Read The Greek Billionaire's Innocent Princess Online
Authors: Chantelle Shaw
disturbing presence. The jade silk skirt and close-fitting jacket had been Liss’s choice that made
the most of her curvy figure, and suited her colouring. As she studied her reflection she
wondered if Nikos would approve when he discovered that she was wearing nothing beneath her
suit other than a black lace bra and matching French knickers. From the sound of it he wanted
their marriage to be a proper one, and she could not deny that the sexual chemistry between them
was as strong as it had been on the night of the royal ball. But despite her desperate awareness of
him, she felt nervous at the prospect of sharing his bed when she barely knew him. For her, the
intimacy of making love was a big issue, but she had a feeling that Nikos regarded sex as the
single benefit of their enforced marriage.
Lost in her thoughts she walked back down the corridor, but as she turned the corner she
cannoned into Vasilis Sarondakos, and her heart sank.
‘You hardly look the joyful bride,’ he said mockingly. ‘What’s the matter, Kitty? Are you afraid
that if you leave your husband alone for too long his attention will stray—towards your sister
perhaps?’
Vasilis was drunk. His speech was slurred, and Kitty wrinkled her nose when she caught a waft
of alcohol on his breath. She had been dismayed to find his name on the guest list, but he was an
old family friend, and she’d reminded herself that after today she would probably never see him
again. She attempted to push past him, but he grabbed her arm and shoved her up against the
wall. ‘
Let go of me!
’ She tried to jerk free of his hold but Vasilis tightened his grip and laughed.
‘You have every reason to worry,’ he taunted. ‘Liss was blessed with more than her fair share of
good looks, and Nikos is a notorious playboy.’
‘Shut up, Vasilis!’ Kitty couldn’t quite banish her envy of her sister’s beauty, and she despised
herself. ‘There’s nothing going on between Liss and Nikos. He married me, didn’t he?’
‘Ah, but the reason for your hasty trip down the aisle isn’t as secret as you might wish,’ Vasilis
said with a sly wink. ‘But I’ve got to hand it to Angelaki—he’s even more of a ruthless social
climber than I realised, and he struck gold with you. Who else would have set out to deliberately
seduce a naïve, virgin princess, impregnate her with his child and then marry her pronto to spare
embarrassment to the royal family? I’m surprised Sebastian hasn’t knighted him for services
above and beyond the call of duty,’ Vasilis finished bitterly.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Kitty said faintly, reeling from Vasilis’s shocking statement. How on
earth did he know about her pregnancy? ‘What do you mean when you say Nikos is a social
climber?’ she demanded. ‘He’s a multimillionaire who heads his own hugely successful
company.’
‘A company that he inherited after he seduced another gullible woman,’ Vasilis said sneeringly.
‘It’s not only Hollywood starlets who sleep their way to the top. Nikos Angelaki was the
illegitimate son of a peasant woman. He grew up in the slums of Athens, and as a teenager he
was already involved with the criminal underworld.’ Vasilis paused when he saw Kitty’s
shocked expression, and gave an unpleasant smile. ‘I take it your new husband hasn’t told you
about his past? Ask him about the tattoo on his shoulder if you don’t believe me.
‘Somehow, Nikos met a millionairess, Larissa Petridis, daughter of the shipping magnate
Stamos Petridis,’ Vasilis continued. ‘Larissa had inherited her father’s company after his death.
She was a spinster with a penchant for good-looking young men. Rumour has it that she quickly
became besotted with charming, handsome Nikos, despite the fact that he was twenty years
younger than her. Nikos seized his chance to escape a life of poverty and he became her lover,
and when Larissa died a few years later she left Petridis Shipping to him. Not a bad prize for
being a stud to a lonely older woman, was it?’ Vasilis jeered.
Kitty felt dizzy as Vasilis’s poisonous words swirled in her mind, but she was determined not to
reveal her shock at his revelations by fainting, and she pressed her back against the wall for
support. ‘I don’t believe you,’ she muttered. ‘How do you know so much about Nikos?’
