It's All Greek to Me by Katie MacAlister
“Tell me you’re ready,” he murmured into her mouth, his fingers stroking her core.
“I’m always ready where you’re concerned,” she gasped, her body tightening around him as his touch pushed her over the edge. She caught his moan in her mouth, his fingers tight on her hips as he jerked inside her, the sudden deceleration of the car as Mikos slammed on the brakes serving to drive him deeper into her. She glanced out of the window to search through the darkened glass for signs of where they were, but Iakovos murmured, “It’s all right—we’re not home yet. Did I hurt you?”
“No.” She bit his lower lip, her body trembling with little aftershocks of pleasure. “But we shouldn’t stay like this. Sleeping Beauty might wake up and want to join us.”
“That’s a shame. I was going to tell Mikos to drive us through the park. Slowly,” he said, smiling as she rose off him, using the remains of her underwear to tidy them up.
She snuggled against him when they were both once again decent. “That does bring up a question, though, Yacky.”
“What question is that, Eglantine?”
His mouth was warm on her neck, his fingers gently stroking one breast.
She turned her head to press a kiss to the spot above his upper lip. “This fantasy is now crossed off the list. So what’s next? We’ve done your boat, and already joined the mile-high club in your jet. . . . Hmm, I wonder. Do you own any horses? I’ve heard that if you have really good balance—”
CHAPTER 18
Iakovos was having a trying day, and it didn’t look like it was going to get better anytime soon.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he roared at his brother, who was slumped on the couch in his office. Because he knew how upset Harry became when Theo drank, he’d held off tearing into Theo until they were at the office, but now he was going to say everything he’d been saving up. “I asked you to do one simple thing for me, one bloody simple thing, to escort Harry, and you end up half-naked and stinking drunk. You embarrassed her, dragged her name into the papers, and made Papaioannou International look like fools.”
“Jesus, Jake, I don’t know what came over me,” Theo said, his head in his hands as he hunched over his knees. “Everything was fine until those women started shoving drinks at me and trying to get me out of my clothes.”
“You could have walked away. You could have said no.” Iakovos was so angry he was pacing back and forth, and lord knew, he never paced. “It’s not that hard, Theo. Just open your damned mouth and say no.”
“Like you ever said no to a woman.” Theo groaned and lay back on the couch, one hand over his forehead.
“I’ve said no plenty of times, but we are not talking about me. Listen to me closely, Theo. Harry thinks you need to be sent away to some clinic to dry out, and I’m starting to think that she’s right.”
“Harry thinks, Harry thinks.” Theo mimicked him, his eyes so bloodshot he looked demonic. “Christ, Jake, you’re not even married yet and already you’re so whipped you’re letting that bitch think for you.”
Iakovos had never struck his brother in anger, but he was about ready to throw caution to the winds. He grabbed Theo by his collar and jerked him to his feet, snarling in his face, “You ever speak of her that way, again, and I’ll grind you into the ground.”
“You don’t own me,” Theo snarled back, shoving Iakovos away. “I work for you because I want to, not because I have to. And I’m damned good at what I do, so the next time you get on your fucking high horse, you remember who’s bringing in all the money.”
“Get out,” Iakovos said, so furious he almost couldn’t speak. “Just get the hell out of here. Go back to Brazil. Go to Australia. Just don’t show your face again until you’re ready to apologize to Harry for what you put her through.”
Theo stalked out covered in injured pride. Iakovos sat down heavily, his eyes on the picture of Harry and Elena, unseeing as he remembered his father’s drunken rages that eventually led to depression, followed by suicide.
Dammit, he didn’t want Theo going down that same path.
The intercom buzzed. His head was beginning to pound, but he kept his temper in check as he said, “What is it, Nanna?”
“Security in the lobby called to tell me there’s a person there who is raising a ruckus. Evidently she wants to see you, but she doesn’t have an appointment.”
It was probably another damned journalist. They’d been waiting for him earlier, both when he left the hotel and when he entered his own building. “Tell them to escort her out and call the police if she won’t leave. And get me some pain tablets. A lot of them.”
He rubbed his temples for a minute, then pulled his laptop over, determined to get some work done.
The mobile phone in his pocket buzzed. He pulled it out, intending to turn it off, but then he noticed the caller’s name. “What is it, sweetheart?”
“What is it? What is it? I’ll tell you what it is, Yacky! You threw me out of your building, that’s what it is!”
“I what—oh, hell.”
“Hell indeed!”
He rubbed his forehead. “I thought you were a journalist. Why didn’t you tell Nanna who you were?”
“I did. I told her I was your girlfriend and that I wanted to see you. She said all sorts of rude things about women saying that every day, and then told me that if I couldn’t even say your name right, I must not know you, and the next thing I knew, two giant bulls in human skins hustled me out of the building saying Mr. Papanono said that he’d call the cops if I tried coming back.” She took a deep breath. “I do not find this amusing, Iakovos.”
“Neither do I. Just a minute.” He pressed the speaker button. “Nanna, please go downstairs and apologize to my fiancée for refusing to let her see me, and then escort her up here.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking—”
“Do it,” he said, struggling to hold on to the shreds of his temper. “Harry, one of the secretaries will be right down.”
