The Greek's Stolen Bride Read Online Free PDF Page A

No, she was being ridiculous. Love had absolutely nothing to do with this discussion. She barely knew this man.
    "Even so," she said, because her thoughts had become too scattered to manage more.
    "You agree, then?"
    "You have not even said how it's to be done. How you'll allow me to escape." She allowed her skepticism to drip from every word but it didn't faze Theo in the least. He simply laughed.
    "No need to hide in the boat like some desperate stowaway. Simply be waiting by the front door."
    She stared at him in disbelief. "Waiting by the door?"
    "Yes."
    "In full view--my father will suspect--"
    "That does not concern me."
    She shook her head slowly. "He will ruin you."
    "Let him try."
    She felt a shiver of unease, like a cold finger, creep along her spine. For a moment, his eyes narrowed, his lips compressed, Theo Atrikes looked like a most forbidding and formidable man. Gone was any lazy suggestion of humor, of lightness. In that moment, as the moonlight bathed him in silver, she knew him to be ruthless.
    "How am I to trust that you will be capable?" she asked. "With no sort of plan?"
    "I have a plan," Theo assured her. "And I promise you, I am most capable."
    "But if it fails--"
    "I never fail." He took a step towards her, his green eyes gleaming jade as he smiled down at her. "And I always keep my promises, Ariana. So know this. I will free from you this place." Before she could form a thought much less an answer, his hands curled around her shoulders and he drew her firmly to him, pressing his lips against hers for a mere moment.
    As brief and chaste as it was, every sense she had blazed suddenly and painfully to life. He might as well have electrocuted her. Too late she jerked back.
    "What was that--"
    "A kiss, to seal a promise." He smiled, opened the door to his room to usher her out. "And at least now you have been kissed. Go quietly now. It would be most inconvenient if you were discovered."
    She was halfway out the door before she realized, and whirled around. "I haven't told you how to disarm the Minotaur!"
    "That doesn't matter," Theo said, and shut the door in her face.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    "Good morning, Mr. Atrikes."
    Miles Leotokos waited at the bottom of the stairs when Theo came down with his bag in hand.
    "Good morning," he said easily, although in truth he was both exhausted and hyped up with adrenalin. He hadn't more than an hour or two of sleep; after Ariana had left he'd spent the rest of the night considering the best way to get her out of this godforsaken place.
    And also why he'd asked her to marry him. It had been a decision of a moment, a whim. No, not a whim, for that suggested a lightness of purpose that Theo had never felt when it came to the Leotokos family. No, marriage to Ariana Leotokos would be the dessert to a dish best eaten cold. Twenty years' cold.
    Miles Leotokos had taken his father from him; it was only fair he steal his daughter in return. And as for the woman in question... Marriage would offer her instant security--and freedom in time. As he had promised, it would be an arrangement to their mutual benefit.
    And it would be even more beneficial if she decided she wanted to consummate the marriage. Theo still remembered the warm press of her body against his, the softness of her parted lips against his own eager mouth. She desired him and she'd possessed enough strength of character to admit the fact. Perhaps it would not be such an onerous task to convince her to make the marriage a true one, if temporary.
    A divorce was as easy to obtain as an annulment.
    "You slept well?" Leotokos asked. He rubbed his hands together, clearly anticipating another victory this morning. Seven victims instead of six. The man, Theo thought, was as deadly and dangerous as the legendary Minotaur his virus was named after.
    "Well enough," he replied, and followed Leotokos into the dining room. Ariana was already seated at the breakfast table, her dark hair plaited into a braid. She wore a modest