Bride by Day

“Do you, Samantha Telford, take Perseus Kostopoulos to be your wedded husband?” About the Author Title Page CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN Copyright

“Do you, Samantha Telford, take Perseus Kostopoulos to be your wedded husband?”

“Yes.” With all my heart, she murmured inwardly. No matter how bogus this wedding might be, she loved Perseus. Her part of the ceremony would not be a lie.

The pressure of his hand seemed to tighten a fraction before the priest asked in a solemn voice, “Do you, Perseus Kostopoulos, take Samantha Telford to be your wedded wife?”

“I do,” came the fervent response. Perseus was such a wonderful actor; he sounded as if the vows actually meant something to him. In the next instant he removed the flower garland from her lace-covered head. A strange smile hovered at the corners of his compelling mouth as he found her left hand and placed a ring with one exquisite teardrop-shaped diamond on her finger.

“Make no mistake, Kyria. We’re married in the eyes of God and the world. I’m your husband now.”

Everybody loves a wedding: they’re romantic and exciting. And in our WHIRLWIND WEDDINGS miniseries we have weddings that are more exciting than most!

WHIRLWIND WEDDINGS is a series that combines the heady romance of a whirlwind courtship with the joy of a wedding—strong heroes, feisty heroines and marriages made not so much in heaven as in a hurry!

Titles in this series are:

REBECCA WINTERS: Rebecca, an American writer and mother of four, is a graduate of the University of Utah. She has also studied at schools in Switzerland and France, including the Sorbonne. Rebecca is currently teaching French and Spanish to junior high school students. Despite her busy schedule, Rebecca always finds time to write. She’s already researching the background for her next Harlequin^® romance!

Bride by Day
Rebecca Winters

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

“I’M SAM Telford from Manhatten Office Cleaners. My employer told me you wanted to see me.”

Samantha, who preferred to be called by the shortenend version of her name, had been forced to run all the way from her apartment, and had been caught in the middle of an early May cloudburst. She was dripping wet and didn’t dare sit down on any of the upholstered chairs.

The elegant, middle-aged secretary looked at her with vague disdain. “Are you the person who cleaned this office last night?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re the one. It’s after two o’clock. You were expected in long before now.”

“I was in class all morning. My boss didn’t reach me until I returned to my apartment a little while ago. Obviously something is wrong.”

“You could say that,” came the cryptic reply. “Please, just...stand there for a minute.”

Sam bit her bottom lip. She couldn’t afford to be in trouble, let alone lose her only source of income. Right now she was literally down to her last hundred dollars, and was counting on her next paycheck. At this point she was grateful for her job, and would die before she went begging to her father, a portrait painter of international repute who had never acknowledged her existence as a human being, let alone his daughter.

Through the art department she’d heard rumors that he was living somewhere in Sicily with his latest mistress.

Her jaw hardened. Someday, when she’d made a big success of her own artistic career—and she would if it killed her—she’d present herself to him. That day couldn’t come soon enough for her. She was living for the moment of confrontation, not only because of its shock value alone, but because she couldn’t wait to show him she’d made a success of her life, without him.

He’d gotten away with murder for years. But not forever, she vowed vehemently.

“Ms. Telford? Mr. Kostopoulos will see you now.”

The head man himself?

Sam’s nervousness increased. Kostopoulos Shipping and Export owned the impressive sixty-eight-floor office building located on the Upper West Side in New York City.

Trepidation set in as she walked through the double doors of the office she’d cleaned less than eighteen hours earlier. To her embarrassment, her tennis shoes squished on the marble floor, announcing her entry in no uncertain terms.

Automatically her eyes flicked to the wall. To her relief the Picasso was still there among a grouping of original oils and graphics. For a moment Sam had feared there might have been a theft during the night. It belonged in a museum like the D’Orsay in Paris where the whole world could admire it. Instead, it was part of a private collection only a privileged few would ever be allowed to see.

The simplistic yet charming painting of a pair of hands holding a bouquet of flowers had to be an original, though Sam recognized that it was an unknown version of Picasso’s masterpiece, Petit Fleurs.

