“You mentioned two choices.”
“Yes, I did. If you are interested in remaining in your son’s life, then I’m willing to marry you.”
Chapter Two
The house he’d rented overlooking the Atlantic Ocean was large and lush but empty. Even with the staff of five he’d hired, it still felt so empty. Christos leaned deeper into the leather office chair, snagging the phone as it rang.
“How’d it go today?” Tristan Sabina asked.
Tristan was one of Christos’s two best friends. The other was Guillermo de la Cruz. They’d formed an odd little triad of mischief makers and playboys for more than half their lives. They’d met at an exclusive boarding school in Switzerland and had bonded through their troublemaking antics.
The three of them had been tabloid fodder for longer than he could remember, moving through life as if the world was their oyster. They’d started a business together in their twenties, a string of nightclubs located in posh hotspots all over the globe. The exclusive clubs, called Seconds, were the place to see and be seen the world over, and 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 rememberthe 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.”
