The Greek Billionaire's Innocent Princess (12 page)

disturbing presence. The jade silk skirt and close-fitting jacket had been Liss’s choice that made

the most of her curvy figure, and suited her colouring. As she studied her reflection she

wondered if Nikos would approve when he discovered that she was wearing nothing beneath her

suit other than a black lace bra and matching French knickers. From the sound of it he wanted

their marriage to be a proper one, and she could not deny that the sexual chemistry between them

was as strong as it had been on the night of the royal ball. But despite her desperate awareness of

him, she felt nervous at the prospect of sharing his bed when she barely knew him. For her, the

intimacy of making love was a big issue, but she had a feeling that Nikos regarded sex as the

single benefit of their enforced marriage.

Lost in her thoughts she walked back down the corridor, but as she turned the corner she

cannoned into Vasilis Sarondakos, and her heart sank.

‘You hardly look the joyful bride,’ he said mockingly. ‘What’s the matter, Kitty? Are you afraid

that if you leave your husband alone for too long his attention will stray—towards your sister

perhaps?’

Vasilis was drunk. His speech was slurred, and Kitty wrinkled her nose when she caught a waft

of alcohol on his breath. She had been dismayed to find his name on the guest list, but he was an

old family friend, and she’d reminded herself that after today she would probably never see him

again. She attempted to push past him, but he grabbed her arm and shoved her up against the

wall. ‘
Let go of me!
’ She tried to jerk free of his hold but Vasilis tightened his grip and laughed.

‘You have every reason to worry,’ he taunted. ‘Liss was blessed with more than her fair share of

good looks, and Nikos is a notorious playboy.’

‘Shut up, Vasilis!’ Kitty couldn’t quite banish her envy of her sister’s beauty, and she despised

herself. ‘There’s nothing going on between Liss and Nikos. He married me, didn’t he?’

‘Ah, but the reason for your hasty trip down the aisle isn’t as secret as you might wish,’ Vasilis

said with a sly wink. ‘But I’ve got to hand it to Angelaki—he’s even more of a ruthless social

climber than I realised, and he struck gold with you. Who else would have set out to deliberately

seduce a naïve, virgin princess, impregnate her with his child and then marry her pronto to spare

embarrassment to the royal family? I’m surprised Sebastian hasn’t knighted him for services

above and beyond the call of duty,’ Vasilis finished bitterly.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Kitty said faintly, reeling from Vasilis’s shocking statement. How on

earth did he know about her pregnancy? ‘What do you mean when you say Nikos is a social

climber?’ she demanded. ‘He’s a multimillionaire who heads his own hugely successful

company.’

‘A company that he inherited after he seduced another gullible woman,’ Vasilis said sneeringly.

‘It’s not only Hollywood starlets who sleep their way to the top. Nikos Angelaki was the

illegitimate son of a peasant woman. He grew up in the slums of Athens, and as a teenager he

was already involved with the criminal underworld.’ Vasilis paused when he saw Kitty’s

shocked expression, and gave an unpleasant smile. ‘I take it your new husband hasn’t told you

about his past? Ask him about the tattoo on his shoulder if you don’t believe me.

‘Somehow, Nikos met a millionairess, Larissa Petridis, daughter of the shipping magnate

Stamos Petridis,’ Vasilis continued. ‘Larissa had inherited her father’s company after his death.

She was a spinster with a penchant for good-looking young men. Rumour has it that she quickly

became besotted with charming, handsome Nikos, despite the fact that he was twenty years

younger than her. Nikos seized his chance to escape a life of poverty and he became her lover,

and when Larissa died a few years later she left Petridis Shipping to him. Not a bad prize for

being a stud to a lonely older woman, was it?’ Vasilis jeered.

Kitty felt dizzy as Vasilis’s poisonous words swirled in her mind, but she was determined not to

reveal her shock at his revelations by fainting, and she pressed her back against the wall for

support. ‘I don’t believe you,’ she muttered. ‘How do you know so much about Nikos?’

