Nine Months To Tame The Tycoon by Chantelle Shaw, Annie West
CHAPTER SEVEN
SUNLIGHTDANCINGACROSShis face woke Takis from a dreamless sleep. Too often his nights were disturbed by nightmares of Giannis trapped by the flames in the burning house. But this morning he felt a deep sense of contentment. The pleasurable ache in his muscles was not surprising after he’d spent hours making love to Lissa. Sex with her had been incredible. But now there were protocols that he hoped she understood.
From experience, Takis knew that waking in the morning with a new lover could be tricky. Women who had seemingly been happy to accept his no-strings rule the night before sometimes turned into clinging vines when it was time to say goodbye. The situation with Lissa was more complicated because she had given her virginity to him.
The possessive feeling that swept through him was inexplicable. The gift of her innocence had been unasked for, and he was appalled that on a deeply fundamental level he liked the fact that he was the first man she’d slept with.
Remembering her passionate response when he’d made love to her made him instantly hard. Lissa may have been a virgin, but she had proved a willing and eager pupil and she’d quickly learned how to please him. He had known from her husky moans and the way she’d trembled in the throes of every orgasm he’d given her that she had enjoyed the night as much as he had.
He rolled on to his side, expecting to find her lying next to him, but there was just a faint indentation on the pillow where her head had been. She was not in the bathroom or outside by the pool and her sequinned dress and shoes were missing, which could only mean one thing.
Takis swore. Once again Lissa had surprised him, and he did not like surprises. Had she left without waking him because she was upset? The idea made him feel uncomfortable, but it had been her decision to sleep with him, he reminded himself. She was not his responsibility, but that did not stop him selecting her number on his phone.
She answered on the fifth ring. Evidently she had not been expecting him to call. ‘Takis? Good morning. How are you?’
He gritted his teeth. Anyone listening to her cool voice would think she was talking to a casual acquaintance instead of the man she’d spent the night having passionate sex with.
‘I was surprised when I woke and found you had gone.’
‘I thought that was the idea,’ she said quietly. ‘I’m in a taxi on the way to the airport for my flight back to England. You were fast asleep when I left, and I decided not to disturb you.’ There was a pause, and then, ‘I should probably go. Thank you for a perfect night.’
‘It was my pleasure,’ he said drily.
Forty minutes later, Takis leaned back in the plush leather seat of the helicopter that was taking him to Athens. He could not understand why he was in such a foul mood. The night he’d spent with Lissa had lived up to all his expectations, and it should have been enough. It was enough, he told himself. He had never needed anyone. And no one needed him. He avoided close relationships because if he did not allow himself to care, he couldn’t be hurt or feel responsible for someone else’s happiness. He was better off alone, and he had never doubted it.
When he walked into his apartment on the top floor of a modern development he owned in the city centre, he acknowledged that the sleekly luxurious but impersonal decor reflected his ethos on life and relationships. He did not form attachments and he shunned all ties. It was true that he’d bought his villa on Santorini because he had been drawn to its picturesque charm. The agent dealing with the sale had remarked that the villa with extensive gardens and access to a private beach would be an ideal family home for when Takis married and had children.
But that wasn’t going to happen. He had no need of a wife. Work was the only mistress he cared about. Success was satisfying, but nothing could fill the emptiness inside him. He didn’t want it filled. He deserved it.
Lissa was the most complicated, confusing and confounding woman he’d ever met, Takis frequently reminded himself over the following weeks. He was determined to put her out of his mind and focused on his latest project, the acquisition of a hotel and leisure complex in Santorini that he’d had his eye on for a long time. The negotiations over the price he was willing to pay were lengthy and intense, and when the deal was finally signed, he celebrated on the neighbouring island of Mykonos, where some fifteen years ago he had bought his first hotel in the Perseus chain.
Sipping vintage champagne in the hotel’s nightclub, Takis acknowledged that he was at the top of his game. He was a self-made multimillionaire, and any of the women in the club would be his with little effort on his part, but none of them captured his interest.
In an effort to forget Lissa, he had dated several beautiful women, and there had been occasions when he’d been snapped by the paparazzi leaving a club with a stunning brunette or a gorgeous redhead. But the tabloids were unaware that he had escorted his dates home at the end of the evening and politely declined all invitations and pleas to stay the night.
He finally admitted to himself that he missed Lissa, which was crazy because he usually never gave an ex-lover a second thought. He had tried keeping his distance from her, but he found himself thinking about her a lot.
