The Renegade Billionaire Read online

  On her way back to the ER, she went to the restroom and was horrified to see how bad she looked. She needed to shower and wash the sand out of her hair. But all that would have to come later after she’d driven him home.

  She freshened up the best she could and went back to look in on Stavros, pleased to see he was no longer hooked up to the drip. To her surprise, he was awake. One of the staff must have helped him to dress in his jeans and polo shirt. His penetrating gray eyes centered on her.

  “I wondered when you were going to come back. I’m good to go home. They’re bringing a wheelchair.”

  “In that case, I’ll go out to the Jeep and pull it around.”

  “If you want to know the truth, I’m glad this happened.”

  Andrea sucked in her breath. “How can you say that after being in a life-and-death situation?”

  “Because before I got stung, I knew you were going to ask me to send for the helicopter so you could leave for Thessaloniki tonight.”

  She looked away. He knew her better than she knew herself. “I’ll see you out in front.”

  Her heart was at war between the two most wonderful men in the world. She loved both of them, but owed her dad everything. Her desire to be with Stavros for as long as he still desired her was selfish. When her dad had worked so hard for them all his life, how could she say goodbye to him and stay in Greece knowing he was facing the future alone? He had no one else.

  Andrea walked out of the clinic to the Jeep, oblivious to her surroundings because a sadness had taken hold of her, one she couldn’t throw off. It wasn’t like the pain after Ferrante’s death. That had been final. She’d finally gotten over it because she knew he’d never come back.

  But Stavros was vibrantly alive despite that awful stingray’s sting.

  No matter how many thousands of miles separated them, she’d be tormented by the knowledge that he was here and she’d walked away from him. Not because she’d wanted to.

  But because she had to.

  A few minutes later she saw a male staff member wheeling him out of the ER exit in a wheelchair. After the vision she’d had of him lying in the bottom of the boat writhing in pain, to see him looking this good caused her heart to skip a beat. You’d never know his jeans covered a potentially serious wound.

  After helping him climb in the Jeep, the orderly came around and handed her a plastic bag. In a whisper, he said, “He’s a little dizzy.” She nodded. Inside the bag was a packet of dressings and two kinds of pills. She thanked the orderly and put it on the backseat.

  Turning to the man she adored, she said, “Ready to go home?”

  “As long as you come with me.”

  Now her pulse was racing. “I won’t abandon you. I promise.” She pulled out of the ER driveway, onto the road, and headed for the road that would take them past Panagia to his villa.

  “I’m going to hold you to that.” His vaguely fierce tone sent a shiver through her.

  “Try to relax against the seat and sleep until we get there.”

  “I’ve been sleeping on and off for hours. Tell me how you learned to do everything so well.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You drove us away from that beach without a hitch and you handle this Jeep like you’ve been driving one all your life.”

  “My father’s work meant he lived in some pretty remote, out-of-the-way places. He needed a four-wheel drive to get anywhere on unpaved roads. I had to learn fast. When we took little vacations, we usually headed for water anywhere we could find it. Dad loves to fish. We rented a lot of different kinds of boats. I drove while he looked for the best spots.”

  His hand squeezed her shoulder. “Because of your expertise at everything, you saved me from going into irreversible shock. I don’t know another woman who would have your quick thinking in a crisis and sense instinctively what to do.”

  “Sure you do, but you’ve never given them a chance. You’re so self-sufficient, you’re not the kind of man who gets himself into trouble he can’t get out of. I just happened to be there at the exact moment you actually needed help, not that you’d ever ask for it.”

  “Am I that bad?” he teased.

  “Worse! I guess that stingray got so mad at being foiled the first time, he came after you out of revenge.”

  Laughter broke from Stavros, the deep male kind that thrilled her. “How do you know it was a he?”

  “I don’t. It was a figure of speech, but men do love a challenge, don’t they.”

  He laughed again. “It sounds like you’ve been around a lot of them.”

  “Living with my dad, my life’s been filled with men. Mine workers, plant workers, chemists, engineers. Thousands of them,” she volunteered. “Maybe even a million.”

  She could feel him staring at her profile. “So how on earth did you meet Ferrante?”

  “My dad and I took a ski holiday in Cortina. Ferrante and I shared a chair lift. He was on vacation too. We got talking, and then he followed me down the mountain, and then followed me to the hotel where he met Dad. Before lon—”

  “You were in love.” Stavros filled in the rest.

  “Not right away. Let’s just say he was a better skier than Dad. I loved it because my dad does everything well. He’d also climbed more mountains than my father, leaving Dad and me totally impressed.”

  “So my little jaunt up Mount Ypsarion wouldn’t make a dent in your father’s estimation.”

  “A dent is a dent.” Her reply produced a smile from him. “But I sent him the photos of your plant along with an explanation. It’ll blow his mind knowing you’ve created a product no one else has. You have genius in you, Stavros.”

  “That’s nice to know,” came the mocking comment.

