Читать книгу For the Greek Tycoon's Pleasure - Люси Монро, Люси Монро, Lucy Gordon - Страница 14

ZEPHYR was waiting for her when she came out. “How did it go?”

“A little prick, a bandage and we were done.” It seemed like something awfully innocuous to find out something so momentous.

“They’ll know tomorrow?”

“That’s what the nurse said.” Piper had tried to dissuade Zephyr from coming to the doctor’s office with her.

It wasn’t as if she was having a difficult procedure, or something. But he’d insisted and now, she was kind of glad.

He put his hand out to take hers and led her outside. It was one of Seattle’s rare sunny days. Not so uncommon in the summer, but not something to be taken for granted, either.

“I’m glad I’m not alone, which makes me feel like a real wuss,” she admitted.

“You are facing the possibility of a major life change. That cannot help but be disconcerting. You are no weakling.”

She smiled up at him and squeezed his hand. “Well, I’m glad you’re here.” Even if she hadn’t wanted it that way at first.

“I am glad to be here.”

“Do you have to go into the office today?” she asked as they settled into his Mercedes.

“No, but I did promise to have dinner with Cass and Neo tonight.”

“Oh, okay.” She pasted a bright smile on her face. “If you could just drop me at my apartment. I’ll drive to the office from there.”

Or close her shades, put in the Coco Chanel biography she’d been meaning to watch and eat that pint of triple chocolate decadence hiding in the back corner of her freezer. It wasn’t as if she had to go to work. She was her own boss. If she wanted a day off to wallow in worry, she could take it.

“Dinner isn’t until this evening, and I was hoping you would come with me.”

“Oh.”

“I have no intention of leaving you alone to dwell.”

He knew her too well. “Who said anything about dwelling?”

“We have been friends for years.”

“Are you implying that makes you a mind reader?”

“I only wish—” he smiled “—but I do know you.”

“Yes, you do.”

“So, dinner with Cass and Neo?”

“Sure.” She bit her lip and looked out the window. “You know Cass and I have never actually met.”

“I know. It is time.”

“Because I might be pregnant.”

“Because you are my close friend and so are they,” he explained.

“So we should all know each other?”

“Naturally.”

“Your arrogance is showing again,” she teased.

“But remember, you find it charming.”

“It’s a good thing for you that I do.”

“Do you need to work today?” he asked this time.

“I have a few small jobs I could work on finishing up before your project swallows all my time.” But she really didn’t want to deal with any of them.

“Is that what you want to do?”

“No.”

“Well, then?”

“There’s a pint of chocolate ice cream in my freezer with my name on it.” Piper clung on to her original plans.

“Really? I was unaware your name was triple chocolate decadence.”

“You’ve been snooping in my cold storage?” She tried to sound outraged, but only managed mildly amused.

“Business tycoons crave ice cream, too. Even Greek ones.”

“You ate my triple chocolate decadence?” The outrage came through bright and clear this time.

“Of course not. I ate the single-serving cherries jubilee buried behind the vegetarian meals you never eat but buy to make yourself feel better about your food purchasing habits.”

She ignored the jab about her sadly ignored healthier food options. “I like cherries jubilee.”

“With a healthy dose of hot fudge perhaps.”

“Okay, so, I’m a chocoholic. Is that a crime?”

“Not in Seattle, home to more chocolate-flavored coffees than most small countries.” He sounded indulgent. She loved him in this mood.

“Oooh, an iced mocha latte sounds good.” Could she have caffeine if she was pregnant? “Maybe decaffeinated.”

“We’ll go through a coffee-shop drive thru.”

“Why not stop somewhere?” she asked.

“Because I indulged your museum obsession in Athens, today is your day to indulge mine.”

“You want to go to museums?”

“I have other obsessions,” he said as he pulled up next to a coffee shack.

“You do? Other than making money, I wasn’t aware.”

“Right. You are probably the only person in the world besides Neo that knows that for the lie it is.” They both made their orders and then he gave her a significant look. “You are one of those obsessions.”

“You’re turning into quite the silver-tongued devil, you know that?”

“I have always been good with my mouth.”

“That can certainly be taken more than one way.”

“You should know.”

She felt herself blushing, despite their history together. Nevertheless, she agreed. “I do.”

The young barista cleared his throat. With a blush darker than hers burning on his cheeks, he handed Zephyr their drinks.

Zephyr pulled his car back out onto the road. “You are not my only interest, however.”

“My feelings might be hurt if you hadn’t downgraded whatever you’re going to try to talk me into from an obsession, which I am, to an interest.”

“I like fish.”

“I had noticed.” Her blue eyes queried where he was going with this. “You eat it more often than either steak or chicken.”

“Not to eat. To watch.”

“You want to go whale watching?” she guessed.

“Not today. I was thinking the aquarium.” That was so not what she expected to hear.

“You want to go the Seattle Aquarium…but that’s for children.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Seriously…you’ve been?”

“Several times.”

