His Pregnant Bride: Pregnant by the Greek Tycoon / His Pregnant Princess / Pregnant: Father Needed

‘I only want you to hold me because I’m temporarily feeling alone and sorry for myself.’ Did I really say that out loud?

Angolos cupped her face between his big hands. ‘You’re not alone,’ he rasped.

Yes, I said it! ‘I’m not normally a needy person,’ she promised, feeling weak tears squeeze out from her closed eyelids. ‘I just need a tissue and possibly a drink.’

Something flickered in his deep-set eyes. ‘But not me?’

‘I make mistakes,’ she told him. ‘But not twice,’ she added grimly as she pulled back from him, back in control—or as much as she ever was around him—of her feelings.

His expression hardened. ‘I will make the flight arrangements and contact you with the details. I’m assuming you don’t travel light with a child?’

‘What flight arrangements?’

He looked irritated. ‘What flight arrangements do you think I mean? I will fly over later tonight and organise things that end, then—’

‘You think I’m going to drop everything and leave immediately?’

‘Not immediately, but I see no reason to delay.’

She stared at him incredulously. ‘No, of course you don’t.’ How could I have forgotten how selfish and single-minded he is…?

He shook his head and sat down on the bed. Something she immediately wished he hadn’t done. ‘What is your problem? I have acceded to all your demands, placated your family… Do not push your luck, Georgette,’ he advised.

‘Oh, the “I’ll do anything to be with my son” didn’t last very long, did it?’ she observed with withering scorn. ‘I have commitments here.’

Angolos’s facial muscles clenched, giving his face the appearance of stone as he asked in a voice devoid of all emotion, ‘Does he know you are married?’

Georgie shook her head, frowning. ‘He…? Will you stop talking in riddles…?’ Then as his meaning hit her angry heat flooded her face! ‘I don’t believe you! Do you really think I’d be stupid enough to commit to another man? After you!’ she stressed.

‘You don’t have a boyfriend.’ He sounded cautious, but not unhappy with this information. ‘Then what commitments are we talking about?’

‘I have a job, I’m contractually obliged to give the school notice and even if I wasn’t I wouldn’t dream of leaving them in the lurch.’ She made a quick mental assessment. ‘I won’t be able to leave until half-term at the earliest.’

‘And when is half-term?’

‘The end of October.’

‘That is not acceptable.’

She shrugged and thrust her hands in the pockets of her jeans. ‘Tough.’

‘You really have changed.’

‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

‘I’m sure I would be able to get the school to release you immediately.’

Georgie had no doubt he could, though he would probably delegate the task. ‘And I suppose that would involve throwing sacks full of money at them.’ Sometimes the Constantine name was enough.

‘Not sacks full.’

‘Typical!’

The way he was looking at her made it obvious he was totally mystified by her anger. ‘Don’t take that “I’m being reasonable and you’re being irrational” tone with me; I always hated it!’ she told him.

‘Thank you for sharing that with me.’

‘I’m not your sister. I don’t want, or need, you to make my problems go away by producing your cheque-book. Besides, this time I’m not burning my bridges. If things don’t work out I’m going to need a reference.’

‘To anticipate failure is hardly a positive attitude.’

‘Maybe not, but it’s a practical one,’ she said, responding to his criticism with a careless shrug. ‘I’m a mother now. I can’t act on a whim—I have to consider the consequences of my actions.’

‘And you married me on a whim—is that what you’re saying?’

Her mouth twisted in a cynical smile of self-derision. ‘I like to think of it more as temporary insanity.’

Oblivious to the fact that her confidence had caused Angolos to stiffen, she took the top item on a pile of freshly laundered clothes waiting to be put away and began to fold it with geometric precision. The mundane action helped steady her nerves.

‘It’s a pity really we didn’t just have sex as my dad suggested.’

‘Your father told you to sleep with me?’

His outraged tone brought her head up and she found herself looking into eyes that had narrowed into icy, incredulous slits.

‘Well, wouldn’t you prefer your daughter to sleep with the wrong man rather than marry him?’ she charged impatiently.

