by Maisey Yates
“I...”
“Yes, I think I can guess.”
“I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
“I know exactly what we are going to do.”
Her eyes widened. “You do?”
“Yes. You will be coming back to Athens with me. And then, agape, you and I are going to marry.”
* * *
Elle was dimly aware of the fact that she was sitting in Apollo’s limo, essentially in a catatonic state. But she had just found out she was pregnant with the baby of a man who despised her and her family, a man who had left her jobless and broken when he had ended their affair.
She had never really thought about being a mother. Her own mother had abandoned her early on and not bothered to keep in touch at all. Her stepmother was a lovely woman, but often silent next to her husband.
And Elle’s father was so...imposing. He didn’t bend. He didn’t show affection. It was like loving a rock.
She had never imagined trying to re-create that parent-child relationship with herself in the parenting hot seat. It seemed...completely unappealing. It also meant she was linked to Apollo. Forever.
As if you weren’t before.
She gritted her teeth. She had no idea what to say. No idea what to do next. And as far as she knew she was being shanghaied and sent to Athens again.
That thought sent her into action. “I’m not going to marry you.”
He chuckled, a dark, humorless sound. “Then prepare yourself for a custody battle that will drain you of your every resource.”
She blinked. “Who said I would fight you for custody?”
The moment she said it, she realized that she would. Not because her parents had been wonderful, not because they had made her long for a parent-child relationship in her own life. But because they had demonstrated in a million small ways how unimportant she was. She would be damned if her own child would walk through life feeling like their mother couldn’t be bothered with them.
Just the thought made her stomach clench in agony. Her own little one, believing that she didn’t want them. She wanted to apologize to the little life inside her. As though it had somehow sensed her hesitance.
“If you don’t feel strongly enough about our child to stand and fight for them, then I would gladly have you step aside.”
“I won’t,” she said, her tone infused with conviction.
The numbness was starting to wear off. And even though she couldn’t quite imagine what it would be like to have a child, even though she wasn’t sure if she was devastated or happy, she knew that she wouldn’t stand aside.
“You just said—”
“Yes, well, I am trying to figure out exactly where I stand. It might surprise you to know this but I didn’t exactly fantasize about a life with a picket fence, a husband and children.”
“It doesn’t surprise me. A woman with as much white in her apartment as you have doesn’t seem to be planning ahead for sticky fingers.”
“I wasn’t. You can be sure of that. But I’m also not one to walk away from my responsibilities. And I don’t want any child of mine going through life imagining they aren’t wanted.”
“Then, marriage it will be.”
Her mind was ticking over at a million miles a minute. “I would have a few conditions,” she said.
She could not believe she had just said that. She knew that you weren’t supposed to negotiate with terrorists or superalpha Greek billionaires who had far too high of an opinion of themselves. So, she didn’t know why she was attempting it.
“Conditions, agape?” He sounded...angry. But interested.
“Yes. Conditions.” Now she had to quickly think of her conditions. “New York is my home. I’m not leaving New York.”
“I have a villa in Greece.”
“I daresay you have homes all over the world. I know you don’t have a permanent residence in New York, but I do.”
“Your apartment is the size of a postage stamp.”
“It’s big enough.”
“For you. There is no room for a child. No room for a husband.”
She gritted her teeth. “I did not agree to taking a husband. Not yet. I have conditions, but I won’t make my final decision until I’m certain that the situation is to my liking.”
“I’m not certain you want to challenge my authority. I am a well-respected billionaire, after all, and you are unemployed. The daughter of a businessman on the verge of being washed-up. If your mother hasn’t spent all of his payoff money by now, she’s certainly close to it. What could you possibly give a child that I can’t?”
“Love. Warmth. Human emotion?”
“I’m sure the court will be more impressed with my net worth.”
“I don’t think so. Everyone agrees that a child needs love above anything else.”
“And you feel you are more qualified to give a child parental love that I am?”
She shifted in her seat. “Yes. I do.”
“On what grounds? Prior to being unemployed you were a workaholic.”
“I was not.”
“Did you have a single friend who was not also a coworker?”
She didn’t even have to think about that. She knew the answer to the question. But whether or not they were from work Suki and Christine were real friends. Suki had brought cupcakes after Elle had been fired. Friendship.
Though the thought of cupcakes made her stomach turn right now.
“You’re a workaholic, too,” she said.
“I’m also a man and a billionaire. No one will judge me for the amount of time I spend working. It is irrelevant. Not so for you.”
“The point is, I am the child’s mother and I don’t think I’m going to have an issue retaining custody.”
“I disagree.”
“You will have to wait, Apollo,” she said, her voice infused with iron, with a strength she wasn’t sure she truly felt right now. “I’m not afraid of fighting you in court. To hear you tell it your mother was manipulated into a relationship with my father and now you want to do the same to me? How are you any better?”
