A Perfect Love: International Billionaires VI: The Greeks (16 page)

“You and the boys have everything you could possibly need.”

Her dread billowed. Haimon knew their circumstances. Knew where they lived. This crazy old man could do anything to them. She should tell Rafe. She should make sure the security was on alert. After all, she’d found it easy to escape their scrutiny to get here. Suggesting Rafe take the boys for an afternoon hike had been a snap. After that, the only thing she’d had to do was walk up the mountain and around to the road to catch the bus. There’d been no security patrolling her route.

So security was fairly lax. Which meant this man could cause trouble.

Her nails cut into the skin of her palm. If she told Rafe, he’d find her stepfather, arrest him. Throw him in jail where he’d probably die. Could she live with that?

No, she couldn’t.

She didn’t want anyone to know about Haimon. She could handle this herself.

“Living with a Vounó. The man who destroyed everything we had.”

She wanted to blurt out
—precisely as you destroyed everything the Vounós had at one time
—but she didn’t. Because the wild glare he threw at her told her she must tread carefully. “I had no choice. You got all the money we had.”

“You had a choice, Tammy. You always have a choice. And you chose the wealthy man instead of loyalty to your family.”

They weren’t a family with him any longer. Yet, his words still burned.

She was beholden to Rafe. She lived off his money.

Giving him her body only made it worse.

“Nothing to say?” Haimon leaned in, the smell of his bad breath hitting her like a blast of poison.

“We are staying with him for now,” she started.

“For as long as he’ll have you in his bed.”

She kept going, ignoring his slur, intent on getting this over with. “But we don’t have anything of our own.”

“You don’t need anything of your own. Everything’s provided for you.”

“I have nothing to give you.”

“Does Vounó know you’re meeting me?”

“No.” The switch of topics shot her heart right into her stomach. “He doesn’t need to know.”

“Or you don’t want him to, right, Tammy?”

“Don’t call me that.” She didn’t want to be reminded she once tried to see this man as a father figure.

“Does he whisper your name in your ear as you sleep with him?”

“Stop.” She forced herself to meet his gaze. “This is getting us nowhere.”

He relaxed on the wooden bars of the taverna chair. “I need money.”

His bald statement shook her resolve, not because of the actual words, but because of the fevered determination behind them. “I told you. I don’t have any.”

“Come on.” The old man gave her a sly smile. “I know you do the grocery order every week.”

He knew this? Such a small, intimate detail? If he knew this, he’d been doing a lot of digging. Horror crisscrossed her brain. “I charge the groceries on his debit—”

“I also know you and the twins came into town recently.” He paused, then smiled again. “To do some clothes shopping for school this fall, perhaps?”

A chill of dread swept through her. He had followed them. He’d been close to the boys without her even noticing.

“Nothing to say?”

She did have some money. Rafe had started giving her a weekly amount to cover anything his nephews needed beyond groceries. She even had the job of paying the housekeeper now.

She had a little. Not much, but a little.

A little of Rafe’s money. Not hers.

The thought of giving Haimon any of Rafe’s money poured a deep pile of guilt inside her. Rafe would see this as a betrayal. Even more then sneaking away when the twins and he had taken a hike this morning. Even more than meeting with this man.

Giving Haimon money.

Rafe would never forgive her.

“Tamsin.” Her stepfather shifted closer, the chair creaking under him. “Give me the money you have or I make trouble for the boys.”

“You can’t mean this.” Instant loathing writhed in her gut. “Don’t threaten them.”

“They aren’t mine, are they?”

“You raised them.”

“So. You don’t answer the question.” The old man eased away, the ugly smile back on his face. “Yet, you did, didn’t you? You let Vounó do a DNA test.”

“Haimon—”

“The boys aren’t mine so I have no more interest in them.”

The loathing rose in her throat and turned to pure hatred. “I can’t believe—”

“No interest in them other than using them to get what I want.” He sighed, his eyes closed as if he were in pain. “What I need.”

