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“ME SELLING THE COMPANY?” Andreas asked.
“All of it.” Kayla bit her lip, her body taut, her arms wrapped around herself, like she was protecting herself. “I feel like I’m losing you and the company all at once.”
“You are not losing me.”
She shook her head, her expression saying he just didn’t get it.
“Kayla, you persist in seeing family in a way that neither you nor I have ever experienced.” He frowned down at her, stepping closer to her to make his point. “In a way I do not intend to live. My wife will not supplant your place in my life.”
“My place in your life. As your friend.” She said the word like it left a bad taste in her mouth. Was his friendship something she preferred to leave behind?
That was not acceptable.
She belonged to him. Kayla was part of Andreas’s life and she was not leaving it.
“Yes.”
The distaste that flitted across her face was barely there, but he’d seen it.
“Damn it, Kayla, we’ve been friends since college, suddenly that relationship disgusts you?” he demanded.
“I didn’t say that.” She turned. “I’ll get ready to go.”
“We’re not done talking.”
“We are if we’re going to make the harbor cruise.” Her bottom shook in ways that gave him ideas he had no business thinking as she walked toward her en suite.
Memories assailed him and suddenly he wanted her like he hadn’t allowed himself to in years. His dick pressed against his trousers, the urge to follow Kayla both so strong and so shocking, he almost gave in to it.
Damn it. It had been a while since he’d noticed Kayla the way he was noticing her now. What the hell was going on with him?
Whatever it was, he had better get it under control. Kayla had a place in his life and that place was not his bed.
Damn it. He needed Kayla to stop acting crazy so he could get his libido back under control once and for all.
* * *
Kayla wasn’t sure why she’d agreed to go on the harbor cruise with Andreas, except she’d overheard him telling Genevieve to lose Kayla’s number.
Just like she’d asked. And she’d realized just how important their relationship was to him. He’d left work, he’d left his big plans to find his perfect little wife. He’d left everything to chase Kayla down and when he found her, he’d stayed.
Was staying until she returned. She really didn’t understand why.
It was as if Andreas was afraid that if he left without her, she wouldn’t come back, and for some reason that mattered to him. A lot.
He’d had breakfast delivered when she came out, dressed in her teal skinny trousers, tan-and-white-striped tank and carrying a white knit jacket, which she would put on when they left. The only things in her signature color were her coral brushed leather flats and chunky necklace, but the slacks did great things for her thighs and bottom. It didn’t hurt that the tank molded to her breasts just right without looking like she was trying too hard either.
The outfit would be wasted on Andreas.
“Do we have time for breakfast?” she asked as she walked into the sitting room.
Andreas looked up from reading the paper on his tablet. His green gaze flared with something that looked like lust, but that couldn’t be right. “That is what you are wearing?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little...casual?” he finally asked after a significant pause.
“To play tourist on a harbor cruise?” she asked right back. “No.”
Andreas frowned. “Are you trying to get picked up? Again?”
“What are you talking about?” Seriously. What was the man’s problem?
“Your outfit. It’s sexy. Last night, you were dressed like a woman ready to seduce. Is something going on here that I do not know about, Kayla?” Andreas did not look happy at the prospect.
“The only thing going on is that you are being an idiot, Andreas. This outfit is not sexy.” Just attractive. Darn it. “So, it looks good on me. It’s not a walking invitation for sex.”
“From where I’m standing, it is.”
“You’re sitting and you’re still being ridiculous.”
“Don’t be pedantic.” He stood and pointed down to his obvious erection. “As I said.”
“I’m not responsible for your...for you...for that.”
“The point is, in fact, you are.”
She didn’t know how she felt about the hard-on in Andreas’s pants. Clearly he wasn’t happy she’d given him one. A few days ago, she might have been hopeful in this situation, but knowing what she now knew about his plans for the future, she realized any attraction he felt for her meant absolutely nothing. Less than nothing.
“That is your problem, Andreas. I’ve worn more revealing clothing than this in front of you. If you’re that hard up, maybe you should spend the morning doing something other than sightseeing with me. I can call Jacob and see if he’s still interested in spending time with me after how rudely I left him last night.”
“You are not replacing me with Jacob.” Andreas was suddenly looming over her, his body practically vibrating with the ferocity of his feeling.
Wow. Reaction, much? “Well, I’m not changing my clothes either.” She glared up at him defiantly.
His hands fisted at his sides, his big body one large, muscled mass of tension. “Let’s eat breakfast.”
“So, we have time?”
“Yes,” he gritted out.
“Good. I’m not always rational when I’m ‘hangry.’”
He almost smiled at that. “I know.”
They sat down to eat, the tension between them stretched taut. She couldn’t help wondering if his not-so-little problem of an erection continued to persist and what it meant. Had he gone without sex that long? Was it a requirement of the matchmaker’s?
From their past relationship, Kayla knew that Andreas was highly sexed. It had been a rare day they hadn’t made love more than once, much less let a day go by without having sex. If Genevieve had Andreas on a no-sex diet while he auditioned wife candidates, then that would explain how he was desperate enough to get excited by Kayla.
