“Ready?” he asked under his breath.

When she nodded with reluctance she heard his sharp intake of breath.

“Maybe this will help.”

He pulled her into his arms and found her mouth with a fierceness she wasn’t prepared for, almost as if he was expecting her to fight him.

Stephanie clung to him, helpless to do anything else, and met the hunger of his kiss with an eagerness she would find embarrassing later. At last he was giving her a tender kiss, hot with desire, the one she’d been denied last night.

The way he was kissing her took her back to that unforgettable night on Grand Turk, when they’d given each other everything with a matchless joy she couldn’t put into words. He pressed her against the doorjamb to get closer. One kiss after the other made her crazy with desire. Stephanie was so in love with Nikos nothing existed for her but to love him and be loved.

The Greek’s Tiny Miracle

Rebecca Winters

www.millsandboon.co.uk

REBECCA WINTERS, whose family of four children has now swelled to include five beautiful grandchildren, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the land of the Rocky Mountains. With canyons and high alpine meadows full of wildflowers, she never runs out of places to explore. They, plus her favourite vacation spots in Europe, often end up as backgrounds for her romance novels, because writing is her passion, along with her family and church.

Rebecca loves to hear from readers. If you wish to e-mail her, please visit her website: www.cleanromances.com.

To my talented daughter Dominique, a writer for Harlequin herself, who has put up with her outrée writer mom and encouraged her through thick and thin. How lucky can I be?

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

EXCERPT

CHAPTER ONE

April 27

EVERY TIME MORE hotel guests entered the beachfront resort restaurant on Grace Bay in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, Stephanie expected to see her black-haired Adonis appear. That was how she thought of Dev Harris.

After their fantastic ninety-foot dive to Elephant Ear Canyon that afternoon to see the huge sponges, the tall, powerfully built New Yorker, who resembled a Greek god, had whispered that he’d meet her in the dining room at eight for dinner. They’d watch the sunset and later, each other.

As he’d helped her out of the dive boat, giving her arm a warm squeeze, his eyes, black as jet, conveyed the words he didn’t speak in front of the others in their scuba diving group. He was living for another night with her like last night.

She’d reluctantly left him to go to the beachfront condo and get ready for dinner. Her silvery-gold hair needed a shampoo. She’d decided to wear it loose from a side part. Time with the blow dryer and a brush brought out the natural curl, causing it to flow across her shoulders.

With the golden tan she’d picked up, tonight she’d chosen to wear a blue sleeveless sundress. She wanted to look beautiful for him. Last night she’d worn a filmy tangerine-colored dress and had bought a shimmering lip gloss to match. He’d told her that, in the dying rays of the sun, she’d look like a piece of golden fruit he longed to devour very slowly and thoroughly.

Her body trembled just remembering those words. While she waited for him to come, the memory of the way he’d made love to her over and over again made it difficult to breathe. It was her first intimate experience with a man, and had happened so naturally she felt as if she was living in a dream, one from which she never wanted to awaken.

In ten days’ time Stephanie had fallen so deeply in love, her whole world had changed. Throughout her dating years she’d had various boyfriends. Just last week she’d gone on a date with a guy named Rob Ferris, who ran an auto parts franchise, but she knew when he took her home after dinner that she really wasn’t interested in a second date.

Then she met Dev. The first time she’d seen him walking toward the boat with the dive master, her breath had caught. When their gazes collided, that was it. The feeling she’d been waiting for all her adult life.

Other relationships with past boyfriends had nothing to do with the profound kind of love she felt for the sophisticated thirty-two year-old bachelor, who’d told her he was in the international exporting business. He blew away every other man in existence.

Her three girlfriends who’d arranged their April vacations to come on this scuba diving trip with her fully agreed he was out-of-this-world gorgeous. Melinda thought he must be one of those frogmen from the military, the way he maneuvered under the water. He was certainly built like one.

Stephanie agreed with her friends, but there was more to Dev than his physical attributes and diving skills. Much more. Everything he said and did revealed that he was well-traveled and educated, making him exceptional, and so charismatic she could hardly breathe when she thought about him.

Where was he? By now it was quarter to nine. Obviously, he’d been held up. The only thing to do was go back to her room and call him on the hotel land line. His beachfront condo, where they’d spent last night, was located on the other side of the restaurant, but she thought she should phone him first.

Stephanie was on her way out when a waiter came toward her with a florist box in his hands. “Ms. Walsh? This is for you, with Mr. Harris’s compliments.”

Thrilled to have received it, she went back to the table to take off the lid. He was probably on his way to her now. Inside the tissue was a corsage of gardenias with a card.

Thank you for the most memorable ten days and nights of my life, Stephanie. Your sweetness is like these gardenias and I’ll never forget you. Unfortunately, I’ve had to leave the island because of an emergency at my work that couldn’t be handled by anyone else. Enjoy the rest of your trip and be safe flying back to Crystal River. I miss you already. Dev.

Stephanie sat there and felt the blood drain from her face.

Her spring idyll was over.

He’d already driven to the airport to catch his flight to New York. Of course he hadn’t left her a phone number or address, nor had he asked her for the same information. On purpose he hadn’t given her a shred of hope that they’d ever see each other again.

She had to be the biggest fool who’d ever lived.

No, there was one other person she knew who shared that honor. Her mother, who’d died from cancer after Stephanie had graduated from college. Twenty-four years ago Ruth Walsh had made the same mistake with an irresistible man. But whoever he was hadn’t stuck around once the fun was over, either. Stephanie didn’t know his name and had no memories of him, only that her mother had said he was good-looking, exciting and an excellent skier.

He and Dev were two of a kind.

Stephanie closed her eyes tightly. How many females went off on vacation and supposedly met their soul mate, who swept them off their feet, only to abandon them once the excitement wore off? It had to be in the hundreds of thousands, if not the millions. Stephanie, like her mother, was one of those pathetic statistics who’d gotten caught up in the rapture.

White-hot with anger for being in her mid-twenties before learning the lesson she should have had memorized early in life, because of her birth father, Stephanie shot out of the chair. As she passed the waiter, she gave him a couple dollars and told him to get rid of the things she’d left on the table.

Stephanie didn’t know about her friends, but she couldn’t possibly stay on the island for the last four days of their trip. Tomorrow morning she’d be on the first plane back to Florida. If a man was too good to be true, then shame on the woman who believed she was the first female to beat the odds.

Dev was so attractive there had to be trails of broken-hearted females around the scuba diving world who knew exactly what it was like to lie in his arms and experience paradise, only to wake up and discover he’d moved on.

He’d told her that scuba diving was his favorite form of recreation. What he hadn’t mentioned was that womanizing went hand in hand with his favorite pastime. It was humiliating to think she was one of those imbeciles who didn’t have the sense to take one look at him and run far away as fast as possible.

