Promoted to the Greek's Wife
Author
Lynne Graham
Reads
18.5K
Chapters
11
His diamond deal will change her life! Be captivated by this spicy marriage of convenience billionaire boss romance from part of The Stefanos Legacy trilogy! Her boss needs a wife … and she's the perfect candidate! Receptionist Cleo's attraction to brooding billionaire employer Ari Stefanos is a fiercely guarded secret. Until one sizzling night it's deliciously exposed! Still, she knows that their passion can't — shouldn't — last. If the past has taught her anything, it's that you can't make somebody love you. After discovering his father's hidden family, Ari found solace in sweet Cleo's arms… Now, in order to adopt his orphaned niece, he needs to marry. Caring Cleo ticks every box for Ari's on-paper bride. If only their connection didn't make their convenient marriage so inconveniently complicated! Previously published.
CHAPTER ONE
‘FORGET ABOUT THEM,’ the family lawyer had advised. ‘Should a problem arise in the future, provision has been made. Your inheritance is ring-fenced. There is no reason why you should concern yourself with this issue.’
Even today at the newly opened London HQ of Stefanos Enterprises, where the proof of his own exhilarating rise to success should have put him in a very different mood, Aristaeus Stefanos couldn’t get that unscrupulous little speech out of his head. Only a month had passed since his father’s death. A renowned philanthropist and business mogul, Christophe Stefanos had been a much-admired figure. A loving son, Ari had been devastated by his sudden death, and in all the years he had known his father, he had never once doubted his essential decency.
In retrospect, that complete trust now struck him as ludicrously naive for a male of twenty-eight years of age. Death had, after all, cruelly exposed his parent’s darkest secret and had shattered Ari’s faith in him. Ari had been forced to acknowledge his father’s feet of clay and to make a decision that he might some day regret even while accepting that he could not live with any other option. Fierce conflicting emotions still bubbled uneasily beneath Ari’s controlled surface. Angry shame and disbelief still rose uppermost whenever he reflected on his father’s choices.
Life, however, was too short to agonise over what could not be changed, Ari reflected grimly. For that reason, rather than taking advantage of the many social invitations that had come his way since his return from his father’s memorial service in Greece, he had decided to do something he had never done before: get to know some of his employees. It wasn’t Ari’s style to get close to his workers. A billionaire shipping tycoon and resort developer, he hired professionals to monitor his staff and kept his distance. His need for a distraction, however, had won out, and what could be more of a diversion than his participation in a company retreat to be staged in the wilds of Norfolk?
The new HQ of Stefanos Enterprises brought staff together from several different sites, and his HR director had suggested the retreat as a means of bringing down barriers and improving communication. Ari wasn’t quite sure he believed in the value of company retreats. He understood the concept and the potential benefits, but he also suspected that many of his executive staff would view the retreat as a nice little holiday on company time.
His handsome mouth quirking, Ari left his office just as an eruption of giggles sounded from the reception area. His hard, dark gaze arrowed in that direction, and exasperation flooded him at the sight of a security guard flirting with the receptionist, who irritated the hell out of him. What was her name again? Cleo, he recalled, and even the name was inappropriate for a female with a mop of blonde curls and blue eyes. Cleo, short for Cleopatra, was, in Ari’s highly experienced opinion, the name for a tall, dark beauty, not an undersized one with the curves of a pocket Venus and the dress sense of an eighties swagged and ruffled floral curtain.
It was fair to say that Ari had no time at all for Cleo the temp. But then she had blundered badly on her first day by letting Ari’s stalker-type ex, Galina Ivanova, walk into his office unchallenged. Of course, she had apologised. Thee mou—had she apologised! While Ari never used two words if one would suffice, Cleo was a hopeless chatterbox and capable of utilising fifty words to do the work of two. She had apologised to him for five solid minutes, staring pleadingly at him with those huge blue eyes of hers that made her look more like a cherub than a grown woman. Having been made aware by Human Resources that he could not simply sack her out of hand, he had grudgingly accepted the apology, but her presence in his vicinity offended him.