She imagined he’d paid a fortune to obtain such a treasure. Most likely there’d been private negotiations between the Marina Picasso family and Mr. Kostopoulos.

In the broad light of day, the room’s clean yet exquisite Hellenic accoutrements deserved a second glance. But her curious gaze fell on the powerfully built male dominating the room. He was structured along the lines of a classic Greek god, and she couldn’t look anywhere else. He was definitely numero uno.

His taut stance and tightened facial muscles led her to believe some very fierce thoughts were running through his mind. She shivered at the possibility those thoughts had anything to do with her.

He stood at the window, totally oblivious to the luxury surrounding him. His right profile was in evidence while he stared at some invisible spot only he could see.

Living in an artist’s world of color as she did, Sam was immediately intrigued by his overly-long black hair. It put her in mind of an inky void no ray of sunlight dared penetrate. She imagined this was the color of darkness before God made the light.

Aquiline features and brows like eagle’s wings made him an arresting figure. But to Sam’s mind, it was the savage two-inch scar along his right jawline which quickened her interest. It appeared to be an old wound which had healed a long time ago, but stood out because he was a man who probably had to shave twice a day.

He didn’t look like a person who feared anything. Quite the opposite in fact. Since he made more money than even most wealthy people probably found decent, why hadn’t the scar been removed through plastic surgery?

Though perfectly groomed and wearing an expensive, hand-tailored gray silk suit, there was a primitive quality about him that hinted at untamed fires burning beneath.

She could well imagine anyone meeting him for the first time would speculate on the scenario which would have marred such an unforgettable male face—the kind of face she would love to sculpt if sculpting were her best medium.

“Come all the way in, Ms. Telford.”

Suddenly Sam became the focus of his unsettling scrutiny. In one sweeping glance his inky black eyes took inventory of her form and feminine attributes, then he scowled. Apparently he found her attire as distasteful as her person.

Her five feet four inches felt very tiny and pathetic standing there in her sopping wet outfit which consisted of nothing more than scruffy jeans and an old denim shirt she hadn’t bothered to tuck in. Decorated with a print from her own handmade blocks, the pattern looked more like black cat’s paws than odd-size circles, but Sam hadn’t been displeased with the result.

Maybe it was her hair the imperious-looking man didn’t seem to like. That morning she’d been in such a hurry to get her final art project to the university on time, she hadn’t been able to find her favorite scarf.

For want of anything else, she’d been reduced to improvise, and had come up with a remnant from one of her originally designed, fishnet chains normally meant to hold hanging flowerpots. She had used it to tie back her thick, yellow-gold hair at the nape. If left unconfined, it flounced like an oversize mop.

“I’m in,” she couldn’t resist commenting because he was obviously trying to intimidate her.

The air crackled with tension. “My secretary said you were the person who cleaned this office last night.”

He spoke impeccable English in the deepest voice she’d ever heard. Yet in spite of his less than friendly demeanor, she caught traces of his attractive Greek accent. Let’s face it, Sam. He’s the most gorgeous male you’ve ever seen in your life, let alone your dreams.

“That’s right.”

“What happened to the man who usually cleans this suite?”

“Jack went home ill, and asked if I would finish up.”

He continued to stand motionless, feet apart. With her fanciful imagination, he could be the god Zeus, astride Olympus, issuing his latest decree. Sam thought he was closer to forty than thirty, yet she considered him young to run such a vast empire. If rumor among the night crew could be believed, legions of world-famous singers, models and movie stars had tried to become the wife of the mysterious Greek tycoon, but all had failed.

Of course it didn’t mean that there wasn’t a special woman somewhere in the cosmos who had a softening effect on him. Since Sam heard that he flew to Greece on a regular basis, she assumed he had a love interest in a beautiful woman from his own country and race. Someone who kept a low profile away from the public eye, and the paparazzi.

The woman would have to be incredibly brave to take him on... And very lucky, a tiny voice whispered.

“I’ll get straight to the point Last night, while in midflight between Athens and New York, a vitally important telephone call came in to this office. My secretary attempted to route it through to me, but there was too much static on the line, so she left the phone number on my desk. I drove here straight from the airport, only to discover that the note was gone.”

