2017 Christmas Coda: The Greek Tycoons Read online

  "Promise me, Leiandros," she begged him. "Promise me our daughter's life isn't going to implode and she isn't going to spend the next two decades forcibly connected to a man who hit her by the string of their child."

  "I do promise you. Even if he takes anger management counseling and chooses to pursue visitation, our daughter will never have to see him again."

  The tension that had been holding so tightly to Savannah since her daughter had dropped the I'm pregnant bombshell began to dissipate. Okay, so Eva wasn't finished with university. And the final year could well take longer than one, but they had resources Savannah had not had in her early adulthood. Perhaps that wasn't fair, but she didn't care. Her daughter was never going to feel like she'd done something wrong or awful getting pregnant or being a single mom.

  Leiandros chose to complete her relaxing through means he had perfected in twenty years of marriage.

  #

  He wasn't doing a thing to help her relax on Christmas Eve as he blithely told the rest of their family that Eva and Nyssa would be completing their university education in Europe.

  Nyssa gasped, turned red and glared like she was ready to throttle the stepfather that had treated her more lovingly and accepted her more completely than her biological one ever had. "I am not transferring schools."

  Nyssa didn't yell. She'd learned long ago that raising her voice didn't get her heard, but oh, the look she cast Leiandros said he had the fight of his life on his hands if he thought she was buckling to his wishes in this instance.

  Leiandros grimaced, acknowledging her stance, but his stubbornly held jaw said he wasn't swayed by it. "I am sorry if you are disappointed, but that is exactly what is going to happen."

  "Why have you decided this?" his mother, Baptista, asked, her expression concerned. She'd helped Savannah convince Leiandros to allow first Eva, then Nyssa to go to university in the States.

  "You aren't making me pay for Eva's mistake. I have friends at school. I'm in the best program for my major. My professors like me. I'm not quitting school because you're angry."

  "I am not angry."

  "Then why punish us?" Eva asked, her eyes glistening with tears. "If you aren't ashamed of me and disappointed me getting pregnant—"

  "I thought we weren't talking about that in front of anyone else," Leo interrupted.

  Leiandros shrugged. "That was in front of others, everyone here is family and there is nothing to be ashamed of discussing this openly," he emphasized.

  Too little, too late, in Savannah's opinion, but she silently acknowledged the effort. "And still, I think you might have shown a little more tact in sharing our daughter's good fortune," Savannah chided her husband.

  "Good fortune? He so furious with me, he's punishing Nyssa by association!" Eva's voice was so loud it could be heard over the cacophony of voices that had broken out with the announcement of her pregnancy.

  It was so unlike her, so shocking to hear quiet Eva screaming at the top of her lungs, everyone in the room went silent.

  Even Leiandros. He stared at her with consternation and shock. "I'm not angry with you, my daughter. I'm angry at myself for not protecting you."

  "Was she raped?" Helena, his aunt and Savannah's former mother-in-law, asked with less tact than even her bull-headed nephew had shown.

  "I was not raped!" Eva's eyes snapped with fury, her tone glacial. "I had sex. With a man who is not ready to be a father, even less so to be a boyfriend or, heaven forbid, a husband."

  "What does that mean?" Sandros, her biological grandfather (and uncle to her stepfather) demanded. "Was it like Dion with Savannah?"

  He asked about Savannah's first marriage, the one to his son, Dion. The result of which had been her two beautiful daughters that Leiandros loved every bit as much as the twins they'd had together.

  "A little," Eva said with dignity, breaking Savannah's heart. "Not as bad."

  The girls knew Dion had forced Savannah to flee with them to America, and if not all the intimate details, enough about that history to hopefully never make the same mistakes their mother had. And her daughter hadn't.

  Eva didn't want to marry the man who had hit her and no doubt denied the paternity of their child.

  Sandros turned grey, falling against the wall. His daughter Iona's husband made a sound of shock and worry before leaping forward to guide the older man to sit on the sofa. "It is all right, Sandros. Your granddaughter is fine."

