Conveniently Wed To The Greek
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She blinked. ‘That definitely interests me,’ she said.
‘I pay well and expect utmost commitment in return.’
‘I have no issue with that,’ she said. ‘I’ve been described more than once as a workaholic.’
Her mouth set in a rigid line and he wondered if it was the ex-husband who had criticised her. He remembered wondering why he hadn’t been at court to support his wife during the case. ‘Truth is, if I get really involved, the line between work and interest blurs,’ she said.
As it always had with him. ‘I think you’ll find this interesting,’ he said. ‘The project is under way but the best is yet to come. You’d be coming on board at an exciting time. I want to open in June.’
Her eyes widened. ‘It’s already April. Isn’t that leaving it late?’
‘Agree. It’s cutting it fine. I won’t expect full occupancy until next year.’
‘When would you want me to start?’ she asked. He could sense her simmering excitement. ‘Because I’m firing with ideas already.’
‘A week. Two weeks max.’
She smiled. ‘I could do that.’ That big embracing smile was finally aimed at him. For a moment, he had to close his eyes against its dazzle. ‘I love the idea of an exclusive private island. Where is it? North of Sydney? Queensland? South Australia?’
He shook his head. ‘Greece.’
‘Greece? I... I wasn’t expecting that.’
Alex had expected her to react with excitement. Not a clouding of her eyes and a disappointed turn down of her mouth. He frowned.
‘My island of Kosmima is in northern Greece where my ancestors come from. Where I’ve been living with my Greek family since I left Australia. The most beautiful private island in the Ionian Sea. I’m sure you would love it.’
* * *
Of course she would love it.
Dell had always wanted to visit Greece. It had held a fascination for her since she’d studied ancient history at school. The mythology. The history. The ancient buildings. She wanted to climb the Acropolis in Athens to see the Parthenon. To visit the picturesque islands with their whitewashed buildings and blue roofs. There was nowhere in the world she wanted to visit more than Greece.
But travel had long been off the cards. She’d committed young to her high-school boyfriend and been caught up in mortgages and marriage to a man who hadn’t had an ounce of wanderlust in him. She’d travelled some with her parents and longed to travel more. Even to live abroad one day.
But there was something else she’d wanted more. Wanted so desperately she’d put all her other dreams on hold to pursue it.
‘I...assumed the job was in Australia,’ she said.
He shook his head. ‘No new venues in Australia for the foreseeable future. Europe is where I want to be. But I’d like a fellow Australian on board with me. Someone who knows about my businesses here, understands how things operate. In other words, you.’
So this was how it felt when big dreams collided.
Dell swallowed hard against the pain of her disappointment. ‘I’m very sorry, but I’m going to have to say no to your job offer. I can’t possibly go to Greece.’
His dark eyebrows rose in disbelief. She had knocked back what anyone might term a dream job. Her dream job. She suspected Alex wasn’t used to people saying no to him. But there was disappointment too in those black eyes. He had created a role just for her, tailored to her skills. She was grateful for the confidence he had put in her ability.
But she couldn’t tell him why she had to turn down the most enticing offer she was ever likely to get. Why she couldn’t be far away from home. That there was a chance she might be pregnant.
CHAPTER FOUR
WHEN DELL HAD been a little girl and people asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, she had always replied she wanted to be a mummy. They had laughed and asked what else, but she had stubbornly stood her ground.
She didn’t know why, as heaven knew her mother hadn’t been particularly maternal. And her father had verged on the indifferent. Both her parents had been—still were—research scientists for multinational pharmaceutical companies. She suspected they would have been happy to stop at the one child, her older brother, and when she’d come along when he’d been five she’d been more of an inconvenience than a joy. Her brother was of a scientific bent like her parents. She, while as intelligent, had broader interests they didn’t share or understand.
As a child, Dell had loved her dolls, her kitten, her books and food. Her mother was a haphazard cook and by the time she was twelve Dell had been cooking for the family. It became a passion.
At the insistence of her parents, she had completed a degree in food science. A future in the laboratory of a major grocery manufacturer beckoned. Instead, to the horror of her parents, after graduation she went straight to work as an editorial assistant on a suburban newspaper. She showed a flair for restaurant reviewing and articles about food and lifestyle and her career went on from there.
