Czytaj książkę: «Bound To Her Greek Billionaire»

CHAPTER ONE

LYS THERON ARRIVED ahead of time for her appointment with the detective at the prefecture in Heraklion, Crete. The officer at the desk looked her over in a way she found insulting and hurtful.

From her early teens she’d had to get used to men young and old staring at her. But his scrutiny was different because the unexpected and unexplained death a month ago of Nassos Rodino, the Greek multimillionaire hotelier on Crete, continued to be under police investigation and she was one of several people still being questioned.

The well-known, forty-nine-year-old owner of the Rodino Luxury Hotel and Resort in Heraklion had died too young. Nassos had always been an object of fascination in the news. But since the divorce from his wife, Danae, four months ago, there’d been rumors that he’d been having an affair with twenty-six-year-old Lys, his former ward who’d lived in their household since the age of seventeen.

While Lys struggled with her grief over his death, and many people lamented his demise, the media had done their best to sensationalize it, developing a story that had played every night in the television news cycle. Had Lys conducted a secret affair with the famous hotelier for several years? Questions had been raised as to what had actually caused the divorce and his ultimate death.

Without answers, speculation grew that foul play might have been involved. Rumor that Lys might have caused his death to gain access to part of his money had caught hold. Though the detective conducting the investigation hadn’t put the blame on anyone, the reason for Nassos’s death still hadn’t been declared and a cloud hung over her. Lys’s heart shuddered over the cruel gossip. Nassos was the man she’d loved like a father since childhood.

At seventeen, her millionaire Greek father, Kristos Theron, owner of a successful hotel in New York City, had been killed in a small plane accident. He’d left a will with a legal stipulation. If he died before she was of age, his best friend and former business partner, Nassos Rodino, would become her legal guardian.

Nassos had come to New York often throughout her early childhood and she had seen him as part of her extended family. When her father died, it was no hardship to travel to Greece with him.

But the moment Nassos had brought her to his home, she’d discovered that he and his wife had been living in a troublesome marriage.

Lys had never known the reason for their struggles, but it grieved her because she’d sensed that deep down they loved each other. It was all very complicated and she’d tried not to add to their problems. But in that regard she felt she’d failed when she’d started dating men neither of them approved of.

Nassos called them rich men’s playboy sons. Danae saw them as opportunists with no substance, adding to Lys’s insecurity that somehow she didn’t have the ability to attract the right kind of man. None of her relationships developed into anything serious because she sensed her adoptive parents’ disapproval.

Since coming to live with them, the paparazzi had followed her around, never missing a chance to exploit her private life by filming her accompanied by any rich man she may have been seen with in public. Unfortunately in her work at Nassos’s exclusive hotel chain, wealthy people made up her world. She’d never known anything else.

If she’d met and fallen in love with a poor fisherman, would they have approved of her choice? She didn’t have an answer to that question, nor to the many others that she often thought of as Lys suffered from a lack of confidence. Having lost her mother at the age of nine hadn’t helped.

Their disapproval hurt her terribly because she’d loved Nassos and his wife so much and wanted their acceptance. Lys’s father had entrusted her to Nassos. Right now she felt like she’d let down three of the most important people in her life, but not on purpose.

Though he and Danae had suffered marital difficulties, they’d been wonderful to Lys and had made life beautiful at their villa on Kasos Island while she’d dealt with her sorrow. They’d helped her through those difficult years and had made it possible for her to go to college on the mainland.

Nassos was the kindest, dearest man Lys had ever known in her life next to her own father. The two men had been born on Kasos and had always been best friends. Early in their lives they’d gone into the fishing business together and had slowly amassed their fortunes. Kristos had ended up in New York, while Nassos stayed on Heraklion and had eventually married.

For Lys, the underlying strife during their divorce had been devastating. Since then she and Danae had been estranged. It tore her heart out. At this point Lys didn’t know how to overcome her pain except to pour herself into work at the hotel, and avoid the press as much as possible.

Deep in tortured thoughts, she heard a voice. “Kyria Theron?” She lifted her head to see another officer in the doorway. “Thank you for coming. Detective Vlassis will see you now.”

Hopefully this meeting would provide the answer that let her out of proverbial jail and allowed the funeral to take place. She walked inside.

“Sit down, Kyria Theron.”

Lys found a chair opposite his desk.

“Coffee? Tea?”

“Neither, thank you.”

