ROMANCE: THE SHEIKH'S GAMES: A Sheikh Romance (59 page)

This wasn’t at all what he had planned, and he didn’t like taking advantage of this girl’s grief, but he was going to do what he needed to do.

Simon was waiting at the airstrip when the plane landed. That wasn’t what Kosta had planned either, but he figured he might as well make the best of it. Athena flew into Simon’s arms. Simon hugged her, all the while glaring at Kosta over her shoulder.

The Dimitrios girl was there too, looking upset, but she approached Kosta while the others huddled together in their grief. “I’m Eirene, Simon’s fiancee.”

“Kosta Petrakos,” he told her, using his real name instead of the one he’d done business with. “I couldn’t get much detail out of Athena, and I didn’t want to badger her, but—”

“Their parents were killed in a helicopter crash.” She must have seen Kosta wince because she said, “From what I understand, it was pilot error. He flew too close to some power lines.”

“I’m so sorry. What a shame. Athena had been telling me about your engagement party just before she got the call.”

“No,” Eirene sighed. “We’ll behaving a funeral instead. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Kosta managed to look embarrassed. “Look, I’d planned to fly into Athens before Athena invited me to fly with her. Is there some way for me to… uh…”

“Why don’t you come on up to the house with us and we’ll sort that out? Unless you’re in a huge hurry.”

“I don’t want to impose at a moment like this,” Kosta told her, actually sounding sincere. “It was just bad luck that I was on the plane today.”

“Nonsense. It was good for Athena to have someone to hold her hand.”

As if on cue, Athena turned and took Kosta by the hand. “I want to introduce my friend, Kosta Petrakos. He’s been so kind.” She looked up at him with adoring eyes and he knew he had her if he wanted her.

On the other hand, Simon glared.

“I guess you’ve met my almost sister-in-law, Eirene Dimitrios. This is my brother, Simon.”

“Good to meet you, Simon.” Kosta extended a hand and Simon continued to glare.

“Simon?”

“You’ve all had a terrible loss. Someone point me toward Athens.”

“It’s over there.” Simon said, pointing.

“Is he supposed to swim?” Eirene joked, though clearly she was uncomfortable with Simon’s bad manners. “Let’s see if we can’t get him on a plane.”

“Or a helicopter,” Simon muttered.

“Can’t he stay?” Athena asked plaintively.

“No, Athena,” Kosta told her. “Not right now. This time is for family.”

Simon finally gave orders to have someone fly Kosta on to Athens, then herded the women into the car and drove off without a backward look.

Kosta knew he’d be hearing from Simon quite soon. And in fact, he’d barely arrived at his hotel in Athens before his cell rang.

“What the hell are you doing?” Simon hissed.

“Checking into my hotel.”

“I mean with my sister. Why were you on that plane?”

“She invited me. I told her I was headed back to Ath—”

“You know what I mean!”

“We’re friends. I hope that’s not a problem for you.”

“You stay away from her,” Simon warned.

“I think that’s up to Athena.”

“No it’s not. Don’t make me—”

“What? Tell her what we’ve been getting up to? Selling contraband? Selling artifacts on the black market? You can’t warn her away from me without exposing yourself, rich boy, so go on ahead.”

“I’ll tell her something else.”

“She won’t believe you.”

“Fuck you, Kosta. You stay far away from my family.”

“But will they stay far away from me?” he asked. What do you think?”

The connection broke and Kosta smiled. All he really had to do was wait and Athena would come to him.

The next few days were nightmarish for everyone, but particularly for Simon who now had Athena to worry about. But with Kosta in Athens and Athena on Halithos, there wasn’t much danger of mischief. He could deal with them after the funeral.

It was an enormous funeral, too. Friends, relatives, and business associates came from all over the world to pay their respects. And a staggering number chose to remind Simon of the one thing he didn’t want to think about at all: He was now head of the family, and the owner of the Katsaros Company. He didn’t know the first thing about the business, but he was being flung headlong into it. It made him feel quite ill to think about how he was going to handle things.

