have been was lost when a stunning dark blond woman with appealing brown eyes opened the door and stepped out of the driver’s seat.
“Nikolaos. It’s been such a long time.”
“Natasa.” He let go of Stephanie’s hand long enough to kiss the woman on both cheeks. “I didn’t know you were on the island.”
Stephanie felt de trop. This was the woman he would probably have married if Fate hadn’t stepped in to change his life.
“When I heard you were coming, I arrived early and asked your parents if I could meet you at the dock so we could talk in private. They assumed you’d be alone. Who’s your friend?”
Nikos turned to Stephanie. “This is Stephanie Walsh from Florida, in the States. She arrived a few days ago. Stephanie? This is Natasa Lander, an old friend.”
“How do you do, Ms. Lander.”
In the semidark, Natasa’s face lost color. “Ms. Walsh,” she acknowledged. “How is it you know Nikos?”
Stephanie groaned inwardly for this poor woman, who’d carried a torch for him all these years. It was no wonder. How could any other man compare?
“I was on a scuba diving vacation in the Caribbean months ago and we met.”
“Why don’t I drive?” Nikos offered. “When we reach the house, we can all catch up on each other’s news at once.”
Nikos... This was a terrible idea, but what could she do? While he helped Natasa into the backseat, Stephanie grabbed his cane and hurried around to the front to get in. As far as she was concerned, this was worse than any nightmare.
En route, Nikos chatted with Natasa the way you’d do with an old friend, drawing her out, until they reached the impressive Vassalos mansion with its cream-and-beige exterior. His ancestral home stood near the top of the hill next to equally imposing ones Stephanie had seen on her first day here. The burnt-orange-tiled roofs added a certain symmetry that gave the town its charm.
He pulled the car around to the rear and parked. Both Stephanie and Natasa moved quickly, not waiting for his help. Natasa went in the rear entrance first. Stephanie handed Nikos his cane, but he put it back in the car, then reached for her hand.
“Ready?” he asked under his breath. That forbidding black glitter in his eyes had returned. It was clear he hadn’t been expecting Natasa. Stephanie suspected the other woman’s appearance had been orchestrated by Nikos’s father. Yet unseen, the older man made an adversary that caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up.
When she nodded with reluctance, she heard his sharp intake of breath. “Maybe this will help.” He pulled her into his arms and found her mouth, kissing her with a fierceness she wasn’t prepared for, almost as if he was expecting her to fight him.
Stephanie clung to him, helpless to do anything else, and met the hunger of his kiss with an eagerness she would find embarrassing later. At last he was giving her a husband’s kiss, hot with desire, the one she’d been denied last night. Whether he was doing this to convince himself he was glad he hadn’t married Natasa, she didn’t know. But right now she didn’t care.
The way he was kissing her took her back to that unforgettable night on the island, when they’d given each other everything with a matchless joy she couldn’t put into words. He pressed her against the doorjamb to get closer. One kiss after another made her crazy with desire. Stephanie was so in love with Nikos that nothing existed for her but to love him and be loved.
All of a sudden she heard a man’s voice delivering a volley of bitter words in Greek. It broke the spell. Gasping for breath, she put her hands against Nikos’s chest. He was much slower to react. Eventually, he let her go, with seeming reluctance.
Still staring at her, he said, “Good evening, Papa. Stephanie and I will be right in. Give us a minute more, will you?”
Another blast of angry words greeted her ears.
“She doesn’t speak Greek, Papa.”
“How dare you bring this gold digging American into our home!”
That was clear enough English for Stephanie, who was thankful Nikos was still holding her. She eyed his father covertly. Except for their height, the formidable older man with gray hair didn’t look like Nikos.
“I dare because she’s my wife. We were married in a private church service yesterday. I wanted you to be the first to know.”
“Then we’ll get it annulled,” he answered, without taking a breath.
“Not possible, Papa. Father Kerykes officiated. Naturally, I expect you and Mother to welcome Stephanie into the family. If you don’t, then you’ll never be allowed to see your grandchild.”
Stephanie could hardly breathe. Nikos was claiming their child as his own even though he didn’t have proof?
“So you are pregnant!” his father virtually snarled at her. “I told Nikos I suspected as much when I heard you’d come to Egnoussa to track him down. Trying to pass off your baby as my son’s? There’s a word for a woman like you.”
The man had just provided part of the source for Nikos’s basic distrust of her. She eased away from him and stared at his dad without flinching. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Mr. Vassalos. I’ve been anxious to meet the father of such a wonderful, honorable man. You’re both very lucky. I never knew my father.
“But I have to say I’m sad you’re on such bad terms. Our baby is going to want to know its grandparents. I can only hope that one day you’ll change your mind about me enough to allow us into your life. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to wait in the car while Nikos spends some time with you and your wife. Kalinihta.”
Good night was one of the few words in Greek she’d picked up, from listening to Nikos and Yannis.
No sooner had she climbed in the front seat and shut the door than Nikos joined her behind the wheel. He didn’t speak the whole time they drove to the port. Stephanie knew better than to talk, but her heart was heavy for him and the tragic situation with his father.
After he pulled around to the parking area of Vassalos Shipping, Nikos left the keys on the floor of the car and they walked back to the yacht. “I want to get to know your family, Nikos, but I couldn’t possibly stay in their house, since it would cause too much stress for everyone.
“Much as I want to make things right, I can’t tolerate your father’s attitude or the way he spoke about me. Maybe in time things will get better. I could hope for that, but not right now. I trust you understand.”
Silence followed her remarks, until he helped her step on the deck. “I owe you an explanation.”
She threw her head back, catching sight of his tormented expression. “If you mean that kiss you gave me at the back door was supposed to be an in-your-face gesture for your father’s digestion, I already got the message.”
“If you think that, you couldn’t be more wrong,” Nikos grated. “Just when I thought my father had run out of tricks, there he was once again, trying to set me up with Natasa. But this time you were there. No amount of makeup could conceal the bruise on your jaw. It stood out in the moonlight, reminding me that you’d unwisely faced my demons and held me during the night, despite the consequences to you and the baby.
“Tonight I realized how very beautiful you are and how courageous to have forgotten yourself to help me. No one has ever been that self-sacrificing for me. In a rush of emotion I felt the need to show you how I felt. Since my father chose that moment to appear, then he has to live with that picture, because I refuse to apologize for something that had nothing to do with him.”
Stephanie swallowed hard. Nikos’s sincerity defeated her. “Do you think Natasa saw us?”
He gave an elegant shrug of his shoulders. “If she did, let’s hope it was cathartic.”
For