The Greek Billionaire's Innocent Princess (21 page)

‘I told you that I inherited Petridis Shipping from Larissa.’ He broke the silence that had fallen

between them. ‘But I did not want Larissa’s personal fortune, I was determined to make my own,

and so I put her money into a charitable fund which provides financial support to a number of

causes, including, as it happens, the youth centre you visited today. I have never met Father

Thomaso, but I know of his work and I have already organised for Larissa’s charitable fund to

make a significant donation to his centre.’

Something flared in his eyes, a new respect for her that lifted her heart. ‘I don’t think you should take on too many commitments while you are pregnant, and after the baby is born you will be

busy. But I am looking for someone to become president of the charitable fund I’ve set up. The

position is yours, if you want it.’

He walked over to her when she eagerly nodded her head, and slid his hand beneath her chin,

tilting her face to him. ‘We married for the sake of our child, and if I’m honest I believed you

were as shallow as the women I dated before I met you,’ he said bluntly. ‘But you constantly

surprise me, Kitty,’ he finished, his frustration that he did not understand her tangible. He was

shocked that he had revealed so much of himself to her, but to his surprise he realised that he did

not regret telling her about his past. After Greta, he had believed he would never trust anyone,

but when he looked into Kitty’s soft, brown eyes he felt…
healed
.

He looked down at her pale face and frowned when she swayed unsteadily on her feet. ‘What’s

wrong?’ he demanded sharply. ‘Are you ill?’

‘I forgot lunch,’ she admitted sheepishly. ‘And now I feel sick again and I don’t think I can

manage dinner.’

‘Kitty! Do you think you could worry about other people a bit less, and yourself a bit more?’ he

growled, ignoring her startled gasp as he swung her into his arms and strode down the hall.

‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled, trying to resist the urge to press her face into his neck and breathe in

his tantalising male scent. ‘I know you’re concerned for the baby.’

‘Actually,
agape
, I am concerned about you.’ She looked drained and infinitely fragile, and something indefinable tugged at his heart, but he forced it away and reminded himself that she

was the mother of his child and so of course he cared about her welfare.

He stopped off at the kitchen and stood over her until she had forced down a banana and a glass

of milk. Then he carried her to the bedroom—as if she were as light as a feather rather than a

well-built, pregnant woman, Kitty mused sleepily as he removed her clothes and slipped a

nightdress over her head before he helped her into bed. She was asleep within seconds of her

head touching the pillow, but Nikos lay awake long into the night, his thoughts preoccupied—not

by his past, but his future with the woman lying beside him.

KITTYsmoothed a crease from the skirt of her elegant cream linen suit, and skimmed through

her notes one last time. Around her, the hotel banqueting room was filled with guests who were

attending the lunch in support of the youth centre Father Thomaso had set up—and in her role as

patron of the charity, she was about to give a speech outlining the aims of the centre and asking

for donations.

Beside her, Nikos smiled and rested his hand lightly on her thigh. ‘Are you nervous,
agape?

There must be several hundred people here today.’

Kitty took a deep breath, and squared her shoulders. ‘I’m fine,’ she said confidently, ignoring

the few butterflies in her stomach. She knew that once she walked onto the stage, and began to

talk about the centre and the lives of the children it aimed to support, her nerves would

disappear.

It seemed hard to believe that only a short while ago she had been so crippled by shyness that

any type of socialising had been an ordeal. Since she had married Nikos and moved to Athens

she felt as though she had emerged from a shell. She was no longer drab, dumpy Kitty Karedes.

She knew she looked good in the clothes he bought her, and the admiration in his eyes made her

feel more confident about her curvy figure.

‘Are you sure? You look a little flushed,’ Nikos murmured, his eyes glinting wickedly as his

hand inched higher up her skirt.

‘Will you behave—at least until later, when we’re alone?’ Kitty choked, amusement and desire

mingling as she prised his hand from her leg. ‘You have an insatiable appetite, Nikos.’

‘Only for you, Kitty
mou
,’ he drawled lazily. The sensual promise in his eyes caused the

familiar weakness in Kitty’s limbs, and she wished they were back home at the apartment and he

would spend the rest of the afternoon making love to her. But first she had a speech to give, and

then they were going to the hospital for her first antenatal scan. Up on stage the event organiser

announced her name, and she gathered up her notes.

‘Wish me luck,’ she murmured, and gave a startled gasp when he leaned towards her and

claimed her mouth in a slow, sweet kiss.

‘You don’t need luck—you’re a brilliant speaker.’ He paused and then said quietly, ‘I am very

proud of you,
agape
.’

She blushed and gave one of her soft smiles that tugged at Nikos’s insides before she walked up

the room, and when she stepped onto the stage he joined the other guests and applauded her,

feeling a mixture of pride and frustration that just lately she seemed to dominate his thoughts to

the exclusion of anything else.

Ever since the day she had visited Father Thomaso’s youth centre, and the explosive

confrontation that had followed, which had led him to telling her about his past, a fragile bond

had developed between them. The last few weeks had been… good, he admitted, refusing to

dwell on the fact that he had cut back significantly on his working hours so that he could spend

time with her. It was important that they established a friendly relationship before the baby was

born, but he was surprised and faintly dismayed by how much he enjoyed her company.

Kitty was no longer the wary and reserved person she had been when he had first brought her to

Athens, and since he had appointed her as head of the Larissa Petridis Foundation her confidence

had soared. She took her charity work seriously and the media had dubbed her the Caring

Princess. She had become something of a celebrity in Athens, and even he was privately amazed

by her transformation from a shy, reluctant royal to a graceful and breathtakingly beautiful

princess.

