by Lynne Graham
Alexandros was frowning. ‘Your name must have been on the list—’
‘No, it wasn’t. Why pretend? We both know why my name wasn’t on your fancy VIP list,’ Katie condemned, with a bitterness she could not hide. ‘You didn’t want to hear from me. You had no wish for further contact. That’s fine, that’s okay, but don’t try and criticise me for not telling you I was pregnant when I had no way of contacting you!’
‘You’re hysterical…I’m not continuing this conversation with you,’ Alexandros asserted with cold clarity, outrage turning his dark eyes into chips of gold ice because she had raised her voice.
Katie snatched in a deep, shuddering breath even as she wondered if he remembered her once serving him coffee on her knees to make him laugh. ‘I’m not hysterical. I’m sorry I’m so angry, but I can’t help it. I should’ve known this wasn’t going to work. I shouldn’t have come to your precious bank and I shouldn’t have got into this car—’
‘Calm down,’ Alexandros interposed with chilling cool, while he tried to work out her motivation for the tale she was telling so badly. He could not credit that what she was telling him was true. He was willing to admit that with her he had not been one hundred per cent careful when it had come to contraception. There was a very slight possibility that conception could have taken place. He thought it highly unlikely, though, and his usually alert and versatile mind was curiously reluctant to move on from that concrete conviction. He did not recognise his own unresponsiveness as simple shock at the announcement she had made.
Katie put trembling hands up to her face and covered it. Calm down? Her brow was pounding hard with tension; her tummy was in twisting knots. As he watched her, his lean hands clenched but he remained otherwise motionless.
On the other side of the glass partition, Cyrus was trying to catch his employer’s eye in the mirror, to work out where to go next. In a sudden decision, Alexandros touched a button to seal the passenger area into privacy. If she cried, he did not want her tears to be witnessed. ‘It’s all right,’ he told her grittily, for gentleness did not come naturally to him and he would not let himself reach across the space separating them to make physical contact with her. ‘You’ll be fine.’
‘Nothing’s all right…’ Katie felt as if she was banging her head up against a brick wall. He wasn’t listening. He didn’t believe her. She was wasting her breath. He would probably look at Toby and Connor and find it equally easy to say that they weren’t his. Then what? She bowed her head, exhaustion overwhelming the nervous energy that had powered her into confronting him.
Alexandros recognised her fragile emotional state. She was desperate and broke. Presumably that was why she had come to him with a foolish story that she had hoped would engage his sympathy. It must not have occurred to her that a fictional tale about a pregnancy that had come to nothing was pointless. But his anger had already ebbed, to be replaced by an effort to understand her predicament that would have disconcerted anyone who knew him well. While he gave freely to a host of worthy charitable causes, he had always avoided situations where anything more personal was required.
‘Are you unemployed?’ he asked, deciding to concentrate on practicalities in the hope that those issues would ground her.
Katie darted a surprised glance at him above her fingers and slowly, carefully, lowered her hands back down on to her lap. ‘Yes.’
‘So you decided to approach me for…help. That’s okay.’ Alexandros resolved to offer assistance in every way he could. ‘Where are you living at present?’
Unsure where this dialogue could be heading, Katie blinked. ‘In a bed and breakfast hotel…I had to leave the bedsit I was in.’
Alexandros had not a clue what a bed and breakfast hotel was. But he knew a bedsit was one room, which he found shocking enough in the accommodation stakes. He surveyed her, wondering if she had lost weight because she wasn’t getting enough to eat. He was sincerely shaken by that thought. ‘Are you hungry?’
Slowly, she nodded, for it was hours since she had eaten, but his questions were bewildering her. ‘Aren’t you going to ask me about the baby?’
The repetition of that unfortunate word ‘baby’ had the same effect on Alexandros as a bucket of cold water. His lean, strong face hardened. ‘I thought we had moved on from that improbable tale. It’s not winning you any points with me.’
