his life, this feeling of oneness and ecstasy.
“Anyone for dinner?” came the sudden godlike voice of thunder.
Raina made a sound in her throat and tore her lips from his. “Socus has seen us.”
“He has to know what’s going on,” Akis whispered against the side of her neck. “You’re a grown woman.”
“Yes, but I’m also a guest in their home. What must he think when we only met a few days ago?”
“That we’re incredibly lucky and are enjoying ourselves.”
She lifted anxious eyes to him. “Way too much.” To his regret she eased away from him in her orange bikini to reach the steps of the pool. After grabbing her towel and crutches, she disappeared inside the house.
Akis threw his dark head back and drank in gulps of air. No doubt Chloe’s father had seen the two of them locked together while the water sizzled around them.
Naturally Raina would bring out a protective instinct in the older man. She was their honored guest. Akis swam to the deep end. After levering himself over the edge, he headed for the cabana to shower and get dressed.
As he was pulling on his crew neck, his cell rang. He drew it from his pant pocket to look at the caller ID and clicked on. “Vasso? Did you get my message?”
“Yes, but we’ve got an electrical problem at the number ten store I’ve got to see about. I’m leaving the penthouse to take care of it now. Before you go away on vacation, I’ve left some papers for you to look at in the den.”
“About that new property we were thinking about on Crete?”
“No. It’s something else. Talk to you later.” He hung up before Akis could question him further.
Something else? What exactly did that mean? Curious over it, Akis left the cabana in a slightly different mood than before and walked around the pool to the covered portion of the patio. Everyone was seated at the table waiting for him. Raina looked a golden vision wearing a pale yellow beach robe over her beautiful body.
“Ah, there you are,” Nora exclaimed. “Now we can eat.”
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting. My brother called me about a business problem. After dinner, I’ll have to get back to the penthouse to deal with it.” His gaze darted to Raina whose eyes were asking questions not even he could answer yet. “I’ll phone you later about our plans for tomorrow.” The night he’d planned with her would have to wait.
* * *
Raina watched Akis’s tall, powerful body disappear from the patio in a few swift strides. Disappointment swept over her. She despised her weakness for remaining silent when he announced in front of Chloe’s parents he’d call her later about plans for the next day. To them the silence on her part meant agreement and she’d be staying in Greece longer.
After the two of them had come close to kissing each other senseless out in the pool, he would naturally assume she couldn’t wait to be with him again. Socus had seen them kissing and had been left in no doubt what was going on between them.
That kiss had been her fault for taunting Akis. In some part of her psyche she’d wanted him to pull her into his arms. Otherwise she wouldn’t have gotten into the pool. She knew she’d come to the edge of a cliff like the kind they’d flown over earlier in the day. One more false step and she’d fall so deep and hard for this man, she’d never recover. Raina couldn’t forget a certain conversation with him.
What will your wife say?
She doesn’t rule my life.
That would be the worst fate for you, wouldn’t it? To be ruled by your passion for one woman? To be her slave forever?
Not if she’s the right woman.
Raina didn’t believe there was a right woman for a man as exciting and virile as Akis. In time he would tire of his latest lover and be caught by another woman who appealed to him. In an instant he’d go in pursuit.
The bitter taste of Byron’s betrayal still lingered. It was time to end this madness with Akis. But she’d promised Chloe’s parents she’d wait to leave Greece until after Chloe and Theo got home from their honeymoon.
Once dinner was over, she went to her room. Though it was early, she took a shower and got ready for bed. She knew Akis would phone her.
If you know what’s good for you, don’t get in any deeper with him, Raina.
AKIS LET HIMSELF in the penthouse and walked back to the den. He saw some papers placed on the table next to the computer. They looked like printouts. His brother had handwritten him a note he’d left on top of the keyboard. Akis sat down in the swivel chair and started to read.
Don’t get mad at me for what I’ve done. You’re so damn honorable, I knew you’d let your questions about Raina Maywood eat you alive. So I decided to put you out of your misery and play PI so she can’t accuse you of stalking her. For what it’s worth, you’re going to bless me for what I’ve done.
Start with the printout of the article from a California newspaper, then work through the rest. Any worry you’ve been carrying around about her intentions has flown out the window. There’s so much stuff about her, it’ll blow your mind.
When you told me her last name was Maywood and that she was a friend of Chloe’s from California, it got me thinking about the two helicopters we purchased. No wonder Chloe’s parents allowed her to stay with Raina, the granddaughter of a man who was one of the pillars of the American economy.
Dazed at this point, Akis picked up the top sheet dated nine months ago.
An American icon of aerospace technology is dead at ninety-two. Joseph Maywood died at his estate in Carmel-by-the-Sea after a long bout of stomach cancer. At his side was his beautiful granddaughter, Laraine Maywood, twenty-six, now heiress to the massive multibillion-dollar Maywood fortune. His wife, Ginger Moss, daughter of famous California seascape artist Edwin Moss, passed away from heart failure several years earlier.
Kaching, kaching, kaching.
Pieces of the puzzle were falling into place faster than Akis could absorb them. Nonplussed, he sat staring at the ceiling. She was an heiress...
Adrenaline gushed through his veins.
The X Jet Explorer, built by Pacificopter Inc., was a company owned by the Maywood Corporation in California, USA. Suddenly pure revelation flowed through him. Akis jumped to his feet, incredulous. She was that Maywood.
Absolutely stunned, he reached for the next printout dated four years back.
Scandal rocks world-renowned Carmel-by-the Sea, a European-style California village nestled above a picturesque white-sand beach and home to beautiful heiress-apparent Laraine Maywood Wallace of the Maywood Corporation.