Reluctant worry mixed with anger, a sick brew in her heart. What choice did she have? She could confess to Rafe—he would find a way to get rid of Haimon. But that way likely involved jail and the way this man in front of her appeared, he wouldn’t survive.

She didn’t want to be responsible for his death.

If she didn’t give him money, he’d find a way to hurt her brothers. She knew it deep in her soul. Maybe she could keep them safe while they stayed in Sparti. Still, eventually, they’d go back to Athens and the boys would go off to school. If Haimon could follow them here and find out their routine, he could definitely do the same in Athens. Aarōn and Isaák knew him and wouldn’t run away until it was too late.

She couldn’t risk it.

“All right.” She snatched her wallet out of her purse. She wanted to finish this, now. “I only have a little.”

“This is it?” He frowned in disgust at the bills she’d slapped onto the table.

“That’s it.” Tamsin managed a glare. “That’s it forever.”

“Mmm.” He stuffed the bills in his shirt pocket and rose. “We’ll see, Tammy. We’ll see.”

She watched as he plodded out the door, dread leaching into every cell of her body.

S
omething was wrong
.

Rafe slid his hand up and down Tamsin’s arm. At his touch, she murmured in her sleep and curled closer to his side.

Her scent, clean and pure, mixed with the smell of their sex. Even though they’d made love only an hour ago, her scent still made his cock twitch with need. But he couldn’t mask his worries with sex. Not anymore. He’d tried to ignore all of it for the past two weeks, yet there was no getting away from his conclusion.

The right conclusion.

Something was definitely wrong with Tamsin.

He gazed at her sleeping face. The room was dark, but his memories provided everything he needed. The golden arch of her brow, the way her mouth pouted as she slept, the smooth purity of her skin.

She murmured again and this time it was coupled with a frown.

A frown he’d seen quite a few times in the last couple of weeks.

The boys had immediately detected the tension emanating from their sister. Aarōn had been at his office doorstep more than once demanding to know what was going on. He’d been a hero to the twins for a month while they’d watched their sister turn into his lover, but now, it appeared, he had work to do.

He usually attacked all problems head-on, yet something niggling in the back of his brain had made him reluctant to tackle whatever was going on with her.

However, it was time to stop being indecisive.

“Tam.” His hand tightened on her shoulder.

“Hmm.” Her frown grew more fierce as if she was now not only battling her nightmares, she meant to battle him.

“Tam, wake up.”

“I’m sleepy,” she muttered.

Even in the midst of his distress, he almost chuckled at her surly tone. “We’ve got to talk.”

She opened one eye. “I must be dreaming.”

“What?” He tucked his chin into his chest and met her gaze.

“A man wants to talk?”

His chuckle escaped. As they’d grown closer, he found to his delight that Tam still possessed her sense of humor, more refined and tart than when she’d been a young girl, and more likely to make him laugh. Her humor had been one of the things he’d loved about her.

Loved
.

He paused for a moment, his body going taut.

She noticed. She noticed everything. Pushing herself onto her elbow, she stared at him, her eyes clear even in the shadows. “What’s wrong?”

Shaking off his thoughts, he zeroed in on her worries. “I could ask you the same thing.”

Her body didn’t move. He felt her withdrawal, though, saw it in the downward brush of her lashes, shielding her eyes.

Silence whispered around them.

“Tam?” The niggle in his brain turned into a twisting menace.

“I asked you first.”

The childish response intensified his frustration. “Come on. You’ve been weird for two weeks.”

“Weird.” Finally meeting his gaze, the edge of her mouth tried for a smile. “What does that mean?”

“The twins have noticed, too.” He sat up and leaned against the carved cypress headboard. “You’ve been too quiet. Short with Aspasia. You even forgot to put the roast in the oven last night.”

She smiled, but it was forced. He could tell by the way she gritted her teeth. “You and the boys didn’t go hungry. I managed to find something for you to eat.”

“That’s not the point.” He folded his arms on his chest. “The point is there’s something wrong.”