Katie flushed a deep painful pink. ‘Why are you so convinced that I’m lying? Do I have to go through a solicitor for you to take me seriously?’
Almost imperceptibly Alexandros tensed; that reference to legal counsel did not fit the conclusions he had reached.
‘You just don’t want to know, do you?’ Katie shook her head in pained and angry embarrassment. ‘But I’m bringing up your children!’
‘My…children?’ Alexandros repeated in blunt disbelief. ‘Are you out of your mind?’
‘I had twins…Have you any idea how hard this is for me?’ Katie demanded chokily. ‘How do you think it feels for me to have to ask you for a handout?’
Twins! That single word hit Alexandros harder than any other. It was a fact known to few that he was a twin, whose sibling had been stillborn. ‘You’re telling me that you have given birth to twins?’
‘What do you care?’ she gasped. ‘Look, stop the car and let me out…I’ve had enough of this!’
‘Give me your address.’
While Alexandros opened the shutter between them and the chauffeur and communicated in Greek, she clasped her hands tightly together to conceal the fact that she couldn’t hold them steady.
Alexandros focussed bleak dark golden eyes on her. ‘What age are the twins?’
It dawned on her that he was finally listening to her. ‘Nearly ten months old.’
The improbable began to look ever more possible to Alexandros. Yet on another level he could not believe that he could find himself in such a situation. On every instinctive level he resisted that belief. ‘And you are saying that your children are mine?’
There was no mistaking how appalled Alexandros Christakis was by the idea that she might just be telling him the truth after all, Katie registered with a sinking heart. His vibrant skin tone had paled, and the stunned light in his gorgeous dark eyes spoke for him. ‘What else do you think I’m doing here? Oh, right—you’re still hoping it’s a sting. Sorry, I’m not a con-artist. The twins are yours and there’s no mistake about that.’
‘I will insist on DNA tests,’ Alexandros asserted.
Katie veiled her eyes, angrily reeling from that further insult as though he had struck her. How dared he? He was the only lover she had ever had, even if he had chosen not to acknowledge the fact. The harsh bite of hurt and rejection lurked behind her annoyance, but she stubbornly refused to acknowledge it. Never once since he’d walked away from her had she allowed herself to wallow in the pain of that loss.
Yet what more had she expected from Alexandros Christakis today? she asked herself unhappily. Had she dreamt of a welcome mat and immediate acceptance of her announcement? From a guy who had ditched her while carefully retaining his anonymity? A guy who had patently never thought about her again since then? Of course he wasn’t pleased, and he would never be pleased. Of course he was still hoping that there was some mistake or that she was a lying schemer.
After all, Alexandros Christakis had no feelings for her. She had been a casual sexual amusement when he’d been bored and at a loose end. Turning up again now as she had, looking scruffy and down on her luck, she was nothing but a source of embarrassment to a male of his sophistication and wealth. Add in her announcement about the twins, and she became the stuff of most single guys’ nightmares, she reflected painfully. He didn’t love her and he didn’t want to be with her, so what could fatherhood mean to him? Men only wanted a family with women they cared about. Alexandros wouldn’t want her children. Well, that was all right, she told herself doggedly. All she wanted and needed from him was financial help.
The limo came to a halt. In an
‘I don’t have a phone.’
He dug a card out of his pocket, printed a number on it and extended it to her. ‘It’s my personal number.’
His personal number. Her eyes prickled and stung like mad. She wanted to scrunch the card up and throw it at him, because he had been so careful not to give her that number eighteen months earlier. Her throat was so thick with tears that she could hardly breathe, much less hurl the tart comment she wanted to fling. She had loved him so much. It had been a savage hurt when he’d rejected her, and to be forced back into his radius and made to feel as undesirable as the plague was salt in that wound.
