Читать книгу His Pregnant Bride: Pregnant by the Greek Tycoon / His Pregnant Princess / Pregnant: Father Needed - Ким Лоренс, Robyn Donald - Страница 11

CHAPTER EIGHT

ANGOLOS’S glance lifted to Georgie’s face. There was a strange look in his deep-set eyes that she couldn’t interpret. ‘Never!’

The forcefulness of his explosive retort made her stare at him in confusion. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Then understand this.’ Georgie gave a grunt of shock as he began to tear the envelope into pieces with slow, deliberate thoroughness before tossing them up into the air.

She watched in open-mouthed astonishment as the fragments went flying down the beach in several directions, drifting like confetti on the air currents.

‘Have you gone mad?’ She turned her astounded eyes on him. ‘Why make the effort to bring that here personally and then do that?’

‘I never intended…’

‘Never intended what?’ she prompted.

His jaw tightened. ‘We’re not getting divorced.’

She pressed her hands to her head, the dull throb in her temples had turned into a blinding headache. ‘But you came here to…and I want to get divorced!’ she added on a note of escalating misery.

‘Too bad.’

‘You want to get divorced.’ The squally sea breeze suddenly caught her skirt and lifted it. It took her several moments to smooth it back down, and when she looked up she saw something in his eyes that made her sensitive stomach flip.

‘You saw Paul at his surgery.’

Georgie didn’t want to talk about Paul. ‘So that’s how you knew we were here.’

Angolos inclined his dark head.

‘I know some people think strong and silent is attractive, but ask them how they feel about it after they’ve lived with strong and silent for a few weeks. I think you’d find they’d have changed their tune,’ she predicted grimly. ‘For goodness’ sake, don’t just look all brooding and beautiful—say something!’

His only response to her emotional outburst was a raised eyebrow—one of these days she would swing for this man.

‘What would you like me to say?’

‘I give up!’ she declared. She slid an exasperated sideways glance at his lean, saturnine profile. ‘What were you doing discussing me with Paul anyway?’ she demanded crossly. ‘He has no right to discuss me; there’s such a thing as patient confidentiality.’

Angolos dismissed her complaint with an impatient motion of his hand. ‘I’m your husband.’

‘On paper.’ Paper that was even now blowing across the ocean…her divorce would probably end up in Normandy. ‘And even if we were together, that doesn’t give you a right to know my medical details.’

‘He didn’t divulge any private details, medical or otherwise,’ Angolos cut in impatiently. ‘He told me I have a son.’

She dug her toe into the sand and vented an ironic laugh. ‘That was news…?’

‘To me it was.’

‘How can you say that?’

He ignored her exasperated exclamation. ‘Now I know that Nicky is mine, obviously things must change.’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘Two words I’m not liking there… “must” and “change”.’

‘Don’t be obtuse, Georgette. You know where I’m going with this.’

She shook her head. ‘Not a clue.’

‘Then I’ll spell it out: we will be a family.’

The bad feeling in her stomach coalesced into straightforward panic. ‘I have all the family I need.’ He wasn’t…he just couldn’t be suggesting what she thought he was!

‘A family requires both parents. You and Nicky will come back to Greece with me and we will be a family.’

A hoarse laugh was drawn from Georgie’s aching throat. ‘And to think I used to be intimidated by your vast intellect. You know, mostly I was scared stiff of giving an opinion in case you laughed at me.’

Angolos looked so appalled by this confidence that under less fraught circumstances she might have laughed.

‘But now I know that you may be clever, but you’re also stark staring crazy. Me live with you again…? The only way you’ll get me back to Greece is in a strait-jacket.’

‘You’re speaking emotionally without considering—’

‘I don’t need to consider anything. I recognise insanity when I hear it.’

Until he captured her wrists in his she wasn’t aware that she had been tugging at her own hair. ‘Calm down. You’re overreacting.’

He acknowledged her snarling, ‘shut up!’ with an infuriatingly tolerant smile.

‘Once you’ve thought about it—’ he continued talking across her demand to be let go! ‘—I think you’ll come to appreciate that this is the right thing to do. Sometimes being a parent involves sacrifice.’

He really was incredible. ‘You’re telling me that? Know a lot about being a parent, do you? Gosh, share your wisdom, I’m all ears,’ she begged.