‘Have a nice afternoon, Mr Stefanos!’ Cleo called cheerfully, not having the wit to pull a low profile after being caught in the act of distracting the security guard from his job.
Ari struggled not to respond with something derisive and told himself off for letting so minor an incident darken his mood. But Ari liked absolutely everything in his life shipshape and tidy. He had placed things in neat little groups since he was a child. Back then he had found security in making and restoring order. The testing times of his childhood were unforgotten, although he chose not to dwell on them. His wardrobe was colour-coded, his bookshelves alphabetically arranged, his desk immaculate. In his world, there was no clutter and everything and everybody had a place. When anything was out of place, it set Ari’s teeth on edge, which was exactly why the receptionist irritated him, he reasoned in exasperation.
Cleo didn’t ‘fit’ Stefanos Enterprises. She lacked dress sense and sophistication. She was too visible, too chatty and too friendly. She smiled too much. Spend five minutes in a taxi rank with Cleo and she would divulge her entire life story without the smallest encouragement. That kind of verbal licence gave Ari the chills. Thrusting her from mind, he reminded himself that he had a Norfolk-bound helicopter waiting for him...
* * *
Cleo clambered into the minibus with her overnight bag.
A lot of the staff were travelling to the retreat by car, but she hadn’t made any close friends at Stefanos Enterprises and she hadn’t been offered a lift. People rarely made much effort to get to know temporary employees and she was accustomed to being somewhat invisible at work when others were socialising. Even so, she had been thrilled to be included in the retreat, which was probably because she would be working at Stefanos Enterprises for another eight months.
She suppressed a grimace, thinking of the incident on her first day that she suspected had ruined any hope she had of ever stepping into a permanent position at Stefanos Enterprises. An enviably confident sleek dark beauty, dressed to the nines in designer fashion, had approached Reception to announce that she was lunching with Mr Stefanos and would go straight through to his office. Cleo hadn’t even thought of questioning the woman further. She had simply assumed that the woman was a regular visitor, possibly even a family member. She hadn’t been shown the banned list of visitors before she began her shift. She hadn’t been told that the boss’s lovers never had access to him during working hours either by phone or by personal appearance. And nobody had been more shaken than her when she saw the furious woman escorted off the premises by two security guards and one of his personal assistants came running to ask what on earth had she been thinking when she had allowed that ‘madwoman’ into Mr Stefanos’s office. An ex, a stalker-type ex, apparently, who refused to take no for an answer and kept on showing up in the hope that he would change his mind. Cleo felt that she should have been warned the minute she took over the desk that her employer’s adventurous, ever-changing love life included such a deceptive personality.
Cleo suppressed her unproductive thoughts. She preferred to concentrate on positive things. A night away from the cramped little studio apartment she shared would be very welcome. Although she had been grateful to find city accommodation that she could share, she often longed for the peace and quiet of her own space, but with the cost of rents in London and her less-than-stellar earning power, that was a luxury she could only dream about. In any case, she reminded herself, she was lucky enough that her landlady, Ella, spent a couple of nights a week at her boyfriend’s place, leaving Cleo in sole possession of the mezzanine bedroom space and the tiny living area they had to share. Ella’s parents had bought the property for their daughter and it really wasn’t large enough for two people. Ella, however, was a student, who was struggling to get by, and she needed Cleo’s rent.
The retreat was being held at a boutique country hotel, situated deep in the countryside and surrounded by woods and fields. The bus arrived late, after an accident caused a long, slow tailback of traffic. As they waited for their key cards at Reception, several remarking on the fact that their belated arrival excluded them from joining the team chats, Lily, one of the clerical staff, turned her head to say to Cleo, ‘Come on... You’re sharing with me.’
Cleo forced a smile, able to see that her companion was no keener on the arrangement than she was. No sooner had they arrived in the comfortable hotel room than Lily was excusing herself to join her friends. ‘We’ll be in the bar after dinner... You’re welcome to join us,’ the pretty blonde told her with a pleasant smile. ‘The more the merrier.’
And a strange face was easier tolerated in a crowd, Cleo reflected ruefully. She was pleased about the invitation, just a little worried that she would not truly be welcome and was only being asked out of politeness. ‘I’m going downstairs to see what I can sign up for.’
