Page 15

“Your response was perfect. Who was it?”

She told him the man’s name and watched him reach for his phone.

She expected him to speak to the man, maybe apologize for her, but as she removed her shoes and set them on the rack in the closet, she heard him instruct someone to terminate the man’s employment.

“I don’t want to be responsible for someone losing their job!” She hurried back into the bedroom as he abruptly ended his call.

“It sounds like he’s already chosen to work for Lambros. He’ll land on his feet.” He was still in bed, still barely covered by the corner of the sheet and still bathed in that golden glow off the bedside lamp. He dropped his phone into the blankets.

With a heavy stomach, she went back into the closet and changed into a comfortable pair of knee-length jeans and a light top, then she moved through the door at the back of the closet into the palatial bathroom of marble tiles and heated rails.

Its wide arched doorway held swing doors that didn’t even go all the way to the floor, making it more of an extension of the bedroom. The shower was an open bank of nozzles and taps mounted behind the wall that held the double sinks. The toilet closet had a frosted window that opened onto the terrace. Late-day sunshine filtered through the slats of the closed blinds next to the freestanding tub.

She stood at the sink to remove her makeup.

“I spoke with Khristos while you were out,” Spiro said from the bedroom.

“How are his meetings going?”

“Fine.”

“Good.”

“You don’t want to know what he said about you?”

“Yaya wasn’t on the stoop waiting for me. It couldn’t have been anything terrible.”

He snorted.

She bent to rinse her face and didn’t realize he’d left the bed and padded in here until she lowered the towel from drying her face and found herself staring at a pair of brown nipples. He wore only snug black briefs cut low across his hips and high across the tops of his thighs. The crotch dipped heavily where—

She quarter-turned away and shoved the towel back over her face.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.” His voice held dry amusement.

The corner of her mouth burned anew and she had to tighten her abdomen against the sensations that swirled and eddied there.

“Do you mind? I have a headache.” His broad hand shaped her hip, nudging her aside so he could open a drawer and take out a bottle of capsules.

Don’t faint, she scolded herself and stumbled to the side, then knocked over her tube of moisturizer before she picked it up and squirted a dab onto her fingers.

He swallowed two pills with a few gulps of water.

“Khristos said Julian regards you as his little sister and I should as well. Julian’s sister, I presume,” he added, setting the glass down with a sharp clink. “Not mine.”

Seriously?

“Julian is like a brother to me,” she said as she unpinned her hair. She felt Spiro watching her, which made her feel clumsy and caused her to pull sharply at a few fine hairs before she dropped her pins into a small dish next to the sink. “I did marry you for him and Yaya, not my own gain. I hope you believe that.”

At his silence, she glanced up and could have sworn he dragged his gaze from her backside. Which made her skin tighten.

“But you do stand to gain.” His unabashed stare met hers, making her heart shiver. “Khristos told me I can annul the marriage, but you would still get a settlement.”

“I only asked him for a small cushion.” She turned to face him, leaning her hip on the edge of the sink. “I was pulling Yaya from her home. I need to keep a roof over her head while we get settled here in Athens, but he was overly generous.” She picked up her hairbrush and tapped it on her palm. “You and I can renegotiate the amount.”

“I don’t have a problem with what he promised you. In fact, I commended him on using Lambros’s own tactic of a rush marriage against him.”

“How do you mean?” Why was he so tall? It was like standing next to a skyscraper.