The Greek's Innocent Virgin

She stepped forward, entering the room like a wary doe in the hunter’s sights. “I didn’t want to intrude.”

“If I needed privacy, the door would be shut.”

“Of course.” She took a deep breath, avoiding direct eye contact, her hands fisted at her sides. “Do you have a moment? I have some things I need to discuss with you.”

He nodded toward one of the red leather chairs he and his mother had occupied when the wills were read earlier. “Have a seat. I know what you want to talk about and I’m sure we can come to an amicable arrangement.”

Rachel had taken the news she’d inherited virtually nothing with too much calm acceptance earlier that day. Any offspring of the scheming Andrea would have expected a large settlement on the death of her wealthy stepfather. Rachel had to have been seriously disappointed.

The small set of books on Hellenic culture Matthias had bequeathed to her had been nothing more than a sentimental nod to the evenings he had spent discussing Greek history with his stepdaughter. Even if she sold them, they would net her only a few thousand dollars.

Sebastian saw no reason to refuse Rachel a settlement…in exchange for a vow of silence on her mother’s years as Matthias Demakis’s wife. He had no desire to read sleazy stories in the gutter press given credence by paid for interviews with Andrea Demakis’s daughter.

Rachel slid into the red chair, its oversize winged back giving her the appearance of a child. Or perhaps a fairy queen. Children did not have curves that haunted men’s dreams and sparked their libidos. He knew Rachel did, even if the white pants and top she currently wore did nothing to reveal the hourglass figure he’d seen on the few occasions she’d swum with him in his great-uncle’s pool.

She was as unassuming and conventional as her mother had been flamboyant and morally corrupt. At least on the surface.

How much of that innocence was real?

Considering the discussion they were about to have, he would have to assume a very small part.

“I shouldn’t be surprised you expected me.” A smile briefly lifted the corners of Rachel’s mouth. “You’ve always seen things others tend to ignore.”

“Certainly more than my uncle did when he looked at your mother.”

An emotionless mask descended over Rachel’s porcelain features, all vestiges of her smile dissipating like mist under a warm sun. “No doubt.”

“And I suppose this is what you wish to discuss with me?” The fact Matthias Demakis had finally wised up to his grasping, faithless wife leaving neither her, nor her daughter anything of real value in his will.

“In a way, yes.” She sat up straight in the chair and then shifted her legs so that one crossed over the other. “I need to return to my job fairly soon.”

“Yes?”

“And there are my mother’s things to be gone through.”

“Did you want to delegate that task to the servants?”

“No.” Her mouth pursed as if in distaste at the thought. “That wouldn’t be right, but I need to know what you want me to do with them.”

“Surely that is a decision you must make.”

“I’d considered donating her clothes and jewelry to charity, but then I realized there was the possibility Matthias had given her family heirloom pieces. I’m sure you wouldn’t want them to go to strangers.”

Ah…the first salvo. “And you would like me to buy them from you?”

Her eyes widened, the distaste in her expression blatant this time. “Don’t be ridiculous. I simply need you to take a moment to identify which of the jewelry are heirlooms. If you don’t have the time, perhaps your mother would be willing to do it. Anyway, I can’t and I want to make sure your family takes possession of them before I dispose of the others.”

“You propose to give me the family pieces?”

“Yes.” She looked at him as if she was doubting his intelligence.

It was a new experience for him and he almost found himself smiling.

“It would actually help quite a bit if someone could go through all of the things in her bedroom with me to make sure anything of sentimental value to the family is kept before I have the removalists come.”

“Removalists?”

“I’ve been in contact with an international association dedicated to the welfare of children. They’ve agreed to take possession of Andrea’s things and sell them at auction to raise funds for their cause.”

Reeling with the unexpected direction the conversation had taken, Sebastian’s superior brain took several seconds to compute the import of Rachel’s words. “You don’t plan to keep anything of your mother’s?”

“No.” Rachel’s now completely dispassionate expression told him nothing of her thoughts.

“But her clothes alone are easily worth over one-hundred-thousand American dollars.”

“That’s wonderful news for the charity.”

“But means nothing to you?” He refused to believe it. No one was this uninterested in financial gain. “And the apartment in New York. You plan to give that to charity as well?”

“She owned an apartment in New York?” Rachel sounded more annoyed than overjoyed by that piece of news.

“I suppose you’re going to tell me you want to donate that to charity as well?” he asked derisively.

“No, of course not.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“If you’ll have the deed drawn up, I’ll sign it back over to the estate.”

Sebastian reared to his feet, sending his chair crashing backward. “What kind of game are you playing?”

Rachel paled, but drew herself up, uncrossing her legs and moving forward on her chair.

“I’m not playing any sort of game,” she said with quiet vehemence. “Maybe you were right about me trying to put a brake on Andrea’s behavior. I didn’t try and I’ll have to live with that knowledge for the rest of my life, but I refuse to personally profit by it. I simply won’t.” The fervor in Rachel’s manner was either the best drama he’d seen in a long time, or she was entirely sincere.

“There is no need for you to make a grand gesture,” he dismissed with irritation, realizing his words the day before had instigated this conversation. “While there is no doubt your mother manipulated my uncle for her own gain, her material extravagance cost him negligibly in a financial sense.”

He listed off the few properties and cars Andrea had been gifted by Matthias in their six year long marriage.

None of which did Sebastian have any desire to take possession of. It had been the personal cost of marriage to the grasping woman that had hurt Matthias and subsequently his family so much.

“Then it should be a simple matter for your lawyers to see that all significant properties are returned to the estate and smaller possessions donated to charity.”

“My uncle would not have wanted you to give up claim to your inheritance in some misguided attempt to make up for the past and I refuse to condone you doing so.”

She shook her head and smiled, a genuinely amused expression that made her green eyes glow and his breathing go from normal to erratic.

“You are so used to getting your own way, you amaze me.”