Page 33 of The Maid's Pregnancy Bombshell

‘Not as sorry as I am!’ she slammed back, studying her red face and anguished eyes in the vanity mirror. She had made a fool of herself. Rise above it, her brain instructed her firmly.

Alana stripped off the lingerie, peeled off the stockings, bundled it all into a heap and put the robe back on. She washed her carefully made-up face clean as well. Well, if he preferred ordinary, he might as well get ordinary in spades, she thought bitterly.

Barefoot, she emerged from the bathroom. ‘You cut me off, made me feel stupid.’

‘That wasn’t my intention. I was just...shocked,’ he finally selected.

‘Wasn’t really me, was it?’ Alana muttered. ‘I felt so fake—’

‘It wasn’t you. The last thing you are is fake,’ Ares asserted, trying to close an arm round her before finding that she had retreated several steps to make any such comfort impossible. ‘I apologise for upsetting you—’

‘It was that locked room that set me off!’ Alana condemned.

‘What locked room?’

‘Don’t be so dense.Marina’sroom!’

Ares frowned. ‘I stopped seeing Marina long before we got married. Why would she have a room here now?’

Fed up with what she interpreted as deliberate masculine evasion, Alana closed a small hand over his and dragged him to the door. ‘Ares!’ she snapped when he proved resistant.

‘You are behaving oddly,’ he pointed out, and then he looked as if he wished he hadn’t said that and, without further protest, he followed her down the long corridor to the very foot where she wielded the key and flung the door wide on Marina’s lair.

‘Theos mou...’Ares framed in seeming astonishment. ‘She did like her publicity photos, didn’t she?’

‘This isyourhouse and this isherroom, so presumably you’ve been in here before—’

‘No, I haven’t been. I said she could use a room for storage because she travels a lot and it suited me. We met up at hotels, not here. This is my home,’ Ares stated quietly. ‘But why hasn’t she cleared all this stuff out?’

Satisfied that she was receiving explanations, Alana shrugged. ‘Not my problem. Your housekeeper kept this room locked until I requested the key—’

‘Maybe you were hoping to find the equivalent of Mr Rochester’s mad wife locked in here,’ Ares remarked with sudden inappropriate amusement.

‘Marina was phoning you only a couple of days ago when we were in Athens.’

‘Yes. I’ve blocked her now. She kept on phoning to chat.’ Ares frowned. ‘We never chatted before. Why would I want to now? But I’ll tell Edith to box up her belongings and contact her to collect them.’

His dispassionate response made her turn to stare at him. Stunning dark golden eyes framed by black lashes met hers levelly. ‘You don’t care about her, do you?’

‘That wasn’t part of the package. I wish her well, of course,’ he breathed in an ironic lie because right then he was wishing he had never met Marina and never made her his mistress. Her very existence even in his past was causing waves in his marriage and distressing his pregnant wife. Alana’s peace of mind was much more important to him.

‘Why do I feel sorry for her now?’ Alana mumbled. ‘Just an hour ago I was hating her.’

‘You’re a very emotional individual. I’m not, but I do very much admire the way you just put everything out there,’ Ares admitted, pushing himself to talk, recognising that he had had a narrow escape from a ghastly misunderstanding that had hurt and upset Alana. ‘I should think Marina left her possessions here because she was hoping to reanimate things with me, but then I doubt if she even knows I’ve got married since I haven’t announced our marriage the way I should’ve done.’

‘You admire that about me?’ Alana had already moved on from the topic of Marina, content to credit that the other woman was a mere shadow from Ares’s past and not likely to figure in the present in any guise. She understood the whole situation now, thanks to Ares’s honesty. Edith had simply locked the room because Marina was an ex, who had yet to pick up her stuff.

Ares extended an arm warily and slowly closed it round her slight shoulders, greatly relieved when she didn’t pull away. ‘I admire a lot of things about you.’

‘How come you’ve never mentioned that before?’ Alana asked suspiciously.

‘I don’t talk much about stuff of that nature but I’m trying to change,’ Ares admitted steadily. ‘For you, I mean. Be less of an island, less solitary. I was thinking today that inviting Enzo and Skye and the children to visit us as a family rather than only seeing you would be a good idea.’

‘Oh, yes, I would prefer that!’ Alana carolled cheerfully. ‘It always feels as if you’re being left out—’

‘Alana... I’ve spent many years deliberately excluding myself from everythingbutwork. That has to change for your sake and for our daughter’s,’ he intoned calmly.

Alana was bewildered by that declaration. ‘When did you decide that?’

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