Kitabı oku: «Mediterranean Mavericks: Greeks», sayfa 10

CHAPTER NINE

DARIUS NEARLY GASPED when he first saw Letty at the party that night. When she came out onto the terrace, she looked so beautiful she seemed to float through the twilight.

She wore a simple white maxi dress, which fit perfectly over her full breasts and baby bump. The soft fabric showed off the creamy blush of her skin and bright hazel of her eyes. Bright pink flowers hung in her long dark hair.

As the red sun was setting into the sea below the cliffs, three hundred people on the terrace burst into spontaneous applause amid a cacophony of approving Greek.

Darius’s heart was in his throat as he looked at her. He was dazzled. He thought she’d put Aphrodite, freshly risen from the sea, completely to shame.

And the fact that he’d even have such a ridiculously poetic thought stunned him.

As she came closer, he cleared his throat awkwardly. “You look nice.”

“Thank you,” she said, smiling shyly.

He did not touch her. He was almost afraid to. She was simply too desirable, and after their hours of kissing on the beach, he did not know how much more temptation his self-control could take. They’d been married for over twenty-four hours, but had not yet made love.

The party was torture. It lasted for hours, testing his resolve. If it had been any other situation, he would have told everyone to go to hell and taken his bride straight to bed.

But this was his family. His village. He couldn’t be rude to them or reject the warm welcome they gave his bride.

His whole body ached to possess her. He could think of nothing else. It was causing him physical pain. He was just glad he was wearing a long, loosely tailored jacket and loose trousers so the whole village could not discuss with amused approval his obvious desire for his bride.

The party was over the top, as only village affairs could be, with music, drinking and dancing. A feast had been lovingly prepared by his family and all the rest of the village. So many people rushed to Letty and started talking excitedly in Greek that she’d announced she planned to start taking Greek lessons as soon as possible. Some of his cousins immediately started cheering, and when Darius translated her words for his elderly great-aunt, Theia Ioanna actually stood on tiptoe to kiss Letty on both cheeks. His family loved her.

Of course they did. Letty Kyrillos was the perfect bride. She would be the perfect wife and mother. Now he’d gotten her away from her father, there would be no bad influences in her life.

Darius would be the only one to claim her loyalty. And the expression in Letty’s eyes as she looked at him now—a mix of longing, hero worship and fear—did strange things to his insides. It made him feel oddly vulnerable, reminding him of the insecure, lovesick youth he’d once been for her.

No. He just desired her, he told himself firmly. He was appreciative that she was comporting herself as a proper Greek wife, with kindness and respect to his family. And he hoped—expected—that she would soon love him. It would make all their lives easier.

Darius did not intend to love her in return. He would never leave himself that vulnerable again. As the protector of their family, as a husband, as a father, as a man, it was his duty to be strong.

Letty’s heart was her weakness. It would not be his.

His great-aunt went to bed at midnight, and the rest of the older generation soon after, but with the ouzo flowing and loud music and enthusiastic dancing, his cousins and many of the younger villagers remained well into the wee hours. It wasn’t until the ouzo was gone and the musicians were falling asleep over their instruments that the last guests finally took the hint and departed, after many congratulations and kisses for the newly married couple.

Darius and Letty were finally alone on the terrace, surrounded by streamers and empty champagne glasses.

She looked at him, her eyes huge in the moonlight, the pink flowers wilting in her dark lustrous hair.

Without a word, he took her hand.

Leading her to their bedroom suite at the farthest end of the south wing, he closed the door behind them and opened the windows and sliding glass door to the balcony. The wind blew from the sea, twisting the translucent white curtains, illuminated by moonlight.

Turning back to her, he lifted her long dark hair from the nape of her neck and slowly unzipped her dress. In the hush of the night, it felt like an act that was almost holy.

Her dress dropped to the floor. She turned to him, her eyes luminous in the silvery light. Reaching up, she pulled off his jacket. She unbuttoned his shirt. He felt the soft brush of her hands against his chest and caught them in his own. She looked up at him questioningly.

