Stranded with Her Greek Tycoon Read online

  Cristos had been both horrified and furious that Hayley’s mother had used such a term about him. He was proud of his hardworking and honest grandparents, his relatives who owned fishing boats and tavernas, no matter what ‘class’ Hayley’s mother might assign them to.

  But then there was the reality of his jailbird father. His grandparents could quite likely have given his baba the same snooty label. They had despised him and seen their daughter’s husband as the biggest mistake of his mother’s life. When Cristos had gone into their care, they had instilled in him that his father was someone to be ashamed of—so ashamed they would have liked to deny his existence.

  Cristos had told Hayley his father had died but not the circumstances of his death. The odds against them as a young couple facing opposition to their marriage had been high enough without throwing that into the game. That and the underlying fear he had inherited his father’s bad traits—although the years since had proved him to be a hard-working businessman.

  There would be so much at stake tonight. Much as he might want to, he would not try and seduce Hayley into that king-sized bed in the penthouse. Because, before anything else, he had to win her trust. Without that he had no hope of discovering the truth and making reparation for their past.

  As Alex went from table to table with the news about the storm, a babble of chatter erupted in the room.

  ‘I don’t think I’m the only one not happy about being stuck on the island,’ Hayley said with a wry smile.

  ‘It seems that way, doesn’t it?’ he said. ‘Do you mind if I go and give Alex a hand?’

  ‘Please do,’ she said.

  ‘Will you be all right by yourself?’

  ‘Of course. I can see Dell’s parents heading back towards the table. I’ll have someone to talk to.’

  ‘I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.’

  ‘Don’t worry about me,’ she said. ‘I’m a big girl used to looking after myself now.’

  And I don’t need you were her unspoken words that came through to him loud and clear and as sharp as a shard of ice stabbing his heart.

  She still had the power to hurt him.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  HAYLEY KNEW ONLY too well the look of another woman who desired her husband. One of the perils of being married to a man as handsome and charismatic as Cristos was that other women wanted him too. And were sometimes blatant about letting their interest be known.

  After lunch, the guests had gathered in the resort’s meditation room, a large, airy space overlooking the water. It was there she saw the open, hungry yearning on the face of a dark-haired, attractive Greek woman who stood opposite her, shoulder to shoulder with Cristos’s grandmother.

  Hayley had to look away, swallowing against a sudden surge of nausea. She’d thought she’d got immune to the kick-in-the-stomach feeling that kind of undisguised look caused her. Seemed not. Maybe she never would. It shouldn’t matter now that she and Cristos were on the brink of divorce. Yet her heart still felt scorched.

  In the first blissful months of their relationship, other women’s reactions to her husband’s extraordinary good looks had never bothered her. Secure in his love, she had laughed and said how lucky she was Cristos had chosen her. ‘You’d better believe it, koukla,’ he’d used to say.

  But as his career had unexpectedly skyrocketed, so had the level of female interest. A mini-movie-type commercial for a luxury men’s cologne had gone viral—shared all over the internet—delighting the advertiser and making a star out of Cristos. Neither she nor Cristos had anticipated the attention it would bring him. To give her husband his due, he had never encouraged his admirers. But Hayley hadn’t realised that, by agreeing to be a secret wife, she would have to endure seeing other women openly lust after her husband.

  And here she was facing it again. She had left Cristos nearly two and a half years ago. Her choice. She could not reasonably expect that he’d been on his own all that time. But the thought of him with someone else was still unbearable. Who was this woman? And why was Cristos so insistent on them presenting as a married couple if his girlfriend was around?

  Hayley closed her eyes and wished she were anywhere else but the island of Kosmimo. She could do without this added angst. All she wanted was to be free of the soul-destroying insecurities that had come part and parcel with her marriage. And then to move on.