The somber detective sat back in his chair tapping the tips of his long fingers together. “I have good news for you. The medical examiner has turned over his findings to my office. We know the truth and foul play has been ruled out.”

“You’re serious?” Her voice shook. The rumor that she might have poisoned Nassos with some invisible drug in his penthouse apartment in order for her to get a portion of his money had been devastating for her.

“It’s been determined he died of a subarachnoid hemorrhage probably caused from an earlier head injury.”

“Why did it take so long?” she cried.

“Unfortunately the bleeding went undetected. The reason it was difficult to find the first time was because it’s not unusual for SAH to be initially misdiagnosed as a migraine.”

“So the doctor didn’t catch it.”

“Not at first. A human mistake. It caused a delay in obtaining a CT scan.”

A small gasp escaped her lips. “After he’d hit his head on the kitchen cupboard several months ago, I thought he must have suffered a concussion. I told him I wanted to talk to his doctor about it, but Nassos told me to stop fussing because the pain went away. That must be why he had a stroke.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Thank heaven he can now be laid to rest.”

“This has been a very stressful time for you, but it’s over. The press has been informed. I’m sorry for your loss and wish you well in the future.”

Another miracle. “Thank you. Have you told his ex-wife?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Now Danae could make the funeral arrangements. “You’ll never know what this means to me.”

Lys jumped up from the chair. “Thank you.” She couldn’t leave the police station fast enough and rushed past the officer posted at the front desk without glancing at him. She couldn’t endure one more smirk.

Once outside, Lys hurried to her car, running past the usual news people stalking her movements to take pictures. She got into her car and drove back to the Rodino Luxury Hotel where she had her own suite. She’d been living there and working in the accounts department for Nassos since graduating from business college in Heraklion four years ago.

The moment she reached her room on the third floor, she flung herself across the bed and sobbed. It was over at last. But with Nassos’s death and Lys’s unwanted estrangement with his ex-wife, there was no one to pick up the emotional pieces.

The couple’s tragic divorce had fragmented Lys. If they’d been going to end their marriage, why hadn’t it happened years before now? She simply didn’t understand. And then had come the shocking news of his death... The loss was almost more than she could bear.

They’d worked together at the hotel. He’d taught her everything about the business. He’d been her friend, confidant, mentor. How was she going to be able to go on without him?

For Nassos not to be there anymore was killing her and she missed Danae terribly. Until the police had closed the case, Lys had been in limbo, trying to do her usual job, but her mind and heart hadn’t been there. When she did have to leave the hotel for any reason, she’d felt accusatory stares coming in all directions and avoided any publicity if she could help it.

Thankfully this was over and there’d be an end to the malicious talk that he’d been murdered. Hopefully everything would die down, but where did she go from here? Lys felt like she’d been driving her car when the steering wheel had suddenly disappeared, leaving her to plunge over a cliff. She was so heartbroken she could hardly think.

While in this state, the phone rang. Lys turned over to look at the caller ID. It was Xander Pappas, Nassos’s attorney. She picked up and learned that he’d be in Nassos’s private office at the hotel in a half hour to talk to her. The detective had already been in touch with him.

“I have something important to give you.”

She sat up in surprise. “Will Danae be meeting with us?” Lys longed to talk to her.

“No. We’ve already spoken and I’ve read her the will. She’ll be calling you about the funeral.”

“I see.”

Stabbed with fresh pain, Lys thanked him and hung up. If there hadn’t been a divorce, she and Danae would have planned his funeral together. Now everything had changed. More tears gushed down her cheeks before she got off the bed to freshen up.

Of course she hadn’t expected to be present at the reading of the will and hadn’t wanted to be. Danae had been married to Nassos for twenty-four years. That business was between the two of them.

A few minutes later she left for the corporate office downstairs. On the way, she couldn’t help but wonder what Xander wanted to give her. Nassos couldn’t have known when he would die, so she couldn’t imagine what it was.

After nodding to Giorgos, the annoying general manager of the hotel, she walked in to Nassos’s private office. The attorney greeted her and told her to sit down.

“I have two items to give you. Both envelopes are sealed. You’ll know what to do after you open the envelope marked Letter first. Nassos wrote to you at the time he divorced Danae.” He put both envelopes on the desk.

She swallowed hard. Nassos had written something that recently? “Have you read it?”

