The Bridegroom's Vow

“No, Dimi. You have to stay here with Uncle Spiros and our cousins. I should be back in a week.”

Tears filled his eyes. “The cousins aren’t fun like you, and Uncle Spiros is too strict.”

“Since our parents died, he’s been good to us in his own way, Dimi. It won’t be so bad.”

Panic-stricken, Dimitrios threw his arms around Leon, trying to prevent him from leaving. “Please let me come with you.”

“You can’t. You see, I’m getting married before the night’s out. It’s all been arranged.”

Married?

Dimitrios felt like his world had come to an end. “Which one of your girlfriends is it?”

“Ananke Paulos.”

“I’ve never heard of her. Will you bring her here?”

“No,” he said on a heavy sigh. “We’ll be living in our parents’ villa.”

“Then I’ll come and live with you. I can sleep in my old room like always.”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Dimi. A woman likes her own house.”

“But that means you and I’ll never live together again!”

“Hey—we’ll always be brothers. I’ll visit you every day, and you’ll come to visit us.”

The pain kept getting worse. “Do you love her more than me?” His voice wobbled.

Leon stared down at him with eyes full of anguish. Dimitrios didn’t know his brother could look like that. It terrified him.

“Not at all. In fact I would give anything in the world if I didn’t have to marry her. But she’s pregnant with my child.”

Dimitrios blinked in astonishment.

“She’s going to have your baby?”

“Yes.”

“You made a baby with a woman you don’t love?” He couldn’t comprehend such a thing.

“Oh, Dimi—listen to me. You’re only twelve, not quite old enough for a man’s feelings to have taken over inside you yet. When that day comes, your body will react when you see a beautiful woman. You’ll want to hold her, make love to her. The pleasure a woman can bring you is to die for.”

Dimitrios frowned through the tears. “To die for?”

A sound of frustration came out of Leon. “I only mean that when a man and a woman make love, it’s wonderful beyond your imagination.”

“Was it that way with Ananke?”

“Yes.”

“But if you don’t love her?”

“You can feel great desire for a woman without loving her. I would never have married her but for the baby. Now I have to do my duty as a Pandakis.”

“No, you don’t!” Dimitrios cried from the depths of his soul. “What kind of a woman would want to live with you if she knew you didn’t love her?”

A groan escaped Leon’s throat. “Dimi? There are other reasons she wants to marry me.”

“What reasons?”

“Money, status.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You know our family has run a successful financial empire in Greece for generations. Our reputation is known throughout the corporate world. Uncle Spiros meets with important, influential people, just like our father did before he died.

“That’s the reason Ananke tricked me. She was hoping to have my baby so she could belong to our family. Now she’s going to get her wish, but it won’t be the wedding she imagined. We’re going to be married at the church by the priest with no one there but her grandmother to watch.”

“I hate her!” Dimitrios blurted in fresh pain.

“Don’t say that, Dimi. After tonight she’ll be part of our family.”

“I will say it!” With tears streaming down his face, Dimitrios backed away from his brother. “Do you think our mother married our father because of his money?”

Dimitrios had to wait a long time to hear a response.

“Probably.”

Leon was always brutally honest. His answer crushed Dimitrios. Sick with grief over what his brother had just told him, he said, “Can’t a rich man find a woman who will love him for himself?”

“I don’t know the answer to that question. The point is, I don’t want you to make the same mistake I did. Unfortunately that’s where you’ve got a problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“One day you’ll be the head of the Pandakis Corporation because Uncle Spiros says you’ve got the smartest head on your shoulders of anyone in the family. You’re also better looking than all the Pandakis men put together.

“You’ll be able to have your pick of any woman in the world. They’ll throw themselves at you. You, little brother, will have to be more careful than most men to make certain no woman gets pregnant with your baby and tricks you into marriage.”

Dimitrios ground his teeth. “That will never happen to me.”

Leon gave him a sad smile. “How do you know that?”

“I won’t ever make love to a woman. Then I won’t have to worry.”

“Of course you will.” He tousled Dimitrios’s curly black hair. “We’ll continue this conversation next week when I take us hiking.”

Dimitrios watched his brother disappear around the corner of their uncle’s villa. It was just like the night a year ago when they learned that their parents had been killed. Dimitrios had wanted to die then, too.