Her sarcasm drew a soft expletive from his lips. ‘You are—’ A dark line appeared across the slashing curve of his cheekbones as he swallowed the rest of his furious retort. ‘You can mock as much as you like.’ The fingers encircling her wrists tightened and then, much to her intense relief, fell away completely.

‘Thanks, but I don’t need your permission.’

‘But,’ he continued as though she hadn’t spoken, ‘it doesn’t alter the fact that a child needs both parents.’

‘I can tell you from personal experience that you can get by perfectly well with one.’

‘You have your stepmother.’

Her brows lifted. ‘And who’s to say that at some future date Nicky won’t have a stepfather…?’

There was a short, stark silence, during which the muscles in Angolos’s brown throat rippled convulsively. Then, capturing her defiant eyes, he smiled and lifted his dark head to an imperious angle. ‘I am to say,’ he responded simply.

The scornful retort died on her lips as she encountered the chilling determination in his unblinking eyes.

‘So now you’re going to vet my boyfriends, are you? I’d be interested in how that works.’

‘This isn’t about you. This is about what is best for our son.’

More absurd than him trying to make her feel guilty and selfish was the fact she actually did! ‘I’ve been doing the best for our son for the past three years. What have you been doing for him? On second thoughts, you staying out of his life probably was the biggest favour you could do him.’

He visibly paled in response to her vitriolic attack, but didn’t attempt to defend himself. ‘I can understand your anger.’

‘I doubt that, I really doubt that,’ she gritted. ‘And besides, I don’t want your understanding.’ What did she want from him? Was she going to be happier if he walked away? She fixed him with a resentful glare. ‘I wish you’d never come.’

‘Has it occurred to you that you are denying him his heritage?’

This change of tack increased her growing sense of unease. ‘You’re the one who denied him that. Besides, Nicky is per fectly happy where he is.’

‘He doesn’t even speak his own language.’

‘His language is English.’ She winced to hear both the defensiveness and doubt in her voice.

‘Nicky is half Greek. He will only have to look in the mirror to see that.’

‘I’m not trying to hide his heritage from him.’

‘Aren’t you?’

‘No, I’m not. I would never lie to my son.’

‘Our son.’

Gritting her teeth, Georgie refused to respond to the correction.

‘He will know when he goes to school that he does not look like the fair-skinned children in his class. What will you say when he asks you why he is different?’

‘You obviously know very little about the ethnic mix in most schools, if you think that Nicky will stand out. Have you never heard of a multicultural society?’

One dark brow angled. ‘So what will you do when he asks about me?’

‘I…I haven’t thought about it.’

‘Don’t you think it’s about time you did?’

She lifted her resentful eyes to his. ‘Nicky’s happy,’ she contended stubbornly.

Angolos studied her face. ‘You know I’m right, don’t you, Georgette?’ Before she had a chance to deny his assertion he added, ‘And I can see that Nicky is happy.’

Her hopes rose, only to be dashed.

‘However, I will not permit my son to be brought up not knowing who his father is…thinking that he is unwanted…’ He swallowed hard, the muscles of his throat contracting as he visibly struggled to control his feelings. ‘The boy is being brought up surrounded by women…’

‘And what’s wrong with women?’

His face relaxed briefly into a slow smile. ‘I like women…’

‘Tell me something I don’t know.’ And they liked him. Everywhere they had gone together women’s eyes had followed him—that he had seemed for the most part oblivious to the fact had been no comfort to her at the time.

‘But a boy needs a male role model?’

Feeling increasingly on the defensive because of his uncomfortable ability to come up with a reply for everything she said, Georgie set her chin on her steepled fingers. ‘There are plenty of men in Nicky’s life.’

The fire in his dark eyes provided a stark contrast to the icy expression of austere disdain that spread across his lean face.

‘I have no wish to be regaled with your romantic adventures. Nicky does not need men in the plural…’

The criticism struck her as the height of hypocrisy. ‘I’m not the one who has trouble forming stable relationships… And who did you have in mind as a role model?’ Her feathery brows lifted. ‘You? Don’t make me laugh,’ she pleaded with contempt.