“No. He gave me instructions to give them both to you upon his death, whenever that would be. Who would have imagined he’d die this early in his life? I’ll miss him too and am so sorry since I know how close you two were. I’ll leave now. If you have any questions, call me at my office.”

After he left the room, Lys reached for the envelope and pulled out the letter with a trembling hand. She knew Nassos’s handwriting. He wrote with a certain panache that was unmistakable.

My dearest little Lysette,

Immediately her eyes filled with more tears.

I’ll always think of you that way, no matter how old you are when you read this letter. You’re the daughter I never had. Danae and I couldn’t have children. The problem was mine. I found out early in our marriage that I was infertile. It came as a great shock, but I’d dreamed of having children, so I wanted to adopt. She didn’t, and I could never talk her into it. I decided she didn’t love me enough or she would have agreed to try because I wanted children more than anything.

Six months ago, Xander let me know that he knew of a baby we could adopt. I went to Danae and begged her. It could be our last chance, but she still said no. In my anger I divorced the woman I loved and always will. Now I’m paying for it dearly because I don’t believe she’ll forgive me.

You need to know that you were never the reason for our marital troubles. I ruined things at the beginning of our marriage by making an issue that she stay at home. I insisted she quit her job because I was raised with old-fashioned ideas. I was wrong to impose them on Danae. She’s very much a modern woman and a part of me resented the fact that she couldn’t be happy at home.

Please realize that your coming to us helped keep our marriage together and deep down she knows it. I’m afraid it was because of my damnable pride—my greatest flaw—nothing more, that made me divorce her, so never ever blame yourself. If I was hard on you because of the men you dated, it was only because of my desperate fear you might end up in a bad marriage with a man who didn’t value you enough. Danae felt the same way.

Forgive us if we hurt you in any way.

“Oh, Nassos—” Lys cried out in relief and anguish.

You have a massive inheritance from your father that will be given to you on your twenty-seventh birthday. He dictated that specific time in his will to make sure you’d be mature enough when you came into your money.

Lys was incredulous. She’d thought it had all been incorporated into the Rodino empire. Nassos would have deserved every euro of it.

Again, I have no idea how old you are now that I’m dead. I suspect you’re a very wealthy woman, hopefully married with children, maybe even grandchildren. And happy!

As you will have found out from Danae, she inherited everything with one exception...the hotel is your inheritance from me to own and run as you will.

Lys reeled physically and clung to the arms of the chair.

No. It wasn’t possible. The hotel should have been given to Danae, who understood the hotel business very well. It was Nassos who’d hired her away from another hotelier to come and work for him twenty-four years ago. How sad that even after his death, Nassos couldn’t allow her to continue in a career she’d enjoyed.

Lys’s eyes closed tightly for a moment.

Danae hadn’t contacted Lys yet. There hadn’t been time. How could Nassos have done this to the woman he’d loved? Wiping her eyes, she went on reading.

But you’re not the sole owner, Lys.

What? The shocks just kept coming.

Before you take possession, you must give the sealed envelope to Takis Manolis. You’ve heard me and Danae talk about him often enough. When he came to Crete periodically, we’d discuss business on my yacht where we could be private. I never did believe in mixing my business matters with my personal life. The two don’t go together.

You’ll know where to find him when the time comes. The two of you will share ownership for six months. After that time period, you’ll both be free to make any decisions you want.

By the time you read this, he’s probably married with children and grandchildren too. I’ve thought of him as the son I never had.

It was my thrill and privilege to be your guardian, friend and adoptive father for the child of my best friend Kristos.

Love always,

Nassos.

* * *

You can’t go home again.

Whoever coined the phrase was wrong. Yes, you could go home again.

In the last eleven years, Takis Manolis had made four trips a year to Crete and nothing had changed... Not the pain, not the landscape, not his family.

Naturally they were all a little older each time he flew here from New York and later from Italy, but everything had stayed the same if you looked at the inner vessel.

The village of Tylissos where he’d been born was still situated on the northeastern mountainside of Psiloritis near the sea. Time hadn’t altered it a whit.

Nor had it altered the views of Takis’s father or his elder brother, Lukios, who helped their father run the old ten-room hotel.

His family followed the philotimo creed for all Cretans to maintain their unflappable dignity even if their existence bordered on poverty when the hotel didn’t fill. They respected the rich and didn’t try to become something greater than they were. Takis was baffled that they didn’t mind being poor and accepted it as their lot in life.

