Читать книгу The Greek's Pregnant Lover - Люси Монро, Lucy Monroe, Люси Монро - Страница 9

HE TOOK her to the Plaka after she’d soaked in all the history she could from the Acropolis ruins. That, and the fact that visiting hours were over. He could have arranged for special dispensation but wanted to take her shopping in the ancient marketplace.

It was a tourist’s paradise and Piper in tourist mode was completely charming. It also put them back on the kind of solid ground he understood. They found a shop that made authentic reproductions of ancient Greek jewelry and he bought her a necklace that would not have looked out of place on the neck of a senator’s wife.

Piper had balked at the cost, but he had stood firm. If he wanted to buy her a souvenir of their time in Athens, he would.

He could afford to spoil her and she deserved to be spoiled. Especially after the way that bastard of an ex-husband had treated her. Zephyr would not pretend to give her love as Art had, but he could afford to give her gifts. And he would.

Later that night, on the terrace of an exclusive restaurant, Piper found herself enjoying the understated, elegant décor that managed to still convey the flavor of Athens. Like most Greek restaurants, the majority of the seating was outside. However, this restaurant did not have the crowded, noisy ambiance of the cafés in the Plaka.

As much as she had enjoyed the historic shopping district closed off to automobile traffic, she appreciated the relative quiet of their current setting. Very much.

“Is this a favorite haunt of yours when you are in the country?”

“It is actually.” Zephyr’s brows furrowed. “How did you know?”

“I don’t imagine the staff know most American businessmen by name, no matter how rich and powerful.”

Looking oh so sexy in a light Armani sweater and bodyhugging designer jeans, his lips quirked in his signature wry smile. “Point.”

She was glad to see his smile. He’d seemed to draw back emotionally after opening up to her on the Acropolis. It was as if he regretted sharing so much about his past and needed to bring their focus firmly back to the present.

She could understand that. Zephyr was not a guy to wallow in emotion. Heck, he wasn’t a guy to feel emotion a lot of the time, as far as she could see. But she’d realized something as they shopped in the Plaka—she felt plenty toward Zephyr. In fact, she was drowning in emotion for him and that emotion only had one name. Love.

“Thank you for sharing this place with me.” She brushed her fingers over the gorgeous necklace he’d bought her earlier that day. “Thank you for everything.”

The stones were warm from her body, but her heart was even warmer. He had insisted a kiss would make the purchase fully worthwhile. Since her kisses were free, she’d thought nothing of giving him one. Right there, in front of the proprietor, who had grinned and said something in Greek that made Zephyr chuckle.

Piper wasn’t just feeling spoiled, she was feeling cherished and that was dangerous, she knew.

“It is my pleasure.”

“You say that a lot.” She smiled up at him.

“And it is true. You are an easy companion, Piper.”

“I’m glad you think so. I don’t hate your company, either.”

“That is a relief. I would not like to think you’d been giving me pity sex all this time.”

She couldn’t help laughing at that bit of ridiculousness. “Right. Pity sex. I don’t see it.” Or feel it. No woman would pity this man. Desire him? Yes. Crave his kisses? Definitely. Hunger for his touch? Without doubt.

But pity? Nope. No way.

“I’m relieved to hear it.”

She felt heat climb her cheeks and she shook her head. “Stop teasing me and eat your appetizer.”

Surprisingly, her tycoon listened and did exactly that.

They were halfway through the appetizer when she asked something she’d been curious about for a while. “Are you going to be Neo’s best man in the wedding?”

“Naturally.”

“Are you looking forward to it?” she teased, sure he would grimace and give a negative.

But he smiled instead and said quite decisively, “Yes.”

“You are?” She had not expected that.

“Of course. I worried that Neo had forgotten his dreams of home and family under the pressure of building our empire. When we first left Greece, that was all he’d talk about, how he was going to make something of himself and then make a proper family. He stopped talking about it maybe two years after we settled in Seattle.”

“But you didn’t want him to forget it entirely?” Wow, that was not an ambition she could picture Zephyr encouraging.

“No. He deserves a family, a home that is more than a place to live.”

“Those are some pretty traditional sentiments for a selfadmitted playboy.”

“What can I say? I am a traditional guy.”

That made her laugh. “I don’t think so.”

“What? Just because I am not married does not mean I never desire to enter the state.” He didn’t look like he was kidding.

But she couldn’t get past the feeling he had to be pulling her leg. Zephyr was the original no-commitment guy. He’d made that clear from the very beginning of their sexual relationship. So much so, that she had assumed the first time had been a one-off.

He’d shocked her by coming back for more when they worked together on the next project, and continuing to see her in Seattle after that. But he’d been smart to give her the time to accept the change in their relationship, so she was ready to accept the new “friends with benefits” nature of it.

“You look flummoxed.”

“I feel a little flummoxed,” she admitted.

“I do not know why. It is the American dream, not just the Greek one, is it not? One day, I will find the right woman.” He gave a self-deprecating smile that gave her butterflies. “Hell, I may even fall in love as Neo has done.”

Those words felt like an arrow to her heart, because they implied he had not found that woman, therefore that woman could not be her. After finally coming to terms with her own feelings, that was a double blow to her heart. Her hand went to her necklace again, this time gaining no sense of comfort from the feel of the precious metal and stones. You had to love someone to cherish them.

So, what did that make this gift and all the other gifts he’d given her?