  “I wasn’t patronizing you.” She made a turn into his private road. “We’re almost to the house. I can tell you’re going to need another pain pill right away. I’ll pull up in front where you won’t have to negotiate so many steps.”

  Thankful they were home, she jumped out and ran around to help him. “Put your arm around my shoulders and let me take some of your weight. You need to get off your leg as soon as possible.”

  He not only slid his arm around her, he pulled her against him and kissed her hungrily on the mouth. “I love my life being in your hands.”

  His words shook her to the foundation.

  “Come on, Achilles. Let’s get you into bed.”

  He let out a bark of laughter. “I need a shower first,” he said.

  “Not tonight, Stavros. The doctor said you can do it in the morning.”

  They made it inside and down the hall to his bedroom. She hadn’t been in it before and tried not to think about it as they moved inside. “What can I do to help?”

  “Take me to the bathroom.”

  She did his bidding and waited outside until he appeared in the doorway. Once again, she lent him her strength until they reached the bed. He let go of her long enough to unfasten his jeans. “I’ll need you to pull them over my leg.”

  Andrea knelt down.

  “I can see you’re blushing. Don’t worry. The hospital dried my swimming trunks before I put them back on.”

  “I wasn’t worried.”

  “Liar,” he whispered in a silky voice.

  As soon as that was accomplished, he stood up so she could draw back the covers. Without any urging, he removed his polo shirt, then lay down on his side. She helped ease his bad leg onto the mattress. The other followed. Earlier in the day she’d been caught by those legs, loving every second of her entrapment.

  By the sound of his sigh, she knew bed felt heavenly to him. “I’m going out to the Jeep to bring in the rest of our things. Be right back.”

  In another five minutes she’d given him two pills and tucked him in. “Here�
��s your phone, wallet and keys. I’ll put them on this side table with your water. If you need me in the night, phone me.”

  “It’s only eight thirty. I’m not ready to go to sleep yet.”

  “You will be once those pills take effect. Good night.”

  He called to her, but she ignored him and headed for the guest bedroom. She needed a shower in the worst way. After working up a lather of shampoo, she rinsed off and emerged feeling sparkling clean.

  With a towel wrapped around her hair, she went back in the bedroom and pulled a nightgown and robe from her duffel bag. It was nice feeling normal again. She padded through the house to the kitchen to get a bottle of water. As she took it out of the fridge, she heard a loud couple of knocks. The sound was coming from the back door.

  Had Stavros’s mother or ex-girlfriend heard about his injury? Or maybe it was Raisa.

  She cinched the belt tighter on her pink-striped robe and hurried through the rear hallway to the door.

  She jumped when she saw a man on the other side. He bore a superficial resemblance to Stavros. This had to be his brother. Maybe someone at the hospital had called him. She hadn’t heard the helicopter because she’d been in the shower.

  Andrea undid the lock. He came inside and shut the door. The way he looked at her, it was apparent he was equally shocked to see a strange woman answering the door.

  “I’m Leon, Stavros’s brother. And you are...?”

  “No one important. It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Likewise,” he murmured. “Where’s Stavros? He hasn’t answered his phone all day.”

  “You’ll find him in the bedroom, where all will be explained. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed myself. Be sure to lock up when you let yourself out again. He’s in no condition to do it.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “WHAT THE HELL is going on?”

  At the sound of his brother’s voice, Stavros lifted his head off the pillow. Something had to be wrong for his forty-year-old brother to fly all the way from Thessaloniki at this hour.

  “Leon? What are you doing here?”

  “You haven’t answered my phone calls all day,” he accused without preamble. “I got worried and flew here because it isn’t like you not to respond.”

  “Take a breath and I’ll explain. Sit down, bro. How’s your family?”

  “They’re fine.” Leon picked up the chair and put it at the side of the bed. They were alike in coloring, but his married brother was an inch taller and carried about thirty more pounds. He grinned. “Who’s the beautiful blue-eyed woman who opened the door wearing a pink-and-white-striped robe and a towel covering her hair?”

  Well, well. That was a sight Stavros had yet to behold. “You mean she didn’t tell you?”

  “No. She said she wasn’t anyone important and told me she was going to bed, would I lock up on my way out.”

  Stavros let go with another burst of laughter.

  “What’s so funny? Why are you in bed?”

  He was glad Leon had come. The medicine had knocked him out earlier. Now he was awake and going crazy without Andrea’s company. “Why don’t you grab a beer from the fridge and then we’ll talk.”

  “You don’t want one?”

  “I can’t.”

  “You’re not making sense.”

  “The doctor told me no alcohol for a while.”

  Leon’s brows met in a frown. He leaned closer to him. “I knew something had happened to you.”

  “Would you believe I got stung by a stingray today? The pain was unreal. That unimportant person who answered the door saved my life.”

  “Is she a nurse from the clinic? Is that why she’s here?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “I’ve got the time.”

