and how complicated this family was, when she heard a voice.
‘Filling my wife’s head with nonsense, Maks?’
She felt a jolt at the words my wife. Nikos slid an arm around her waist.
Maks smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. ‘Not at all, I was merely welcoming Maggie to the firm.’
Nikos made a sound that might have been a laugh or a snarl. ‘If you don’t mind, I need to steal my wife away. We’re leaving for our honeymoon.’
Maks inclined his head. ‘Bon voyage and best wishes to you both.’
Nikos made efficient work of saying goodbye to everyone, and soon he was leading Maggie out of the hotel and into a waiting car. He undid his tie. Marianne had gone ahead with Daniel to the private plane, taking Maggie’s expressed milk with her to feed the baby. They were going to Athens for a couple of days—ostensibly for their honeymoon, but also so that Nikos could check in on his Athens office.
There was a brooding energy surrounding him that she tried to dissipate by saying, ‘Maks told me about Sasha...that she’s not your sister.’
Nikos glanced at her and then away. ‘I never spent any time with her growing up in any case—she made a lucky escape.’
‘That’s what he said too—or something like it. Was your father really so bad?’
Nikos made a slightly strangled sound. ‘Yes. The only thing he did for us was to create a legacy that we must nurture and grow.’
‘So what’s Maks’s role in the business?’
‘He’s involved in the fashion and branding end of things.’
‘It’s a pity you and your half-brothers aren’t closer. It was just me and my mum. I always wished I had siblings. I don’t even have cousins.’
She was about to add that she’d always intended having more than one child, but clamped her mouth shut.
Nikos usually resented any intrusion into his personal life, but Maggie was now his wife. He also didn’t like being reminded of when he’d been younger, when he’d wished that he and his brothers were closer.
But reluctantly he confided, ‘It was as if our father deliberately did all he could to keep us apart. Probably to keep us from uniting against him. I think he was afraid that we might do a better job than him, and while he wanted us to succeed him, he only handed over full control through his death.’
He looked at Maggie. ‘What’s your impression of my brothers?’
‘Maks is intense. Sharif is impenetrable.’
‘And me?’
Maggie went a bit pink. ‘Charming—but you’re hiding something much more serious. That evening you arrived at Kildare House, on first appearance I thought you were drunk. But you weren’t drunk at all.’
Nikos was surprised at her assessment.
She saw too much.
He needed to deflect her attention from him now.
‘The one thing me and my brothers have in common is that our father let all of us down.’
‘That’s sad.’
Nikos shrugged. ‘Is it? Maybe it’s better to find out early who you can depend on in life.’
Hours later, Maggie still felt an ache near her heart to think of Nikos and his half-brothers growing up separated by an insecure and domineering father. They’d arrived a short time before at the penthouse apartment of the most exclusive hotel in Athens—one of the Marchetti Group’s jewels.
A grand classic building, it stood on one of Athens’ oldest squares, and from its penthouse they had unimpeded views of the hilly city of Athens and the Acropolis.
Marianne was walking around with Daniel, oohing and ahing at the view. Nikos was due to take Maggie out for dinner and she’d just expressed some more milk for Daniel.
She’d changed out of her wedding outfit and into a pair o
f long trousers and a matching long-sleeved silk top with a round neck. Simple, but elegant. Her stylist had called ahead to the boutique at the hotel and ensured that Maggie’s wardrobe there would be stocked with suitable clothes.
Now she had taken her hair down and was massaging her skull, which was sore from all the pins holding her hair up.
‘Sorry, I had to take a call.’
She turned around to see Nikos walk in, adjusting his jacket. He’d changed too, into a steel-grey suit, and he looked so vital and handsome that her breath caught. He looked up, and that gaze raked her up and down. A flash of heat sizzled straight to her core.
He said, ‘You look beautiful.’
Maggie was embarrassed. She wasn’t used to compliments. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to them. ‘Thank you.’
‘Ready?’
‘Will there be paparazzi?’
‘Most likely.’
Maggie swallowed her trepidation. She’d jumped into the deep end with this man a year ago, had his baby three months ago, and married him today. She could handle some photographers. She’d get used to it.
She’d have to.
‘Would you like to go dancing?’
Maggie looked at Nikos across the table. ‘Dancing?’
He sat forward. ‘Yes—you know... Somewhere they play loud music and people move energetically in a communal space.’
Maggie made a face, but her pulse was racing. This evening...this restaurant...had been the kind of date she’d never dreamed of, because it would have been way beyond her fantasies.
The restaurant Nikos had taken her to was high in a glass building with views of the Acropolis lit up at night. The lighting was golden and everyone in the place looked impossibly charismatic, beautiful. Gilded.
People had stopped and stared as Nikos and she had entered. She’d stumbled a little on the way to their table. But Nikos had put a hand to her back to steady her.