‘I hired someone to make a few enquiries,’ Vasilis said without a flicker of shame. ‘I like to
discover the skeletons in people’s closets. You never know when the information might come in
useful. I’ll show you the report my private eye filed on Angelaki if you like. It makes interesting
reading. Almost as interesting as this week’s edition of
Glamorous
magazine,’ Vasilis added,
grinning at Kitty’s puzzled expression.
‘Is there anything to
read
in a downmarket publication devoted entirely to celebrity gossip?’ she queried coldly.
‘Not much,’ Vasilis admitted, ‘but there are plenty of pictures showing what your new husband
was getting up to in the three weeks prior to your wedding.’
‘Nikos was in the US, working hard to tie up a business deal,’ Kitty said sharply.
‘Well, he was certainly working hard, but in the bedroom rather than the boardroom. Face it,
Kitty,’ Vasilis said nastily. ‘You’re not Angelaki’s type—which I guess is why he spent the last
weeks with his mistress, Shannon Marsh…here’s the evidence.’ He withdrew a copy of the
glossy magazine from his jacket pocket and flipped it open to a double page spread of
photographs showing Nikos and a stunning, tanned blonde.
In the photos Nikos looked bronzed and gorgeous with a lock of his dark hair falling across his
brow. He was relaxed and laughing with his beautiful companion and the obvious familiarity
between them tore at Kitty’s heart even more than the images of Shannon pressing her naked
breasts against Nikos’s muscular chest.
She snatched the magazine from Vasilis and scanned the short paragraph beneath the photos,
paling when her own name leapt from the page together with the speculation that, while Nikos
was about to marry a European princess, he was still clearly smitten with his American lover.
‘I told you that you should have married me.’ Vasilis swayed unsteadily. ‘I wouldn’t have
humiliated you on your wedding day. As it is, many of the guests here today have probably read
this over their breakfast this morning, and there’s fevered speculation among them about the real
reason why Nikos hurried you down the aisle.’
A wave of nausea swept over Kitty at Vasilis’s words and her fragile self-confidence shattered.
The wedding guests hadn’t stared at her in the chapel because she’d been transformed into a
beautiful bride—they had been comparing her to Shannon Marsh, whose stunning figure was
revealed in all its lissom glory in a magazine that had worldwide circulation.
And what about Nikos, and his apparent eagerness to take her to bed—how could he possibly
desire her when he had Shannon waiting for him in America? She would be a poor consolation
prize, Kitty thought miserably.
She jerked out of Vasilis’s hold, and felt no sympathy when he stumbled drunkenly. She was
shocked to realise that her whole body was shaking with reaction. The tension wouldn’t be good
for the baby, and the knowledge forced her to take a ragged breath. The baby was the only thing
that mattered, the only reason she had married Nikos, and from now on she would concentrate all
her energies on the tiny scrap of life growing inside her.
‘Angelaki only married you for the kudos of having a royal bride.’
Vasilis’s spiteful taunt followed Kitty as she walked slowly back down the stairs, but she did not
pause or look back. She knew exactly why Nikos had made her his wife. He wanted his child.
But he had told her once that he valued his freedom above everything, and the magazine photos
were clear evidence that he had no intention of taking his marriage vows seriously.
KITTYhad been taught from an early age that members of the royal family never displayed their
emotions in public, and the training proved invaluable for the remainder of the reception.
Somehow she managed to smile at the well-wishers who crowded onto the palace lawn where
Nikos’s helicopter was waiting, and she was confident she had fooled Sebastian and the queen
that she was happy to be leaving Aristo for her new life in Greece.
As soon as the helicopter took off she closed her eyes and feigned sleep, unable to face Nikos.
She reminded herself that in the days before their wedding he had been free to do as he chose—
even if that meant cavorting on a public beach with his half-naked lover—but she felt deeply
humiliated that he had flaunted his affair so openly.
