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

because she was realizing she still didn’t really like who she was at the most basic level. She’d spent her entire life pretending to be someone she wasn’t, pretending that the small, run-down trailer she’d grown up in was a large ranch house, for starters.
    She’d lied about so much of where she’d come from that she didn’t want to face the truth. But it was past time for that. Theo had never met his maternal grandparents and never would. Her father had kicked her out of the trailer when she’d come home pregnant and jobless.
    “I don’t like where I came from,” she said into the quietness. “And I would never have met you if I hadn’t created a different background for myself, so I’m not going to apologize for that. Perhaps it would have been better just to keep silent about my family.”
    “I wouldn’t have judged you by your family. But lying about where you came from…I don’t understand that. Hell, half the time I’m hoping no one is judging me by my patera . He makes me crazy.”
    She shook her head, allowing a small smile to touch her lips. “That’s because all the Theakis men have to have their own way.”
    “True. But that’s not what you were running from.”
    “No. I grew up in a run-down trailer that sits in the middle of nowhere. We never had any money.”
    “Money’s not important,” he said.
    “If you have it. If you don’t, it’s all anyone ever talks about.”
    “I don’t see what this has to do with my trusting you,” he said.
    She took a deep breath. Of course he wouldn’t. She realized in this moment that she had a choice. She could continue to avoid talking about how she’d grown up and never gain Christos’s trust, or she could slowly tear down those barriers.
    And was there really a choice? She’d had a glimpse of real happiness in Christos’s arms when he’d held her and Theo. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I hate that part of my past. It’s the root of every lie I ever told, not just to you, but also to myself.”
    He reached for the whiskey glass on the wet bar countertop and poured himself another drink. He picked it up and swallowed it quickly. “You lie to yourself?”
    “Don’t you?”
    He shook his head. “No. I face all my failings constantly. They are at times a running litany in my mind.”
    “What failings?”
    He shrugged. “Let’s keep this about you.”
    “We can’t have a relationship if I’m the only one who talks.”
    “We can start with you. Once you’ve…how did you put it? Ah, yes, once you’ve let me see the woman you are, then we can delve into my psyche.”
    “You can be an arrogant jerk,” she said.
    “So I’ve been told.”
    “I don’t have many things that mean much to me,” she said. “Only my son and then this glimpse of a real relationship with you…”
    She had no idea what else to say. She wanted to be witty and funny and charm him out of his arrogance but she suspected she’d never be able to do that.
    She heard him set down his glass, then his footsteps echoed on the tiled floor as he walked toward her. She couldn’t believe they’d just shared an explosive sexual encounter on the bed and now they were immersed in this conversation, embroiled in a past that, no matter how fast she ran or how many twists and turns she forced her life to take, still held her trapped.
    He stopped in front of her, and she had a glimpse of his bare chest under the shirt that he’d not rebuttoned. She wished she’d just stayed there in his arms.
    “Look at me,” he said.
    She glanced up, surprised to see a very serious look in his eyes. “What?”
    “I’m only arrogant when someone really strikes a chord deep inside me. I don’t know how to deal with genuine emotion, and you have always made me feel more than I’m comfortable with.”
    She had no response to that.
    He cupped her cheek and she stood very still, afraid she was going to say something that would drive him back across the room.
    “I think the