The Greek Billionaire's Innocent Princess by Chantelle Shaw Page B

marriage.

    Lost in her thoughts she walked back down the corridor, but as she turned the corner she
    cannoned into Vasilis Sarondakos, and her heart sank.

    ‘You hardly look the joyful bride,’ he said mockingly. ‘What’s the matter, Kitty? Are you afraid
    that if you leave your husband alone for too long his attention will stray—towards your sister
    perhaps?’

    Vasilis was drunk. His speech was slurred, and Kitty wrinkled her nose when she caught a waft
    of alcohol on his breath. She had been dismayed to find his name on the guest list, but he was an
    old family friend, and she’d reminded herself that after today she would probably never see him
    again. She attempted to push past him, but he grabbed her arm and shoved her up against the
    wall. ‘ Let go of me! ’ She tried to jerk free of his hold but Vasilis tightened his grip and laughed.

    ‘You have every reason to worry,’ he taunted. ‘Liss was blessed with more than her fair share of
    good looks, and Nikos is a notorious playboy.’

    ‘Shut up, Vasilis!’ Kitty couldn’t quite banish her envy of her sister’s beauty, and she despised
    herself. ‘There’s nothing going on between Liss and Nikos. He married me, didn’t he?’

    ‘Ah, but the reason for your hasty trip down the aisle isn’t as secret as you might wish,’ Vasilis
    said with a sly wink. ‘But I’ve got to hand it to Angelaki—he’s even more of a ruthless social
    climber than I realised, and he struck gold with you. Who else would have set out to deliberately
    seduce a naïve, virgin princess, impregnate her with his child and then marry her pronto to spare
    embarrassment to the royal family? I’m surprised Sebastian hasn’t knighted him for services
    above and beyond the call of duty,’ Vasilis finished bitterly.

    ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Kitty said faintly, reeling from Vasilis’s shocking statement. How on
    earth did he know about her pregnancy? ‘What do you mean when you say Nikos is a social
    climber?’ she demanded. ‘He’s a multimillionaire who heads his own hugely successful
    company.’

    ‘A company that he inherited after he seduced another gullible woman,’ Vasilis said sneeringly.
    ‘It’s not only Hollywood starlets who sleep their way to the top. Nikos Angelaki was the
    illegitimate son of a peasant woman. He grew up in the slums of Athens, and as a teenager he
    was already involved with the criminal underworld.’ Vasilis paused when he saw Kitty’s
    shocked expression, and gave an unpleasant smile. ‘I take it your new husband hasn’t told you
    about his past? Ask him about the tattoo on his shoulder if you don’t believe me.

    ‘Somehow, Nikos met a millionairess, Larissa Petridis, daughter of the shipping magnate
    Stamos Petridis,’ Vasilis continued. ‘Larissa had inherited her father’s company after his death.
    She was a spinster with a penchant for good-looking young men. Rumour has it that she quickly
    became besotted with charming, handsome Nikos, despite the fact that he was twenty years
    younger than her. Nikos seized his chance to escape a life of poverty and he became her lover,
    and when Larissa died a few years later she left Petridis Shipping to him. Not a bad prize for
    being a stud to a lonely older woman, was it?’ Vasilis jeered.

    Kitty felt dizzy as Vasilis’s poisonous words swirled in her mind, but she was determined not to
    reveal her shock at his revelations by fainting, and she pressed her back against the wall for
    support. ‘I don’t believe you,’ she muttered. ‘How do you know so much about Nikos?’

    ‘I hired someone to make a few enquiries,’ Vasilis said without a flicker of shame. ‘I like to
    discover the skeletons in people’s closets. You never know when the information might come in
    useful. I’ll show you the report my private eye filed on Angelaki if you like. It makes interesting
    reading. Almost as interesting as this week’s edition of Glamorous magazine,’ Vasilis