Free The Greek Tycoon's Secret Heir by Katherine Garbera Page A

the hell difference does it make? Theo is here, I’ve claimed him and you and I are to be married.”
    “It makes all the difference in the world. Even you must be able to see that. Do you really want to marry a woman who you think is capable of sleeping with you and another man? Your own brother ?”
    “Hell, no. Our prenuptial agreement is specific about what will happen if you do that again.”
    “Again? I never did it before.”
    “It’s past, Ava, let it go.”
    “How can I, when you won’t?”
    “I’m not going to argue this with you.”
    “You can’t walk away from this. I’m not going to let you. If you want me to marry you, if you want Theo to stay here on Mykonos, we need to finish this now.”
    “How?”
    “I guess trusting me is out,” she said, nibbling on her lower lip in that sexy way she always did.
    “You lied to me,” he said. She had lied about several things. Things like who her family was and where she’d come from.
    “That was different. My family is nothing like yours. I thought you’d prefer a woman who came from a similar background.”
    He understood that. Would have forgiven her the tales about her family back in the States if she’d come to him and told him the truth. But instead he’d had to find out about it from Nikki. His sister-in-law had been concerned when she’d learned of his and Ava’s affair and had revealed Ava’s background check to him. Everything in it suggested that Ava was a poor girl hoping to bag a wealthy husband. Her lies had only confirmed that.
    “I was young and I told you the truth eventually.”
    But it had been too late. He could never believe that she hadn’t overheard him and Nikki talking that morning on the terrace.
    “It’s inconsequential.”
    “It’s not. That’s the reason you believe I’d sleep with Stavros.”
    He set down his whiskey glass before he threw it across the room. He hated those images in his head. The ones of Ava and his brother that he’d never been able to erase.
    “Enough. Leave this room.”
    “No.”
    “No?”
    “I’m sure that’s a word you don’t hear very often but I think you know what it means.”
    “Ava—”
    “Christos, I’m prepared to be very stubborn about this. I want us to have a real marriage, to have a real family with Theo, and we can’t if you don’t believe me.”
    “Fine, we’ll have a paternity test.”
    “Now you’d believe a test over my word?” she asked, there was something broken in her voice and though he wanted to pretend it didn’t affect him, it did.
    “Ava…”
    “Forget it. We’re not taking a paternity test. I no longer want to do that. I’m going to convince you that you’re wrong.”
    “How will you do that? Stavros is dead. I can never ask my brother about what happened between the two of you.”
    “You never talked to him about it?”
    “No. And he never denied it when we fought over you.” He’d told Stavros they were dead to each other and had left Mykonos and Greece, spending the majority of his time traveling to his various businesses and staying so busy he never had time to feel the gaping wound that had been left by that action.
    “Oh, Christos.”
    He hated that she might pity him. “How do you mean to convince me?”
    “By letting you see the woman I am. I could never betray you and I will stop at nothing to prove that to you.”

    Ava hadn’t realized how much Christos had lost after she’d returned to America. They’d both had their lives shattered by the lies that Stavros had told, first to Nikki and then, when Nikki had gone to Christos, to his own brother.
    Christos had seen her alone with Stavros on more than one occasion. She’d been providing a cover for her boss and his mistress, another lie that she’d contributed to that at the time had seemed…well, not exactly harmless, but necessary.
    Convincing Christos to trust her was going to be difficult, she didn’t kid herself. Not only because of the seeds of the past but