They stared at each other for a moment, a silent battle of wills. But he wasn’t going to let her wave away his concern this time. He’d tried a couple of times in the last few days. Tried to crack through to what was going on with her. Yet she always succeeded in changing the subject and he hadn’t pushed.

Tonight he was going to push.

“There’s nothing wrong.” Her gaze fell from his face down across his shoulders, to his chest.

She made that sound, deep in her throat. The sound was pure sex and, as usual, his body responded. She noticed that too, the observant female. Her focus went right to the burgeoning tent in the sheet.

She laughed, husky, sexy.

Her hand reached out—

He caught it in one of his own.

“Tamsin.” He glared at her. “I asked you a question.”

“And I answered.” Tugging her hand from his, she splayed it on his chest, making his heart pick up a beat.

She leaned in and kissed him.

And like all the other times, he wondered who else she’d kissed. Who else she’d been with.

The first time, the very first time he’d entered her, he’d known it couldn’t be many. Not by the tight squeeze of her muscles when she’d settled onto his body. Not by the way her face had pinched in the moonlight as if it had been a long time. The satisfaction he’d felt at that moment had been medieval, primitive, and foolish. Still, the realization hadn’t stopped the satisfaction flowing through his veins along with the lust.

Now, though, was not the time to be thinking of all of that. He wanted to get this, whatever
this
was, out in the open and done with.

“Tam—”

She cut him off with her tongue. Her talented, tempting tongue. It twined around his own, then slid across the ridge of his teeth. “Touch me, Rafe,” she whispered on his lips.

His name, said with her familiar, sensual slurring, finally broke through his mind’s determination. His desperate body took over.

He clasped her arms and tugged her onto his body. The silky sweetness of her skin moving along his made him sweat. The musk of her excitement, mixed with his, swirled around them, making him heady with need.

Leaning in, she nipped at his lower lip.

He growled.

She laughed.

Her green eyes met his, brimming with heat and mirth and triumph. For a moment, his brain yelled at him for losing track of the conversation, letting her win using her feminine wiles.

Then, a softness came over her—her mouth tipped into a gentle smile, the muscles along her jaw relaxed, her leafy eyes went dreamy with something. Something he’d seen long ago in these same green eyes.

Something he needed even more than her body.

Her body suddenly slid across his, a sensual challenge he couldn’t ignore. All thoughts whipped away as she moved her lower body on his. The thin sheet between them did nothing to diminish the electric zap of connection.

His cock went completely erect.

She laughed once more, a taunting call to his masculinity.

With a surge, he reached for the bedside table and jerked at the drawer.

“Let me.” Her hand grabbed the condom from his grasp and ripped the packet open.

Rafe pushed the sheet away, exposing everything to her.

His lover smiled, a loving movement of her lips.

Lover. Loving.

The chug of what he felt, yet didn’t want to acknowledge, pumped through his blood. Before he forced himself to confront his new reality, her hand moved to his cock and he lost all focus. “
O Theós
,” he groaned as he arched into her grip.

Laughing again, she swung her leg over him, preparing to take him.

Something inside him rebelled. The something tied to the love he didn’t want to look at or take in. The something tied to the deep, dark fear that she’d done it again, made him love and lust and lose himself in her to the point of madness.

Grabbing her hips, he swung her beneath him and slid between her legs. A thrust, harsh and needy, wanting and desperate and hoping, one thrust and he was inside her.

She locked her intent gaze with his as she wrapped her smooth legs around his waist.

“Tammy,” he whispered as he drew himself out and then back into her core.

Her hand smoothed along his shoulder to his jaw. As if to comfort him or calm him. Comfort wasn’t what he wanted from this woman. A man didn’t need to be comforted by his lover.

Did he?

A smile crossed her face, a wistful, bittersweet smile that clenched his heart.

He wasn’t calm. Far from it.

And yet, the only thing he could think to do was use his body. To answer her comforting touch, to turn her smile into something more. To calm them both, God help them. His body quickened its pace while inside, something frantic and broken turned, pushing on the barriers against the hurt he’d built so long ago.

