Love Not Money: An Interracial BWWM Billionaire Romance by Barbie Ray

Author:Barbie Ray [Ray, Barbie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Graphic Romance LLC
Published: 2020-12-10T18:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight: Alisha

When we walked into the restaurant, Nikos’s guests descended upon him like locusts on wheat. I can tell that people are surprised we are together. They are almost all polite, though I can feel their scrutiny at times. But everyone is friendly and welcoming on the dance floor. The line of twenty dancers is oiled by cocktails and the joy of this salty, balmy night.

Afterward, we sit at a table as Joey pushes through the crowd with two plates. The dish is shredded vegetables and salted fish stuffed into tomatoes and then baked to mouth-watering tenderness. A steady stream of people stops by the table to greet Nikos. He keeps my hand in his.

“How long have you known Nikos?” Aunt Thea sits with us. She watches me. I see her often looking between Nikos and me.

“For almost six months. But this is technically our first date.” Aunt Thea is the sort of woman it is hard to hide anything from.

“Quite a first date,” she says in that lilting Caribbean accent.

“Quite,” I say. I look back at Nikos. He pulls my hand to his lips and kisses it. He is good at this.

“Let the man eat,” Aunt Thea says to the people who crowd our table seeking his attention. But Nikos’s guests do not relent.

“He likes you,” Aunt Thea says as Nikos talks to yet another business associate.

I gaze back at her. “I like him.”

He looks at me when I say it. I thought he was too busy with his guests to hear. He smiles and kisses me smack on the lips. “I like you, too,” he says. My foolish heart cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is for show. I am almost glad that I have lied to him about the money. I can tell myself I know a relationship between us is impossible all I want. But some part of me still thinks, what if? There is no hope of such a relationship so long as that lie exists.

As Nikos turns back to his guests, Aunt Thea gives me a thoughtful look. “People often wonder how Nikos and I are related. Family can be unexpected. His grandfather, Georgios, came to the Bahamas in 1960s. Georgios was an expert sponge diver in Greece, on the Aegean, and in the Bahamas, we had some of the best sponge diving in the world.” Nikos talks to another of his guests. “He met my mother in Nassau. But by the time my mother knew I was coming, Georgios had returned to Greece. I was thirteen when my mother died. The government found Georgios in Greece. But he was married, with his own family. He had Stavros. I went back and forth between Greece and Nassau many times over the years. But I knew I would live in the Caribbean. When Nikos was looking for a secluded place to open a resort, I recommended Kismet. I didn’t expect him to buy the whole island.”

“He does not seem unafraid of the grand gesture.

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