  The meditation room was minimally furnished in shades of white to allow people to meditate or practise mindfulness without distraction. Silence was usually a requirement. It was anything but that now with the buzz of people concerned about the disruption to their travel plans. Alex and Dell’s families from Australia had planned to stay on anyway so weren’t complaining. But some of the guests were from Athens, others the surrounding islands. It was Saturday and they were concerned about getting back to work on Monday. Hayley hoped she’d be allowed to leave on the first boat in the morning to make her connections to first Athens, then Dubai, for her flight to Sydney.

  Cristos took to the floor with Alex to explain how their enforced stay at Pevezzo Athina would be handled in terms of accommodation and meals. Dell stood by to hand out keys to the rooms they had allocated their unexpected overnight guests. Dell’s children were in the care of their two sets of grandparents from Australia who seemed to compete with each other to be the most doting.

  If only... What might it be like to be here with her own child toddling around with his or her little cousins? Part of a big, welcoming family? Hayley pushed the thought right to the shadowed back of her mind where painful memories had been relegated. Instead of being a beloved wife and mother she stood on the sidelines of Cristos’s family, never welcomed into it, and now straining to break the legal bonds to it.

  The dark-haired woman couldn’t tear her gaze from Cristos’s face as he effortlessly commanded the attention of everyone in the room. At one stage, Penelope leaned up to whisper something in the younger woman’s ear, and then looked pointedly towards Hayley. What was that about? Hayley flushed. But she held the old woman’s gaze and nodded in acknowledgment of the exchange. She refused to be cowed.

  But when Cristos returned to Hayley’s side, she didn’t say anything about the woman or his grandmother’s obvious attachment to her. Truth be told, she didn’t really know what to say. No longer did she have the right to question him. And, perhaps, she wanted to spare herself his answers.

  ‘That seemed to go well,’ she said instead. ‘Poor Dell and Alex having their day end like this. What rotten luck.’

  ‘Or they could look at it that the party goes on for so much longer than intended,’ Cristos said with a grin. ‘The resort is well stocked with food and drink and all these people are their friends.’

  ‘That’s one way of looking at it,’ she said, unable to resist an answering smile. But she was aware of the dark-haired woman’s eyes drilling into her now and it made her self-conscious. She had to say something. She moved closer to Cristos, kept her voice low so her words were only for him. ‘That woman standing next to your grandmother, the gorgeous dark-haired one. Is she...are you...?’ Her throat closed around the words.

  Cristos looked deep into her face, not taking his eyes from hers for even a second to look across to the woman. To anyone looking it would seem as if they were exchanging intimate talk. ‘You mean Arianna? The answer is no and no.’

  Hayley swallowed against an inexplicable relief. ‘She’s giving you “the look”,’ she said. She didn’t need to explain any further. In those early days, when him being a successful male model was still fun, they’d laughed together about how predatory some of the women had been. Not to mention the men.

  ‘She’s being encouraged by my grandmother to do so,’ he said with a low groan.

  ‘While Penelope believes we’re still married? I should be grossly offended by that.’

  ‘I’m not defending my yia-yia’s behaviour. B
ut you were away a long time.’ His mouth said one thing, his eyes so much more. Anger. Betrayal. Loss.

  She gritted her teeth. Answered only his words. ‘I know that. It’s just disconcerting to have your grandmother encouraging my successor while I’m still here.’

  His dark brows rose. ‘Your successor? Arianna was here before I ever met you. I chose you over her long ago. In fact there was no choice to make. Her grandparents are friends with my grandparents. Penelope considers herself a promnestria, a matchmaker.’

  ‘In our case she tried to be a match-breaker.’

  ‘Maybe so,’ he said. ‘She had Arianna earmarked for me from when we were babies.’

  ‘Oh.’ Hayley was angry at herself for the hurt that crept into her voice. ‘I can see why. She’s beautiful. And sexy.’

  Still Cristos didn’t look over to Arianna. His eyes were only for her. He cupped her chin in his hand so she was forced not to evade his gaze. ‘I dated her once when we were sixteen. It was a mistake. I wasn’t interested in her then and I’m certainly not now. How could I be when you are here, kou—?’ He stopped himself from completing the word.