Eirene noticed, understood, and stood by him. In quiet moments when it was just the two of them, sitting close and holding hands, she would remind him that she was there for him, that she’d help in any way she could.

“Let’s get married.”

“We will.”

“No… not the big wedding. I can’t do that. Let’s just elope. I want to be married to you, but I can’t bear the thought of going through with all that fuss.”

She squeezed his hand. “Whatever you want, I want,” she assured him. “We’ll wait a week or two and then just slip off and do it quietly, all right?”

“Perfect.” He kissed her softly, wondering if their nascent sex life would ever recover from the blow grief had dealt it. They had only just become lovers before the engagement, and were still terribly tentative with each other. After Nick and Helena died, Simon had withdrawn physically, unable to find a way through the terrible fog of misery that hung over him. Eirene understood. She never pressured him, never complained. But Simon felt as if he’d never want to make love to anyone, not even Eirene, again.

He had tried to raise the subject with her, talk about his concerns, but her reply had been a quiet one. “Love is patient,” she’d said. But what if patience wasn’t enough? He felt so emptied out by grief that he wondered if he could even still love. Was what he thought he felt for Eirene and Athena love or just a habit of mind?

Beyond that, he was consumed by guilt. He wondered how he could have prevented their deaths even knowing that it was so far outside of his control that even thinking those thoughts was verging on crazy. He felt guilty for not having spent more time with them. He had lived his empty, selfish life, always assuming that they’d be there when he felt like spending time with them.

And he felt guilty for his ties to Kosta, for the business he had become involved in. He’d known that there was more to it than Kosta had ever said, that it was no nearly as benign as he’d wanted to believe. But a part of him had always felt that if he simply looked the other way, he wasn’t as culpable as Kosta, that his hands would stay cleaner. Now he saw so clearly how wrong he’d been, how misguided. When he thought about what his parents would have said about it… what they might be thinking of him if they were watching him from Heaven (And he had no doubt that’s where they had gone.), and it made him feel sick with guilt.

His depression deepened over the days following the funeral until he could barely get out of bed. That was when Eirene put her foot down. She told him he had to get up and go talk to a doctor. She couldn’t marry someone who wouldn’t be a partner.

For love of her, Simon stirred himself.

It was such a relief when Simon finally sought some help for his depression. Though Eirene had never lost anyone who was as close to her as Simon’s parents had been to him, she understood how devastating the loss could be. Athena worked it out with tears and anger, spending hours a day in the gym, or jogging around the island. She exhausted herself and little-by-little Eirene saw Athena’s grief begin to resolve itself into acceptance.

But Simon couldn’t seem to move on. Certainly the weight of the Katsaros empire was heavy on him now, and contributed to his anxiety. But the longer he went without resolution, the worse this was going to become. So Eirene marched into his bedroom one morning and told him that if he didn’t get up and go get help, she was calling off the engagement.

She’d made an appointment for him and she said she’d take him to see the doctor. She would do everything she could to help, but Simon had to help himself. When he got up and got dressed, her relief was palpable.

The first step was medication, and within days she could see an improvement. Simon’s anxiety ebbed and he became more his old self. She could tell that he was still having dark moments, and that he was having a hard time motivating himself, but the most crippling part of his condition was resolving itself.

Athena went back to school. Simon seemed reluctant to let her go, but in the end, he’d said, “Please don’t do anything rash, Athena. And your friend? Please be careful there.” But he never explained what he meant. When asked, he simply looked tired and said, “Please trust me on this.”

Several months after the funeral, just a few weeks shy of the date they’d originally set for the wedding, Simon and Eirene were married quietly on Halithos. Athena flew back in from London, alone this time, and Eirene’s family attended. It was not the joyous affair Eirene had hoped for, but it wasn’t the somber one she’d feared. Simon seemed in better spirits, even a bit frisky.

She really didn’t know what to expect from the wedding night. Their sex life had been cut so short by the tragedy and Simon’s depression that if nothing at all happened between them beyond a kiss or two, she wouldn’t have been too surprised. She was prepared to wait for him, but at the same time, she missed his touch.

