Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon Page 5

  Now it would all come out in the property settlement. No doubt her lawyers had burrowed into his business and discovered his net worth down to the last cent. This divorce wouldn’t come cheap. Perhaps that was why she’d come here—time for her to collect financially from their brief marriage. Whatever she was legally due, she would get. But no more. He would not fund her life with a new man.

  She was playing her part well but he noticed her getting edgy about leaving—this time for ever. She tried to be discreet about checking her watch but he noticed. Dessert would be served soon. When that was over, he would have no choice but to take her off the island in his boat. He had to manoeuvre some private time with her. Otherwise he might never get answers to his question.

  ‘Hayley, I want to—’

  But he got no further.

  ‘Cristos. I need to talk to you.’ Alex’s voice was low and urgent. Startled, Cristos looked up to find his cousin standing behind him. He’d been so intent on his conversation with Hayley he hadn’t noticed that Alex had left the table.

  His grandfather Stavros was also there. Both wore grave expressions. ‘There’s a weather alert,’ said Alex. ‘A severe storm approaching. Big seas. No boats can leave the island.’

  There was a gasp from Hayley beside him. ‘You mean we’re stuck here? But I need to—’

  Cristos sensed the panic in her words. Stuck on the island meant stuck with him. The man she had come here to divorce.

  Alex completely misunderstood Hayley’s panic. ‘Don’t worry, Hayley. We’ll be safe here,’ he reassured her. ‘There’s room for all the guests to stay overnight. The storm will most likely blow over by the morning. I’ll put you and Cristos in the penthouse. It’s the best room in the house and only fitting for you to celebrate your reunion.’

  ‘The penthouse?’ she said, barely able to get the words out. ‘Isn’t that reserved for you and Dell?’

  Alex dismissed her objection with a wave of his hand. ‘We have our own house on the island.’

  He looked pleased with himself for giving them the penthouse and the privacy he seemed to assume they needed to rekindle their relationship.

  Hayley’s face had drained of all colour.

  Cristos fought to supress a grin of exultation at this unexpected new hand he’d been dealt.

  He would be spending more time with his wife.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  HAYLEY COULD NOT, would not, share a room with Cristos. ‘No way. Never. Not in a million years,’ she hissed at him after Alex had left them. She stood braced with her back to the table. ‘I can’t stay here. Isn’t there another way to get off this island?’

  ‘No,’ he said.

  Panic strangled her lungs so her breath came short, set her heart pounding. Why, why, why had she done the right thing by Cristos’s cousin and ended up like this? She should be back on Nidri and on the way back to Sydney. Everything had seemed so simple as she’d geared herself up for it on the flight from London where she’d met with her lawyer—deliver the divorce documents, have polite exchange with love of her youth, move on to new life and forget he had ever happened. She hadn’t counted on that intense flare of the old attraction. Now this.

  She managed a deep breath to calm herself. ‘That can’t be true. I saw a helipad behind the main building.’

  ‘Wealthy guests use it in summer. There’s no helicopter here now and even if there was it wouldn’t be safe to fly. It’s hazardous conditions for boats and aircraft. There is no way off or on the island.’ His tone left no room for uncertainty.

  Hayley’s eyes narrowed. ‘Did you plan this?’ she said, keeping her voice low. ‘Did you know when you coerced me into staying for the lunch that this would happen? That I’d be stuck here unable to get away?’

  Cristos stared at her. ‘Why would you say that? Choppy seas were predicted but not a storm of this magnitude. My family have been sailing these seas for ever, koukla, we know—’

  ‘Don’t call me koukla,’ she interjected.

  ‘Force of habit,’ he said.

  He rolled his eyes, which rather than making her indignant made her, in her semi-hysterical state, want to smile. She clamped her lips together to fight it. That was the trouble with Cristos. He could charm you even when you didn’t want to be charmed. She could not let herself be ensnared by that charm again.

  Cristos continued. ‘From the reports we saw this morning I was totally confident I would be taking guests off the island this afternoon. Even the weather forecasters have been caught out by this storm. The weather has been so unpredictable. This is the coldest winter for many years.’

  Her eyes narrowed. ‘Are you sure you didn’t suspect this storm might happen earlier, when it would still have been safe for me to leave? That you kept me here knowing this might happen?’

  ‘I swear not.’ He frowned. ‘When did I ever force you into doing something you didn’t want to do?’

  She looked up at him and was struck by the sincerity in his eyes. Those remarkable eyes that she had seen sparked by love and desire and righteous anger but never force. He had wheedled her and teased her and kissed her into agreeing with him but he had never forced her to do anything against her will.

  ‘Never,’ she said. She had willingly let herself be carried along by the force of his personality because nothing had been more important to her than being with him.

  ‘I don’t fly out of the airport at Preveza until tomorrow so staying here tonight won’t be a total disaster. That being so, I still don’t want to share a room with you. I have to have a room by myself.’

  ‘Not possible,’ he said. ‘As it is, people will have to double up in rooms. It’s a privilege for us to be given the penthouse just to ourselves.’