“I’m not,” he said, his expression bleak, cold. But only for a moment. Then his walls went back up.
“Name your conditions clearly.”
“I want to stay in New York. I wish to have the child here. I wish to raise him here.”
“The child will be Greek. He should be exposed to his homeland.”
“Exposure is fine. But I want him raised here. I want to stay here. Because that leads me to my next requirement. I want my job back.”
“The new CEO has only been there for a month. If I let him go I will seem capricious.”
“There is a cost to everything. And that is the cost to having me without muss or fuss. Do you accept, or not?”
She wasn’t certain if she wanted him to say yes, or if she wanted him to refuse. She wasn’t sure what she wanted at all.
“I accept.”
A strange mixture of relief and terror washed through her. “Excellent.”
He pulled out his phone again. “Alethea,” he said. “I require some real estate. A penthouse, Manhattan. Something large, but secure. No rooftop balconies or anything like that. Or, if there are balconies, they need to be secure. Childproof.” He hung up.
“Is your assistant finding you a house?”
“No, agape,” he said, smiling a smile that was not friendly at all. “My assistant is going to find us a home. Now do you agree to marry me?”
Elle took a deep breath and met that coal-black gaze. “If I find the conditions are met to my satisfaction. And if I feel you won’t spend my whole life making me miserable. You said I was your revenge, Apollo. Until you see me as a woman—a whole woman, not your stepsister who you ha
rbor rage against, not an instrument of vengeance to use against my father—you will not have me. Not in your life, not as your wife. That’s a promise.”
CHAPTER TEN
ALETHEA WAS NOTHING if not efficient, and by that afternoon he and Elle were standing in an empty penthouse at the top of the building in Midtown. It was spacious, though hardly the sun-drenched villa he chose to call home in Greece. But it would do.
“Do you find this satisfactory?”
“I have a... I have a house,” she said.
“Oh, I have already taken care of listing it for you. Unless you wish to keep it as some sort of workspace, I figured it would be best to sell it.”
“You’re selling my house?”
“My men have been over there packing your things.”
She whirled around, her hands clenched into fists. “Apollo! I can’t believe you would do something like that.”
He turned to her, arching a dark brow. “Really. You can’t believe I would do something like that? And here I thought it was in keeping with my character.”
She pressed her fists up against her eyes, as though she was trying to use them to hold back her rage. “Everything is changing too quickly.”
“Things have been changing quickly for the past two months. First, we had sex. Then you went to Greece. Then we had more sex. You lost your job. Now you’re having a baby and we’re working at integrating our lives. It’s a fast-moving train, life is.”
In truth, his life had been stagnant for quite a few years. Yes, he had more money than he could possibly spend in a lifetime. His business had continued to grow. He had fixated on his revenge plan against the St. James family. But beyond that, nothing had moved significantly in years. His life was an endless array of beautiful women, meaningless events that required him to put on a suit and smile politely at those in attendance. This was...
This was the first time in a long time he had something new.
It wasn’t the revenge he had planned when he’d come back to New York, but it was...interesting. He imagined Elle would take exception to him calling her accidental pregnancy interesting.
“Fine. It’s very you. But you can’t just come into my life and completely reorder it.”
“Why not? You have done it to me.”
She looked stunned for a moment. “Have I?”
“You are going to make me a father. If that is not upending my life, I don’t know what is.”
“I suppose it depends on how involved you intend to be.”
He knew nothing about how to be a good father. He could scarcely remember his own. When the other man had been alive he had all but lived at the corporate headquarters for the business he shared with David St. James. And then, after that, after the disgrace, he had sunk into drugs and alcohol. Affairs. Only a few years later he was dead.
As far as David went...the man had been an attentive stepfather. He had been... Well, none of it mattered now. Because of what he had revealed himself to be.
“I am a busy man. A wealthy man. I plan to keep my involvement somewhat limited,” he said.
“Then, I suppose your personal life doesn’t have to change much. Oh,” she said, her green gaze turning sharp. “Except you are required to remain faithful to me.”
Her words hit him low and hard in the stomach. Punched the wound he had just been examining. He could not imagine wanting a woman other than Elle. He had not taken anyone else to his bed in the month since they had parted. Unusual for him.
In fact, from the moment he had taken over her father’s company, from the moment he had first taken over the magazine and brought her back into his life on a semiregular basis, he had not been with another woman. Because the moment Elle St. James had come back into his life his body had reignited its obsession for her. Still, he did not wish for her to know that. He did not want her issuing more edicts.
He had agreed to New York, because that was simple. He had agreed to giving her the position at Matte back because it was also simple. And quite apart from that, the fact that he was providing David St. James with his first grandchild was a whole new, delicious sort of revenge.
