The Secret Behind The Greek’s Return by Michelle Smart

CHAPTER TEN

NEVERINHISlife had Nikos woken with such a weight pressing on his chest. But this was a good weight. An excellent weight. He opened his eyes and found his son straddling his neck, his face hovering over his with the look of an archaeologist examining an important find. The sun had risen but Nikos was quite sure it was earlier than he’d woken since his own childhood.

Grinning, he lifted Niki into the air and sat up, shushing him as he went so he didn’t wake Marisa, who was curled up like a hedgehog under the sheets beside him.

He stared at the golden-red curls poking out and felt his heart catch. On the verge of leaning over and capturing one of those curls, he was prevented by a miniature finger being inserted up his nose.

He held onto his laughter until he’d closed the nursery door. His amusement soon turned to head-scratching as he tasked himself with cleaning and changing his son’s nappy and pyjamas. Just as he was debating whether or not to wake the nanny, a sleepy Marisa entered the room, smothering a yawn. Even with her hair shooting up in all directions and puffy eyed, she looked beautiful, and Nikos felt an immediate stab of longing pierce him.

He’d hardly slept himself. While his son and son’s mother had slept deeply with him on the huge emperor-sized bed, he’d been alert to every move they’d both made, the few lulls into sleep filled with vivid dreams that had merged into reality when he’d opened his eyes.

Had his mother ever brought him into her bed when he’d been a baby? Had his father? Had they ever shared the same room? All he’d ever known was that each had had their own room that the other was expressly forbidden from entering. He’d been forbidden from entering either of them too. He remembered mornings, his stomach hurting from hunger, creeping around the vast kitchen in search of food, dragging a stool around to climb on to reach the taller cupboards, too frightened of their anger to go into their rooms to wake either of them for help. Neither had minded him making a mess in the kitchen—his mess only added to theirs—but woe betide him if he woke them up. Those were the only rules in the Manolas household: no entering his parents’ bedrooms and no making a noise that could wake them from their sleep.

When he’d first been taken from them he’d thought it was because he’d made too much early morning noise. It had taken a long time to realise that, though he’d been forcibly taken, they’d willingly let him go. They’d given him up.

What had been so wrong with him that they could do that? Give him up? It was a question he’d asked himself many times through the years but it took on an even greater significance now.

What had been so wrong with him that they’d denied him the affection Marisa lavished on Niki? Look at her now, standing beside him at the changing table, pressing kisses on the face of their naked son, who was making bicycle motions with his legs. He didn’t imagine his mother had ever done that to him.

‘Why didn’t you wake me?’ she asked.

‘When did you last sleep in?’ he challenged.

‘What’s sleeping in?’

‘See?’ He gave her his sternest look. ‘Go back to bed. I’ve got this.’

Ignoring his directive, she tickled their son’s belly. ‘You’re changing him?’

‘Obviously.’

‘If it’s that obvious, where’s his clean clothes?’

He hadn’t thought of that. From the look on her face, she knew it too. She smiled. ‘I’ll get some for you. Shall I get you a clean nappy too?’

He hadn’t thought about that either.

He had a lot to learn. From the look on Marisa’s face she was happy and willing to teach him.

He just had to hope she was happy and willing to teach him as his wife.

The first full day in Mykonos passed slowly for Marisa. Spent lazing around the pool with the nanny and Stratos, who still seemed to be cold towards her, it gave her plenty of thinking time. All her thoughts were wrapped around Nikos...

The lovemaking they’d shared. That was something she didn’t so much think about but shimmered in her veins as a constant reminder. Her pride wanted to be angry that his seduction had been planned but she’d waited for him on that balcony. She’d wanted it as much as he had and from the ache in her pelvis, she knew that if he came to her room tonight, she would open the door to him without hesitation.

Making love had been a physical act she’d abandoned herself to without fear of losing her heart. The feelings that had erupted within her when he’d spoken so dispassionately about his childhood were far more frightening. She’d felt the pieces of her damaged heart knit themselves back together so they could cry with sympathy for the damaged little boy he’d been. The Nikos he was today was not the six-year-old child he’d once been, and it was imperative she separate those two Nikoses, however difficult it would be, especially if she agreed to his proposal.

That, more than anything, had played on her mind all day, tying all the other issues together and making the strings of her heart play a concerto.

Terrifyingly, she had slept more soundly with him sharing her bed than she had since the day he’d gone missing from his yacht. Today was the first morning since his return that she hadn’t woken with panicked ice stabbing her heart.

She genuinely didn’t know what to do for the best. Could she really deny her son the opportunity to have the blessed childhood she’d had for the sake of her pride? And could she deny Nikos that experience? Didn’t he deserve the chance to be a real father, to share in all the joys of watching their baby reach all those important milestones and all the day-to-day joys she took for granted? The joy of beaming early morning smiles? The joy of feeding him something that wasn’t immediately spat out? The joy of baths and getting drenched by manically kicking legs connecting to water?

