In the Greek's Bed

Tom was waiting. His face lit up as she appeared and his obvious pleasure made Katie glad she had decided to wear the dress Sadie had given her with a plea for her to make use of it.

Tom kissed her hard on the mouth, which was surprising; he was normally quite undemonstrative in public. ‘You look beautiful!’ he said huskily as they drew apart.

‘You sound surprised…’ Her teasing hid a secret worry. Was it entirely normal to be thinking about whether you’d remembered to unlock the cat flap while you were being passionately kissed by the man you were going to marry? ‘It must be the dress.’ Though he never openly criticised the way she dressed, Katie knew he would have liked her to dress up more.

‘I didn’t even notice the dress,’ Tom replied huskily.

‘Well, there’s not a lot to notice, is there?’ she responded, glancing uncertainly down at the midnight-blue slip dress that clung to the soft curves of her body a little too lovingly for her comfort. ‘You don’t think it’s a bit…obvious?’

The appeal made Tom throw back his head and laugh. ‘You couldn’t look anything but cool and classy if you tried, and I’m the luckiest man in the world.’

He might not think so soon.

Katie took a deep breath. There was never going to be a good time to tell him this, so now, she reasoned, was as good a time as any other.

‘Tom, there’s something I need to tell you,’ she told him urgently.

A flicker of impatience crossed her fiancé’s boyishly handsome features. ‘We’ll talk about it later, sweetheart,’ he said, grabbing her hand. ‘We’re late as it is, and Nikos isn’t used to people keeping him waiting.’

The name was so unexpected it hit her like a blow, snatching the air from her lungs and the thoughts from her head. There was a loud whooshing noise in her ears and it took several heart-thudding seconds before the room stopped spinning.

‘Nikos…?’ she faltered. ‘That’s a pretty unusual name.’

‘Not in Greece.’

No way could fate be that cruel. ‘He’s Greek…?’ she asked with extreme casualness.

Tom nodded. ‘That’s right. We were at Oxford University at the same time, though Nik dropped out before he graduated.’

‘That doesn’t sound like someone you’d know…’ Katie gulped hoarsely. Dropping out equated with someone being reckless, someone who might at a push get into debt, someone who might resolve the problem by… Stop this, she told herself sternly, you’re getting paranoid.

‘You mean I’m a boring old stick.’ Tom pouted, exploiting his boyish charm for all it was worth.

‘You’re not old…’ Katie protested, subduing a flicker of irritation. ‘Or boring,’ she added hastily. ‘You’re solid and responsible.’

‘That makes me feel a hell of a lot better,’ Tom responded, his charm fading abruptly.

Conscious she had hurt his feelings, Katie tried to soothe his injured pride.

‘Women don’t actually want to marry exciting men,’ Katie told him, believing it. ‘They’re too unreliable.’ She stopped, unhappily aware that she was only making matters worse.

To her relief Tom recovered his humour and laughed loudly.

‘No, they just want to make mad passionate love to them,’ he suggested, thinking she looked especially adorable flushed and confused.

‘Some women might, but not me,’ Katie insisted firmly. ‘Men like that are vain and shallow and only interested in looking cool,’ she sneered.

Tom winced. ‘You’ll not share that with Nikos will you, sweetheart?’

‘I shall hang on his every word like it’s inscribed in stone,’ she promised dutifully, willing to flatter his friend if it made Tom happy.

‘You’ll like him.’

Katie couldn’t hide her scepticism.

‘Women do,’ Tom assured her authoritatively. ‘Actually you’re right, Nik wasn’t in my circles of friends; in fact he was a bit of a loner. He used to ride around on this dirty great motor bike…’

Katie nodded. She was beginning to get the picture, and she didn’t find it comforting. Someone reckless, who liked danger…her imagination had no problem at all picturing Nikos Lakis in motor-bike leathers looking brooding and dangerous.

‘I was there when he swerved to avoid a kid that ran out into the road. I didn’t do much, but he got it into his head that I’d saved his life.’

Katie listened to his modest pronouncement with a tender smile. ‘Which means you probably did.’