Evidently she had taken him at his word when he’d stipulated that he only wanted one night with her, and she hadn’t called or messaged him. But that hadn’t stopped Takis’s heart lurching whenever his phone pinged, and his disappointment when Lissa’s name did not appear on the screen inevitably soured his mood.
The situation could not continue, he decided. He would have to see her again, and a new business deal he was on the verge of completing would give him the perfect opportunity to get in touch with her. Overfamiliarity bred boredom, he told himself. If he had an affair with Lissa, he was confident that her novelty would wear off and he would be freed from the unaccountable hold she had on him.
Lissa glanced out of her office window at the rain beating against the glass. The dismal weather reflected her mood, which turned even bleaker when she looked at her computer screen. The photo of Takis with a beautiful woman clinging to his arm was in a Greek newspaper that Lissa was reading online. She did not know why she tortured herself with needing to know what he was doing, and with whom. It was bad enough that every time she spoke to her sister, Eleanor recounted another story about Takis’s love life that had appeared in the gossip columns.
Frustrated with her inability to get over him, Lissa deleted the screen image of Takis’s starkly handsome face. Since she’d returned to Oxford after spending the night with him at the Pangalos hotel she had focused on work. In an effort to keep busy, she had also enrolled in an interior design course and discovered that she had a natural flair for design.
At school, art had been her passion, and she’d planned to study design at university. But she had got caught up in her modelling career and at the same time had decided to study hotel management because she’d hoped that when she showed her grandfather her qualifications he would be impressed and apologise for doubting her ability to work for the family hotel business. Pappoús had died without knowing how hard she had tried to win his approval, Lissa thought heavily. In many ways she was glad. She had spent too much of her life feeling unwanted by her grandfather, lacking self-worth.
Her phone pinged, and her heart flipped as she wondered if Takis had sent her a message. He hadn’t, and she felt angry with herself for hoping that he had. She had wasted enough time moping over him and it had to stop. On impulse she decided that maybe she should accept an invitation to dinner from Andrew, a solicitor she had met at the sports club. She picked up her phone but hesitated before placing it back down on her desk without making the call. Andrew was a nice guy, and it wouldn’t be fair to have dinner with him while she was fixated on a devilishly sexy Greek.
Organising the staff rotas was not Lissa’s favourite task, but she was glad of the distraction as she opened the relevant computer file. The head chef and sous chef had had an argument and she tried to make sure they were on different shifts, but tonight the hotel was hosting a dinner for a hundred and fifty guests and Ben and Alex would have to work together. Sorting out issues among the staff was a part of hotel management that Lissa knew she did not excel at. It was probably her own insecurity that made her want to please everyone, she thought ruefully.
Her phone rang and she quickly quashed the hope that it was Takis. She smiled when her sister’s name flashed on to the screen. ‘I have two pieces of news,’ Eleanor said after they had exchanged greetings. She sounded excited. ‘I’m pregnant.’
‘That’s wonderful! How does Jace feel about becoming a father?’
‘We are both over the moon. I’m expecting a little girl.’
‘Oh, El, I’m so pleased for you. Are you suffering much with pregnancy symptoms?’
‘Not really. In fact, I didn’t realise I was pregnant for a while. But I can’t stand the smell of coffee.’
Lissa glanced at the cup of cold coffee on her desk that she had been unable to drink. The effects of an unpleasant stomach bug were still lingering, and she had gone off coffee. ‘What is your other news?’
There was a slight hesitation before Eleanor spoke. ‘I have decided to sell Francine’s. Jace intends to concentrate on running his property development business, and I want to be a full-time mum when the baby comes. But I’ll ensure you remain as manager of the hotel.’
‘Surely that will be a decision for the new owner.’
‘Takis assured me that all the staff will be offered new contracts with his company.’
Lissa’s heart clattered against her ribs. ‘Takis? Do you mean that he is buying Francine’s?’ She must have misunderstood, she told herself frantically.
‘Yes, he is keen to add the Oxford hotel to his Perseus chain.’
‘But he can’t. You can’t sell Francine’s...’ Lissa tasted blood in her mouth where she had bitten down hard on her lip.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you’d be so upset. I know that the hotel is part of Pappoús’s legacy, but you and he did not see eye to eye.’
‘Francine’s is a link to our parents,’ Lissa choked.
