She hugged him hard. “I agree.”
“Your other gift is in my pocket. I was planning to show it to you tonight, but after seeing my father show up, I’ve decided I can’t wait.”
Nikos sounded exceptionally excited. “What is it?” she whispered against his lips.
“The private investigator I hired has found your father.”
“Nikos!”
“This is a picture of him.” He reached in his breast pocket and pulled out a small photo. The second she saw the dark blond man, she knew it was her father. “We look so much alike!”
Nikos nodded. “He works at a bank in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he was born. He’s married with a son and daughter, who are both in college. When he met your mother, he was on leave from the army. Like me, he had to go back and serve another tour of duty. Four years later he got out of the army and married.”
“D-does he know about me?”
“No.”
“Thank heaven!”
A look of confusion entered Nikos’s eyes before he kissed her. “Why do you say that?”
“Because he’s an honorable man who made a good life for himself.” Her voice shook. “I don’t want to disrupt it. Since Mother chose not to find him, I want to leave things alone.” She grasped Nikos’s face in her hands. “It’s enough to know what he looks like and who he is.”
She crushed her husband in her arms. “Thank you, darling, for such a precious gift. What really matters now is our family, our son. I married the most wonderful man alive and I’m going to spend the rest of my life showing you what you mean to me. I love you, Nikos. I love you.”
* * * * *
Greek Bachelors: The Ultimate Seduction
The Petrakos Bride
Lynne Graham
One Night...Nine-Month Scandal
Sarah Morgan
One Night To Risk It All
Maisey Yates
Lynne Graham
LYNNE GRAHAM was born in Northern Ireland and has been a keen romance reader since her teens. She is very happily married to an understanding husband who has learned to cook since she started to write! Her five children keep her on her toes. She has a very large dog, who knocks everything over, a very small terrier, who barks a lot, and two cats. When time allows, Lynne is a keen gardener.
SURROUNDED by fawning celebrity guests and reverential relations at his engagement party, Giannis Petrakos felt as claustrophobic as a lion in a circus ring. His great-grandmother was beckoning him. The old lady was famous for her forthright opinions, and he guessed that she was eager to tell him what she thought of his fiancée. Grim amusement assailed Giannis; as one of the richest men in the world, he had learned to prize the sheer rarity value of such honesty.
Tiny in stature, Dorkas Petrakos settled snapping black eyes on her darkly handsome great-grandson as he towered over her. ‘Krista is a very beautiful young woman. Every man here envies you.’
Giannis inclined his arrogant dark head in acknowledgement of the obvious, and waited for the axe to fall.
‘But what sort of mother will she make for your children?’ Dorkas enquired.
Giannis almost winced, for neither he nor Krista was ready to settle down to that extent. It had never occurred to him to consider his fiancée in the light of her maternal instincts. Perhaps in a few years they would have a child. But if that did not happen Giannis was prepared to choose a suitable successor to inherit his power and fortune from his extensive array of relatives. When it came to reproduction he had not a sentimental bone in his body.
‘You think that doesn’t matter. You think I’m out of date and out of touch,’ the old lady opined, with a hint of aggression. ‘But Krista is vain and selfish.’
His stubborn jawline tensed; such strong censure of his chosen bride was unwelcome. It struck him as unfortunate that just at that moment Krista should once again be visibly revelling in being the centre of attention. His fiancée could not pass a mirror or a camera without striking a pose. Blessed with turquoise eyes and white-blonde hair, Krista, with her stunning beauty, had attracted notice from the instant that she’d strolled into the public eye as a teenager. Heiress to the Spyridou electronics empire, and the only child of doting parents, Krista had been indulged from birth. How could his great-grandmother possibly understand her?
No two women could have had less in common. Born the daughter of a fisherman, Dorkas had grown up in grinding poverty and had held fast to her unpretentious values. Her refusal to conform to the ever more snobbish standards of her descendants and her blunt tongue had ensured that she was widely regarded by them as a social embarrassment. But there had always been a special bond between Dorkas and Giannis, formed most unexpectedly when he’d been a wildly rebellious teenager bent on self-destruction.
‘You say nothing. But if you lost all your money and your fine houses and cars and aeroplanes tomorrow, would Krista still be by your side?’ the old lady asked him drily. ‘I think she’d run so fast you couldn’t catch her!’
As he rose to leave his great-grandmother Giannis almost laughed out loud, for in such a scenario Krista would only be a burden, awash with self-pity and recrimination. She was, undeniably, the product of her rarefied luxury environment. Did Dorkas truly believe that it was possible for him to find a woman impervious to the draw of his fabulous wealth? But the implication that Krista, however affluent in her own right, had an eye to the main chance touched his ego like the sting of a tiny needle sliding below the skin.
With a nod to his security chief, Nemos, to protect his privacy, Giannis strolled out on to the roof terrace. He enjoyed the fresh air while he questioned the bleak edge that had overtaken his mood. After all, he had no doubts about marrying Krista Spyridou. How could he have? Everyone regarded her as the perfect match for him. She had a classy pedigree and she was a terrific hostess. They belonged to the same exclusive world and she understood the rules. No matter what happened there would not be a divorce. In that way the Petrakos power-base of wealth and influence would be protected for another generation.
Yet Giannis did not forget that at nineteen years old, to the horror of his family and hers, he had dated Krista Spyridou and dumped her. The most beautiful girl in the world, he had discovered, seemed to have little else to offer. Indeed, he had decided that she was as cold as charity in bed—and out of it.
‘Please don’t wreck my hair…’ That had been a favourite refrain.
‘I really, really need my beauty sleep…’
‘If you must…’
‘I hate getting sweaty…’
Krista would never set his bedsheets on fire with enthusiasm, Giannis reflected wryly. Her lack of passion had been a deal-breaker when he was an idealistic teenager, powered by Dorkas’s assurance that his perfect woman was out there, just waiting