  She closed her eyes. This must be some kind of nightmare. But when she opened her eyes he was still there. All six feet two of handsome soon-to-be-ex-husband she so desperately didn’t want to be near. Trapped. ‘I could share a room with someone else.’

  His dark brows rose in an infuriating manner. ‘Really? Who?’

  She cast a quick glance towards the other tables. She didn’t know another soul well enough to share a room with them. Certainly not Grandma Penelope.

  She made a sweep of her arm around the airy white room. ‘I could sleep down here somewhere.’

  ‘And freeze? The temperature will plummet overnight.’

  ‘Maybe you could—’

  ‘Forget it. I’m not sleeping down here either. Not only is it too cold it would have everyone talking about us. We’re still married. People don’t know it’s not for much longer. It’s expected we would share a room.’

  He stepped closer. Put both hands on her shoulders. To anyone watching it would seem like an affectionate gesture. He spoke in a low, urgent undertone. ‘Please don’t kick up a fuss. The other guests are in the same situation. This is not what Alex and Dell need. It could ruin their day completely if everyone started complaining that they needed a single room.’

  ‘But all the other guests wanted to be on the island. I’m here by default. I really can’t be here with—’

  ‘With me. You’ve made that clear,’ he said. ‘You don’t need to be frightened of me, Hayley.’

  ‘Frightened?’ Her chin rose. ‘Of course I’m not.’

  Didn’t he realise? She wasn’t frightened of him. She was frightened of herself. The more time she spent with him, the more she feared her attraction to him. The more she risked leaving this island with her heart torn and aching over what could no longer be with the man she had married with such high hopes.

  ‘It’s inconvenient, I know. But like everyone else here you have to accept it.’ He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘Why not think of it as an adventure? When we...’

  ‘When we what?’ She had a horrible feeling he was laughing at her. That he liked seeing her put on the spot. Payback for th
e way she’d left him.

  ‘When we were first together we would have thought being forced to stay the night in a luxury hotel for free would have been an adventure.’

  Of course, it would have. They would have ordered room service, would never have got out of bed. They would have made love in the bathtub... Stop. That was yesterday. A different life. A different relationship. A different Cristos.

  ‘Yes,’ she said, knowing everything she was thinking must be showing in her eyes and seeing the same thoughts reflected in his. Their gaze held for a long time until she looked away.

  A spasm of that old longing shuddered through her. In that lay danger. She remembered those long lonely nights when he was away from her, where her imagination had tortured her with thoughts of what he could be doing with the beautiful female models who worked with him. Then the night she had lost the baby when she’d needed him so desperately and he hadn’t responded to her calls. The more she’d loved him, the more she’d ached for him every minute they’d been apart. Then the worse she’d felt when all those dreams and hopes they’d held in trust had shattered.

  ‘I remember those times only too well,’ she said. ‘Which is why I’m seriously considering taking the risk of catching pneumonia and sleeping down here tonight.’

  He sighed. The you are testing my patience sigh she also remembered. ‘No need for that. The penthouse has a king-sized bed and a sofa. I’ll take the sofa,’ he said.

  Even having him in the same room would be distraction enough. There would be no chance of sleep. But it seemed she had no choice. ‘Okay,’ she said reluctantly. ‘If we can just stay out of each other’s way it might be all right. After all, it’s only for one night.’

  * * *

  Behind Cristos’s mask of relaxed indifference simmered a heady elation. One night. He had one night with Hayley where she would, indeed, be trapped with him. Not trapped in any malevolent sense. Rather she would be forced into his company in the close proximity of a private hotel room.

  Alone with Hayley for the first time in two and a half years. And despite her determination to divorce, he had twice glimpsed a hint of something very like desire in her eyes. Maybe he had wanted to see her answering desire so badly he had imagined it, maybe he hadn’t. But a gambler got used to reading body language—and he had known her as intimately as only a loving husband could.

  There was that simple kiss staged for his grandmother’s benefit. Just a brief kiss. Yet it had ignited an old hunger in him. He had convinced himself it was extinguished, that it had gone to ashes. But the embers had been there, had burst into flames at the touch of her lips. By the way she’d reacted, it seemed she had felt it too.

  He had wanted her from the get-go—and she’d felt the same. She’d been an innocent when they’d first met, determined, in spite of the sensual hunger he’d aroused in her with his kisses, to preserve her virginity until her wedding night. She’d had her reasons and he had respected her choice, admired it even. In his traditional culture a virgin wife was prized, although he certainly hadn’t expected her to be chaste. Once they were married he’d been surprised and delighted at her passion and enthusiasm for lovemaking. No matter what else might have gone wrong in their relationship, they had been utterly in tune in bed.

  Now he would be once more sharing a bedroom with her. But he had meant it when he’d said he’d sleep on the sofa. A fling with his soon-to-be-ex-wife wasn’t on the cards. Even if she were willing, which seemed highly unlikely. Not when she backed away from even holding hands with him.

  He would grab this chance to ask questions. No doubt she had questions of her own. They needed to talk. Something, he had come to realise in the soul-searching time they’d been apart, he should have done more of when they were together. Instead of silencing her concerns about the turn their life together had taken with kisses, he should have listened to her.

