He was referring to the Cassandra, the main Petralia five-star hotel in Athens, where he kept an elegant, permanent suite. It was like a small house, really, with three bedrooms, a dining and living room and kitchen facilities.
When she’d stayed at the hotel with her aunt and uncle on their first trip to Greece, that’s where she’d met him. Some of her happiest memories of their life together were associated with the Cassandra before they were married. It would be painful to go there.
“Why do we have to go to the hotel? Why not the apartment?”
He moved off the corner of the desk. “We can’t go to the apartment because I sold it to Frato three weeks ago. I’m living at the hotel.”
CHAPTER TWO
LEANDROS HAD SOLD his fabulous penthouse to his cousin? Kellie couldn’t believe it. Stunned by the news, she said, “What’s to stop Karmela from hurrying over to the hotel with something important for you before the day is out?”
He breathed in sharply. “It’ll never happen again.”
Kellie blinked. “That sounded final. She must have received quite a shock to see me in here with you a few minutes ago, but no worries. I won’t be in Athens much longer.”
In the tangible silence that followed, Kellie lowered her eyes and opened her purse. Inside was the paper her attorney had drawn up. “If you’ll please read through this and consult with your attorney, then we’ll sign it and our divorce can go through as scheduled.”
Leandros made no move to take it. She should have known this was going to be a battle to the end. “That’s all right. I’ll read it to you.
“Point One. If and when one or both children are born, the mother will retain custody at her address in Parkwood, Pennsylvania.”
“Why if?” he demanded in an anxious voice. “Is there something you haven’t told me?”
“No. My attorney simply wanted to cover every contingency.”
Shadows darkened his features.
“Point Two. Liberal visitation rights will be offered to the father.
“Point Three. Both mother and father will discuss times when the mother will bring said child or children to Athens for visitation, and when the father will travel to Parkwood for visitation.
“Point Four. The mother asks for no additional money. The father can decide what monies he will afford for the child or children’s upbringing.”
She looked up at him. “It’s all very simple and straightforward.”
His eyes glittered a frostbite gray. “If you think I’m going to agree to that, then you never knew me.” The words seemed to come from a cavern miles underground.
“You’re wrong, Leandros. After being married for a while, I discovered the real you. That’s why we’ve reached this impasse.” Heartbroken, she stood up and left the paper on his desk.
With a grimace, he immediately wadded it in his fist before pocketing it. “When did you fly in?”
“Yesterday morning. I’m staying at the Civitel Olympic near the north park. You can reach me there after you’ve talked with your attorney.”
Leandros moved like lightning, preventing her from leaving the room. Standing in front of the door, he talked into his cell phone and rapped out instructions. When he clicked off, he said, “You won’t be going back to the Civitel. I’ll send Yannis for your personal belongings and have him bring them to you. We’re flying to Andros right now.”
Where else would he take her? It was his favorite place on earth. Hers, too, except… “You mean where Karmela and her family drop in on a regular basis to visit your family whenever you’re in residence there?”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “They come to visit my parents in their villa. As for my family, they’ve already left for the yearly reunion in Stenies village and will be gone overnight, so no one will be around. In any case, we’ll be staying in my villa. Shall we go?”
So much had happened in the last month, Kellie’s mind was spinning. Since he’d dictated the location for the conversation they needed to have, she was left with no choice but to go along with him.
After grabbing his briefcase, he opened the door that led to the elevator, and stepped in behind her. Their bodies brushed, sending darts of awareness through her as they rode to the roof, where the helicopter blades were already rotating.
She smiled at his pilot, Stefon, before climbing in the back to join Christos. Kellie had done this so often in the past, she strapped herself in before Leandros could do it. She watched him take the copilot’s seat and put on the earphones. Soon they were airborne for the short flight to Andros, an hour and a half from Athens by car and ferry. There was no airport, but with a helicopter, Leandros could be where he wanted in no time at all.
That pang of familiarity attacked her in waves as they left Athens and headed for the fertile green island in the Cyclades that Leandros called home. It was a contrast of craggy mountains, woods, valleys and streams rising out of the blue Aegean.
The Petralia estate was located on the eastern slope of a hillside with its share of vineyards, lemon and walnut groves near Gialia beach. To Kellie, the island was glorious beyond description.
Close by was the picturesque stone village of Stenies, with its paved streets. The cluster of villas on the estate had been built in the same traditional stone architecture of the region. Parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins…all lived in the vicinity.
Leandros loved it because tourism hadn’t been developed in this quieter area, thus preserving the whole place’s authentic character. After their wedding, at the church in Chora, Kellie had thought she’d found paradise on her honeymoon here, until she learned the Paulos family, among other wealthy families, lived on the same part of the island. The two families had enjoyed a warm relationship over the last fifty years.
Once she’d realized this was where Leandros had fallen in love with Petra, Kellie never felt as excited when they flew over on the weekends he didn’t have a business commitment elsewhere. To her growing discomfort, she’d often discovered Karmela and her parents were there visiting Leandros’s family at his parents’ villa. They would always call Leandros and ask him to join them. Their presence had to be a reminder of what he’d lost.
Since his feelings for home were intertwined with his memories of Petra, Kellie imagined he was a prisoner of both. To fight her pain, she’d preferred they stay at the apartment in Athens when she wasn’t traveling with him on business.
Now there was no apartment, but none of that mattered at this point. Wherever Leandros took her so they could talk, nothing would change the fact that they were getting a divorce, children or no children. There were some things they just couldn’t overcome, no matter how much her heart broke at the thought.
She’d done the right thing by coming to him with the news of his impending fatherhood. It was his Godgiven right. If he found a way to prevent the divorce from happening as soon as she’d anticipated, she would still go back to Pennsylvania day after tomorrow, and let her attorney deal with it.
While she was deep in thought, Stefon flew them over the capital town of Chora, where the tourists came in throngs to see its charming Venetian architecture. Farther on she spotted the seventeenth century tower of Bisti-Mouvela and the nearby church of Agios Georgios. Soon they were passing over the Petralia estate. It was a wonderful place with an old olive press building, all part of Leandros’s idyllic childhood and an intrinsic part of who he was.
The first time Kellie ever saw his romantic stone farmhouse with its flat roof, she’d fallen instantly in love with it. When she stayed there with him,