  Iona's children, closer in age to Leo and Bea than Nyssa and Eva, were asking questions, making remarks that Savannah hoped her daughter was ignoring and, in general acting with all the drama of teenagers.

  Savannah gave her husband a serious look of reproach before settling her gaze on the other teens in the room. "You all need to calm down. My daughter is pregnant, not dying of an incurable disease. In a few months, I'm going to be a grandmother and I'm delighted about that fact. Anyone who doesn't feel as I do is welcome to keep his or her opinion to themself."

  "You're really not mad at her, Aunt Savannah?" her youngest niece asked.

  "No. I'm proud of her for coming to her father and I and being honest. I'm so very proud she realizes a man who reacts with his fists in anger is not ready for an adult relationship, or marriage. But most of all? I'm just grateful we are a close and loving family and I get to be a part of this baby's life. Full stop."

  "How would you be if she went back to the States?" Leiandros demanded, sounding belligerent.

  Which only happened when he was worried.

  "You know I love your arrogance, but you aren't making these kinds of decisions for our daughters. Do I hope that Eva will transfer to a local university to finish her degree? Yes, of course. But there's no reason she can't finish out this year. Even less of a nonexistent reason for her sister to leave the school she is enjoying so much."

  "And that man? How are we to protect her from him, if she is over there and we are over here?"

  "First, I think she files an assault report, though without physical evidence, it probably won't go anywhere." Savannah had documented everything Dion had done to her and still it hadn't been a walk in the park keeping him out of her life. "Second, we get more security assigned to both girls until we are assured of their safety."

  Nyssa groaned, but she didn't argue, which said she was fully aware of how serious her father was about pulling the financial plug on school in America.

  "Third," Savannah smiled at both her daughters. "We trust our daughters to continue to make mostly good choices and protect themselves by being smart."

  "That is all well and good, in theory," Iona (her former sister-in-law and Leiandros' cousin) said with some asperity. "But in reality, two women from our family should never have gone to America for college to begin with. They are the stepdaughters of one of Greece's wealthiest men. The fortune hunters have open range on them there."

  "Fortune hunters come in every nationality, Io," Savannah said.

  "There's nothing wrong with a Kiriakis attending school in America. If you haven't forgotten, our mother is from there." Leo was giving Io an offended look, his stance combative.

  "I haven't forgotten."

  "That is enough." Leiandros tone dripped ice. "Savannah had every right to want her children to experience some of her heritage after graciously allowing our family to remain in Greece after we wed."

  "Where else would you go?" Iona scoffed.

  "Oh, I don't know. The U.S. maybe?" Bea asked with the perfect sarcasm of a fifteen-year-old girl.

  "Beatrice, you will not be disrespectful of your aunt," Sandros ordered.

  "She's not my aunt. She's my cousin. And I wasn't being rude, I was being honest. There is a difference."

  But her daughter was heading toward the cliff on that one fast. Savannah sighed. Really? Why had Leiandros decided to open this can of worms, now?

  Eva was looking ready to bolt and Savannah didn't blame her.

  Leiandros noticed too and his expression went stoic like he did sometimes, t
hen he grimaced and then he sighed. He crossed the few feet to their daughter and pulled her into his arms. "I apologize. My arrogance got away with me again. I should have allowed you to make this announcement in your own time."

  Eva nodded from where she'd let her forehead fall against her father's chest, hiding from the rest of them. "Yes."

  "I am not ashamed of you. I am not angry with you."

  "Then don't punish me."

  "How will you care for the baby without your mother and my help?"

  "Other women do it, but I don’t want to. I admit that. Maybe it makes me weak, but I want you two around."

  "So, you come home."

  "After next term. I'll move home permanently in the summer. I'm glad both you and mom want me to finish school, because I want my degree, but I want this baby more."

  "Good. It will take every bit of that passion to be a single mother and do right by your child."

  "I know." Oh, Eva sounded so lost.

