Kostas's Convenient Bride: Kostas's Convenient Bride / Desert Prince's Stolen Bride

She was careful to keep her distance while in the elevator later and in the car on the way to the harbor. Andreas gave her several brooding looks. He’d approved her jacket, but cursed in Greek when he followed her out of the top-floor suite and said something about the fit of her pants. She’d ignored him, but couldn’t help smiling to herself, whatever the reason for the uncharacteristic attention.

When they arrived at the harbor, the line to get on the ship was long and Kayla told herself the cruise would be worth it. However, when they stepped out of the black luxury car, Andreas led her past the long, winding queue of people to a man in a white uniform. Andreas showed his identification and soon after they were shown their way onto the ship.

“VIP treatment?” Kayla asked.

“You know I do not like waiting in lines.”

“I’m sure the people down on the dock do not either.”

“We could have taken a private tour.”

“I wouldn’t have liked that.”

“I knew that. For some strange reason, you like doing regular tourist-type things.”

“So, you booked us on a public cruise, but arranged to board before the rest of the passengers.”

“That about sums it up.” Andreas led her to outside seats near the bulkhead. Kayla would be able to get as many pictures as she liked.

“You are a strange man.”

“Says the woman who could live like a queen, but prefers to live like a peasant.”

“Just a normal person. You’ve got a medieval streak a mile wide.”

“Hardly.”

“I choose to spend my money funding the shelter.”

“And I have told you I would match your funds, but you turned me down.”

“It was too much, and would have set back your plan to prove your worth to your family.” Besides, Kayla for Kids was hers. In the beginning, she’d needed something that Andreas didn’t have a part of. “Besides, I let you donate later.”

Just not match her funds.

“I am not proving my worth to them.” Offense laced every word of Andreas’s reply.

Kayla just shook her head. “Then who are you trying to prove it to?”

“I know my own worth.”

“I would have said so, yes, but this whole plan, it says otherwise.” She’d never spoken so frankly to him, not about this, but she really had nothing left to lose.

Literally.

His plan was taking it all away.

Andreas stared at her like maybe she’d turned from Perl to Python programming language before his eyes. “My plan will show the Georgas clan once and for all that a Kostas does not need them to make his way in the world, that I am better than anything they could have ever made me into.”

“Your father was a jerk, both when he rejected your pregnant mom with a payoff and when he came swooping in after her death to take you back to Greece, no matter what you wanted. But you’ve already proved you don’t need him. You took back your mother’s last name. You’ve made a life for yourself in America, not Greece. You made a success of KJ Software beyond anything they could have imagined. There’s nothing left to prove.”

“I will show them that I can make my own family without them.”

And with those words, Kayla lost any hope that Andreas might not go through with his buy-a-bride plan. Genevieve was going to find him some ideal woman with a perfect pedigree, certainly not a mutt brought up in foster care because her own mother couldn’t be bothered to raise her.

No wonder he’d dumped Kayla six years ago. Not only did he not love her, but she would never fit Andreas’s vision for his life. She’d never even been in the running. Kayla would bet she wouldn’t even make it past Genevieve’s first screening process.

Not that Kayla cared.

She might not have all the credentials to be considered something special in Andreas’s eyes, but she’d made something of herself too, despite her lousy childhood. And she was proud of that fact. It was why she was so committed to the shelter. She believed that given a chance, other kids could make good choices too.

Kayla felt the final death rattle in her heart for any chance at a future with Andreas and forced herself to look at the man next to her as the one thing he insisted on being. Her friend.

She dredged up the sincerest smile she could. “I wish you happiness with your future, Andreas.”

“What just happened?” He searched her face as if trying to read her thoughts.

But Kayla pulled her emotions deep inside, where no one could hurt her, not even Andreas.

“Stop it, Kayla. Whatever is going on in your head.” He grabbed her shoulders, his look intent, bordering on worried. “Damn it. Stop it, right now.”

“Relax, Andreas.” She pulled out the smile. The one that had always fooled the social workers. “Everything’s fine. So, what are we going to see on this tour?”

“Don’t give me that fake smile. Something just happened and I want to know what.”

People started pouring onto the deck, filling the chairs around them, and even if Kayla had been inclined to answer Andreas, which she was not, there was no way it was happening now. He realized it too.

She gave a pointed look to his hands on her shoulders and he released her, his reluctance clear.

That look of frustrated endeavor on his face would have been humorous under any other circumstances. Some answers Andreas Kostas would just have to learn to tolerate going without.

They all had lessons to learn in life and he’d taught her one of the most painful.

Sometimes, you had to give up on dreams. Full stop.

Despite its tense beginnings, Kayla ended up enjoying the cruise very much. She snapped picture after picture on her smartphone as they approached the Statue of Liberty.

“You’re going to run your battery out taking all those photos,” Andreas teased.

She turned to him, unable to suppress a delighted grin. “Tell me this doesn’t touch even that stone-cold heart of yours. Your mother immigrated to the US.”

“Not via Ellis Island.” But there was an expression on his face that said he was more moved than he wanted to acknowledge.

“Coming to America was a big deal for your mom, wasn’t it?”

Andreas shrugged. “She had no life for her back in Greece. Her lover had paid her off, expecting her to get an abortion, something her faith would never allow her to do. Her entire family had rejected her.”

“Because she was pregnant with you?”