Carrying the Greek's Heir

by Sharon Kendrick

  Ellie clenched her fists as a wave of fury washed over her. She didn’t need this—not in any circumstances but especially not now. She made to rise to her feet, but her legs were stubbornly refusing to obey her brain. And even though at that moment she wanted to run out of there and never return, she knew that flight was an indulgence she simply couldn’t afford.

  ‘There’s nobody else in the running,’ she spat out. ‘Maybe you’re different, but I don’t have sex with more than one person at the same time. So why don’t you keep your unfounded accusations to yourself? I didn’t come here to be your punchbag!’

  ‘No? Then what did you come for?’ The brief savagery of his dark features realigned themselves into a quizzical expression. ‘Is it money you want?’

  ‘Money?’

  ‘That’s what I said.’

  Ellie’s anger intensified but somehow that seemed to help, because it was giving her focus. It was making her want to fight. Not for herself, but for the tiny life growing inside her. Because that was what was important. That was the reason she had come here today, even though she’d known it was going to be an ordeal. So think before you answer. Don’t make cheap retorts just for the sake of trying to score points. Show him you mean business. Because you do.

  ‘I’m here to give you the facts,’ she said. ‘Because I thought it was your right to have them. That you needed to be aware that there were consequences to what happened that afternoon.’

  ‘A little dramatic, isn’t it? Just turning up here like this. Couldn’t you have called first to warn me?’

  ‘You think I should have done that? Really?’ She tipped her head to one side and looked at him. ‘I didn’t have your number because you deliberately didn’t give it to me, but even if I’d managed to get hold of it—would you have spoken to me? I don’t think so.’

  Alek considered her words. No, he probably wouldn’t, despite his faintly irrational desire to see her again. Through Vasos, he would have demanded she put everything down in an email. He would have kept her at an emotional distance, as he did with all women. But he was beginning to realise that the whys and wherefores of what had happened between them were irrelevant. Didn’t matter that she’d broken a cardinal rule and invaded his workspace. There was only one thing which mattered and that was what she had just told him.

  And this was one reality he couldn’t just walk away from. He asked the question as if he were following some ancient male-female rule book, but if his question sounded lifeless it was because deep down he knew the answer. ‘How do I know it’s mine?’

  ‘You think I’d be here if it wasn’t? That I’d be putting myself through this kind of aggravation if it was someone else’s baby?’

  He tried telling himself that she might be calling his bluff and that he could demand a DNA test, which would have to wait until the child was born. And yet, once again something told him that no such test would be needed, and he wasn’t sure why. Was it the certainty on her pale face which told him that he was the father of her child, or something more subtly complex, which defied all logic? He could hear the door of the prison swinging shut and the sound of the key being turned. He was trapped. Again. And it was the worst feeling in the world. He remembered that distant fortress and his voice sounded gritty. Like it was coming from a long way away. ‘What do you want from me?’

  There was a pause as those shadowed grey eyes met his.

  ‘I want you to marry me,’ she said.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  WITH NARROWED EYES, Alek looked at her. ‘Or what?’ he questioned with soft venom. ‘Marry you or you’ll run blabbing to your journalist friend again? This would be a real scoop, wouldn’t it? Pregnant With the Greek’s Child.’

  Meeting the accusation on his face, Ellie tried to stay calm. She hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that—in fact, she hadn’t really been planning to say that at all. She had meant to tell him that she was planning to have the baby and would respect whatever decision he made about his own involvement. She had intended to imply that she wasn’t bothered one way or another—and she certainly wasn’t intending to control or manipulate what was happening.

  But something had happened to her during the awkward conversation which had just taken place in the alien surroundings of his penthouse office. With the air-conditioning freezing tiny beads of sweat to her forehead and her cotton dress clinging to her like a dishcloth she had felt worse than ugly. Surrounded by the unbelievable wealth of Alek’s penthouse office suite, she had felt invisible.

  She thought about all the women she’d seen leaving the building—clipping along in their high-heeled shoes with not a hair out of place. Those were the kind of women he dealt with on a daily basis, with their air of purpose and their slim, toned figures. Where did she fit into that world, with her cheap dress and a growing belly and a feeling that she had no real place of her own?

  Because she didn’t have any real place of her own. This was his world and neither she nor her baby belonged in it. How long before he conveniently forgot he had sired a child in a moment of ill-thought-out passion? How long before he married someone classy and had legitimate children who would inherit everything he owned, while her own child shrank into the shadows, forgotten and overlooked? Didn’t she know better than anyone that unwanted children usually stayed that way? She knew what it was like to be rejected by her own father.

  And that was her light-bulb moment. The moment when she knew exactly what she was going to ask for. Her ego didn’t matter and neither did her pride, because this was more important than both those things. This was for her baby.

  ‘I’m not threatening to blackmail you,’ she said quietly. ‘I’ve told you until I was blue in the face that the whole journalist thing was a stupid mistake, which I don’t intend on repeating. I just want you to marry me, that’s all.’

  ‘That’s all?’ he echoed with a cruel replica of a smile. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you’re so charming, of course,’ she snapped. ‘And so thoughtful and—’

  ‘Why?’ he repeated, a note of steel entering his voice—as if he suspected that behind her flippancy she was teetering perilously on the brink of hysteria.