  He seemed determined to make this as difficult as he could for her, using his pet name for her, invoking the past. She did not want to remember such a deeply unhappy part of her life or to endure recriminations or blame. He had said he wanted the same thing she did—divorce. She screwed up her face in appeal. ‘Cristos, please—’

  He turned his head away so she could no longer see the unspoken message in his eyes. When he looked back to her his gaze showed only unconcerned good humour. ‘Yes. I know you are only here to divorce me. But that doesn’t stop me from thinking you’re more beautiful than any other woman I know.’

  He dropped a light kiss on her mouth. For Arianna’s benefit? His grandmother’s? Or to remind her of just what a kiss from him could do to her? If it was the latter, he succeeded as a thrill of delight tingled through her body. His kisses had delighted her from the very first time on the night they’d met.

  She stepped back. Crossed her arms across her chest. ‘Thank you,’ she said, knowing it would be ungracious not to accept the compliment. And to block the traitorous racing of her heart. It was frightening how her body still reacted to his touch.

  She couldn’t face his gaze again. Who knew what she might see in those eyes this time? Instead she looked across through the floor-to-ceiling glass doors that led out onto a marble balcony. They were obviously designed to frame a view of sparkling sun-kissed aquamarine waters and blue skies. Ominous dark clouds were banking up out to sea, obliterating the sky, their shadows darkening the choppy sea below to a sullen grey. A sudden gust of wind made the glass shudder.

  Cristos followed her gaze. ‘You can see why we couldn’t take a boat out in that. The storm is gathering strength. It’s going to be fierce when it hits.’

  ‘What are you doing to secure the building?’ she asked.

  ‘Alex and I will get some of the guys to go outside and make sure—’

  ‘I’ll come too,’ she said.

  ‘Perhaps you can help Dell inside,’ he said, relegating her to the ‘women’s work’ of the traditional Greek family.

  She squared up to him. ‘You might not know that I finished my degree in mechanical engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. I’m working as an engineer and considered very competent. You must remember me telling you I worked as a teenager with my father on all the home maintenance. I probably know more about what to do than you or Alex.’

  Cristos looked down at her with a mixture of admiration and reluctant defeat. ‘You’re probably right,’ he said.

  ‘Not that I’m taking anything away from your Greek male authority,’ she said, teasing him the way she used to. Then realised she shouldn’t say anything that could be construed as flirtatious.

  ‘Of course not,’ he said. ‘I learned early on not to underestimate you.’

  Then later on you took me for granted, she thought, but didn’t say.

  She glanced down at her expensive biscuit-coloured trousers and fine ivory cashmere sweater—both from her life with him after his meteoric success when designer clothes came easy. ‘I’ll go to the resort store and buy some jeans and a sweatshirt, see if Dell can loan me a weatherproof jacket.’

  ‘If that’s what you want to do.’

  She felt trapped. Trapped on the island, trapped with him, held hostage by old emotions and hurts. She needed to do something. Not just stand around wringing her hands over her plight or using her enforced time as an excuse to party. She needed to roll up her sleeves and work. Doing something useful might take her mind off her body’s reaction to his touch. Then there was the blatant interest of another woman in the man she had once thought she would grow old with. Too much of the past was coming back to haunt her and taunt her.

  ‘I’ll get a team together and meet you at the utility area,’ Cristos said.

  ‘Right,’ she said.

  He handed her a key card. ‘It’s to our room.’

  Our room.

  That was another disconcerting event she hoped a good dose of solid physical work—like shoring up windows and checking electrical connections—might take her mind off. The prospect of sharing a bedroom with the man who was still legally her husband.

  * * *

  Hayley’s laughter pealed out from the direction of the pool house. High on a ladder, Cristos paused in his task of securing the upper-storey window shutters. He hadn’t heard that joyous sound for too many years and he stilled when he realised how much he had missed it.