Too furious for tears, she returned to the condo, thankful her roommates were still out. They’d probably gone into town to party with some of the other tourists staying at the resort. That gave Stephanie time to change her flight reservation and pack without them asking a lot of questions.

By tomorrow afternoon she’d be back on the job. Stephanie loved her work. Right now she was planning on it saving her life.

If she let herself think about those long walks with Dev, past the palms and Casuarina trees while they were entwined in each other’s arms, she’d go mad.

July 13

“Captain Vassalos?”

Nikos had just finished putting on the jacket of his uniform—the last time he would wear it. Steadying himself with his crutches, he looked around in time to see Vice Admiral Eugenio Prokopios of the Aegean Sea Naval Command in Piraeus, Greece, enter his hospital room and shut the door. The seasoned Greek naval hero was an old friend of his father and grandfather.

“This is an honor, sir.”

“Your parents are outside waiting for you. I told them I wanted to come in first to see you. After your last mission, we can be thankful the injury to your spine didn’t paralyze you, after all.”

Thankful?

Nikos cringed. His last covert operation with Special Forces had wiped out the target, but his best friend, Kon, had been killed. As for Nikos, his doctor told him he would never be the man he once was. His spine ought to heal in time, but he’d never be 100 percent again, and couldn’t stay in the Greek military as a SEAL, not when he would probably suffer episodes of PTSD for a long time, maybe even years.

He’d been getting counseling and was taking a serotonin reuptake inhibitor to help him feel less worried and sad, but he’d had several nightmares. They left him feeling out of control and depressed.

“Now that you’re being released from the hospital this morning, it won’t be long before you won’t need those crutches.”

Nikos hated the sight of them. “I’m planning on getting rid of them as soon as possible.”

“But not until you’ve had a good long rest after your ordeal.”

“A good long rest” was code for one reality. The part of his life that had brought challenge and purpose was finished. Only blackness remained.

“I don’t expect it to take that much time, sir.”

After a two and a half months’ hospitalization, Nikos knew exactly why the vice admiral had shown up. This was his father’s work. He’d been thwarted when Nikos had joined the military, and expected his son to return to the family business. Now that he was incapacitated, his father had sent his good friend Eugenio to wish him well with a pep talk about getting back in the family fold.

The older man eyed him solemnly. “Our navy is grateful for the heroic service you’ve rendered in Special Forces. You’re a credit to your family and our country. Your father is anxious for you to resume your place with your brother at the head of Vassalos Shipping so he can retire.”

His father would never retire.

Vice Admiral Prokopios had just let Nikos know—in the kindest way, of course—that though his military service was over, the family business was waiting to embrace him again. Of course, the older man knew nothing about Nikos’s history with his father, or he would never have said what he did.

Until after Nikos was born and turned out to be a Vassalos, after all, his father hadn’t believed he was his son, all because of a rumor that turned out to have no substance. The experience had turned him into a bitter, intransigent man. The damage inflicted on the Vassalos marriage carried over to the children, and had blighted Nikos’s life.

The navy turned out to be his escape from an impossible situation. But ten years later it was back in triplicate.

He was thirty-two years of age, and everything was over.

Sorrow weighed him down at the loss of Kon Gregerov. Nikos’s best friend from childhood, who’d come from a wonderful family on nearby Oinoussa Island, had joined the navy with him. The man had been like a brother, and had helped keep Nikos sane and grounded during those tumultuous years while he fought against his father’s domination, among other things.

He and Kon had plans to go into their own business together once they’d retired from the military, but his friend had been blown up in the explosion that almost killed Nikos.

It should have been me.

“I’m sorry you were forced to leave Providenciales unexpectedly to perform your last covert operation. So when you’re ready, we’ll send you back there for more rest and relaxation.”

Nikos’s stomach muscles clenched at the mere mention of Providenciales. That experience had been like a fantastic dream, one he’d relived over and over on those nights in the hospital when he wasn’t suffering flashbacks. To go back there again without her would kill him. After what had happened to him, there could be no Stephanie Walsh in his life. He was going in another direction entirely.

“Nikos?” the vice admiral prodded.

“Thank you for the kind offer, but I’d rather recuperate at home.”

“If that’s your wish.”

“It is.”

“Then I’ll say goodbye for now. Be assured I’m mighty proud of you. Good luck.”

They saluted before he left the room. Moments later one of the hospital staff entered with a wheelchair. As Nikos sat down, his parents swept into the room. They’d been constant visitors, but they hovered until he felt he would choke.

“Darling!” his mother exclaimed, and hugged him before carrying his crutches for him. “You look wonderful despite your weight loss. Once we get you home, we’ll fatten you up in no time. Your grandparents are elated and your sister and Timon have already arrived with the children to welcome you back.”

“This is a great day, son.” His exultant father embraced him before reaching for his luggage. “Leon’s eager to talk business with you.”

Nikos had no intention of working in the family business like his elder brother, and his father knew it. But his dad never let up about anything, and it had driven a wedge between them that couldn’t be breached. However, now wasn’t the time to get into it. The three of them moved out of the room and down the corridor.

“How did it go with Eugenio?”

As if his father didn’t know. “Fine.”

They emerged from the main doors of the hospital under a blue sky. Once they were settled inside the limousine, his father said, “We’ve been waiting for this day. So has Natasa. She and her parents will be joining us tomorrow evening for a small party.”

Nikos’s anger flared. “Then uninvite them. You might as well know that after tonight, I’ll be living on the Diomedes while I get my strength back.” He was sick of visitors and hospital staff. He needed to be completely alone and didn’t want anyone to know his activities. His boat would be his refuge from now on.

“You can’t do that to us or to her!” his father thundered. “You’ve put this situation with Natasa on hold for long enough. A marriage between the two of you has been understood for years. She’s expecting it now that you’re home for good. Your mother and I want you to give us grandchildren. We’ve waited long enough.”

Their families had been best friends for years. His sister, Gia, and Natasa Lander had always been close. It had been an impossible situation he’d been happy to get out of when he’d joined the military.

“Then that’s a pity, because I never made love to her or asked her to marry me. She should have moved on years ago.” She was attractive enough and would have made a good wife and mother, but he’d never been on fire for her. Thank heaven he hadn’t made the mistake of sleeping with her. After meeting Stephanie, the thought of Natasa or any another woman was anathema to him. “Now that I’m out of the hospital, I need to go my own way.”

“But that’s absurd! She’s in love with you.”

“It’s a moot point, since I’m not in love with her and never have been. Any hope you had for me marrying her is out of the question. I’m deadly serious about this.”

His father’s cheeks grew ruddy with emotion. “You don’t know what you’re saying!”

“But I do. Natasa is a lovely person, but not the one for me.” Unless she had an agenda of her own, there was something wrong with her for waiting around for him this long. “At this point I’m afraid a marriage between the two of us is only a figment of your and her parents’ imagination.”

“How dare you say that!” his father muttered furiously.