A strange feeling was building in his heart. Desire, he reminded himself fiercely. I desire her. He kissed her hands—first one, then the other.

The wind blew against her hair, causing pink flower petals to float softly to the floor like a benediction. Without a word, he pulled her to the enormous bed.

This time, as they made love, there were no words beyond the language of touch. There was only pleasure and delight.

He’d thought he’d known ecstasy the night they’d made love over and over in his Manhattan penthouse.

But this was something else. It felt different.

Why? Because they were married now, and she was permanently his? Because she knew him better than anyone on earth? Because she’d truly joined his family?

Whatever the reason, as he made love to her on this, their first true wedding night, it felt sacred.

It felt like…

Happiness.

After they’d both joined and shattered like a supernova in each other’s arms, Darius held her as she slept. As he stared at the ceiling, her words on the beach floated back into his mind.

We’ll never see Fairholme again.

Her voice had been quietly despairing. As if she’d accepted bleak loss as her due.

Darius scowled. He didn’t accept that.

He suddenly wanted to give Letty back everything she’d lost. And more.

Careful not to wake her, he rose from the bed in the gray light of dawn. Going out onto the balcony, with its view of the wild gray sea, he made a quiet phone call to his long-suffering executive assistant in New York. Mildred Harrison had worked for him for seven years, so she didn’t even sound surprised that he’d be rude enough to call her so late.

“Pity you left New York right when you’re the city’s hero,” she said drily. “Your picture is on the cover of the Daily Post. Apparently you’re some kind of Robin Hood figure now, robbing from your own fortune to pay back Howard Spencer’s victims.”

“Glad I’m not there, then. We’ll be back in two weeks, by which time I expect the papers will all be insulting me again. Anything else?”

“That Brooklyn apartment building has been purchased as you requested. Your father-in-law—”

“Never call him that again,” Darius said tersely.

She cleared her throat. “Um, Mr. Spencer has been advised that he will be allowed to remain in the apartment for as long as he wishes, free of charge.”

“Good,” he said, already bored with the subject.

She paused. “There’s something else you should know.”

“Well?”

“The investigator following him says Spencer has been visiting an oncologist. Apparently he’s sick. Maybe dying.”

Darius’s eyes widened. Then he gave a snort. “It’s a trick.”

“Mr. Green didn’t think so. He managed to get his hands on the medical records. It seems legit.”

“Spencer must have paid the doctor off.”

“Maybe.” Mildred sounded doubtful. “But if it were my father, I’d still want to know.”

Yes, Darius thought. He looked back at the shadowy form of Letty sleeping in his bed. She would want to know. But there was no way he was telling her. Not when the old man was probably just trying once again to cause trouble between them.

At worst, Spencer probably had a cold and thought he could use it to get out of his well-deserved punishment. Darius was not going to let it happen.

“I won’t have my wife bothered,” he said shortly. “Spencer must have known he was being followed.”

“As you say, Mr. Kyrillos.”

He set his jaw. “I called you for another reason. I want to buy my wife a wedding gift.”

“Beyond the billions you’re already putting in trust for her father’s victims? We’ve had a whole team of accountants coming through here, by the way, working with the Feds to determine accurate payments, including those for third-party clients. We’re not really staffed for this…”

“You’ll sort it out. And at the end, I’ll send you and your husband to Miami for a week of well-deserved rest.”

“Rome,” she said firmly. “For three.”

He grinned. Mildred knew what she was worth. He respected that.

“Three,” he agreed. “But I need you to do something first. I want to buy a home.”

“Your penthouse is too small?”

“I have a special place in mind. Find out what it would cost.”

He explained, and she gave a low whistle. “All right, boss. I’ll call you soon as I know. What’s your ceiling?”

“Whatever it takes.”

After he hung up the phone, Darius went back to the king-size bed he shared with his pregnant bride. Joining her under the blankets, he wrapped his arm around her as she slept. He heard the birds singing as, outside the window, the sun started to rise.

