The Heir: A Standalone Greek Billionaire Romance Read online

  The Heir

  A Standalone Greek Billionaire Romance

  Selena Laurence

  Golden Age Press

  Contents

  About

  Author’s Notes

  Prologue

  1. Tess

  2. Niko

  3. Tess

  4. Niko

  5. Tess

  6. Niko

  7. Tess

  8. Niko

  9. Tess

  10. Niko

  11. Tess

  12. Niko

  13. Tess

  14. Niko

  15. Tess

  16. Niko

  17. Tess

  18. Niko

  19. Tess

  20. Niko

  21. Tess

  22. Niko

  23. Tess

  24. Niko

  25. Tess

  26. Niko

  27. Tess

  28. Niko

  29. Tess

  30. Tess

  31. Niko

  The Czar

  Also by Selena Laurence

  About the Author

  Copyright 2016 © Selena Laurence

  All Rights Reserved

  Copy Editing by Proof Before You Publish

  Cover by Selena Laurence

  Image source: Depositphotos

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, sorted in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book. This contemporary romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication / use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. This book is licensed for your personal use only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with.

  For permission to use any portion of this material, please contact the author at: [email protected]

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  About

  A Billionaire, His Intern, and a Forbidden Romance that leads two lovers into dark family secrets.

  Niko

  It's hard not to love my life. I have it all--looks, a family who dotes on me, and more money than God. I'm the heir to a Greek shipping magnet, and one day I'll own his international corporation. But I have to admit, sometimes it's all too easy, and I wonder what life would have been like if everything wasn't handed to me. Then I see her stumble off the ferry onto my family's island, and I know that I want her. The only problem? She's my new intern. Finally, something that's not so easy.

  Tess

  Some people say I'm boring, I follow the rules to a 'T,' work hard at everything I do, and already know exactly what I want my future to look like. But what might seem boring to others is successful for me, because I just scored an internship in Greece for the school year. I can't wait to prove my worth at a company like Stephanos Shipping . Things look even better when I stumble off of the ferry and straight into the arms of a very hot guy. Only problem? He's my new boss. Following the rules just got a lot harder.

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  Author’s Notes

  While the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia does house one of Degas’ dancer paintings, it is not L’etoile, as described in this story. L’etoile is owned by a private collection. I used artistic license slipping one of Monsieur Degas’ most famous paintings into the collection of one of the world’s most famous museums.

  The island of Georgios is fictitious. While there are some uninhabited islands in Greece, which bear Georgios as part of their name, the Georgios described in the book is a combination of several real islands, and was used in order to create the setting necessary for the book. Similarly, I have based Greek family relations and culture on real life, but mixed and matched things to fit the story. I’m very grateful to everyone who has traveled to Greece or has Greek heritage and advised me for this book. You all were tremendously helpful, and any errors are entirely my own.

  Prologue

  Dear Ms. Richardson:

  The staff of the Foreign Studies department at Chicago University is pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Junior year abroad to study in Georgios, Greece. As part of your financial aid package you will be working twenty hours each week in the accounting department of Stephanos Shipping, in addition to taking classes at American University Georgios.

  Enclosed please find all the details regarding your trip, accommodations, internship and classes.

  Sincerely,

  Anna Gomez

  Foreign Exchange Coordinator

  Tess

  I’m standing at the edge of the ship, the breeze whipping my blonde hair into knots, while the people on board shout in different languages, clamoring to gather their belongings before we disembark. I recognize some French, and a little German, also Italian, but there are about a dozen other things being bantered around that sound completely foreign. Which, well, since they’re called foreign languages makes sense I guess.

  The water below me is the bluest blue I’ve ever seen. I’m used to Lake Michigan, a sort of green or gray, depending on the time of year and the time of day. This water is achingly, cinematically blue. Something you’d see on a Discovery Channel show about aquatic life, or the coral reefs, or marine-based eco-tourism. The ship slowly edges its way up to the dock, and I gather my two suitcases, struggling to balance them on my shoulders.

  The ship is a madhouse and I’m only five foot two, so I’m in danger of being mowed over by the enthusiastic crowd. I try to use the two-ton bags hanging off of my shoulders to buffer me from the virtual mosh pit that’s formed at the exit down the gangplank.

