much for her suitability as a chaperone,” Savannah muttered under her breath.
He laughed softly. “You said you didn’t need one. Have you changed your mind, Savannah?”
His deep, masculine voice vibrated through her, causing her insides to tighten in a frightening way and she felt her cheeks heat at the reaction and the import of his words. She took a long, cooling sip of water. “Mr. Kiriakis, we need to talk.”
“Leiandros. Not Mr. Kiriakis. Not Kyrios Kiriakis. Leiandros. We are family. You will not address me so formally again.”
Her intention had been to create distance between them mentally, if not physically, but clearly she’d managed to annoy him as well. She gritted her teeth. It just wasn’t worth making an issue over. “Leiandros then. This idea you have of the girls and I making a permanent home in Greece is unfeasible at the present time to say the least.”
His eyes narrowed while he indicated with a gesture of his hand she should sit down on one of the almond leather sofas on either side of the fireplace. “Why?”
“I have obligations, commitments, back home that I cannot dismiss.” She chose a seat on the far end of the sofa located on the other side of the room from him.
His smile was predatory as he followed her and took a seat on the same sofa, his body turned toward hers. “What kind of commitments?” he asked with obvious suspicion.
She felt his presence like a physical force and she had to concentrate to answer his question. “The usual kind.” She crossed her legs at the ankle while taking another sip of her drink. “Relationships. Work. My commitment to Eva and Nyssa’s well being.”
“You do not have a job.”
She acknowledged the truth of his statement with a brief nod. “But I do need to have one if I’m ever to be free of my dependence on the monthly allowance.” Surely he must see that.
“If independence is so important to you, why have you made no move to get a job in the last four years?” he demanded, skepticism lacing every word.
Her free hand curled into a fist and she felt her face tighten with anger before she made herself relax and her face go blank of emotion. “I’ve spent the last four years going to university. I now have a degree in business and plan to use it to support myself and my daughters.”
He looked absolutely stunned and she felt satisfaction at the reaction.
“Did you bring your diploma with you?” he asked.
Had he lost his mind? “Why would I bring it with me?”
“So I can verify you are telling me the truth.”
Unaccustomed and unwelcome anger filled her. “Your arrogance is astounding. Why should I have to prove myself to you? My degree is immaterial to the discussion at hand.”
“Which is what?” he asked, his voice laced with sensual innuendo.
She swallowed, trying to ignore the way her heart reacted to that particular honeyed tone. “We are discussing my need to return home. Soon. I’ll stay long enough for the girls to meet their grandparents if my discussion with them proves satisfactory, but then I’m going home and there’s not a blessed thing you can do about it.”
“You’d be surprised at what I have to say about it.”
She gritted her teeth. How could she feel threatened by him and attracted to him at the same time? “You can say what you like, but I’m still going.”
“If you really are interested in gaining your independence from the monthly allowance I provide, why have you come to Greece at all? You didn’t want to come, but you agreed when I refused to pay it.”
That was not a question she was willing to answer. “You don’t provide our allowance. It comes from the girls’ trust.” She set her now empty glass down on a small table.
“I haven’t touched Eva and Nyssa’s trust in the past year.”
“But…” She let her words trail off, nonplussed. He’d been paying their allowance for the past year? The knowledge made her feel strange, as if he had intruded into her life in an intimate way without her being aware of it.
“There are no buts. I have supported you for the past year and if you wish me to continue to do so, certain conditions must be met.”
She’d had it up to her neck with conditions from Dion. She wasn’t going to go that route with Leiandros. “I don’t want to be supported. I’m perfectly willing to get a job.”
“Then why have you come to Greece?” he asked again, his disbelief palpable.
“I need our allowance for another few months, until I’m on my feet financially.”
“Do you honestly believe you’ll be able to get a job starting out at ten thousand dollars a month?” He made it sound like she was the world’s biggest idiot.
“No. Of course not, but I won’t need that much money to live on in a few months.” Her heart contracted with a spasm of grief at the thought of why she wouldn’t need so much money.
The doctors did not expect her aunt to live to the end of the year. Without the monthly payments to Brenthaven, she and the girls could easily live on her income.
“Again I ask why?”
“You’re like a dog with his favorite bone.”
He shrugged. “So, answer me and I’ll quit asking.”
She met his gaze, hers level and as impassive as she could make it. “The answer is none of your business.”
He didn’t like that. His dark eyes flared with affronted pride. “Since I am paying your allowance I think it is.”
“But I didn’t know that.”
“You do now.”
Desperation edged her voice. “It can’t change anything. I still need the money right now. Perhaps, we could make it a loan and once I’ve gotten a job I could pay you back in monthly installments.”
She’d been forced to pull her entire savings to pay the increased costs of the round-the-clock care her aunt needed since the last stroke, but another payment would be due in only a couple of weeks.
Brenthaven had a strict policy requiring advanced payment for services. If she did not keep up-to-date, they would transfer Aunt Beatrice to the nearest state nursing home. They might regret the need to do so, but would do it nonetheless as she had discovered four years ago when she had separated from Dion without a financial support agreement.
Felix announced dinner before Leiandros responded to her suggestion of a loan.
Savannah tried to do justice to the excellent dinner Felix’s wife had prepared, but jet lag and the stress of trying to spar verbally with Leiandros had stolen her appetite. Not to mention the strange vibrations that shivered through her whenever she let her eyes meet Leiandros’s. Even her favorite