Until recent years there’d been very little inherited wealth in Greece. Most of the Greek millionaires were self-made, but envy wasn’t part of his brother’s or his father’s makeup.

Takis’s older sister, Kori, married to a cook at one of the village restaurants where she worked, didn’t have to tell him that she and her husband, Deimos, struggled to make a decent living.

They had a little girl, Cassia, now three years old, who’d been in and out of the hospital after her birth because of chronic asthma and needed a lot of medical care. He was thankful that at least Kori kept the cash he’d given her for a belated birthday present, knowing she’d use it for bills.

Though the family accepted the gifts he brought whenever he came, pride prevented his father from taking any monetary help. Lukios was the same. Being a married man with a wife and two children, who were now four and five, he would never look to Takis for assistance to make life a little easier for his family and in-laws.

This centuries-old pride thwarted Takis’s heartfelt need and desire to shower his family with all the things of which they’d been deprived and caused him deep grief.

Early in life he’d known he was different from the rest of them, never going along with their family’s status quo. Though he’d never openly fought with his father or brother, he’d struggled to conform.

His mother knew how he felt, but all she could do was urge Takis to keep the peace. When he’d told her of his dreams to go to college to better himself, she’d said it was impossible. They didn’t have the money. None of the Manolis family had ever gone for a higher education.

Takis just couldn’t understand why neither his father nor brother didn’t want to expand and grow the small hotel that had been handed down from an earlier generation. He could see nothing wrong with trying to build it into something bigger and better. To be ambitious didn’t make you dishonorable, but his father and brother weren’t risk takers and refused to change their ways.

There were times when he wondered if he really was his parents’ birth child. Except that his physical features and build proclaimed him a Manolis through and through.

By his midteens, Takis had feared that if he stayed on Crete, he would turn into his brother, who was a clone of the Manolis men before him, each having so little to show for all their hard work. More and more his ideas clashed with his father’s over how to bring in more clients and build another couple of floors on the hotel.

Takis had worked out all his ideas in detail. One day he’d approached his father in all seriousness, wanting to talk to him man-to-man. But when he made his proposals, his father said something that stopped him cold.

Your ideas do you credit, my son, but they don’t reflect my vision for our family business. One day you’ll be a man and you’ll understand.

Understand what?

Pierced by his father’s comment, Takis took it to mean his ideas weren’t good enough and never would be, even when he became a man.

At that moment something snapped inside Takis. He determined to go to college despite what his mother had said.

So he bought a secondhand bike and after helping his father during the week on a regular basis, he rode the few kilometers to his second job at the famous Rodino hotel and resort in Heraklion on weekends to earn extra money. The manager was soon impressed with Takis’s drive. In time he introduced him to the owner of the hotel, Nassos Rodino, who had several talks with Takis about his financial situation.

One day the unimaginable had happened. Kyrie Rodino called him to his office and helped him apply for a work visa and permit to travel to New York. His best friend, Kristos Theron, the owner of a successful hotel in New York City, would let Takis work for him. He could make a lot more money there and go to the kind of college that would help him get ahead in the business world. He’d improve his English too.

Takis couldn’t believe anyone would do something so fantastic for him and returned home to tell his parents about the opportunity.

His mother kept quiet. As for his father, he listened and nodded. If this is what you want to do, then you must do it.

But how do you feel about it, Baba? Takis had still wanted his father’s approval.

His father shrugged his shoulders. Does it matter? You’re eighteen years old now and are in charge of your own destiny. At eighteen a man can leave his father and make his own way.

That isn’t the answer I was hoping for. His father hadn’t given him his blessing and probably resented Nassos Rodino for making any of this possible.

If you’re a man, then you don’t need an answer.

Takis had felt rebuked. His mother remained silent as he left the room with a hurt too deep to express. After the talk with his father, he’d had the feeling his parent had already felt abandoned before he’d even approached him.

Combined with the pain of having recently lost his girlfriend, who’d been killed in a bus accident, he finally made the decision to leave home. She’d been the one he could confide in about his dreams.

After all their talks, she’d known he’d been afraid to leave his family in case they thought he was letting them down. But she’d encouraged him and told him to spread his wings. They’d talked about her joining him in New York at a later date.

With her gone, he’d had no one who understood everything going on inside him. Her compassion had made her such an exceptional person, and he’d never found that incredible quality in the women he’d met since leaving Crete.