He no longer needed to throw her out of the company. No longer required to destroy St. James in that way. He had the man’s daughter. She was having his baby. She would be his wife, Apollo was confident in that.
Yes, there was a great deal he could do with that. He was certain.
“I have no experience with fidelity,” he said. “I will make no promises on that score.”
“Then you will enjoy the single life. If you touch another woman, you certainly won’t be touching me.”
“I highly doubt that.”
He and Elle could scarcely be in the same room together without tearing each other’s clothes off. Today was an exception, brought about by the shock of her discovering she was pregnant and by the need to see to the logistics created by that circumstance. But he knew that very soon he would have her on her back begging for his possession.
Or she will have you on your back begging for hers.
He refused to consider that. Refused to think of things that way. She was a slave to the pleasure that ignited between them every time they touched, just as he was. He was not at a disadvantage. He was not alone in it.
“The perk of staying single is that I will be free to pursue other lovers,” she said, shaking her head, her coppery mane shimmering in the sunlight filtering through the large windows that overlooked Central Park.
“I don’t believe that,” he said, rage a hot, living thing in his stomach. The thought of another man touching Elle was anathema. But she was bluffing, and he would call her on that.
“Why is that? I may have been a virgin before you and I met, Apollo, but now that you have shown me just how enjoyable sex can be I don’t think you can possibly ask me to forgo the pleasure.”
“I damn well can.”
She laughed. “Careful. Your desperation is showing. You wouldn’t want me to understand where my real power is in all of this.”
She hit too close to the bone there, cut him far too deeply.
And suddenly, he did not care that today had been an emotional one for her. He did not care that she was in a fragile state. Only than only a couple of hours ago she had been sick in front of him, while wearing sweatpants. He always wanted Elle. Always. There was never a time when he didn’t crave her touch. And this was no exception.
He crossed the vacant expanse of the living area, wrapping his arm around her waist and tugging her up against him, cupping her chin with his thumb and forefinger. “Do not push me, Elle. You will not like the result.”
“Do not push me, Apollo.”
“We push each other, agape, that’s the honest truth. And look at where it has gotten us.”
“Yes. I daresay it is not the most pleasant situation.”
“I could make it much more pleasant if you weren’t so stubborn.”
She glared at him. “The same goes for you.”
“You start again at Matte tomorrow. I will give your replacement a generous severance.”
He released his hold on her.
“Excellent,” she said, smoothing her clothing, her voice making it sound like she thought all of this was anything but excellent.
“I have arranged for all of our things to be moved into the penthouse by tonight.”
She laughed. “That isn’t possible.”
He lifted his shoulder. “It is possible when you pay with cash.”
She shook her head. “That’s the problem with you, Apollo, you have never been denied anything that you wanted.”
“I don’t know, Elle, I felt fairly denied of my father after he put a bullet in his brain. And why did he do that? Oh, yes. Because his dear friend and business partner betrayed him. Yes
, I know a little bit about deprivation. I refuse to apologize for enjoying luxury now.”
She blinked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...”
He waved a hand. “I am not so sensitive. Anyway, this is par for the course between us, yes? We must tear strips off each other’s hides. Because if we do not, we will tear each other’s clothes off instead.”
She sniffed. “Maybe once. But not anymore.”
“You may cling to that illusion all you want. Either way, your things will be here by this evening. How you choose to spend your time between now and then is up to you.”
* * *
The next day, when Elle walked into the fully furnished penthouse she felt dazed. Her life was changing so quickly. They were going to be sharing a space while he was in New York. Living together. And he wanted to marry her.
It made her stomach tight. Made her feel dizzy.
The terrifying thing was there was some small, delusional piece of her that felt...excited. As though this were some kind of fairy tale. As though the two of them were embarking on a real relationship. Possibly, a real marriage. As though he wanted her, because she was Elle, because of the heat and fire between them, not because she was carrying his baby.
He came back. He came back before he knew you were pregnant.
She held that close. Turned it over and examined it as though it was some kind of rare treasure that she wanted to keep shielded from the world. That she never wanted to look away from. He had returned to her before he found out about the baby. She didn’t know what that meant. Yes, he had said he wanted her to return as his mistress. But she knew full well that a man like Apollo was more than capable of getting any woman he desired. He didn’t need her. But he had still come for her.
And the moment he had found out about the baby he had taken charge, taken everything into hand and done everything he could to make their arrangement permanent.
It was perhaps foolish to assign any meaning to that, but she couldn’t help it.
At the bottom of it all, at the end of everything, she just wanted someone who wanted to be with her. Maybe that was a sad admission. But she had been lonely for so long. For all of her life. And the way that Apollo looked at her, the way that he commanded her body, so fierce and intense, at the exclusion of all else, made her hopeful that there was more to his attentions than he was willing to admit.
