Reunited By The Greek's Vows

When Nikos had left her, Kate’s whole world had collapsed. Her hopes and dreams had crumbled before her eyes—built, as it turned out, on nothing more substantial than the shifting sands of blind optimism and unguarded love. She had fallen into a place so deep, so dark, that she had feared she would never see the light again.

But somehow she had clawed her way back up. Somehow she had survived.

As she stared up at the peeling paintwork of the ceiling Kate conceded that their relationship had been doomed from the start. The cracks had always been there—just ignored in the first wild rush of all-consuming passion. A time when anything had seemed possible.

She hadn’t been totally blameless. By choosing to play down her family’s wealth and lavish lifestyle she had been guilty of deceiving Nikos. It had been a selfish act, but the relief of being free from the shackles of Kandy Kate that had dominated her whole life had been so wonderful, so liberating, she had lied by omission just to try and keep it that way for as long as possible.

Just for a while she had wanted to be Kate O’Connor—a regular kind of girl from an ordinary background, who happened to have been fortunate enough to fall in love with the most wonderful guy in the world.

But the flipside had meant she’d failed to mention Nikos to her parents. Far less the fact that she had rushed headlong into an engagement with him. That she intended to marry the remarkable Greek man as soon as possible.

Because Kate had known full well the ruckus it would cause. She knew her mother would hit the roof and insist that the engagement was broken off immediately—that there was no way she was going to allow her daughter to marry some penniless Greek bum. And then her poor father would be dragged into it, torn between the two women in his life the way he always was, doing his best to keep the peace.

Kate had decided that she was going to keep the engagement a secret for as long as she could. But when news had arrived that her father had been taken seriously ill her little secret had suddenly begun to grow, to take on a life of its own.

As she’d rushed to make plans to return to New York Nikos had assumed he would be going with her. But Kate hadn’t been able to let that happen. Her parents hadn’t even known of his existence—she couldn’t arrive back home with him by her side, knowing the way her mother would react and risking damaging her father’s fragile health still further.

So she had insisted Nikos stayed behind in Crete. She could still remember the look of hurt on his face when she’d told him. Standing there in the Greek sunshine, so tall and proud, his dark brows pulling together in surprise, his features had set like stone.

It had all but broken her heart, but Kate had stood firm, slinging her rucksack over her shoulder and turning away when all she’d wanted to do was to fall into his arms and stay there for ever.

If she had come clean there and then, confessed everything, would things have turned out differently?

Kate had gone over that moment in her head a thousand times. But the fact was she hadn’t. And as Nikos’s hurt had quickly turned to a carefully controlled anger, a cold cloud of animosity had descended over them as they’d said their goodbyes.

Nikos’s dry peck on her cheek had only accentuated the widening rift between them.

Her father had died two weeks later. And in the melee of trying to organise everything—taking care of her mother, who had always suffered from fragile mental health, as well as coping with her own crippling grief—suddenly Nikos had arrived. Unannounced. Uninvited. And even though her heart had leapt at the sight of him—even though he had been the person Kate had wanted to see more than anyone else in the world, needed more than anyone else in the world—she had panicked.

Hadn’t she expressly told him not to come? His arrival was going to cause nothing but trouble. And that trouble had started almost immediately.

Within minutes her guilty secret had been exposed. Dropping his bag, Nikos had looked around the luxurious apartment with a puzzled expression on his face before pulling her into a stiff hug.

With immaculate timing Fiona O’Connor had walked in at that precise moment, demanding to know who this person was. And as Nikos had stepped forward to offer his condolences, and to introduce himself as Kate’s fiancé, she had let out a little scream, her hand fluttering to her throat.

Kate had had no choice but to try and do whatever she could to mitigate the damage, to calm Fiona down. Even though that had meant pushing Nikos away.

And then, on that last evening—the evening of her father’s funeral—her whole shaky world had finally collapsed.

When she’d been at her lowest ebb Nikos had turned on her, slashing through her battered defences, inflicting the sort of crippling pain from which there was no recovery...