‘The yoga classes are supposed to be very good,’ Lily informed her on the way out of the door. ‘And they’ve got one on first thing...’
Cleo wasn’t fond of yoga. Having once signally flopped at twisting her body into a pretzel shape at a class and having felt an absolute failure, she had decided that she simply wasn’t bendy enough.
After freshening up, she went downstairs to explore the other options on offer. Breathing in deep and mustering her courage, she signed up for paintballing and stand-up paddleboarding the following day. Although she was not remotely athletic, she was a firm believer in moving out of her comfort zone when the opportunity was presented, and goodness knew, she thought ruefully, she was unlikely ever to receive another opportunity to try out such activities free of charge. At the very least, it should be fun.
Throwing herself in head first was Cleo’s way when she felt intimidated. Growing up with a single mother perpetually fretting and expecting disaster had taught her to be fearless. Lisa Brown had always had a pessimistic outlook, while Cleo preferred to look on the brighter side of things.
Getting changed for dinner, she tugged out a stretchy comfy dress and heels. The bright colours of the jungle-palm print made her smile, whisking her back to her childhood with a mother who habitually wore black, believing that colours were less elegant. A lot of good that dark, colourless wardrobe had done her poor mother, Cleo reflected wryly. The man she loved, Cleo’s father, hadn’t loved Lisa Brown back and hadn’t wanted a child with her either. Lisa’s pregnancy had eventually concluded their clandestine relationship.
Cleo went down for dinner, glancing round the dining room and seeing only a handful of vaguely familiar faces. She was keeping an eye out for Ari Stefanos, who was reputedly joining his staff for the retreat. That had surprised her, Ari not being the most approachable of employers, and true to form, Lily had mentioned that he was not staying in the hotel, but in some separate luxury property in the woods, well away from the hoi polloi. No, Cleo was looking out for Ari simply because it was always a treat to feast her eyes on him. Those cheekbones, that unruly blue-black hair, that piercing dark-as-night gaze set below level ebony brows, not to mention the lush pink of his eminently kissable mouth.
The first time Cleo had met her employer had been the same day she had attempted to tender an apology for the woman she had allowed to walk unchallenged into his office. That had been her first glimpse of him, and sheer fascination had mesmerised her because there was just something about the precise arrangement of his perfect features that had made her stare like an enraptured schoolgirl. Her tongue had tripped over words, her mouth had dried up and her brain had closed down in that same moment. Ari Stefanos exuded irresistible appeal with every breath that he drew.
He was Cleo’s secret addiction. It was a harmless piece of fun. All the women in the office treated Ari Stefanos to more than one glance: he was shockingly good-looking and smoulderingly sexy. He cast ordinary men in very deep shade. But he was a safe target for appreciation because his distaste for office flings was incorporated in her employment contract. In any case, Cleo knew that she didn’t have the looks to attract such a man.
Cleo had never been in love and had no desire to fall in love either. Her mother had loved her father and it had ruined the best years of her life. No, Cleo would only allow herself to fall in love with a man when it was clear that he was keen enough on her to make a commitment. That was where her mother had gone wrong, trusting promises made in the heat of the moment, making the assumption that deep feelings were involved when they were not. Cleo had no plans to make the same mistake.
And in the short term, admiring Ari Stefanos from a safe distance was an amusing, perfectly prudent and private source of enjoyment.
* * *
Unaware that anyone received entertainment simply by looking at him, Ari led a discussion on the company vision for the future before heading for the bar, determined to have one drink and be sociable before he retired to his own quarters.
For some inexplicable reason, his attention immediately landed on Cleo and stayed locked to her. She was seated with a group, engaged in animated discussion, her mop of golden curls glinting in the low lights as she moved her head. She stood up to walk to the bar and he almost winced at the sight of the vivid giant-palm-leaf print she was sporting. A large blue butterfly was stretched across her curvy behind and, like the leaf cupping her full breasts, the loud design somehow accentuated the lush fullness of her glorious curves. In that instant he understood perfectly why she continually attracted his notice. She might be barely over five foot, but she had a superb figure. Pretty good legs too, he noted absently, watching her at the bar, catching her gurgling laugh and the brilliance of her smile as the bartender surged to serve her.