Alexandros watched her cross the busy pavement. She moved with the sinuous grace and light step of a dancer. He tore his attention from her, refusing to acknowledge that reflection, and the door closed, leaving him alone with his bleak thoughts. If a man could be said to have ditched a woman with good intentions, he was that man. Now it seemed that although he owned the race in the cut-throat world of high finance, his private life was destined to be a disaster area. Once again he had screwed up. Once again he would have to pay the price. As she had paid it. Just what he needed, he reflected with a bitterness he could not suppress: a guilt trip that would last the rest of his life.
How likely was it that her children were his? He remembered Katie’s indiscreet, straight-from-the heart forthrightness. He had found her honesty such a novelty. There had been no half-truths and no evasions. Very refreshing—until she’d said those fatal words he could not stand to hear on another woman’s lips. I love you—that little phrase that Ianthe had made so much her own.
Why had he let Katie get out of the limo? Chances were she was telling the truth and he was the father of her twins. He suppressed a shudder. He knew exactly what was required of him. He knew he had absolutely no business thinking about himself or about how he felt. He had dug his own grave. He recalled that Katie didn’t even have a phone. He swore long and low under his breath. Perhaps she needed food more.
‘You have appointments, boss,’ Cyrus remarked in an apologetic tone.
Alexandros ignored that reminder. Acting purely on impulse, he went to Harrods and bought an enormous hamper, and the latest mobile phone in Katie’s favourite colour. His own out-of-character behaviour seriously spooked him. He called his lawyer. His lawyer called for legal reinforcements and urged crisis talks, DNA specialists and extreme prudence. Alexandros might still have acted on his gut instincts, had it not been for the timely reminder of the potential for a huge scandal. Personal visits and gifts, it was pointed out, would only reinforce any claims made against him, and add to the risk of sordid publicity.
‘Your grandparents…’
The reminder was sufficient to halt Alexandros in his tracks. Pelias and Calliope Christakis would be very distressed if an unsavoury scandal engulfed their grandson. The older couple were not of an age where their continuing good health could be taken for granted either. In the short term, Alexandros grudgingly accepted that a discreet and cautious course would be wisest.
Katie was intercepted before she could climb the stairs to her room.
‘Miss Fletcher?’
It was the same thin fair man she had seen watching her in the foyer of CTK bank. ‘Yes?’
He handed her his card as an introduction. ‘I’m Trev. I work for the Daily Globe. Mind me asking what your connection to Alexandros Christakis is?’
Taken aback, Katie muttered, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about—’
‘But you do. You just got out of the bloke’s limo!’
‘You saw me? Did you follow me all the way from the bank? And to my friend’s as well?’ Katie was unnerved by that awareness, and turned towards the stairs again.
The reporter was in her way. ‘I hear you have a couple of kids…’
‘What’s that got to do with you?’
‘Christakis is a very interesting guy. If you have anything to tell us about him it could be well worth your while,’ he told her with a meaningful look. ‘People don’t talk about him. He lives in a world most of us can only envy. So anything of an exciting personal nature would have a very high cash value.’
Katie hesitated, distaste filling her. She wanted to tell him to get lost and leave her alone. If only Alexandros had given her a more concrete promise of support than a phone number! Leanne had said that she should be prepared to do anything to give Toby and Connor a better start in life. But talking to a newspaper in return for money struck her as sleazy, and she wanted to think that she was above doing that sort of thing. And yet she was also painfully aware that it was her job to provide her children with a decent home, and achieving that would require cold hard cash.
‘We’re on your trail now, so if there’s any dirt to dig we’ll find it anyway.’ Threat and warning were linked in Trev’s hopeful appraisal. ‘So why don’t you make it easier for us and turn a profit too?’
‘I’m not interested.’ Even as she spoke, Katie did not know whether or not she was making the right decision.
An hour later she went back to Leanne’s, to pick up Toby and Connor. While her friend saw her mother out of the flat, Katie scooped up her sons, one at a time out of the buggy, and hugged them tight. After a busy morning of occupation, Toby gave her a huge sunny smile, and Connor laughed.
