The Greek Tycoon's Ultimatum

The very thought of being forced to accept her in-law’s hospitality was enough to make her feel slightly nauseous.

“Our house is lots smaller because we’ve just got a mommy and me and Eva. You must have an awful lot of kids. You’re house is like Cinderella’s castle.” Typically, Nyssa had spoken again while Eva silently watched the adults, letting her serious green gaze flicker between them and the big white villa.

Bitterness and pain reflected briefly in his dark chocolate eyes. “I have no children.”

“Oh. Don’t you like kids?” Nyssa asked before Savannah thought to caution her daughter to silence.

This time the pain was more pronounced and even slipped into his voice as he answered. “I like children very much.”

Had he and Petra planned to have them right away? It must have been a horrible shock to lose her so soon after marriage. Leiandros and Petra had only been married about a year when Dion crashed his car with Petra in it, killing them both instantly. Knowing it was ridiculous, Savannah still felt guilty by association. It had been her estranged husband responsible for the crash.

Eva stepped forward and laid her little hand on Leiandros’s forearm. “It’s okay. Someday, you’ll have some. Mama says you’ve got to believe in your dreams for them to come true.”

He squatted down in front of Eva and reached out to brush her cheek. “Thank you, pethi mou. You and your sister staying at the villa will be like having children of my own.”

In a wholly uncharacteristic move, Eva let her small fingers trail down Leiandros’s face to his chin, her green eyes full of both compassion and a wistfulness that surprised Savannah. “I’ll play checkers with you if you like. Daddies do that with their little girls sometimes.”

“You can help Mom tuck us in at night, too,” Nyssa added, not willing to be outdone by her sister.

Savannah watched the entire scene with a sense of unreality intensified by her tiredness. Her daughters had spent very little time around men, which usually made even the more gregarious Nyssa timid with them. And yet, here was Savannah’s extremely cautious eldest daughter reaching out to touch Leiandros.

Even more shocking than her daughter’s response to Leiandros were his words. Did he truly want her and the girls to move to Greece to fill a void that had opened in his life since his young wife’s death?

She’d never considered Leiandros Kiriakis vulnerable in any way. The man spent his time running a multibillion dollar corporation. He couldn’t seriously need the company of two small girls to complete his life.

Savannah curled her hands around the oversized woven bag she carried. It felt like a link to sanity, its casual American styling a reminder of the life she’d made for herself and her daughters. A life far removed from that of privileged wealth exemplified by Villa Kalosorisma.

A life she and her daughters would return to.

CHAPTER FOUR

LEIANDROS sipped his neat whiskey and waited for Savannah to join him in the fireside reception room before dinner.

The villa, built by his grandfather, boasted two large reception rooms as well as two formal dining rooms, one of which his father had turned into a study after losing the smaller area dedicated to that purpose to a TV viewing room at his wife’s request. There was also a breakfast nook, eight bedrooms with en suites and full staff quarters on the ground level.

In other words, his home had plenty of space for Savannah to find the privacy she said she craved, but such privacy would not extend to her avoiding his company. That was not part of his plan. Tonight, he intended to make it clear to her he would be an intrinsic part of her life from now on.

He was so hungry for her, he had been unable to resist the growing temptation to pull her into his arms after she fell asleep. He’d watched her for several miles of travel before giving into the urge to pull her into his arms.

He had not held her, even in an embrace of greeting, since the hot kiss they had shared the night they met. He could not risk his own body’s reaction. Touching her then had been wrong. She’d belonged to another man.

Dion had died and now Savannah belonged to Leiandros, even if she did not yet realize it.

Her body had known it. She’d curled around him like a lover of longstanding and his physical reaction had been predictable if surprisingly swift. He’d wanted to touch her, to remove her soft silk blouse and see the breasts pressed so tantalizingly against his chest, but even Greek tycoons had their sense of honor, he thought cynically.

When he touched Savannah, she would be awake and wanting it as much as he did.

As she had wanted his kiss seven years ago.

He took another sip of his whiskey as she appeared in the arched doorway. She’d changed into a knee length sheath in emerald green raw silk and pulled the multi-colored, golden brown strands of her hair into an elegant twist on the back of her head. Her only jewelry was a necklace of hammered silver medallions and matching earrings.