Without him being aware of her doing it, she had encouraged him to talk about the issues that

still haunted him, in particular his feeling that he had failed to protect his first child. Thanks to Kitty he was slowly coming to terms with his past, and he was looking forward to the future

when he would be a father. But although he trusted her in a way he had never believed he would

trust any human being, he couldn’t shake off the feeling that she was holding back from him,

particularly when he made love to her, and that in turn made him reluctant to lower his guard.

The press were waiting for them when they emerged from the hotel. Kitty did not enjoy their

constant attention, but she dealt with it with quiet dignity, smiling and standing with Nikos’s arm

around her waist while the photographers jostled to take pictures.

‘At least it will bring the youth centre to everyone’s notice,’ she murmured when they finally

made it to the car and Stavros sped off. But she was glad they had lost the paparazzi by the time

they reached the hospital. The scan was a private matter for her and Nikos and she didn’t want to

share the experience with the rest of the world.

Inside the private hospital they walked along plush carpeted corridors to the obstetrician’s

office. ‘Dr Antoniadis is the best in Greece,’ Nikos had told her when he had made the

appointment. ‘He will oversee your care and personally deliver the baby.’ Nothing, it seemed,

was too good for Nikos’s child.

Dr Antoniadis carried out some basic checks on Kitty and then chatted to them both about the

type of birth she hoped to have.

‘Painless, hopefully,’ she quipped, feeling a sudden rush of nerves when she thought about the

technicalities of giving birth. To her surprise, Nikos reached across and clasped her hand.

‘I will be with you every minute of your labour,’ he promised. And for some reason the strength

in his voice and the firmness of his fingers gripping hers made Kitty want to cry. Fortunately a

nurse appeared and led her off to change into a hospital gown, ready for the scan, and then, when

she lay on the bed in the scanning room and someone smeared cold jelly over her, she was more

concerned with the size of her stomach, which was already discernibly rounded, to give much

thought to anything else.

‘You won’t see much at this early stage,’ the technician explained as a fuzzy grey blur appeared

on the screen. ‘We really just want to check the heartbeat—and there it is. Can you see it? That

little pulse there is your baby.’

Kitty stared at the screen, at the indistinct blob of cells and the tiny but plainly visible speck that was beating rhythmically, and emotion flooded through her. In that moment her pregnancy

became real. It was no longer something vague: a line on a pregnancy kit and nausea in the

mornings. A human life was developing inside her: her child—hers and Nikos’s. She blinked to

dispel the moisture that had welled in her eyes, and turned to him. And more tears gathered when

she saw his face. He was leaning forward slightly in his chair, staring intently at the grainy

image, and she could see the tension in his shoulders, the absolute stillness, as if he were afraid

that if he moved the picture on the screen would disappear.

‘Nikos.’ Her voice was choked, and he stirred then and gripped her hand, lifted it to his mouth

and pressed his lips to her fingers.

‘We will give our child everything,’ he said rawly.

She knew he was thinking about his own childhood when he had had so little. ‘Of course we

will,’ she assured him softly. ‘But a child needs more than material things. A child needs love,

perhaps more than anything—and we will love it—he or she,’ she added with a smile as she

pictured a little boy with dark hair and flashing eyes, or a girl with pink cheeks—probably

chubby cheeks if the baby took after her, she thought ruefully.

Afterwards they strolled around the park next to the hospital, where the late afternoon sunshine

filtered through the leaves of the cypress trees and made patterns of gold on the paths.

‘What do you hope it is—a boy or a girl?’ she asked curiously.

‘I don’t know.’ Nikos looked startled for a moment, as if it was the first time he had considered

that the baby would be one or the other. ‘I don’t mind,’ he said seriously, echoing her own

thoughts, and she glanced at him and shared the unspoken message that what really mattered was

that their child would be healthy and born safely.

‘It’s exciting, isn’t it—to think that in a few months from now the baby will actually be here?’

Kitty felt her heart flip as she imagined cradling her child in her arms. Since the scan she

couldn’t stop smiling. Her pregnancy had been unplanned and a huge shock, but she did not

regret it, and she couldn’t wait to be a mother.

‘Yes, it’s exciting.’ Nikos returned her smile and slipped his hand into hers as they walked.

Their child would form a bond between them that would last a lifetime, Kitty realised, loving the

new closeness she sensed was developing between them.

‘Tell me about your childhood,’ he said suddenly. ‘I’ve told you about mine, but yours must

have been very different, growing up in a palace with the other members of the royal family.’

‘Well, I certainly never wanted for anything,’ she murmured. ‘The palace was an amazing place

to grow up, although of course when I was a child I didn’t realise how privileged I was. But it

wasn’t just material things. There were five of us children, so I was never lonely. And although

my parents were busy much of the time with state affairs, they always had time for us.

‘I was especially close to my father,’ she revealed with a soft smile as she remembered the late

king. ‘I adored him. When I was a little girl he used to come to the nursery every night and read

stories from my favourite book—
Russian FairyTales and Fables
.’ Kitty’s smile faded and she

felt the familiar pang of sadness that she would never see her father again, or hear his deep,

rumbling tones. ‘He used to tell me that I would grow up to be a beautiful princess like in the

fairy tales, and that one day I would marry a handsome prince.’

But in fairy tales the prince always fell in love with the princess—which just went to show the

difference between fantasy fiction and real life, she thought bleakly as she stared at Nikos’s

sculpted features and saw the inherent toughness in the hard line of his jaw.

‘I wish I still had the book,’ she said wistfully. ‘Unfortunately it was lost in a fire that destroyed part of the palace nursery a few years ago. It’s out of print now, and the few copies that exist are owned by private collectors, so I don’t suppose I’ll ever be able to read it to our child.’

‘We’ll buy new books, and toys—everything the baby needs,’ Nikos murmured, thinking of his