Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Mykonos was exactly as she’d remembered it.
Bright, whitewashed buildings seemed to sparkle from the hills over the deep blue Aegean Sea.
Theo’s little hand in hers gave her the strength to step off the plane when she saw Ari Theakis waiting for them.
Christos’s father had never liked her and the situation with Stavros and Christos hadn’t exactly helped.
To be honest, she’d been intimidated by the man from the first moment she’d met him. He carried himself with the kind of arrogance that could only be honed in confidence and self-security. Even confined to a wheelchair, now, he still exuded that arrogance and power.
That utter self-confidence was something she wanted for Theo, and even if she wasn’t still attracted to Christos she would have accepted his offer of marriage in the hopes that living in his presence and the presence of Ari would somehow rub off on Theo and give him that.
“Come on, Mama.”
“Be careful going down the stairs,” she said.
“I’m not a baby,” he reminded her, bounding down the stairs and stopping in front of Ari.
“What are you waiting for?” Christos asked from behind her.
“Your father doesn’t like me.”
“He doesn’t like many people, it’s not personal.”
“You know what I mean,” she said.
Christos put his hand on her shoulder. “You can’t change his mind about the past, but you can influence how he sees you in the future.”
“You think so?”
“Yes. And he will be grateful to you for giving him a grandson.”
She glanced back at Ari in his wheelchair, an attendant close behind him. Theo was standing in front of him, shuffling his feet around and looking a little nervous.
Ava hurried down the stairs to her son’s side but before she reached him, Ari reached out to Theo and pulled him into his arms.
She stopped for a moment, seeing what Christos had meant just moments ago—the intense love this man had for her son. He hugged Theo tightly to him and buried his face in Theo’s thick black hair.
Ava was touched and turned away to give Ari the privacy he needed to deal with his feelings. Christos slipped his arm around her shoulders. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I forgot Ari was human.”
“What did you think he was?”
“Some kind of demigod,” she said, only half in jest.
“He just thinks he is.”
“It’s about time you got here.” The husky voice had them turning back toward Ari and Theo.
“Patera, it’s good to see you, too,” Christos said, dropping his arm and walking over to his father. Theo stepped back from Ari and came to her side. She glanced at the three males, unable to miss the striking resemblance between them.
“Mr. Theakis, it’s good to see you again.”
“Ms. Monroe, I see you are back.”
She tried to smile, but that wasn’t exactly a Welcome to Mykonos. “Yes I am. Theo and I are very excited to be here.”
“It is good that you brought the boy. He needs to learn to be a proper Theakis.”
He turned his wheelchair around before she could respond and headed toward the limo, attendant hurrying in his wake.
Clearly he wasn’t interested in developing any kind of friendship with her.
In the past he’d treated her as a servant…
which, as the nanny for Althea and Venni, she had been.
But she’d hoped…ah, who cared what a cantankerous old man thought.
“Mama, Grandfather said he’s prepared a special room just for me to play in.”
“That will be nice, won’t it?” Ava asked her son, wondering if she was going to find herself, like Nikki Theakis, relegated to the status of an observer in her own child’s life. She shook her head, vowing not to let that happen.
“Yes.” Theo curled his hand around hers, holding it tightly in his grip.
As Christos and his father talked next to the waiting limo, she stooped so she was on Theo’s level. “What’s up?”
“He held me really tight, Mama.”
“He’s just happy to see you.”
“That’s what he said. I’m glad he likes me.”
“Of course he likes you. Everyone likes you.”
“Is everything okay?” Christos asked, striding back from Ari.
“Yes,” she said, standing up.
“Please, come. I have a meeting at the office in a little over an hour. You can ride back to the house with my father.”
“You’re not coming with us?”
“Not right now. I’ll see you both later.”
Ava tried not to feel that she was being abandoned, which was a silly feeling anyway. But she didn’t really know Ari and he didn’t seem to be looking forward to getting to know her better.
Christos lifted Theo in his arms, said something that only the two of them could hear and gave him a hug and kiss. When he set Theo on his feet her son ran over to the limo and climbed into the long black car.
“I’ll see you at dinner.”
She nodded.
He turned to walk away then paused. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I will be. It’s just…”
“What?”