She was careful to keep her distance while in the elevator later and in the car on the way to the harbor. Andreas gave her several brooding looks. He’d approved her jacket, but cursed in Greek when he followed her out of the top-floor suite and said something about the fit of her pants. She’d ignored him, but couldn’t help smiling to herself, whatever the reason for the uncharacteristic attention.
When they arrived at the harbor, the line to get on the ship was long and Kayla told herself the cruise would be worth it. However, when they stepped out of the black luxury car, Andreas led her past the long, winding queue of people to a man in a white uniform. Andreas showed his identification and soon after they were shown their way onto the ship.
“VIP treatment?” Kayla asked.
“You know I do not like waiting in lines.”
“I’m sure the people down on the dock do not either.”
“We could have taken a private tour.”
“I wouldn’t have liked that.”
“I knew that. For some strange reason, you like doing regular tourist-type things.”
“So, you booked us on a public cruise, but arranged to board before the rest of the passengers.”
“That about sums it up.” Andreas led her to outside seats near the bulkhead. Kayla would be able to get as many pictures as she liked.
“You are a strange man.”
“Says the woman who could live like a queen, but prefers to live like a peasant.”
“Just a normal person. You’ve got a medieval streak a mile wide.”
“Hardly.”
“I choose to spend my money funding the shelter.”
“And I have told you I would match your funds, but you turned me down.”
“It was too much, and would have set back your plan to prove your worth to your family.” Besides, Kayla for Kids was hers. In the beginning, she’d needed something that Andreas didn’t have a part of. “Besides, I let you donate later.”
Just not match her funds.
“I am not proving my worth to them.” Offense laced every word of Andreas’s reply.
Kayla just shook her head. “Then who are you trying to prove it to?”
“I know my own worth.”
“I would have said so, yes, but this whole plan, it says otherwise.” She’d never spoken so frankly to him, not about this, but she really had nothing left to lose.
Literally.
His plan was taking it all away.
Andreas stared at her like maybe she’d turned from Perl to Python programming language before his eyes. “My plan will show the Georgas clan once and for all that a Kostas does not need them to make his way in the world, that I am better than anything they could have ever made me into.”
“Your father was a jerk, both when he rejected your pregnant mom with a payoff and when he came swooping in after her death to take you back to Greece, no matter what you wanted. But you’ve already proved you don’t need him. You took back your mother’s last name. You’ve made a life for yourself in America, not Greece. You made a success of KJ Software beyond anything they could have imagined. There’s nothing left to prove.”
“I will show them that I can make my own family without them.”
And with those words, Kayla lost any hope that Andreas might not go through with his buy-a-bride plan. Genevieve was going to find him some ideal woman with a perfect pedigree, certainly not a mutt brought up in foster care because her own mother couldn’t be bothered to raise her.
No wonder he’d dumped Kayla six years ago. Not only did he not love her, but she would never fit Andreas’s vision for his life. She’d never even been in the running. Kayla would bet she wouldn’t even make it past Genevieve’s first screening process.
Not that Kayla cared.
She might not have all the credentials to be considered something special in Andreas’s eyes, but she’d made something of herself too, despite her lousy childhood. And she was proud of that fact. It was why she was so committed to the shelter. She believed that given a chance, other kids could make good choices too.
Kayla felt the final death rattle in her heart for any chance at a future with Andreas and forced herself to look at the man next to her as the one thing he insisted on being. Her friend.
She dredged up the sincerest smile she could. “I wish you happiness with your future, Andreas.”
“What just happened?” He searched her face as if trying to read her thoughts.
But Kayla pulled her emotions deep inside, where no one could hurt her, not even Andreas.
“Stop it, Kayla. Whatever is going on in your head.” He grabbed her shoulders, his look intent, bordering on worried. “Damn it. Stop it, right now.”
“Relax, Andreas.” She pulled out the smile. The one that had always fooled the social workers. “Everything’s fine. So, what are we going to see on this tour?”
“Don’t give me that fake smile. Something just happened and I want to know what.”
People started pouring onto the deck, filling the chairs around them, and even if Kayla had been inclined to answer Andreas, which she was not, there was no way it was happening now. He realized it too.
She gave a pointed look to his hands on her shoulders and he released her, his reluctance clear.
That look of frustrated endeavor on his face would have been humorous under any other circumstances. Some answers Andreas Kostas would just have to learn to tolerate going without.
They all had lessons to learn in life and he’d taught her one of the most painful.
Sometimes, you had to give up on dreams. Full stop.
Despite its tense beginnings, Kayla ended up enjoying the cruise very much. She snapped picture after picture on her smartphone as they approached the Statue of Liberty.
“You’re going to run your battery out taking all those photos,” Andreas teased.
She turned to him, unable to suppress a delighted grin. “Tell me this doesn’t touch even that stone-cold heart of yours. Your mother immigrated to the US.”
“Not via Ellis Island.” But there was an expression on his face that said he was more moved than he wanted to acknowledge.
“Coming to America was a big deal for your mom, wasn’t it?”
Andreas shrugged. “She had no life for her back in Greece. Her lover had paid her off, expecting her to get an abortion, something her faith would never allow her to do. Her entire family had rejected her.”
“Because she was pregnant with you?”