  While legally Hayley was still his wife, he knew he had lost her nearly two and a half years ago. This night together was a gift and he had to be careful not to squander it. He had to get answers to his questions. Why had she pushed him away from her that night when she’d lost the baby instead of grieving together? Why had she run so far away? What had she been doing in Australia? Who was this other guy and did he pose a threat?

  Was there any hope of a second chance with the woman he had never stopped wanting?

  But right now she had questions of her own. Practical questions as befitted his down-to-earth, organised wife. Soon-to-be-ex-wife unless things between them changed dramatically, he had to remind himself.

  Hayley tapped her booted foot with such annoyance he had to suppress a smile. That short haircut made her look like a cranky pixie. ‘How can this work? My suitcase is in a hotel in Nidri. I don’t have a change of clothes. Scarcely any cosmetics. All I have is a toothbrush and paste from the plane in my handbag.’

  ‘You don’t need cosmetics,’ he said. ‘You’re beautiful without them.’ He didn’t mean that to sound cheesy. The compliment had come automatically.

  She flushed high on her cheekbones. ‘So you always said.’

  ‘But you never believed me.’

  ‘It was difficult when you worked with those gorgeous models.’

  ‘Some of whom were so plain without make-up you wouldn’t give them a second look.’

  ‘But the camera loved them, you said.’

  ‘Whereas you look lovely with or without make-up,’ he said. ‘A natural beauty.’

  ‘Pretty, remember, not beautiful,’ she said with a downturned twist to her mouth. ‘Not that I care about the difference.’

  He added another curse to the number he had already hurled at his then agent for the thoughtless comment that had so wounded Hayley. Seemed that wound still hadn’t healed.

  ‘There is nothing wrong with pretty,’ he said. ‘In fact it’s very, very right. You’re looking good, Hayley. Life in Sydney must suit you.’

  ‘I like it,’ she said dismissively. No answers there, then. ‘But talking about Sydney is not solving my problem now.’

  ‘The resort store will stock everything you need.’

  ‘Like pyjamas?’

  Since when had she started wearing pyjamas? There’d been no need for pyjamas in their marriage.

  ‘There are some very smart pyjamas there.’ Dell had stocked the small store with the upscale resort-branded products wealthy customers did not hesitate to spend on. ‘Dell has probably already thought to open the store. You won’t be the only one who might need to stock up. Whatever you need I’ll pay for, of course.’

  Hayley drew herself up to her full diminutive height. ‘That won’t be necessary. I have some euros and my credit card with me.’

  He shook his head. ‘It’s my fault you’re stranded here. I insist on paying for whatever you need.’

  Her chin lifted in the stubborn way he remembered only too well. ‘In that case I won’t get pyjamas. I’ll go without.’ She must have caught a gleam in his eyes at the thought of Hayley in bed with nothing covering her but the sheets because she faltered to a halt. ‘I insist on paying my own way. Some Greek pyjamas might be a nice souvenir to take home with me to Sydney.’

  He shrugged. ‘Have it your way,’ he said, pleased that he could fluster her. He’d arrange with Dell for any payment on Hayley’s card to be reversed so she wouldn’t be out of pocket.

  ‘What about you? You weren’t expecting to stay the night either, were you?’

  ‘You know I never wear pyjamas.’ He watched, amused, as her blush deepened.

  ‘Uh...yes. I remember.’ She seemed to take a sudden interest in the marbling of the floor beneath them.

  He let her off the hook. ‘But in this case I will also ensure I wear something to bed. I keep some clothes in the office here.’

  She looked up at him again. ‘Do you spend much time here? You seem to take a great inter
est in the resort.’

  He should tell her he was a co-owner, having invested in the resort at the start. But that would involve telling her so much more and now wasn’t an appropriate time. No doubt her lawyer would discover what he owned. ‘I work alongside Alex,’ he said. ‘It’s somewhat of a family business.’

  ‘As is your tradition.’

  ‘That’s right,’ he said.

  ‘I...well, I wondered. I have no idea what you’ve been doing in the years since I last saw you.’

  Tonight, he would clearly not be the only one asking questions. He needed to think how he would answer her questions without revealing how much he had left unsaid during their marriage. His habit of masking his true self to the woman he’d loved had backfired. He had told himself he was working towards their future. But he couldn’t deny that he had hidden from her the truth of what he was—a gambler and a risk taker, his father’s son. No amount of subsequent safe investments that had secured his fortune could change that.

  He had feared if she had known what he really was, she would have spurned him. From the start he’d known her middle-class parents had looked down on him. How could he have admitted that his father had been in prison—not once but multiple times? That would only have reinforced their opinion of him as an unsuitable spouse for their daughter. And perhaps made Hayley start to believe it.

  ‘He’s NQOC, dear,’ he had overheard her mother say about him to Hayley the only time she had taken her new boyfriend home to her family’s house in a gated estate in posh Surrey.

  Cristos hadn’t told Hayley what he’d heard, hadn’t asked her what her mother had meant. But back in Durham he’d asked an English friend what it had meant. ‘Not Quite Our Class,’ his friend had explained, puzzled that anyone would use such an outdated and snobbish expression.