Annie West - Greek Affairs - Tempted by the Tycoons - The Greek Tycoon's Convenient Bride / The Greek Tycoon's Unexpected Wife / The Greek Tycoon's Secret Heir

His eyes flickered, then opened. ‘What … what are you …?’ he said in a weak, halting voice.

‘You had a seizure,’ Rhiannon informed him quietly. ‘Adeia called me. I’m a nurse.’

‘I want …’ He swallowed, started again. ‘I want a doctor.’

‘The doctor’s been called. He’ll be here shortly. In the meantime, I’m just going to check your vitals.’

Theo glared at her, too weak to resist, and Rhiannon gave him a small encouraging smile as she quickly checked him over. He seemed all right, she decided, while at the same time acknowledging to herself the seriousness of a man Theo’s age having a seizure.

Dawn was edging the sky when the doctor’s boat scraped against the island’s dock, and Rhiannon’s eyes were gritty with fatigue.

She’d kept watch by Theo’s bed, in case there was anything to report to the doctor. She’d watched him drift in and out of sleep, his eyes glazed, and knew she would have to ring Lukas.

‘He’s stable for now,’ the doctor told her in a low voice after he’d seen Theo. ‘As the tumour affects more parts of his brain, more aspects of his life will be affected.’ He paused, his expression sober. ‘He knows this … knows it will continue to get more difficult.’

Rhiannon nodded. It was no more than she’d expected, and yet it still hurt. It always hurt to hear of someone’s pain, the suffering of watching a life slip slowly—or not so slowly—away.

‘What should we expect now?’ she asked.

The doctor shrugged. ‘More seizures, some lessened mobility, increased difficulty in talking. You are his nurse?’

‘Not … not exactly,’ Rhiannon replied, surprised. ‘I mean, I am a nurse, but not …’

The doctor looked nonplussed. ‘You’re here; you’re a nurse. I don’t see many others around. If you have questions, you may ring me. All you can really do is make him comfortable. We are managing his decline.’

Rhiannon nodded and thanked him, before heading upstairs with a heavy heart. She waited until Annabel was fed and dressed and busy with Adeia before ringing Lukas.

He answered on the first ring. ‘Rhiannon? Is something wrong?’

‘Lukas …’ Her voice came out thready. She stopped, started again. ‘Lukas, your father had a seizure last night.’

There was a moment of silence, frozen, tense, and then Lukas repeated blankly, ‘A seizure?’

‘The doctor came. He said your father’s stable for now, but …’

‘But?’ Lukas repeated softly.

‘But,’ Rhiannon admitted, ‘his condition is likely to deteriorate more rapidly from now on.’

There was another silence; Rhiannon’s heart ached. She longed to comfort him, to put her arms around him. The realisation surprised her with its sorrowful power.

‘I’ll come back,’ Lukas said finally. ‘I should have been there.’

‘There was nothing—’

‘I should have been there.’ His voice was flat, dead. ‘Goodbye, Rhiannon. Thank you for telling me.’

Yet another responsibility Lukas had put on himself, she thought as she put down the mobile. Another burden weighing him down.

No man deserved so much heaped on his shoulders.

Lukas arrived by helicopter just a few hours later. Rhiannon watched from her window, Annabel playing at her feet. He went straight to his father; she heard his quick footsteps on the stairs. She wondered when—if—he would come to see her.

He’d left the island to escape her. She doubted he was in any hurry to see her again now.

‘You shouldn’t have come back.’

Theo’s voice was thready, weak, and Lukas tried not to let his shock show on his face. His father looked half the man he had been only a day ago as he lay in bed, his usually thick shock of white hair thin and flat against his head.

‘Of course I should have,’ he replied evenly. ‘You’re my father.’

‘I’m fine.’ Theo spoke in fits and starts, his voice slightly wheezy. At times he struggled for over a minute for a certain word or phrase.

It made Lukas ache to hear his father like this—to see a man who held the deeds to the most desirable real estate in all of Greece in one triumphant fist reduced to such weakness and misery.

‘There was business to attend to,’ Theo continued with effort.

‘I’ve seen to it.’ Lukas stared blindly out of the window. ‘Is the doctor acceptable? We can hire a nurse, of course. One of the best from Athens.’

Theo shook his head.

Lukas heard the movement, the rustling of covers, and turned. ‘What?’

‘I have a nurse.’

It took a moment for him to realise, and then he stared at his father in surprise. ‘You mean Rhiannon?’

Theo nodded. ‘She suits me.’

It was the last thing he’d expected his father to say. To admit.

‘And,’ Theo continued in a stronger voice, ‘she suits you too.’

This shocked Lukas all the more. His face went blank and he turned back to the window. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘You do.’ It was all Theo could afford to say, yet somehow it was enough.

Lukas was silent, but a familiar restless energy was now pulsing through him. She suits me . Yes, she did. All too well. Yet he could not give in to the desire, the need. He knew where that led, had seen the destruction.

The weakness.

‘Marry her, Lukas.’

He swivelled, stared in shock. ‘What? You are joking.’

Theo shook his head. ‘No.’

‘You know I’ve said I’ll never marry.’

‘I know. But now … Annabel … she needs a family.’

‘She’ll have one—’

‘Not some patched affair!’ Colour rose in Theo’s gaunt face. ‘A real family. I’d rather pass this company on to a girl who grew up in a loving home than to a drunken lout like Christos. Marry her, Lukas.’

Lukas shook his head. ‘But it would not be a loving home.’

Theo’s eyes brightened shrewdly. ‘Wouldn’t it?’

He stiffened, turned back to the window. ‘I can’t.’

‘Why not?’

The room was silent save for Theo’s laboured breathing. ‘I can’t allow …’ Lukas stopped, shook his head. He wouldn’t go there. Wouldn’t admit the truth. ‘Because she wouldn’t have me,’ he finally said, shrugging carelessly.

‘What?’ Theo was so surprised he laughed. ‘What—what woman wouldn’t have you? You, the most desirable bachelor in all of Greece? Pah. Of course she’ll have you.’

‘You don’t know her.’

‘I don’t need to. If not for you, then for Annabel. She’ll do it for the child.’

The child. Would she? Instinctively Lukas knew she would … if she were given the right incentives, the right words.

He could have her.

It was too tempting, too dangerous. Too possible.

And yet … he wouldn’t love her. Wouldn’t allow himself that luxury, that weakness. But he could have her, enjoy her, and make her life better than whatever pathetic existence she’d had in Wales.

It could happen. He could make it happen. He saw his father watching him with bright, shrewd eyes and he jerked his head in the semblance of a nod.

‘We won’t talk about this again.’

‘As you wish.’

Rhiannon scrambled up from the sand as Lukas approached. Annabel was playing happily next to her with some new toys, but she clapped her hands in delight when she saw Lukas’s long-legged stride down the beach.

‘You saw Theo?’ Rhiannon asked, and Lukas nodded.

‘Yes.’ He paused, his mouth a hard, unwilling line. ‘He’s not well.’

‘No, he isn’t.’

‘I didn’t expect …’ He shrugged. ‘Thank you for your care of him.’

‘I was glad to do it.’

‘My father has taken a liking to you,’ Lukas said. ‘He would like you to continue as his nurse, as time allows.’