‘If my daughter was involved with the wrong man I would not advise her to have sex with him,’ he assured her grimly.

‘What would you do?’ she asked, even though she could hazard a guess from his expression.

‘I would remove the man from her life.’

‘And if he didn’t want to go?’

He looked astonished that she needed to ask. ‘I would not give him a choice.’

She shook her head. ‘I think it’s just as well that Nicky wasn’t a girl.’

‘Our next child might be, though.’

The colour drained from her face. ‘What did you say?’ she choked.

His brows lifted. ‘Would you condemn Nicky to be an only child?’ he wanted to know.

‘Me condemn…! You really are a piece of work. Don’t you dare try and use moral blackmail on me.’

‘Moral blackmail.’

‘Don’t give me that innocent look. I’ve seen wolves who looked more innocent than you.’

The accusation drew a grin from him. ‘I believe that wolves suffer from a very bad press. They are not the bad guys of popular fiction. Did you know they mate for life?’ he asked.

‘I’m willing to give wolves the benefit of the doubt,’ she gritted. ‘But we both know that you’d do whatever it took to get what you wanted.’

‘You don’t want another baby?’ Despite his mild tone his eyes were fixed with a curious intensity on her face.

She blinked; the question took her aback. Did she want another baby? ‘That’s not the point—’

‘I would say it’s very much the point,’ he inserted drily.

‘It’s far too early…’ She stopped and angled a searching look at his lean face. ‘Do you want a baby?’

‘And if I said I did, would it make a difference to you?’

She looked from the sensual curve of his mouth to the velvety darkness of his eyes and felt her concentration slipping… Her expression hardened.

‘You expect me to believe you give a damn about what I think?’ She released a scornful trill of laughter and saw the anger flicker in his liquid dark eyes. ‘Let’s not drift into fantasy land here…’

Angolos cut across her. ‘Actually I don’t feel that having a baby at this time would be a sensible idea.’

The colour in her cheeks receded. She ought to welcome his comment, she told herself crossly. Anyone would think I wanted to have his baby. ‘When we don’t even know if we’ll be together in two weeks’ time, let alone two years, I couldn’t agree more,’ she contended coolly.

‘The positive attitude again. You know, Georgette, cynical doesn’t suit you.’

‘Get used to it, Angolos,’ she suggested, maintaining her indifferent pose.

‘Do you realise that the moment I start to get close to you…’ He took an actual step towards her and without thinking Georgie retreated two steps. ‘I was going to say, you push me away, but maybe that should have been you run away.’

A defiant frown formed on her face as she met his ironic smile. ‘I’m really not in the mood for your silly games.’

‘I’m not playing games, Georgette. I know you want to punish me,’ he revealed in a harsh voice, ‘but hasn’t it occurred to you that I’m not the only one suffering here? You’re hurting too. You want me, Georgette. We both know that.’

She opened her mouth to angrily rebut this claim and stopped. She released a long, slow, shuddering breath. ‘I am hurting, but there’s not a lot I can do about it. And I doubt very much if getting into your bed is going to make that hurt go away. I will probably sleep with you, Angolos.’ She saw triumph flare in his eyes and added with a self-derisive shrug, ‘You’re right—I have very little self-control where you are concerned. But I can’t let myself trust you again, Angolos; you hurt me so much.’

The taut silence lengthened. Angolos walked over to the window. ‘That cuts both ways.’

Bewildered, she stared at his broad back. ‘I hurt you…?’

Angolos turned back; he didn’t want to hear another denial. ‘I really think there is no point dissecting what went wrong between us.’

On one level he could recognise how the situation could have driven her into another man’s arms: she had felt isolated; he had been too busy with work to give her the attention she needed…recognise but never forgive.

‘I thought you wanted to talk,’ she protested, bewildered by his swift change of mood.

‘I think we should talk about the future.’

‘Suits me.’ She shot him a wary glance. ‘But let’s not go over ground we’ve already covered,’ she cautioned.

‘What ground would that be?’

‘Babies,’ she elaborated.

‘I was not…I actually think you’re a marvellous mother.’