Holding Letty in his arms, he suddenly saw the reward for everything he’d done right in his life. He had Letty. He’d have the rest. Home. Children. Joy. All the things he’d stopped dreaming about long ago. He would have it all.

And nothing, especially not her criminal of a father, would come between them.

As their private jet began its descent through the clouds toward New York City, Letty felt a mixed sense of relief and regret.

She was glad to be returning closer to her father. Darius had assured her that Howard was fine and living rent-free in their old apartment with a stipend to supply his needs. “Your father is spending his days playing chess with friends down at the park,” he’d told her irritably. She could only assume Darius had someone watching him, but she didn’t even mind because she was glad to know he was all right. It felt so wrong never to see him, never to call him.

But at least now she’d know her dad was only a quick drive away, if needed. And soon she hoped he’d be back in their lives for good.

The heart attack that had caused the death of Darius’s father was a tragic accident. But surely he couldn’t hate her dad forever? She loved Darius too much to believe that. Soon they would all be a family again.

And family was all Letty cared about. As she’d promised her husband in Greece, she would always put her family above everything else.

She already felt wistful for the tiny Greek island where she’d been immediately accepted into Darius’s extended family. Their honeymoon had been the happiest two weeks of her life. She’d loved everything about Heraklios. The village. The beach. The vivid colors and bright sun. The villa. The people. Her eyes met Darius’s across the airplane cabin.

The man.

He was sitting in a white swivel chair and had spent much of the flight typing on his laptop, with some idea he’d had for a new business venture. But as his gaze caught hers, she felt every bit of his attention. She always felt it to her toes when he looked at her.

Lifting a dark eyebrow, he teased, “We could still turn the plane around.”

“I loved our visit,” she said wistfully, then glanced out the window. “But it’ll be nice to be back home.” She paused, biting her lip. She knew she shouldn’t ask, but she couldn’t help it. “Now we’re back in the city, maybe you could talk to my dad. Then you’d see his side…”

“Forget it,” he said flatly.

“He never meant to hurt anyone, he—”

Darius closed his laptop with a thud. “Stop.”

“Forgiveness frees the soul. You never know—” her voice sounded desperate even to her own ears “—you might have to ask someone for forgiveness one day!”

He snorted. “I don’t intend to commit any crimes, so I think I’m safe.”

“Darius—”

“No.”

Disappointment filled her heart. Clenching her hands, she told herself she’d just have to be patient. She forced herself to take a deep breath and change the subject. “I loved spending time with your family. Maybe your great-aunt could come visit us in New York.”

His expression relaxed and he smiled. “Theia Ioanna hates planes. She thinks of them as newfangled machines, a dangerous fad. She’s waiting for everyone to come to their senses. But after our baby’s born we could go back to Heraklios.”

“I’d like that.” Outside the window, the plane was descending through clouds that looked like white cotton candy. “In the meantime, I’m going to start learning Greek.” She looked at him coyly beneath her lashes. “You’d like to teach me your native tongue, wouldn’t you?”

His eyes darkened with interest. He started to rise from his seat, but as the plane broke beneath the clouds, the pilot announced over the intercom that they should buckle their seat belts for landing. Letty smiled.

Then she looked through the porthole window. “That’s not Teterboro.”

Now he was the one to smile. “No.”

Staring down, she suddenly recognized the airport. Long ago, her family had landed here every time they went on a trip. She looked up with a frown. “Long Island? Is there a problem?”

“Wait and see.”

After the plane landed at the small airport, the two of them came down the steps. A town car waited on the tarmac, and his driver and bodyguard swiftly loaded their suitcases from the plane.

“But why are we here?” she asked Darius helplessly in the backseat of the car a few minutes later as it pulled away from the airport.

“You’ll see.”

“You’re really vexing.”

His dark eyebrows lifted. “Vexing?” he teased, then moved closer as he whispered, “Is that what I am?”

