The Tycoon's Son

His tour operator’s license had gotten him this far but it wouldn’t be enough to get him on board.

“Welcome back,” one of the staff said with a smile. “Your boarding pass, sir?”

Theo shook his head and offered an easy smile. “I’m not a passenger. I’m meeting—”

The man’s smile disappeared. “I’m sorry, sir. Only passengers are allowed on the ship.”

“I understand that,” Theo said amiably. “However, I’m here to meet—”

“It doesn’t matter, sir,” the man said.

“But—” Theo began.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the guard stand. He wasn’t surprised. Because of security concerns, most cruise ships were reluctant to allow non-passengers on board. That’s why Katherine was supposed to be here, to navigate him through security.

“I am so sorry I’m late.”

Theo heard the feminine voice even before the beautiful woman rounded the corner. Stylishly slim with light brown hair and a fair complexion, she looked more like her English mother than her Greek father.

“Gentlemen, it’s my mistake,” she said, in a soft, melodious voice. “I planned to be here with this before he arrived but I was detained.”

She showed the man the security pass and he scanned it then waved Theo forward. Katherine waited until they were in the hall before wrapping her arms around him in an impulsive hug that seemed to surprise her as much as it did him. He stiffened but didn’t pull away.

Her arms dropped to her side and she took a step back then held out her hand. “By the way, I’m Katherine.”

He took her hand in a brief shake. “Theo Catomeris.

“Thank you so much for coming.” The merest hint of pink touched her cheeks. “And just so you know, I’m not in the habit of hugging complete strangers. But the resemblance to…well, the resemblance is uncanny.”

Theo had seen Elias Stamos on television many times. He knew he bore a strong resemblance to the man, but in his family that was never mentioned. He didn’t know how to respond to Katherine’s comment so he remained silent.

“I’m so happy you decided to come.” Katherine punched the elevator button then gave a nervous laugh. “I think I already said that before, didn’t I?”

Theo just lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug. This was a difficult situation for all of them to navigate. At least she was talking. His ability to make small talk seemed to have vanished.

“I was surprised to get the invitation,” Theo said finally. “I wasn’t aware you knew I even existed.”

“Well, I…we…haven’t always known,” Katherine said. “But we do now.”

Theo sensed she shared his unease on how to manage the situation. Obviously meeting your father’s bastard son wasn’t something covered in most etiquette books.

“Have you had dinner yet?” she asked.

Theo shook his head.

“Good,” Katherine said, and he could almost see a little of the tension ease from her face. “Helena and I considered having dinner brought to the penthouse but we thought you might enjoy seeing some of the ship. The Empire Room is the main dining room.”

Her speech had taken on a nervous, edgy quality that he found oddly reassuring. At least he wasn’t the only one stressed over this meeting.

Katherine took a deep breath and continued. “It serves international cuisine so I’m sure you’ll find something to please your palate. It’s very impressive.”

“Spoken like a true PR person,” Theo said before he could stop himself.

Surprise skittered across Katherine’s face. “You know what I do?”

“Just what I read in the papers,” he said. “I know that Liberty is one of your firm’s biggest accounts.”

“Well, right now you seem to have the advantage,” Katherine said. “Because I don’t know a whole lot about you.”

“Not much to know.” Theo hoped dinner didn’t deteriorate into a question-and-answer session. The last thing he wanted to do was spend the evening being grilled about his past. Of course, enduring an hour of awkward silences didn’t hold much appeal, either.

They stepped into the elevator and Katherine punched the button for deck five. “Helena will join us there.”

“Is Helena younger or older than you?” Theo knew the women had been born a couple years apart but found it hard to keep the two straight in his mind.

“She’s thirty-five.” Katherine brushed a strand of hair behind her ears with a perfectly manicured fingernail. “I just turned thirty-seven. Sometimes I can’t believe I’m that old.”

“I’m forty,” Theo said. “By your calculations, I guess that makes me ancient.”

“Sometimes I feel like all the good years are behind me.” Katherine’s expression turned pensive. “Other times it’s as if the best is yet to be.”

“I understand what you mean,” Theo said, feeling a moment of connectedness with this stranger. At twenty, when Theo had envisioned his life, he’d been determined to have it all; a successful business and a loving wife and children. Lately he’d started to realize he’d been so focused on building his empire that the home and family he’d wanted had never materialized. Now he was forty years old, with nothing to show for his life except a fleet of boats and a profit and loss statement firmly in the black.

