Page 19 of Marriage Masquerade

Nikos lowered his hand and turned to greet the man who had silently stepped through the doorway.

“Gemma, this is Hal. Hal, your new mistress, Gemma Green, soon to be my wife. She and I will be married on Wednesday and she’ll move in immediately.”

“Welcome, madam.”

Hal was a tall man, dressed in a traditional black trousers and a white shirt with a black tie. He reminded her of an English butler. She knew Nikos had attended Cambridge. Was that the reason for some of the English feel?

Nikos speech had a slight British intonation. Hal’s was totally British.

“For the first few days, things will continue as always, Hal,” Nikos instructed. “After Gemma’s lived here awhile, she may wish to make changes. You’ll be guided by her decisions.”

“As you say.” Hal nodded his head once to Nikos and once to Gemma.

“We’ll have dinner at seven,” Nikos said.

Hal nodded once more and quietly left the room.

“Come, I’ll show you around the place,” Nikos said, taking Gemma’s arm in a gentle clasp.

The familiar sensations began spiraling through her body at his touch. She didn’t understand it. She’d never felt this way around James or any other man.

Gratitude, that was it. Nikos was helping her beyond what she should have expected. It was no wonder she felt grateful to him.

By the time dinner was served, Gemma’s head was spinning. The apartment consisted of twelve rooms. Nikos had shown her several bedrooms with en suite baths, a study and a formal dining room, besides an enormous kitchen.

The apartment was furnished with a variety of furnishings—French provincial in one bedroom, modern chrome and glass in another and heavy Mediterranean in a third.

Nikos' bedroom looked very ordinary, which surprised Gemma. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected. But the king-size bed with a rather plain oak headboard filled a good portion. A dark dresser and night stand complimented the bed.

“This room will be yours,” Nikos said, opening an adjoining door.

The room was tastefully decorated in soft sea-green and bright yellow.

“You may wish to have your own furnishings in here. If so, Hal can take care of removing this furniture.”

“This’ll be fine. Actually, I thought I might leave my furniture in my apartment. Then when we end the marriage, I can move back with minimum effort.”

“Impossible. I thought you understood we must make certain we provide an impression to the INS of being completely committed. No one must suspect the reasons for this marriage, nor that we do not plan to remain together forever. You need to move in here. We’ll be a married couple sharing our lives.”

“Oh, of course. I guess I didn’t think it through,” she murmured, annoyed with herself that she hadn’t.

The INS would look into all aspects of their marriage with a fine-tooth comb. And her keeping her apartment would be a blatant clue that all was not as it appeared.

And the INS also explained the reason for adjoining rooms. They had to look married—always. For a moment she wondered if she could go through with the charade, after all.

Nikos looked at her sharply. “Something wrong?”

“No, not at all.”

She couldn’t meet his eyes. Instead, Gemma studied the room as if her life depended upon being able to reconstruct it from memory. It was only for a few months. And she had her baby to think about.

“Gemma—” Nikos turned her to face him, his hands on her arms “—we have five bedrooms in this apartment. If this one doesn’t suit, we can find another.”

Yours?

Gemma blinked and desperately prayed she had not uttered the word aloud. Where had that thought come from?

She stepped back.

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