  Leiandros pulled her into a tight hug. "You are not alone."

  "We're all with you," Nyssa announced with a glare around the room, daring any of their relatives to disagree. "But I'm still not finishing college in Europe."

  Her father laughed. "You are stubborn."

  "Like you aren't?" she cheeked.

  Savannah smiled, feeling like the crisis had been averted.

  Sandros pulled himself up from the sofa and crossed the room lay his hand on Eva's shoulder. "Congratulations, granddaughter. I won't pretend it isn't difficult for an old man like me to accept this single motherhood thing, but we made the mistake once long ago of not accepting family as they needed and lost the first few years of your and Nyssa's life. I will never allow that mistake purchase in my family again. This great grandchild will be celebrated and loved."

  And it was, the next summer when the little baby girl was born, every member of the Kiriakis family showed their love and welcome volubly and often.

  Savannah would never regret her decision to marry her arrogant tycoon, the only man who had ever shown unconditional, powerful, protective love toward her and who, once started, had never stopped.

  Dimitri & Alexandra Petronides

  from The Billionaire's Pregnant Mistress (2004)

  Spiros & Phoebe Petronides

  from The Greek Tycoon's Inherited Bride (2008)

  Five years after Spiros & Phoebe's wedding.

  "Phoebe is only twenty-seven. We are in no rush to have children, pappous." Spiros rubbed his eyes with one hand, leaning against his desk, rather than sitting behind it.

  Phoebe had come to ask if he wanted to join her for lunch, having confirmed they had a rare free hour plus on both their calendars.

  Her husband and best friend grimaced at whatever his grandfather said in response to his words.

  She'd been waiting for this phone call, and dreading it. According to the contract she and Spiros has signed before their wedding, Phoebe would not be expected to provide a Petronides heir for a minimum of five years. She knew the older Petronides patriarch had expected a grandchild by that five-year mark. But Phoebe had not been ready to become a parent and despite teasing her in the beginning that he would be jealous of his brother's good fortune in becoming a parent, Spiros had never pressured her to have a child.

  "No, grandfather, we are not coming for Christmas. Both Phoebe and I have responsibilities here in Paris; getting away for a prolonged holiday just isn't a possibility right now."

  His grandfather said something.

  Spiros' body went rigid, his free hand fisting at his side. "Perhaps you and her parents should have considered that very thing five years ago when you did your best to blackmail my wife into marrying a man who had no desire to marry her."

  Voluble Greek sounded from the phone, though Phoebe could not tell what the words were.

  Her husband's reaction wasn't promising though. He'd gone from stoic to full-on anger as his grandfather spoke.

  "Don't think to ever use that threat with me. If you have a heart attack, it won't be because of anything I, or my wife have done. You made your choice to put your own desires ahead of Phoebe's well-being five years ago. I will never allow you, or her parents, the opportunity to hurt her that way again."

  Phoebe's heart warmed. She needn't have worried about how her husband would respond to pressure, like she'd been getting from her parents, from his grandfather.

  In the years since they'd wed, Spiros had shown unwavering loyalty to her. He had supported her need to pull back from a closeness with her parents that felt insincere now that she knew that to them, she was not the child they stood behind and she was little more than a commodity to be sold to finance their hopes, dreams and lifestyle.

  After waiting in silence while his grandfather spoke some more, Spiros said, "No. I don't think five years is too long to hang onto my anger over that truth. Because it is not anger I am holding onto. I am justifiably protective of the wife that I love."

  His grandfather's voice sounded sharp through the phone.

  "Ne. Of course, I love you as well, pappous. I always will, but I will never forget what your actions could have cost Phoebe, what they very nearly cost me."

  Spiros shook his head as his grandfather spoke again, his expression closed, his eyes narrowed. "No, I categorically do not see it as the harmless efforts of an old man to see to his family's happiness. You didn't care about anyone's happiness but your own. The fact Dimitri forgave you is a gift you should never take for granted. You nearly cost him the woman he loved and the son he adores."