“How dare you?” Nikos retorted back. “You’ll be doing her a favor if you tell her and her family that I’m not well enough to see anyone now. Hopefully, they’ll finally get the point! Don’t turn this into a nightmare for me or you’ll wish you hadn’t!”

Nikos had suffered too many of them since the fishing vessel with all the surveillance equipment, along with Kon, had been blown out of the water by the enemy. If Nikos hadn’t happened to be over the side, checking the hull for damage because of a run earlier in the day, he wouldn’t still be alive.

As it was, he’d been found unconscious in the water. The doctors at the hospital hadn’t given him a chance of walking again due to the damage to his lower spine, but they’d been proved wrong. He’d come out of it with deep bruising and reduced mobility. No one could say how much he would heal with time.

“We can discuss this later,” his mother said, always anxious to mollify his father. For as long as Nikos could remember, she’d tried to keep peace between them. Though he loved her for it, the ugly history with his father had dictated that certain things would never change....

“There’s nothing to discuss.”

His military career was over. Life as he’d known it was over. Nikos was living for the moment when he could be away from everyone. Both his parents crowded him until he felt stifled, but he knew he had to endure this until tomorrow morning.

He’d already made arrangements with Yannis, who would come to the house and drive him to the marina in Nikos’s car. Once on board the Diomedes, he intended to stay put. Drinking himself to death sounded better and better.

Silence invaded the vehicle until they reached the small airport in Athens. Nikos took a fortifying breath as he stepped out and reached for his crutches to board his father’s private jet. The steward knew him well and nodded to him. “Welcome home, Nikos.”

“Thank you, Jeno.”

“Are you hungry?”

“No.”

“Some tea?”

“How about a beer?”

The other man smiled. “Coming right up.”

Nikos found a seat in the club compartment with his parents, who for once had gone quiet. He put the crutches on the floor and fastened himself in. It was a short forty-minute flight across the Aegean to Chios. From there they’d take the helicopter to Vassalos Shipping on Egnoussa, where they’d land and drive home.

He stared blindly out the window until fatigue took over, causing him to lounge back in the seat and close his eyes. The mention of marriage had triggered thoughts of a certain female in another part of the world he’d had to leave two and half months ago—so abruptly he still hadn’t recovered from the pain.

Stephanie Walsh would have received the gardenias with his note. It would have sent a dagger straight to her heart. Nikos knew how it felt, because when he’d had his farewell gift delivered to the restaurant, he’d experienced gut-wrenching pain over what he’d been forced to do.

His hand formed a fist, because there hadn’t been a damn thing he’d been able to do to comfort her at the time. As a navy SEAL, everything about his life was classified. Since then his whole world had been turned upside down, ensuring he would never seek her out again.

From the second he’d first met the beautiful American woman on the beach, her appeal had been so strong he couldn’t find the strength to stay away from her. Knowing his leave was for only two weeks, he hadn’t intended to get involved with her. Because he’d be returning shortly to join his unit, there could be no future in it.

Every day he kept telling himself he’d go to another resort on the island to keep his distance, but every day he grew more enamored of her. The night with her before he’d received orders to return to Greece should never have happened.

He loathed himself for allowing things to get that far, but she’d been like a fever in his blood. Intoxicated by her beauty, by everything about her, he’d given in to his desires, and she’d been right there with him. Her loving response had overwhelmed him, setting him on fire.

There’d been other women in his life, but never again would he know a night of passion like that. What he and Stephanie had shared for those ten precious days had been unbelievable. His longing for her was still so real he could taste it.

When he’d awakened on their last morning together, they’d been tangled up in each other’s arms. She’d looked at him with those sapphire eyes, willing him to love her, and he’d wanted to stay in that bed with her forever. After their dive that afternoon, it had shredded him to walk away from her and board the jet for the flight to Athens, but he’d had his orders. He couldn’t imagine a world that didn’t include her.

After meeting up with Kon for their next covert operation, Nikos had confided his deepest feelings, telling him that after this last mission was completed, he planned to resign his commission and marry her. But just three days after that, the enemy had struck, and his best friend was dead. Nikos was no longer a whole man. Stephanie could be only a memory to him now.

En route to the Caribbean he’d never dreamed he would meet the woman who would leave her mark on him. His mind went over the conversation he’d just had with his father.

You don’t know what you’re saying!

But I do. Natasa is a lovely person, but there’s something wrong with a woman who waits around for a man who’s never been interested in her romantically. I’m afraid a marriage between the two of us is out of the question.

Nikos had met the ideal woman meant for him, but she would have to remain in his dreams. If Kon were still alive he’d say, “Get in touch with her and tell her the truth about your condition. You trusted her enough to spend every living moment with her. It might ease the pain for both of you if she knew who you really were, and what happened to you.”

A groan escaped Nikos’s throat. With his spinal injury, he wasn’t the same man she’d met. Part of the collateral damage had rendered him sterile. He’d never be able to give a woman a child from his own body. Nikos lived in a dark world now. He looked and felt like hell. No woman would want a man whose flashbacks could make him dangerous to himself and others. Stephanie would only hate him for lying to her. For using her for pleasure, then dumping her without explanation.

“Nikos?”

His eyes flew open. “Jeno?”

The steward looked at him with compassion. “Are you feeling ill? Can I get you anything?”

He shook his head. He’d come to a dead end. The woman he loved and desired was permanently beyond his reach now.

“We’re getting ready to descend.”

“Thank you.”

He fastened his seat belt. Jeno was right about one thing: Nikos did feel ill. The meeting with the vice admiral was like the first handful of dirt thrown on top of the coffin. He saw the life he’d once known vanish into the void, leaving him to travel through a tunnel of blackness that had no end....

July 26

Stephanie was going to be a mother.

She ran a hand over her stomach, which had grown fuller, making it harder to fasten the top two buttons of her jeans. It still seemed unbelievable that she was carrying Dev’s child. When she’d missed her period last month it hadn’t alarmed her, because she’d always been irregular. In college she’d gone six months without a period.

But over the last three weeks she’d felt weak and nauseated. In her depressed state she’d lost her appetite and thought she had a flu bug. But it didn’t go away and then she started noticing other changes to her body. It all added up to one thing, and the home pregnancy test yesterday had turned out positive, shocking the daylights out of her.

The trip to Dr. Sanders today had confirmed that she was three months along with Dev’s baby. Incredible. Her OB had ordered pills for her nausea, plus iron and prenatal vitamins to build her up.

If she caught up to Dev, would he want to know he was going to be a father?

Deep down, she’d been waiting for him to contact her. He knew she worked for Crystal River Water Tours. It would have been easy enough for him to call and leave a message. But that hadn’t happened. He hadn’t planned on ever seeing or talking to her again.

Yet she felt certain the man she’d fallen in love with would have wanted to hear the truth about his own baby. But it seemed that man didn’t exist. If she were able to find him, would he still tell her he wanted nothing to do with her or the baby, once he found out?