Then he kissed her senseless in the backseat, until she was forced to agree rather unsteadily that he did have one or two good qualities, as well.

But she tensed when the limo turned onto the coastal road that she’d once known very, very well. Her suspicions were confirmed as they drove down the same country lane that she knew led to the massive 1920s beachfront estate that had once been her home. She turned on Darius angrily.

“Why would you bring us here?” she choked out. “Just to torture me? You can’t see the house from the road.” She felt a sudden ache in her throat as she looked out toward the gray-blue bay that led to the Atlantic. “The gate is guarded. That tech billionaire is serious about privacy. So if you’re hoping to get a peek of the house, it won’t happen.”

“You tried?”

“A month after it was sold at auction. As I told you, I just wanted a picture of my great-grandmother’s fresco. His guard did everything but set the dogs on me.”

“That won’t be a problem today.”

Letty pointed at the road ahead. “See? I told you—”

Then her eyes went wide.

The gate was wide open. Their limo drove right past the empty guardhouse, up the wide driveway to the glorious windswept oceanfront manor that had been built by Letty’s great-great-grandfather, a steel baron named Edwin Langford.

Fairholme.

Letty’s breath caught in her throat as she leaned out the car window, and her eyes were dazzled as she saw, for the first time in ten years, her beloved home.

Tears swelled in her eyes as she looked up at the gray stone mansion with its turrets and leaded glass windows soaring against the sky. Looking back at her husband, she breathed, “What have you done?”

He was smiling. “I’ve given you what you want most.”

The limo had barely stopped before she flung open her car door and raced eagerly into the house. Pushing aside the stately front door—unlocked!—she hurled herself into the foyer where she’d played as a child.

“Dad?” she cried out. “Dad, where are you?”

Letty ran from room to room, calling his name, overwhelmed with happiness that somehow, while pretending he was never going to forgive her father, Darius had seen the desperate desire of her heart.

I’ve given you what you want most.

“Dad!” she cried, moving from one elegant, empty room to the next. Memories followed her with every step.

There she had played pirates with her father.

There she had slipped down the marble floor in socks as the two of them competed to see who could slide farthest and make her mother laugh loudest.

There she’d played with the gardener’s kittens.

There she’d played hide-and-seek with Darius when they were kids…

There—every Saturday in summer—she’d tucked roses into the priceless Ming dynasty vase to make her mother smile.

But where was her dad? Where?

As Letty finished going through the main entrance rooms, she ran up the sweeping staircase toward the second floor. She stopped halfway up the stairs, realizing she was hearing only the echo of her own voice.

Her dad wasn’t there.

Letty’s shoulders sagged with savage disappointment. Turning back down the stairs, she saw Darius standing in the front doorway, watching her. The happy, smug expression had disappeared from his handsome face.

He said tightly, “Why do you think I would invite your father here?”

“You said—you said,” she faltered, biting her lip, “you were giving me what I wanted most.”

“This house.” His expression now could only be described as grimly outraged. “Your childhood home. I arranged to buy it for you. It wasn’t easy. I had to pay the man a fortune to leave before we arrived. But I wanted you to have all your dreams. Everything you’d lost.”

Everything she’d lost…

Gripping the banister for support, Letty sagged to sit on a stair. Heartbreaking grief was thundering through her, worse than if she’d never gotten her hopes up at all.

She struggled to hide it. She knew she was being churlish. Her mother would be ashamed of her. Here Darius had given her the stars and she was crying for the sun.

She should be overjoyed.

Fairholme.

Letty took a deep breath, looking up at the high painted ceilings, at the oak-paneled walls. Home. She was really here. Darius had given her back the home that had raised generations of Langfords, her mother’s family.

What an amazing gift.

Wiping her eyes, Letty looked at Darius and tried to smile.

His handsome face was mutinous.

She couldn’t blame him. He’d gone to a lot of trouble and expense to give her this incredible surprise, and she’d been completely ungrateful.