“Thank you. You’re not going to believe what I have to show you.”
Oh, he had a very good idea what it was. He ended the call and looked up as Dmitri entered. “Got rid of the journalists for you by promising an interview with you and Harry.”
Iakovos grimaced.
“I know, but it was the best I could do. I pointed out that because of her pregnancy, if they hounded Harry, we’d have grounds to slap a restraining order on them. Then I offered the interview. It seemed to do the trick. You look like hell.”
“I feel like hell,” Iakovos said, running his hand through his hair.
“Theo?”
“I told him to get out of my way.”
“Probably best for a while. Harry’s out for his blood anyway. What do you want me to do about Meriton?”
They discussed business briefly before Dmitri disappeared to his own office. A few minutes later, Harry entered Iakovos’ office, bringing her storm with her.
“Here is the person you requested,” Nanna said, gesturing abruptly toward Harry. “I have apologized to her. I did not recognize her with that . . . outfit. Here are your aspirin.”
Harry, he had to admit, was almost unrecognizably clad in a bizarre outfit consisting of a knitted cap pulled down over her hair, a pair of sunglasses, a faded pink T-shirt that proclaimed she was a proud reader of banned books, which didn’t quite fit over her growing belly, a navy pea jacket, a long purple knitted scarf, and a pair of what appeared to be his sweatpants, the waistband and ankles of which were rolled up to accommodate her shorter height. A three-inch swath of her belly showed between the waistband and her T-shirt.
She tugged at the T-shirt, giving Nanna an angry look before slamming the newspaper she held down onto the desk in front of him. He winced at the noise.
“Just look at this! Just look!”
He looked. It was as bad as he’d expected. “Yes?”
“That’s all you have to say? ‘Yes’?” She started pacing the same path he’d taken a sho
Nanna, with a stiff back and a righteous air, left the room.
“It’s not as bad as you are making it out to be, Harry. I admit it’s not pleasant, but no real harm is done.”
She was livid—he could see that. She stomped back and forth, and he seriously thought she was going to burst a blood vessel when she saw the captions.
“Greek playboys times two, and the woman who came between them! My god, the nerve of those bastards! And this! Noted author and her three-way love fest! Baby on board . . . but whose is it? That’s it! That’s just it, Iakovos!”
“It is?”
“Yes, it is. I demand you do something. Sue them and make them take it all back.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because they’re telling lies about us! About you and Theo and me!”
“If I sued every publication that printed an untruth about me, I’d be a gazillionaire,” he told her wearily.
“Yes, but—” She stopped, suddenly, frowning at the aspirin. “Are you not feeling well?”
“Just a headache.”
Her gaze narrowed on him. “Theo?”
“That was part of it, yes,” he said, taking a few aspirin with a swig of cold coffee.
“And here I am yelling and screaming at you. Up.”
He frowned at the imperious hand she was using to gesture to him. “I don’t have time to make love to you, Harry.”
“As if I would seduce you at your office.” She paused in thought. “Well, all right, I would, but not right now. Come on, I’ll make you feel better.”
“It’s just a headache,” he protested, but he did as she ordered and was soon shirtless, on his belly on the couch, with her sitting on his ass. He groaned in mingled pleasure and pain as she rubbed hand lotion into his shoulders, her fingers working deep into muscles he hadn’t realized were so tense and tight.
“Is that newspaper thing going to hurt your business?” she asked, shifting higher on his back so she could massage his neck.
“No. What will it do to your books?”
“Oh, probably make them sell like hotcakes. Who wouldn’t want to read a book by a woman who’s having a threesome with two incredibly hot Greek playboys?”
“You’re angry, though—Right there.” He moaned as she hit a particularly sore tendon on the side of his neck.
“Well, of course I’m angry, but if you say it’s not a big deal, then I won’t worry about it.”
“Mm-hmm.” The tension and pain seemed to leach out of his body with every stroke of her fingers.
“Better?” she asked a few minutes later.
“Much.”
“Headache gone?”
“Yes.”
She leaned down and kissed his ear. “Are you aroused?”
“Hell, yes.”
She laughed and got off him, handing him his shirt and tie as he sat upright on the couch. “It sounds like you’ve had a horrible day.”
“It has had its moments.” He looped the tie around his neck and took her into his arms, breathing in the wonderful sun-warmed woman scent of her, his lips caressing her temple. “But you have made it all worthwhile.”
“That is just about the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me,” she said, offering him her lips. He didn’t hesitate, taking into himself all her sweetness and warmth. “It’s almost as nice as saying, oh, I don’t know, that you love me.”
He smiled down at her, wondering how he’d ever been so lucky as to have this particular woman come storming into his life. “You’re going to have to go shopping, Eglantine.”
She made a face. “Says who, Yacky?”
He rubbed a finger across the bared stripe of her belly. “When you can’t fit into your own clothes and start poaching mine, it’s time to go shopping.”
“I hate it when you’re logical,” she said, pulling down the T-shirt with a sniff. “As it happens, I was going to ask if I could borrow Mikos today so I could pick up a few things.”
