Page 3 of The Nicolaides Baby

Rowan glanced up at Leo and took a deep breath. “Care to have a seat?” She motioned over her shoulder at her sister’s now vacant lounger. “Might as well relax while we wait for them.” Because whether either one of them liked it or not, it looked like they were stuck with each other.

2

“It’s only been two weeks.”Leo Nicolaides sat back hard in the leather chair behind his desk at Nicolaides and Petrakis Enterprises in Athens where he partnered as an investment banker with his best friend, Xander Petrakis. Sweat dotted his forehead in his air-conditioned office as he tried to process Andreas’s announcement.

His brother had proposed to Sierra Stallings.

“How could you propose to someone you’ve just met?”

“I’ve known from almost the first moment.” His brother grinned at him. “After the first touch of her hand, I knew I never wanted to let it go.”

“She’s a very sweet girl, and I can see where you’d be attracted to her, but you can’t marry someone you really know nothing about.”

“I know enough,” Andreas told him, sitting forward in his seat, his steady gaze meeting his own.

“Does she know who you are? And I mean who youreallyare?” The Nicolaides family owned a good many properties on the island of Santorini. Their holdings encompassed several small rental villas and cottages dotted throughout the island, as well as The Santorini Vista—one of the most popular resort hotels on any of the Grecian Islands. Their great-grandfather had seen the potential of buying up and developing abandoned properties after much of the island had been devastated in the great earthquake of 1956. His vision had been the beginning of what was now The Nicolaides Group—a business of which Andreas was vice president and would one day take over as president when their father stepped down.

Their family was worth billions.

“I let her know what she was getting into last night. She had no clue.” Andreas sat back in his seat and laughed. “In fact, when I first told her our family was The Nicolaides Group, she asked which instrumentyouplayed.”

“Yes. Humorous.” He frowned over at his brother’s happy face. “What does the sister say?”

“The sister? You mean Rowan?” Andreas said with a sly grin. “Why do you always refer to her that way? Is it perhaps you feel some attraction there yourself?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Leo waved off Andreas’s comment, even though there was more than an inkling of truth behind his brother’s words. Rowan Stallings was a vibrant, funny, beautiful, and sexy woman. She was also infuriating, bossy, and an overprotective mother hen who had initially insisted both she and Leo accompany Andreas and Sierra on their dates like they were some kind of Spanish dueñas. He’d assured her Andreas was trustworthy, but Rowan had been adamant. He’d found it ridiculous when they’d ended up being a third and fourth wheel to the couple who only had eyes for each other. Thankfully, she’d finally relented after a week of her nonsense and let their respective siblings go out on their own.

Rowan may have been right to not want to leave them alone.

But as irritating as he’d found her, he missed spending time with her. Dammit. And if he could admit that to himself, he could also admit each time she smiled—or drew her mouth up in a grimace, or darted her tongue out over those full luscious lips of hers—he’d been driven crazy with the need to know how her soft mouth would feel against his own.

Did that make him certifiable? Probably.

“Would it make you feel any better to know Rowan agrees with you?” Andreas said, his expression darkening.

Leo would have thought as much. Rowan and her sister may have been twins, but the difference in them didn’t stop at their vastly opposed looks. For a young woman of twenty-two, Rowan was mature beyond her years. “But it doesn’t make a difference. Does it?”

Andreas’s serious blue gaze held his as he shook his head.

Leo let out a resigned sigh. It seemed his brother was determined. And a determined Andreas was an immovable one. If he had to hazard a guess, he would assume Rowan had also been faced with an unbudging Sierra as well. “Okay. Once Mother,Bampás, and Libby get home in a few weeks from visiting her family in England, you—”

“The wedding’s in two hours.”

“What!” Leo nearly came out of his chair.

Andreas sat forward and moved his hands up and down in a calming motion. “We have to.”

“She’s pregnant?” That explained it then.

His brother sprang from his seat—his white-knuckled fists digging into the dark mahogany surface of Leo’s desk as he leaned over it—his eyes blazing and face reddening. Andreas was never confrontational, so his reaction surprised Leo almost as much as the news of the impending nuptials. “You will not imply that to Sierra or to Rowan,” he said between gritted teeth. His eyes narrowed. “Do you understand me?”

“I’m sorry. It just surprised me.”

Andreas straightened away from the desk and took several deep breaths. “I’m sorry too. I… I just won’t have anyone make any kind of disparaging remarks against her.” His expression slowly lightened as he blew out a harsh breath. “Not even you, my brother.”

“Again, I apologize.” His brother had always been the passionate sort, but this intensity was new. “So, why the rush?”

“Rowan flies out in the morning at nine from Athens International and it’ll be months before she can even think about flying back. Her first teaching assignment begins at the end of August and she has to use the next couple of weeks to prepare. Her first big break isn’t until their Christmas holidays.” Andreas gave him a sheepish grin. “We don’t want to wait that long.”

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