  ‘Isn’t it obvious?’ With an effort she kept her gaze steady, but inside her heart was pounding so loudly she was certain he must be able to hear it. ‘Because I want my baby to have some kind of security.’

  ‘Which doesn’t need to involve marriage,’ he said coldly. ‘If the baby really is mine, then I will accept responsibility. I can give you money. A house.’ He shrugged. ‘Some baubles for yourself, if that’s what you’re angling for.’

  Baubles? Baubles? Did he really think her so shallow that he thought jewels might be her motivation? ‘It isn’t,’ she said, her cheeks growing pink, ‘just about the money.’

  ‘Really? Woman claims money isn’t her sole motivation.’ He gave a cynical laugh. ‘Wow! That must be a first. So if it isn’t about the money—then what is it about?’

  Distractedly, she rubbed at her forehead. ‘I want him—or her—to know who they are—to have a real identity. I want them to bear their father’s name.’

  She saw the darkness which passed over his face like a cloud crossing the sun.

  ‘And I might not have the kind of name you would want to associate with your baby,’ he said harshly.

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  But Alek shook his head as the old familiar shutters came slamming down—effectively sealing him off from her questions. Because marriage was a no-no for him—right at the very top of things he was never going to do. And although he’d shaken off his past a long time ago—he could never entirely escape its long tentacles. They reached out and whipped him when he wasn’t expecting it. In the darkness of the night they sometimes slithered over his skin, reminding him of things he’d rather forget.

 
His parents’ marriage had been the dark canker at the heart of his life, whose poison had spilled over into so many places. The union between a cruel man and a woman he despised so much that he couldn’t even bear to say her name. His mouth hardened. Why the hell would he ever want to marry?

  Alek’s success had been public, but he’d managed to keep his life private. He had locked himself within an emotional shell in order to protect himself and he rarely let anyone get close. And hadn’t that been another reason for his anger with Ellie? Not just because her indiscretion had tarnished his hard-won business reputation, but because she’d broken his foolishly misplaced trust in her.

  ‘Maybe I’m not great husband material,’ he told her. ‘Ask any of the women I’ve dated and I’m sure they’d be happy to list all my failings. I’m selfish. I’m intolerant. I work too hard and have a low boredom threshold—especially where women are concerned.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘Shall I continue?’

  She shook her head, so that her ponytail swung from side to side. ‘I’m not talking about a real marriage. I’m talking about a legal contract with a finite time limit.’

  His eyes narrowed. ‘Because?’

  ‘Because I don’t want my baby to be born illegitimate—I’m illegitimate myself. But neither do I want to spend the rest of my life with someone who doesn’t even seem to like me. I’m not a complete masochist—’

  ‘Just a partial one?’ he put in mockingly.

  ‘I must have been,’ she said bitterly, ‘to have had sex with you.’

  ‘Pretty amazing sex, though,’ he said, almost as an aside.

  Deliberately, Ellie pushed that thought away, even though just the mention of it was enough to start her body tingling. Yes, it had been amazing. It had started out in anger but it had turned into something else. Something passionate and all consuming, which had completely blown her away. Had he felt it, too—that incredible connection? Or was she doing that thing women were so good at doing? Believing something to be true because you wanted it to be true.

  ‘It doesn’t matter now what the sex was like,’ she said slowly. ‘Because the only thing that matters now is the baby.’

  He flinched as she said the word. She could see his jaw harden so that it looked as if it were carved from granite.

  ‘Cut to the chase and tell me exactly what you’re proposing,’ he said.

  The combination of heat, emotion and a lack of food was making her feel dizzy but Ellie knew she mustn’t crumple now. The thought of having Alek in her life didn’t exactly make her want to jump for joy—but it was still better than going it alone.

  ‘We have a small wedding,’ she said. ‘No doubt your lawyers will want to draw up some kind of contract and that’s fine by me.’

  ‘Good of you,’ he said sardonically.

  ‘We don’t even have to live together,’ she continued. ‘You just acknowledge paternity and provide support for the future. The baby gets your name and a share of your inheritance.’ She shrugged, because the words sounded so bizarre. A few short weeks ago she’d been thinking no further than her next promotion and here she was talking about paternity. ‘And after the birth, we can get ourselves a no-blame divorce. I think that’s fair.’

  ‘Fair?’ He gave a short laugh. ‘You mean I’m to play the tame benefactor? Sitting on the sidelines, just doling out money?’

  ‘I’m not intending to be greedy.’

  He narrowed his eyes. ‘And you don’t think people are going to be suspicious? To wonder why we aren’t living together and why I haven’t spent any time with the mother of my baby?’

  ‘Given the way you’ve reacted to the news, I was assuming that being given a get-out clause would be your dream scenario.’

  ‘Well, don’t,’ he snapped. ‘Don’t ever assume anything about me, Ellie. That was the first mistake you made. I am not a “pussycat” as you seem to think, not by any stretch of the imagination.’

  ‘Don’t worry. I’ve changed my mind about that!’