Georgie’s eyes widened. Coming from Angolos, who didn’t throw around the compliments, this was praise indeed. ‘I’m a fairly all right mother,’ she corrected. ‘I’m a long way from marvellous. I make loads of mistakes. I expect you will too. It’s a steep learning curve so don’t expect to get it right the first time. I suppose it’s not unlike riding a bike or…’

‘Or?’

‘I forget,’ she said, unable to think on the spur of the moment of a more convincing lie. Angolos didn’t look convinced.

She released a hiss of angry frustration and she shot him a look of fulminating frustration. ‘I was going to say making love, but I’m sure you were always perfect at that, damn you!’ she added with a resentful sniff.

The look of astonishment that spread across his face was swiftly supplanted by a slow, sensual smile. ‘There’s no need to look so smug.’

‘I don’t feel smug. I’d just forgotten how much you always made me laugh.’ Then to her dismay he did just that in a loud and uninhibited way.

Hell, she thought, he really did have the sexiest laugh in the world.

‘Shut up,’ she hissed, ‘Nicky will wake up, or someone will come up to see what’s going on.’

‘Is this better?’ he asked.

Georgie studied the sober face he showed her. ‘Your hair’s sticking up,’ she said. It wasn’t, but it helped her not say what she wanted to. You’re beautiful might take this conversation in a direction she really didn’t want to go!

‘Thanks,’ he said, drawing a hand over the neatly trimmed pelt. ‘Has your family got something against laughter?’

‘No, just you.’ The rueful smile created a brief sense of unity. ‘Do you remember…?’ she began, then stopped.

‘What?’ he prompted.

‘I was just thinking about the first time you met the family, and your face when Gran asked you if you worked in a bar. You looked so astonished.’ She shook her head. The memory of his aghast expression was so strong that it was hard to keep the quiver of amusement from her voice. ‘And you said no, but you thought that you might own a vineyard, but you’d have to ch…check.’

‘I did check and I own two, but they are very small.’

CHAPTER TWELVE

‘YOU’LL wake him,’ Georgie reproached Angolos again before stuffing her fist on her mouth to stifle her own laughter. She laughed until her ribs ached and when she stopped she wiped away the tears from her cheeks. A quick peek revealed that Nicky was still sound asleep.

‘It’s lucky he’s a…’ She turned towards Angolos and promptly forgot what she had been about to say.

There was no lingering amusement on his face. Under the sweep of his dark, luxuriant lashes his eyes glittered. The expression on his lean face was intense and raw.

The air between them suddenly buzzed with an almost visible electric charge. It made the fine hairs on her arms stand on end and caused a tell-tale, quivery ache low in her belly.

If she didn’t do something and do it quick things were going to happen. And she didn’t want that, did she?

‘You’re staring,’ she accused with a weak little laugh that fooled nobody, especially herself.

He carried on staring.

She looked at his mouth, seeing it against her breasts. Inside her shirt her nipples grew hard as though his lips had actually brushed over them.

‘This is a trial,’ she began, calling on every ounce of her will-power to control her voice. ‘I was explaining, before you hijacked the conversation, that I’m going to give work my notice.’

There was a long uncomfortable silence while he studied the rigid lines of her determined face.

‘They’ve always been good to me at the school. Nicky has a free place at the nursery,’ she continued.

‘So it’s non-negotiable?’

Her shoulders sagged in relief. ‘Yes.’

‘In that case I suppose I’d better rearrange my schedule.’

Georgie, who had been expecting something along the lines of, Over my dead body, raised suspicious eyes to his face. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that now that I’ve found my son I’m not about to wait to be his father. I will relocate.’

‘But your work!’ she protested.

He dismissed his multimillion-pound company with a casual shrug of his shoulders. ‘If necessary I will work from home.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t even know where I work and you can’t possibly run an international company from a Sussex village.’

He gave her a mocking look. ‘Anyone would think you didn’t want me to move in with you, yineka mou,’ he drawled.

Anyone would be right. Her body grew rigid as the full import of his comment penetrated. ‘Move in…?’ She echoed sharply.

‘I think we should start as we mean to go on. This is to be a marriage in every sense of the word.’

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