‘I only did what anyone else would,’ Tom insisted with a self-deprecating shrug. ‘To be honest I was surprised when he kept in touch after he left. Apparently it caused some almighty family row when he dropped out, but everything’s cosy now. His old man had a heart attack and major bypass surgery a couple of years ago and Nik took over the family firm…they’re a Greek shipping family, though since the seventies they’ve diversified dramatically…They’re billionaires… Are you all right?’ he added, examining her waxily pale face with concern.

Katie took a deep breath and refocused on his anxious face. Relief made her feel quite light-headed. A Greek billionaire’s son! She felt like laughing at her irrational fears. Let him be the biggest bore of the century; it no longer mattered.

‘Fine.’ She lifted her hand briefly to her forehead and felt a light sheen of moisture on her skin. ‘Minor blood-sugar dip, I didn’t have time for lunch today,’ she admitted, making a silent vow to tell Tom the truth before the evening was out.

Tom frowned disapprovingly. ‘They take advantage of you at that place.’ He squeezed her shoulder. ‘Never mind, not long now and you’ll be able to hand in your notice.’

‘Hand in my notice?’ Katie echoed blankly.

Tom laughed. ‘You’ll be far too busy to work when you’re my wife. Of course, if you want to continue with a little charity work…’

Katie could hardly believe what she was hearing—Tom expected her to quit work when they were married! There was no way!

‘You’ve got a bit more colour in your cheeks now,’ he observed, blissfully unaware that it was hostility to her impending retirement that had produced the delicate tinge of creamy rose to her pale honey complexion. ‘Come on, love, the sooner we feed you the better.’

‘And your friend doesn’t like being kept waiting,’ Katie couldn’t prevent herself from adding drily.

His friend called Nikos.

How stupid she’d been to be spooked by a name. There were most probably hundreds—no, thousands of men called Nikos in the world, she told herself as she followed Tom into the dining room.

This isn’t happening!

‘Here she is, Nikos.’ Tom, oblivious to the frozen state of the young woman beside him, proudly pushed her forward. Like a marionette she responded stiffly. ‘This is Katie. Didn’t I tell you she was totally gorgeous and clever too? Come on, sweetheart, don’t be shy…’

Shy? More like paralysed with shock and horror, not to mention being scared witless into the bargain! Oh, God, this meal looked like one she wasn’t likely to forget in a hurry!

If the floor had opened up at her feet Katie would have jumped into the black hole rather than live this moment. Even at the best of times she hated it when Tom introduced her to his friends with this sort of fanfare. Maybe there were women out there who could live up to the sort of lavish build-up he gave her, but Katie knew she wasn’t one of them.

The dark-suited, long-limbed figure rose with languid, almost feral grace to his feet. ‘You did indeed, Tom.’

All thoughts of hallucination vanished. Katie hadn’t heard it for seven years, but the deep, cultured voice was exactly as she recalled it. The bitter-chocolate tone with the merest hint of an accent made goose-bumps break out like a rash over her skin and had, she suspected, some worrying connection with her tingly feelings.

Despite her scornful dismissal, the tingly feelings continued to make their presence felt.

‘Tom’s told me so much about you I feel as though we already know each other.’

Unlike her, Tom didn’t seem to notice the sinister, sardonic edge in the soft words or see the cold hostility in the other man’s remarkable eyes as they roamed casually over her body, lingering longer than was polite on the exposed slopes of her breasts.

Despite the fact disbelief was ricocheting wildly around inside her head, Katie could almost admire his nerve, her own was very near to breaking-point. It wasn’t just not knowing how or why he was here—and that was bad enough!—it was the not knowing what he was going to do or say next that really terrified her.

Their glances locked, the expression on those finely chiselled features revealed little, but as their eyes briefly touched Katie was left with the definite impression that he was enjoying every second of her discomfiture. It was that discovery that enabled her to hold it together.

Katie welcomed the fortifying flicker of anger; it was something solid and real for her to cling to. The malicious pleasure she’d seen in those dark, unfathomable depths was inexplicable to her. Admittedly buying a husband might make her deserving of the odd sneer and snigger in some ungenerous quarters, but if she’d been doing the buying he’d been bought, which hardly made his position one of superiority…not that you’d know, he looked so damned pleased with himself.

Though that smugness and self-satisfaction might have something to do with the billions he no doubt had in his bank account. And I gave him money… When her mind started working again she might be able to figure that one out, but right now she had to swallow a bubble of hysterical laughter; the situation was positively surreal.