“I don’t have many fond memories of my last glimpse of this airport. It’s like…” She shook her head. She wasn’t going to tell him that everything was coming back to her. The overwhelming anger and fear. She had been so afraid when she’d realized she was pregnant and on her own.
“Everything’s different this time,” Christos said.
“You’re right. I’m being silly. I think I’m tired from all the traveling.”
“I expect you are,” Christos said. “You have my mobile number?”
“Yes.”
“Call me if you need anything,” he said.
“But your meeting…” she said.
“Today I can make time for you. If I’d planned our arrival better I would have saved the day for you and Theo.”
The chaotic feelings from the past started to melt away as she realized that things really were different this time and Christos was going to be by her side.
She’d been alone for so long; it was hard to accept that she wasn’t anymore, especially when what she usually saw of Christos was his back as he walked away.
The room that Ari had prepared for Theo was every child’s dream.
It was actually a suite of three rooms, the sleeping quarters sumptuously painted so that it seemed you were in the middle of the Aegean Sea with the bed a big sailboat in the middle.
The mural on the wall started with the sunrise, continued around the room to the big bay windows that overlooked the lushly landscaped back garden and then, on the other side of the window, night fell and stars filled the sky.
“This room is…”
“Fitting for the Theakis heir,” Ari said from the doorway.
“Yes it is. Thank you for doing so much for my son.”
“I didn’t do it for your son, Ms. Monroe, I did it for my heir.”
“Mr. Theakis…”
He went to the adjacent room before she could say anything else. Damn. She hated the way he kept dismissing her.
She followed him into the playroom, which was almost bigger than her entire little house in Florida. Theo stood in the middle of the room just staring at everything. He couldn’t tell where to start first in his play. Finally he just sat down in the middle of the room and looked up at her.
“Mama? Where’s my Rescue Heroes?”
“I’ll get them.”
“While your mother goes to get those things, let me show you this area, Theo. I had a state-of-the-art plasma-screen TV installed for you. Each morning you will watch your lessons in Greek history and the history of the Theakis family.”
Ava paused in the doorway. “Mr. Theakis, we need to talk before you plan out Theo’s days.”
“I’m not planning his days, Ms. Monroe, I’m teaching him to be a proper Theakis. Unfortunately those lessons are ones he’s been lacking.”
Ava glared at the older man. She wanted to say, Whose fault is that, but couldn’t, not in front of Theo.
“We can discuss this later.”
“Check with my secretary and have him put you on my schedule,” Ari said and left the room.
Ava grabbed a pillow off the couch in front of the TV and threw it against the wall. Theo grabbed one and did the same, laughing. She started laughing with her son, feeling some of the tension ease out of her.
“Do you want to watch Greek lessons?”
He shrugged. “I do want to be a good Theakis.”
“You can’t be anything else. You are a Theakis.”
Theo nodded.
But as the afternoon wore on, she noticed that her son’s playing was different.
Each time he did anything, he’d stop and ask her if it was proper Theakis behavior, which made her crazy.
She left him playing to try to find Ari, but the older man’s secretary told her that Ari was unavailable… for the next few weeks.
She’d vowed to fight Ari, to ensure that she was in charge of Theo’s upbringing, but how could she when he wouldn’t talk to her? She was stymied, unsure how to deal with Christos’s father.
She didn’t have to, she thought. She and Christos shared responsibility for Theo. She’d give it a few days and if Ari didn’t come around, she go to Christos with her concerns.
Christos rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at the clock.
Damn, nine o’clock. Time had slipped away from him as he’d been in meeting after meeting.
The last week had been completely crazy with meetings and catching up.
Theakis Shipping wasn’t an easy conglomerate to run and Christos’s time was at a premium.
He’d called Theo to talk to him before he went to bed but had been unable to get back to the house for dinner.
Theakis Shipping was suffering, thanks to his ignoring it for as long as he had. Everyone seemed to have stopped making decisions when Stavros had died and had been waiting for him to step in. Christos was willing to do just that, but not all in one week.
“We’ll finish this in the morning,” he declared, and the staff nodded and left the conference room. He left the office without glancing back, fighting the urge to get in his Ferrari and drive to the dock where he kept his yacht and then leave Mykonos and Theakis Shipping far behind.
The house was quiet when he entered it. He paused at the landing on the second floor, glancing to the wing on the left where he knew his father had assigned rooms to Theo and Ava. He needed to turn right and go to his quarters.