Wow…just wow. “No way.”

“I go when I need a place to think. Watching the fish can be very soothing.”

“Even with all those children around?”

“I like to see happy families.”

Somewhere over the Atlantic, Zephyr had become convinced that Piper was indeed pregnant. Regardless of the statistical probability after her years on the birth control patch. Therefore, he needed to convince her that marriage to him was a good option for her future, even without the love.

He wouldn’t give her love, but he realized he could give her more of himself. It went against his desire for self-protection, but he now considered his sharing of his past with her as a brilliant tactical move on his part. Piper needed to feel emotionally connected to people she cared about. He had seen the effect his sharing had had on her.

She’d drawn closer to him even as he’d attempted to backtrack to a shallower level of emotional intimacy. With his baby’s future on the line, he could and would give Piper a stronger connection, despite the fact he had no intention of allowing himself to be vulnerable to romantic love, were he even capable of the emotion.

Going to the aquarium wasn’t some big romantic thing, but it would allow Piper to glimpse a part of his life he did not share with others. It wasn’t much, but his instincts told him that sharing this habit with her would work toward convincing her they could have a strong enough marriage to raise children in.

Piper enjoyed the aquarium more than she thought she would. A lot more, but what she found most intriguing was watching the way Zephyr watched the other people there. She was sure he had no idea just how much his expression revealed of the inner man. His mouth would tilt in a half smile every time a child made an enthusiastic noise to its mother or father.

He watched the antics of the little ones with an indulgent grin and looked with pure longing at more than one set of parents visiting the aquarium with their kids.

“You really enjoy being here, don’t you?” she asked him in the glassed-in tunnel of exotic fish.

“Very much.” He looked around them with a wistful expression that was there and gone in a blink. “Everyone here has normal lives.”

“You assume.”

“I assume.” He smiled ruefully at her correction.

“You have a normal life. Now.”

“Do I?”

“Yes, of course,” she said.

“I’m a workaholic tycoon that spends most of his time making money and creating places for other people to enjoy the fruits of theirs.”

“So, spend some time enjoying them yourself.”

“Alone?”

“You aren’t alone right now.” If she didn’t know better, she would think he was making his case for how much he needed his own family.

“No, I am not.”

“Does that make you happy?” she couldn’t help asking.

“Yes, I like being here, in one of my favorite places, with you.”

“It’s special.” Really, really special. And he was sharing it with her. She reached up and kissed the corner of his mouth. “Thank you.”

They both stepped to the side as a young boy went racing by, his older brother right behind him and a woman even farther back calling for them to slow down.

Looking harried, but smiling, she rushed to catch up. “Sorry about that. They’re both crazy for the otter exhibit.”

Zephyr tilted his head. “No problem. You’re lucky to have such active children.”

“That’s one way to look at it.” But her grin as she sprinted after her children said she saw it the same.

“You really do want children, for more than just having someone to pass on your legacy of wealth.” How could she have thought anything else?

He looked down at her, his dark eyes filled with a longing she was just beginning to understand ran soul deep for him. “Yes.”

Lost to anyone else around them, she reached up to cup his cheek. “You’ll make a wonderful father.”

“That is my sincere hope.”

Cass was wearing a beautiful bright dress when she opened Neo’s apartment door to Zephyr and Piper later that evening.

She grinned at Zephyr and pulled him in for a hug. “Long time, no see, stranger. How was Greece?”

“Warm and beautiful.”

“You mean you actually took time to notice. When Neo told me you were taking a minivacation before going to the island, I almost fainted, but I’m glad.”

“Hey, I am not as bad as my business partner.”

“Only a robot works as many hours and holidays as Neo did before we met, but he’s well on his way to reformed now.”

The complacency in Cass’s voice made him smile. “I noticed.”

Cass turned to Piper. “Please tell me you’re taking on the job for Zee. He needs someone to.”

“Don’t answer that,” Zephyr demanded, then said, “Yineka mou, this is my best friend’s fiancée, Cassandra Baker, world-renowned pianist and composer. Cass, this is Piper Madison, brilliant designer and my very good friend.”

Cass’s brows rose to her hairline and Zephyr realized he had made a mistake using that particular endearment in front of her. No doubt Neo had long since told her the translation and the implications often associated with it. Implications he was becoming more and more comfortable with.

Cass took both of Piper’s hands in hers and squeezed them. “So, it is your job.”

“I’m beginning to think so, yes.” Piper glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “Good friends have an obligation to look out for each other.”

“That’s the argument Zee used when talking me into taking the piano lessons that changed my life,” Neo said as he came into the entryway. “Shouldn’t we all go into the living room? It’s got more comfortable seating.”

He gave Piper a smile that seemed to startle her, but she returned the gesture and said, “Good to see you again, Neo.”

Then Cass led Piper away by the hand while Neo hung back to give Zephyr a traditional Greek greeting. “It is good to have you back in Seattle.”

“I miss the island already.”