She had to wait until mid-afternoon before the opportunity came to ask Nikos the questions that had been steadily forming in her jumbled mind as the day had gone on. His grandfather had gone to his chess club and the nanny had taken Niki to the nursery for his nap.

Nikos joined her on the terrace, a smile on his gorgeous face and two glasses of fruity cocktails in his hands.

‘Here,’ he said, handing her one. ‘Don’t worry, it’s not too strong.’

The strings of her heart were plucked again. How well he was getting to know her as a mother, anticipating her thoughts and worries.

There was something incredible in how he could make the separation of her as a mother and her as a woman and cater for the needs of both. More incredible still that it had taken his return for her needs as a woman to reawaken.

He’d roused so many buried feelings and impulses. Feelings and impulses he’d been the one to bring to life in the first place...

‘Thank you,’ she murmured. This was the first time they’d been alone together all day and, from the safety of her shades, she let her greedy eyes soak in the glory of his body, only a pair of brief black swim shorts covering any flesh. She’d always loved his body. Its muscular leanness. The olive hue of his skin. The dark hair that covered his chest and made a tapering line down to his groin. The snake hips. The tight buttocks. The long, toned legs. The whole package.

From the smirk on his face and the way he brushed his fingers against hers as he released the cocktail glass, Nikos knew exactly what she was doing. She didn’t care that she’d been caught ogling him. After the night they’d shared and the confidences he’d entrusted to her, she was beyond denying her desire for him. It was too late for denial. Much too late.

Propping herself on an elbow to face him, she had a sip of the cocktail while he stretched out on the sunbed placed inches from hers, and felt heat crawl over her face as his eyes, also hidden by shades, swept over the length of her swimsuit-clad form.

‘Your body’s changed,’ she said. ‘You’re more muscular.’

He grinned. ‘I lived in a log cabin in the Alaskan Mountains for eighteen months. If I wanted heat, I had to chop trees for firewood. Trust me, in the winter months it gets very cold.’

About to ask about his time in exile, her words were stolen when he extended a hand and encircled one of her breasts. ‘Your body’s changed too.’

She shivered at his touch and put her glass on the table at the top of the adjoining sunbeds. ‘Having a baby does that to a woman.’

He smiled knowingly and rubbed his thumb over a nipple. ‘Having a baby has only made you more beautiful.’

She couldn’t help her snort of derision at this.

He caught a curl in his fingers. ‘Why do you find that funny?’

‘You haven’t seen me naked in the light yet.’

‘Yet?’He quirked his eyebrows. ‘Then I have something to look forward to?’

‘Maybe.’

He put his head in the crook of his elbow and inched his face closer to her. ‘There is no one here now...’

She put a finger to his lips without thinking. He kissed it.

‘Nikos...’ She sighed.

He rubbed the tip of his nose to hers. ‘Yes, agapi mou?’

The warmth of his breath seeped into her pores and it took more effort than she would have believed possible to keep her thoughts on track. ‘What we were talking about last night... Your idea of marriage.’

He rubbed his nose against her cheek. ‘Have you decided it’s an excellent idea?’

She moved away a little and rolled onto her back but that attempt at distance did nothing to stop his hands roaming over her body. Pressing her thighs tightly together, she tried to tune out the sensations skipping over her skin at his touch. ‘If I’m going to agree to it, we would have to live in Valencia.’

‘I know.’

‘I know Mykonos is your home but it’s too far from the business and too far from my family. My mama loves Niki. She’s been the most wonderful support to me. I can’t take him from her.’

He made slow circles around a hard nipple with his finger. ‘I’ve already agreed to that, agapi mou.’

‘Oh.’ She swallowed. She should slap his hand away but it felt too good. ‘So you have. Sorry.’ She had to swallow the moisture filling her mouth again. ‘I was so prepared and ready with arguments that I didn’t listen properly to your answer.’

His fingers dragged down her belly. ‘I would want us to spend a good amount of time here too,’ he told her as he gently cupped her pubis. ‘I want Niki to know this as his home too. But I agree, it is more practical for us to make Valencia our main home.’

His fingers drifted away from her as he rose to his feet. He pinched the sides of his shorts and fixed his hooded eyes on her. She hadn’t even noticed him remove his shades. ‘Anything else?’

He tugged his shorts down. His enormous erection sprang free.

She could hardly think, never mind speak through the lust rampaging through her. ‘I want Niki to go to school in Valencia.’

He sat on the edge of her sunbed and pulled the straps of her swimsuit down. ‘He is too young for us to worry about school yet. We can decide that nearer the time.’

‘And...’ He’d pulled the top of her swimsuit past her breasts and immediately taken one in his mouth while he slowly pulled the rest of the suit down.

‘Yes, agapi mou?’

‘No...taking...’ She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to concentrate, even though he’d tugged the swimsuit down past her thighs. Only dimly did she realise she’d actively helped him in removing it and that it was her kicking the suit away.

He climbed between her legs and gazed down at her. ‘No taking...?’

