heart was heavy for him and the tragic situation with his father.
After he pulled around to the parking area of Vassalos Shipping, Nikos left the keys on the floor of the car and they walked back to the yacht. “I want to get to know your family, Nikos, but I couldn’t possibly stay in their house, since it would cause too much stress for everyone.
“Much as I want to make things right, I can’t tolerate your father’s attitude or the way he spoke about me. Maybe in time things will get better. I could hope for that, but not right now. I trust you understand.”
Silence followed her remarks, until he helped her step on the deck. “I owe you an explanation.”
She threw her head back, catching sight of his tormented expression. “If you mean that kiss you gave me at the back door was supposed to be an in-your-face gesture for your father’s digestion, I already got the message.”
“If you think that, you couldn’t be more wrong,” Nikos grated. “Just when I thought my father had run out of tricks, there he was once again, trying to set me up with Natasa. But this time you were there. No amount of makeup could conceal the bruise on your jaw. It stood out in the moonlight, reminding me that you’d unwisely faced my demons and held me during the night, despite the consequences to you and the baby.
“Tonight I realized how very beautiful you are and how courageous to have forgotten yourself to help me. No one has ever been that self-sacrificing for me. In a rush of emotion I felt the need to show you how I felt. Since my father chose that moment to appear, then he has to live with that picture, because I refuse to apologize for something that had nothing to do with him.”
Stephanie swallowed hard. Nikos’s sincerity defeated her. “Do you think Natasa saw us?”
He gave an elegant shrug of his shoulders. “If she did, let’s hope it was cathartic.”
For the other woman’s sake, Stephanie hoped so, too, and looked away. “I would have liked to have met your mother.”
“One day I’ll introduce you to her and the whole family. They’re very nice people.”
One day. That sounded so lonely.
“Nikos...about the baby—”
The mere mention of it brought a look of anxiety to his dark eyes. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine!” she assured him, not wanting to add to his worries. “I was just surprised you told your father.”
Nikos’s hard body tautened. “Hearing the truth from my lips has put an end to his dream of my marrying Natasa in order to consolidate our families. He’s been stuck in that groove for a decade. Since I’ve refused to work in the company, he has lost his hold on me.”
Stephanie drew closer to him. “What’s he afraid of?”
Nikos studied her for a long moment. “At one time he thought I was Costor Gregerov’s son.”
It took a second for Stephanie’s brain to compute. When it did, she let out a gasp. “Your mother and Kon’s father?” Surely she’d misunderstood.
“It’s complicated. My mother and Kon’s mother were best friends growing up on Oinoussa. My parents married first and had two children before I came along. But Tiana’s eventual marriage to Costor brought a lot of grief to her family, because he’s part Turkish.
“In some corners of society, the Greeks and Turks refuse to mix. The built-in prejudice against him caused a painful division. For Tiana, it was she against the world once she’d married Costor. They had four children before Kon came along.”
As Nikos peeled back the layers, Stephanie’s anguish for his pain grew.
“My mother defended Tiana’s decision and was always sympathetic to Costor. At one point someone started a rumor that she got too close to him. It wasn’t true, and both my mother and Costor always denied it, but my father was a bigoted man. He believed it and there was an ugly falling out that never healed.”
Stephanie bit her lip. “DNA testing wasn’t available when you were born.”
“No, but it wasn’t needed. As Tiana once told me, the stamp of a Vassalos was unmistakable. Unfortunately, my parents’ marriage suffered. It’s a miracle my mother didn’t leave him, but she loves him. She remained close friends with Tiana, which threw me and Kon together, but the damage done to both families during those early years was incalculable.”
Stephanie clutched the railing. “What a tragedy.”
Nikos nodded. “My father became controlling and possessive. He tried to rule my life and choose my associates, making sure I didn’t mix with people like Kon’s family. By my teens he’d cultivated a friendship with the Lander family, laying the groundwork for the future he envisioned for me. But he went too far when I was forbidden to spend any more time with Kon, who’d become like a brother to me. Naturally, I defied my father, because Kon had done nothing wrong.”
Stephanie darted him a glance. “Except to be a constant reminder of the past.”
Nikos breathed deeply. “Everything reached a boiling point when Kon needed money for his divorce. I gave him what I’d saved from working. My father found out and threatened to disown me. I told him it wouldn’t be necessary, because Kon and I had already joined the navy and would be shipping out.”
The night breeze had sprung up, lifting the hair off Stephanie’s cheek. “You and Kon shouldn’t have had to suffer for your father’s paranoia. How long did it take him to beg your forgiveness?”
“His pride won’t allow him to beg. For my mother’s sake I visited them on leave, but things have never been the same. Underneath he’s still a bigot and distrustful.”
“Evidently he doesn’t like Americans, either,” she whispered.
“He’s predisposed to dislike anyone whom he imagines might have control over me. I invested my military pay and bought the Diomedes so I would never have to be beholden to him.”
Heartsick for Nikos, Stephanie looked at her husband through new eyes. Here she’d suffered all her life, wishing she knew anything about her father, while Nikos... Her ache for him grew worse. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”
“You’ve married into a complicated family. Don’t try to sort it all out tonight. You look tired, which comes as no surprise after your wrestling match with me last night.”
Stephanie would do it again and again if he’d let her, but after this incident with his father, she sensed he was unreachable. True enough, his next words left her in no doubt.
“You go below. I’ll stay up here and wait for Yannis. As soon as he comes, we’ll leave port and head back to Oinoussa.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
September 1
NIKOS HAD SEEN his wife in a bikini when they swam on one of the isolated beaches. Oftentimes Elianna came with them. With the growing evidence of her pregnancy, there’d been a decided change in her since April, when they’d met. But he broke out in a cold sweat as he watched the doctor spread