‘We have to let them go,’ Eleanor said gently. ‘It’s time to move on. I expect Takis will contact you soon to discuss the management position.’
Somehow Lissa forced a bright voice as she congratulated Eleanor again on her pregnancy, but at the end of the phone call she felt numb with shock. The prospect of having Takis as her boss was mind-blowing. It would be unbearable to work for him and perhaps see him regularly when he visited the hotel. She would have to resign and look for another job. But she did not only work at the hotel. Francine’s was her home, and it would be a huge upheaval to leave.
There was a knock on the door, and her assistant, Pat, walked into the room. ‘I saw you had left your coffee to go cold. I’ve brought you another one.’
‘Thank you.’ Lissa blenched as the strong aroma of coffee assailed her.
‘Are you feeling all right? You haven’t seemed yourself lately,’ Pat asked with a motherly concern that tugged on Lissa’s emotions. ‘Maybe you should see a doctor.’
‘I have an appointment with my GP this afternoon. I had a blood test to check my thyroid levels and I should find out the result today.’
‘You young girls don’t eat enough, if you ask me. I hope you’ll have time for dinner before the function this evening.’ Pat paused on her way out of the door. ‘The florist has finished arranging the flowers in the dining room. The tables look lovely. It will be a late night for you, I expect.’
It certainly would, Lissa thought with a sigh. Francine’s hotel hosted many functions throughout the year, but the Lord Mayor’s dinner and dance was the most prestigious event in the calendar. The invitations stated carriages at midnight, but Lissa knew she would be helping to clear up after the party until the early hours.
The rain eased off in the afternoon and she decided to walk to her GP’s surgery.
‘Unfortunately, the results of your blood test went astray, and I have only just received them,’ Dr Williams explained. ‘Your thyroid levels are higher than they should be, and I will change the dose of your medication.’ She hesitated before continuing. ‘There’s something else. The blood test also shows a positive result for pregnancy.’
Lissa stared at the doctor, feeling sure that she must have misheard. ‘I can’t be pregnant,’ she croaked. ‘I have missed a couple of periods, but I wasn’t concerned because it has happened before.’
‘Certainly, a thyroid condition can affect a woman’s menstrual cycle, resulting in light or irregular periods. But you are definitely pregnant.’ The doctor gave Lissa a sympathetic smile. ‘I can see that this has come as a surprise. I’d like you to make an appointment with the midwife as soon as possible so that you can be booked for an antenatal scan.’
It couldn’t be true, Lissa thought numbly. She couldn’t be expecting a baby. Takis’s baby. But little things fell into place. Her tiredness and odd reaction to certain smells, especially coffee. The feeling in the pit of her stomach when her sister had revealed her own pregnancy. Her breasts were more tender than usual, and when she had shopped for a new bra she’d found that she had gone up a size.
But she couldn’t be pregnant. Takis had used a condom each time they’d had sex. She froze when she remembered how he had started to make love to her in the bath. Could it have been then? The how and where were not important, she thought heavily. The fact was that the man who had told her quite clearly he never wanted children was the father of her child.
Lissa walked back to Francine’s hotel in a daze, barely able to comprehend that a new life was developing inside her. She had never really thought about having a child because she had been advised that her thyroid condition could make it difficult for her to conceive. This baby was a miracle, but Takis was unlikely to see things that way. He was going to be furious when she told him her news.
She remembered the excitement and pride in her sister’s voice when Eleanor had announced her pregnancy and said that Jace was delighted. But Lissa did not have a relationship with her baby’s father, and she hadn’t spoken to Takis for months. In fact, it was four months since she’d slept with him, she realised when she did a mental calculation. It was astonishing that she had reached that stage in pregnancy without being aware she was carrying Takis’s baby. To complicate the situation even more, Takis was the new owner of Francine’s. Which made him her boss.
It would not be long before her pregnancy was noticeable. Even if she did not tell him that the baby was his, he might guess, and she had a fair idea of how he would react. She thought of leaving Oxford and looking for another job and somewhere for her and the baby to live. But Lissa’s conscience insisted that Takis had a right to know he was going to be a father.
If he refused to support his child, she would manage. She had some savings from when she’d earned a high income as a model, although she’d lent her brother money so that he could clear his debts. Mark was receiving treatment for his gambling addiction and she could not ask him to repay her while he was trying to get his life back on track.