Turning on her side, Kate curled herself into a ball as the memory of how Nikos had looked tonight imprinted itself on her brain. Gone had been the laid-back guy she had once known, casually dressed in faded jeans slung low on his hips or board shorts frayed at the hems by the sun and the sea. Gone the mass of wind-blown dark curls. Now his hair was tamed, styled, carefully groomed like the rest of him. Now he wore a dinner suit with the easy confidence of a wealthy man, giving off an air of urbane arrogance that told the world he had made it, that life was his for the taking.

Feeling a stab of pain, she buried her head in her pillow. Not for the first time she conceded that Nikos was the one man who had the wealth and the contacts to save her precious business. But there was no way she would ask him. She might only have a shred of pride left, but she was damned if she was going to give that shred to him. No, hell would freeze over before she ever went crawling to him.

CHAPTER TWO

NIKOS GAZED UP at KK Towers, an imposing glass-fronted building in Midtown Manhattan. He had been surprised to discover that the Kandy Kate headquarters were still located here. From what he’d heard, all the offices and apartments had been leased off, even if the premises still retained the KK name.

Christened by Bernie O’Connor, it had been a glittering symbol of the power and success of the Kandy Kate empire, with its offices sprawling over several floors and the stunning penthouse apartment home to his adored family.

He had never met Bernie, but he had obviously been an astute businessman—something that Nikos respected highly. To have made such a success of the Kandy Kate business in what had to be a very competitive market took intelligence and guts.

It was a shame he hadn’t applied those same principles to his private life. From what Nikos could see, Bernie had made completely the wrong choice of wife.

Fiona O’Connor was an arrogant snob—that much had been obvious from the start. Her rudeness Nikos might have accepted. After all, when they had met Fiona had been recently bereaved...he would have made allowances. He could even have excused her blatant hostility, given the circumstances. Particularly in light of the fact that Kate had conveniently forgotten to tell her mother of his existence. But the way she had looked at him with such abject horror—as if he was worse than nothing—that had got under his skin.

And then there was Kate...

Nikos held his jaw firm as he marched through the revolving doors into a light-filled vestibule. What right did he have to criticise Bernie O’Connor about his choice of partner when he had made the same mistake—with bells on? He too had fallen for totally the wrong woman.

The ‘Kate effect’ had hit Nikos like a tornado. His golden rule of never getting emotionally involved with any woman had been smashed just like that. With a rush of wild exhilaration he had taken Kate’s hand and jumped off the edge of the cliff, self-preservation blown to the wind. Totally consumed by that all-powerful, all-consuming thing called love, he’d had no choice but to obey the fierce command of his heart.

She had been beautiful, funny, clever...like no woman he had ever met before. The summer they had spent together in his home town of Agia Loukia, had been so special, so wonderful, that Nikos had assumed their joy would last for ever. And when Kate had accepted his proposal of marriage he had thought their future set, their happiness complete.

But too late Nikos had realised that when you jumped off a cliff, at some point you had to come back down to earth. And the crash landing he and Kate had made had been spectacularly horrendous.

Discovering that Kate had never told her parents about him—never even mentioned him—had been the first punch in the gut. No wonder she hadn’t wanted him to accompany her to New York when her father had been taken ill. No wonder she hadn’t wanted him at Bernie’s funeral.

His first niggling thoughts that she might actually be ashamed of him had soon solidified into rock-hard certainty as Kate had continued to treat him with cold distance...holding him at arm’s length, pushing him away. Gone had been the warm and loving woman he had fallen in love with in Crete, to be replaced by someone he’d barely recognised—someone who had hardly been able to bring herself to look at him.

Their final showdown had had an air of inevitability about it. But even so it had been far harder, far more painful than Nikos could ever have imagined. Discovering what Kate really thought of him, and the pitifully low opinion she had of him, had felt like a stab to the heart. It still did.

But now it was time to expunge that memory. Now the tables had turned. Now Nikos intended to exact his revenge.

The concierge behind the gleaming wooden desk indicated the elevator for Kandy Kate’s headquarters. Not the sleek, burnished gold affair at the end of the lobby, but a much smaller one, with an old-fashioned metal grid that you had to pull across manually. There was a moment’s hesitation after Nikos pressed the button, and then the elevator slowly ground its way down to what felt like the bowels of the earth.