At twenty-two, she married Neil, her high-school boyfriend. He supported her in her desire to become a mother. That was when her plans derailed. In spite of their most energetic efforts, pregnancy didn’t happen. At age twenty-seven they started IVF. The procedure was painful and disruptive. The hormone treatments sent her emotions soaring and plunging. The joy went out of her love-life. But three expensive IVF procedures didn’t result in pregnancy. Just debt.
Then Neil had walked out on her.
Growing up, Dell had often felt like a fluffy, colourful changeling of a chick popped into the nest of sleek, clever hawks who had never got over their surprise in finding her there. She had become adept at putting on a happy face when she’d felt misunderstood and unhappy.
The end of her marriage had come from left field and she’d been devastated. She’d loved Neil and had thought she’d be married for ever. She shared her tears with a few close friends but presented that smiling, fluffy-chick face to the world.
Being suddenly single came as a shock. She’d been part of a couple for so long she didn’t know how to deal with dating. After a series of disastrous encounters she’d given up on the idea of meeting another man. Work became her solace as she tried to deal with the death of her big dream. Accepted that, if IVF hadn’t worked, she wasn’t likely to ever be a mother.
Then just weeks ago the fertility clinic had called to ask what she wanted them to do with the remaining embryo she had stored with them.
Dell knew she should have told them she was divorced. That her ex-husband was in another relationship. But they didn’t ask and she didn’t tell. She’d undergone the fourth procedure the week before she’d been fired. All her other attempts at IVF had failed. She hadn’t held out any real hope for this time. But she’d felt compelled to grab at that one final chance.
Now, the day after her meeting with Alex Mikhalis, Dell lay back on her cool white bed at Bay Breeze racked by the cramps that had always heralded failure. She took in a great, gasping sob then stayed absolutely still, desperately willing that implant to stay put. Her baby. But a visit to the bathroom confirmed blood. She’d failed again.
She would never be a mother.
Dell stood at the window for a long time staring sightlessly out to the view of the sea. Her hand rested on her flat, flat stomach. There was nothing for her here. No job. No man. No close family. Just parents who, if she left the country, would wave her goodbye without thinking to ask why she was going. Her friends were starting families and moving into a life cycle she couldn’t share. She hadn’t told anyone about this last desperate effort to conceive so there was no one to share her grief. But she did have all her cyber friends on her blog. She had to put on her fluffy-chick face and move on.
Without thinking any further, she picked up the house phone and called through to Alex Mikhalis’s room. She braced herself to leave a message and was shocked when he answered. Somehow she found the words to ask could she have a meeting with him. His tone was abrupt as he told her to be quick—he was packing to head back to Sydney.
Dell had no chance to change. Or apply make-up. Just pushed her hair into place in front of the mirror and slicked on some lip gloss. Yoga pants were de rigueur in a place like this anyway. He wouldn’t expect to see her in a business suit and heels.
He answered the door to his room. ‘Yes?’ he said, his voice deep and gruff and more than a touch forbidding.
For a long moment Dell hesitated on the threshold. He towered over her, in black trousers and a charcoal-grey shirt looking every inch the formidable tycoon. Half of the buttons on his shirt were left open, as if he’d been fastening them when she’d sounded the buzzer on his door. It left bare a triangle of olive skin and a hint of dark chest hair on an impressively muscled chest.
Her heart started to beat double-quick time and she felt so shaky at the knees she had to clutch at the doorframe for support. Not because she was nervous about approaching him. Or feared what kind of a boss he might be. No. It was because her long-dormant libido had flared suddenly back into life at the sight of him—those dark eyes, the proud nose, the strong jaw newly shaven but already shadowing with growth. He was hot.
Dell swallowed against a suddenly dry mouth. This unwelcome surge of sensual awareness could complicate things. She was beginning to rethink his devil incarnate status. But who knew if he was sincere about having changed? After all, she’d seen him at his intimidating worst on those courtroom steps. She had to take him on trust but be cautious. That did not mean fancying the pants off him.
Eyes off the gorgeous man, Dell.
He stepped back and she could see his bag half packed on his bed. Perhaps he was headed to Greece and she would never see him again. This could be her only chance.
She forced her lips into a smile, the wobble at the edge betraying her attempt to be both nonchalant and professional. And not let him guess the turmoil of her senses evoked by his half-dressed state. ‘Your job offer?’ she said.