He shoved the self-pitying thoughts aside. He had a good life, and like Katherine, he held fast to the thought that the best was yet to come.

When the door to the elevator opened, Theo followed Katherine out and down a long hall. A throng of well-dressed men and women were milling around the entrance to the dining room, waiting to be ushered to their table. Theo wasn’t surprised when Katherine skirted the crowd.

The maître d’ led them to a table draped in white linen in an alcove just off the main dining area. The table looked like something from a magazine with its crystal wineglasses, shiny silver and fine china plates.

Theo didn’t give the elegant table setting much more than a passing glance. Instead his gaze settled on the attractive-looking woman with dark hair and eyes sitting at the table sipping a glass of wine. She rose when he approached the table. Unlike her older sister, Helena’s hair, eyes and facial features reflected her Greek heritage.

Though Theo wasn’t a fashion expert, Helena’s brightly colored dress had a designer look. Thankfully her smile was as open and welcoming as her sister’s.

She stood and extended her hand. “I’m Helena.”

He shook her hand, but instead of releasing it she held it firmly and took a step back. She studied him for a long moment, much as Katherine had, a look of utter astonishment on her face. “You look so much like—”

“He does, doesn’t he?” Katherine said, nodding her agreement.

Theo’s stomach tensed. Hopefully this would be the last remark he’d have to endure about Elias Stamos. If not, it was going to be a short evening indeed.

He offered an affable smile and gestured at the large airy room, hoping to change the subject. “This is a beautiful restaurant.”

“Thank you,” Katherine said. “It took a lot of planning. We have a fabulous French chef who is very talented. Excellent cuisine in an elegant environment is all part of giving passengers a memorable dining experience.”

Katherine sounded, Theo thought, very much like a proud parent.

“So I know that you’re responsible for Liberty’s public relations,” he said to Katherine, then turned to Helena. “And you do costume designing for stage and film?”

“That’s right,” Helena said with a pleased smile. “You’ve done your research.”

“Actually,” Theo said, “all I need to do to keep up is read the newspapers and watch television. Your father is an important man and the news media love his daughters.”

The minute the words left his mouth Theo saw the look of surprise on Katherine’s face when he’d deliberately not claimed any tie to their father. She seemed to be searching for a way to comment when one of the waitstaff standing a discreet distance away moved forward to pull out their chairs.

Once they were comfortably seated, it was Helena, not Katherine who spoke. “What business are you in, Theo? Katherine told me it has something to do with shore excursions?”

“That’s correct,” Theo said. “My company provides excursions to most of the islands around here. We contract with the major cruise lines so we keep busy year-round. Once we get the tourists to the different locations we have a number of employees on each island to lead tours.”

Though his operation had grown considerably over the last few years and earned a nice profit, it was tiny compared to Elias Stamos’s holdings. Still Theo couldn’t keep the pride from his voice. His company was something he’d built from the ground up, with no help from anyone.

“It must be wonderful to have that much control,” Helena said. “When I do my costume designs, I have a lot of artistic freedom but I certainly don’t have the final word.”

“Remember that show you did in Athens last year?” Katherine asked.

That was all it took for Helena to launch into a diatribe about the director from hell.

Theo just listened, grateful when the server came around and filled the wineglasses. The women were both friendly and going out of their way to make him feel at ease. Still, it seemed awkward to sit across the table from them and know that some of the same blood that flowed through their veins flowed through his. To know that they’d grown up in a whole different world based solely on the fact that his father had chosen to marry their mother.

Still, they kept the conversation going throughout dinner, and just as he’d hoped, the women seemed willing to carry the brunt of the conversation.

He learned that Katherine’s husband was an architect with worldwide clients, and consequently his job demanded a lot of travel. He also discovered that Katherine’s daughter, Gemma, was on the ship as a volunteer in the children’s centre. Helena touched briefly on her failed marriage and satisfaction with her career and single status.

But neither brought up the reason they’d contacted him, and even after they’d finished dessert, he still wasn’t sure why he was really there…until a spot of red hair caught Theo’s eye.

Trish Melrose, a woman he hadn’t planned on seeing again, sat across the dining room at one of the large round tables. His blood turned frigid as he made the connection.

He’d taken Katherine’s phone calls, hardly questioning the fact that out of the blue she’d decided it was time for them to meet. He hadn’t balked when she’d asked if he’d come aboard Alexandra’s Dream.

Now he realized he’d been a naive fool. His mother had been right. Katherine and Helena had their own agenda.

Now that he’d discovered what it was, he just had to decide what he was going to do about it.

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