It was a lovely look, but hardly the designer labeled couture he’d expected from her based on the monthly allowance she received. Nyssa had also said their house was small.

Was that the unrealistic view of a child, or had she been stating a fact? If Nyssa had spoken the truth, what did Savannah spend the ten thousand dollars a month she received from the Kiriakis coffers on?

Savannah hovered in the doorway, wanting to flee. The girls had been fed and put to bed an hour ago. They had invited Leiandros to help tuck them in, but he’d had to take an international call and had promised to do so the following night.

Savannah hadn’t minded one bit. She found his presence distinctly disturbing.

“Come in, Savannah. I’m not going to eat you.”

She forced a slight smile to her lips and a light tone to her voice. “Of course not. Billionaire Greek tycoons have too much discernment to eat houseguests, even reluctant ones.”

His black brow raised in cynical amusement. “What would you like to drink?”

“Something nonalcoholic. I have no head for spirits and in my current state of jet lag, I’d probably pass out after a sip of your most innocuous sherry.” And she needed her wits.

He turned toward the drink trolley, his gorgeous body graceful in movement and yet exuding power. He poured her a tall glass of chilled water over ice, adding a twist of lime to it.

She accepted the drink, making sure their fingers did not touch and then took a step back. “Isn’t your mother joining us for dinner?”

He moved forward, closing the small gap she had created. “She’s visiting friends. She’ll be home in a couple of days.”

“So much for her suitability as a chaperone,” Savannah muttered under her breath.

He laughed softly. “You said you didn’t need one. Have you changed your mind, Savannah?”

His deep, masculine voice vibrated through her, causing her insides to tighten in a frightening way and she felt her cheeks heat at the reaction and the import of his words. She took a long, cooling sip of water. “Mr. Kiriakis, we need to talk.”

“Leiandros. Not Mr. Kiriakis. Not Kyrios Kiriakis. Leiandros. We are family. You will not address me so formally again.”

Her intention had been to create distance between them mentally, if not physically, but clearly she’d managed to annoy him as well. She gritted her teeth. It just wasn’t worth making an issue over. “Leiandros then. This idea you have of the girls and I making a permanent home in Greece is unfeasible at the present time to say the least.”

His eyes narrowed while he indicated with a gesture of his hand she should sit down on one of the almond leather sofas on either side of the fireplace. “Why?”

“I have obligations, commitments, back home that I cannot dismiss.” She chose a seat on the far end of the sofa located on the other side of the room from him.

His smile was predatory as he followed her and took a seat on the same sofa, his body turned toward hers. “What kind of commitments?” he asked with obvious suspicion.

She felt his presence like a physical force and she had to concentrate to answer his question. “The usual kind.” She crossed her legs at the ankle while taking another sip of her drink. “Relationships. Work. My commitment to Eva and Nyssa’s well being.”

“You do not have a job.”

She acknowledged the truth of his statement with a brief nod. “But I do need to have one if I’m ever to be free of my dependence on the monthly allowance.” Surely he must see that.

“If independence is so important to you, why have you made no move to get a job in the last four years?” he demanded, skepticism lacing every word.

Her free hand curled into a fist and she felt her face tighten with anger before she made herself relax and her face go blank of emotion. “I’ve spent the last four years going to university. I now have a degree in business and plan to use it to support myself and my daughters.”

He looked absolutely stunned and she felt satisfaction at the reaction.

“Did you bring your diploma with you?” he asked.

Had he lost his mind? “Why would I bring it with me?”

“So I can verify you are telling me the truth.”

Unaccustomed and unwelcome anger filled her. “Your arrogance is astounding. Why should I have to prove myself to you? My degree is immaterial to the discussion at hand.”

“Which is what?” he asked, his voice laced with sensual innuendo.

She swallowed, trying to ignore the way her heart reacted to that particular honeyed tone. “We are discussing my need to return home. Soon. I’ll stay long enough for the girls to meet their grandparents if my discussion with them proves satisfactory, but then I’m going home and there’s not a blessed thing you can do about it.”

“You’d be surprised at what I have to say about it.”

She gritted her teeth. How could she feel threatened by him and attracted to him at the same time? “You can say what you like, but I’m still going.”

“If you really are interested in gaining your independence from the monthly allowance I provide, why have you come to Greece at all? You didn’t want to come, but you agreed when I refused to pay it.”