‘I hired someone to make a few enquiries,’ Vasilis said without a flicker of shame. ‘I like to

discover the skeletons in people’s closets. You never know when the information might come in

useful. I’ll show you the report my private eye filed on Angelaki if you like. It makes interesting

reading. Almost as interesting as this week’s edition of
Glamorous
magazine,’ Vasilis added,

grinning at Kitty’s puzzled expression.

‘Is there anything to
read
in a downmarket publication devoted entirely to celebrity gossip?’ she queried coldly.

‘Not much,’ Vasilis admitted, ‘but there are plenty of pictures showing what your new husband

was getting up to in the three weeks prior to your wedding.’

‘Nikos was in the US, working hard to tie up a business deal,’ Kitty said sharply.

‘Well, he was certainly working hard, but in the bedroom rather than the boardroom. Face it,

Kitty,’ Vasilis said nastily. ‘You’re not Angelaki’s type—which I guess is why he spent the last

weeks with his mistress, Shannon Marsh…here’s the evidence.’ He withdrew a copy of the

glossy magazine from his jacket pocket and flipped it open to a double page spread of

photographs showing Nikos and a stunning, tanned blonde.

In the photos Nikos looked bronzed and gorgeous with a lock of his dark hair falling across his

brow. He was relaxed and laughing with his beautiful companion and the obvious familiarity

between them tore at Kitty’s heart even more than the images of Shannon pressing her naked

breasts against Nikos’s muscular chest.

She snatched the magazine from Vasilis and scanned the short paragraph beneath the photos,

paling when her own name leapt from the page together with the speculation that, while Nikos

was about to marry a European princess, he was still clearly smitten with his American lover.

‘I told you that you should have married me.’ Vasilis swayed unsteadily. ‘I wouldn’t have

humiliated you on your wedding day. As it is, many of the guests here today have probably read

this over their breakfast this morning, and there’s fevered speculation among them about the real

reason why Nikos hurried you down the aisle.’

A wave of nausea swept over Kitty at Vasilis’s words and her fragile self-confidence shattered.

The wedding guests hadn’t stared at her in the chapel because she’d been transformed into a

beautiful bride—they had been comparing her to Shannon Marsh, whose stunning figure was

revealed in all its lissom glory in a magazine that had worldwide circulation.

And what about Nikos, and his apparent eagerness to take her to bed—how could he possibly

desire her when he had Shannon waiting for him in America? She would be a poor consolation

prize, Kitty thought miserably.

She jerked out of Vasilis’s hold, and felt no sympathy when he stumbled drunkenly. She was

shocked to realise that her whole body was shaking with reaction. The tension wouldn’t be good

for the baby, and the knowledge forced her to take a ragged breath. The baby was the only thing

that mattered, the only reason she had married Nikos, and from now on she would concentrate all

her energies on the tiny scrap of life growing inside her.

‘Angelaki only married you for the kudos of having a royal bride.’

Vasilis’s spiteful taunt followed Kitty as she walked slowly back down the stairs, but she did not

pause or look back. She knew exactly why Nikos had made her his wife. He wanted his child.

But he had told her once that he valued his freedom above everything, and the magazine photos

were clear evidence that he had no intention of taking his marriage vows seriously.

KITTYhad been taught from an early age that members of the royal family never displayed their

emotions in public, and the training proved invaluable for the remainder of the reception.

Somehow she managed to smile at the well-wishers who crowded onto the palace lawn where

Nikos’s helicopter was waiting, and she was confident she had fooled Sebastian and the queen

that she was happy to be leaving Aristo for her new life in Greece.

As soon as the helicopter took off she closed her eyes and feigned sleep, unable to face Nikos.

She reminded herself that in the days before their wedding he had been free to do as he chose—

even if that meant cavorting on a public beach with his half-naked lover—but she felt deeply

humiliated that he had flaunted his affair so openly.