For the next twelve hours she agonized about what to do, vacillating over the decision she needed to make. By morning, one thing overshadowed every consideration. She knew her child would want to know its father. It would be the most important thing in her baby’s life.

Stephanie knew all about that, having always longed to meet her birth father and know his name. It took two to make a child, and it was up to her to inform Dev if it was at all possible. What he did with the information was up to him.

But her hand hesitated before she reached for the phone to begin her inquiries at the resort. The two people she knew there might wonder why she needed information. They’d probably deduce she was some obsessed girlfriend.

How humiliating would it be to confide the truth about the baby to them? She just couldn’t. But maybe it would work if she explained she’d been worrying about him ever since he’d disappeared, the very night they were going to have dinner together. She felt certain he’d been ill, thus the reason for his swift departure. Did they know any way she might get in touch with him, just to see if he was all right?

With her hand shaking, she called the number on the brochure she’d kept, and waited.

“Dive shop. This is Angelo.”

She gripped the cell phone tighter. “Hello, Angelo. I’m glad it’s you. I tried to reach you earlier, but you were out. This is Stephanie Walsh. You probably don’t remember me. I was there almost three months ago.”

“Stephanie? I always remember the pretty girls, you especially.”

Her heart beat too fast. “You just made my day.”

He laughed. “You had a good time on vacation?”

“Wonderful, thanks to you.” The best of my whole life until the box of gardenias was brought to the table.

“That’s good. How can I help you?”

“I’m trying to reach Dev Harris, the scuba diver from New York I partnered with that first week. Do you have a phone number or an email for him? Anything at all to help me? He left so suddenly, I’ve worried over the last few months that he might have been taken ill. I have pictures I’d like to send him via email.”

“Let me check. Don’t hang up.”

“No. I won’t.”

She paced the bedroom of her condo while she waited. There were a lot of Devlin, Devlon or Devlan Harrises listed in New York City, but none she could reach was the man she was trying to find.

When she’d first gotten back to Florida, anger had driven her to phone New York information, but there was no such name listed for him. She’d spent several days phoning exporting companies where he might be working, but she’d turned up nothing.

After exhausting that avenue, she’d called various airlines that had landed planes on the island April 18, but got no help. The resort could tell her only what she already knew, that he was from New York. That was when she’d given up. But her pregnancy had changed everything.

“Stephanie? I’m back. Sorry, but there is no address or phone number. Perhaps one of the shops you visited would know something.”

She bit her lip in disappointment. “We didn’t do any shopping, but he did have some flowers delivered to me. Would they have come from the resort?”

“No, no. The Plant Shop in town. Just a minute and I’ll give you the number.” She held her breath while she waited. “Yes. Here it is.”

Stephanie wrote it down. “You live up to your name, Angelo. Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome. Good luck finding him.”

After hanging up, she placed the call. Stephanie had once told him she loved gardenias. Tears stung her eyes. She had to admit his parting gift had been done with a certain style, while at the same time destroying her dreams. If there were no results, then the baby she was carrying would never know its father.

“The Plant Shop.”

“Hello. My name is Stephanie Walsh. I’m calling from Florida. On April 27 a box of gardenias from your shop was delivered to me at the Palm Resort. I never did get to thank the gentleman who sent it to me. He left before I realized he’d gone. His name was Dev Harris. Could you give me an address or a phone number, please? He’s from New York City. That’s all I know.”

It was a long shot, but she was desperate.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t give out that information.”

“Can you at least tell me what time he left the order?”

“Just a moment and I’ll check.” After a minute, the salesclerk returned. “It was phoned in at 5:00 p.m.”

“Thank you for your help.”

After she hung up, one more idea flitted through her mind. She called the resort again and asked if she could speak to Delia, the darling girl who’d been the maid for their rooms. Could Delia call Stephanie back collect, please? It was very important.

The front desk said they’d give her the message. Within a half hour, Stephanie’s phone rang and it was the resort calling. Delia was on the other end.

“Hello, Stephanie.”

“Oh, Delia. Thanks so much for calling me back.”

“Of course. How is the handsome Dev?”

I wish I knew. “Actually, I’m not sure. I’m really worried about him. That’s why I’ve phoned you. I’m thinking he must have left the island early because he was ill and didn’t want me to know or worry. I thought I would have heard from him by now, and need your help to find him if it’s at all possible.”

“Tell you what. My boyfriend works at the airport servicing the planes before takeoff. I’ll ask him to find out what planes took off on April 27 after five in the evening. Perhaps he’ll learn something that can help you.”

“I’ll make this worth your while, Delia.”

“I would like to do this for you. I never saw two people more in love.”

Tears scalded Stephanie’s eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I just hope he isn’t fatally ill.”

“I don’t blame you for being upset.”

Whether Delia believed her excuse for calling or not, Stephanie couldn’t worry about that now.

Two hours later her phone rang again. “Stephanie? He couldn’t get you names, but there were three flights out that evening, if this helps. One was a nonstop flight to Los Angeles, California, another nonstop to Vancouver, British Columbia. The last was a private jet owned by the Vassalos Corporation, headed for Athens, Greece.”

She blinked.

None of the planes had headed due north to New York. Her spirits plunged. If he’d been called back to his work on an emergency, surely he would have taken a direct flight to New York. There were dozens of them leaving the Caribbean for that destination.

“You’re an angel for being willing to help me, Delia. Expect a thank-you in the mail for you and your boyfriend from me.”

Stephanie rang off, shaking with the knowledge that Dev had lied to her without compunction. Who are you, mystery man? Had he pulled a fictitious name out of a hat on the spur of the moment? Was Dev a nickname?

One thing she was convinced of at this point: he was no New Yorker. And he’d been in an enormous hurry when he’d left Providenciales. Thousands of businessmen traveled by private jet. Certainly if he’d needed to leave before they’d even had dinner, it would make sense he had his own special mode of transportation waiting. No long lines...

Before she did anything else, she went to her computer in the den of the condo she’d inherited from her mother, to make a global search of the name Vassalos in Greece. One source came up more prominent than all the rest and drew her attention. Vassalos Maritime Shipping, Egnoussa, Greece.

Shipping...

After more searches she discovered the Oinousses, a group of small islands in the eastern Aegean Sea near Turkey. Egnoussa, the largest inhabited one, was fourteen kilometers long. One of Greece’s most important naval academies was based there, due to the rich seafaring history of the islands. A smaller island, Oinoussa, was also inhabited.

Reading further, she learned Egnoussa was home to some of the richest shipping magnate families in the world. There were only four hundred or so inhabitants, with some fabulous mansions. A naval commercial academy and museum were located on one part of the island.

She replayed the memories of Dev in her mind. His urbane sophistication and knowledge set him apart from other men she’d known. He’d possessed a natural authority and spoke impeccable English. But when she thought about it, she realized he hadn’t sounded like a New Yorker.

Had he come from a Greek island? If so, he would naturally be at home in the water.