‘So, tell…’ Leanne urged impatiently. ‘What happened? Did you get to see Alexandros?’
Katie explained, while her friend listened with avid interest and made her describe the limo in detail.
‘Alexandros is obviously stinking rich.’ A calculating expression formed on Leanne’s pretty face. ‘And the best offer he can make you is a DNA test?’ she sneered. ‘He’ll need to do a lot better than that!’
‘He was shocked…I’ll give him a couple of days and see what happens.’ Katie displayed the card she had been given by the journalist to the brunette.
‘Whoopy-do!’ Leanne snatched the card to study it, more impressed by the interest of the Daily Globe than by anything else. ‘This Trev took the trouble to follow you? Hey, Alexandros must be a real celebrity! And you turned the reporter’s offer down? Are you out of your tiny mind?’
‘I have to give Alexandros a chance to help us first.’
‘But if the press find out whose kids Toby and Connor are without your input, you won’t make any money at all!’
Katie was beginning to feel uncomfortable. ‘I know, but I don’t think anyone will work out what my relationship was with Alexandros any time soon. I mean, nobody knows about us—’
‘You could make pots of money out of this, Katie. Haven’t you got the guts to go for it?’ her friend demanded
‘Alexandros would hate that kind of publicity, and he’d never forgive me for it.’
‘So what? What’s he to you?’
‘He’ll always be the twins’ father. I don’t want to make an enemy of him. Flogging our story to the newspapers has to be a last resort for me.’
Leanne gave her a scornful look. ‘You’re being really stupid about this. There’s money to be made. Your problem is that you’ve still got feelings for that bastard—’
Katie was affronted by that suggestion. ‘No, I haven’t!’
‘Much good it’ll do you. He doesn’t want to know now, does he?’ Leanne sniped, and soon after that Katie thought it wisest to thank the brunette for looking after the twins and go.
Mid-morning the following day, a young man in casual clothing came to her door. ‘Are you Katie Fletcher?’
At her nod of confirmation, he extended a mobile phone to her.
‘I’m a solicitor, engaged to represent a certain person’s interests, Miss Fletcher,’ the brisk voice on the phone informed her. ‘I’m sure you’ll understand the need for discretion in this case. Are you willing to undergo DNA testing?’
Katie was taken by surprise, but recognised that such speed of action was essentially an Alexandros Christakis trait. ‘Yes…’
‘Then sign the consent form and the matter will be taken care of immediately, with the minimum of disruption.’
An envelope and a pen were passed to her, the phone returned. Her caller departed. She drew out a brief document, scanned it with strained eyes and then scrawled her signature. Alexandros was doing what came naturally to him. It was insulting and humiliating, but also a necessary evil if she was to prove her claim. Within half an hour a doctor arrived with a medical bag. He explained that the test consisted of painless mouth swabs being taken from her and the twins. In a matter of minutes he had carried out the procedure and smoothly taken his leave again.
She walked the floor that evening, trying to soothe Toby. Although it was barely nine o’clock, someone banged on the wall to complain, and a man knocked at the door and asked her to keep her kids quiet because he was a shift worker trying to get some sleep. Tears were tracking down Katie’s weary face while she struggled to quieten Toby, who seemed to have no more notion of sleeping at night than an owl. It was impossible for her not to look back and wonder how her life had drifted so far off the course she had assumed it would follow…
After Katie’s English father had died, her mother had taken her daughter back to Ireland to live. Katie had enjoyed a happy childhood in a small town where everyone had known everyone else. Armed with an honours degree in Economics, she had been ecstatic when she’d got her first job as a PA in London. But when her mother had fallen ill she had had to resign and return home.
In spite of her ill health, Maura Fletcher had insisted on keeping up a couple of part-time jobs. Fearful of losing her livelihood, the older woman had only been persuaded to take the doctor’s advice and rest when Katie had agreed to stand in for her until she regained her strength.
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