“I felt the same after leaving.” Neo nodded. “It is a special place.”

“Special enough to consider making it a more regular aspect of my life.”

“You are serious?”

“What would you think of delegating another level of responsibility to our well-trained staff and moving our offices to the island villa?”

Neo’s eyes widened in shock. “You are serious.”

“Never more so.”

“Something has happened.”

Zephyr shrugged, but was feeling nothing like complacent. “I’m ready to make changes in my life.”

“Do you have news to share with me?”

“Not yet.”

“But there will be?” Neo pressed.

“Perhaps.”

“You’re going to have to do better than that.”

Not yet. “Give me until tomorrow.”

Neo didn’t push. Cass would have. Zephyr could just be thankful his friend would not have a chance to bring it up to her while Zephyr and Piper were there.

They walked into the living room to find Cass and Piper ensconced on the sofa going through digital pictures of the trip to Greece on Piper’s minitablet PC.

“I didn’t realize you’d brought that,” Zephyr said as he took the chair next to Piper’s spot on the sofa.

Neo sat beside his fiancée.

“I thought they might be interested in your trip.”

“Our trip.”

She rolled her eyes. “Our trip.”

“I’d really like to go to this art museum while we’re there,” Cass said to Neo.

He kissed her temple. “Then we will definitely add that to our agenda.”

“You’re going to Greece soon?” Piper asked.

Cass beamed. “For our honeymoon.”

“I seem to remember reading that you’d been there in a tour when you were younger.”

“Yes.” Cass looked a little startled. “You read about me?”

Piper blushed, but smiled. “When Zephyr told me Neo was getting married, I was understandably curious about the woman who had managed to lead him to such a human endeavor.”

Cass laughed out loud. “Wow, and you told me once that Zephyr was the only person that really knew you well.”

“I’ve worked for Stamos and Nikos Enterprises a few times.” Piper gave them a look rife with meaning. “I met Neo on a couple of the projects, though he wasn’t coordinating them.”

“And you found me inhuman?” Neo asked, contriving to sound offended.

“You were so intimidating that I sent up a prayer of thanks you were not the lead on the project I’d been hired for.” She winked conspiratorially at Cass. “I thought Zephyr was so much more laid-back and would be a much easier man to work for.”

“But you learned the truth?” Cass asked with a teasing glance to Zephyr.

“It took a bit, but I did.”

Zephyr feigned shock. “So, you don’t think I’m easy to work for?”

“I think anyone excellent at their job, who makes a minimum of mistakes, if none at all, and who understands how very seriously you take the success of each development, will find you a pussycat to work for.”

“That’s a lot of caveats,” Neo said, laughing.

Cass raised her brows at her fiancé. “I thought she did an admirable job of being diplomatic.”

“I’m not sure if that was a character assassination, or an endorsement,” Zephyr admitted.

“See? Diplomatic,” Cass teased.

“Zephyr, you are an amazing man, but just like Neo, you’re just a little superhuman for the rest of us. You just hide your intensity behind your charm.”

“Are you saying I am not charming?” Neo demanded.

Piper made a zipping motion over her sealed lips and they all burst out laughing.

Cass leaned against Neo and rubbed her head against his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Superman, I like you just the way you are.”

Seeing his friends like this usually gave Zephyr a twinge of useless envy, but tonight all he felt was a fleeting hope Piper was seeing it, too. And perhaps realizing a reformed Greek street kid wasn’t such a bad horse to place her wager on.

“Arrogance and all?” Neo prompted Cass.

She smiled and patted his leg. “That’s part of your charm.”

Neo gave Piper a triumphant look. “See, I do have charm.”

“I can attest to the arrogance part of it, anyway,” Piper said with a cheeky grin. “You and Zephyr both have bigger than the average dose.”

“Has he not told you that if it is justified, then we are talking about confidence here?” Neo asked.

“That’s right,” Zephyr agreed.

Both Cass and Piper simply laughed and shook their heads.

“Want to see the pictures?” Piper asked Neo.

“But of course. I would like evidence of Zee playing the tourist.”

“Well, here he is haggling with the jeweler in the Plaka over a necklace.” She clicked to one of the photos he had not known Piper had taken. It showed him in animated conversation with a short, square Greek about twenty years Zephyr’s senior.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to try to bargain inside actual shops,” Cass asked. “I’ve been reading up on it.”

Zephyr waved his hand in dismissal. A Greek boy who made his livelihood on the streets of Athens learned to bargain with the taxman, if that’s what it took. “What could it hurt to try? I was buying an expensive piece. If he wanted to move it that day, he needed to offer me an incentive.”

“And did he?” Cass asked.

Piper laughed out loud at that. “Do you really need to ask? Of course. No one in their right mind says no to billionaire tycoon Zephyr Nikos.”

“Remember that tomorrow,” Zephyr said under his breath.

But they all three heard him and gave him looks of inquiry in varying degrees.