  ‘I’m pleased to hear it.’ His gaze raked over her, lingering almost reluctantly on her belly. ‘I didn’t plan a baby and I certainly didn’t want marriage. But if these are the cards fate has dealt me—then these are the cards I’m going to have to play. And I play to win.’

  She pushed her fringe out of her eyes. ‘Is that supposed to be a threat?’

  ‘Not a threat, no. But you haven’t yet heard my side of the bargain.’ Alek stared at her mutinous face. He knew what he had to do. No matter how much it flew in the face of everything he believed in, he was going to have to make sacrifices for his child in a way nobody had ever done for him. He was going to have to marry her. Because it was far better to have her by his side as his wife, than to leave her free to behave like a loose cannon, with his child helpless and without his protection.

  His heart clenched. ‘If you want my ring on your finger, then you’re going to have to act like a wife,’ he said. ‘You will live with me—’

  ‘I told you that wasn’t—’

  ‘I don’t care what you told me,’ he interrupted impatiently. ‘If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it properly. I want this wedding to mimic all the traditions of what a wedding should be.’

  ‘M-mimic?’ she echoed, in confusion. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Can’t you guess?’ His mouth twisted into a bitter smile. ‘We will pretend. You will wear a white dress and look deep into my eyes and play the part of my adoring bride. Do you think you can manage that, Ellie?’

  Ellie’s stomach began to rumble and she wondered if he could hear it in the strange silence which had descended. It seemed a long time since she’d eaten that apple on the train. In fact, it seemed a long time since she’d done anything which felt remotely normal. One minute she’d been waiting tables and the next she was standing discussing marriage with a cold-eyed billionaire who was telling her to pretend to care about him. Suddenly she felt like a feather which had found itself bouncing around on a jet stream.

  ‘You want to make it into some sort of farce,’ she breathed.

  ‘Not a farce. Just a performance credible enough to convince the outside world that we have fallen in love.’

  ‘But why?’ she questioned. ‘Why not just treat it like the contract we both know it is?’

  He flexed his fingers and she saw the whitening of his knuckles through the deep olive skin.

  ‘Because I want my child to have memories,’ he said harshly. ‘To be able to look at photos of their mother and father on their wedding day, and even if they are no longer together—which obviously, we won’t be—then at least there will be the consolation that once we were an item.’

  ‘But that’s...that’s a lie!’

  ‘Or just illusionary?’ he questioned bitterly. ‘Isn’t that what life is? An illusion? People see what others want them to see. And I don’t want my child hurt. Let him believe that once his parents loved one another.’

  Ellie watched his face become ravaged by a pain he couldn’t hide. It clouded the brilliance of his blue eyes and darkened his features into a rugged mask. And despite everything, she wanted to reach out and ask him what had caused him a hurt so palpable that just witnessing it seemed intrusive. She wanted to put her arms around him and cradle him.

  But he looked so remote in his beautifully cut suit, with its dark fabric moulding his powerful limbs and the white shirt collar which contrasted against his gleaming skin. He looked so proud and patrician that he seemed almost untouchable, which was pretty ironic when you thought about it. She cleared her throat. ‘And when should this marriage take place?’

  ‘I think as soon as possible, don’t you? There’s something a little in your face about a bride who is so obviously pregnant. I’ll have my lawyers draw up a contract and you will move into my London apartment. We can discuss buying you a property after th
e birth.’

  Ellie felt as if her old life was already fading. As if she’d been plucked from obscurity and placed in the spotlight of Alek’s glamorous existence and she was suddenly beginning to realise just how powerful that spotlight could be. But when she stopped to think about it, what did she imagine would happen next? That she’d carry on selling cupcakes while wearing his ring on her finger? ‘I suppose so,’ she agreed.

  His blue gaze raked over her. ‘You’ve lost weight,’ he observed.

  ‘I get sick in the mornings, but it usually wears off by mid-afternoon.’

  ‘Yet you’re expecting to carry on working?’

  ‘I’ll manage,’ she said stubbornly. ‘Most women do.’

  ‘And after the birth—what then? Will your baby take second place to your career?’

  ‘I can’t say what will happen,’ she said quietly. ‘All I do know is that a child shouldn’t have to take second place to anything.’

  They stared at one another and for a moment Ellie thought he was actually going to say something nice, but she was wrong.

  ‘You’re going to have to update your wardrobe if you’re to make a convincing bride, but that shouldn’t be a problem. As the future Mrs Sarantos, you’ll get unlimited access to my credit card. Does that turn you on?’

  Ellie glared as she met his sardonic smile. ‘Will you please stop making me sound like some kind of gold-digger?’

  ‘Oh, come on, Ellie,’ he said, and briefly some of the harshness left his voice. ‘Didn’t you ever learn to make the best out of a bad situation?’

  She felt a twist of pain as she turned away. Didn’t he realise he was talking to the queen of the positive spin? That she’d spent her life trying not to be influenced by a mother who was steeped in bitterness and regret. And hadn’t she vowed that her own life would be different? That she would make something of herself? She would be strong and most of all...independent. And now here she was, tying herself to a cold and unfeeling man because she needed security.