Four Modern Billionaire Holiday Romances

Chapter One

‘It could have been worse.’

Axel Drakos emitted a sound in response to that somewhere between a snort of disbelief and growl of disgust. He looked at his friend and chief legal advisor, Michalis, where the man sat on the other side of Axel’s massive desk in his office.

Athens baked in a heat shimmer on the other side of the windows, but in the office it was cool. Not cool enough to dampen Axel’s ire though.

Too agitated to stay sitting, he surged up from his chair to his full impressive height of well over six feet.

He glared at his friend and asked sarcastically, ‘Please do tell me how it could possibly have been worse than my fiancée being photographed by paparazzi in the act of snorting a line of cocaine from her lover’s bare torso at a club? ’

Not waiting for a response, Axel strode over to the drinks cabinet on the other side of the room and helped himself to a shot of whiskey, downing it in one go.

Michalis stood up too and joined Axel, helping himself to a bottle of water as Axel refilled his glass.

Michalis pointed out equably, ‘She wasn’t technically your fiancée. You hadn’t made the announcement yet.’

Axel’s wide sensual mouth tightened with displeasure.

‘It was a fact even without the press announcement and photos of her wearing a Drakos heirloom on her finger. Our marriage was all but decreed as soon as she was born and became an eligible match to me. Our two families are the leading dynasties in Greece. All she had to do was maintain a veneer of respectability until we were wed and then we could have had the heirs and she could have snorted her little head off, but she couldn’t even manage that. ’

Axel cursed volubly. ‘She doesn’t even have a sister who could take her place.’

His friend commented dryly, ‘And they say romance is dead.’

Axel glared at him again. ‘There is no such thing as romance.’ The notion was ludicrous. His parents had had an arranged marriage. They’d had their heirs and tolerated each other for the sake of the Drakos name and heritage. Exactly like most people in their milieu. It was how things were done.

Michalis grinned slyly. ‘Your younger brother looked very romantic when he declared his love publicly for his crown princess.’

Axel went very still at the mention of the recent headlines gushing over his long-estranged brother’s romance with a European crown princess, soon to be queen.

A slew of memories and pain and regret hardened into a ball of stone in his gut.

But there was also something more poignant, a mixture of relief and envy for his brother.

Because he seemed to be happy, and thriving.

And that was not something Axel could, or wanted to, expound upon with his friend.

His brother deserved that happiness.

His golden eyes narrowed on his friend. ‘You go too far, Michalis.’

Michalis put down the bottle of water and put up his hands. ‘Fine, fine. Look, Callista was caught in a compromising situation, but if she promises to keep her nose clean—pardon the pun—you can announce your engagement and—’

‘No,’ Axel inserted forcefully. ‘There’s no coming back from this. She’s a liability.’

Michalis looked panicked. ‘But you need a partner for the Baros end of season party here in two weeks. That’s where you were going to debut Callista as your fiancée. You know Baros won’t even give you the time of day if you’re still a lone operator—he’s too conservative and family-oriented.’

Being in a position where he had to curry favour from anyone was highly unpalatable to Axel, but Damian Baros had the diplomatic connections and influence that could help Axel to gain access to vital new technologies coming out of Asia, giving him the edge over every other competitor.

Legend had it that the Drakos name had been mentioned in connection with imports and exports and transporting goods since ancient Greek times. Axel had become CEO some years ago and had been reshaping and re-energising the business after his father had let it become sluggish. Complacent.

This was Axel’s destiny. To grow his family legacy, secure it into the future and make it the world leader in its field. He would have heirs and they would continue to build on the foundations he was laying.

He and his siblings—two younger sisters and his younger brother—had been brought into this world to continue this legacy.

Their parents had seen them as commodities—the girls to be married off strategically and him and Ares to be the heirs to the business.

But once it had become apparent that Ares—who’d had dyslexia—wasn’t going to perform academically, all of the focus had been put on Axel and this had forced an abiding chasm between him and his brother.

Axel’s sense of duty wasn’t just to the thousands of employees who depended on him, it was also to his siblings.

His brother had arguably suffered the most. He’d been kidnapped at the age of ten and their parents hadn’t even wanted to pay the ransom, for fear it could put Axel in danger.