Angolos’s expression was glacial as he responded. ‘You have someone you consider more suitable in mind?’

Her chin lifted. ‘And if I do?’ she challenged pugnaciously.

‘If you do, Georgette, I would advise you not to pursue that very dangerous course.’

Her chest swelled with outrage. ‘Is that a threat?’

His silky smile sent a shiver down her rigid spine, but it was the fluttery sensation low in her stomach that sent her several steps closer to outright panic.

‘Threats are for wimps.’

A hissing sound of disgust issued from her pursed lips. ‘That is exactly the sort of macho posturing I don’t want my son exposed to.’

‘Our son.’

Their combative stares locked and the seconds ticked by. Georgie was the first to break the lengthening silence.

‘You can’t just walk back into my life this way, Angolos…’ She turned away, her face scrunched up in anguish as the fight drained from her body. ‘It’s not fair.’

‘Only children expect life to be fair.’ The unexpected note of sympathy in his voice brought a lump to her aching throat.

‘It rather depends on their experience.’ Her lips curved upwards, but there was no smile in her eyes as she added, ‘You forget that my mother walked out when I was a baby.’

‘No, I remember.’ He dragged a hand through his hair. ‘Your grandmother will be pleased to see us reunited.’

‘Don’t talk like it’s a done deal, Angolos,’ she warned, managing a weak smile at his irony.

‘But you agree that a stable family environment is the best place to bring up a child.’

‘Of course I do; I’m not stupid.’ Georgie forced her clenched fists to relax. ‘I need time to think. This is just too much…too soon…’

‘We were good together…you must remember…’

Her eyes flew wide open as anger surged through her body—other things surged too, but she concentrated hard on the anger.

‘So good, in fact, that you threw me out.’

Unable to hold her accusing gaze, Angolos brought his dark lashes down in a concealing screen. ‘I am not proud…’

‘I don’t much care about your precious pride or regret or anything else!’ she declared hotly. ‘The fact is you rejected our baby…So you want to be a family now—’ her slender shoulders lifted ‘—big deal! Next year or next week even you’ll probably have changed your mind again. Do you think I’d put my future and that of my son in the hands of someone so…who can’t make up his mind what he wants?’

‘I know exactly what I want.’

His low, throaty declaration sent a jolt of sharp sexual awareness through her body. ‘Yes, you want your own way,’ she contended without looking at him. Looking at him would be a very bad idea just now.

‘I want us to be a family and I think you do too.’

She angled a narrow-eyed look at his face. ‘That was what I thought we were four years ago. Give me one reason why I should ever believe what you say to me? You’ve never even told me why! All I got was a shrug and a sneer and c…coldness.’ She stopped and bit her lip to control the quiver in her voice.

‘All I want to know is why…’

‘Well, for starters, I knew that you were sleeping with someone else.’

A long throbbing silence developed.

‘Not that again,’ she said wearily. ‘Not even you are that stupid. Sure…sure I had a string of lovers.’

The expression she saw cross his face suggested this wasn’t the response he had been expecting. ‘I had proof.’

‘That I would really like to see.’

‘You’ve got nerve, I’ll give you that,’ he gritted back. ‘But you were not as careful as you thought.’

‘Come on, Angolos, I’m not listening unless you tell me the real reason you rejected Nicky.’

His beautiful mouth twisted as their eyes touched. ‘I was prepared…I actually thought we might be able to get beyond your infidelity,’ he recalled. ‘I blamed myself for leaving you alone.’

‘You were going to forgive me!’ This got even more implausible. ‘If you seriously thought there was another man you would have torn him limb from limb,’ she contended.

He gave an odd, twisted smile. ‘You’d have thought so, wouldn’t you?’

‘So what’s the real reason?’

Above the sound of the waves crashing softly on the sand she heard his white teeth grating. ‘Be honest,’ she recom mended.

‘Me, honest?’

‘A baby didn’t fit in with your life then, did it?’ she claimed, ignoring his raw interjection. ‘I don’t know what’s changed, but now you’ve suddenly decided—’

He pressed his hand to his mouth and shook his dark head. ‘Theos!’ he thundered, eyeing her with frustrated incredulity. His chest rose and fell in tune to his rapid, uneven respirations. ‘I knew I couldn’t have children.’