Kostas's Convenient Bride: Kostas's Convenient Bride / Desert Prince's Stolen Bride

CHAPTER FIVE

“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?”

“Because Barnabas Georgas was their livelihood and she was an embarrassment to him.”

“That sucks.” But Kayla knew firsthand that parents didn’t always put their children’s interests first.

Andreas gave a bark of a laugh. “That is succinctly put, Miss Jones.”

She smiled, a blush warming her skin. She loved making this man laugh. It did not happen often.

Andreas’s brilliant green gaze sizzled across her skin. “You are so beautiful when you do that.”

“What?” she asked, feeling like somehow the oxygen had gone missing from the fresh sea air around them.

“Blush. It’s lovely against your café au lait skin.”

“That’s a pretty way of saying mutt.”

Andreas went rigid, his emerald eyes snapping with unexpected fire, his jaw hewn from granite. “What did you just call yourself?”

“I didn’t call myself anything.” She rolled her eyes. “Stop pretending you don’t know what I mean. I’m not all pure Greek like you. My mom was some kind of mix of white whatever and my dad was clearly at least part black, or where did these lovely kinky curls come from?”

“That makes you typically American. Not a mutt.” Oh, his voice was serious, each word pronounced with exaggerated care.

“Right. Whatever, Andreas.”

His hand came up to cup the back of her neck, his other landed on her thigh, warm and heavy. “Not whatever, you will never use such a derogatory term in reference to yourself again.”

“I bet it’s exactly how Genevieve would describe me.”

“If she ever made the mistake of doing so, not only would I fire her but I would make sure every businessman of my considerable acquaintance knew not to engage her services.”

“Yikes, dial it back a notch, Andreas. She didn’t say anything.” Despite how the other woman clearly looked down on her.

“You are my friend, Kayla.”

“The way you’re holding me feels like more than friendship, Andreas.” Kayla’s heart was running way too fast, her breath coming in short little bursts.

If he didn’t move away from her, she was going to make a fool of herself and do something spectacularly stupid. Like kiss him or something.

“It does, does it not?” Instead of moving away, he leaned closer.

The announcer said something about the statue and a flurry of photography went off around them, but Kayla could not make herself look away from Andreas. The expression in his eyes was one she’d seen many times before, but not for six years. She was afraid to trust her own eyes now. What if she was seeing what she had wanted to see for so long? What she’d absolutely given up on altogether not an hour past?

What if that look wasn’t what she thought it was at all?

But she was no virginal teenager. She knew this feeling well.

The tension surrounding them had nothing to do with being right in front of the Statue of Liberty for the first time. It had everything to do with his lips being mere inches from hers, his torso being so close, she could feel the heat of his body.

“What will this feel like, I wonder?” he asked.

Then his lips covered hers before she could ask what he meant. And for the first time in six years, Kayla felt at home. Safe. Connected. Andreas’s mouth moved against hers and Kayla kissed him back, shock giving way before the absolute rightness of the feeling of his lips against hers. Andreas kissed her deeply, his hand on the back of her neck holding her in her in place for his mouth to plunder hers, to stamp determined possession, the hand on her thigh moving up to her waist and around to her back until she was completely surrounded by her former lover.

The sound of clapping, wolf whistles and laughter finally broke them apart. Only then did Kayla realize what a spectacle they’d made of themselves and that the cruise boat was treading water in front of the statue for the tourists to take pictures. Many of whom were way more interested in her and Andreas.

The blush that burned her cheeks this time was hot and uncomfortable, prickling all over her body. Andreas, the jerk, just laughed, looking for all the world like he got caught kissing in public places like this all the time. Which she knew was not the case. Not even close.

She glared up at him. “Fix this.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Make them stop staring and saying those things.”

“It is okay, Kayla. We were doing nothing wrong.”

“We were kissing like a couple of teenagers.”

“I’d forgotten how much I enjoy kissing you.”

“I know.”

“You sound annoyed by that fact.”

“I’m not the one who decided we made better friends than lovers. Oh, darn it.” She looked around frantically, hoping no one had overheard what she’d just said.

No such hope. There were way too many people avidly interested in her and Andreas, hanging on their every word.

She bit her lip and stared up at him. “This is so embarrassing.”

“Being my lover is embarrassing?” he asked, sounding offended.

She was going to beat him, she really was. “We aren’t, not anymore.” She wasn’t saying that word again. Grown woman or not. Thank you very much.

His look was way too speculative for her liking, but all he said was “I think you’d better get your pictures if you plan to get any.”

“You expect me to take pictures after that?” Her hands were shaking.

He smiled that brilliant smile he shared so rarely with others and pulled his own smartphone out, then proceeded to take several snaps of the statue, making sure she was in the foreground of a couple of them. He even did a selfie shot with them both. It was surreal and Kayla wasn’t sure what was going on.

When the captain started the boat going forward again, Andreas put his arm around Kayla’s shoulder like it was the most natural thing in the world. His thumb brushed up and down her neck, sending shivers along her nerve endings.

“What the heck are you doing, Andreas?” she asked, not even embarrassed when her voice went pitchy.

This? This deserved pitchy!

He kissed her temple and pointed at something on the shoreline. “Amazing, isn’t it?”

“Where is all this affection coming from?” Kayla started to wonder if she was in one of those dreams. The ones where you thought you were awake, but really you were still sleeping.

She’d never had one, but she’d heard of them.

“I like touching you. I had forgotten how much.”

“Did you take seasickness pills or something this morning?”

His laughter was rich and warm and all hers. A sound he shared with so few people she couldn’t help reveling in it, even if this was a superelaborate, really vivid, overly detailed dream.

“Or something.”

She turned her head so their gazes met, knowing it was risky, but unable to have this conversation without eye contact. “What does that mean?”

“I’ve had a revelation.” His grin was all straight, white teeth and positively blinding.

“What kind of revelation?” she asked suspiciously.

How could she be anything else? He looked like the kid who’d gotten the last cookie in the jar and knew where the others were hidden besides.

“I’ll tell you when we return to our hotel. This is not a discussion we need to have in such a public place.”

“Says the man who kissed me in front of an entire shipload of people.”

“Only half the ship’s passengers are on this deck.”

“You’re being facetious.”

His smile was positively sinful and then he kissed her. Again. Not a passionate one, but certainly nothing platonic either.

Kayla gasped, floundering with feelings she’d barely held in check for years. Her mind fought with her heart and sadly her mind was not winning at the moment.

Still, she said, “You have to stop kissing me.”

“The taste and feel of your lips says otherwise.”

“Don’t be a jerk.”

“I assure you, I am not.”

“Andreas!”

He squeezed her neck, like he was comforting her. “Do not worry, Kayla. It is all going to be all right. I promise.”

“You can’t promise that. Everything is messed up.”

“Not anymore.”