CHAPTER SIX
ANNA FELT AS IF she’d just been suckerpunched.
“Replace me?” She thrust the résumé back at him, as if it burned her fingers. “Why would I help you replace me? This job was my life. Why would I help you give it away? I’m not going to lift a finger for you.”
“Good point,” he said briskly, then pushed another official document toward her. “Would this convince you?”
She picked up the attached papers, frowning. “Another résumé will hardly—”
But, as she read the first words on the page, her jaw fell open and she collapsed back against the hard wooden chair.
“It’s a custody agreement,” she gasped when she could speak.
“Yes,” he said pleasantly.
She fumbled through the pages, but her hands were shaking and the paper clip fell to the floor. Bending to pick it up, she looked up at him. “You’re going to give me joint custody?”
“Call it incentive.”
“What do you want in return?” she said guardedly.
“I’ll sign the custody agreement if you help me find a good executive assistant within ten days.”
She stared at him. “That’s all? I just have to help you find a new secretary and you’ll give me joint custody of Misha? You’ll let me leave?”
He gave a graceful shrug. “I’m a desperate man. I need this settled by the time I leave for Singapore.”
She could hardly believe her ears. It was way too good to be true. “I thought you said you were going to make me suffer for betraying you?”
“As I said yesterday, I’ve come to appreciate your love and care for my son.”
Yeah, right. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“So suspicious,” he said, then closed his laptop with a sigh. “You will, of course, agree never to see Victor Sinistyn again.”
She nearly laughed aloud. At last it made sense. Perhaps he did want her help finding a new secretary, but it was Victor that really worried him. Her plan had worked better than she’d ever dared dream.
She opened her mouth to tell him she’d be perfectly happy to cross Victor’s name permanently off her Christmas card list, but closed it as another thought occurred to her.
What if Nikos changed his mind before she found him a new assistant and he signed the custody agreement? If she agreed to stop seeing Victor she’d lose her only hold on Nikos. She couldn’t play out her hand so easily.
“I’m not sure I can do that.” She tilted her head, as if considering his offer. “Victor is a hard man to forget.”
She saw a glint of something hard and flinty in Nikos’s eyes, then it was veiled beneath a studiously careless expression. “It’s your choice, of course.”
“Whether I’m friends with Victor?”
“Whether you want joint custody of our son.”
Hardly able to believe her own daring, she said, “Of course I do. But I’ll need more than your signature on a custody agreement to give up a man who might be the love of my life.”
His eyes were decidedly hard now, glittering like coal turning to diamonds under pressure. “What do you want?”
“You want a new secretary to replace me. Understandable. I want a new boss to replace you. Give me a glowing reference so I can find a good job in New York.”
“I never agreed you could take our son to New York.”
“What do you care? You’ll be in Singapore—”
“And you’ll never need to work again,” he interrupted, not listening. “I will supply you with all the money you could possibly need to raise our child in comfort. Do not insult me.”
“It’s hardly an insult to wish to work.”
“Your job now is to take care of our son.”
“That’s your job too, since you’re his parent as well, but I haven’t noticed you putting Stavrakis Resorts up for sale.”
“The company is my son’s legacy,” he said. “I have no choice but to work.”
“Neither do I.”
“I will always support Michael. And you as well, for the rest of your life. I protect what is mine. You need never fear for money again.”
“And my family, too? Will you support my mother and sister for all their lives as well?”
“A reasonable amount...” he started, then his gaze sharpened. “Why do you ask? Is your family in some kind of trouble?”
She really didn’t want to discuss this. Backtracking furiously, she said, “I appreciate your offer of support, Nikos, I really do, but I don’t want to be beholden to you for the rest of my life.”
He drummed his fingers impatiently on the table. “So let me get this straight. You want our son to be raised by a nanny just so you can work as a secretary?”
“Are you implying my job is less important than yours?” she countered.
“No, I’m flat-out saying it. Stavrakis Resorts has thousands of employees around the world, all depending on the company for their salary. It’s not even close to the same. In your case, I think the world can survive with one less typist.”
“You know perfectly well there’s more to what I do!” she said, outraged.
“Nothing in your job description could possibly be as important as—” He visibly restrained himself. He sat back in his leather chair and gave her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Anna, there’s no reason we have to discuss this now. Until you help me find your replacement, it’s all a moot point.”
“I want to discuss it now,” she said mutinously.
He sat in stillness, then gave a sigh. “Fine. Find me a new secretary—a good one—and I’ll give you your job reference, if that’s really what you want. God knows you deserve it.”
“Even though I was just a typist?”
“You know I didn’t mean that.” He scowled. “Let me explain.”
That surprised her. Nikos never explained, he just gave orders. “I’m listening.”
Raking back his hair, he looked through the window. Outside, a gardener was riding a lawn mower across the expansive heavily watered lawn, a slash of green against barren brown mountains and harsh blue sky. “I barely saw my mother growing up. She was always working three jobs to keep a roof over our heads. By the time I was old enough to help support us she’d died. I never knew her except as a pale ghost with a broken heart.”
He looked at Anna. “I never want my son, or you, to endure that kind of wretched life. I know I’ve given you no reason to accept anything from me, but please let me do this one thing. Let me give Michael the happy childhood I never had.”
Anna swallowed. It was hard to ignore a plea like that. And harder still to ignore the pleas of her own heart. She didn’t want to leave her baby all day long so she could go to work, but what choice did she have? It was either work or beg money from Nikos for the rest of her life.
But maybe it wouldn’t be like that.
Stupid to even consider it. She’d trusted Nikos once before and she’d just been abandoned, fired, cheated on...
He never cheated on me, a voice whispered. And, no matter how misguided and Neanderthal his attempts were, he was only trying to keep us both comfortable and safe.
She stomped on the thought. She wouldn’t let herself weaken now and start going soft again. She wouldn’t let Nikos get under her skin, no matter how vulnerable he looked asking for her help, or how warm his eyes had glowed when he’d laughed with their son. She wouldn’t let herself fall back in love, no matter how wonderful he seemed to be at this moment.
She snatched the résumé back out of his hands, eager for distraction from her thoughts. “This is the job candidate you plan to interview first?”
“Yes, I thought—”
Skimming the page, she nearly jumped out of her chair. “Have you totally lost your mind? She has no secretarial experience. Her references are a strip club and—” she squinted her eyes “—a place called the Hot Mustang Ranch.”
“I was trying to keep an open mind,” he said defensively. “Your reference was Victor Sinistyn, but you were still the best damn secretary I’ve ever had.”
“But there are three typos on her résumé. Even Lindsey wasn’t this bad.” She crumpled up the paper in her hands. “There’s no point even doing an interview—not unless you need an erotic dancer with bordello experience.”
“Fine,” he said gruffly. “I’ll have her sent away. Maybe your friend Victor will hire her at one of his clubs.”
He held out his hand for the paper. As their fingers touched their eyes met, and an electric shock went through her. He looked at her so hungrily. She waited for him to take her in his arms, to kiss her senseless. To reach across the mahogany desk and take what she’d been aching for him to take.