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He moved quickly to stand beside her, his arm going around her waist in a way that was not at all appropriate for a business meeting. But then calling her by Greek endearments hadn’t been either.
Andreas pulled her into his side. “Pleasure, Hawk. I put my own proposal forward to Kayla yesterday. If she agrees, you can consider your terms acceptable.”
Kayla nearly choked on the air she was trying to drag into her lungs. He had not just said that. Peeking up at his profile, she was snagged by an all-too-serious green gaze.
She bit back her own epithet. Oh, he’d said it all right. And just like everything else he said, he meant it.
“Whatever you proposed must be very important to you.” Sebastian was back to looking at her quizzically.
Kayla gave him a sickly smile. “Goodbye, Sebastian.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
KAYLA FOLLOWED ANDREAS into the suite. She’d maintained radio silence since his pronouncement at the restaurant, but there was plenty she wanted to say. Plenty.
Once the door closed behind them, she spun to face Andreas, but words actually failed her.
He shrugged out of his perfectly tailored jacket and even went so far as to tug off his tie before undoing a couple of buttons on his shirt.
“Well?” he prompted, when she just stood there in the center of the living area, her business suit wholly inadequate armor against the emotions he provoked in her.
“What do you mean, well? How could you say something like that?” Yes, her voice was a few decibels above normal and maybe she was waving her arms like a madwoman, but who would blame her?
“Something like what? Goodbye? Talk to you later?” he replied with totally inappropriate facetiousness.
“You know what! You told Sebastian Hawk you’d agree to his terms if I agreed to marry you.”
Andreas shrugged, appearing supremely unconcerned. “Yes, I did.”
“You don’t want to keep any percent of the company.”
Andreas undid another couple of buttons on his shirt. “As Sebastian so astutely pointed out, your positive answer to my proposal is very important to me.”
Now was not the time to notice how attractive the slice of hairy chest he revealed was.
“Enough to sell yourself?” she demanded, feeling like she was the one being sold.
“That is not how I see it.” Andreas indicated she should sit on the plush cream sofa. Once she did, he lowered himself into the spot right beside her. “While you may dislike the negotiation side of things and find our methods cutthroat, I excel at them.”
She knew that. She did. And having him on her side in negotiations was something powerful. “But using yourself in terms I know you can’t want...”
“I knew what Sebastian would ask for before we went into that meeting. He’s made no secret that he would prefer I maintain a nominal connection with the business since we started talks.”
“When did you start those talks?” she couldn’t help asking.
“Talks grew serious a couple of months ago.” Andreas laid his arm across the back of the sofa, bringing his body that much closer to hers.
Which was enough of an answer. “I should have realized what you were up to. I knew your long-term plan,” Kayla admitted to him and to herself.
Andreas only nodded in agreement, his expression serious and watchful.
“You consider my agreement to marry you important enough to keep that part of your assets tied up in the company?” she asked, still unable to believe that was the case.
“I do.”
“Why?” He’d made it clear he did not love her.
He grimaced. Whether because he didn’t want to answer the question or thought she should already know the answer, she didn’t know. “Six years ago, I brought you into my business to keep you in my life.”
In a way he understood and that he considered more permanent than the relationship they’d had at the time. She got that. Now.
“When you made me see that you would not be coming into my new company with me, I realized there had to be another answer to keeping the one person I consider family in my life in a significant way.” He brushed her neck with his thumb, his expression oh, so serious.
“You never take time off,” she observed.
His brows rose in mockery. “Pot? Meet kettle.”
She smiled. “That’s not what I mean. It’s just, you came tearing after me when you realized I was in New York.”
He’d reacted very badly to her being out of his sphere, almost panicked. She saw that now too.
“I hopped a plane, but your point is taken.”
“Because I’m that important to you?”
“As I have said.” His tone implied he didn’t think he should have had to say so, then or now.
“But you don’t love me.”
“Is that a deal breaker for you?” he asked, rather than answer her.
She thought about it. Andreas would not let himself love her. And while that hurt, badly,she considered how it would impact their life together.
Sex between them was off the hook. They were best friends. Andreas got her in a way that no one else did. And she understood him in a way she hadn’t before, in a way she knew no one else could.
But probably most importantly, she could not imagine her life without him in it. Oh, she was sure she could survive without the Greek tycoon, but honestly? She didn’t want to. With every fiber of her being she did not want to build a life without Andreas Kostas in it.
“Kayla?” he prompted after her long silence.
“I had to think about it.”
His other hand came to rest on her hip, surrounding her with his presence. “And?”
“No, it is not a deal breaker.” She swallowed against a suddenly dry throat.
Green eyes flared with satisfaction and maybe just a little joy. “I am glad.”
“You are not allowed to fall in love with anyone else either.” She glared at him, letting him know she meant what she said. “I’m not marrying you only to be set aside later because you changed your mind about love.”
His laughter was rich and very comforting. “That will not happen.”
“We will adopt?”
“As soon as you like.”
“But you want to try for a baby, as well.”
“Melia Kostas’s DNA deserves to live on to the next generation.”
She laid her own hand against his chest, reveling in the warmth of his skin under his fitted dress shirt. “You know your father will consider the child his grandchild, as well.”
“His arrogance would allow nothing less.”
“Will you let our children have an extended family?” she asked, not sure the answer mattered to her decision, but curious all the same.
“So long as the Kostas and Georgas clans accept all of our children equally, yes.”
“You didn’t even have to think about that.” She’d thought he would have a lot more trouble with the idea.
“Family is very important to you. Withholding myself and our children from my family would hurt you. I will not do that.”
“You’re really kind of amazing, you know that?”
“I’m very glad you think so.”
“I’m not signing a prenup.” Neither of them were going into this marriage with some kind of perfectly contracted-out clause.
His smile was wry. “Genevieve would have a coronary.”
“She’s no longer your bride pimp. You fired her.”
“For good reason.”
“Yes?” Kayla supposed Andreas would consider Genevieve’s threat to come to New York in pursuit of him a good reason.
“She upset you.”
“I thought you fired her because she threatened to come to New York.”
“That was just the final straw, but you do not think I could have dealt with her desire to follow us here?”
Andreas could handle anything.
“I suppose.” She smiled at him. “You can certainl
y handle your family now.”
Which probably explained why he was willing to have the Georgas clan in his children’s lives. Andreas was confident in his ability to protect his family from those who claimed the same status.
“Yes.”
“Your dad let you go when you were eighteen. He didn’t have to do that,” she reminded him.
“He’s a smart businessman. He’s in the long game. Nothing else he had tried had worked to bring me into the fold. He believed that by supporting my desire to attend university in America, he might gain some favor with me finally.”
“I’m not convinced that’s all. After all, you changed your name back to Kostas, which was a slap in the face. He never threatened to remove your funding for school.”
Andreas had told her that six years ago.
“No, but do not believe for one minute his arrogance was diminished in any way. He simply realized that my will in regard to who I am was greater than his.”