‘Katie, darling, this is Nikos Lakis.’

Like Tom, he was wearing a dark grey suit; unlike Tom’s, it was not cut to disguise a spreading waistline. It was hard to imagine the man standing there indulging himself in the necessary excesses to result in a thickening waistline…everything about him was hard and he exuded an aura that said, ‘I’m in control’. She’d not come across many men like that but those she had she hadn’t warmed to. They thought the world revolved around them.

Her mind drifted back to the small, stuffy little ante-room of the register office. She recalled the tall, commanding figure so much younger than she’d been expecting who’d strode in displaying an unnerving presence and none of the humility she’d expected of a man desperate enough to marry for money. Knowing he’d been born with a solid gold spoon in his distressingly sexy mouth explained the arrogance, but not why a billionaire’s son had married for money.

My God, I’ve been married to a Greek million…no, billionaire for seven years and I didn’t even know it. Even the most soapy of daytime soaps wouldn’t dare come up with a storyline that far-fetched.

Katie was forced to revise her opinion about control slightly as her wide, shock-glazed eyes slid to the passionate curve of his wide, sensual lips…the light, quivering sensation in her belly intensified. If he did lose control he’d probably do it in a spectacular way. A totally inappropriate mental image of those predatory lips crashing down on her own flashed across her vision…

Katie was just getting on top of her wayward imagination when her nightmare smiled—it wasn’t helpful. The smile exuded a sensual menace totally in keeping with her wild imaginings. Her bemused brain sought refuge in irrelevant details like the sculpted curve of his lips and the slashing angle of his high, angular cheekbones. Over the years she’d decided that her imagination had exaggerated the raw sexuality Nikos Lakis exuded—she now knew differently! The man oozed sex appeal from every pore; it was hardly decent.

Katie’s obedient lips did the necessary social smiling, but her eyes were another matter; they continued to broadcast horror, confusion and bewilderment.

Tom, cheerfully oblivious to the screaming tension or her reluctance, pulled her farther forward with pride.

‘Pleased to meet you, Katherine.’ One dark brow quirked. ‘It is Katherine…?’

She glared…he knew full well it wasn’t. Like herself, he had a copy of the marriage certificate that Harvey had locked safely away…Harvey! The trusted family friend must have known his identity and he hadn’t told her—the duplicity of men was staggering, she thought, wisely skimming over her own forays in that direction of late.

‘No, actually it’s Katerina.’ Do you, Katerina, take…She gave her head a little shake to chase away the intrusive memory. ‘Only nobody calls me that any more,’ she added, anxiety and escalating antipathy making her soft voice terse and sharp.

‘That’s a pity, it’s a beautiful name.’

It was the way he said it, but then a bus timetable would sound dreamy when spoken by that silver tongue. No, not silver—if that deep, velvet-textured drawl had a colour it would be a deep, decadent purple. She gave her head a tiny shake, irritated by the whimsical nature of her thoughts. Purple or puce, a voice like that constituted a very dangerous ability in a male, especially one who looked like this.

If he was as shocked as she had been to discover the identity of his dinner companion he was hiding it well, which meant what? Had he known? Maybe he didn’t recognise her? She ditched that possibility before it was even fully formed. Was he here because Harvey had contacted him about the divorce? Or was this one horrible, horrifying coincidence?

Questions she had aplenty, but no obvious answers surfaced in her spinning head.

Oh goodness, why didn’t I tell Tom when I had the chance…? She groaned at herself. Now it was too late…he’d hate her, and who could blame him? The fact that this was only happening because she hadn’t come clean made it seem as though she was being punished for her cowardice. Perhaps it was appropriate that her retribution had come in the form of a man who possessed the sinful, dangerous beauty of a dark fallen angel.

Lips compressed to keep them from trembling, she shot the tall, dark figure a covert look from under the sweep of her long lashes. What she saw in his lean face was not comforting. Please, please don’t let him say anything until I’ve had a chance to tell Tom myself.

That was it! If she could explain to Tom herself…sudden hope surged through her. Maybe it wasn’t too late. If she could get this Nikos creature alone and explain how things stood, she could appeal for his temporary silence until she’d had a chance. Their eyes collided; it was a fleeting collision but enough to make her forget about appealing to his better nature. She repressed a shudder—nobody with eyes like that had one!