  He turned and his eyes widened at the improbable sight of his wife—he couldn’t think of her as anything other—working together with his grandfather. They were moving the outdoor furniture from around the swimming pool to where it would be safe in the case of high winds.

  It wasn’t a matter of Hayley assisting Stavros—young Englishwoman deferring to Greek patriarch. Rather his petite wife and his aged and somewhat stout grandfather were well matched in terms of strength and made a surprisingly effective team. They’d already cleared the gardens of any equipment that had been left lying around.

  He was further surprised by the sound of his grandfather’s gruff laughter. Stavros was a man of few words; he always said his wife, Penelope, had words enough for both of them. Since the death of his only daughter, he was also a man of little laughter.

  What had Hayley said to provoke that rusty laughter from the man who had disapproved of his grandson’s marriage to an English stranger every bit as vehemently as his wife had done? Cristos decided not to question it, but to enjoy it.

  The cold wind whipping his face raw, he watched Hayley and Stavros for a long moment. He imagined an alternate universe in which he and Hayley were still married, living perhaps in London, and visiting the family in Greece for Alex and Dell’s vow-renewal ceremony. In this happy world, Hayley was a much-loved member of his extended family, Penelope extending to her the same warmth and welcome as she did to Dell. While he and Hayley worked outside to secure the resort against the coming storm, their child—he’d hoped for a boy but would have loved whatever baby they’d been gifted—was safely inside playing with Litza, her little cousin. At night he and Hayley would sink happily into bed, drowsing off to sleep in each other’s arms after making love knowing they had tomorrow and all the tomorrows after it together.

  That was where he had to put the brakes on his daydream. He stared at the window he was meant to be securing. In the reflection he saw his face looking tight and haggard, hardly the image of Europe’s one-time top male model—the role he had come to hate. It had lost him everything he had valued. His wife. His unborn child. His future.

  Hayley had never acknowledged his anguish and grief at the loss of the baby he had wanted so much. In fact she had pushed him away from her. Perhaps her own grief had been so intense she hadn’t
been able to deal with his. He didn’t know. She hadn’t given him the chance to comfort her—or she him.

  He looked down again at Hayley and his grandfather, chatting companionably as, in the looming evening, they walked towards the pool house where both sets of visiting Australian parents, Alex’s and Dell’s, were staying. He couldn’t hear what they were actually saying from this distance but their voices carried enough for him to realise Hayley was trying to speak Greek with Stavros and he was correcting her usage. Not in a disparaging way but in a helpful way, obviously pleased that she had tried to learn their language. Perhaps her mistakes had prompted the laughter.

  A wave of overwhelming sadness swept over him, sending his determined optimism tumbling over and over as it struggled not to drown. Somehow he and Hayley had detoured from the path their marriage should have taken. He was not at all certain it was possible after all this time apart to right past wrongs and consider the possibility of getting it back on track. He doubted they could even salvage a friendship. Perhaps this gambler should accept it was time for him to throw in his cards.

  For nearly two and a half years when people had asked him why his wife had left him he had shrugged and said, as if it didn’t bother him, ‘I don’t know.’ He still didn’t know.

  Then both his wife and his grandfather, sensing perhaps the intensity of his gaze on them, turned and saw him. In perfect synchronicity, they waved to him. With the hand that was not gripping the ladder, he waved to them in return, forcing a smile he hoped they could see.

  At their answering smiles, the gloom receded. He had tonight with Hayley. Just him and her, with nowhere for her to run. He was determined to make the most of it. If there was ever to be a chance for them to understand what had gone wrong, this was it.

  CHAPTER SIX

  OUTSIDE, EVERYTHING AROUND Hayley had gone very still and the island seemed quiet with expectation. Nobody had asked her to look at the solar panels but she’d wanted to check them anyway. Air like icy needles stung her face and she shivered. The sky darkened with an ominous yellow tinge and she hastened to make it safely back inside the resort.