don’t see a damn thing.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll enlighten me.”
“I don’t want anything to do with you.”
Mari wasn’t entirely sure she wanted anything to do with him, either. If she hadn’t felt what she’d felt when they’d kissed, she would have been running the other way.
“Why are you staying?” Nikos demanded.
“I gave my word.”
“He as much as lied to you!”
“I know that.” Mari shrugged. “I’m not going to play on his level.”
“You’re going to reform me instead?” he said cynically.
I wish, Mari thought. She ran her tongue over her lips. “I’m going to stay here because that’s what I’ve been hired to do. I’m going to try to help because that’s my job. What happens between your father and you—well, I’ll do my best.”
“It won’t be good enough,” Nikos said. Then almost to himself he added, “It never is.”
Mari, caught by his words, wanted to ask what he meant, but he hauled himself to his feet and crutched past her toward his bedroom. “I have a headache. I’m going to sleep. Do whatever the hell you want. Just go away and leave me alone.”
She left him alone.
She went looking for his father. She had plenty of questions that only Stavros Costanides could answer.
He wasn’t with his wife and her shower guests. Julietta waved a hand toward the house. “He took Alex in a little while ago. He’s probably in his office by now. It’s on the second floor. Go right on up. I think he’s expecting you.” As she said this last with a completely straight face, Mari merely thanked her and headed toward the house.
“‘I think he’s expecting you’,” she muttered under her breath. “I’ll bet.”
Stavros was sitting at his desk, the phone to his ear, when she appeared in the doorway. When he saw her, he smiled and beckoned her in.
Man didn’t smile back. She entered the office, but she didn’t take the seat he indicated. She had no intention of sitting down and putting herself at an even greater disadvantage.
“Tell Adrianos to get right on it,” Stavros said into the phone. “That’s right. As quick as he can.” This last was almost a bark. Then he hung up and turned a thousand-watt smile on her. “Ah, Miss Lewis, you’ve come to chat.”
“Not quite.”
“You can’t quit,” he reminded her. “You signed the contact.”
“I know that. What I don’t know is what you expect me to do! If you intended to annoy and humiliate your son, I think you succeeded. Beyond that, I’m at a loss.”
“He was annoyed? Good. Humiliated? It serves him right. He has done plenty to humiliate me. And I want exactly what I said that I wanted. He is a problem. I want him not to be.”
“He’s thirty-two years old!”
“And he needs to grow up. He is lazy. He will not work in the company. He would prefer to be sailing his boat. Dancing attendance on unsuitable women. Creating gossip. Irritating me.” He fixed her with a charming, conspiratorial smile. “I want it to stop.”
His smile was, in its way, as handsome as his son’s. But Mari felt no sizzle, only annoyance. “He won’t cooperate, Mr. Costanides.”
He lifted a brow. “And always your charges cooperate, Miss Lewis?” His tone was deceptively mild.
“Not always,” she admitted.
“So you have ways... yes?” He looked hopeful. He made it sound like she tortured them into behaving properly.
“I teach by love and care and example,” she said with an edge to her voice.
He nodded. “Just so.” He steepled his hands on his desk and regarded her complacently over the top of them. “I should like to you love and care for Nikos.”
A frisson of primal fear skittered down her spine. Perhaps it was because he’d used the words love and Nikos in such close proximity—even though Mari knew he didn’t mean that kind of love!
She paced to the far end of his office and turned, with her hands on her hips. “And you think that will work?” she demanded finally, when he just looked at her expectantly.
“My dear Miss Lewis, you yourself assured me it would work.”
“But—”
But there was nothing to say to that because, in fact, she had. And it had worked—with all her other charges. But this was different!
“He’s not a child!” she argued.
“No, he is not. But I lost him when he was a child. I think I have to start there to get him back.”
It was the first real honest remark she thought he’d made. Mari took a seat in the chair she’d been avoiding. “Why, Mr. Costanides?” She leaned her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in her palm so she could look at him as she asked quietly, “Why now?”
For a moment Stavros Costanides stared off out the window toward the beach and the ocean beyond. It was a beautiful view, but Mari didn’t think he was seeing it. What was he seeing? Nikos? As a child? And himself? A young father? His expression grew almost pained for a moment. Then he seemed to recollect himself. His jaw tightened and he looked back at her as he admitted almost grudgingly, “I need him now.”
“You didn’t before?” she pressed.
He gave an irritable wave of his hand. “We don’t talk about ‘before.’ Before is over. It is now that matters. Now and the future.”
Mari didn’t believe that. He’d said himself that what was happening now was a result of what had gone before. But obviously he wasn’t willing to talk about it.
Stavros picked up a silver pen and tapped it on the desk, watching the movement it made for a long moment before he continued his explanation. “I want to slow down. I work too hard. Too many years too hard. I am getting old. Sixty, you know? I don’t have so many years left. Two years ago I had a heart attack. Not bad, you understand. But it scares me a little. I will not live forever. I want to spend time with my wife. My children.” He raised his gaze to meet hers. “You understand?”
“Children?” Mari said archly.
Stavros’s mouth pressed into a thin line for a second, as he absorbed the hit, then he nodded to acknowledge it “My little children. They need a father.”
“And Nikos doesn’t?”
“Nikos is an adult, for all that he acts like an iresponsible idiot!”
And I wonder why that is? Mari said silently. But she just waited for Stavros to continue.
“I keep my company, though,” he said. “I built it!” These last three words were spoken with the most emotion she’d heard from him. “From nothing I built it. Almost thirty-five years I have invested in it. It is my life, my legacy! I won’t see it wasted.” His eyes met hers again, dark and fierce. “I don’t let Nikos waste it!”
“You think he would?” Mari didn’t know anything about that possibility.
Stavros made a spitting sound. “Bah. Why wouldn’t he?” He picked up a folder from his desk and shoved it at her. “See for yourself!”
Mari took the folder automatically. It was at least an inch thick, filled, she could see, with copies of newspaper clippings. Headlines like “Greek Playboy Turns Heiress’s Head” and “Nick the Hunk Bares All” blared out at her. She shut the folder with a snap.