She narrowed her eyes at that, ignoring the feeling she might be getting out of the frying pan and into the fire, moving from one dictatorial man to another. Nikos wasnotlike James. He was commanding and in control, but he was also respectful and fair.
Hadn’t she thought the same thing about James though, at first? Hadn’t she believed him to be all that was good and decent?
What if she was wrong about Nikos? She needed an insurance policy, something to protect her. ‘This could be a very bad idea.’
‘Why?’
‘Honestly? Because I’m scared. I’m scared of letting my guard down, especially with someone like you.’
‘That makes sense. You don’t want to get hurt again.’
She nodded.
‘Will it placate you if I promise that, from this point on, I will do everything in my power to ensure that doesn’t happen?’
She pulled her lips to the side. ‘I don’t know.’
‘This does not need to last long. A few weeks of being photographed together, and, at some point, the inevitable confrontation with your ex, and then we can quietly go back to our normal lives. If he approaches you, you can contact me through my business manager, Theo, and I will reappear, to make sure he doesn’t step out of line.’
It was tempting. Tempting because the idea of having someone like Nikos to throw in James’s face made her battered and bruised heart lift with pleasure.
But this was Nikos’s life. ‘Surely this is your worst nightmare.’
He stood then, looking down at her with a set jaw. ‘I could not help my mother. I didn’t help my wife. Let me at least help you.’
Her heart then, already ripped to shreds by everything she’d been through, felt newly damaged by Nikos’s admission, and how he viewed himself.
‘Oh, Nikos,’ she murmured, shaking her head. ‘I can’t use your guilt like that.’
‘I will feel it, no matter what. At least this way, I have an option to make amends. Let me help, Genevieve. I’m begging you.’
* * *
As the words had formed on his lips, and he’d heard them in the room, he’d wanted to suck them right back in again. A fake engagement? And everything that meant? The idea of reappearing on the Athens society circuit, engaged to someone else? So Isabella would be relegated to a figment of his past. Worse, willingly creating the impression that he’d moved on from Isabella?
But the more he looked at Genevieve, and saw her desperate, stressed features, and thought of the man responsible for that, he knew he had to act as a shield for her. To protect her in a way he desperately wished someone had protected Isabella, or his mother.
More than that, he knew Isabella would want him to do this. She would be the first to counsel him to care for someone in need, to give of himself.
So when Genevieve looked up at him and nodded her agreement, albeit with a look of swirling doubt in her eyes, he knew for certain this was the right choice. Which was not the same thing as looking forward to it. All he wanted was to turn tail and run back to his island, to his solitude and cabin, to the life he’d had before Genevieve. And yet, strangely, he wanted to drag Genevieve back there with him, too.
Chapter Ten
THE TRANSITION FROMmountain man to billionaire—albeit rugged, enormous billionaire—happened far quicker than Genevieve wanted. When Nikos returned to her hotel room that evening, he’d shaved his island stubble, had his hair trimmed, and he wore a suit. The kind of suit she’d sworn she couldn’t imagine him in, because he’d been so at home in casual clothes. Or nothing at all.
Now, though, he wore something that looked custom-made. Well, it would probably have to be, given his proportions. Proportions that fairly engulfed her as they left the hotel and slipped into his waiting car. A man with dark hair was behind the wheel and he said something obviously deferential when they slid into the back seat—going by the tone, rather than the language, which was Greek.
‘I don’t know if I’ll get used to you like this,’ Genevieve said, a little breathily, as the car took off from the hotel.
He slid her a look that showed he felt the same, and, with her stomach in knots, they drove the rest of the way in silence. It wasn’t far, though. Perhaps ten minutes later, the car slid through a set of open gates then stopped, and when Genevieve looked out, she saw a gleaming black helicopter with a golden ‘K’ on the tail.
K for Konstantinou.
She fell into step beside him as he opened a hinged door and then held out his hand to help her up into the helicopter. She glanced at him a little nervously. ‘Do I need to lift you?’
‘I’ve only been in a helicopter once. I didn’t enjoy it.’
‘Do you want to drive instead?’