  For the next little while, Stavros explained everything. But at the mention of PanHellenic Tours, Leon made a strange sound in his throat. “Wait just a minute. This Andrea is the blonde American woman who has Mother and Tina Lasso in fits? She speaks Greek like a native. I would never have guessed.”

  “Try a dozen languages she’s mastered. Brains and beauty.”

  “Despinis Linford is a knockout, all right. But she’s also one of the reasons I flew here to see you tonight.”

  “I figured you had some bad news for me or you wouldn’t have come.”

  “It’s serious, I’m afraid. Dad’s in a rage.”

  “That’s old news. He knew I was forming my own company. My resignation was inevitable. My company is already a week into production.”

  “I know, but it’s not just that, Stav. He expects you to do the right thing for Tina now that she’s pregnant.”

  “If I’d ever loved Tina, I would have married her long ago. She’s bluffing, Leon. But in any case, I never slept with her, so it couldn’t be mine.”

  “You and I both know that, but our father is beyond listening to reason. I came here to warn you. I overheard him tell Mother that if you don’t marry Tina, he’s going to prevent any more sales of the marble waste from our quarries to be sold to you.”

  “He what?” A pain stabbed him to the depths. His own father would really do that?

  “Are you serious?”

  “I’m afraid so. He’ll try to shut you down in order to get his own way.”

  “Leon—what kind of man does such a thing to his son?”

  “I’m sorry, Stav.”

  Tears filled Stavros’s eyes, unbidden. “Father really hates me to consider betraying me like this. It’s one blow I could never have anticipated.” He thought back to his earlier conversation with Andrea about his father. If his father was willing to go that far, it could impact Stavros’s relationship with her. Stavros didn’t want this touching Andrea and would go to any lengths to keep her in his life.

  Leon put a hand on his shoulder. “He doesn’t hate you, Stav. If you want to know my opinion, Tina’s father has put the squeeze on our father. He may even have threatened to take away the shipping services he has provided all these years.”

  “So I’m supposed to do the right thing by Tina?”

  “It’s the only way to solve the problem.”

  He looked in Leon’s eyes. “Are you asking me to do it?”

  “Hell, no. I couldn’t marry a woman I didn’t love. I wouldn’t! To my way of thinking, this is pure sabotage on Nasso’s part and he’s railroading our father. You need to confirm the facts of Tina’s so-called pregnancy first.”

  “She might be pregnant, Leon, but doing a DNA before the baby is born could prove dangerous to the fetus. I’d have to wait until after it’s delivered before the test could be done to prove it’s not mine.”

  His brother frowned. “That could mean six months or longer. Can you keep your new business afloat that long without suffering?”

  Stavros nodded. “There are other quarries, but I’ll be forced to do some fast negotiating to provide backup when the need comes. Orders are pouring in.”

  “Then get better and do it! I’d help you if I could.”

  “You already have by giving me a heads-up. I owe you. Anyway, I know your hands are tied. Tell you what, Leon. Tina’s father can plot till doomsday, but he and Father aren’t going to put me out of business,” Stavros said icily.

  “There’s more.”

  He stared at his brother. “How could there be more?”

  “Mother believes you’re involved with—”

  “Andrea?” Stavros supplied the name. “She’d be dead-on right.”

  Leon blinked. “You mean...?”

  “Yes.”

  “But—”

  “There’s no but. Only if.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “If Andrea doesn’t love me enough, then my life will h
ave to go on without her. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out how I’ll be able to live without her.”

  Leon looked shocked. “I thought she saved your life.”

  “She did. However, there’s someone else more important to her.”

  “More important than you?”

  Stavros loved his brother for being there for him. “You have no idea.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Picture a single father who’s been all things to his motherless daughter from the day she was born. They’ve traveled the world and have been inseparable. At the end of this month, he’s leaving for Brazil and she’ll be going with him. He’s got an unbreakable hold on her. It’s called love.”

  “Then you’ll just have to find a way to make her love you more. You have the power.”

  “Not if she fears Tina really is pregnant with my child.”

  “I think if she thought that, she wouldn’t be here waiting on you hand and foot.” He got to his feet. Stavros prayed his brother was right. “Your eyelids are drooping. I’m going to leave. The pilot’s waiting for me. Take care of that wound. Don’t be surprised if Tina’s father has more surprises in store to hurt you.”

  “I’ll consider myself warned.”

  Leon leaned down and they hugged. “Do me a favor. Answer my phone calls from now on and keep me up to date. I’ll help any way I can.”

  “Will do. Thanks for coming. I owe you, bro.”

  Stavros listened until he heard the helicopter lift off. His brother had left him with one salient thought. You have the power. Without hesitation, he phoned Andrea. He wasn’t going to let his father drive her away. She answered on the second ring.

  “I just heard your brother leave. Are you all right?”

  “No. Would you mind coming to my room?”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  To his delight, she appeared in the pink-and-white-striped robe, but was minus the towel. While his brother had been here, she’d blow-dried her hair. The silky texture had natural curl and waved around her neck. She was like a delicious confection.