He’d told her he worked for an international exporting company in New York. Did that company have an outlet in Greece? Did Dev work for it? Exporting could translate to mean shipping, couldn’t it? In her mind it wasn’t a far stretch to see where he might have come up with his lie.

What if Egnoussa was his home? Was he from that Vassalos family, with the kind of wealth that had opened every door for him? Maybe this was a stab in the dark, but the more she thought about him, the more the shoe seemed to fit. The cliché about looking like a Greek god fit him like a second skin.

She could phone the shipping company and ask questions. But since he obviously didn’t want to be found, if he was there or got wind that she was trying to reach him, she might never get answers. Scrolling down farther, she found more information.

After a short flight from Athens to the island of Chios, an hour’s boat ride takes you to Egnoussa Island. There’s one hotel with only twelve rooms, one taxi. You can walk Egnoussa in a day.

Her mind reeled with ideas. She could take some pictures of him with her and show them to someone at the shipping office. Stephanie would know immediately if that person recognized him. Maybe she was a fool, but for her baby’s sake she had to try to find him, and would use some of her savings to get there.

Stephanie called the doctor to make certain it was okay to fly. He told her she’d be all right for twenty-eight weeks. After that, she’d need to check with him about it. Since Greece didn’t require immunizations for visitors from the United States, she’d be all right.

Luckily, she already had a passport. When she and her friends had decided to vacation together, they’d applied for passports in case they decided on a vacation along the French or Italian Riviera. But in the end, the Caribbean had won out.

If she traveled to Greece and it turned out to be a fruitless mission, then so be it. Whatever happened, the sooner she went, the better for her state of mind. Unlike her mother, who didn’t attempt to tell her lover he was a father, at least Stephanie could explain to her child that she’d done everything humanly possible to locate the man who’d called himself Dev Harris.

Life was going to be difficult enough from here on out. She would have to discuss her condition with her boss. If he could give her a front desk job until after the baby was born, she’d be thankful and grateful. But if not, she’d need to start looking for another kind of job after she got back from Greece. Besides finishing paying off the mortgage, she needed to earn enough money to provide for herself and the baby.

CHAPTER TWO

July 28

NIKOS HAD BEEN out on the Diomedes for two weeks, but this afternoon he’d docked at the marina in Egnoussa. As soon as he replenished his food supply, he’d be leaving again. To his chagrin, he still needed support to move around, but had traded in his crutches for a cane. He used it only when he was exceptionally tired.

His right-hand man, Yannis, a seaman who’d worked for the family for over forty years, had just finished tying the ropes when Nikos’s silver-haired father approached them.

“Where have you been, Nikos?”

“Where I’ve been every day and night since I was released from the hospital, exercising and swimming off shore.” Battling his PTSD.

Despite taking medication, he’d had two violent episodes flashing back to the explosion. According to his doctor, with the passage of time they’d start to slow down, but it might take months or even years. For the time being Nikos had made the small custom-built yacht his home, where no one except Yannis could be witness.

What his family didn’t know was that some of his time had been spent with Kon’s grieving parents. He’d also had long talks with Kon’s married brother, Tassos, about many things. He was only a year older than Nikos and lived on Oinoussa, an island close to Egnoussa. Before Kon’s death the three of them had been close.

Tassos had gone into oil engineering and had recently returned after working on an oil rig in the southern Aegean. He had a brilliant head on his shoulders. He and Nikos had been talking a lot about Greece’s financial crisis and the direction of the country. For the time being Nikos mostly listened to Tassos, but he could scarcely concentrate while he felt half-alive.

“I’ve been phoning you for the last hour! Why didn’t you answer?” His father had to be upset to have come down to the dock.

“I was doing some shopping with Yannis, who’s bringing things on board from the car. What’s wrong?” His father looked flustered.

“You have a visitor.”

“If you mean Natasa, you’re wasting your time.”

“No. Someone else.”

“I can’t imagine who could be so important it would send you here.” Since returning home from the hospital, Nikos had stayed in touch with his family by phone, but he’d seen no one except Kon’s family and Yannis.

His father’s eyes, dark like his own, studied him speculatively. “Does this woman look familiar to you?”

He reached in his pocket and pulled out two snapshots. One showed Nikos and Stephanie in the dive boat. They’d just removed their gear and were smiling at each other. His breath caught at how beautiful she was. Angelo had taken the picture.

The other photo showed them on the beach with their arms around each other, right after the sun had set. In that sundress she’d looked like a piece of golden fruit. In fact that’s what he’d told her, among other things. The girl Delia, in housekeeping, had taken their picture.

“I take it she’s the woman who has erased thoughts of Natasa from your mind.”

Nikos could hear his father talking, but at the sight of Stephanie in those photos, he reeled so violently he almost fell off the pier into the water. She was here on the island? But that was impossible! There was no way on earth she could have found him.

“You were careless to allow yourself to be photographed in the Caribbean while you were still in active service. What is she to you, Nikos? Answer me.”

He couldn’t. He was still trying to grasp the fact that she’d flown to Greece and known exactly where to come.

“After looking at these pictures,” his father continued, “I’ve decided you’re in much deeper than I thought. Her beauty goes without saying, and she has a breathless innocence that could fool any man. Even you, my son.”

Nikos closed his eyes tightly.

“You’ve never looked at Natasa or any woman the way you’re looking at this female viper. I admit she’s devilishly ravishing in that American way, but she’s a mercenary viper nonetheless, one who knows your monetary worth and has come to trap you.

“Surely after what happened to Kon years ago, you realize that getting involved with a foreign woman on vacation in those surroundings can only mean one thing. Don’t let her get you any more ensnared. I know you well enough that if she’s pregnant, it’s someone else’s.”

His father’s words twisted the knife deeper. The mention of Kon’s tragedy brought back remembered pain. Was history repeating itself with Nikos? This just wasn’t possible! No one in the Caribbean knew Nikos or anything about him. No one.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you mean she simply walked into the building?”

“Like she knew the place, according to Ari,” his father explained. “After arriving in the taxi, she approached him at the front desk and asked to speak to Mr. Vassalos. When she showed Ari the pictures, he phoned me at home. I told him to have her taken into my office, where she’s waiting for word of you.”

Nikos still couldn’t believe it. For a number of reasons this seemed completely out of character for Stephanie. He could have sworn she was the one woman in his life who gave everything without wanting anything back. While he’d been diving with her, he’d trusted her with his life, and she him. Or so he’d thought. To have been so wrong about her gutted him in an agonizing way.

“Have you made a commitment to her?”

They’d made love all night, transforming his world.

“Though it’s none of your business, the answer is no,” he muttered in a gravelly voice, poleaxed by this revelation. Not then, and since the explosion that had blown his dreams to hell, most definitely not now...

After receiving the gardenias, the Stephanie he thought he’d known would never have come searching for him. She would have understood the gesture meant goodbye, but apparently that hadn’t deterred her from what she wanted.