  I’m doing pretty well, having settled in between a tall man with a toddler in his arms on one side and a little old lady on the other. But right as we’re about to reach the pavement of the dock the guerilla grandma sees her family who are standing ten feet away yelling and waving like lunatics. She starts shouting back at them in Greek and with a determination I’ve never seen on someone that old she puts both elbows out, tucks her head, and charges like a defensive lineman taking out a running back. She manages to clip me in the rib cage, and my bag swings back, then forward, gaining momentum that propels me the last two feet off the edge of the gangplank.

  I fly onto the sidewalk, and land on my feet, but the bags are heavy and they’re still moving even though I’m trying to stop, so I stumble. Their weight is pulling me down, I’m heading for a horrible impact on solid concrete, when out of nowhere, a pair of hands catch me under the elbows, lifting me, bags and all, upright onto my feet. I stand for a moment trying to catch my breath. Then I look up—way up—to thank whoever has saved me from both humiliation and I’m sure a good deal of pain.

  I stare at him blankly, my heart beating erratically as I take in his tan skin, crys
talline eyes, and dark, nearly black, wavy hair. He’s wearing a blue t-shirt, fitting close in all the right places, and a pair of athletic shorts with beat up Nikes. The stubble that grazes his jaw is the absolute right amount—not too heavy, not too sparse—he must be one of those special one-in-a-million guys blessed with perfect facial hair. My brother, Nate, always talks about how much he hates those guys. Nate can’t grow decent stubble to save his life.

  A smile spreads across his face and his teeth are as perfect as the rest of him. White, straight, and shiny.

  “You okay?” he asks, a slight accent to his English.

  I swallow. Hard. Words seem to be escaping me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more perfect-looking guy. Ever.

  “Did you hit your head or something?” he asks, a small furrow appearing in his brow as he peers at me.

  “Oh! No.” My brain finally catches up to my libido and I work to get words out of my dropped jaw. “No, I’m fine. Thank you. For catching me, I mean.”

  He chuckles and raises an eyebrow obviously thinking I’m an idiot. “Sure thing. Old Mrs. Yanos is a vicious one when she wants to get to her grandkids.”

  That snaps me out of it and I look past him trying to find the ancient battering ram who nearly laid me out.

  “Mrs. Yanos? She’s dangerous as hell. Can’t she read?” I point to the signs written in several languages that say: Please disembark in an orderly fashion. Safety first.

  Perfect guy looks at me for a minute then busts up laughing.

  “What?” I ask, incensed that he’s ridiculing me when I’ve just escaped what surely would have been a life-threatening injury. Well, ok, could have been a life-threatening injury. Maybe.

  “No one’s read that sign or followed the rules in fifty years or so. In fact, I work across the street and I’m here all the time and I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that sign.”

  “Well what the hell is the point of having rules if no one is going to follow them?”

  He shrugs. “Someone probably thought it was a good idea to put it up, but as a suggestion. Because everyone knows that Stefan, who captains the ship, doesn’t like to dock here since it’s got a view of his ex-girlfriend’s house, so if you want to get off the ship you have to do it fast or he’ll leave again and you’ll get stuck going to the far side of the island. Then you’ve got to call a cab to come get you. It can take a couple of hours all together.”

  I stare at him again, but this time it’s not in lust, it’s in disgust. My father is a district attorney and my brother is an FBI agent. My mom was a State police officer until she had us and decided to stay home and consult with the local police department instead. I’m majoring in forensic accounting. We’re in law enforcement, and we follow the laws, the rules, and the procedures. I mean, if you don’t, society falls apart. Right?

  “Again. What’s the point of the sign then?” I huff.

  He shakes his head. “You’ve never been to Greece, have you?”

  “Nooo…”

  “Well, princess, Greece is chill. We don’t fuss over the rules too much here. It all works out fine.”

  Princess? Don’t fuss over the rules too much? I sputter, “W-what? You’re kidding, right?”

  He laughs. Yes, laughs. “Can I get you a valium or something?” he asks. “I don’t want you to stroke out here on the docks.”

  Oh my God. He is such an utter ass. I should have known. Anyone that pretty must be a jerk too. It’s a law of nature or something. They get by on their looks, so they learn they can act like an asshole and still skate by.

  “Listen,” I say, getting as far up in his face as I can, which really isn’t all that far since the top of my head barely makes it to his shoulder. So, really I’m getting up in his chest, which, wow, is such a nice chest. I breathe in and smell the ocean, and soap and guy. My head swims a little and I blow out the breath, taking a step back because, shit. Focus.

  “I don’t know who you are, and I’m not an expert on Greece, but it’s the source of our modern democratic systems of government, so I don’t believe for one moment that no one here follows rules or laws—” Just then a tall, lithe Mediterranean-looking girl appears in front of me. “Excuse me, are you Tess Richardson?” she asks.