“Rafe.” Her voice came to him, delicate, feathering along his those barriers, sending shivers down his spine. “Rafe.”

She lifted her hips into his rhythm, matching his pace, giving him what he needed. What his body needed. He needed something else,
O Theós na ton voi̱thí̱sei
. Something just out of reach.

“Raphael,” she gasped, rearing up, her face contorting in ecstasy.

He needed something God couldn’t give him. His body pounded while his heart raced. He needed something from her, this female gazing at him as her orgasm faded, her body relaxing beneath him, her hot core still warm and willing and wet as he moved in her.

His pleasure surged, tightening his muscles, making his blood roar in his veins. His brain whirled with physical need, twining around the something deep inside he still needed to find before he could be full and whole.

Her hand swept across his mouth, then to his shoulder. A simple gesture that left him gasping for breath. The leafy-green eyes grew dark, drawing him in, farther and farther. Into her, into this something he searched for.

His hips beat faster and faster.

He felt his balls tighten, his leg muscles contract.

His jaw clenched as he came to his peak.

“I love you.” Her words filtered through him, pouring over his sexual excitement like a potent alchemy.

Finally, he’d received the something he searched for. He spilled himself inside her.

Complete.

S
he had
to put a stop to this.

She had to.

Tamsin stared at her phone as if it could answer her one big problem.

A problem who kept calling her on this phone.

Haimon had insisted on two more meetings during the last two weeks. Two more times she’d slid around security and given him every penny she had. Not much, and he stated his dissatisfaction in a way that scared her, but she’d at least managed to keep his threats at bay.

For now.

She lifted her head and gazed out the kitchen window. Her guys were in the pool, as usual. Aarōn laughed at something Rafe said and Isaák jumped on his uncle’s back with a wide grin on his face.

A tight wrench in her gut made Tam suck in her breath. She felt as if she were walking on a very thin line in the sand. One step wrong and she’d land in a quagmire on one side or quicksand on the other. If she didn’t meet Haimon this afternoon like he’d demanded, he’d hurt her boys. If she decided to put an end to this and told Rafe what was going on, he might strike back at not only the old man, but her.

Could she trust Rafe to believe her story? Could she trust him to listen to her before acting against his enemy and maybe even herself?

A sick feeling in her gut told her no.

She hated that. Hated that she didn’t trust.

Even though she loved.

Yet the fact Rafe hadn’t acknowledged her admission last night lay like a fog of indecision and fear over her body.

I love you.

He hadn’t said it back.

Swinging away from her laughing guys, she wandered down the hallway and into her bedroom. The bedroom she no longer slept in. Closing the door behind her, she bent over and pulled out her battered suitcase from under the bed.

The green velvet bag was old, threadbare in places, the silk ribbon fraying at the edge.

Tears built behind her eyes, but Tam pushed herself to open it.

The bracelet was a child’s. The freshwater pearls were laced with blue stone beads and sterling silver tubes. The silver twinkled in the shaft of Greek sun slanting through the blinds. The bracelet her real father had given her when she’d been too young to even know who he was. She slumped on the floor, leaning her back on the side of the bed. She hadn’t taken the jewelry out in years.

Too busy. Too painful.

A huff of aching regret escaped her and one tear dripped onto the edge of her sleeve. Before she lost all control, she stuffed the bracelet back into the bag and stood.

She didn’t know of any pawn shops in Sparti or Athens. Still, she’d bet her last euro, or in this case, her last possession, that Haimon did. Value was in the eyes of the beholder, but her mom had always had an eye for any piece of jewelry. Skylla had been clear: the small bracelet had been worth a significant amount of money.

Thank goodness Tam had been smart enough to hide it away as soon as they’d landed in London. She had no doubt her mother would have taken it without a second thought.

This was all she had. All she had left of her real father, and it was the last thing she was going to give the man who had never been her father. Once she let him know—there was no more—he’d walk away.

He had to walk away.