As for Vasilis’s story about Nikos’s past—she did not know what to think. Knowing Vasilis’s
warped personality as she did, it was entirely likely that he had employed an investigator to dig
up any dirt on Nikos, and she supposed the facts would be easy to verify. She did not care if
Nikos came from a poor background, but the idea that he had acquired his wealth and success
because he had played on the emotions of a rich older woman filled her with dismay.
Her thoughts tormented her as the helicopter flew over the sea, and her heart ached as Aristo
faded to a tiny speck in the distance. Nikos had been speaking to the pilot, but now he came and
sat down next to her, and despite everything she had learned of him her senses quivered at his
nearness. She felt his gaze on her and squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Tension gripped her but
after a few moments she heard him sigh, and when she peeped at him she saw he was engrossed
in his newspaper.
Nikos lived in the heart of Athens in an imposing tower block that loomed high above the busy
city streets. It was a far cry from the peace and tranquillity of Aristo, and Kitty felt a pang of
homesickness when his chauffeur-driven limousine turned into the underground car park beneath
his apartment.
‘When I am at work my driver, Stavros, will take you to wherever you wish to go. He is a
trained bodyguard and you are not to leave the apartment without him,’ Nikos told her when they
stepped into the lift.
‘I didn’t have a bodyguard on Aristo and I won’t need one here,’ Kitty argued, startled.
‘It’s different on Aristo. All the members of the royal family are well loved by the Aristan
people, and no one would ever harm you there. But here in Athens you are already something of
a talking point,’ Nikos said tersely. ‘People, especially the press, are fascinated by the idea of
having a princess in their midst. You can’t have missed the paparazzi who tailed us from the
airport. Your photograph will be on the front pages of all tomorrow’s papers, and unfortunately
that level of interest isn’t always healthy.’
Kitty frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that there are some individuals who resent my wealth, and yours,’ he told her grimly. ‘I
don’t wish to scare you, Kitty, but you have to be aware of the possibility of kidnap—a
possibility that is reduced to zero if you do as you are told and always stay close to Stavros.’
He had instructed Stavros to tail her every move, but not only to ensure her safety, Nikos
brooded. Kitty had insisted she wanted the baby, but he was taking no chances—he would know
her whereabouts every minute of the day.
The expression on Nikos’s face warned Kitty to say no more on the subject of a bodyguard, but
her heart sank. She had thought she would have more freedom here in Athens, away from the
stiff protocol of palace life, but it seemed that she had swapped one prison for another, and she
was to have her own personal jailer.
The lift halted at the top floor, and Nikos took her by surprise when he swept her into his arms
and carried her into his apartment. ‘Now you are truly my bride,’ he murmured, frowning
slightly when he noted how she had stiffened at his touch.
His words settled like concrete in Kitty’s stomach as she wondered if he was intending to carry
her on into his bedroom and make her his wife in the time-honoured fashion. She could not
forget the magazine pictures of him and Shannon Marsh, and she wriggled in his arms so that he
was forced to set her on her feet. ‘I’m too heavy for you,’ she muttered. ‘I’ll break your back.’
‘I think that is unlikely,
agape
,’ he drawled, his eyes narrowing when she refused to meet his gaze. It was the first time she had visited his home, and it was perhaps natural that she seemed
tense, Nikos told himself. And of course she wasn’t merely visiting, this would be her home too
now, and it must seem very different from what she was used to. His penthouse apartment was
luxurious but it was not a royal palace.
They would both have to make adjustments, he acknowledged. He liked his space, and since his
divorce had never invited any of his lovers to spend a night at the apartment. Now Kitty would
be living here; but she was his wife, not his mistress, and he could not expect their relationship to only be confined to the bedroom. Presumably they would eat breakfast together every morning,
and dine together when he returned home in the evening, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about
sharing his private domain. He had been alone for so long that it had become his way of life, but
in a few months from now the baby would be here, and he felt a fierce jolt of excitement as he
imagined life with his child.