  Phoebe hadn't realized that Spiros was still so unhappy with his grandfather. Okay, so he'd said he wasn't angry, but for the first time since their marriage she realized how much damage the older generation's machinations had done to relationships on both sides of the families.

  She always simply appreciated the fact he never pushed to visit their family in Greece, seemingly content to see them as infrequently as Phoebe was.

  They never talked about how their marriage came about, that at one time Spiros himself had been one of the people pressing her to marry his older brother despite knowing how little she or Dimitri wanted it.

  Spiros let out an impatient breath. "Perhaps that is because she does not see you as her uncle any longer."

  Guilt was an acrid taste in Phoebe's mouth. She'd stopped referring to Theopolis Petronides as uncle when she'd learned he had used his health as the battering ram to force his grandson Dimitrius into agreeing to marry Phoebe, despite the fact he had been having a relationship with another woman. Phoebe had known about the other woman and there was no way Theopolis hadn't. He'd used the threat of not having necessary life-saving surgery to blackmail Dimitri into setting a wedding date neither of them had wanted.

  She couldn't change the fact that she had parents who had been happy to sell her in order to save the family company and their lifestyle, but she didn't have to acknowledge a special relationship with a man who was not her uncle, not her grandfather.

  She wasn't unkind to the old man, but she would not trust him. She didn't trust any of them anymore.

  Not her father. Not her mother. Not Theopolis Petronides.

  Phoebe loved her husband very much, but being forced into marriage rather than being allowed to find that path on their own was a wound that had never completely healed.

  "I love you too. We'll do a video call on Christmas."

  Phoebe smiled at her husband as he turned toward the door, his expression brightening when he noticed her standing in his office.

  "Thank you," she offered.

  "For what, agape mou?"

  "For not giving into his guilt trip about returning to Greece for Christmas. For not promising a baby in nine months' time."

  "He will have to be content with the two grandchildren he has until, if and when, we decide to add to the number."

  "He's getting on in years." She bit her lip, admitting what she knew to be true, "If we want our children to know him, we have to have t
hem soon, I suppose."

  Spiros cupped her cheek, his expression serious. "When you can come to me with something akin enthusiasm over the idea, rather than expediency, we will talk."

  "You want children."

  "I want this life I have with you, Phoebe."

  "But you want a baby."

  "When the time is right we will have one. You enjoy your position with Petronides Industries too much to give it up, or even go part-time right now. I feel the same. While I have no issue with both parents working full-time, that is not how I ever envisioned my life as a parent."

  "You've thought about going part-time once the children come?" she asked, not sure why she was shocked. Family had always been paramount to her incredible tycoon husband.

  So important that Spiros had almost ejected Phoebe from his life for the sake of loyalty to his brother and grandfather.

  "Yes. Haven't you?" He put one hand on her hip and the other at her waist, pulling her closer to his virile body and making Phoebe wonder if eating lunch was really what she wanted to do with their free time.

  "Well, yes." She laid her hands against his chest, loving how she could always feel the beat of his strong heart if she placed her palm just right. "And you're right, I'm not ready to make that change yet."

  "No. You find your position both fulfilling and challenging, as do I. We're still young. We have plenty of time to have children."

  She sighed leaning her forehead against him. "Not according to my parents or your grandfather."

  "Your father called you?" he asked, sounding ready to take up battle on her behalf.

  She winced, tilting her head back to meet his gaze again. "This time, it was my mother. She's pulled out every guilt card. We don't spend enough time with them. I'm selfish to wait so long to have children. I have lost my sense of family. Blah, blah, blah…"

  Spiro shook his head, then leaned down and kissed her, first on each cheek then her lips, allowing passion to build between them and her breathing to become erratic before pulling back. "You, precious woman, you have nothing to feel badly about. You make time for your family, but less for your parents than they would like. They precipitated that change in relationship and can now accept it with grace or deal with me."