The Greek Tycoon's Lover

Chapter 1

Their words hurt.

Helen Miller tried to block their words and ignore the pain slashing at her self-esteem but the women were relentless with their cutting remarks. The vicious women standing by the filing cabinets didn’t know someone was hidden behind a large stack of filing cabinets, so they felt free to speak openly. And the worst part; their words were true. Oh, so painfully true.

Helen swiped angrily at a tear that slipped down her cheek. With a grimace, she acknowledged that now she had at least one good reason why she didn’t wear makeup anymore. She almost laughed out loud at the idea of finding a silver lining in this horrible situation. She didn’t though. Overwhelming the humor was the absolute humiliation she was feeling as the women continued to slash her appearance and personality to shreds, unknowing that their victim was shrinking back into the steel filing cabinets, in a place where the overhead fluorescent lighting was slightly more dim.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t tune out their words. The first woman huffed in a haughty manner and Helen could picture the woman’s image in her mind, having heard her voice and witnessed her smug expression in so many meetings. Brown hair that had a perfect sheen to the immaculate cut, sophisticated slacks and a slightly trendy shirt. Her name was Jessica and she worked in the accounting department. The woman was a flirt, but also had the fashion sense of a French designer. “Good grief,” Jessica said with a snotty voice, “she’s been here for six months and in all that time, she’s just let herself slide. At least when she first started, she would at least try to look pretty and professional. Now she just looks dull and lifeless.”

“I agree. Did you see the suit she is wearing today? Ugh! It’s horrible,” another woman said. “How frumpy! The woman looks so pale in that terrible color of brown. She should never wear that color.”

Helen knew that woman’s voice as well, had taken notes in several meetings when the evil woman preened in front of the group as if she was in her element to be in front of so many men. Her name was Barbara from marketing and had a reputation for being a horrible gossip as well as a flirt. At least in this case, the woman wasn’t the best dresser. Barbara wasn’t boring in her fashion attempts but many times, her efforts at coming across with a trendy style completely missed the mark.

Helen looked down at her brown, tweed suit that had seemed so professional looking earlier in the morning when she’d pulled it out of her closet. But now, looking down at it in the harsh light of the filing room with the unflattering lights defining the nubby texture too closely, she accepted that it quite possibly was frumpy, just as Barbara had described.

Unfortunately, they weren’t finished. A third woman laughed shrilly before saying, “And her shoes! Why can’t she find something more feminine? The ones she’s wearing are no better than flats and do nothing for her legs. I mean,” the woman laughed bitterly, “if you’re going to be around Dimitri Theopolis, at least have a little pride in what you look like. The man is a super stud. He must roll his eyes each morning when she comes in looking like woodwork.”

Barbara snorted her agreement. “A grandma wouldn’t be seen wearing those awful things,” her malicious voice said. “You’re right, the woman has relatively nice legs, why won’t she show them off? I know I’d be raising my hemlines if I were around that man!”

The three women chatted away, tearing up Helen a little longer, then finally moved on to the next person who didn’t meet their standards. Eventually, their voices faded away as they walked out of the filing room but their malicious comments rang heavily in the air long after they were gone. Helen stayed where she was, letting the tears fall down her cheeks. She couldn’t keep the pain from clenching at her stomach as her shoulders sagged in humiliated misery.

Their words were true. She’d slowly become frumpy in an effort to increase her efficiency for her boss in the hopes of becoming more valuable to him. In the process, she’d lost herself, her femininity and all her pride in her appearance.

Helen grimaced as she pulled a tissue out of her pocket to sop up the wetness on her cheeks. In reality, she’d never really thought of herself as very attractive. She’d never really thought about her appearance one way or another since she’d been a teenager and heard….Helen pushed that thought aside, not wanting to go back to that painful period in her life. She’d overcome that aspect of her life, she told herself. She might not be any man’s dream woman, but she was smart and efficient and she loved her job, finding fulfillment in doing it well.

Taking a deep breath, she stood up and wiped her tears away, forcing the silly, ineffectual wetness to stop. She was angry with herself for letting those catty women get to her. So what if they were right about her appearance. There was nothing wrong with her life and she had dreams just like any other woman.

Helen considered her life objectively. She might not be drop dead beautiful, but in the opposite way, she’d never considered herself dowdy either. Until now, she grimaced inwardly. She loved this job, loved working for Dimitri Theopolis. He was incredibly intelligent and ran the Theopolis shipping empire with a genius financial mind. Helen worked out of the London office but the headquarters was in Athens. Dimitri was spending more time here in London lately and Helen felt as if she were on cloud nine each time he called or walked through the executive suite.

It wasn’t that she had any personal feelings for the man. No, Helen wasn’t stupid enough to fall into that category. Dimitri Theopolis had enough women throwing themselves at him, he didn’t need his personal assistant to do the same. She wasn’t even in a class to attract him. The man generally dated sophisticated women who spent their days primping and making themselves beautiful for their evenings with Dimitri.

Helen knew that she’d never be acceptable in any kind of personal capacity so why even try? She’d only come up short in the end and feel the crushing pain of disappointment as a reward for her efforts. Because if she ever thought she had a chance with Dimitri, she only had to remind herself of her deficiencies or open up the newspaper to see the kind of woman that piqued his attention. And it definitely wasn’t a short, mousy female with ordinary brown hair and blue eyes.