He had decided not to announce his arrival. He preferred to take his chances rather than give Kate the opportunity to disappear or prepare pretty lies. In his experience an element of surprise always worked in his favour.

The Kandy Kate office was at the end of a long corridor, its name stuck on the middle panel of a half-glazed door. After a single sharp knock Nikos walked straight in.

The room was small, gloomy and empty. There was no natural light, and a fluorescent strip bulb cast a depressingly cold glow over a cluttered desk, a couple of wooden chairs. A rustling noise to the left alerted him to another, smaller room, not much more than a cupboard. Someone of indeterminate age and sex was in there, squatting on the floor in front of an open filing cabinet drawer.

‘Hi!’ Nikos raised his voice as the person obviously hadn’t heard him. ‘I’m looking for Kate O’Connor.’

He saw the figure go rigid. As it slowly moved to stand Nikos felt the breath catch in his throat. Of course. She still hadn’t turned around, but as she pulled out the buds in her ears, cutting short the tinny buzz of music from the phone she retrieved from her pocket, it was obvious. The shape of the back of her head, the long sweep of her neck...

Once again it had taken him a couple of seconds to recognise her, but if this was another disguise she was going to have to try a lot harder.

He advanced further into the room, positioning himself in the doorway of the glorified cupboard. ‘I see I have found her.’

‘Nikos!’

His name was a dry accusation on her tongue. As she finally turned to face him Nikos caught the alarm in her wide green eyes, saw the way her face had drained of colour. He heard the snatch of her indrawn breath. It was all suitably gratifying.

Nikos blatantly stared at her, ignoring the normal rules of decorum. They were way past that.

She was dressed entirely in black, her face free from make-up, her dark hair cropped short, cut into the nape of her neck so that it exposed her ears. With an unwanted kick of lust Nikos found himself wondering how that hair would feel beneath his fingertips. She looked elegant, fragile, beautiful. Certainly nothing like the woman he had seen last night. A pair of plain silver earrings dangling from her lobes were the only hint of adornment.

She looked away, avoiding his gaze. Nikos could see her desperately working to regain her composure, to pull a mask of indifference into place. He held the silence.

‘What do you want?’ Her voice sounded faint. ‘Why are you here?’

‘That’s not much of a greeting, Kate.’ Now his taunting animosity had kicked in. ‘Not much of a welcome after all these years.’

‘You’ll get no welcome from me.’ Her head swung back, her words falling like shards of glass.

‘No. Of course I won’t. How foolish of me.’

With a mocking stare, he stepped out of the doorway back into the office. After a moment’s hesitation he strode over to a chair, picking up the pile of papers from the seat and holding them in his hand as he waited for Kate to squeeze in the other side of the desk.

‘All right if I sit down?’

He waved the papers at her and Kate snatched them back. Nikos seated himself, stretching out his legs and crossing them at the ankles before linking his hands behind his head and leaning back in a classic display of dominance.

‘So, tell me, Kate—how have you been?’ He let his eyes drift over her face, watching the way the colour flooded back.

Kate gave him a fierce glare. ‘I’m sure you haven’t come here to ask after my well-being. I repeat, Nikos, what do you want?’

‘A cup of coffee would be nice, since you’re asking.’

‘What do you mean by walking in here uninvited?’ Her breath sounded dry in her throat.

‘I make a habit of turning up uninvited.’ Nikos gave her a pleasant smile. ‘You should know that by now.’ He watched as his barb sank in. ‘Now, how about that coffee? Black, one sugar for me. But I expect you remember that.’

Kate hesitated, looking as if she’d rather boil her head in oil than make him a cup of coffee. But then, obviously deciding it wasn’t worth the battle, she laid the papers down on the desk and moved over to a coffee maker in the corner of the room, her shoulders hitched up around her ears. As she removed the jug from the hotplate Nikos could see the way her hand tremored.

Good. He was glad of the effect he was having on her. It wasn’t much consolation after the way she had treated him, but it was a start. And it all increased his sense of power.

