Kostas's Convenient Bride

“Do you want me to get a picture of you here?” he asked, his tone even.

See him not even mention the texting.

She looked around, biting her lip, clearly torn. “It’s so busy.”

“We’ll wait as long as it takes to get a good shot.”

Her smile was worth his promise and the patience he’d promised.

“I want another one in the middle of the bridge, okay?” she asked when they were done.

“Sure.”

Her phone buzzed as he handed it over. She looked down, a small tilt of her lips saying she liked whatever she saw on the screen. She typed something again.

Andreas felt a frown forming. Whom was she talking to? He didn’t ask, striving manfully to respect boundaries.

She should appreciate his restraint.

They started their walk across the bridge, needing to stop every few feet for another perfect picture of the view, or the structure, and more than once she wanted him to allow her to take his photo too. She also continued texting with someone.

They reached midway and she wanted another photo, this time with him. “You take it. You have longer reach, you’ll get more of the bridge in.”

He grabbed her phone, sliding his finger over the pattern that would unlock it. It was still open to the text app from her last message.

She was chatting with that damn actor. Who else would have the screen name OnBroadway?

Another man might have clicked out of the app. But Andreas’s respect for boundaries only went so far. It was not as if she had never read his texts before and vice versa. If she didn’t want him reading her messages, she should have shut the app before handing him her phone.

Andreas scrolled up to scan the discussion.

OnBroadway: My sister showed me a steamy pic.

Codergirl: Your sis needs to mind her own biz.

OnBroadway: Looks like you and the boss man are friends again.

Andreas smiled to himself. And then some. The ride in the back of the private cab had gone even better than he had anticipated when he’d closed the privacy screen. But then the passion between them had always been incendiary. It had taken every ounce of Andreas’s self-control not to demand the driver take them to the hotel, instead of getting out at the bridge.

Codergirl: I guess we never stopped.

Well, at least she admitted their relationship wasn’t something that could simply stop at the click of her fingers.

OnBroadway: That’s so sweet.

Andreas grunted.

Codergirl: Don’t mock.

OnBroadway: My sister’s mad at you.

Codergirl: Andreas isn’t happy with you either.

OnBroadway: Maybe we should all get together for a meal while you’re in town.

“No way in hell!”

Andreas would share a table with the man who had designs on Kayla the day he changed his name back to Georgas and gave his wealth away to his cousins.

Kayla grabbed his wrist of the hand with her phone in it. “What are you doing? Are you reading my texts?”

“We are not going on a double date with Jacob and his sister.” He gave Kayla a look to let her know he was serious about this. “I have no interest in the woman and you have none in the brother.”

“Are you sure, Andreas? I’m pretty certain she would tick all of Genevieve’s boxes for you.”

“I told you, Genevieve and her boxes are no longer an issue for me.”

“I see.”

“And you aren’t interested in that Broadway actor.” He needed to hear her confirm that. It shouldn’t be too hard for her to do, not after what they’d done in the car.

“I’m not, am I?” she asked, her tone teasing, her expression assessing.

“You are not.” He was nothing but serious.

The little tease laughed.

He felt his temper rise and opened his mouth to remind her just who she had been showing interest in, in the not-so-distant past, but her expression shifted, went thoughtful and soft.

She placed her fingertip on his lips. “No, Andreas, I’m not interested in Jacob.”

“I knew you were not.” That was not relief he felt, more likely heartburn from something they’d eaten at lunch.

They wouldn’t be eating at that restaurant again, no matter how beautiful the view.

“Are you going to take our selfie now?”

He put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her body tight into his and did just that. He kept his arm around her after.

* * *

Kayla followed Andreas down the steps off the bridge, still reeling from what had happened earlier. His touchy-feely, all-possessive boyfriend-like behavior as they walked across the Manhattan-to-Brooklyn landmark hadn’t helped her sense of unreality either.

The texts from a near stranger, who felt like a new friend, seemed like her only link to planet Earth.

“Where to now?”

“You assume I have a plan?”

“You always have a plan.”

“We’re going to DUMBO.”

“Like the elephant?” Andreas was not a cartoon-movie guy.

He made a scoffing sound. “Like Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass. There’s shopping.” He said it like he knew that would be a selling point with her.

Of course, he was right. Even when she didn’t buy anything, she loved to window-shop. “But it’s the Brooklyn Bridge.”

“I did not name the neighborhood.”

She laughed, delighted by the tinge of annoyance in his voice, even as his hand held tightly to her own.

DU

MBO turned out to be an amazing district with old converted brick warehouses now filled with living space, shops and restaurants. Some of the streets were cobbled, old freight-train tracks interspersed amid the stones.

They were browsing in a bookshop, Andreas lost in the DIY section, his guilty pleasure. He read them like Kayla read romance novels, with intense fascination and no hope of experiencing the culmination of what was between the pages.

Andreas Kostas was too busy conquering the world to build his own coffee table out of pallets, much less enjoy having such a thing in his living room. Kayla didn’t foresee herself ever getting her happily-ever-after with the man of her dreams either.

Her phone buzzed with another text.

OnBroadway: You never answered my last text.

Codergirl: Andreas wasn’t keen.

More like no way, no how, but she figured Jacob would get the subtext. He’d met Andreas, after all.

OnBroadway: He wouldn’t be.

Codergirl: He wants to work on our friendship.

OnBroadway: Looks like he’s working on more than friendship.

Kayla sighed and sat down in one of the chairs provided for book browsers before replying.

Codergirl: He doesn’t know what he wants.

Except she was pretty sure Andreas wanted sex. Hot, extremely satisfying sex.

It took a few seconds longer than she expected for the next reply.

OnBroadway: I think he does. Do you?

Now it was Kayla’s turn to stop and think. Did she know what she wanted? In broad strokes, sure. She wanted security for her place at KJ Software; she wanted Andreas in her life. She could admit that.

But could she afford to want him? Specifically, sex with him.

Her phone buzzed. Another text.

OnBroadway: That silence? Maybe that’s your answer.

Codergirl: ?

OnBroadway: Those words you can’t make yourself say.

Codergirl: You’re kind of smart.

OnBroadway: Just kind of?

Codergirl: Egotistical.

OnBroadway: Hey, my ego’s taken a big enough hit because of a certain beautiful geek.

Codergirl: I’m sorry.

OnBroadway: Don’t be. We’re going to be good friends.

She smiled. She kind of thought they were already on their way there.