He shrugged. “Show Cass the pictures of the view of Athens from the Acropolis.”

“Never mind that,” Cass said. “Do you know what he’s talking about, Piper?”

Piper frowned at him. “I do and it’s not something I’m comfortable discussing right now.”

“Does it have anything to do with why Zephyr asked me about moving the head offices to the island villa?” Neo asked.

Zephyr winced and bit back a particularly virulent curse.

“You did what?” Piper demanded, shock blatant in every centimeter of her lovely face.

“What?” screeched Cass. She gave Neo a confused look. “You told me we had to wait to talk to him about it until we’d been married at least a year!”

“You and Cass have already discussed it?” Zephyr asked, taking his turn at being taken aback.

“We’ve discussed many options for the future. Cassandra wants to experience other parts of the world and I want her to have every opportunity for maximum happiness,” Neo said with a shrug.

Now, that did not surprise him. With more trepidation than he had felt since leaving Greece for the unknown, Zephyr shifted his gaze to Piper to see how she was taking this discussion.

Her azure eyes were fixed on him with steady intensity. “You’re going to pull out all the stops if that test comes back positive, aren’t you?”

“Would you expect anything different?” He was ruthless, but not dishonest.

“I guess not. I was trying very hard not to think about it at all, though.” Her voice was tinged with rueful inevitability.

He did not know if that was good, or bad. “I am sorry.”

“For showing your hand early?”

“For making you think about it.”

“What exactly is it we’re thinking about?” Neo asked in a voice others had learned not to ignore.

Luckily for Zephyr, he wasn’t other people and he had no trouble ignoring his best friend and business partner’s demand.

Piper closed her eyes with every evidence of counting to ten and he thought she’d probably succeed in ignoring Neo, too.

But then Cass elbowed her nosy fiancé. “Leave them alone, Neo.” Then she sighed. “Besides, it’s obvious and not something Piper should be forced to discuss before she’s certain one way, or the other.”

“One way, or the other, what?” Neo actually sounded plaintive.

Zephyr could not remember the last time he had heard that particular tone from Neo, but it had been at least a decade, probably longer. He had no idea how Piper would react to it. He thanked God and the angels besides when she laughed.

“So, what’s for dinner?” she asked.

Even Neo knew enough to allow the subject change to pass without incident.

The rest of the evening went well, considering. Cass kept Neo in line and Piper did her best to ignore any and all leading comments and questions.

But she didn’t turn toward his door when they left Neo’s penthouse. Instead, she headed for the elevator.

He put his hand on her shoulder as she pressed the button. “Where are you going?”

“Home.” She sighed and looked back at him. “I need some time to myself, Zephyr.”

Unexpectedly, the request hit him in that place permanently wounded when his mother left him in the orphanage and never took him home with her again.

Even so, he asked, “Are you sure? You seem to sleep well in my arms.”

“I’m not sure I’m going to sleep at all.” Unfortunately, she looked like the thing she needed most right then was a good night’s rest.

In his bed, snuggled against him, damn it.

But clearly, she did not agree. She did not want or need him right then. Maybe not at all.

“An even better reason for you not to be alone.”

She shook her head, a sad look passing over her face. “I’m sorry.”

Pleading not to be left behind when someone was intent on leaving you did no good. That was a lesson he had learned even better than how to make money and at a much younger age. But it still took an inordinate amount of inner fortitude to drop his hand from her shoulder.

He stepped back. “You will call me when you get word?” He did not like asking. It reminded him of asking for his mother’s consideration and getting excuses for why things could not be different.

“Yes, of course.”

But she did not.

Zephyr forced himself to wait until after lunch to try calling her. Surely, the doctor would have contacted her by now. His call went straight to voice mail, though. He did not bother to leave a message.

An hour later, he called her home, but got her voice mail again. At the office, her assistant answered the phone. However, she informed him that Piper was not in and not expected today.

Neo walked into Zephyr’s office later that afternoon, after Zephyr had called Piper yet again, only to get the too professional message on her voice mail box.

“You look like hell. What’s going on?” Neo demanded.

Without having to consider it, Zephyr told him. Everything.

“You should have brought her to meet Cassandra and I before last night,” was Neo’s first reaction.

“Why?” Neo had never been particularly interested in socializing with Zephyr’s other friends, unless it advanced their company’s interest.

“You have been in a sexual relationship with Piper for months and friends for over two years. How did I not know this?” Neo asked, rather than answering.

“You knew we were friends.”

“Not that good of friends.” Neo shook his head. “She’s the reason you told me sex with a friend was so good, isn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“Have you been with anyone else sexually since you began your relationship with Piper?”

“Do you really think that is any of your business?”

“Probably not, but answer anyway,” Neo insisted.

“Once, before I realized the first time wasn’t going to be a single shot.”

“And that did not tell you anything?”

“What? I like intimacy with Piper. I am too busy with our company to expend energy on other women.”

Neo’s lips twisted in a mocking frown. “How long has your head been in the dark place?”

