Page 89 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
Barely two minutes later, he slid into the booth beside her.
‘Lydia Antoniadis,’ he said, spreading out his long arms to rest along the top of the booth, taking a third of the available space. His cologne, a deliciously exotic scent that brought to mind untamed jungles, filled the rest of it.
‘Alexis Tsaliki,’ she replied with a sweet smile, refusing to be intimidated. But, wow, in person the man was even bigger than he’d looked from a distance, even taller and broader than her brother.
‘And to what do I owe this pleasure?’
‘Buy me a drink and I’ll tell you.’
Blue-grey eyes that made her think of winter skies and yet weren’t in the slightest bit cold narrowed almost imperceptibly before he beckoned a waitress and ordered two glasses of champagne.
‘So, Lydia Antoniadis,’ he said, settling back again and fixing his stare back on her. ‘Tell me why the youngest member of the family at war with my family is here alone in my hunting ground.’
She gave another sweet smile. ‘Catching my prey, of course.’
He leaned his face closer to hers, and what a face it was; not a single picture she’d seen of him over the years doing him the slightest bit of justice despite the camera loving him. ‘And for what reason do you want to catch me, Lydia Antoniadis?’
‘To ask you, Alexis Tsaliki, to consider a truce.’
The beautiful eyes narrowed. ‘Now why,’ he asked slowly, ‘would I want to do that?’
‘Because all the negative headlines and publicity mean your company is suffering as much as ours?’
‘I think you’ll find that your company is in much worse shape than my father’s. Or mine as it is now.’ Alexis had recently taken control of his father’s company. Rumour had it that he’d wrested it from him against his father’s wishes.
Their champagne was delivered. Alexis handed Lydia’s to her and then raised his own with a smile. ‘Your father was too reliant on outside investment, which has made it much more vulnerable to external forces than mine.’
She clinked her glass to his. ‘But all the negative publicity means Tsaliki Shipping is suffering a breakdown of consumer confidence as well as plummeting share prices. I understand you’ve lost three long-standing contracts in recent months.’
He had a drink of his champagne. ‘I didn’t think you were involved in Antoniadis Shipping.’
She swallowed half of her glass and smiled. ‘I’m not. But I am an interested party. Obviously.’
‘Obviously,’ he echoed. ‘An interested party close to losing everything.’
‘You can stop that happening.’
A smile tugged at his mouth. She couldn’t help thinking what divine lips they were, the perfect mouth with a fullness barely a fraction away from being feminine.
But there was nothing feminine about Alexis Tsaliki. He was the most rampantly masculine man she’d ever met in her life and sitting in this booth with him, the full weight of his attention on her, she fully understood why he had such a high success rate with the ladies. He didn’t need his wealth to attract them. With his classically chiselled face complete with high cheekbones and strong nose, and bronzed skin the sun adored soaking itself into, all enhanced rather than disguised by his trimmed dark goatee beard, the man was sex on legs.
‘So in reality, it isn’t a truce you want—in any case, there has been an unspoken truce between us since I replaced my father at the top and the Antoniadis board forced your father to resign—you want my help to stop Antoniadis Shipping from going bust.’
‘Do you think you could?’
‘I’m sure I could.’ His gorgeous blue-grey eyes glimmered. ‘The question is, what’s in it for me? Since I’ve taken control of the business, the rot has stopped. Our share price is rising. Any contracts lost will be either replaced or regained.’
‘That could take years.’
‘I can play the long game.’
Now Lydia was the one to bring her face close to his. ‘The question, though, is can Tsaliki Shippingaffordfor you to play the long game?’
Their gazes held, challenge firing from both. And then the smile that had been tugging at Alexis’s divine lips pulled into a full-blown grin that filled her chest with an inexplicable warmth. ‘Do you drink tequila?’
‘Only if it’s the good stuff.’
His grin widened. The warmth in her chest spread.
