The Greek Tycoon's Secret Heir Read Online Free PDF Page A

have that paper I signed, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to just lie down for this,” she said.
    “I don’t need threats. Just understand that Theo and I are leaving for Mykonos in less than ten days.”
    “I have one more question,” she said.
    He looked at her in the moonlight and tried to be objective. She wasn’t that attractive. She was pretty, yes, but he couldn’t explain the bone-deep desire he had for her. It went beyond looks. “Yes?”
    “Why are you offering marriage?”

Three
    I t was tempting to just let Christos make all of the decisions and say he was forcing her into marriage, but she had to be strong for Theo. She wanted to be the kind of parent that hers never had been and that meant standing up for herself now.
    “Marriage will legitimize Theo’s birth,” he said, his voice low and husky in the darkening light.
    Whenever he spoke of Theo she felt as though she was missing something. “I didn’t think there was still a stigma to that.”
    “Maybe here in America there isn’t, but in my father’s eyes there is. And with his legitimate heirs gone…”
    Her heart broke at the thought of the deaths of Vennie and Althea. And the fact that Theo would never know his cousins. But she also felt angry that Theo was an afterthought. “If that’s all Theo is to you then I’m afraid we’re done here.”
    “He’s not only an heir.”
    She crossed her arms over her chest. “He’s not?”
    “What do you want from me?”
    “I want to know what you really feel toward Theo.”
    “I like him. I see Stavros in him and I miss my brother.”
    She dropped her arms and felt her heart melt a little. She heard the truth in his words. “Okay, so all of that’s why you want Theo. But why are you willing to marry me? I thought you could only marry a Greek woman.”
    A hard laugh escaped him. “Times have changed.”
    She walked toward him on the cobblestones stopping when only a breath separated them. She wanted…wanted to hear him say that he was offering marriage because he’d finally realized she was the one woman he couldn’t live without. Looking into his obsidian eyes and seeing how guarded he was, she knew that was a fantasy.
    “I’m not going to let you keep these barriers between us,” she said, knowing she couldn’t be the kind of wife that Nikki had been. Nikki had let Stavros push her to the background of his life, a place where Nikki was forced to watch her husband carouse with other women. Ava refused to blend quietly into the background as she might have five years ago when she hadn’t been as sure of herself. Before she’d had Theo she might have compromised herself, but not now.
    He took a deep breath, the warm exhalation brushing along her cheek. His hands fell on her hips and he drew her to him. “Then by all means come closer, my dear.”
    She brought her hands up, putting them on his chest to keep some space there. Why had she thought she could take control of the situation and Christos?
    “This isn’t what I meant,” she said, but there was a rightness to his hands on her. She wanted to lean forward and put her head on his chest. To feel his arms around her once again. Oh, man, this had bad idea written all over it, but she didn’t want to move away.
    “This was always right between us,” he said, the words uttered under his breath.
    Yes, she thought. Yes, it was. She tipped her head back to meet his gaze. His lips were firm and full and so close to hers. She remembered the way he’d kissed her, and she sucked her lower lip between her teeth, biting down on it before she did something really stupid like lean forward and touch her lips to his.
    Someone cleared his throat and Christos held her firmly against him when she would have jerked away.
    “Yes, Antonio?”
    “Master Theo is wheezing,” Antonio said.
    “He has asthma,” Ava said, pulling away from Christos and running back toward the house. She had left her purse in the study and she hurried to find