Zephyr remembered accusing Neo of having his head up his ass once, in regard to Cass. Apparently this was payback. “It’s not. We both knew what we had and what we did not have.”

“And now?”

“And now she may be pregnant with my child.”

“So, that changes everything?” Neo asked.

“Naturally.”

“Why?”

“You can ask?” After the way they had both grown up, he would expect Neo to be the first to understand.

“You are not taking my point,” Neo said with exasperation. “Don’t you see that she is bound to think you are only wanting marriage because of the baby?”

“That is the only reason. I would not have considered it otherwise.”

“Why the hell not?”

“She deserves better.”

For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, Neo looked absolutely gobsmacked. “You are the best.”

“You are prejudiced.” But the belligerent certainty in his friend’s voice was surprisingly nice to hear.

“I am your brother, Cass says so. That means I’m allowed.”

Zephyr felt warmth he hadn’t known in decades, but he didn’t let it show on his face. He was no pushover despite these weird emotional twinges he was experiencing. “So, step outside your personal bias and look at this from Piper’s perspective.”

“I do not see the distinction here.” Neo’s eyes filled with something far too close to pity for Zephyr’s comfort. “You’re a good man, Zephyr.”

“I did not say I wasn’t.” Merely that Piper deserved better than what he had to offer her.

“So, what is the problem?”

“She wants to be in love with her next husband,” Zephyr explained grimly. “Like she was with Art.”

“And you do not love her?”

“No.”

“Bull.”

Zephyr shook his head. “Love doesn’t work for everybody.” At least on that truth, he was one hundred percent convinced. And he was one of those people.

Neo sighed. “You’re right, but giving up before you even try isn’t like you.”

“Sometimes trying is the stupidest thing of all to do.”

“That does not sound like you.”

“And you sound like a broken record,” Zephyr retorted.

“So, say something that makes me understand this defeatist attitude of yours.”

“She left last night.”

“When you wanted her to stay.” Neo knew him so well, he did not even have to make it a question.

“She said she was sorry.” Just like his mother had done, over and over again—first when leaving him behind and then when she refused to bring his little sister back to visit.

In situations like this, sorry didn’t mean anything.

“She also said she would call you, ne?”

“Yes.”

“So, trust her to do it.”

“When?” Zephyr snapped.

“When she is ready.”

“You were not this complacent with Cass.”

“I was in love with Cassandra.” Neo’s look challenged Zephyr.

Apparently, if he was not in love, he had no right to be worried, cautious or impatient. Like hell. “So, because I’m not playing the romantic hero, I have to wait and wonder if my lover carries my child?”

“You have to wait because she will call when she is ready and not before.”

“I am well aware of that.” And it was doing nothing for his mood, which he was sure was obvious, even to Neo.

Neo looked at him like he was a newly discovered species. “I still cannot believe you had a lover for almost a year and I did not know it.”

“I did not consider her my lover.”

An unholy light gleamed in Neo’s eyes. “My friend, this just gets better and better. When did that change?”

“In Greece.”

“That trip had a pretty big impact even before the missing birth control patch was discovered.”

“If you say so.”

“What I say does not matter. On the other hand, what you and Piper say is of utmost importance.”

“She said she would call, and she has not,” Zephyr all but growled.

“Be patient and believe in your friendship if you will believe in nothing else.”

“I have no other option.”

“Then make it work for you, that is what men like us do. We do not give up.”

That was one truth Zephyr could not deny.

Neo left and Zephyr forced himself to get to work on the piles of urgent papers and messages stacked on top of his desk from his time out of the office. It was nine o’clock that night before he admitted temporary defeat and left his office.

Piper still had not called, though he had called her on the hour, every hour, since the afternoon.

Piper sat outside the Seattle Aquarium, watching children and adults come and go. Her hand rested against her lower abdomen. She didn’t feel any different. Her body had not changed at all, but inside her womb a baby grew. Her baby. Zephyr’s baby. Their child.

The wholly unexpected fulfillment of one of her dearest hopes.

She should have called right away and told him the news, but she couldn’t. She had to think and she couldn’t do that around him right now.

She loved a man who had taken great pains to make sure she understood he would never love her. And that same man was going to ask her to marry him. She was sure of it.

Because she carried his child.

In a normal world, that would result in an immediate and outright refusal on her part. Before meeting and falling in love with Zephyr Nikos, she would never have even considered for one second marrying a man who did not profess to love her. But Zephyr’s perspective was a unique one.

In his world, love guaranteed nothing but pain. He hadn’t come out and said so, but his story about his past made that clear. He had loved his mother and she had abandoned him to an orphanage. He had loved both of his half siblings, but they had been taken from him.

Even if he did love Piper, he might never be able to admit it.

One of the questions that chased round and round in her brain was whether or not she could accept that and marry him anyway. She had no doubts about her ability to raise this child on her own. She was an educated woman with her own successful business. She wasn’t a billionaire, but she wasn’t a pauper, either.