Oh, she could look nice, she knew. She had a decent enough figure with slender hips and more than enough up top. Probably too much up top, she thought as she pulled the brown tweed down to cover her slim hips more smoothly. When she let her hair loose, it was long, and a deep chocolate brown that curled softly at the ends and small little wisps that curled about her temples unless she smoothed them down with hairspray, as she usually did for work. It would probably curl more if she took the time to get it trimmed, but it was so much easier to just pull it into a bun each morning. Helen thought it looked more professional as well.

Her eyes were a pretty blue, but since she had stopped wearing makeup, there was nothing to enhance their color. She used to at least wear mascara and powder, but now, she probably needed a good bit of concealer just to cover the dark circles under her eyes from working late each night.

Oh, who was she kidding, she thought sadly, her shoulders slumping in defeat. No matter how much makeup she wore or how perfectly coifed her hair, she could never be in the same league as the women Dimitri dated.

All the women Dimitri spent time with were tall, sultry blonds or stunning red-headed women. Actresses, models, society women who could shine as brightly as he did. He definitely didn’t date personal assistants who had scrimped and saved just to put herself through university.

Helen wiped her eyes one more time and pinched her cheeks, hoping to get more color back into them. Thankfully, Dimitri was not in the office today. He wasn’t expected back in London for several more days and she had many reports to finish up before he returned.

“Just one step at a time,” she said to herself. That old phrase had gotten her through many painful years. Although they were spoken by a physical therapist at the time, they applied to every aspect of Helen’s life.

With those words ringing through her mind, she made her way slowly back to her desk. Her computer was still humming along but she had several more contracts and reports piled on her desk. With a sigh, she pulled the first one down only moments before the air started to crackle with electricity.

Helen felt the hairs on her neck stand up in excitement and she looked up from the document she’d been reviewing only moments before Dimitri himself walked through the doors. She inhaled sharply, wondering if she’d ever get used to the man’s electrifying, overwhelming presence.

“Good morning, Helen,” he said as he walked through the doors.

Helen stood up immediately, her eyes looking frantically for her notebook and pencil, ready to take notes on whatever he shouted out to her as he passed. “Good morning, Mr. Theopolis. I wasn’t expecting you until Wednesday. How was your flight? Did James make it smooth again?”

Dimitri stopped in front of her desk, the list of things he needed to get done today vanishing as he noted her strained expression. His eyes traveled over her face, the intense, green gaze seeing everything, including the sadness and what he thought might be the remnants of tears. Her skin, which usually had a translucent glow that he constantly wanted to touch and feel to see if she was made of porcelain, was pale, almost chalky. “What’s wrong Helen?” he asked sharply.

Helen smiled more brightly, her heartbeat picking up its already frantic beat as she worried that he’d be able to see the signs of her pity party a little while ago. “Nothing. Why do you ask?”

His lips thinned and he dropped his briefcase to the floor. His eyes traveled over her tweed suit and Helen nervously smoothed the wool down, ensuring that it was covering all the essentials. Assuming he was ready to start business, she looked down at her notes. “I have the Stevens file for you and I’ve made some notes on the contract negotiations. There’s a summary of the two meetings you asked me to conference in to this morning. I also have the budget for the new ships that are under construction and their possible itineraries. They already have cargo booked on them even though they aren’t due to be finished for another six months,” she said, keeping her eyes hidden from him as she listed the activities she’d accomplished this morning.

“Come into my office,” he said and turned on his heel to precede her into the spacious corner room.

Helen quickly picked up her notebook and pen and followed him into his office. She perched on the edge of one of the chairs facing his desk, her pen poised over the paper.

As Dimitri settled behind his desk, he watched Helen’s face, green, intense eyes boring into hers in an effort to understand what was bothering her. “Is your mother okay?”

Helen’s startled blue gaze was captured by his stern, unblinking green one. “Yes. Thank you for asking. She loves the apartment you found for her. I can’t believe how affordable it is. I’m eternally grateful to you for finding that deal. She’s loving the place.”

“Good. Is the house okay? If you’re having any maintenance problems, I want to know about it.”

Helen smiled brightly again. “No. No problems on that front. The house is wonderful and right in my price range. And there are no problems thanks to the home inspector you recommended. He caught any potential problems so they were all fixed prior to the closing date.”

“Then what is wrong?” he demanded. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was leaning against the front of his desk, his eyes watching hers as she tried to evade his too knowing eyes.

“Nothing,” she lied and smoothed the nubby fabric of her skirt further down over her knees. How could he see that something was bothering her? She’d looked in the mirror only moments before he’d entered and nothing had seemed amiss with her appearance.

Dimitri softened his tone and leaned forward slightly. “Helen, if nothing is wrong with your mother and the house is good, then tell me why you were crying. I can fix it for you,” he promised.

Helen’s heart twisted painfully. She looked back at him, then let her gaze wander away. He was so incredibly gorgeous with his thick, black hair and square jaw. His Roman nose was slightly crooked but that only added to the overall impact of strength and intelligence. Add to it the green eyes that could slice a person to bits and the intelligence of a financial genius and there was no way Helen couldn’t have fallen in love with this man.

She sighed and shook her head. “Nothing is wrong.”