That was not a question she was willing to answer. “You don’t provide our allowance. It comes from the girls’ trust.” She set her now empty glass down on a small table.

“I haven’t touched Eva and Nyssa’s trust in the past year.”

“But…” She let her words trail off, nonplussed. He’d been paying their allowance for the past year? The knowledge made her feel strange, as if he had intruded into her life in an intimate way without her being aware of it.

“There are no buts. I have supported you for the past year and if you wish me to continue to do so, certain conditions must be met.”

She’d had it up to her neck with conditions from Dion. She wasn’t going to go that route with Leiandros. “I don’t want to be supported. I’m perfectly willing to get a job.”

“Then why have you come to Greece?” he asked again, his disbelief palpable.

“I need our allowance for another few months, until I’m on my feet financially.”

“Do you honestly believe you’ll be able to get a job starting out at ten thousand dollars a month?” He made it sound like she was the world’s biggest idiot.

“No. Of course not, but I won’t need that much money to live on in a few months.” Her heart contracted with a spasm of grief at the thought of why she wouldn’t need so much money.

The doctors did not expect her aunt to live to the end of the year. Without the monthly payments to Brenthaven, she and the girls could easily live on her income.

“Again I ask why?”

“You’re like a dog with his favorite bone.”

He shrugged. “So, answer me and I’ll quit asking.”

She met his gaze, hers level and as impassive as she could make it. “The answer is none of your business.”

He didn’t like that. His dark eyes flared with affronted pride. “Since I am paying your allowance I think it is.”

“But I didn’t know that.”

“You do now.”

Desperation edged her voice. “It can’t change anything. I still need the money right now. Perhaps, we could make it a loan and once I’ve gotten a job I could pay you back in monthly installments.”

She’d been forced to pull her entire savings to pay the increased costs of the round-the-clock care her aunt needed since the last stroke, but another payment would be due in only a couple of weeks.

Brenthaven had a strict policy requiring advanced payment for services. If she did not keep up-to-date, they would transfer Aunt Beatrice to the nearest state nursing home. They might regret the need to do so, but would do it nonetheless as she had discovered four years ago when she had separated from Dion without a financial support agreement.

Felix announced dinner before Leiandros responded to her suggestion of a loan.

Savannah tried to do justice to the excellent dinner Felix’s wife had prepared, but jet lag and the stress of trying to spar verbally with Leiandros had stolen her appetite. Not to mention the strange vibrations that shivered through her whenever she let her eyes meet Leiandros’s. Even her favorite moussaka tasted like sawdust in her mouth.

Leiandros pushed his empty plate aside while eyeing her nearly full one. “You should have taken a tray in your room. You’re too tired to enjoy a full course dinner.”

“We needed to talk without interruption.” Or witnesses. She did not want her daughters to know that Leiandros sought to have the Kiriakis women back in Greece permanently.

“So, talk. You can begin by telling me what significant change you anticipate in your circumstances that will make it possible for you to go from living on ten thousand dollars a month to a fraction of that.”

She didn’t like the speculative look in his eyes. Nor did she have any intention of telling him what he wanted to know. If he found out about Aunt Beatrice, he would have the same stick to beat her with Dion had used so effectively.

“My financial needs are my concern. If you won’t lend me the money, I’ll take out a mortgage on my house.” There was no reason to let him know that option was an iffy one at best without a proven source of income.

She had to hope Leiandros’s pride would not allow a Kiriakis to go to a bank for what the family had been providing up to date.

He said nothing as the housekeeper removed their dinner plates and put small crystal bowls of fresh fruit and cream in front of them.

She smiled at Savannah. “I think you’ll eat this, yes?”

Savannah returned her smile. “Yes. It looks very refreshing.”

Silence reigned as she and Leiandros ate their dessert.

When they were finished he told the housekeeper they would take their coffee on the terrace and led Savannah outside. The view from the back terrace was every bit as spectacular as it was from the bedroom windows. The sea glistened gold and red and even the pool shimmered with exotic color in the sun’s setting light. She gave an involuntary sigh of appreciation.

“There is nothing more beautiful.” Leiandros pulled a chair out for her from the white wrought-iron patio set.

She sat down, her gaze shifting from the vibrant sunset to the tall, dark man at her side. “Sunrise in a grove of Magnolia bushes isn’t such a paltry sight, either.”

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