Zephyr could be part of the baby’s life without marrying her as well. But he couldn’t be a full-time dad if they didn’t live together. Even in the best shared custody arrangements, both parents were forced to take a less pervasive role in their child’s life.

And Zephyr wasn’t going to be content with the role of part-time dad. Just because she refused to marry him did not mean he would not one day marry. He didn’t just want to be a father; he wanted a family. That had been obvious when they’d visited the aquarium together.

He wanted what he saw all around him, and she could not blame him.

Which led to the other question that chased the first one over and over again: could she bear to stand aside while he married another woman and built a whole family with her? Could she stand her own child only having half-time with his or her daddy while others that came later got him each and every day?

Unlike Zephyr, her time at the Seattle Aquarium was doing nothing to help her think of answers to those hard questions.

Zephyr let himself into his empty apartment, annoyed when he realized the cleaning service had left the lights on in the living room again. His power bill was not the issue; indiscriminate wasteful use of the planet’s resources was.

It had been almost a week since Piper was supposed to have called him. She hadn’t been in to work, at least according to her assistant, Brandi. He’d gone by Piper’s apartment, but she hadn’t answered the door. Her phone had to be off and he’d finally stopped calling, but each day that went by echoed feelings he thought he would never again have to experience.

The fear of being abandoned was a live thing inside of him, but he hid it, even from Neo. He couldn’t stand the feeling of helplessness that grew with every hour she did not call. Had he lost his friend? Was she going to try to keep him from his child if she was indeed pregnant?

One thing he knew was that he might feel helpless, but he wasn’t. If she carried his child, she was not going to keep it away from him like his brother and sister had been. He would be a part of this child’s life, even if marrying its mother wasn’t an option.

He would fight for custody. She could be the weekend parent, if she didn’t want to marry him. She was still building her business, she’d said so herself. He could free more of his time to parent their child hands-on and any decent judge would see that.

Disgusted with the direction of his thoughts, he yanked off his already loosened tie as he strode into the living room. He stopped dead at the sight that greeted him.

Piper was curled on his sofa, under a quilt he had brought back from Greece many years ago. As if she could sense his presence, her eyelids fluttered and then opened.

She gazed up at him drowsily. “Hi.”

“You said you would call.”

“I couldn’t. I had to think.”

“So, you left me hanging for almost a week?”

She flinched at the ice in his voice, but he could not help that. “I decided it wasn’t something we should discuss on the phone but, um…maybe I should have called and told you that.”

“Yes, you should have. I have been worried. I went by your apartment. You did not answer the door.”

“I wasn’t there. I went to my favorite place to think after trying yours and getting nowhere.”

“Where is that?” he demanded.

“The beach.”

“You could not have let me know you went out of town?”

“If I had called you, you would have talked me into seeing you.”

“Maybe because that was what we both needed.” Frustrated anger laced his voice. “At the very least, you could have let me know that you were waiting here today.”

“I should have,” she acknowledged as she sat up and brushed her hair back off her face. The beach might be her favorite place to think, but it had brought her no peace and despite just waking from a nap, she looked like she hadn’t been getting enough sleep. “I was just so tired and thought you would come up after work. I didn’t realize you would work until bedtime.”

“It is hardly that.”

“Close enough.”

“Damn it! Do not try to sidestep the issue. If I had known you were here, I would have left my office immediately.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly to prevent his volume from increasing. “I was worried. Do you understand that?” Did she care? “I called your cell over and over again.”

She looked down so he could not see her eyes, and target the guilt he would see there. “I turned it off.”

“I figured that out.”

She nodded. She stood up and came to him, then tilted her head back so their gazes met. Emotions he did not understand swirled in her blue depths.

“Tell me,” he demanded, his tone softer than he intended.

How could he help feeling compassion? She looked like hell.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call. It was inconsiderate and selfish of me. I should have called, no matter how hard it would have been. I kept thinking and thinking, but I couldn’t make sense of anything no matter which way I looked at it. When I finally got here today, it was past four. I really thought I’d take a short nap and you would be here. And then we could talk.”

“Instead I worked late, trying to keep my mind off the fact you did not keep your promise to call.” Almost a week ago, but he had already said that and she had acknowledged it.

She nodded. “This situation is scary, Zephyr.”

“I agree, but I would think that two friends facing down fear together would work better than each trying deal with it on his or her own.”

“I’m sure you’re right.” She looked away again. “I just…I knew you’d want to get married and I didn’t know what I wanted to do about that.”

“So, you are pregnant.”

She met his gaze, hers suspiciously glossy. “Yes, we’re either very unlucky or wildly fortunate, depending on how you want to look at it.”

“How do you look at it?” he demanded.

“Wildly fortunate? How else? I’m thrilled to be having your baby even if this whole situation scares me to death.” She looked ready to shake apart.

