The Greek Billionaires Love-Child

Trousers, dresses, jackets and shoes, shoes, shoes—shoes with high heels, shoes with ribbons and bows, pink shoes, gold shoes—silk bags and boxes lined the floor.

Ella tried on what felt like the entire contents of the store and after about five minutes the girl abandoned her stiff reserve and opened up.

‘So you’re going to the ball tonight,’ the girl murmured enviously, leaning forward to adjust the lie of a dress. ‘Lucky you.’

‘Do you think so?’ Ella turned sideways to look in the mirror. ‘What do you think of this?’

‘I think I envy you,’ the girl said dreamily. ‘I’d give just about anything for one night with Nikos Mariakos.’

Ella felt her stomach lurch. ‘You know him?’

‘Of course. He’s rich, eligible and gorgeous. His brother shops here, and his sister. That dress is too tight at the waist.’ She frowned for a moment and then looked at Ella with dawning understanding. ‘Are you…?’

‘Eating too many doughnuts,’ Ella said quickly, sensing that Nikos wouldn’t want her pregnancy confirmed.

‘Right, well, that sort of waist isn’t going to work on you, but I think I have something else. It has two tiny straps made from crystals—not cheap, but that’s not going to bother anyone with Mariakos as their surname.’

In the end Ella came away with an entire new wardrobe and although she tried to apologise frantically for the amount she’d spent, Nikos didn’t seem remotely interested in the details.

‘Did you find something to wear tonight?’

Thinking of the gorgeous dress that she’d fallen in love with, Ella smiled. ‘Yes.’ And she was excited about wearing it. And the shoes. And then she remembered the girl. ‘I think she guessed I was pregnant. I tried saying that I’d just put on some weight but she didn’t look convinced.’

Nikos’s mouth tightened. ‘Theos mou, it hadn’t occurred to me that she might notice. It will upset my family greatly if news of your pregnancy reaches the press before news of our engagement.’

‘Are you sure they’d care?’ It was an alien concept for Ella. He looked at her thoughtfully.

‘They would care. They are very old-fashioned. And very eager to meet you.’

‘They know about me?’ Ella shrank at the thought. ‘You’ve told them about the baby?’

‘Of course. I am going to be a father. Naturally, this is something that I would share with my family. It is a cause for celebration, not apology.’ He frowned and drew her towards him. ‘Why would you be surprised about that?’

‘I don’t know. I suppose I didn’t realise that you’re that close to your family.’ It was an alien concept to her.

‘We’re Greek,’ he said, as if that explained everything. ‘Greeks argue and interfere with each other, but families stick together.’

Ella thought of her own brief experience of family life. She thought of her fractured, twisted, grossly dysfunctional family unit.

It was so different from the model he described.

She found herself thinking about the picture he’d painted of a noisy, interfering extended family and wondering what it would be like to be part of something like that.

She really had no idea.

CHAPTER SEVEN

NIKOS paced the length of the suite, waiting for Ella to come out of the room. She’d been in there for hours, he thought grimly, glancing at his watch. What the hell was she doing? He’d arranged for the hairdresser to come to the suite so she hadn’t had to do that herself.

How long did it take to pull on a dress?

It crossed his mind that she might have tied the sheets together and escaped out of the window.

With a flash of exasperation he rubbed the tips of his fingers over his forehead.

Tonight he was going to break down those barriers, he promised himself. By the end of the evening, she was going to be wearing his ring.

‘Nikos?’ Her voice was hesitant and he turned sharply to see her standing there, barely recognisable as the sweet, competent nurse he was used to seeing dressed in theatre scrubs or faded jeans.

Her blonde hair had been swept up in a modern style and a sheath of silver fell from two glittering straps to pool on the floor.

Feeling an explosion of sexual attraction, Nikos trailed his eyes down her trembling frame, fully intending to scrutinise every shimmering centimetre of her lush body. But his eyes refused to move from the creamy curves of her breasts, partially revealed by the gentle dip at the front of the dress.