At least she had her inheritance. Her grandfather’s will had prevented Lissa from accessing her trust fund until she was twenty-five, but her sister was the trustee and had made the money available to her. It would help when the baby was born. But Lissa knew she would have to go back to work and all her friends who were working mothers went on about how expensive childcare was.
Somehow she got through the rest of the day and tried not to dwell on her secret while there was so much to do, preparing for the Mayor’s dinner-dance. But being pregnant was such a momentous, life-altering event and every time she thought about the future she felt terrified. She popped up to her apartment to change her dress for the evening, and when she studied her body in the mirror she noticed signs of her pregnancy that she’d previously missed. Her breasts were fuller, and her usually flat stomach had a small curve. Emotions that she had held back all day flooded through her. She was scared, but also excited at the thought of having a baby.
When she had been diagnosed with an overactive thyroid, and the endocrinologist had explained that the condition could affect her fertility, she had felt sad that she might never be a mother. It had been something she knew she would have to deal with in the future, if she fell in love with a man and wanted to marry and have a family. But against the odds she was pregnant, and she felt awed and thrilled and still not quite able to believe it.
Just before seven o’clock, guests began to arrive and gathered in the bar for cocktails. Lissa checked the dining room, which looked elegant with the tables dressed in white and gold. Once tonight’s event was over she would have time to make plans, but for now she must focus on her job.
The door leading to the kitchen flew open and one of the waitresses ran out. ‘Miss Buchanan, Ben and Alex had a fight, and Ben has gone.’
Lissa stared at Kate. ‘Gone where?’
‘I don’t know. He stormed out, saying he wouldn’t be coming back. What are we going to do about the dinner?’
What indeed? Lissa tried not to panic. The guests were expecting to sit down to a five-course meal, and she was without a head chef. She hurried into the kitchen and found Alex nursing a fat lip. ‘You will have to be head chef tonight,’ she told him.
‘But—’ Alex began to protest.
Lissa turned to the junior chef. ‘Jo, you will be sous chef. Everyone else will muck in and help, including me.’
She picked up an apron and was about to put it on when a voice that had haunted her dreams came from the doorway.
‘You should not be in the kitchen. Do I need to remind you that your duty as manager of the hotel is to be front of house to greet the guests?’
Lissa spun round, and her heart leapt into her throat as she stared at Takis. It was too soon. He shouldn’t be here. Not yet. Not before she’d had time to steel herself.
‘I... I wasn’t expecting you,’ she stammered.
His brows rose but the expression on his hard-boned face was unreadable. ‘Evidently not,’ he drawled. ‘I arrived a little while ago and waited for you in your office. But I find you refereeing a fight between the kitchen staff.’
‘I—’
‘Are you going to call the staff agencies and request a replacement chef?’
‘The recruitment offices will be closed now.’
Takis frowned. ‘So what are you going to do?’
‘I’m sure we can manage,’ Lissa assured him, trying to sound more confident than she felt with the torrent of emotions building inside her. ‘I’ll see if I can get hold of Ben and persuade him to come back to work.’
‘Don’t bother. I never give second chances.’ Takis’s hard gaze swept around the room and every one of the staff stood a little straighter. ‘My name is Takis Samaras, and I am the new owner of Francine’s. Tonight you are all on trial. Do well, and you will keep your jobs. But if you fail to meet my expectations, you’re out.’
No one said a word, and everyone suddenly became very busy plating up the first course. Lissa hurried out of the kitchen after Takis. He was talking on his phone and she took the opportunity to study him.
He was wearing black trousers and a matching roll-neck sweater, topped with a black leather jacket, and he was as gorgeous and sexy as she remembered. She fancied that his face was leaner, his sharp cheekbones more pronounced, and the predatory gleam in his eyes made him look even more wolflike.
Her body responded to his rampant masculinity. Her nipples tightened and she felt an ache between her thighs. With a flash of despair she wondered why he still affected her so powerfully. Her hand moved involuntarily to her stomach and she tensed when Takis’s eyes roved over her. Would he guess her secret? She was conscious that her black velvet dress was a little tight over her breasts.
He slipped his phone into his jacket. ‘I’ve just spoken to the manager of the hotel I own in London. They have a chef available who could take the head chef’s place, but the journey time to Oxford is an hour and a half, and it would probably be nearer to two hours because of some local flooding where the river has burst its banks.’
Lissa suddenly remembered a gastropub beside the river that had had to close temporarily after the cellar had flooded. ‘I have an idea,’ she told Takis. She took out her phone and found the number for the White Hart. Five minutes later she had arranged with the pub’s manager for the head chef to work at Francine’s for the evening.