He nodded.
‘Can...can a person change her mind?’
* * *
Alex stared at Dell. What had happened? Thinly disguised anguish showed in the set of her jaw, the pallor of her face, her red-rimmed eyes. The expression in her eyes was sad rather than sparkling. But as she met his gaze, her cheeks flushed pink high on her cheekbones, her chin rose resolutely and he wondered if he’d imagined it.
‘I’d like to accept the job.’ She hesitated. There was an edge to her voice that made him believe he had not imagined her distress. ‘That is, if the position is still on offer.’
Alex had been gutted when she’d turned him down. Disappointed out of all proportion. And stunned that he’d been so shaken. Because of course she’d been right. Whisper a word in a recruitment agent’s ear and he’d be inundated with qualified people ready to take up the job with him. Why Dell Hudson? Because it was her and only her he’d wanted. He’d had no intention of taking her ‘no’ as final. In fact he’d been planning strategies aimed at getting a ‘yes’ from her.
Once he’d made up his mind about something it was difficult to budge him. It was a trait he had inherited from his stubborn grandfather. No one else would do but her. Was it his tried and tested gut feel telling him that? Or something else? It was nothing to do with the fact he found her attractive. That was totally beside the point. He did not date employees. Never, ever after what had happened with Mia.
‘Why did you change your mind?’ he asked Dell.
She took a deep breath, which emphasised the curve of her breasts outlined by her tight-fitting tank top. How had he never noticed how sexy she was? He forced his eyes upward to catch the nuances of her expression rather than the curves of her shapely body.
‘A...sudden change of circumstances,’ she said. ‘Something...something personal.’
‘Problems with a guy?’ he asked. Over the years he’d learned to deal with the personal dramas of female staff. Not that it ever got easier.
She shook her head and again he caught that glimpse of sadness in her eyes. ‘No. I’m one hundred per cent single. And intending to stay that way. I’m free to devote my time entirely to my work with you.’
‘Good,’ he said. He didn’t want to hear the details of her marriage breakup. Or any bust-ups that came afterwards. That was none of his concern. This was about a job. Nothing more.
Although he found it very difficult to believe she was single by choice.
‘I don’t let my personal life impinge on my work,’ she said. ‘I want your job and I want to go to Greece.’
‘You’re sure about that? You’re not going to change your mind again?’
She took another distracting deep breath. ‘I’m very sure.’
He allowed himself a smile, knowing that it was tinged with triumph. Reached out to shake her hand. ‘When can you be ready to fly to Athens?’
CHAPTER FIVE
SHE WAS IN GREECE, working for Alex Mikhalis!
It had all happened so fast Dell still felt a little dizzy that, just two weeks after her wobbly encounter with him in the yoga room, the man who had been her adversary—the man she had loathed—was her boss.
So far so good. It had been a long, tedious trip to get here even in the comfort of the business-class seats he had booked for her—twenty-three hours to Athens alone. Then another short flight to the small airport at Preveza in north-western Greece.
Too excited to be jet-lagged, she staggered out into the sunshine expecting to find a sign with her name on it held up by a taxi driver. But her new boss was there to meet her. Tall and imposing, he stood out among the people waiting for passengers. He waved to get her attention.
Dell’s breath caught and her heart started hammering. It was the first time she’d seen Alex since that meeting in his room at Bay Breeze. For a moment she was too stunned to say anything. Not just because her reawakened senses jumped to alert at how Greek-god-handsome he looked in stone linen trousers and a collarless white linen shirt. But because she wasn’t sure what rules applied to their changed status. It was quite a leap for her to take from enemy to employee.
‘Good flight?’ he asked.
‘Very good, thank you,’ she said, uncertain of what to call him. He was her employer now but they had history of a kind. ‘Er...thank you, Mr Mikhalis.’
His dark eyes widened as if she’d said something ridiculous, then he laughed. ‘That’s my father’s name,’ he said. ‘Alex will do. You’re not working for a corporation here. Just me.’
He held out his hand to take hers in a firm, warm grip. ‘Welcome on board.’ His handshake was professional, his tone friendly but impersonal. She would take her cue from that. And totally repress that little shiver of awareness that rippled through her at his touch.
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