Margaret Barker: In the Greek's Bed: The Greek Tycoon's Wife / The Greek Millionaire's Marriage / The Greek Surgeon

THE GREEK TYCOON’S WIFE

by

Kim Lawrence

THE GREEK MILLIONAIRE’S MARRIAGE

by

Sara Wood

THE GREEK SURGEON

by

Margaret Barker

www.millsandboon.co.uk

by

Kim Lawrence

Kim Lawrencelives on a farm in rural Anglesey. She runs two miles daily and finds this an excellent opportunity to unwind and seek inspiration for her writing! It also helps her keep up with her husband, two active sons, and the various stray animals which have adopted them. Always a fanatical consumer of fiction, she is now equally enthusiastic about writing. She loves a happy ending!!

Don’t miss KimLawrence’sexciting newnovel,Desert Prince, Defiant Virgin, available thismonth from Mills &Boon® Modern™ .

CHAPTER ONE

ONLY the privileged few ever got to see the top floor of the towering glass edifice that was the Lakis Building, and entry to the boardroom was even more exclusive. It therefore came as something of a shock to the élite few gathered there when the big double doors crashed open in the middle of a board meeting.

Nikos Lakis, silver shards of annoyance filtering into his dark almond-shaped eyes, opened his mouth to deliver a devastating reprimand, then closed it again as the identity of the intruder was revealed.

The attractive redhead strode into the room and planted her hands on her curvy hips just as Nikos’s breathless PA appeared behind her. The younger woman rolled her eyes and shrugged apologetically towards her boss before retreating post-haste.

‘ Well! ’ There was a long dramatic pause, timed to perfection, before Caitlin Lakis delivered her punchline.

It was worth the build-up.

‘Is it true, Nik? Are you actually planning to marry that woman? Have you lost your mind…?’

Caitlin didn’t actually expect her stepson to defend his actions or lack of them to her. In her experience Greek men in general were not prone to explaining themselves and the Lakis men in particular.

The individual these scathing accusations were aimed at appeared to be the only person around the long table who was not excruciatingly embarrassed by the attack. During the pulsating pause that followed his stepmother’s heated harangue Nikos sat there calmly rotating the pen he held between his long brown fingers.

‘If nobody has any objections…?’

The suited figures he addressed showed no inclination to object, most would sooner have leapt from the twentieth-

floor plate-glass window that revealed the city below than disagree with him. Two years earlier they had been reluctantly prepared to accept his presence just because of who his father was, most had not thought he would last long.

Now the respect they gave him was based on the fact they knew he delivered the goods. The playboy had turned out to have a brain like a steel trap and nerves to match. He gave his all and expected those around him to do no less.

‘Then I think that’s it for today. Thank you, gentlemen.’

The board members got to their feet with alacrity.

‘How is Father?’

‘Your father is fine. Don’t change the subject,’ Caitlin retorted. ‘I’m waiting.’

Nikos appeared more amused than dismayed by this stern pronouncement as, one dark brow raised, his glance slid significantly towards the men who were hurriedly gathering their belongings.

Though she looked irritated, Caitlin managed to restrain herself until the door closed behind the last of the board members; she even responded politely to several stilted enquiries after her health.

A flicker of amusement slid into Nikos’s silver-shot eyes as he watched her efforts to contain her frustration. The woman who had married his father some eighteen years earlier had many virtues, but patience wasn’t one of them. Though he conceded Caitlin had been patient enough when it had come to gaining the trust of her suspicious stepsons.

He could recall the exact moment she had won him over. He still couldn’t decide if her display of ignorance and panic when faced with a table groaning with antique silver and priceless porcelain had been genuine or just for his benefit.

‘It doesn’t really matter what fork you use,’ he’d explained. ‘Just act like you know what you’re doing and people will think they’ve got it wrong.’

For a full sixty seconds Caitlin had stared at the twelve-year-old before shaking her head and exclaiming, ‘That could have been your father talking.’

Nikos had felt a warm glow at her words.

‘You must be thinking of Dimitri.’ Dimitri the favoured eldest, was being groomed to take over from his father.

‘Dimitri looks like Spyros,’ Caitlin conceded. ‘But you…’ she tapped her head ‘…think like him…’

Now the owner of her own successful fashion business, Caitlin, an extremely attractive forty-five, didn’t look so very much different as she had done back then.

‘Right, they’ve gone,’ she said briskly the moment the big double doors closed. ‘Though I think it’s a bit late for discretion. Since I got to Athens that’s all I’ve been hearing… when is the wedding? ’ She gave a snort. ‘You can’t tell me you’re in love with Livia Nikolaidis.’

‘What’s love?’

Caitlin rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue at this blatant piece of provocation. ‘So you’ve had a couple of bad experiences…who hasn’t?’ she snapped unsympathetically. ‘So kindly spare me the weary cynicism and stop avoiding the issue, Nik.’

Nikos accepted the reprimand with a rueful grin.

Caitlin might be his stepmother, but she was female and her stern expression briefly softened perceptively.

Even as she tartly observed, ‘You should smile more,’ she privately conceded he maybe didn’t have that much time or reason to smile since the responsibilities of the entire Lakis empire had fallen on his shoulders. No matter how broad those shoulders might be—in Nikos’s case, enough for two average men.

‘I’m not in love with Livia,’ he admitted calmly.

Being in love with Livia might have been an obstacle to their successful union, because if he’d been in love he wouldn’t have been able to see that though Livia was beautiful and accomplished she was also extremely selfish and terminally vain. This way he had no unreasonable expectations of her that might later disappoint him. And Livia, being a product of a background very similar to his own, would not make unreasonable demands on him and his time.

Caitlin gave a deep sigh of relief. ‘Then it’s not true, you haven’t been seeing her…’

‘Did I say that? Many women fantasise about marrying a rich man…’

‘My, you do have a high opinion of my sex.’

Nikos acknowledged his stepmother’s dig with a shrug. ‘I can only speak from my own experience.’

‘Which is wide and varied…’ Despite the disapproval in her tone Caitlin didn’t find it particularly surprising that her stepson had gained this jaundiced perspective of women. From the moment he hit puberty girls and women had been drawn to him like a magnet and he was selling himself short if he thought his wealth was the only thing they were after.

‘The reality of marriage to the man who is responsible for the day to day running of the Lakis business is something which many women couldn’t handle.’