How had she found him? Was it his money she was after? He’d taken precautions, ruling out pregnancy as a factor. But as his father had said, she could be pregnant by someone else. The very accusation he’d turned on Nikos’s mother, ruining their lives. The notion that Stephanie had been after Nikos for his money made him feel ill.

“It’s little wonder you’ve displayed such indifference to Natasa. What do you intend to do?”

Just when Nikos thought life couldn’t get worse, it had.

He stared at his father. “Nothing.” He handed him back the photos. “Give Ari instructions to tell her I’m out of the country and won’t be back.”

“No personal message?”

“None.” He bit out the word.

A gleam of satisfaction entered his father’s eyes. His parent still had this sick fantasy about Nikos and Natasa. “I’ll take care of it.”

* * *

Stephanie sat in the chair, actually stunned that her intuition had paid off. The second she’d shown the photographs to the man in reception, she’d seen the way his eyes had flared in surprise.

The next thing she knew, he’d made a phone call and said something in Greek she couldn’t understand. Before long he’d escorted her to an office down the hall filled with pictures of ships of all kinds, almost like a museum of navigational history. The man told her they were trying to locate Kyrie Vassalos.

Until that moment she’d believed this trip had been in vain, and that something might be wrong with her mentally to have gone this far to trace a man who didn’t want to be found. But a voice inside said he still had the God-given right to know a child of his was on the way.

She’d been waiting close to an hour already. But the longer she waited, the more she expected to be told he wasn’t available. If so, she would leave Egnoussa and not look back. He was a member of the Vassalos family. That was all her child needed to know.

One day years from now, it was possible Dev—or whatever he called himself—would be confronted by his son or daughter. That would all depend on whether or not her child was like Stephanie, and wanted to meet the man who’d given him or her life. Some children didn’t want to know.

No matter; Stephanie planned to be the best mother in the world. She loved this baby growing inside her with all her heart and soul, and would do everything possible to give it the full, wonderful life it deserved.

After another ten minutes had passed, she couldn’t sit there any longer, and decided to tell the man in reception that she would come back. The weather was beautiful, with a temperature in the mid-eighties. The island was so tiny she could walk around the port and then return. The doctor had told her mild exercise like walking would do her good and help bring her out of her depression.

As she got up to leave, the man who’d been at the desk walked into the room. “Ms. Walsh? I’m sorry I took so long. It seems Kyrie Vassalos is out of the country and won’t be back in the foreseeable future. I’m sorry.” He gave her back the snapshots.

So, it was just as Stephanie had thought. She would have handed him one of her business cards from Crystal River Water Tours, where she took tourists and groups on swimming tours. But at the last second she thought better of it. For their unborn child’s sake, she hoped Dev would be curious enough to find her on his own.

“Thank you for your time.”

“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile.

After putting the pictures in her purse, she left the office and walked down the hallway to the entrance of the building. If she hurried, she’d be in time to make the next boat going back to Chios. Her trip hadn’t been wasted. She’d done her duty for her child. That was all that really mattered.

She made her way through picturesque winding streets paved with slabs. En route she passed mansions and villas with tiled roofs built in the Aegean island architectural style. Dev lived in one of those mansions, but she feared she’d never see the home where he’d grown up, and they’d never share anything again.

Stephanie kept going until she arrived at the landing area, where she sat on a bench and raised her face to the sun. This island was its own paradise. Evidently the lure of scuba diving had caused Dev to leave it. Being born here, he would have been a water baby, which explained his natural prowess above and below the surface.

Was he a true playboy? Or maybe a hardworking shipping tycoon who took his pleasure on occasion where he could find it around the world, as in the Caribbean? She knew nothing about him. He might even have a wife and children.

Stephanie shuddered to think she could have been with a married man. If that were the case, she would never forgive herself for sleeping with someone else’s husband. If he had a wife, it could only hurt her to see Stephanie’s business card. She was glad she hadn’t left it.

Face it. You took a huge risk being with him at all.

Disturbed by her thoughts, she reached in her purse for some food to help abate her nausea. She ate a sandwich and drank some bottled water she’d brought with her. The doctor told her she needed to eat regularly, to maintain her health. For once she was hungry, probably because she finally knew Dev Harris was a Vassalos and could be reached here.

After finishing her sandwich, she pulled out a small bag of grapes she’d purchased in a fruit market. On impulse she offered to share them with an older woman who’d just sat down by her.

The woman smiled and took a few. “Thank you,” she said in heavily accented English.

“Please take more if you like.”

She nodded. “You are a tourist?”

“No. I came to visit someone, but he wasn’t here.”

“Ah. I wait for a friend.”

“Do you live here?”

“Yes.”

Stephanie’s pulse raced. “Do you know the Vassalos family?”

“Who doesn’t! That’s one of their boats.” She pointed to a beautiful white boat, probably forty-five to fifty feet long, docked in the marina. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s their son I came to see.”

“They have two sons. One works here. The other I never see. He’s always away.”

Did that mean he was always doing family business elsewhere?

Unable to sit there after that news, Stephanie got to her feet. Maybe all wasn’t lost yet. “It’s been very nice talking to you. Keep the grapes. I think I’ll take a walk until the boat gets here.”

Without wasting another second, she headed in the direction of the moored craft. Maybe one of the crew would tell her where she could reach Dev. She’d come this far....

Closer now, she realized it was a small state-of-the-art recreational yacht, the luxurious kind she occasionally spotted in Florida waters, but she saw no one around. After walking alongside, she called out, “Hello? Is anyone here?” But there was no answer.

Upon further inspection she took in the outdoor lounge with recliners and a sun bed. Beyond it was the transom, with water skis, a rope and scuba gear. The sight of the equipment brought back piercingly sweet pain.

She stepped closer and called out again. Still no answer. Since the boat that would take her back to Chios wasn’t in sight yet, she decided to wait a few more minutes for someone to come.

Praying she wouldn’t get caught, she sat down facing the open sea and hooked her arms around her upraised knees. Before long she spotted the boat in the distance, headed toward the harbor.

Time to go.

Her spirits reached rock bottom because she’d come to the end of her journey. With her head down, she retraced her steps along the pier. “Oh—” Stephanie cried out in surprise as a hard male body collided with hers. She felt a strong pair of hands catch her by the upper arms to prevent her from falling.

Through the wispy cotton of her white blouson top the grip felt familiar. But when she lifted her head, nothing was familiar about the narrowed pair of glittering black eyes staring into hers as if she were an alien being.

“Dev—”

It was him, but he was so changed and forbidding, she couldn’t comprehend it. He released her as if she’d scorched him, and kept walking.

“Dev!” she called in utter bewilderment. “Why won’t you even say hello? What’s happened to you?”

He continued walking, not fast or slow, never turning around.

She thought she’d been in pain when she’d opened the box of gardenias to discover he’d gone, but this pain reached the marrow of her bones.