‘She’s very pretty and very young,’ his senior PA, Mel, commented at his elbow as she looked in the same direction.
Ari tore his gaze from Cleo, faint colour edging his high cheekbones as he registered the throb at his groin, and shifted uneasily. ‘She talks too much.’
‘Yes, but she’s very good on Reception,’ Mel countered. ‘Friendly, helpful, welcoming. In my opinion, she’s a big improvement on that frozen fashion doll out on maternity leave.’
Ari gritted his even white teeth. ‘She dresses badly.’
Mel frowned and gave him a surprised look. ‘So, let someone give her the advice to tone down the colours a little and look more...er...professional.’
Tiring of the conversation, Ari tipped back the whisky brought to him without savouring the vintage. ‘I’m going to turn in now. It’s been a long day.’
* * *
Cleo didn’t spend the whole evening with Lily and her pals, just an hour to be friendly. She went to bed smothering a yawn, wondering where Ari Stefanos had disappeared to, because she hadn’t seen him. She woke and went down to breakfast alone because Lily had gone to the yoga class. Clad in a long-sleeved top and cargo pants, she ate and then followed the signs to the wooded, fenced area that held the paintball operation. She was a little embarrassed to see that only one other woman had chosen the activity and she was an athletic former soldier, whom Cleo had met the night before in the bar, and she was jogging on the spot with eagerness. Cleo put on her mask, helmet and protective vest and grasped the gun after it had been demonstrated for her benefit, and then she tried to strike a fit pose as if she too were fizzing with pent-up energy.
Ari Stefanos strode into view with a small group of other men. His black hair was tousled and in need of a cut. Cleo curved back into the shadow of the wall the better to watch him before he disappeared into the equipment shed. She wondered what it was about those features of his that continually locked her attention to him. The dark deep-set eyes, the rawly masculine hard jawline and faint shadow of stubble? The thin aristocratic nose? That beautiful mouth, which she had never seen smile? With the recent death of his father, she supposed he didn’t feel he had much to smile about. He was very tall, spectacularly well built, all lean muscle from his wide, strong shoulders, flat stomach and narrow waist to his long, powerful legs.
The group was split into two teams and the game began. Cleo was ambushed behind a tree when she was least expecting it. Three of her own team, young and boisterous types, cornered her and literally sprayed her with paintballs, laughing uproariously as they did it. As the balls struck and spattered over her, she was startled by the force of each hit and by how much it hurt. She cried, ‘Stop it!’ as she felt the stings of pain and the pressure that would surely bruise her, but they were still laughing hysterically as they ran off again.
When they were gone, Cleo was left in a rage. Her own team members had attacked her, presumably because she was a temp, a safer target for a prank than a permanent staff member and an easy mark! And she was hurt, aching all over from the assault as she began clumsily picking herself up again, furious tears blinding her.
‘You’re out... Take yourself off to the dead zone,’ a curt voice instructed.
‘I’m not out! My own team ambushed me!’
‘Got witnesses? If not, you’re out,’ the voice told her without sympathy.
‘I’m going to get my own back,’ Cleo countered furiously, recalling how turning her back on unkind behaviour aimed at her at school hadn’t won her any favours. When anyone deliberately set out to injure Cleo, she had learned to always fight her corner in self-defence. It didn’t pay to let people walk over her. If she allowed such treatment, it would be more likely to reoccur.
‘That’s against the rules. Neither is that attitude in the spirit of proper gamesmanship,’ her unwanted companion informed her in a lofty tone of superiority.
‘Oh, shut up!’ Cleo said sharply. ‘If they can ignore the rules and attack me, I can do it back!’
Below Ari’s disbelieving gaze, Cleo shimmied up the tree behind her like a miniature ninja warrior. ‘They won’t even see me up here. I’m going to get them!’ she hissed.
