The Greeks Demand

Chapter 4

She has so much to do in this week, a week will hardly be enough. At least she can spend sometime with Adena who is coming back from her grandmother tomorrow only to go back on Friday. This is the longest she would be away from her baby girl since her birth. It’s this or tell Niklas and she wasn’t telling him squat. He doesn’t deserve to know…

Although every time she thought that a little voice asked if he really doesn’t deserve to know about his daughter. Why couldn’t he have just loved her back then or came after her when she left. She left Demetreus after promising him she’ll stay. What does he think of her, the only mother he ever knew abandoning him.

She should stop thinking about the past and prepare for the future. She took one last look around to convince herself that it was worth it. This will be one long week  

Arabelle had made some quick arrangements after her talk with Niklas. She had told Zoey that she was going away for awhile and asked her to be incharge during that period. She trusted Zoey, but her restaurant was like her second child it needed love and dedication to grow and maintain strong. She locked up that night looking it over. The dim lighting and dark woods creating a warm and cozy atmosphere for families. She even made a special space for kids to play. How many times had Adena come to work with her. Saying goodbye for even a little while saddened Arabelle a great deal. The rest of the week she spend time with Adena, spoiling the little girl rotten. They went to the park everyday to play, bought new clothes and toys for her time at Grandma’s and went for a haircut. Lastly they had a mommy and me tea party in the garden. Adena was the most gorgeous baby Arabelle has ever seen, most likely because she takes after her father. She has sun kissed golden skin, dark curly hair and Arabelle’s crystal blue eyes with rosy cheeks and plumb lips. She’s going to be a little heart breaker just like Niklas.

Arabelle had only found out that she was pregnant months after she had left Niklas. She knew he wouldn’t turn his back on Adena, he loved Demetreus so she tried contacting him, but some girl answered his phone and said he was in the shower. She wanted to leave a message, but the girl quickly informed her she was expected to join him. Arabelle didn’t try again and she never would.

On Wednesday Niklas called Arabelle to inform her that he wouldn’t make it on Saturday, but his driver will pick her up. On Friday Arabelle’s mother arrived from France to pick up Adena. They all spend the day together till those horrifying last seconds where her mom and Adena had to board their plane. She cried the whole way home cursing Niklas in every way she could think of. Crying that much and wanting to be spiteful she crawled in bed not caring that she still needs to pack or that the driver would have to wait for her. It won’t bother her if she’s late, it will drive Niklas insane most likely.

Saturday morning she got up putting on her gown over her pj’s and head to the kitchen to make some breakfast and coffee. She started tiding up when her front doors bell rang.  

“Come in!” She yelled towards the door.

“You don’t even ask who it is, you just say come on in. That is very unsafe Belle.” Arabelle was shocked beyond recognition hearing Niklas voice in her home, she had gotten paler, her eyes bulged, he mouth hung open and her mouth dried up.

“I…I thought your driver was getting me?” he smiled that half cocky smile of his that always managed to put her body under his spell.

“Surprise, agapi mou!” She found the will to look away from him and took a deep breath to calm her nerves. Niklas was here in her house, alone with her. She felt self-conscious about it not being clean, that tends to happen when you are a single mother with a toddler and you have a business to run. From his perspective it might also seem small. It’s an average sized house: 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 garages and a big garden.

“I just need to pack quickly. Do you want something to drink while you wait?” He took a seat on one of her coaches, its old and ratty, but comfortable…why does this bother her now. Maybe because he is a billionaire and has sat on the best of everything. Then there is the small fact that there is evidence of Adena in the house, but if he keeps to the living room everything will be fine. She basically sprint to her room, closing Adena’s bedroom door in the process. Grabbing her suitcase she threw all the clothes in not caring about how they are going to wrinkle. If she forgot something she could just buy it. It hardly took her 5 minutes before she was back in the living room.

Niklas wasn’t sitting down anymore, he was standing at the mantle holding a photo of Adena. Arabelle’s heart stopped in that second and went into hyper drive the next. Niklas turned around and looked at Arabelle. She was waiting for him to make the first move, to say something, anything at the moment will be mute.

“I didn’t know you and Micheal had a child together, of course I knew you wanted children…”

“I…Micheal…We never had children.” Arabelle moved to take the photo from him, no need for him to stare to long and notice the resemblance.

“Who is this then?” Her mind made a quick job of coming up with a lie.

“My cousins daughter.” Keep it in the family right. This way she can explain why Adena isn’t present.

“You have a lot of photos of her…”

“I’m her godmother. I often watch her. My cousin likes to travel frequently.” Arabelle was amazed at the pace she was lying. She’s never been really good at it before.

“Micheal didn’t care about you being so involved in the upbringing of another’s child?” The nasty thought came to my mind easily, he had to be around to actually care.

“No not at all.” She said with a fake smile plastered on her face as she put the photo where it belonged. Just as she let go of it, Niklas snaked an arm around her waist pulling her against his chest. The contact send waves through her body, she can’t remember the last time she was so aware of someone’s touch. Her heart was drumming. Her skin was tingling everywhere where their bodies come in contact. She felt his breath on her hair and then his fingers as they teasingly slow pace moving her hair out of the way to expose her throat.

“If I was Micheal I wouldn’t have wanted to share your attention, I would have wanted you all to myself. If I was to be newly married to you, you wouldn’t get a reprieve from the bedroom for months. Your only worry would have been to satisfy me!” His words awoken a need in Arabelle she had thought was long gone. She felt the pool of need building inside her. It has been so long since anyone has made her feel like this, made her tremble by a mere touch. It has always just been Niklas that could take her to such a deep place, where pleasure was all she craved.