As Kate passed the mug to him he deliberately let his hand touch hers, acknowledging the frisson between them with a quirk of dark brows before Kate jerked her hand away.

Yes, he was enjoying this.

‘So, are these now the sole premises of the Kandy Kate empire?’ He briefly glanced around him, his tone light and casual, but no less cutting for that.

‘They are.’

Kate moved back behind the desk, reluctantly sitting down and folding her arms across her chest. She wore a black ribbed jumper with a scoop neck, the sleeves pushed up, and Nikos could see she had lost weight. But the clingy material still accentuated her shape nicely. She looked sober, chic...sexy.

‘This office is perfectly adequate.’

‘I’m sure it is.’ Nikos gave a small nod of agreement. ‘With the state of the Kandy Kate empire at the moment I imagine you could run it from a phone booth. After all, how much room do you need to go bankrupt?’

‘Kandy Kate is not going bankrupt!’ Kate was on her feet in a second, green eyes flashing.

‘No?’ Nikos tempered her fire with infuriating calm. ‘Well, that’s not what I’ve heard.’

‘Well, you’ve heard wrong.’

She tossed her head, turning away from him, her face in profile. Nikos stared at the straight line of her nose, the fine sweep of her jaw. Why had he never noticed her jawline before? He’d thought he was all too familiar with every inch of Kate’s body.

During the weeks they had spent together he had made it his mission to explore every delicious inch of her with his fingers, his lips, his tongue. Making love to Kate had been the most erotic experience of his life—a shared wonder that neither of them had been able to get enough of, as if they had both been taken over by an insatiable craving.

On reflection, he hadn’t made love to her, he had made love with her. A symphony of sexual pleasures that had ruined him for any other woman.

And he cursed her for it.

He had cursed her when he’d arrived back in Crete after being all but banished from her home. When the very thought of her name had been enough to solidify his blood. He had cursed her during the intervening years when, no matter how attractive a woman might be, how charming and how available, they’d all seemed about as sexy as a block of wood to Nikos after the intense earthly pleasures he had shared with Kate O’Connor. Even drinking himself into oblivion hadn’t helped—just made his self-disgust second only to the disgust he’d felt for his ex-fiancée.

And he still cursed her now.

Nikos hadn’t realised just how much until he’d gazed at her haughty profile and realised that time, far from diminishing his desire for Kate, had merely held it in cold storage, frozen, ready to be thawed by one fiery glance from those dark green eyes.

He took a mouthful of coffee, slamming the brakes on thoughts which were taking him in very unwanted directions—directions that had nothing to do with his carefully calculated plans. He needed to focus on what he was here to do.

‘So, Kandy Kate’s not in trouble then?’ The venom in his voice was held just under the surface. ‘The reports that your sales have plummeted, your suppliers are threatening legal action, your staff are not getting paid...’ he leant forward, idly picking up a sheaf of papers, scanning a few lines before letting them drop ‘...all totally untrue?’

‘Yes.’ Kate pointedly straightened the papers, then held them to her chest. ‘Well, wildly exaggerated anyway.’ She refused to meet his eye.

‘Is that right?’ Nikos continued. ‘So the fact that your share prices plummeted means nothing either? Your shareholders are perfectly happy to have received no dividends in the past twelve months and to have seen their investments dwindle to a pittance?’

‘As a matter of fact...’ she jutted out her chin ‘...share prices have increased considerably recently. Confidence in the brand is growing.’

‘Really?’ Nikos queried amiably. ‘Or is it that someone is about to make a hostile takeover?’

Kate bit down on her lip, the nip against her soft pink pout stirring Nikos somewhere deep and low.

‘Well, either way it’s none of your concern. In fact I would like you to leave. Immediately.’

She moved the few steps to the door to usher him out but Nikos was too quick for her, barring her way with his broad shoulders and towering height.

‘Well, that’s just where you’re wrong. It is my concern. Or at least it very soon will be.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ Kate stopped stock-still.

‘I’m sure you can work it out for yourself, Kate.’ Nikos smiled at her. ‘You’re a bright girl.’

‘You...?’ Her hand flew to tug at her earlobe. ‘You mean it’s you who has been buying up the shares?’