Of all the men in the world why had she ended up married to this one?

If Nikos Lakis kept quiet about their marriage deal it would be for his own reasons, not out of consideration for her or Tom. Maybe it didn’t fit in with his macho image to admit he had married for money, she speculated. Although it seemed to her that Greek men were quite pragmatic about such things. She gritted her teeth; the best she could hope for was that he’d keep silent for his own reasons.

Katie didn’t know how her trembling knees managed to support her weight as her hand was enfolded in a firm grip. Her tummy muscles cramped violently as long, lean brown fingers folded over her own. The contrast of small and large, dark and pale…once again her beleaguered brain was distracted from coping with much more urgent matters like should she beat him to the punchline and tell Tom now herself?

How would she do that exactly…? Actually, Tom, I’ve met Nikos before…yes, isn’t that a coincidence? I don’t know him exactly, we just got married…

The men were talking, though the words were just a discordant buzz in her ears. Katie found she was sitting but couldn’t recall taking her seat. Neither could she recall how the glass found its way into her hand, but it seemed an extremely good idea to make use of it.

With a sigh she replaced the drained glass on the table and as she shook back her hair discovered both men were looking at her.

‘Is that such a good idea on an empty stomach, darling?’ Tom spoke lightly but his eyes were shooting furious warning messages.

Tom was desperately anxious for her to make a good impression on this man he admired. If only all Tom had to worry about was me having one too many drinks! The irony struck her forcibly, and she struggled to control the bubble of hysteria lodged dangerously in her dry throat. Laughing like a hyena might just draw unwanted attention…

‘Katie’s had a tough day at work.’

Katie’s smooth brow wrinkled…again the anxiety to please in Tom’s manner. Maybe this wasn’t so surprising. Two things impressed Tom, money and power, and this man had both in abundance, and it showed. Tom had money, Tom had power, what he didn’t have was the tall Greek’s quiet, understated confidence. Confidence that came when you didn’t feel the need to prove yourself to anyone.

‘You work, Katerina?’ The dark winged brows knitted as Nikos Lakis managed to imbue the casual enquiry with amused incredulity.

Katie’s eyes narrowed as those black eyes broadcast useless ornament. It seemed as if the antipathy she felt was fully reciprocated.

‘When it doesn’t interfere with shopping or polishing my nails.’

Tom, who had never heard that particular tone in her soft, pleasing voice before, laughed uncomfortably as though she’d made a joke he didn’t quite understand. Nikos didn’t laugh; his merciless eyes continued to rake her angry face and then, much to her dismay, his long fingers curled over her left hand, which lay clenched on the table-top.

Without haste he unfurled her tapering fingers one by one. The tip of his thumb grazed the blue-veined inner aspect of her wrist as he turned her hand over, exposing the short, unpolished condition of her nails; his touch also exposed her nerve endings, which came to tingling life.

Katie would have liked to crawl out of her skin.

‘Not today,’ he remarked softly.

His soft voice did things almost as uncomfortable to her as the light touch. Dabbing her tongue to the tiny beads of sweat across her upper lip, she snatched her hand away.

Breathing hard through her flared nostrils, she lifted her chin. ‘I’m an events organiser.’ And a flipping good one too, she felt like adding to the patronising prat.

‘Impressive,’ he drawled, sounding anything but impressed. ‘And what does an events organiser do exactly?’ he added, making it sound as though as far as he was concerned it couldn’t be much.

Tom, sensing the atmosphere for the first time, looked slightly uneasy. ‘Katie works for a charity, but she’ll be giving up work after the wedding.’

‘Ah…the wedding—and when will that be?’

‘I can’t get Katie to set a date.’

Nikos’s lazy glance turned to Katie. ‘Really? You do surprise me.’

He reminded her of some sleek cat playing with a mouse, not because he was particularly hungry, just because it was in his nature to be cruel. The more she saw of this man, the more she saw to dislike. Kate’s nostrils flared as her teeth came together in a smile that was as brittle as it was brilliant.

Two could play at this, she thought grimly. If he was going to drop her in it there didn’t seem any point prolonging the agony or his pleasure.