Arabelle needed to get herself under control, which was becoming more impossible with each passing second as Niklas hands started moving over her shoulders, down her arms to her hands. His touch setting her skin aflame as it went. He took hold of her hips turning her around, pulling her tight against him. She could feel his erection up against her, his need for her clear as day. She looked looked up into his eyes that held the darkest of promises. Arabelle knew where this would lead to if she didn’t stop it.

“Niklas…” She tried, but her voice seeming to abandon her.

“When you had me you always left me alone, my attention wasn’t ever enough.” Niklas let out a deep sigh letting go of Arabelle’s hips.

“You always knew how to spoil the mood.” it was a hit, one she has suffered many times before. She was always too serious, too uptight, too demanding… his famous words being: ‘Weren’t we having a good time?’ Yes it was always a good time with Niklas, although there was a lot of people who had a good time with him.

‘Let’s aller!” Niklas smiled at Arabelle recognizing her quirk, whenever she got nervous, extremely sad or angry she would mix her English and French, it’s something she developed when she lived with her mother.

“What was that?” Arabelle glared at Niklas he so easily moves on they can have a huge ass fight one minute an the next he’ll be talking about his plans for the next day or something trivial and not of grievance.

“Yes, let’s aller.” He joked. Arabelle noticed what she had done, she had mixed languages again. When she moved to her mother in France she was required to learn french, she had no intention of staying long and found learning a completely new language irrelevant. She was angry at everyone at that time, especially her mother and not knowing french made it easier to ignore her at times. Her mother had been just as stubborn and had only spoken french around her most words became familiar and stuck. It’s her teenage fights with her mother that led to her mixing languages, Now whenever she gets emotional or frustrated she does it.

Niklas took Arabelle’s bags in his hands and gave the scowling women in front of him his best smile. He was hoping for the best outcome. Arabelle doesn’t know half of what she agreed too. His grandfather had always said a Liakoss takes what they want without concerning themselves with problems. Carlos Liakoss is not a man he wanted to think of but being raised by him makes the memories ample and always reoccurring. He led Arabelle out of the house like it was his and to the car.

“You’re driving?” She asked, Arabelle was expecting his Chauffeur. He never drove when they were leaving a place. He didn’t want to leave his car at an airport.

“So we are staying here in Manchester?” Niklas hated how well she knew him, all the quirks he knew about her was superficial all of them were at face value. He thought he had known more of her, but a recent conversation with his parents told him he didn’t. His mother was complaining about how he never let anyone in, that he is closed off and unemotional.

He knew she was right, but wasting time on silly emotions that wouldn’t get him anywhere or benefit him was not something he was willing to do. Although to put his mothers mind at ease he told her about the blue eyed student he thought he would marry. She was quite intrigued and asked for more details, she kept the questions coming and if he was able to answer three it would have been great. He couldn’t even answer the easy ones.

‘Does she have siblings?’ not that he knows of he never asked. ‘What foods does she favour?’ whatever she cooked for him. ‘How does she feel about big families?’ he knows she wanted kids, but how many or of what gender he doesn’t know. To say his mother was less than pleased with him would be a serious understatement. She was utterly astound by how little he knew after spending three years with Arabelle.

Arabelle on the other hand knew every little detail about him, every detail he allowed her to know. His upbringing was not part of that. It would have been difficult to explain it to her. She had a wonderful childhood, her parents only divorcing when she was 10 and even that never caused her any sadness. Whereas Niklas had a lonely childhood. His grandfather had taken him from his parents when he was four. He believed that Niklas needed a different upbringing. One with schedules, strangers and no love. He hated to be cursed with only a daughter, but with Niklas he got a second chance. A chance to raise a perfect heir with no flaws and if their were any it was beaten out of him, His parents had no say in the matter since his grandfather was paying for everything they owned and gave them a monthly allowance to survive on. If they tried going against him he would have disowned them, which he did after Niklas fifth birthday where his mother had made a scene. Niklas parents vanished off the face of the planet, When he was 14 his grandfather had died, his parents weren’t found and he had no other relatives. Since he had all the money his grandfather left him and an estate he was allowed to live alone with the butler as his guardian. Thing only got worse after that.

“Niklas why the sudden interest in having me back?” Since he had told his mother about Arabelle she nagged him to get back together with her he had no intention to do it. Arabelle was the one to walk away not him, but no other women has had the ability to keep his attention for more than a week When his mother started to introduce him to women telling him she wanted grandchildren he started to panic. They felt like they missed out on being grandparents since Demetreus isn’t young anymore. They missed all the milestones

He has never thought about having children with anyone, but Arabelle. She had fit the role and his life. She was dedicated, motherly and available to all his needs. He couldn’t stop thinking about her after that.

“My parents want me to settle and you are the only women I have ever wanted to settle with.” She knows Niklas and knows how his life is run, she is already trained to be with him.

“Niklas I’ll stay with you for 3 months and that is it. I’m not going to commit to a relationship, especially not one with you. You’re not relationship material, you can’t even commit to one house.” Arabelle remembered her time living with Niklas, he had traveled so much, sometimes taking her with him. He had a house or apartment in every town he frequently visited for work, he also had an infinity of getting bored with them. He always ended up selling them and buying new ones. It’s not like he owned hotels he could sleep in whilst in town. That would be outrageous!

“We were in a committed relationship for three years.” He argued trying to convince her of something he knew wasn’t true, Commitment…being committed to one thing gets profusely boring. He has always gotten what he wanted and he never wanted for something twice. Arabelle being the exception for that rule.

“That wasn’t a committed relationship, you were photographed with another women in an romantic restaurant leaning in to kiss her! It was featured in every newspaper and magazine. Everyone we knew saw it! You’re son saw it! It was degrading and embarrassing! I don’t ever want to feel like that again and when I was around you that is how I felt! It was some sick part of our relationship where I always felt cheap and clueless.”