Rising unsteadily to her feet, she walked down the stairs to the foyer where he stood with a scowl, his arms folded.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I love your wonderful gift.”

He looked distinctly grumpy. “It didn’t look like it.”

Feeling ashamed at her bad manners, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

“I love it,” she said softly. “It’s a miracle to be here.”

Looking mollified, he accepted her embrace. “I’ve also hired Mrs. Pollifax to come back as our housekeeper.”

“You have!”

He smiled, clearly pleased by her reaction. “Along with as many of the original staff who were available. Giving them a big raise, naturally. I’ve also established a bank account in your name.”

“Whatever for?”

Darius gave her a sudden grin. “You obviously haven’t seen the stripper pole the last owner put up in the library. I knew you’d want to oversee the remodeling personally. Perhaps the fresco can be repaired? I’ve instructed the bank to give you unlimited funds. Use the money however you please.”

“For the house?”

“Yes.”

“The baby?”

“Of course. And you, Letty. Anything you want, jewelry, cars, furniture. You don’t have to ask me. Buy anything you desire.”

Biting her lip, she blurted out, “Could I send some money to my father?”

She knew immediately it was a mistake.

His expression turned icy. “I weary of your constantly bringing up this topic. We have an agreement.”

“I know, but—”

“Your father already has far more than he deserves.”

“If I could only just see him, so I could know he’s all right…”

“He’s fine.”

Letty searched his gaze, hoping for reassurance. “He’s fine? You know for sure?”

He paused. Then he finally said, “Yes.”

He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“I miss him,” she whispered. She took a deep breath, reminding herself of everything she had to be grateful for. Taking Darius’s hand, she pressed it to her cheek and looked up at him with gratitude. “But what you’ve done for me today, buying Fairholme back… I’ll never forget.”

For a long moment, the two of them stood together in the foyer, with sunlight pouring in through the open door. She breathed in scents she’d craved so long, the tangy salt of the ocean, the honeyed sweetness of her mother’s rose garden. The salt and sweetness of a lifetime of memories.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “For bringing me home.”

He cupped her cheek. “You’re worth it, Letty,” he said huskily. “For you, I would pay any price.”

Lowering his head, he kissed her, claiming her lips as he’d already claimed her body and soul. Words lifted unbidden to her throat. Words she hadn’t tried to say since that horrible night in February. Words straight from her heart.

“I love you, Darius,” she said softly.

He gave her an oddly shy smile. “You do?”

Smiling back through her tears, she nodded. Her blood was rushing through her ears, pounding through her veins, as she waited for what he’d say next.

Without a word, he kissed her.

As she stood in the Fairholme foyer, her heavily pregnant belly pressed between them as her husband kissed her so tenderly, miracles seemed to be spinning around her like a whirlwind.

They were married now. Expecting a baby. He’d paid off her father’s debts. He’d just brought her home. She loved him.

And someday, he would love her.

Letty was suddenly sure. They’d already had so many miracles. Why not more?

Darius would soon forgive her father and let him back into their family. He was too good a man not to forgive, especially when it meant so much to her. It was the only thing he hadn’t given her. That, and those three little words.

It was the same thing, she realized. When he forgave her father, that was how she would know that he truly loved her.

When he finally pulled away from their embrace, she looked up, still a little dazzled. “Is there really a stripper pole in the library?”

Darius gave a low laugh. “Come with me.”

Taking her hand, he drew her down the long marble hallway to the oak-paneled library. When she saw the gleaming stripper pole set in the brand-new white shag carpeting, she burst into horrified snorts of laughter.

“I told you,” he said.

“I’ll get it removed. Don’t worry. I’ll make this house just like it was,” Letty said. “Just like we remember.”

“All those memories.” He pulled her against his chest, his dark eyes intense as he whispered huskily, “But as I remember, there’s one thing we’ve never done in this house.”

And as her husband pulled her against him in a hot, fierce embrace, Letty knew all her deepest dreams were about to come true.