Damn it. He would have noticed how fragile she was earlier if he hadn’t been working through his own turmoil. He did not want to tell her the plans he’d been making when he first arrived, but would she give him a choice?

Hoping to convince her of their best option yet, he pulled her into his arms, keeping their gazes connected even as their bodies pressed together in comfort. “What are you so frightened of?”

“A lot of things.”

“What scares you the most?”

“That I’ll agree to marry you, we’ll do the deed and then you’ll finally fall in love—with someone else.”

That was at the top of her fear factor list? He couldn’t have been more stunned if she said she was terrified of an alien invasion snatching their baby from her womb. “I am not going to fall in love with another woman.”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

“Yes, I can. Trust me, Piper. It is not even a possibility.” Of all the things he’d been considering over her week-long silence, that was not one of them.

“Do you think there is even a tiny chance that someday you might fall in love with me?” She buried her face against his chest and waited for his answer.

He wanted to lie; it would make things so much easier, but he could not. “If I was capable of falling in love, I already would have.”

“You really believe that?”

“Absolutely.”

Her head tilted back so he could see her glare. “Everyone is capable of love.”

“That is debatable.”

“Yes, I guess it is.” She grimaced. “There are certainly people that make a great case for that point of view anyway. I never considered you one of them, however.”

He could not help that. He shrugged. “What else scares you?”

“Oh, the usual, what will happen to my business, what if I lose the baby, what if I’m a terrible mother, am I going to turn into a whale, can I learn Greek?” Her litany of worries came out in a voice garbled by suppressed tears he did not know what to do about.

“You are going to marry me.” Why else would she need to learn Greek?

“How can I do anything else? I’ve looked at this situation from every side until I’m sick with it. If I don’t marry you, we’ll have to share custody and I’m not naive enough to think you are going to settle for being a weekend dad. You’ll fight for at least equal custody, if not majority custody.”

He was shocked. She realized that. “I…”

“Don’t try to deny it.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

Her lips trembled, but she blinked away the incipient moisture in her troubled blue eyes. “Good. We can’t build a marriage on lies.”

“I agree.”

“The custody issue wasn’t even the most distressing.”

“It was not?” What could have worried her more?

“No. It was the certainty that if I didn’t marry you, one day you would marry someone else and build a whole family with them.”

“The thought of me married to someone else bothers you?” he asked, just to clarify. She had left him without any sort of contact for almost a week after all.

“Of course it does. I love you.”

Something inside his chest stuttered. “You love me?”

“Yes.”

“Like a friend.” He attempted to qualify.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and shook her head, those terrifying tears of hers spilling over now. “No, not like a friend.”

“You won’t convince anyone you love me like a brother.” Maybe there was some special kind of love women left for the father of their children.

She shook her head again, a mysterious smile flirting with the edge of her lips, despite the sadness in her eyes. “Like the only man in my universe, like the other half of my heart, like the part of my soul that’s been missing my whole life but I didn’t know it.”

He would have staggered if they hadn’t been holding each other so tightly. “Is that how you loved Art?” He did not know why he asked except for as some form of penance, because one thing he never wanted to hear was that she had loved her ex like that.

“My feelings for Art weren’t even a shadow of what is in my heart for you.”

Could he believe that? And if he did, what difference did it make? His mother had loved him, too, but she’d walked away when a choice had to be made. “And yet, you did not call.”

“Loving you doesn’t make me perfect, or even perfectly unselfish. In fact, it makes me terribly self-focused because it makes me so vulnerable to being hurt by you. I want to marry you so I know you won’t—can’t—leave me.” The tears were in her voice now. “I want to be with you for the rest of my life and I wanted to be pregnant so bad, it was an ache in my gut that wouldn’t let me sleep at all the night before the doctor’s office called. I spent the darkest hours of that night in a perfect agony of guilt and unable to change my desires one jot even because of it. Did you hear all those I’s and me’s?”

“You wanted to carry my child?” he asked, ignoring self-flagellating guilt.

“Yes, more than anything. Which probably makes you wonder if I lost my patch on purpose, but I swear to you that I didn’t.”

“Of course not, but why did you want to?”

“Have you been listening to me at all? I knew a baby would tie you to me. Not because I’m not capable of being a single mother, but because you would not want me to be. I’m really ashamed of feeling that way, but I can’t change it. I never would have done it on purpose, but I won’t pretend I don’t feel wildly fortunate, either. Which probably should make you reconsider whether or not you should marry me.”

“So, if you wanted it so bad, why stay away so long?”

“Because when I got what I thought I wanted, I pictured a lifetime of being married to a man who is not in love with me and it terrified me.”

“You have been so unhappy these past months?”

“No.”

“Then, why should you be unhappy as my wife?” he demanded. Didn’t she see how illogical she was being?

“I’m hoping I won’t be.”

“I’ll make sure of it.” She was going to accuse him of arrogance again, but before she got a chance, he decided to offer his own truth. “I also wanted you to be pregnant and I am very glad you have decided to marry me.”

