With the divorce cancelled, he’d still insisted on remarrying her and doing it right, with their family in attendance. He’d actually suggested that they wed immediately, poaching Bree and Vladimir’s half-eaten wedding cake, and grabbing the minister yawning at the bar. But rather than steal her sister’s thunder, Josie had gotten him to agree to a compromise.
Tearing up the pre-nup, they’d married three days later, at dawn, on the beach. The ceremony had been simple, and as they’d spoken vows to love, cherish and honor each other for the rest of their lives, the brilliant Hawaiian sun had burst through the clouds like a benediction.
Then, of course, this being Hawaii, the clouds had immediately poured rain, forcing the five of them—Josie, Kasimir, Bree, Vladimir and the minister—to take off at a run for the shelter of the resort, with their leis trailing flower petals behind them. And once at the hotel, Josie had discovered the ten-tiered wedding cake her husband had ordered her—enough for a thousand or two people, covered with white buttercream flowers and their intertwined initials.
Her husband’s sweet surprise was the most delicious cake of her life. Good thing too. Remembering, she gave a sudden grin. They were still eating wedding cake out of their freezer.
Josie glanced through the window in the door of her private room in the Honolulu hospital. In the hallway, she could see Bree pacing back and forth, a phone to her ear, telling Vladimir the happy news of the birth. Vladimir was still in St. Petersburg, finalizing the company’s move to Honolulu. They were a very high-powered couple. Bree was having the time of her life running the Hale Ka’nani resort, which was already up in profits, having become newly popular with tourists from Japan and Australia. Vladimir and Bree did hope to start a family someday, but for now, they were having too much fun working.
Not Josie, though. All she wanted was right here. She looked at Kasimir and their daughter. Right now. A home. A husband. A family.
“Am I doing this right?” Kasimir said anxiously, his shoulders hunched and stiff as he cradled his baby daughter.
She snorted, leaning forward to stroke the baby’s cheek with one hand. “You’re asking me? It’s not like I have more experience.”
“I’m a little nervous,” he confessed.
“You?” she teased. “Scared of an eight-pound baby?”
“Terrified.” He took a deep breath. “I’ve never been a father before. What if I do something wrong?”
She put her hand on his forearm. “It won’t matter.” Tears spilled over her lashes as she smiled, loving him so much her heart ached with it. “You’re the perfect father for her, because you love her.” She looked down at the sleeping newborn in his arms. “And Lois Marie loves you already.”
Kasimir’s eyes crinkled. “Lulu is the best baby in the world,” he agreed, using their baby’s nickname. They’d named her after the mother Josie had never known. The mother who, along with her father, she would always remember. Josie would honor them both by being true to her heart. By singing the song inside her.
Holding hands, Kasimir and Josie smiled at their perfect little daughter, marveling at her soft dark hair, at her tiny hands and plump cheeks.
Then a new thought occurred to Josie, and she suddenly looked up in alarm. “What if I’m the one who doesn’t know how to be a mother?” she asked.
“You?” Her husband gave a laugh that could properly be described as a guffaw. “Are you out of your mind? You’ll be the best mother who ever lived.” Cradling their tiny baby, securely nestled in the crook of his arm, he reached out a hand to cup Josie’s cheek. “And I promise you,” he whispered, “for the rest of my life, even if I make a mistake here or there, I’ll love you both with everything I’ve got. And if I screw up, or if we fight, I’ll always be the first to say I’m sorry.” He looked at her. “I give you my word.”
Reaching up, Josie wrapped her hand around his head, tangling her fingers in his dark hair. “Your word of honor?”
His eyes were dark. “Yes.”
She took a deep breath.
“Show me,” she whispered.
And as Kasimir lowered his head to hers, proving his words with a long, fervent kiss, Josie felt his vow in her heart like bright sun in winter. And she knew their bold, fearless life as a family, complicated and crazy and oh, so happy, had just begun.
* * * * *
The Greek Billionaire’s Baby Revenge
To Pete, the sexiest, smartest and best. Every day, I love you more.
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
EXCERPT
CHAPTER ONE
SNOW WAS FALLING so hard and fast that she could barely see through the windshield.
Anna Rostoff parked her old car in the front courtyard of the palace, near the crumbling stone fountain, and pulled on the brake. Her hands shook as she peeled them from the steering wheel. She’d nearly driven off the road twice in the storm, but she had the groceries and, more importantly, the medicine for her baby’s fever.
Taking a deep breath, she hefted the bag with one arm and climbed out into the night.
Cold air stung her cheeks as she padded through soft snow and ascended sweeping steps to the gilded double doors of the two-hundred-year-old palace. They were conserving electricity in favor of paying for food and diapers, so the windows were dark. Only a bare thread of moonlight illuminated the dark Russian forest.
We’re going to make it, Anna thought. It was April, and spring still seemed like a forlorn dream, but they had candles and a shed full of wood. Once she found work as a translator she’d be able to make a new life with her four-month-old baby and her young sister. After months of hell, things were finally looking up.
She lifted her keys to the door.
Her eyes went wide as a chill descended her spine. The front door was open.
Barely able to breathe, she pushed into the grand foyer. In the shadows above, an ancient, unseen chandelier chimed discordantly as whirling flurries of snow came in from behind, whipped by a cold north wind.
“Natalie?” Anna’s voice echoed down the hall.
In response, she heard a muffled scream.
She dropped the groceries. Potatoes tumbled out across the floor as she ran down the hall. Gasping, she shoved open the door into the back apartment.
A figure stood near the ceramic tile fireplace, his broad-shouldered form silhouetted darkly in the candlelight.
Nikos!
For one split second Anna’s heart soared in spite of everything. Then she saw the empty crib.
“They took the baby, Anna,” Natalie cried, her eyes owlish with fear behind her glasses. Two grim bodyguards, ruddy and devilish in the crackling firelight, flanked her sister on either side. She tried to leap from the high-backed chair, but one of Nikos’s men restrained her. “They came in while I was dozing and snatched him from his crib. I heard him cry out and tried to stop them—”
Misha. Oh, God, her son. Where was he? Held by some vicious henchman in the dark forest? Already spirited out of Russia to God knew where? Anna trembled all over. Her baby. Her sweet baby. Sick with desperation and fear, she turned to face the monster she’d once loved.
Nikos’s expression was stark, almost savage. The man who’d laughed with her in New York and Las Vegas, drinking ouzo and singing in Greek, had disappeared. In his place was a man without mercy. Even in the dim light she could see that. Olive-skinned and black-haired, he was as handsome as ever, but something had changed.
The crooked nose he’d broken in a childhood fight had once been the only imperfection in classic good looks. Now his face had an edge of fury—of cruelty. He’d always been strong, but there were hard planes to his body that hadn’t been there before. His shoulders were somehow broader, his arms wider, as if he’d spent the last four months beating his opponents to a pulp in the boxing ring. His cheekbones were razor-sharp, his arms thick with muscle, his blue eyes limitless and cold. Looking into his eyes was like staring into a half-frozen sea.
Once she’d loved him desperately; now she hated him, this man who had betrayed her. This man who, with kisses and sweet words whispered against her skin at night, had convinced her to betray herself.
“Hello, Anna.” Nikos’s voice was deep, dangerous, tightly controlled.
She rushed at him, grabbing the lapels of his black cashmere coat. “What have you done with my baby?” She tried to shake him, pounded on his chest. “Where is he?”
He grabbed her wrists. “He is no longer your concern.”
“Give me my child!”
“No.” His grip was grim, implacable.
She struggled in his arms. Once his touch had set her body aflame. No longer. Not now that she knew what kind of man he really was.