The Greek Tycoon's Secret Heir Read Free Page A

every night the bouncers turned away more celebrities, wannabes and hangers-on than they let in.
    And Tristan, Gui and Christos were the kings of the kingdom they’d built.
    Christos settled the phone between his ear and his shoulder and knocked back a shot of tequila. “Who knows? I thought she was going to hit me when I told her I was willing to marry her.”
    “You Greeks have no way with women,” Tristan said. “You should have pulled her into your arms and kissed her senseless, then told her you were marrying her.”
    “It’s not about her,” Christos said, struggling not to get angry at his friend.
    “It sounds as if it is,” Gui said calmly, always the voice of reason, as he joined the three-way conference call. “You’ve never talked about what happened.”
    “Nor do I intend to.”
    “How was the boy?” Tristan asked.
    “The boy was…he seemed…”
    “What, Christos?” Gui asked. The three-way call was a little cumbersome, but it was the best way to keep in touch now that they all had other legitimate business concerns.
    “He has Stavros’s nose.”
    “You have the same one. It’s the Theakis features. They bred true,” Tristan said.
    “Did you ask her again if Stavros was the father?” Guillermo asked.
    “No. She lied before. Why wouldn’t she again?”
    Tristan cursed under his breath. “Do you want company in Florida?”
    “No. I’m going to wrap up the legal arrangements for the boy and then fly back to Greece next week.”
    “What about the woman?” Guillermo asked.
    “She’s thinking it over.”
    “What exactly is she thinking over?”
    “If she’s going to marry me.” Christos didn’t want to think too much about Ava or his marriage offer. He could still remember the last time they’d discussed the subject, and hadn’t that been a kick in the pants.
    “Marriage? Is that the only solution?” Tristan asked.
    “It is for me. I…”
    “You still want her and you think that will keep it under control?” Gui asked.
    “I’m not exactly thinking.”
    “True,” Tristan said. “I’m scheduled back in Paris in three weeks, on the thirtieth. I can be at your place on Mykonos on the twenty-third.”
    An electronic beeping noise came through the line. “Me, too.”
    “You don’t have to—”
    “We know,” Gui said. “I want to meet her for myself.”
    “Gui, she’s not like—”
    “I’m not saying she is. I just want a chance to see what kind of woman is the mother of the Theakis heir.”
    “So do I,” Tristan said. “You and Stavros are so different.”
    “ Were so different…hell, I guess we still are,” Christos said.
    Emptiness buzzed on the line. “Are you sure you don’t need us?”
    “Yes,” he said, and tossed back another shot of tequila.
    There was a rap on the library door. “I must go.” He hung up the phone. “Enter.”
    “Sir, there is a Ms. Ava Monroe to see you.” Antonio Montoyo was his butler and traveled with Christos wherever he went. Though Antonio was only fifteen years older than Christos, their relationship was closer to father and son than the one he shared with Ari Theakis.
    “Is she alone, Antonio?”
    “Ah, no. She brought along the boy, Theo.”
    And there was the rub. No matter what the truth was, the world was going to believe that Theo was his son. Nikki, his sister-in-law, had done too good a job of hiding all of Stavros’s affairs.
    “Send them back.”
    “Ah, sir?”
    “Yes, Antonio?”
    “You aren’t dressed for receiving.”
    He arched one eyebrow. He’d just come in from swimming in the sea and was dressed in trunks and no shirt. Granted, it was winter in Florida, but the daytime temperature still wasn’t cold. And he’d be damned if he’d change for Ava. He couldn’t explain his feelings for her, hell, wouldn’t even try, but she held a lot of cards with that small boy of hers and he wasn’t going to give an inch otherwise.
    “I’m fine. Better that she see me as I really am