He could not resist the expression his words brought to her face, he kissed her and they spent several minutes lost in a very pleasant joint effort to leave an indelible mark on the other’s lips.

“Do you think our mutual selfishness negates itself?” she asked as if the answer really mattered to her.

“I think that as long as we are both pleased with the outcome, it does not matter.”

“I think maybe you’re right.” She looked up at him through her lashes. “Can we make love now?”

“Is it safe for the baby?”

“Very.”

“You asked?”

“Of course I did. I know what we’re like together and we are going to be together a lot now.”

He liked the sound of that, though a tiny voice inside warned him not to get too used to it as it could all be taken away. After all, she had cut herself off from him while making her decision, showing she did not need him even if she loved him. “You’ll move in with me?”

“This weekend.”

“We are not sleeping apart again meantime.”

“No, but I need to work and won’t have time to pack for the move until the weekend.”

“I’ll hire movers.”

“I’ll still need to be there to supervise.”

He could not argue that. “Do you want a big wedding?”

“No.” She gave him a nervous look complete with a bitten bottom lip. “I just want our families there.”

“I don’t have any family.”

“Oh, yes you do. I know your secrets now. Besides Neo, who is your brother in everything but genetics, there is your mother, her husband and your half siblings, et al. And I want them at our wedding.”

“Why?”

“Because someday, I think it’s going to matter to you that they were there. Besides, it will hurt your sister’s feelings if we don’t invite her.”

“Why do you think so?” Piper saw things so differently than he did; he didn’t always understand what made her say the things she did.

“She insisted on you meeting her children, didn’t she? She considers you her brother and she’d be devastated if she discovered you didn’t feel the same.”

“I do. For good, or ill, she is my sister.”

“It’s all to the good.”

“So you say.”

“I’m almost a mother. I’m practically an oracle now. It comes with the territory,” she said, tongue firmly in cheek.

And he laughed like he was supposed to before sweeping her into his arms. Making love sounded better than talking about his family. “What you are now, is mine.”

“You seem pretty pleased about that.” She didn’t sound too disappointed by the prospect herself.

“I am.” He carried her down the hall to his…to their bedroom.

“Are we really moving to Greece?” she asked between baby kisses smattered along his jaw.

“The island would be a good place to raise children.”

“Yes, but I’d marry you regardless.”

“You said you wanted it.”

“I do.” She grabbed his face, making him look her in the eye. “This isn’t a business transaction. I don’t love your money, or what it can buy for me. I love you, Zephyr.”

She said so, but she’d still left him and not called for almost a week. Maybe Zephyr did not understand love, but he did not think it should be so easy to hurt someone if you loved them. He wasn’t about to dwell on that now though, no more than he’d spent time pining over his mother’s defection once he’d learned he had to accept it. Piper had agreed to marry him, even though, technically, he had not asked.

That was all that mattered right now.

Without answering her assertion, Zephyr carried Piper into the bedroom and laid her on the bed oh, so carefully. She smiled up at him, but he put his finger up with the gesture to wait a minute.

He leaned over and grabbed the phone from beside the bed, then pressed two buttons.

“Memory” and “One” she would bet.

Someone picked up on the other end.

“Congratulate me. We are going to have a baby and Piper has agreed to marry me.” He smiled down at her while speaking into the phone.

Excited words in a definite masculine tone came through the headset, though they were too muffled to understand.

“Yes. I’ll call you with details tomorrow.”

Neo said something else.

“I will,” Zephyr replied. “Kalinichta.”

He hung up the phone.

“Neo?” she asked, just to be sure.

“Yes. He knew I was waiting for your phone call. He was concerned about me.” And even on the verge of making love to her, Zephyr thought to call his friend and settle his mind.

Maybe he’d wanted to share his news, too.

“You’re a special man, Zephyr Nikos. Is he happy for you?”

“For us both. He and Cass will take us out tomorrow to celebrate if you are willing.”

“Of course. Though I’ll have to work during the day. I’ve taken way more time off than I should have.”

“Do you think Brandi will relocate to the island with Cerulean Designs?”

“I’d like to ask her, but I don’t know if I can continue to pay her salary once I cut back on my client list.” Piper decided to begin undressing and remind Zephyr why he’d carried her in here to begin with. “I don’t want to work anywhere near full-time if I don’t have to.”

Chocolate-dark eyes ate her alive as she peeled off her comfort jeans and T-shirt. “I am very pleased to hear that. We will work something out regarding Brandi.”

“You mean you’re going to offer to pay her.” She paused in the act of unhooking her bra.

He could try to deny it, but she knew him. And his expression said he was already busy trying to come up with a compelling reason for doing so, given enough time.

“Why did you name your company Cerulean Designs?” he asked in an obvious bid to change the subject.

“Nice feint, but don’t think I’ve forgotten this discussion.”

“You haven’t forgotten we were about to make love, either, have you?”

“I’m not the one still completely dressed.”

“I can fix that quickly enough.”