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

baptized in the Roman Catholic Church instead of Greek Orthodox. His father would have a fit.
    “Thanks for seeing us home,” Ava said as she came into the hallway and partially closed the door to Theo’s room.
    “You’re welcome. How bad is the asthma?”
    “They don’t know. He might outgrow it.”
    “I have it.”
    “What?”
    “I know, shocking, isn’t it? It runs in the family. My mother’s side.” His condition wasn’t something he advertised and thanks to medication he kept it under control, but when he’d been a child it hadn’t made his life easier. Hard to believe it now, but he’d been a pudgy, wheezing kid.
    “Yes,” she said. “I had no idea. You seem so fit.”
    “Fit?”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “Strangely enough, I do. Swimming is good for the lungs. I’ll show him some of the things I do to control it.”
    She nibbled on her lower lip, which brought to focus another reason he’d come back to her place. He wanted her. The arousal that had burned through him earlier in his gardens was back.
    “Theo’s afraid of water.”
    “What? The Theakis are of the sea.”
    She shrugged. Somehow she doubted that was going to make Theo realize that he should love water. “I don’t know. I’ve tried to get him into the pool here, and in the ocean, and he won’t do it.”
    “I’ll take care of that,” Christos said.
    As they walked down her hall of memories, he felt more the outsider than he had before. But that was nothing new. His entire life he’d been out of step with the rest of the world. Well, the world that his father had created.
    “Do you have anything to drink?” he asked.
    “Sure, come on in the kitchen,” she said, leading the way into the bright room. There was a booster seat on one ladderback chair. He glanced around and saw the life she’d created for herself and Theo.
    This was what he’d always imagined her life to be. This cozy, homey little place. And he knew he didn’t fit in with it. He didn’t want to. He had long ago made his peace with the life he had.
    Right. Even with Stavros gone and him stepping up at Theakis Shipping, he still felt like an outsider. Like the spare heir that he’d always been to his father.
    He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the expectations of everyone weighing on him.
    “I’ve got a bottle of pinot grigio that might be a little old, or soda, or light beer.”
    He shook his head. “Beer. Thank you.”
    She got him a drink and then sat down next to him with a can of diet soda in front of her. “We have a lot of details to iron out. I’ll let them know at work that I’m leaving. I really don’t think they’ll be able to find a replacement by next week. Could you delay your departure until the following week?”
    He could, but he didn’t want to. He needed to get out of this place and back to his world. Back to the place where he was in control. But Ava had asked him for little else and he’d seen tonight how necessary she was to integrating Theo into his life. “Yes, I can do that. Tomorrow we’ll make arrangements for you and Theo to move into my house.”
    “Can’t we stay here?”
    “I think Theo will be more comfortable with you, but if you decide to stay here that’s fine.”
    She stood up and paced around the kitchen. “You can’t be a dictator about this. Theo and I can move into your place over the weekend. The school week is just too hard.”
    He pushed to his feet, coming over to cage her body between his and the counter. “I’m not a dictator, Ava.”
    “You act like one. I’m not ready to sign over all decision-making rights to you.”
    “I’m not asking that.”
    She smelled so damned good, he thought. He couldn’t resist lowering his head and inhaling. Wrapping himself in the sweet scent that was Ava.
    She shook her head. “You are too used to getting your way.”
    “Not true,” he said. He did like to get his way, but his life had changed and now he was living up to others’