As lovers, they had only just begun to know each other. Their lovemaking had been tentative. Exciting, yes, but still so new, and so tied up with learning about each other that it had never become full and rich. She wanted to know Simon inside out. She wanted to explore every possible avenue of desire with him, to find the deepest wellsprings of passion.

But she was willing to wait. He was there with her; they would find each other again.

That night, they went up to their bedroom and Simon sat down on the bed. He patted the spot beside himself and said, “Come and sit, my darling.”

Eirene sat beside him.

“I have so much to atone for,” he began.

“No. Oh no, Simon, you have nothing to be sorry for.” She touched his cheek and he leaned into it. “You are coping with a huge loss, and I understand that.”

“You are so good for me,” he told her. “You are my best medicine.” He leaned in and kissed her softly.

They had shared kisses, many of them, but this one felt promising, as if they were moving toward something. When he kissed her again, cupping her face in his hands, she knew she’d been right. He was ready to try again, ready to be her husband and her lover.

He touched the silk of her dress with tender fingers, as if it was an extension of her flesh, and she felt it slip off her shoulder to pool on her lap, baring her breasts. He smiled as he looked at them. “So beautiful,” he murmured, touching one nipple with his thumb. Such a soft touch, but it was enough to send a thrill of pleasure coursing through Eirene like an electric shock. She shivered, grasped his hand and pressed it to her breast, letting him cup it.

“I love it when you touch me,” she whispered before they kissed, this time with more heat.

She unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, then pressed herself against him, bare chest to bare chest, feeling the silk of his dark hair against her breasts. Her breathing was becoming ragged as they embraced, fell back onto the bed. How she had missed this, missed his touch, so gentle and rough by turns, missed his deep, longing kisses, and the warm, musky scent of his desire.

They wriggled free of their clothing and Eirene lay back thighs spread wide, inviting him into her. He studied her and for a moment she wondered if perhaps he was not ready. But she looked downward to where his thick cock was rising from the dark curls between his legs and she knew he was not hesitating, but rather appreciating her body, taking in the sight of her open and wet and ready for him, hungry for him.

He touched her softly, spreading her lightly furred lips, and teased her clitoris with practiced fingers. She had reason to be grateful to the women who came before and taught him how to play a woman’s body like a fine instrument.

His fingers entered her. She surged up and gasped, and Simon laughed with such happiness that she thought perhaps they had passed the worst of it. And then he knelt between her legs and entered her slowly, carefully, filling her, spreading her open. As he moved inside her, she made little mewling noises of pleasure, a pleasure that grew and grew until she thought that there must be a release soon or she might die of it.

And then she felt it, the hot gush of his seed into her, and it was enough, too much, just the push she needed to explode into orgasm, crying out because the feelings were bursting out of her, not just the sexual release, but joy and adoration, and even faith in what the future held for them. She cried out “Simon!” and fell back onto the bed, gasping, legs locked around his waist. And Simon slumped down on top of her, his chest working like a bellows.

“Oh God,” he moaned, “that was… I’ve never…” He laid his hand on her face and turned her head so that he could look into her eyes. “You are the best thing that ever happened to me,” he whispered, still breathless.

Eirene wondered if you could die of happiness.

The wedding felt like a rebirth to Simon. Depression had been savage, stealing months of his life, forcing him to go through the motions without actually feeling anything. He learned how to do his job but did it without joy. He spent time with Eirene, and was grateful, but again, it was joyless. And it shouldn’t have been. Being with her should have been transcendent. She should have enriched his days and nights instead of simply keeping him anchored to life.

And Athena? He should have cared that she had been befriended by Kosta, but somehow it was impossible. He thought of the two of them together and felt nothing. He could not protect her beyond telling her, before she left for London after the funeral, that he had met Kosta and knew him to be unreliable. To her credit, she had said, “I’ll take that into account. Thank you.”

Perhaps she was growing up. The old Athena would have argued with him, challenged him, flouted Kosta and insisted that she would do whatever she wanted. Perhaps grief had matured her as well, or perhaps she was simply humoring Simon. Whichever it was, he found he couldn’t worry about it.