Let him go, Stephanie. Let it all go.

Turning away from him, she kept walking, and had almost reached the beach area when he called to her in his deep voice. “Stephanie? Come back.”

She looked over her shoulder at him. “When you left the Caribbean so fast, I worried you were ill or even dying, but obviously you’re fine. Don’t worry. I’m leaving and won’t venture near again.”

“Come back, or I’ll be forced to come after you.”

She heard the authority in his voice that left her in no doubt he’d do exactly that. With her heart thudding, she started toward him. By the time she reached him, her khaki-clad legs would have buckled if he hadn’t helped her onto the nearest padded bench aboard the yacht.

The last time she’d seen him he’d been in his bathing suit after their dive. His eyes had smoldered with desire as he’d kissed her passionately, before they’d parted to get ready for dinner. He’d told her to hurry, then had pressed another long, hot kiss to her mouth. Neither of them could bear to be separated.

Or so she’d thought.

This brooding version of Dev looked formidably gorgeous. He was wearing white cargo pants and a gray crew-necked T-shirt. His black wavy hair had grown longer, setting off the deep bronze of his complexion. With his height and fit physique, he bore the aura of a man in command, just as she and the girls had supposed. But he’d lost weight.

He lounged against the side of the boat, his hands curled around the edge, his long legs extended. Legs he’d wrapped possessively around hers, whether under the water or in bed. But there was a gauntness to his handsome, chiseled features that suggested great sorrow or illness. She’d been right about two things: he’d left the Caribbean on some kind of emergency, and was a native Greek down to every black hair on his head.

“I heard you showed up at the shipping office, but I never dreamed I’d find you outside the Diomedes. What are you doing here?”

Stephanie could hardly fathom the frigidity of his words. “I told you. After what we shared, you left so fast without an explanation I could live with, I feared something terrible must have happened to you. I—I needed to see for myself,” she stammered.

“I thought the card I left with the flowers summed things up.”

“It did, but I guess I’m a hard case.”

She heard his sharp intake of breath. “I’ll ask again. What are you doing here?”

“I came to Greece to find you, and was told you were away on business indefinitely. The man at the desk didn’t give me any additional information, so I was trying to find someone on this yacht who might tell me where you were. But no one was about.”

“Evidently that didn’t stop you from waiting around.” He spoke in a low wintry tone so unlike him she shivered in fresh pain. “In your desperation, I’m surprised you didn’t come to Egnoussa much sooner.”

Her desperation? What on earth was wrong? How could he have changed into a completely different person? He might not like seeing her again, but his demeanor bordered on loathing.

Though terrified at the thought he might be seriously ill, and stung by his hostile behavior, Stephanie still held her ground. “I would have been here the next day if I’d known where you lived. But the note you put with the gardenias didn’t tell me where I could find you.”

“How remiss of me.” Coupled with his sarcasm was an icy smile, devastating her further. “Still, with the help you were given, you managed to track me down easily enough.”

“If you’re talking about God’s help, you’re right.”

Evidently he didn’t like her response, because he straightened to his full height. “Even knowing you as I thought I did, I have to admit I’m surprised you’d use that excuse to cover who you really are.”

“Who I really am?” Despite being stymied, she lifted her chin proudly. “Then we’re on even footing, because I don’t know who you are either. The man I met in the Caribbean was named Dev Harris, an international exporter from New York on a scuba diving holiday. A man who made our dive master, Angelo, look like a beginner.”

Below black brows, Dev’s dark eyes pierced her to the core of her being. This frontal view of his face exposed shadows beneath them, and carved lines around his mouth that hadn’t been there before. Despite her anger it grieved her that he could have been suffering all this time.

“And you made quite the seductress.”

A gasp escaped her throat over the unexpected remark thrown out at her like that. Incredulous, she shook her head. “Seductress? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come on, Stephanie. The game is over. Working for Crystal River Water Tours, you don’t make the kind of money to send you all over the world, on two occasions in the last three months, without a definite agenda.”

For a moment she was so shocked, she couldn’t make a sound.

“However, I have to admit you played your hand with such finesse, you almost took me to the cleaners, as you Americans say. I barely got out of there in time.”

“In time? For what?” She couldn’t begin to understand him. In a slow rage over his indictment of her, she moved closer. “Curious you’d say that, because it seems I flew out of Providenciales too late.”

He folded his powerful arms. “And now you’re in trouble up to the last silvery-gold strand of hair on your beautiful head.”

“Yes,” she answered in a quiet voice, without blinking. Trouble that came wrapped in a baby quilt, with a bottle of formula, among other things.

A white ring encircling his mouth gave evidence of the negative emotion fueling him. “So you’re here to continue where you left off.”

She swallowed hard. Two could play at this game he’d accused her of. If she could keep him talking, maybe she’d find out what was going on. He wasn’t the same Dev. “Only if you still want me.”

“That’s an interesting proposition. Why don’t you make me...want you.” His voice grated the words. “If you can accomplish that feat, I’ll let you name your price.”

“What price are you talking about?” she cried in absolute shock.

His eyes narrowed to black slits. “One way or another, money is the reason you’re here.”

“You think?”

In spite of his cruelty to her, his dare emboldened Stephanie to take him up on it. Much as she wished she could turn off her desire for this man whose child she was carrying, it didn’t work that way. With her only thought being to get to the bottom of this nightmare, she reached for him and slid her arms around his neck.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered, before pressing her mouth to his, needing to be convincing so he’d listen to her. “You have no idea how much.” After three months deprivation, her longing for him was at full strength, despite her pain at being abandoned. She needed to feel his arms around her and be kissed the way he’d done before, as if he was dying for her.

At first she could wring no response from him, and couldn’t bear it. Then, suddenly, she felt his groan before he pulled her closer, as if he couldn’t help himself. Every remembered memory came flooding back...the rapture, the ecstasy of his mouth and hands doing incredible things to her.

If anything, the flame of heat licked at both of them even more strongly than before. She rejoiced that she’d found him and that he still wanted her. His response couldn’t be feigned. He was definitely covering up something. But right this minute intense desire was the one truth between them, and she’d cling to it with every breath she possessed until she knew what had happened to him.

Their bodies swayed due to the intensity of their passion. He clung to her with surprising strength. Voluptuous warmth enveloped them, bringing her inestimable pleasure that was spiraling, taking her over the edge of coherent thought. “Could we go someplace private?” she begged against his lips. “I’ve needed to feel you like this for so long, but I’m afraid someone will see us.”

After a slight hesitation, he tore his lips from hers and released her. Before he pulled away she thought she saw torment in his eyes. “Come with me.” He sounded out of breath.

“Wait. I dropped my purse.” She retrieved it from the deck floor.

“No luggage?” he asked, falling back into that accusatory tone she hated.

“I only planned to come here for a few hours, so I left it in my hotel room on Chios.”