‘Good,’ Takis said when she explained that she had found a replacement chef. ‘But the argument between the kitchen staff should have been dealt with before now. It was your responsibility to take charge of the situation.’
‘Ben has had some personal problems...’
‘He should not have brought them into the workplace. Your role as general manager is to ensure the smooth running of the hotel. It is not only the kitchen staff who need to impress me if they want to keep their jobs. I expect one hundred percent commitment from everyone, including you.’
‘You’re a fine one to talk about commitment,’ Lissa burst out angrily.
His gaze narrowed on her flushed face. ‘I suggest you set aside your personal feelings while you are at work.’
‘That won’t be hard. I do not have any personal feelings for you.’
He closed the space between them and stared down at her. Lissa had forgotten how tall he was and felt glad that she was wearing four-inch heels.
‘We will continue this discussion later,’ Takis said in a low, intense voice that sent a quiver of awareness through her.
‘Don’t,’ she whispered, as much to her foolish pounding heart as to him. Her conscience prodded her to tell him about the baby they had conceived that night in Greece. But she could not bring herself to blurt out her momentous news while they were standing in the busy hotel foyer.
‘I must go...and do my job,’ she said stiltedly as she stepped away from him and hurried off to the cocktail bar to greet the town’s mayor and other local dignitaries.
Much to Lissa’s relief, there were no further problems, and the dinner-dance was a great success. The guests began to depart at midnight, but it was another hour before the last car to leave turned out of the hotel’s gates. Lissa went into the kitchen to check that the staff had transport home. She phoned for a taxi for one of the young waitresses who had stated her intention to walk through the city centre at night alone.
‘It’s only a ten-minute walk, Miss Buchanan. Taxi drivers charge the earth after midnight.’
‘I’ll pay for the taxi, Becky. I want to be sure you arrive home safely.’ Lissa glanced across the kitchen and discovered that Takis was leaning against a counter. He was frowning and she guessed he had overheard her conversation and no doubt disapproved. She would let him know that she had paid the waitress’s taxi fare personally, and not out of hotel expenses.
By the time she had locked the front door after everyone had gone, Lissa felt sick with tiredness, and her heart sank when she walked past her office and saw Takis sitting behind her desk. His desk now, she silently amended as she stepped into the room.
‘These are very good,’ he murmured, flicking through her folder of interior design ideas.
‘You have no right to look through my private folder,’ she said stiffly.
‘I do if you were working on your designs when you should have been carrying out your job as the hotel’s manager.’
‘Those particular sketches are my ideas for refurbishing some of the hotel’s bedrooms.’ Lissa bit her lip. ‘I heard you tell the staff at the end of the shift that their jobs are secure. But what about me? Will I continue to manage Francine’s?’
He drummed his fingers against the desk. ‘I plan to install an experienced manager from one of my other hotels. Francine’s is dated in the way it operates, and frankly it fails to provide the high quality of service that I demand.’
Shocked and dismayed, Lissa closed her eyes, desperate to stop the tears that threatened to spill from them. She couldn’t lose her job. Not now. When she opened her eyes again Takis had moved and was standing in front of her. ‘I proved tonight when I found a replacement chef that I can think on my feet. I’m good at my job. You can’t fire me,’ she pleaded.
He lifted his hand and tucked her hair behind her ear. ‘I have other plans for you, koúkla mou.’
The spicy scent of his aftershave assailed her senses, and a tremor ran through her when he slid his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face up to his. Lissa’s body responded wildly to the sensual promise glittering in his grey eyes as he lowered his mouth towards hers.
With a low cry she pulled away from him. ‘No. You don’t understand. I need my job at Francine’s because I... I’m pregnant.’
Takis rocked back on his heels but he said nothing. His muted reaction was worse than if he’d exploded in rage. Lissa wished he would say something. Anything would be better than his ominous silence.
‘Congratulations,’ he drawled at last. ‘Is the father of your child pleased?’
His voice dripped ice, and a shiver ran through Lissa. Did he really not understand what she was telling him?
Shakily she tried again. ‘You are the father. I’m having your baby, Takis.’ His furious expression shredded her nerves, but she continued. This time with conviction. ‘I realise that you probably don’t welcome the news. But I intend to support the child on my own. That’s why I’m asking you to allow me to keep my job.’