‘Charge,’ she breathed.

‘Like this?’ He slid inside her, long, deep, all the way to the hilt. Then, before she could really savour the sensation, immediately pulled out. ‘No taking charge like that?’

‘Nikos...’ His name sounded like a moan from her lips.

He plunged inside her again. ‘Is that what you meant?’

He made to pull out of her again. She grabbed hold of his buttocks with both hands to keep him in place.

‘You win,’ she breathed, wrapping her legs tightly around him. ‘Take charge.’

‘And you’ll marry me?’

‘Yes.’At that moment she would have agreed to anything to stop him pulling out of her again.

‘Then I take charge with pleasure.’

‘Time to get up.’

Marisa opened a bleary eye and found Nikos perched on the edge of the bed beside her. ‘What time is it?’

‘Nine.’

She lifted her head. A cup of coffee had been placed on her bedside table beside the baby monitor. ‘Why didn’t you wake me?’

‘Because you’re adorable when you sleep.’ He placed his lips to her ear and whispered, ‘If our son hadn’t woken so early, I would have woken you in a much more pleasurable manner.’

She found it incredible that she’d slept so late and slept through the early morning babbling she’d always been so attuned to. Either she’d been exhausted from making love until the early hours or her subconscious had let her sleep soundly, knowing Nikos was taking care of their son. The latter, she decided as she tilted her head for a kiss and breathed in his freshly showered and shaved scent.

‘Where is he?’

‘With Seema in the nursery. And you need to get up. We have an appointment to attend.’

‘Have we?’

He kissed her mouth. ‘Yes, agapi mou. An appointment to register our intention to marry. We can book the wedding too. Get everything in hand.’

The last of her sleepiness flew away. Sitting upright, she stared at him. ‘Since when are we getting married?’

‘You agreed to it yesterday.’

So she had. Under sexual duress. After she’d said yes, they’d made love hard and fast on the sunbed then gone to bed and made love at a much more leisurely pace until Niki had woken from his nap. The early evening had been spent with their son and then, the minute he was asleep, they’d gone straight back to bed.

Truth was, they’d been far too busy talking with their bodies to speak verbally.

Truth was, she’d happily shoved her agreement to marry him to the back of her mind rather than confront the magnitude of what she’d done, and now that she was confronted with it, darts of panic were making their way through her.

‘I didn’t agree to marry you immediately.’

‘The decision has been made so why wait?’

Because you don’t love me!

Love? Since when had she started thinking about Nikos along those lines again? She didn’t love him. She loved their son and she wanted him to have the same happy childhood she’d had, and Nikos deserved to be a father to him every bit as much as she was a mother to him. He’d hurt her badly, something she would never forget, but now she understood him better, she was prepared to move on from that hurt for their son’s sake. Hadn’t Nikos proved he deserved that chance? He’d swiftly bought into the business, installed his top people to assist her and take the load off her—she wouldn’t be here in Mykonos now if he hadn’t done that—and he’d proved his devotion to their son. Those were the reasons she’d agreed to marry him. She’d been prepared to marry Raul for the business and Niki’s sake, so why not marry Niki’s actual father? The damage he’d inflicted had been too great for him to hurt her again but the passion between them was every bit as strong as it had always been. At least marrying Nikos meant marrying a man she was happy to share a bed with!

What she must not do, under any circumstance, was think about Nikos as a child in desperate need of someone to love and care for him, and think she could be the woman to do that.

‘I agreed on the proviso you didn’t take charge,’ she said.

He raised a brow, the look in his eyes as he brought his face to hers making her pelvis contract. ‘Really? Because I seem to remember you begging me to take charge.’

She leaned into him, her lips tingling from the whispered heat of his breath...

‘You’re not doing this again.’ She darted away from him and jumped off the bed, hurrying to the far wall.

‘Doing what again?’

‘Using your magic penis to stop me thinking properly.’

The look he gave her was one of incredulousness. And then his gorgeous face broke into a grin and he burst into a deep rumble of laughter.

Nikos laughed so long and so hard his chest hurt. ‘I have a magic penis?’ He chortled, wiping mirth-induced tears from his eyes.

Eyes alight with amusement, she sniggered. ‘Why else do you think I agreed to marry you?’

He got to his feet.

She shot a hand out in warning. ‘Stay back. Do not touch me until we’ve discussed this.’

He loved a challenge. Especially when given by a sexy, sleep-tousled redhead who thought he had a magic penis.

‘I want to marry in Spain.’

Locking his gaze on her, he took a step towards her. ‘Why?’

‘That’s where my family are.’

He took another step. ‘They can fly here. I want to marry here on Mykonos.’

‘Why?’

Because I can marry you quickly here, and the sooner I marry you, the sooner I know my rights as a father are protected. The less time I give you to think about it, the less time you have to change your mind.

He took her extended hand and pinned it above her head, staring deep into the lust-riven dark eyes. ‘We have better beaches.’

He cut her protest away with a kiss.