He studied her through veiled eyes, no doubt assessing the validity of her statement before grasping her hand. “We’ll go below.” Nikos pulled her to the top of the stairs and they descended. He led her down the hallway past the lounge. Beyond it was the galley and a laundry room. The master bedroom was on the end, with its en suite bathroom.

The bed was unmade. Had he slept on board last night? While she stood there, bombarded with questions she needed answers to, he shrugged out of his T-shirt. After throwing it on a chair, he sat on the end of the bed to remove his sandals. She took a quick breath when he stood up to get out of his cargo pants. Despite his weight loss, he was such a striking man her mouth went dry looking at his hard-muscled frame.

“What are you doing?”

He shot her a penetrating glance. “I thought this was what you wanted. I’ll pay your price after we’re finished. Let me help you.” In a lightning move he reached for her purse and tossed it on the chair on top of his shirt, panicking her.

“Wait, Dev—”

But he was beyond listening to her. “Delightful as that blouse is, I’m aching to see you again without any artifice. It’s been a long time since our all-nighter. Kissing you has caused me to remember how delightful you are. Do you want to remove it, or shall I?”

Suddenly apprehensive, she stepped away from him. The challenge she’d initiated, to break him down, had backfired and she started to be afraid. “Please don’t be like this, Dev. We need to talk.” She refused to tell him why she’d come all this way, until she understood the reason he’d changed into someone else. If he made love to her, he’d know what she was hiding.

His smile had a wicked curl. “I don’t remember you being this coy with me before. Come here.” He inched closer and caressed her cheek. “We were lovers. Why pretend to be shy now when you were—shall we say—so accommodating before?”

Heat flooded her face. He was the most irresistible male alive. She couldn’t bear it that there was this awful anger emanating from him. “For one night I slept in your bed, but I wouldn’t call us lovers, not when you took off the next day, never to be seen again.”

She felt his hands circle her neck, where he rubbed his thumbs over the pulse throbbing in the hollow of her throat. “That must have been a shock, eh?” he taunted. “Didn’t you like the flowers I left behind?” he whispered silkily. “You told me gardenias were your favorites.”

Stephanie had promised herself she wouldn’t break down in front of him, but she had to fight the sting of salt against her eyelids. “I loved them, and would have thanked you if you’d left me a forwarding address or phone number.”

His hands slid to her hair, where his fingers curled around the strands of her ponytail. “Since you’ve found me anyway, come to bed and show me just how much you loved them. Don’t worry. You’ll get what you came for.”

She shook her head. “Don’t do this, Dev. Whatever terrible thing you think I’ve done, those ten days we spent together have to account for something to cherish.”

“Cherish?” he mocked, wounding her all over again, before freeing her. His hands went to his hips in a stance of male beauty all its own. “That word connotes fidelity, loyalty. I wonder if an ounce of either quality exists inside that delectable body of yours.” His response dripped like acid from his lips.

Dev would be shocked if he knew what existed inside her and was growing with every passing minute. She pressed her arms to her waist, unable to forget for one second that she was carrying his son or daughter.

“It’s clear you believe I betrayed you in some way. How could I have done that? We were together constantly at the resort. On that first day you asked me to be your diving partner, not the other way around. I spent every waking moment with you instead of the girls who came with me. I never even left the resort to go shopping with them, because you wanted to be with me every second.

“When I read the note left in the flowers, you have no idea what it did to me. I realized I was only a spring fling to you. I—I thought it was more.” Her voice caught. Feeling unexpectedly nauseous, she moved over to the bed and sank down to recover.

He pinned her with those jet-black eyes. “Yet even though you got the message that our interlude was over, you came here, anyway.”

After what they’d shared, for him to say that it had been over since they’d left the Caribbean caused her spirits to plummet to a new low.

“Yes. It was important for me to see you again, to find out why you had to go back to your work so abruptly. What if you needed help? Possible reasons for your sudden disappearance plagued me, until I couldn’t sleep. I feared it might have even been a medical emergency that prompted you to write me that note, and you didn’t want me to worry about you.

“All this time I’ve wondered if something terrible had happened to you or your family, and you couldn’t confide in anyone who knew you. I simply didn’t know.” She bit her lip. “A few days ago I couldn’t stand it any longer and decided to search for you.”

“How did you manage that? Who told you my name?” He sounded beyond livid.

“No one!” she cried. “At least not in the way you mean.”

“Explain that to me.”

She stood up again, kneading her hands together. “When I couldn’t find a number or address for you in New York, I turned to the employees at the resort to try to get answers.” By the time she’d explained everything she’d done, his expression looked thunderous.

His dark head flew back. “Are you telling me you figured out what plane flew me out of the Caribbean?”

“Not at first. Taking you at your word that you had an emergency at work, I thought about the flights. One to Los Angeles and one to Vancouver. Why would you go to either place when you were working in New York? The private jet to Greece made no sense, either, at least not at first.

“I spent all night wondering. By morning I looked the name up on the computer and discovered Vassalos Maritime Shipping located on the island of Egnassou. I didn’t know if you were a Vassalos from Vassalos Maritime Shipping or an employee. But since you’d told me you worked for an international export company, I thought it was a close enough connection to find out. That’s why I brought the photographs, in case someone recognized you.

“I thought there might be a chance I could find you here. When the man at the shipping office desk recognized your picture, I knew I’d come to the end of my search. That’s when I realized you’d been lying to me the whole time. Undoubtedly, you do that whenever you meet a woman to enjoy for a time before you disappear.”

For a full minute he studied every square inch of her, his expression lethal. “Since you’ve accomplished your objective, let’s go to bed for old time’s sake, one more time, shall we? Then I’ll send you on your way with enough money to have made your trip worthwhile.”

Her body stiffened. “I don’t want your money and have already gotten what I came for, Dev.”

“The name is Nikos, as you damn well know!”

Nikos...

Somehow she’d thought Dev would soften while they were alone, and tell her why he’d lied to her. But the inscrutable man facing her bore little resemblance to her secret Adonis who’d brought her joy every second they’d been together. It hadn’t mattered whether they’d been walking on the beach or finding glorious sights in the aqua depths of the sea.

She decided this man didn’t deserve to know about the baby until it was born. He wouldn’t believe her if she told him now, anyway. In fact, she was beginning to think he’d drummed up this betrayal business on purpose, to get rid of her. He’d probably pulled the same excuse on his other lovers when he was through with them. If that was true, he’d done a stellar job.

Now that she had the main phone number of Vassalos Shipping, she could always leave a message for him next January. If he cared to answer, he’d learn then that he was a new father, not before.

His smile was beautifully cruel. “You’ve been playing me for a reason. Now I want to know what it is.”

Stephanie drew in a fortifying breath. “I’d hoped to get an honest answer out of you, but you’re not Dev Harris. Let’s just say I don’t want to ruin my memory of him. You, sir, are someone I don’t care to know. For all I know you have a wife and children. The thought of committing adultery with you makes me sick.”

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