Ares had survived but he’d left and disinherited himself as soon as he could.

If Axel now let Drakos Solutions fail, he’d be failing them too. So he felt the responsibility keenly.

And yet, for the first time in his life, something pierced through the single-mindedness. At the thought of achieving his ambitions, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of…what then?

What would happen when he’d assured the company’s success into the future? And when he’d had his own heirs to protect the legacy? Heirs that he knew it was incumbent on him to produce if he wanted to keep protecting this legacy he was building.

‘Axel?’

Axel blinked, coming out of his little introspective moment. He scowled. He didn’t do introspection. He blamed Michalis for mentioning his brother, but now his friend was gesturing towards the door, where Axel’s assistant was standing. He hadn’t even heard her knocking.

‘The jet is ready and waiting at the airfield.’

Axel’s brain switched out of the weird momentary lapse in his usual focus and he snapped into action, rattling off a list of things he needed Michalis to attend to, while pulling on his jacket and picking up his mobile phone.

He was almost at the door when Michalis said, ‘And what about the fiancée issue?’

Axel stopped and looked back, grim. ‘I’ll deal with it.’

And he would, because he had no doubt he would succeed. He was Axel Drakos. He didn’t fail, in anything. Some called it arrogance—he couldn’t care less. It was fact.

* * *

Hope Smith pulled at the tight pencil skirt again. She was nervous, palms sweaty. It was her first day at her new job as a flight attendant on a private jet owned by some big-shot Greek billionaire dude.

She imagined him to be old and maybe overweight from the spoils of his riches. Balding.

‘Here he comes. Don’t make eye contact. Drakos works on his flights—he doesn’t like to be disturbed unless it’s an emergency. And do not speak to him unless he speaks to you, which is unlikely.’

Hope looked at her boss, the senior flight attendant, George. She added and obnoxious too to her list and said sunnily, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t go near the guy unless expressly instructed by you.’

George said approvingly, ‘That’s exactly the attitude.’

She snuck a look around him to see out of the open door of the aircraft. She saw the heat haze of a hot Athens day and a sleek shining SUV with tinted windows appearing out of the haze arriving at the steps of the even more sleek private jet.

Hope couldn’t help but feel a frisson of anticipation. After all, this was a long way from the flight-attendant work she was used to on crowded budget airlines to holiday destinations. Mind you, she had become pretty proficient at inebriated crowd control.

It didn’t sound as though there’d be much inebriation going on here.

She’d only got this job because one of her friends who’d graduated from the commercial airline world to the private realm had recommended her personally.

And she hated to admit it but she was sort of missing the hustle and bustle of a full flight and having several colleagues to interact with on board.

And then she castigated herself for being so ungrateful.

She needed this job and the welcome increase in wages to save up to buy a house.

The dream of her life. To have her own home.

A rooted existence. And a family. The things she’d never had, because she’d been abandoned on the steps of a hospital as a tiny newborn baby. A foundling.

‘Straighten up.’

Hope resisted the urge to do a salute and stood to attention just to the side and slightly behind George.

She heard a car door close and feet on the steps up to the plane.

Why did she always have an urge to giggle when she was meant to be serious?

She pursed her lips and stared into the middle distance.

The first thing she noticed was the scent. It was warm and spicy and also earthy, with a hint of some kind of exotic heady flower. And then the light in the cabin dimmed because it was being blocked out.

He must be tall. Hope really, really wanted to look but she daredn’t after George’s warning not to make eye contact. After a lifetime of feeling as though she were on the edges of everyone else’s worlds, it was almost second nature to just fade into the background.

‘Good morning, George, how are you?’

His voice was deep and lightly accented and it rumbled right into Hope’s solar plexus, the weirdest sensation. He also sounded relatively young. Not old.

George answered, ‘Very well, sir. We have all the international papers on board and fresh coffee and we’re ready to go.’

‘Thank you.’

He was moving past them now, into the main cabin, and then suddenly he stopped again just in front of Hope. Her eyeline was on his tie. It was a deep rich royal blue. He was wearing a waistcoat. He was really tall.

‘We have a new attendant?’

George sounded nervous all of a sudden. ‘Yes, sir, Sara went on maternity leave so we had to replace her.’