“You may have him with my blessing. I’ll be trapped here all day.” He glanced at his watch. “In fact, I have a videoconference due to start shortly. Buy something for a cocktail party, Harry. Something green. I like green.”
She looked startled. “Just on a whim, or are we going to one?”
“We’re going if you want to come with me. Tonight. I’ve turned down the previous three invitations from a contractor’s wife, and one more would be considered an insult.”
“Well, if you don’t mind people looking at us and wondering if you or Theo is the father of the twins, then I’m happy to go.”
“I don’t particularly care what anyone but you thinks, sweetheart.”
She stood at the door and looked at him with so much love in her beautiful face, he felt blessed. “Man, they were so wrong to bump you down from three to five.”
She was gone before he could respond.
Nine hours later he arrived home, exhausted and desirous of nothing more than for Harry to comfort him. His heart stopped when he walked into the bedroom. A woman stood there, a woman with glossy, tawny brown hair that spilled down her back like skeins of silk, little amber-gold highlights catching the subdued overhead lighting. She turned to face him and his breath caught in his throat. She was so beautiful, it was all he could do to keep from carrying her to the bed and burying himself to the hilt in her warm, welcoming body.
She froze, as elegant as a gazelle, her eyes watchful as he examined her from the top of her gleaming hair to the face that he knew as well as his own, down to breasts that made his scrotum tighten just thinking about them. She was wearing a scarlet dress that was gathered and draped across her breasts, flowing down to a skirt that fluttered slightly as she moved. She was getting bigger now, a fact that filled him with a deep sense of satisfaction. The dress stopped a few inches above her knees, those long, elegant legs of hers shamelessly bare of stockings, ending in little rose-pink toenails that peeked from the toes of her sandals. She was a goddess come to earth, and he would be damned if he wasted one single moment of time.
“To hell with the party,” he said, reaching for his tie.
She laughed, the rich, throaty laugh that seemed to resonate within him. “After I went through the hell of shopping for a dress that didn’t make me look like I was eight months pregnant instead of four? No, sir. I have a new dress to show off. You like it, don’t you? I think it hides my stomach pretty well.”
“Why would you want to hide your belly?” he asked, shaking his head. He took her hands in his and stood back, his head to the side as he gave her another once-over, just because he liked looking at her. “You are carrying my twins. There is nothing to be ashamed of.”
She gave him an odd look. “I want to hide it because everyone else at this party is going to be skinny and beautiful.”
“Who said that?”
“Dmitri.” He frowned until she explained. “He said that your ex was going to be there. So in other words, in the midst of all those little petite blond elfin fairy-type creatures who are too ethereal for words, I’ll be lumbering around like a giant ox.”
How it amused him when she couldn’t fight being jealous. “I never thought you’d fish for a compliment, sweetheart, but if you want one, I’m happy to reassure you that you’re utterly ravishing, even if that dress isn’t green.”
“You have to say that,” she said, her nostrils flaring. “It’s in our contract. You are legally obligated to say nice things to me when I’m as big as a house, and I can’t tell everyone in the delivery room that your parents weren’t married, or that you have an unnatural passion for sheep.”
He had a feeling that if he laughed, he’d just hurt her feelings. He kept his face sober as he kissed first the fingers of one hand, then those of the second, never taking his eyes off her. “Of course my parents were married. And how did you find out about the sheep?”
Her eyes widened and he couldn’t do it any longer. He couldn’t keep a straight face. He laughed
She stroked the hard length of him until he groaned and caught her hand. “I wasn’t fishing for a compliment, you know. I just feel. . . . Oh, hell, I guess I was fishing. It’s my boobs.” Harry adjusted the chiffon material that was gathered and tastefully draped across her breasts, showing a bit of cleavage but not so much that it would give everyone the idea she was a great big milk cow.
“I love your boobs,” Iakovos said, dipping his head to press kisses to the exposed flesh.
“Well, that’s good, because they’re growing.”
He rubbed his hands together, a wicked smile matching the glint in his eyes. “It’s all going according to my plans, then. Come along, my beautiful tempest. Since you suffered for your vanity, the least I can do is show you off to the very boring and not at all elflike Tobias Johnson and his stout wife.”
Harry hummed to herself as he took a quick shower and shaved, secretly smiling at the looks he shot her way as he dressed in a very handsome blue suit. It was worth every agonizing hour she had spent trying to find a maternity cocktail dress that didn’t make her look like a hooker or a dowd. And Iakovos really did seem to be pleased with the pregnancy, insisting on feeling her belly while they were driven across town to a very chic neighborhood.
“You will tell me when I must change how I do things,” he murmured in her ear as he kissed her neck.
“Change what things?”
One side of his mouth quirked up. “My preference for being on top.”
“Oh.” She glanced at Mikos. The privacy window was down between front and back, so she contented herself with saying in a soft voice, “My friend Bess is a doctor. She said so long as I was comfortable, we were fine, but if it started to get uncomfortable, then to stop. But right now all I can think about is jumping your bones, so I suspect stopping isn’t going to be on the plate for a while.”