  I turn to look at her. She’s very beautiful, curly shoulder-length hair, big dark eyes, and full lips.

  “Yes!” I’m so happy to see this girl even though I don’t know her. “You must be Cass.”

  “I am,” she answers, grinning. My new roommate. I’m so happy to see a friendly face. Mr. Perfect did a good job of saving my bacon, but I’d almost rather have wiped out on the pavement he’s pissed me off so much now.

  “It’s so nice to meet you,” I say, throwing chill guy a dirty look before I give Cass my most winning smile.

  I can see the gorgeous hunk of rule-defying man smirking out of the corner of my eye.

  Cass glances at him then does a double-take. Yeah, I want to say, he really is that perfect.

  “So are you ready to go?” She looks between us, obviously confused if he’s with me. He’s got his arms crossed now, biceps bulging all sexy irritating, and is leaning back against the railing that runs alongside the dock.

  “Yes. Definitely.” I turn to him. “Thank you for helping me off the ship,” I say. God, I sound like a nerd.

  He grins and slides a pair of Oakleys on his face. “Anytime, princess.”

  I grit my teeth. I’ve known him for all of three minutes and he’s given me a nickname. Who does that?

  “Let’s go,” I say to Cass without opening my mouth.

  She stares at me and blinks. “Oh-kay then.”

  I lift my bags higher on my shoulders and look at perfection one last time. Too bad he’s so annoying. “Nice to have met you,” I say as I step away to follow Cass.

  “You never actually met me,” he says, still lounging against the railing. “You never got my name,” he calls as I walk further away.

  “There’s a reason for that,” I call back without turning around.

  The last sound I hear is him laughing as we leave the dock and make our way to Cass’s little car.

  * * *

  The streets of Georgios are narrow and the Toyota Aygo we’re driving in is too. Cass maneuvers it like a grand prix driver, and we lurch around street corners, through tunnels that go underneath buildings, and even onto a curb or two.

  “Whoa,” I say as she cuts across the corner of a sidewalk at an intersection so that she can get around a delivery truck that’s stopped in the dead center of the road. My eyes scan the area for police. “Aren’t you worried you’ll get a ticket?”

  She laughs. “Driving here is a lot different than driving back home.”

  Cass’s been here since the middle of last school year, so she knows what’s going on. She’s from Chicago University too but I don’t remember ever seeing her around campus. She’ll be staying until the Christmas holiday then going back home to finish up her final semester.

  “But surely they have traffic laws.”

  “Yeah, but they don’t enforce them much. It all works out fine.” She brakes as a kid on a bike pulls out into the road without even looking.

  I grip the edge of the seat underneath me. What is with everyone here? Has the sun addled all their brains?

  “Oh yeah?” I ask. “Like that kid nearly getting killed?”

  “Eh, he’s fine,” she scoffs. As we pull up next to him she leans out the window and says something to him in Greek. The kid grins and shouts something back as he takes off on the bike again.

  “So welcome to Greece!” she says out of the blue.

  “Thanks.” I give her a grateful smile.

  “And how did you end up with Niko?” she asks.

  “Who?”

  “Niko. The guy you were talking to at the dock?”

  “Oh. He caught me when this little old woman plowed into me coming down the gangplank of the ship. With my suitcases hanging off of my shoulders I’m like a w
eeble about to topple over.”

  “Nicely done,” she purrs.

  “What do you mean?”

  She shakes her head like I’m hopeless. “Niko is the hottest guy on the island. If you ask me, he’s the hottest guy for like five islands in any direction. And he doesn’t go around helping people for the hell of it. He must have liked you.”

  The car veers to the left and we start on a winding road that goes up the side of a steep hill.

  I snort. “I don’t think so. I sort of fell into him, he didn’t really have a choice.”

  “Oh, there’s always a choice for Niko. Life is full of choices when your dad is a billionaire.”

  “Really? Wow. That must be…just wow.”

  “Right?” She pulls up to the front of a tall, narrow stucco building with a darling little Juliet balcony draped in red carnations. She turns to me as she switches off the ignition. “Ari Stephanos is the wealthiest man in Greece, and Niko is the only heir. All the looks, all the money. He was even a star soccer player at the University of Miami when he went there.”

  My heart stutters for a moment. “That guy is Ari Stephanos’s son? Like Stephanos Shipping?”

  “Yep. That’s where the billions come from.”

  I groan. “Ugh. This is so my luck.”