He hadn’t accused Sam yet, but the inference couldn’t have been more clear.

She smoothed a damp tendril away from her forehead, all the while conscious of his inquisitive eyes following the movement of her hand whose broken nails and calloused, oil-stained fingers were a far cry from those of his immaculate secretary.

Sam had never been the kind of person to envy another woman. But for once in her life, she wished she had the kind of remarkable looks and polish to attract a man like him.

“I’ve been cleaning the offices in this building for the last six months, and know better than to touch anything. All I did was dust, vacuum, and scour the bathrooms.”

His brows became a black bar of intimidation. “You saw nothing on this desk?”

Her eyes darted to the mirrorlike finish. Only a telephone was on display. For a man of Mr. Kostopoulos’s legendary business acumen, she wondered how he ran his megacorporation with everything out of sight.

“No. It looked exactly as it does right now, as if you’d just had it delivered from the furniture store.”

She shouldn’t have said that last bit. She knew she shouldn’t have said it. Speaking her mind was just one of her many flaws.

“If it isn’t in my head, it’s not important,” he stated bluntly, reading her thoughts with humiliating accuracy. “The clutter I leave to my secretary’s discretion.” His low voice rumbled through her body.

If the truth be known, clutter was Sam’s middle name. She’d lived with it all her life. In an office like this, where everything was in perfect order and spotless, she’d go crazy. In fact, she would have said so if he’d been anyone else except the man who could get her fired.

“Do you recall emptying the wastebasket?” he demanded in a decidedly chilly tone.

She lifted her rounded chin a little higher. “I would have done, but there was nothing in it.”

His lips twisted unpleasantly. No doubt he thought she was being impudent again. Clearly not satisfied with her answers, he buzzed his secretary. “Please come inside, Mrs. Athas, and bring your notepad with you.”

Seconds later, the woman who dealt on a daily basis with his billion-dollar clutter, entered his inner sanctum. She was carrying the small notepad in her hand. It’s yellow color triggered a memory.

Sam groaned, alerting her interrogator.

“You were about to say something?” he prodded, a merciless gleam entering those black depths.

“I—I remember now,” she stammered. “I did see a yellow piece of notepaper, but it was on the floor next to the wastebasket. I assumed someone had aimed for it, but had missed...”

The inference didn’t escape him and his lips thinned, making her quiver inwardly. “Since it was exactly what I needed, I—” She looked everywhere except at him. “I put it in my pocket.”

By now his hands were on his hips. To her consternation, his secretary had conveniently disappeared. Sam took this as the worst of omens.

He muttered several epithets not worthy of repeating before he demanded, “Explain to me why you would have confiscated a supposed piece of refuse from my private office.”

His arrogance was too much!

“Actually, there’s a perfectly good reason,” she fired back, cognizant of heat building in her cheeks.

“For your sake, there’d better be,” he stated with more than a hint of underlying menace.

Sam didn’t like to be threatened. Staring him down she began, “I was vacuuming the carpet beneath your desk when I saw the exact piece of paper I needed to finish my collage.”

“Collage?” he bit out.

“My senior art project,” she defended boldly because she was on steady ground. “At the beginning of this semester my professor, Dr. Giddings, insisted that we could only use those bits of paper left on the grass, the ground, the sidewalk or the floor. No cheating by dipping into garbage receptacles, no using scissors to alter shape. Everything had to go into the collage as found.”

Warming to her subject she blurted, “With the exception of newspapers, telephone directories or cardboard, we could use absolutely anything else made of paper. The whole idea of the project was to be as original as possible, and still create an interesting design worthy of hanging in an art gallery.”

Not stopping for breath she explained, “When Dr. Giddings first gave us the assignment, I didn’t realize how fun, how challenging this final project would be. For weeks I’ve been walking around the city with my eyes on the ground, and I’ve come up with the most amazing finds which are now attached to my canvas.”

By now his eyes had become black slits. “So you’re telling me that the note my secretary left on this desk is now a part of your collage?”

“Yes. But I didn’t take it from your desk. She must have created a draft and inadvertently knocked it to the floor without realizing it.”