‘Did you listen to anything I said?’ Ari enquired drily. ‘Did you even read the rules? You’re not supposed to climb the trees or attack from above. Once you’re hit, you’re out and you should leave the field immediately.’
‘A lot of good it did me reading the rules when nobody else is following them!’ Cleo shot back, unimpressed. ‘Go away and leave me alone. You’ll draw attention to me and that’ll wreck my plan.’
‘Get down and I will see you get off the field safely,’ Ari breathed impatiently.
‘Like I need your help!’ Cleo snapped. ‘Anyone ever told you to mind your own business?’ Reaching up to a higher, sturdier branch, she clutched the gun awkwardly below one arm. ‘I’m about to teach those guys a lesson!’
Ari had never had an employee simply ignore his commands before. Undoubtedly, the helmet and the mask were a better disguise than he had appreciated. Ari was a stickler for rules, and while he understood her burning desire for retribution, he could not condone it. Stretching up, he closed his hands around her small waist, and from that angle, he really could not avoid noticing that in the close-fitting pants her derrière jutted out like a particularly ripe and luscious peach. Disconcerted by the instant swell of arousal against his zip, he tugged her down from the tree and brought her carefully down to ground level again. Of course, he knew who she was. Cleo was unique amongst the top-floor staff. She was too tiny to be mistaken for anyone else.
‘What are you doing?’ She gasped in disbelief.
As she staggered, he bent down to steady her and the faint scent of strawberries emanated from the golden hair curling out from beneath her helmet: he was too close. Ari took a sharp and deeply conservative step back from her as he spun her round to face him. The cornflower depth of blue that distinguished her eyes was distinctive. He tensed while he censured himself for his overt physical reaction.
‘I’m taking you out of here,’ Ari told her curtly. ‘Before I lose my temper with you.’
‘Just because you have a different take on how to play games—’
‘Breaking the rules could lead to the game being stopped for everyone,’ Ari warned her curtly. ‘There are safety concerns here. Please...’
And it was his accent, roughening the edges of his vowel sounds with a growl that made her steal a longer frowning glance at him. In one fell swoop she rose above her rage sufficiently to recognise the clothes that he wore and the dark golden eyes flaring like a shower of sparks behind the mask. Oh. My. Word. She was fighting with the boss, the great rule upholder!
‘I’m so sorry, Mr Stefanos,’ she murmured flatly. ‘I didn’t realise it was you.’
‘Maybe I should have worn a warning label,’ Ari riposted as he retained a controlling hand on her shoulder and steered her towards the boundary fence and the area marked out for the paint-spattered losers.
As the first arrival in the losers’ corner, Cleo gritted her teeth on a snarky reply and compressed her lips, saying stiffly, ‘Thank you. I’ll head back to the hotel to change.’
Ari leant down to her level from his great height. ‘I promise you... I’ll cover those bullies in paint!’ he murmured fiercely.
‘Don’t exert yourself on my account, Mr Stefanos,’ Cleo remarked thinly as she walked away. ‘After all, it’s only a game...’
Ari snatched in a sudden sustaining breath, incredulous at her insouciant gall, and he stood there for several taut seconds watching her disappear from view, defiance in every line of her shapely, sexy body. The natural sway of her hips stole his masculine attention. He gritted his teeth and swung away, furious at the fact that she evoked a visceral sexual response from him. She was an employee. Such a reaction was unacceptable.
* * *
Still furious, Cleo stomped back to the hotel and straight into the shower, unhappy until she had rinsed the last speck of paint from her body. Faint pink circles of bruising marked her arms, her neck, her legs and stomach. It was her own fault for not wearing thicker clothing and for not taking advantage of the extra protective gear on offer in the equipment shed out of a fear of looking naff. Now she was suffering from an attitude adjustment and a growing retrospective horror about her unfortunate encounter with Ari Stefanos.
Talk about a clash of opinions! She shouldn’t have been arguing with anyone in the game, considering that she was the most junior member of staff on the retreat. She couldn’t afford to foolishly offend anyone higher up the ladder than she was...and what had she done? Only attracted the wrong kind of attention to herself again with the boss! She winced as she donned her swimsuit and got dressed again. Ironically, she was no longer in the right mood to try out a paddleboard following her unfortunate experience with the paintballing. But Ari Stefanos was truly the most infuriating guy! So bossy, so confident and bold in his conviction that only his way was the right way and, while Cleo had never considered herself a rule-breaker, his strictures had made her madder than a hornet.