It was a dangerous tactic, but Katie felt uncharacteristically reckless, and at least this way she’d know one way or the other.

‘And you, Mr Lakis—is there a Mrs Lakis?’ she enquired sweetly. ‘Or any little Lakises?’

Katie held her breath; the silence that followed her question seemed to last for ever. When her lowered gaze lifted she was surprised to see something that might have been admiration in Nikos Lakis’s dark, glittering eyes.

‘There is only one Mrs Lakis in my life, and she’s my stepmother, who’s very much an active force in my life.’ He smiled, not in a snide, snooty, I’ve-just-stepped-on-something-nasty way—anything but. Katie’s jaw dropped as she watched the stern lines of his proudly sculpted face soften as he produced a real, honest-to-goodness grin.

The transformation was nothing short of devastating. Katie only just stopped herself grinning fatuously back.

‘So you’re not married, then?’ she persisted doggedly.

‘If Nik had married, Katie, I think we’d have read about it.’ Tom laughed. ‘The media would have had a field day.’

You don’t know the half of it, Katie thought, feeling a tide of guilty colour seep up her neck. She pressed a hand to her hot cheek.

She was disgusted with herself that in her desire to score points against the detestable Nikos Lakis she’d lost track of what was most important. The public humiliation and scandal of having his fiancée revealed as being secretly married to Nikos Lakis would be devastating for Tom and her primary concern had to be protecting him from any fallout.

‘Marriage is inevitable if only for the procreation of…how did you put it?…little Lakises. We Greeks are a little old-fashioned about such things.’

‘I’d have said cold-blooded.’

Tom began to look seriously disturbed as he laid a warning hand on her shoulder; the pressure made Katie wince. Nikos’s eyes followed the other man’s gesture, and the permanent line over the bridge of his masterful nose deepened fractionally.

‘Shall we order?’ Tom said, patting her arm before his hand fell away.

‘I’m not hungry.’ Katie doubted she could have eaten a scrap even if her future had depended on it, which was no more an absurd scenario than the real one—having her future and Tom’s dependent upon the discretion of a man who seemed as capricious as he was overbearing.

‘Greeks are not renowned for their cold-bloodedness, Katerina.’

‘Oops, was that your ego I stepped on? Oh, but I’m sure they’re spectacular lovers.’ She turned the voltage of her insincere smile up by several watts before allowing it to fade away to grim contempt. ‘But pardon me if I happen to think that picking out some poor girl with good childbearing hips and the right blood lines to produce an heir is extremely cold-blooded.’

‘Katie!’

Nikos, a smile fixed on his sensual lips, lifted his hand in a soothing gesture to still the other man’s appalled protest. ‘You are marrying a romantic, my friend,’ he drawled. ‘Someone to whom arranged marriages are anathema.’ He scanned her face with derisive eyes. ‘Am I right, Katerina? You would never marry for anything but love? Certainly not for anything as base as…security.’ His long forefinger seemingly accidentally brushed the diamond nestling on her finger.

His mockery, as corrosive as battery acid, made her long to wipe the smirk off his face. Her hands curled into fists on the table-top.

‘In a perfect world everyone would marry for love,’ she told him stiffly.

Nikos’s mobile lips curled contemptuously. ‘So you are a pragmatist after all, which is of course infinitely preferable to a hypocrite.’

At his soft, sibilant words the last remnants of Katie’s trepidation were washed away on a violent tide of anger. It was one sneer too many. She lifted her furious sparkling eyes to his lean, dark face—just where did he get off looking down his superior nose at her?

Buying a husband might be a pretty pathetic thing to do, but at least she’d had a damned good excuse, whereas what excuse had Nikos Lakis had? A quick way to get money to fuel his extravagant lifestyle when he’d fallen out of favour with his rich daddy seemed the safest bet. If anyone is the hypocrite here, it isn’t me, Katie thought scornfully.

Tom, who had the suspicion he was missing something in this rapid exchange, seized on the mention of something he felt he was an expert on. ‘Oh, Katie is very practical.’

Nikos looked from the ring on her finger to the diamonds encircling her narrow wrist and smiled. ‘That I never doubted. Ah, I hope you don’t mind, I ordered champagne,’ he said as a wine waiter approached the table.