Unfortunately, after hearing his story earlier she feared she knew. This was Zephyr’s relationship currency. Gifts and money. Not love. Not for the mother who had hurt him and not for Piper, either.

“You don’t seem like the home-and-hearth type, Zephyr,” she couldn’t resist saying. “You live in the ultimate bachelor pad and you’ve dated far and wide. And deep and long besides.”

Besides which he saw his relationships with his mother and siblings as monetary transactions.

“As was Neo before he met Cass. Me? I am as desirous of making my mark on the world in that way as any other man.”

“You’re serious?” The words were just a formality, though. There could be no doubt from his tone or his expression.

He was dead serious.

“Why wouldn’t I be? Regardless of what I just said, I do not anticipate falling in love like Neo, but one day I will marry and procreate. Why build an empire if I have no intention of leaving it to someone?”

She didn’t mention his nieces and nephew. Clearly, that wasn’t what he meant. Zephyr wanted his own family. “But you don’t think you will ever fall in love?”

“No.”

That made more sense, even if it hurt enough to make it difficult to breathe.

“But…”

“But what? You loved your ex-husband, yes?”

She grimaced. “Yes.”

“And did that bring you happiness?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think love can happen, or make me happy when it does.”

“Perhaps it will happen for you again one day.”

“Maybe it will.” It already had—with him—and his revelations on the Acropolis had only cemented that fact.

However, she could see it wasn’t a truth he would be pleased if she shared. No matter how much that situation hurt her, she could not change it. She suddenly realized she was very likely to pay the price for another woman’s actions. Actions that were decades old, but had not lost the power to hurt or mold Zephyr’s actions.

But Zephyr’s heart was not available to her and might never be.

His lips twisted in distaste. “Love is a messy emotion.”

“No question, but it’s good, too.” Surely he could see that, especially now that Neo was so happily in that state?

“You don’t regret loving Art?” Zephyr asked with calculated cool.

“No. I regret that he was a cheater and a liar and that his love was more words than substance.”

“How is that different from regretting loving him?”

“My love was a good thing.”

“That ended up causing you pain,” he observed wryly.

She couldn’t deny it. Loving Art had nearly destroyed her on every level. And loving Zephyr didn’t look like it was going to be a much better prospect. At least she knew where she stood with him, though.

That was something, wasn’t it?

Zephyr gave one of those self-deprecating smiles he used when negotiating and it made her stomach clench to have him use it on her. “Look, I’m not trying to be the Scrooge of happily ever after, but you and I both know someone loving you is no guarantee they won’t betray you.”

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t open yourself to love at all.” She tried to keep the desperation his attitude evoked out of her voice. It wasn’t his fault she’d been dumb enough to fall in love with the wrong man. Again.

“It works for me.”

And she couldn’t fault him for his attitude. Now that she knew his mother had abandoned him to build a better life for herself, Piper couldn’t help understanding Zephyr’s distrust of love.

“But Neo loves Cassandra and vice-versa. Or so you said.”

“Cassandra is one woman in a million.”

The pain those words caused took Piper by surprise, making her heart cramp and her whole chest cavity hurt. Because they implied she was not such a woman. Who was she kidding? Certainly not herself. This whole conversation put Zephyr’s attitude toward her in stark relief.

He didn’t love her. Not even a little. He didn’t anticipate loving her, either. Not ever. Which was really not what she wanted to hear. The pain coursing through her mocked all the promises she’d made to herself after walking away from Art. She wouldn’t lose her livelihood when she and Zephyr’s sexual relationship ended, but she wasn’t sure her heart would survive, even if her business did.

Piper was head over heels in love with a man who did not believe in the concept for himself, and moreover he looked forward to marrying one day. Only Zephyr clearly did not intend that woman to be her. Not when he so blithely told her maybe she would find love again one day.

He’d reneged on his own words of maybe finding love and she felt like retracting hers as well. Was the prospect of love worth the possibility of this pain again?

She remembered the last time she had felt this awful inability to breathe. It had been when she realized once and for all that Art did not love her and never had. And once again, for her pride’s sake and maybe even for Zephyr’s sake, she had to hide the devastation going on inside her.

“I think you might be right,” she said, trying not to choke on the words.

“About what?”

“I do a pretty sucky job deciding who to fall in love with.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

She laughed, but felt no humor. “Thanks.”

“I’ve no interest in talking about Art Bellingham anymore.”

“Trust me, this whole conversation is leaving me cold.”

His eyes narrowed, but he smiled. One of his “armor smiles” again and she wanted to be sick. “So, tell me what you want to do tomorrow.”

She needed to do a better job of hiding her emotions. Starting now. “I’m a museum freak. I’d really like to see the National Archaeological Museum, the Acropolis Museum and maybe the Benaki Museum.”

“That’s quite a list considering you did not plan to sightsee on this trip.”

“I spent the time you were in the shower pouring over the guidebook in our hotel suite.”

“Ah. So, tomorrow is to be a gluttony of museums.”

“If you’d rather do something else, I can find my own way to the museums.”

His brow quirked at this suggestion. “There is nothing I would rather do than spend the time with you. I grew up in this city. I have seen it all.”

She couldn’t see him visiting the Acropolis when he was living on the streets, but she didn’t say anything. It was taking all her wherewithal to tamp down emotions she had not fully acknowledged before today, feelings that would be unwelcome to their intended recipient and would cause her nothing but aching heartbreak.