As for Vasilis’s story about Nikos’s past—she did not know what to think. Knowing Vasilis’s

warped personality as she did, it was entirely likely that he had employed an investigator to dig

up any dirt on Nikos, and she supposed the facts would be easy to verify. She did not care if

Nikos came from a poor background, but the idea that he had acquired his wealth and success

because he had played on the emotions of a rich older woman filled her with dismay.

Her thoughts tormented her as the helicopter flew over the sea, and her heart ached as Aristo

faded to a tiny speck in the distance. Nikos had been speaking to the pilot, but now he came and

sat down next to her, and despite everything she had learned of him her senses quivered at his

nearness. She felt his gaze on her and squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Tension gripped her but

after a few moments she heard him sigh, and when she peeped at him she saw he was engrossed

in his newspaper.

Nikos lived in the heart of Athens in an imposing tower block that loomed high above the busy

city streets. It was a far cry from the peace and tranquillity of Aristo, and Kitty felt a pang of

homesickness when his chauffeur-driven limousine turned into the underground car park beneath

his apartment.

‘When I am at work my driver, Stavros, will take you to wherever you wish to go. He is a

trained bodyguard and you are not to leave the apartment without him,’ Nikos told her when they

stepped into the lift.

‘I didn’t have a bodyguard on Aristo and I won’t need one here,’ Kitty argued, startled.

‘It’s different on Aristo. All the members of the royal family are well loved by the Aristan

people, and no one would ever harm you there. But here in Athens you are already something of

a talking point,’ Nikos said tersely. ‘People, especially the press, are fascinated by the idea of

having a princess in their midst. You can’t have missed the paparazzi who tailed us from the

airport. Your photograph will be on the front pages of all tomorrow’s papers, and unfortunately

that level of interest isn’t always healthy.’

Kitty frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that there are some individuals who resent my wealth, and yours,’ he told her grimly. ‘I

don’t wish to scare you, Kitty, but you have to be aware of the possibility of kidnap—a

possibility that is reduced to zero if you do as you are told and always stay close to Stavros.’

He had instructed Stavros to tail her every move, but not only to ensure her safety, Nikos

brooded. Kitty had insisted she wanted the baby, but he was taking no chances—he would know

her whereabouts every minute of the day.

The expression on Nikos’s face warned Kitty to say no more on the subject of a bodyguard, but

her heart sank. She had thought she would have more freedom here in Athens, away from the

stiff protocol of palace life, but it seemed that she had swapped one prison for another, and she

was to have her own personal jailer.

The lift halted at the top floor, and Nikos took her by surprise when he swept her into his arms

and carried her into his apartment. ‘Now you are truly my bride,’ he murmured, frowning

slightly when he noted how she had stiffened at his touch.

His words settled like concrete in Kitty’s stomach as she wondered if he was intending to carry

her on into his bedroom and make her his wife in the time-honoured fashion. She could not

forget the magazine pictures of him and Shannon Marsh, and she wriggled in his arms so that he

was forced to set her on her feet. ‘I’m too heavy for you,’ she muttered. ‘I’ll break your back.’

‘I think that is unlikely,
agape
,’ he drawled, his eyes narrowing when she refused to meet his gaze. It was the first time she had visited his home, and it was perhaps natural that she seemed

tense, Nikos told himself. And of course she wasn’t merely visiting, this would be her home too

now, and it must seem very different from what she was used to. His penthouse apartment was

luxurious but it was not a royal palace.

They would both have to make adjustments, he acknowledged. He liked his space, and since his

divorce had never invited any of his lovers to spend a night at the apartment. Now Kitty would

be living here; but she was his wife, not his mistress, and he could not expect their relationship to only be confined to the bedroom. Presumably they would eat breakfast together every morning,

and dine together when he returned home in the evening, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about

sharing his private domain. He had been alone for so long that it had become his way of life, but

in a few months from now the baby would be here, and he felt a fierce jolt of excitement as he

imagined life with his child.