While Sam spoke, he raked a bronzed hand through vibrant, ebony hair. She longed to twine her fingers in it, and the distraction made it practically impossible for her to concentrate.

What was wrong with her? Up to now she’d never become seriously interested in the men who’d wanted a relationship with her. Yet Mr. Kostopoulos, a total stranger, had already ignited a fire in her that was growing stronger with every sparring comment.

“Your explanation is so incredibly absurd, I’m half inclined to believe you’re telling me the truth.”

“It’s certainly no more absurd than the fact that you have a Picasso hanging on the wall.”

He blinked. “What does the Picasso have to do with this conversation?”

Obviously he wasn’t used to anyone standing up to him. She got a perverse thrill out of shocking him.

“It has everything to do with it. You’re an art lover who probably can’t paint a straight line.” Mistake number nine or ten. She’d lost count, but it didn’t matter. Something about him had made her lose control.

“Dr. Gidding’s is an artist who wouldn’t know the first thing about your corporate clutter. The point is, you both love Picasso. While you spend your millions on his art so you can look at it from your comfortable leather chair, my poverty-stricken professor, who probably won’t be a legend until long after he has gone, has made us study Picasso and put his credo to the test.”

The man confronting her looked incredulous. “What credo?”

“Picasso said, and I quote, ‘The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place; from the sky, from the earth, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web, from a scrap of paper. We must pick out what is good for us where we can find it.’ End of quote.”

He thought she was insane. Right now, she felt that she was...

“Being a disciple of Picasso, Dr. Giddings challenged us to create beauty from the scraps of paper we found.”

For an instant their gazes collided, creating a new kind of turmoil in her breast, one that squeezed the air out of her lungs for no good reason.

After an eternity, “Where is this—” He paused. “Work of art?” The mockery in his grating tone was as unmistakable as his derision.

He didn’t believe her.

She felt another rush of adrenaline, the kind that prompted her to say things which generally got her into trouble. “At the university.”

“Very well. Then we’ll drive there and get it.”

“I’m afraid that note has already adhered to the wallpaper paste. If I try to pry it loose, my collage will be ruined.” To her mortification, the last few words had come out on a wobble. If she had anything to say about it, that art project was her passport to a brilliant future, one she intended to lord in her father’s face one day. Sam wasn’t about to jeopardize everything she’d worked so hard to achieve. Not for Mr. Kostopoulos, not for anybody!

“Even if I could extricate it, chances are you won’t be able to read what was written on it.”

She watched the ominous. rise and fall of his chest. “Then you’d better start praying that the gods are smiling kindly on you today. I need that number, and there’s no point in trying to dissuade me with those sodden eyes.”

“Sodden—” she practically shrieked the word.

“Hmm...like drenched blue pansies. I’ll warn you now—a woman’s tears have no affect on me whatsoever.”

She gritted her teeth. “And a man’s billions hold no sway with me. You think you’re some invincible god who can make mortals tremble with one bellow, and a simple lift of those black eyebrows. Well, I have news for you, Mr. Kofolopogos, or whatever your name is—”

By now her slenderly rounded body had gone rigid. “This mortal isn’t intimidated. Whoever called and left that number will call again. And if your secretary is so sensational, then she should have taken the number down on one of those pads that makes a copy. The point is, no phone number could possibly be as important as my final grade!”

At her declaration, his features froze. “Since you know absolutely nothing about my life except what you glean from the gossips in this building, I’ll let that comment pass.”

Unfortunately the truth of his remark deepened the fiery red of her cheeks. But it was the bleakness of his rebuke which sent an icy shiver through her body, taking some of the fight out of her, warning her not to antagonize him any further.

“Look Mr. Kostopoulos—I’m sorry I lost my temper. I’m sorry this whole thing has happened. But you have to know it wasn’t intentional. The trouble is, I’m not sure if my professor is still there. It’s the weekend. Everything could be locked up until Monday.”

“Then I’ll find someone to let us in, or call your professor myself.”

“But—”

“Shall we go?”

He ignored her distress and strode toward the doors leading to his private elevator. It was smaller than the ones built for public access. Next to his six foot three frame, she felt minuscule. He pushed a button and the door closed.

