All Chapters of Bound By Forbidden Desire: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I didn’t wait until I reached the hotel. I dialed Jamie the moment I slid into the back of my father’s town car. He answered on the first ring. “Elena, thank God!” “Talk now. What’s so urgent it couldn’t wait until I cleared customs?” I demanded. Silence, then a shaky breath. “I’m in trouble.” “You’re always in trouble, Jamie. Be specific,” I said impatiently. “The kind of trouble that involves lawyers, contracts, and…” His voice dropped. “Two million euros.” My hand tightened on my phone. “What did you just say?” “I know how it sounds” “Two million euros? Jamie, what the hell have you done?” I asked, my voice rising. “There was this investment opportunity. Cryptocurrency, blockchain technology. The man seemed legitimate.” “The man.” My voice turned cold. “Does this person have a name?” Another pause, this time a little longer than it should have been . “Jamie,” I warned. “Nikos Starvos” Jamie repeated The Athens traffi

I barely slept. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw them Nikos and Bella. His hands on her waist. Her fingers in his hair. I had no right to feel what I was feeling. I arrived early Tuesday, slipped into my office before the floor filled up, and stared at my screen until the words stopped meaning anything. At nine-fifteen, my desk phone rang. I stared at it. Let it ring once, and twice I picked it up. “Elena Hayes.” “My office, Now!” Nikos clipped, commanding. “I’m in the middle of ” The line went dead. I set the phone down slowly. My hands were shaking. I noticed that and said nothing to myself about it. I grabbed my tablet and walked to the elevator. Whatever this was, I wouldn’t arrive small. His office door was open. He stood by the window, hands in his pockets, staring out at Athens. I knocked once. “You wanted to see me?” I asked coolly. He turned, dark circles under his eyes like he hadn’t slept either. “Close the door,” he said q

I got home and stood in the shower until the water went cold. I’m getting married. The words kept coming back. The way certain things lodge themselves in your chest and refuse to move no matter how much you try to work around them. My father hadn’t sounded uncertain, like a man who needed reassurance or permission. He sounded like someone who had already decided, already planned, already bought the ticket to Athens, and chosen the restaurant and was only now letting me in on it. That was the part that stung, not that he was happy. I wanted him to be happy. But I was his daughter, and I hadn't even known there was someone. Two years of Sunday calls and holiday visits, and not once had he mentioned her name. I turned the shower off and stood in the steam. Bring an open mind, like he already knew I’d need one. I dried off, got into bed, and stared at the ceiling until the city outside my window went quiet. Nikos’s face kept coming back too. That flicker when I said the w

He texted at nine fifty-three. How are you holding up? I stared at it in the back of the cab and put my phone face down on my knee. I didn’t know how to answer that honestly, and I was too tired to answer it any other way. Katrina was already there when I arrived. My father wasn’t. She was sitting alone, wine in hand, completely unbothered. She looked up when I walked in and smiled like she’d been eagerly awaiting this for a while. “Elena,” she said, standing. “I’d know you anywhere. Your father talks about you constantly.” “He talks about you too,” I said. “As of yesterday.” She had the grace to look slightly guilty. “I know, I asked him to wait. I wanted to meet you before it became official.” “Why?” I asked, sitting across from her. “Because you matter to him more than anything,” she said. “I didn’t want you to feel ambushed.” I looked at her properly. She was warm without performing it. I could see exactly what my father saw, and I resented how easily I could

Three days passed, and the space between us was very obvious.It was professional and exactly the way I liked it. The questions were via mail, not by stopping by my desk randomly or making random glances.Every morning while dressing up, I told myself I would avoid him, and I saw that by taking the stairs instead of the elevator he sometimes used.I hated it, not because I wanted the tension back. I just didn’t expect this space to feel loud.Wednesday morning his assistant called my desk at eight thirty.“Mr. Stavros needs you in the main conference room now, if possible.”I closed my laptop. “Tell him I’ll be there in five minutes.” I took four to get there.He was already there when I walked in, standing at the head of the table, sleeves rolled, a map of the Aegean spread across the surface with documents weighted at the corners.The two other people I didn’t recognize sat on one side; they seemed legal, from the look of them.He looked up when I entered.Our eyes met for exactly o