In the end she decided the encounter didn’t much matter in the scheme of things because she had probably already given him the very worst possible impression of herself and her talents on her very first day at work. No point crying over spilt milk, she told herself firmly, reminding herself that at least nobody else had witnessed their exchange of words.
Consoled by that reflection, she went downstairs to an obligatory first-aid class and accompanied Lily’s group into lunch. Everyone talked about what a beautiful day it was to go out on the lake. Cleo’s spirits lifted when one of the women insisted that you didn’t need to be especially fit to succeed at paddleboarding. Words like ‘slow’ and ‘peaceful’ increased her optimism as she clambered awkwardly into a wetsuit in the changing rooms. They all helped each other do up the back zips and there was much laughter as they added the life jackets and compared their bulky images.
* * *
Ari almost smiled when he saw Cleo walking down to the edge of the lake with her friends. There was nothing sexy about Cleo in her current apparel. Indeed, Ari felt wondrously safe looking at her, and he told himself that he had imagined his former response to her. The instructor stood on the wooden pier to see everyone safely disposed onto their boards. Cleo stepped onto the board like someone stepping onto hot coals, an oddly frozen expression on her face as though she was forcing herself to do something she didn’t want to do.
As she used the oar to push away from the pier, it caught on something, jerked and fell from her hand, and she immediately lurched off balance. For a split second, Ari glimpsed the sheer terror on her face, and then he was instinctively moving forward because the instructor had already moved away while he adjusted someone’s life jacket for them. Cleo plunged face first into the water with a tremendous splash and scrabbled frantically for the board. Ari recognised the pure panic in her reaction and the ineptness of her flailing hands. The board was right beside her, but she seemed to be too alarmed actually to see it. Someone was laughing, but Ari had already seen more than enough. He dropped down into the water beside her and grabbed her, lifting her above the water with easy strength.
‘Relax, the water is barely a couple of metres deep at this point—’
‘I’m not a couple of metres tall!’ Cleo gasped, spitting out lake water in disgust. ‘I’ll drown at that depth—’
‘No swimmer could drown in water this shallow,’ Ari informed her forcefully, capturing her flailing hands. ‘And calm down... You’re not in any danger—’
‘I can’t swim!’ Cleo hissed in a desperate undertone. ‘I know I’ve got the jacket on and I’m sorry, but I’m very nervous—’
Ari dealt her an arrested appraisal. He lifted her up onto the side of the pier and hauled himself bodily up beside her. ‘You can’t swim? You actually went out on the water without being able to swim?’ he demanded in a rising crescendo of incredulity.
‘I’ve got a life jacket on,’ Cleo protested.
‘Have you a death wish? The minute you hit the water you panicked! Have you any idea how many people drown because they panic?’ he raked down at her wrathfully.
‘I wasn’t likely to drown unless someone deliberately held me down under the water!’ Cleo slung back at him in furious denial. ‘And while you may not be my biggest fan, I doubt if you were about to do that—’
‘You’re an absolute bloody idiot and you should stay away from water!’ Ari flamed back at her, dark eyes brilliant with anger, kissable mouth hard as granite. ‘What you did was stupidly dangerous!’
Alerted by his wrathful volume, every eye in their vicinity had now turned to them, and Cleo cringed. She was shivering with cold and the aftermath of fright. Ari Stefanos was standing over her in a rage and it was too much to be borne in the mood she was in. Cleo swallowed the lump in her throat, but her stricken eyes still flooded with tears of hurt and mortification.
A woman broke the horrible silence in which everyone on shore had fallen quiet and hurried forward to wrap a large towel round Cleo. ‘Let me take you back to the hotel,’ she urged. ‘You’ve had a shock.’
‘Thank you, Mel,’ Ari breathed in a compressed undertone. ‘But I’ll take care of Cleo.’
