LITMIR.BIZ

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an inner voice said.

      Sara knew she’d never forget Nikos.

      She paid for her ticket, checked her luggage and made her way to the concourse to await the flight. She couldn’t wait to see Stacy and tell her everything. Or almost everything. Sara wondered how long it would be before she could talk about Nikos without revealing how she felt.

      The preliminary boarding began. She’d be home in a few hours.

      “Sara,” Nikos said.

      She looked up. “What are you doing here?” she asked, astonished to see him.

      “I want to talk.”

      “You can’t be here. Only people with tickets can be here. Besides, they’ve called my flight.”

      “I bought a ticket. It was the only way. But I don’t want to use it. I don’t want you to use yours. I want to talk.”

      “We have nothing to say. You’ve made that perfectly clear—especially the part where you think I’m angling for money, no matter who gets in my way.”

      “I think I was wrong about that.”

      “What? You think you were wrong about that. You were totally wrong!”

      People began to watch them. Sara glanced around, seeing the curiosity on their faces.

      “Go away,” she said, looking anywhere but at Nikos.

      “If I go anywhere, it’ll be to London. If we have to sit side by side on the plane and hash this all out, I’m good to go.”

      “We are not sitting together on the plane.”

      He held out his boarding pass. The seat number was adjacent to hers.

      “How did you manage that?” she asked suspiciously.

      “Money has its uses. I bribed the ticket agent.”

      “That’s just wrong.”

      “Not as wrong as your leaving before we have a chance to talk—really talk. Sara, don’t go. Stay here in Greece. Get to know Eleani. Get to know me.”

      “You? What do you have to do with my relationship with my grandmother?”

      “Nothing. Do what you want with her. Stay for me.”

      She didn’t understand. “I’m going home.”

      “Make Greece your home. You speak the language, know the food, the traditions—the dances. Stay, make your life here—with me.”

      Now Sara knew she was confused. Nikos wanted an arranged business marriage. He couldn’t be proposing.

      “Exactly what are you talking about?” she asked.

      It was his turn to look around at the avid audience they had. Frowning, he held out his hand for hers. “Come with me. I’d prefer some privacy.”

      “Nothing you have to say requires privacy, unless you plan to blast me for using you to reach my grandmother.”

      “Dammit, I want to ask you to marry me, but not in front of a hundred strangers,” he snapped.

      Sara blinked. “Marry?” she squeaked. Had she heard him correctly? The man who thought all women were after his money and couldn’t love him. The man who wanted a business marriage with a woman of equal fortune was proposing to her? Poor, working woman Sara Andropolous?

      No, she had not heard him correctly.

      Someone in the group of passengers clapped. Soon dozens took up the applause.

      Sara felt the heat rise in her cheeks. “Did you just propose?” she asked. How dare he propose in front of a hundred strangers.

      “I did. You have enough witnesses.”

      “You don’t want to marry me.”

      “If you would come with me as I asked, I would explain.”

      She rose and picked up her tote. Turning to face the majority of the passengers, she shrugged. “Looks like I’m not going to London after all.” With a smile she turned back to Nikos. “This had better be good. If you have me miss my flight for anything less than perfection, I’m not going to be happy.”

      He reached out and took her hand, lacing his fingers with hers, raising them to his lips for a brief kiss.

      “If you would just say yes, it would make everything easier.”

      “And why do I want to make things easier for you?” she asked, feeling daring. Her heart sang. He had proposed and she had no intention of refusing. But if he didn’t know that yet, it wouldn’t hurt to draw this out a bit.

      He began striding down the concourse. Sara had to run a couple of steps to catch up.

      “How did you find me?” she asked.

      “I called your room and you didn’t answer. It didn’t take long to discover you had booked a flight out tonight. My fear was the traffic, that I wouldn’t make it before you left. Which means I would have had to follow you to England.”

      “You could have said something before,” she grumbled. “We were on the boat for three hours.”

      “I wanted more privacy than can be found on Cassandra,” he said, heading back to the terminal. In less than five minutes they were in the back of his limousine. He flipped a switch, closing the window to the driver’s section. He pulled Sara into his arms and kissed her. Thoroughly.

      Breathlessly she pulled back a few moments later and gazed up into his warm brown eyes.

      “Is that a yes?” he asked.

      “I thought you were going to explain things,” she countered, stalling. She still wasn’t sure he knew what he was doing. He really wanted to marry her?

      “Time enough for all the explanations in the world once you tell me you’ll marry me. I love you, Sara. I never thought I’d say those words again. I never thought I’d truly feel the emotion again. But I do—when I’m with you. When I think about you. When I dream about you.

      “I want to spend my life with you, and have you with me every day. Maybe we’ll have some babies together—children we can love together, raise together, and who will give us grandchildren that will delight our souls. Or if we don’t, you will always be enough for me. Say you love me. Tell me you didn’t just use me to get to Eleani. That our time meant something special to you—as it did to me.”

      “It did. Of course it did! I fell in love with you, too. I was thrilled when you visited me on the aft deck. But your story about Ariana scared me. I knew you were planning to ask Gina to marry you—rumors like that don’t stay quiet long. I didn’t want to repeat the mistake my mother made. I didn’t want to hold on to hope that you would learn to love me. She never stopped hoping my father would return.”

      “She loved him that much?”

      Sara shook her head slowly. “I’m not sure. Sometimes, and especially after talking with Eleani, I wondered if it was just her pride. She’d given up so much for him, she wanted it to come right. Only, for her it never did.”

      “We won’t be like your parents. Nor mine, come to that. I don’t mind entertaining or going to parties, but it’s you I want to be with. Sailing in the Cassandra, swimming in the sea.”

      “Working at the resort. I can still cook there, right?”

      “If you want. Or not, if you don’t.”

      “I do. I love my job. And there’s so much more I can learn about Greek foods. If you adjust your hours, we’ll be together when we’re not working.”

      “So you have it figured out?”

      She smiled and touched his cheek. “It

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