Read Online Securing the Greek's Legacy by Julia James - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Julia James
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him, Lyn slowly sank down on to one of the pristine sofas.
She felt completely numb.
* * *
Over the next two days she gradually started to feel less numb—less in shock. And gradually, too, she became used to her new surroundings. Although she was worried Georgy might make a mess of the pristine decor, she could not help but find the luxury, warmth and comfort of the apartment very easy to appreciate after the privations of her dingy flat. The milder air of the capital drew her out to the park, with Georgy enthroned in a brand-new, top-of-the-range buggy delivered from a top London store.
She was just returning from such an outing on her third day in the apartment, wheeling Georgy into the spacious hallway, when she realised she was not alone.
Anatole strolled out of the living room.
Immediately Georgy crowed with delight and recognition, holding out his chubby arms. Lyn’s senses reeled as she took in Anatole’s tall, elegant figure and dark good-looks. He was wearing a suit but had discarded the jacket, loosened his shirt collar and cuffs. The effect of the slight informality of his appearance made her stomach tighten. He looked lean and powerful and devastatingly masculine.
He glanced a smile of greeting at her, and hunkered down to extract Georgy. Hefting him out, he held him up and swung him high in both hands. He greeted him in Greek, then did likewise, in English, to Lyn.
‘Hi,’ she murmured awkwardly, and busied herself folding up the buggy and putting it away in the hall cupboard.
She let Anatole keep Georgy and, taking off her baggy jacket and hanging it up beside the buggy, followed them into the living room. It was no longer quite as pristine as it had once been. One sofa had been covered by a fleecy throw—more to protect its pale covers than to protect Georgy—on the thick carpet another throw was spread out, arrayed with a good selection of Georgy’s toys.
She watched Anatole carefully lower the baby down on to the floor, where Georgy gleefully seized upon one of his soft toys.
Anatole stood back, watching him. His mood was resolute. The time he’d spent in Greece had seen to that. His grandfather was a changed man, summoning all his doctors and demanding the very latest drugs, determined to live now for as long as he could. Determined, too, to see his great-grandson restored to his family. Even if it required Anatole to resort to this drastic strategy to make that happen.
Timon had seemed to take a moment or two to absorb Anatole’s announcement, his face blanking as if in shock, but then he had simply waved an impatient hand. ‘If it keeps all the damn officials happy and speeds everything up, it’s worth it,’ Timon had said. Then he’d cast a sly look at his grandson. ‘I take it she’s got other charms than just being the boy’s aunt?’
Anatole’s eyes rested on the figure stiffly sitting herself down on sofa, busying herself playing with Georgy. No, the charms that Timon had been implying she might have were conspicuously absent. She still looked just as she had when he’d first set eyes on her, with her dark hair pulled back apart from some straggly bits pushed behind her ears, no make-up, and wearing a shapeless jumper and jeans that bagged at the knees. Yet as he studied her, watched her playing with Georgy, his eyes went to her face and his blighting assessment wavered.
If he dragged his gaze away from her dire hair and worse clothes he could see that her pale skin was clear and unblemished, and her grey eyes were well set beneath defined brows, sparkling now with animation as she laughed with Georgy. The shape of her face was oval, he noted, with a delicate bone structure, and there was something about the line of her mouth that held his glance...
He watched her a moment longer, resolve forming within him. She could not possibly turn up in Greece as his fiancée looking the way she did now, so badly dressed and unkempt.
Well, that could be sorted, but right now he
She felt completely numb.
* * *
Over the next two days she gradually started to feel less numb—less in shock. And gradually, too, she became used to her new surroundings. Although she was worried Georgy might make a mess of the pristine decor, she could not help but find the luxury, warmth and comfort of the apartment very easy to appreciate after the privations of her dingy flat. The milder air of the capital drew her out to the park, with Georgy enthroned in a brand-new, top-of-the-range buggy delivered from a top London store.
She was just returning from such an outing on her third day in the apartment, wheeling Georgy into the spacious hallway, when she realised she was not alone.
Anatole strolled out of the living room.
Immediately Georgy crowed with delight and recognition, holding out his chubby arms. Lyn’s senses reeled as she took in Anatole’s tall, elegant figure and dark good-looks. He was wearing a suit but had discarded the jacket, loosened his shirt collar and cuffs. The effect of the slight informality of his appearance made her stomach tighten. He looked lean and powerful and devastatingly masculine.
He glanced a smile of greeting at her, and hunkered down to extract Georgy. Hefting him out, he held him up and swung him high in both hands. He greeted him in Greek, then did likewise, in English, to Lyn.
‘Hi,’ she murmured awkwardly, and busied herself folding up the buggy and putting it away in the hall cupboard.
She let Anatole keep Georgy and, taking off her baggy jacket and hanging it up beside the buggy, followed them into the living room. It was no longer quite as pristine as it had once been. One sofa had been covered by a fleecy throw—more to protect its pale covers than to protect Georgy—on the thick carpet another throw was spread out, arrayed with a good selection of Georgy’s toys.
She watched Anatole carefully lower the baby down on to the floor, where Georgy gleefully seized upon one of his soft toys.
Anatole stood back, watching him. His mood was resolute. The time he’d spent in Greece had seen to that. His grandfather was a changed man, summoning all his doctors and demanding the very latest drugs, determined to live now for as long as he could. Determined, too, to see his great-grandson restored to his family. Even if it required Anatole to resort to this drastic strategy to make that happen.
Timon had seemed to take a moment or two to absorb Anatole’s announcement, his face blanking as if in shock, but then he had simply waved an impatient hand. ‘If it keeps all the damn officials happy and speeds everything up, it’s worth it,’ Timon had said. Then he’d cast a sly look at his grandson. ‘I take it she’s got other charms than just being the boy’s aunt?’
Anatole’s eyes rested on the figure stiffly sitting herself down on sofa, busying herself playing with Georgy. No, the charms that Timon had been implying she might have were conspicuously absent. She still looked just as she had when he’d first set eyes on her, with her dark hair pulled back apart from some straggly bits pushed behind her ears, no make-up, and wearing a shapeless jumper and jeans that bagged at the knees. Yet as he studied her, watched her playing with Georgy, his eyes went to her face and his blighting assessment wavered.
If he dragged his gaze away from her dire hair and worse clothes he could see that her pale skin was clear and unblemished, and her grey eyes were well set beneath defined brows, sparkling now with animation as she laughed with Georgy. The shape of her face was oval, he noted, with a delicate bone structure, and there was something about the line of her mouth that held his glance...
He watched her a moment longer, resolve forming within him. She could not possibly turn up in Greece as his fiancée looking the way she did now, so badly dressed and unkempt.
Well, that could be sorted, but right now he
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