He rested his arm against the doorjamb. He wasn’t going to reply. He would make her squirm while his silence spoke for him.

‘But why? Why would you do such a thing?’

‘Because I think Kandy Kate is an interesting proposition.’ He casually slid his hand down the doorframe and into the pocket of his trousers. ‘Handled correctly, I’m confident it will prove to be a good investment.’

‘“A good investment”?’ Kate challenged. ‘I don’t believe you. Why would you think that?’

Nikos gave a short laugh. ‘No wonder your business is in such dire straits if you have so little faith in it.’

‘I have plenty of faith in Kandy Kate, thank you very much. It’s you I have no faith in.’

‘Ah, yes, of course.’ His eyes gleamed darkly. ‘I almost forgot.’

‘Well, I haven’t.’

He could see that Kate was slowly clawing her way to safer ground. He would let her rest there for a while before bringing her straight back down.

‘And there was me thinking you’d be grateful to find an investor. Even one such as myself.’

‘You are not an investor,’ Kate flew at him. ‘You have gone behind my back and purchased Kandy Kate shares at a rock-bottom price with the intention of taking over the company. You said it yourself—this is a hostile takeover.’

‘It doesn’t have to be hostile.’ Lowering his voice, Nikos fixed her with a glittering stare, reaching forward to take hold of her chin when she tried to turn her face away. ‘In fact, if we put our minds to it, I suspect we could make it very friendly indeed.’

‘In your dreams, Nikos.’ Kate jerked her head away from his light grip. ‘If you think I could ever be friendly with you again, in any capacity, then you are very much mistaken.’

Nikos watched as she tucked herself behind the safety of her desk, giving her a moment before he spoke again. ‘Well, we’ll see about that, won’t we?’ He sat back down opposite her. ‘And, since you’ve brought up the matter of dreams, then, yes, I admit it—you have featured in mine quite largely.’ He flexed his fingers to inspect his manicured nails. ‘All those long, lonely nights in an empty bed, with nothing but memories to keep me company...what’s a man to do...?’ He looked up, spearing Kate with his gaze, registering the deep flush that had stained her cheeks, tinging the rim of her neat ears. ‘Maybe it has been the same for you?’

‘Get out!’ On her feet again, Kate pointed to the door, her extended arm visibly shaking.

‘No.’ Nikos matched her stance, his voice a harsh command, all traces of teasing flirtation banished. ‘I am not going anywhere, Kate. Not until you have heard what I have to say.’

‘And what, exactly, do you think gives you the right to tell me what to do?’

Nikos would have liked to tell her. He could think of plenty of reasons why she should do exactly as he said. Kate O’Connor owed him—and in time he looked forward to making her see that. But not yet. If you were trying to land a wriggling fish it was best to turn the reel nice and slow.

He drew in a steadying breath. ‘Let’s just say it will be to your advantage.’

‘I very much doubt it.’ With a scoff, Kate sat back down, folding her arms tightly across her chest. ‘Just say whatever it is you have to say, then get out.’

Nikos arranged his body on the chair, deliberately taking his time. Steepling his fingers, he raised his eyes to find hers. ‘You may or may not know, but since we last met my fortunes have changed somewhat. I am now an extremely wealthy man.’

‘So?’ Kate glared at him. ‘If you’ve just come here to brag about how rich you are, Nikos, then save your breath. I’m not interested.’

Nikos paused, taking a second to mentally erase her contemptuous remark. It was either that or teach her a lesson. And he knew exactly how he’d like to do that.

‘Luckily for you, I am prepared to invest some of that fortune to save your business.’

‘And, unluckily for you, I wouldn’t accept you as an investor if you were the last man on earth.’ Her answer came back with the speed of a bullet.

‘Really, Kate?’ She was starting to wind him up now. ‘Are you sure about that?’

‘I said so, didn’t I?’

‘So what sort of man would you take investment from, I wonder?’ Nikos narrowed his eyes, pretending to consider. ‘The sort of man who might be persuaded to overlook the dire state of the business in return for other, more personal favours?’

‘What are you insinuating?’ Choking with outrage, Kate was on her feet again. ‘How dare you?’