The Substitute Bride

Chapter 4: The Breakfast

All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.

-John Gunther

*

Nikos Pallis's POV

...I will not fall in love with you. I don't have the heart to give you any more. I gave my heart to someone else a long time ago so you don't have to be worried about it. I am already in love with somebody...

Those irritating words haunted my sleepless night. It kept playing inside my brain like a broken record. I frowned at my reflection in the bathroom mirror as I knotted my necktie. I shouldn't be affected by her words really. But I felt infuriated by it. She didn't have to say it with such passion.

I will not fall in love with you...

Okay, I get it. I have enough of those lines.

I will not fall in love with you...

Will you just leave my freaking mind?! I asked those words in frustration. I didn't sleep a wink last night. My brain hurts like hell and I have a board meeting this morning. All I need now is a strong cup of coffee. I nearly jumped out of my bones when I heard a loud blast in my kitchen.

What was that? I asked myself silently as I went out of my room. It was as if a landmine exploded inside my penthouse.

"Cazzo!" I heard an unladylike curse from a soft melodic voice of a woman. "Figlio di puttana."

"What was that?" I asked when I saw my kitchen in turmoil. The once spotless state-of-the-art kitchen now looked like a warzone. "What are you doing?"

"I am trying to fix you a breakfast, that's it!"

"You are?" I asked dryly, eyeing our messy surroundings. "I thought you are trying to burn my house, Ms. Fiorenza."

"That's harsh." She scowled in my direction. Cool green eyes flashed with visible anger in their depths while she wore her signature black outfit.

"A cup of coffee will do, prigkipissa mou."

"What?" she asked distractedly. "What did you call me?"

"Prigkipissa mou." I smiled at her beautiful frowning face. "Meaning 'my princess' in Greek."

Laila Fiorenza made a face as she continued to massacre my kitchen. "Let me clarify this to you, Signore Pallis. I am not your princess so if you are going to be careful with your words in the future, I will be glad."

"Why can't I call you my princess?" I asked when she stood behind the kitchen top, making breakfast a sane man probably couldn't eat.

"Because I am not your princess, that is," she answered without even lifting her eyes from the work. She smiled dazzlingly in my direction suddenly. "Leila is your princess, brother-in-law."

Brother-in-law...

Those words made me cringe again. This woman really had a way with her words. One of these days I will...

"Figlio di puttana!" I heard her curse again in her language and then there's a distinctive pain in my foot.

"Ouch!" I leaped, a throb in my toe. "What the hell is that?"

"You are in the way!" she snapped at me. Her eyes flashed with fire and anger at the same time. "The pan is so hot."

"So you decided to throw the hot water at my feet?!" I glared at her, ignoring the painful thud in my feet.