Like Persephone being spirited to the underworld by the merciless god, Hades, Mr. Kostopoulos plummeted them the sixty-plus floors to the car park below ground. Throughout the swift descent, her arm brushed against his, making her unbearably aware of his hard, powerful body, the faint, clean smell of the soap he used combined with his own male scent.

As far as she was concerned, he was the antithesis of her artistic, mostly bearded male friends who were generally undernourished, impoverished, and most importantly, benign.

This man projected an aura of physical and mental strength which came from facing life head-on, and enjoying every dangerous second of it.

She imagined he daunted the most self-confident male. That quality alone made him an exceptional man, one she secretly admired.

Without question his impact on the opposite sex was equally profound. Sam would be a liar if she didn’t admit he had a disturbing, earthy appeal.

Instinctively she felt that the forbidding Mr. Kostopoulos was a unique mortal who created his own destiny. She’d never met anyone remotely like him. Though loathe to admit it, he excited her in a frightening kind of way. That phone number had to be of life-and-death importance for him to go to these extremes. Something told her it had nothing to do with business.

Out of a sense of self-preservation, she purposely held herself rigid so they wouldn’t touch. In the close confines of the elevator, she didn’t want him picking up on any more of her private thoughts. The head of a worldwide conglomerate didn’t get to be that way without possessing the unnerving capacity to gauge the weakness of an individual and use that knowledge to the utmost advantage.

Upon exiting the private elevator, a mustached man from the garage had parked a black Mercedes sedan in the alley in front of the doors. He stepped forward and helped Sam into the passenger seat of the car while Mr. Kostopoulos walked around and got behind the wheel.

The two men conversed in what was undoubtedly Greek. It all sounded foreign and mysterious. Sam had taken Spanish in high school and French in college, but anything outside the Romance languages was anathema to her.

When the other man laughed, Sam cringed. She feared that her abductor was regaling his employee about the wild story she’d concocted.

Clearly Mr. Kostopoulos wouldn’t believe her until he had the note back in hand. Thank heaven she’d been honest with him and could prove it. Still, she didn’t like being talked about behind her back.

Once they’d cleared the drive and merged with the horrific city traffic, a deep voice murmured, “Relax, thespinis. George was confiding his little son’s latest antics. Your guilty secrets are still safe.”

Good grief. He knew everything she was thinking. Was her face that transparent?

“For the time being,” he continued in the same vein, “all I require is that you be my navigator. Keep in mind that I have an appointment at four-thirty.”

She fiddled with the hem of her denim shirt. “I’ll keep it in mind, but I can’t do anything about heavy traffic, or the possibility that the art department may be closed. You’ll need to go left at the next corner.”

He lounged back in the seat, negotiating lane changes with the expertise of a New York City cabdriver. “If you’re leading me on a wild-goose chase, be assured that you will find yourself out of work before evening.”

Sam bristled. “Since I’ m down to the last hundred dollars in my checking account, it hardly stands to reason that I would do anything to jeopardize my job at Manhattan Cleaners.

“Of course, that’s something you would never understand,” she complained to herself, but he heard her. Mocking laughter unexpectedly rumbled out of him, making her body tingle.

“You think I don’t remember what it was like for a destitute, barefooted boy on Serifos who was forced to scrounge for jobs no one else would do, only to be given a few pitiful drachma a day?”

There was such a wealth of emotion underlying his revelation, it took her a moment to realize he’d just given her a glimpse of the man behind his wealthy, sophisticated veneer. Unless of course he was trying to arouse her compassion. He was doing a wonderful job of it, but she wasn’t about to let him get to her any more.

“I recall reading the very same thing about Aristotle Onassis,” she taunted.

“Our beginnings are not so dissimilar,” was all he deigned to say.

Like most foolish people, Sam had made assumptions that Mr. Kostopoulos had been born to wealth, and had learned how to play with his inheritance, aggrandizing his unearned fortune in astronomical ways.

The fact that a dirt-poor young Greek boy had risen to Olympian heights on sheer grit and determination made him a much more devastating adversary, one she couldn’t help but admire despite his autocratic manner.