In the end, he’d made the decision to go after the opportunity that would enrich his life and he vowed, one day, that he would return and help his family in every capacity possible.

That was a long time ago.

On this cool March day, he held in the tears as he embraced his mother one more time. On this trip he noticed she’d aged and hadn’t exhibited her usual energy. That troubled him. “I promise I’ll be back soon.”

“Why don’t you come home to live? You can afford it. We miss you so much.” Her tears tugged at his heart.

His father didn’t weep, but Takis detected a new sorrow in his eyes. Why was it there? Why didn’t his parent speak the words of love and acceptance he longed to hear?

“Do what you have to do.” Those were similar to the words he’d said to Takis before he’d left for New York eleven years ago. “Be safe, my son.”

But his father still hadn’t been the one to ask him to come home or tell him he’d like him to work at the hotel with the family again. Had Takis done irreparable damage to their relationship?

“You too, Baba.” His throat had swollen with emotion. “Stay well.”

He turned to his mother once more. Was the sorrow he’d seen in his father’s eyes over concern for his wife? Was there something wrong with her? With his father? Something no one in the family was telling him?

This visit had troubled him with thoughts he didn’t want to entertain. He hugged everyone and kissed his nieces and nephews. Then he climbed into the taxi in front of the family-owned hotel that needed refurbishing. Heaven knew it needed everything. They needed everything.

His eyes clung to his mother’s once more. Had she been trying to tell him something? He blew her a kiss.

The flight to Athens would be leaving from Heraklion airport in four hours. First he would attend the funeral services for Nassos Rodino at the Greek Orthodox church in the heart of Heraklion. The recently divorced hotel owner, rumored to have a mistress, had suffered a stroke in the prime of his life—a stroke that had preceded his death. This had shocked Takis, who’d met with the man, who had given him so much, on his yacht to talk business when Takis had last come to Crete.

Most important to Takis was that he owed the hotelier a debt that bordered on love. His gratitude to the older man knew no bounds.

In truth he couldn’t think of another successful man who would have gone to such lengths to give Takis the chance to better himself, even to go as far as sponsoring him in the United States.

Once the funeral was over, he’d fly to Athens. From there he’d take another flight to Milan, Italy, where he was part owner, and manager of the five-star Castello Supremo Hotel and Ristorante di Lombardi.

But all the way to the church his mother’s words rang in his ears. Why don’t you come home to live. You can afford it. His mother had never been so outspoken in her thoughts before.

Yes, he could afford it. In the eleven years he’d been away, he’d made millions while his family continued to eke out their existence.

Was she telling him something without coming right out and saying it? Was she ill? Or his father? Death with dignity? Never saying a word? Damn that pride of theirs if it was true!

Neither Kori nor Lukios had said anything, but maybe his siblings had been kept in the dark. Then again maybe nothing was wrong and his mother, who was getting older, was simply letting him know how much they’d missed him.

He missed them too. Of course he’d come back in an instant if they needed him. But to come home for good? Even if his two business partners were in agreement and bought him out—even if he sold his hotel chain in New York, would his father allow him to work alongside him? What if he refused Takis’s help? What would Takis do for the rest of his life? Build a new hotel conglomerate on Crete?

His eyes closed tightly. He could never do that to his father and use the Manolis name. A son honored his father and showed him respect by never taking anything away from him.

Two years ago Takis had built a children’s hospital in his hometown village of Tylissos on Crete in order that his niece Cassia would get the kind of skilled medical help she needed. The hospital gave free medical care with no child turned away.

He’d kept his dealings anonymous, using local people who had no idea Takis had funded everything including the doctors’ salaries. It helped him to know he was doing something for his family, even if they weren’t aware of it.

Long ago Takis had lost hope that one day his father might be proud of him for trying to make something of his life in order to help them. His parent had never been anything but kind to him, but deep in his heart lived the fear that his family had always compared him to their ever faithful Lukios and would never see Takis in the same light.

In his pain he needed to get back to Italy and ask advice from his partners, who were as close to him as brothers.

“Kyrie?” The taxi driver broke in on his tormented thoughts by telling him they’d arrived at the corner of the square.

Takis had been in a daze. “If you’ll wait here, I’ll be back in an hour.” He handed him some bills and got out to join a crowd of people entering the church, where the covered coffin faced east.