Sam found herself wanting to know more about him, but was in no position to be asking him questions. What little she’d heard about him had been gleaned from gossip in newspapers and magazines, and the people who worked in the building.

After meeting him in person, he was even more enigmatic than the journalists made him out to be. He was also more attractive, and he drove too fast for her peace of mind.

She had the strongest suspicion that his business headquarters in Athens—where the traffic was purported to be the worst—had everything to do with the fact that they’d arrived at the university in half the time it would have taken her, if she’d had a car.

He turned into a section reserved for faculty parking and pulled to a stop in the first available space.

“They tow away cars without permits,” she warned him.

“George can always come for us in the limo. Right now the only thing of importance is that note. Let’s go.”

Sam almost had to run to keep up with him. The second they entered the building, she breathed a sigh of relief to discover that Dr. Giddings’s secretary hadn’t gone home yet.

“Lois?”

The older woman lifted her head. “Hi, Sam. What are you doing back here?”

Lois was trying hard, but she couldn’t keep her eyes from straying to the imposing dark figure dominating the cubbyhole which served as the art department’s office. Who could blame her?

Under other less precarious circumstances, Sam would have introduced them. Finding out he was the Kostopoulos of Kostopoulos Shipping would have made Lois’s year. But because Sam hated the limelight, and sensed instinctively that her abductor hated it, too, she decided against divulging his identity.

“I need to get my collage back.”

“You’ve got to be kidding! There must be over a hundred of them propped around the gallery. I’ve already locked it and am ready to go home. This has been a killer day.”

“You can say that again. Lois,” Sam whispered, “this is an emergency. I don’t have time to explain the details right now, but I can’t leave here without it.”

“Dr. Giddings won’t accept late work, Sam.”

“It wasn’t late. You logged it in yourself! It’s just that I’m in terrible trouble and have to fix something on it. I’ll bring it back first thing Monday morning. He’ll never know. If you’ll do this favor for me, I’ll give you that tablecloth I made last semester.”

Lois’s eyes rounded. “You told me you’d never part with it.”

Sam darted Mr. Kostopoulos a covert glance. “I—I I changed my mind.”

Lois followed Sam’s gaze. Lowering her voice she said, “Holy moly. You’ve been holding out on me. He’s incredible. I mean downright, knock-me-dead fantastic. Where on this overcrowded planet did you find him?”

“At my night job. Lois, please help me.”

“You really want your collage back that badly?”

“Yes. It’s a matter of life and death.” Which wasn’t exactly a lie. In fact, Sam had the distinct feeling her life wouldn’t be worth the sum total of the scraps of paper stuck to her canvas if she couldn’t produce the desired note.

The bemused secretary sighed aloud and pulled a key out of the drawer. “All right. Go on in and get it.”

“Thank you!” Sam leaned over the counter and gave her a hug. “He’s going to help me look for it, so it shouldn’t take too long.”

With key in hand, Sam hurried down the hall, beckoning Mr. Kostopoulos to follow.

“What exactly are we looking for?” His deep voice reverberated in the darkness. She felt for the light switch on the wall, her heart thudding painfully. His nearness was starting to affect her that way, and the fear that she wouldn’t be able to pry the note loose without tearing it and the phone number to shreds.

“I-if I’ve done a halfway decent job, you shouldn’t have any trouble spotting it.”

“Is this a riddle of some kind?”

“Not exactly. It’s just that I’m hoping it will leap out at you.”

On that note, she found the switch which illuminated the gallery. Collages of every design and color, from white to psychedelic, filled the room, leaving little space to maneuver. Each one had to be three feet by four feet, therefore the unity of shape didn’t make their task any easier.

While she took in the enormity of the project facing them, a pair of unfathomable black eyes impaled her.

“I can already see a dozen projects which are fairly blinding me at the moment,” he growled with heavy sarcasm.

An imp of mischief not unmingled with fear made her want to prolong the moment of truth until the last second, but she supposed her last second was up.

“I’ll give you a hint. Mine will probably be the only one which will speak to you personally. That is—” Her voice caught, “if—as I mentioned earlier—I’ve accomplished my objective.”