Page 26 of The Maid's Pregnancy Bombshell

‘I asked your sister when I called her while you were ill, but she didn’t want to talk about him.’

‘There’s really nothing to talk about because we never knew him. Him and Mum were sixteen when she got pregnant. Her parents threw her out and his parents took her in and after Skye was born he managed to get Mum pregnant again...which was me.’ Alana rolled her eyes. ‘They were just teenagers with no sense. Ultimately, he went off to an oil rig to work and basically never bothered with Mum or us again. He didn’t even help to support us. He wasn’t interested, so why would I be interested in him?’

‘I can understand that. My father...’ Ares grimaced as he voiced the term. ‘I suppose I should really call him a sperm donor. I sent him a letter when I was ten years old and went to his office in Athens in the hope of meeting him. He had me thrown out by security—’

Alana paled. ‘Did he know you existed before the letter?’

‘Yes. My mother approached him when she was pregnant and he denied any knowledge of her as well. He had a one-night stand with a college student and, I’m afraid, it came back to haunt him. If he had had anything to do with it, my existence would never have been acknowledged.’

‘That’s appalling,’ she muttered, thinking in honest horror of the mother who had abandoned him and the father who had rejected him. It was another little piece of the jigsaw of early damage that Ares had suffered. ‘I was only able to shake off my birth father’s indifference because I had a loving, kind stepfather, who treated Skye and me as if we were his own daughters.’

‘Hence your loyalty to him, but I still can’t overlook that debt he lumbered you with,’ Ares breathed harshly. ‘That nasty little gangster he left you indebted to was an accident waiting to happen. Fortunately he’s now in custody and he won’t be trapping any other young woman the way he trapped you—’

‘In...custody?’

‘I used a private investigation firm and presented a file of evidence about his activities through my lawyer to the police. He’s now awaiting trial for a number of offences,’ he completed quietly.

‘I never thought you would take the trouble to do anything like that,’ Alana confided with warmth and admiration in her eyes. ‘I’m really pleased you did though. I was very scared every time I went to make a payment to him because he was always dropping hints that there wereotherways to pay.’

‘That’s how men of that ilk operate. Get you in debt, get you on drugs and then put you out on the street to sell like a product. It’s what happened to my mother,’ he imparted grimly. ‘The charity benefit next week is in aid of the homeless, addicts and women like her.’

Alana was interested in the charity and would have liked to ask him more about his childhood but sensed from the tension etched in his lean, strong face that he had shared enough for one day.

Ares went off to work in his study and Alana was moving through the hall when the housekeeper intercepted her and offered her a tour of the house. Alana smiled, thinking of how much had changed between her and Ares and that she was now being recognised as his wife in his actual home in London, and that cheered her up a good deal.

The house was huge with three wings built round a courtyard with a very pretty central garden. The basement contained a pool and a sauna and a gym. Upstairs she walked into the master bedroom for the first time, enjoying the sight of her luggage being unpacked right next to Ares’s, and she strolled through numerous bedrooms before Edith, the housekeeper, was called away to answer a query. Alana paused at a door at the foot of a corridor and, when she tried to open it, found it locked.

‘What’s in here?’ she asked the older woman once she had returned to her side.

Edith dropped her gaze and became rather flustered. ‘It’s just another bedroom, Mrs Sarris,’ she said with obvious embarrassment.

‘Then why’s it locked?’ Alana enquired.

The housekeeper shrugged awkwardly. ‘Oh, there’s some stuff in there that hasn’t been collected yet.’

Her brow furrowing, her curiosity huge, Alana decided to leave the matter there for the moment and continued the tour while knowing that, one way or another, she intended to get into that locked room. Ares had made it very clear to her that this was now her home.

Ares went out to a business dinner that evening and Alana ate alone, wondering if they had really made a fresh start or whether she was just looking on the bright side and kidding herself. He wasn’t likely to change his routine and habits overnight, she scolded herself. Expecting too much too soon from him would be a recipe for disaster, but she could see that he wastryingwith the separate-bedroom issue now behind them.

Later that evening, she was just climbing into the vast emperor-sized bed when Ares appeared and began to undress before striding into the bathroom. She lay there listening to the shower running and when he reappeared, she said nothing even though her heart was pounding and her tummy was full of butterflies. The mattress moved a little as he got in and then doused the lights. He didn’t speak, so she didn’t either but every muscle in her slim body was taut with the expectation that he would reach for her. Only, he didn’t. Maybe he thought she was asleep. Maybe he found pregnancy a turn-off. Maybe he was only trying to be caring. It was a long time before Alana slept.

Almost the instant she wakened she was propelled at speed into the bathroom to be ingloriously ill. She was relieved that Ares had already left the room, presumably to make one of his ridiculously early starts to the new day. Freshening up, she wondered if a poor night’s rest and her nerves had contributed to her finally experiencing the nausea she had expected to feel sooner. She pulled on jeans, discovered they were already too tight for comfort and grimaced. By the time she got downstairs, Ares was long gone.

The pattern repeated all week. He left early, returned late, ate precisely two dinners with her and made inconsequential conversation. It made her feel like an invisible presence in his home. As for that shared bed? Zilch...nada. He wasn’t touching her any longer either. As the days wore on, frustration currented through Alana like a live wire. Was it the baby she was now carrying? Was that a passion killer for him? Or was he merely playing a difficult situation the only way he felt he could? Or even, was Ares just bone-deep stubborn? There was no contract now. He had only ever wanted her on a temporary basis. Was keeping his distance how he expressed anger at feeling trapped? And why couldn’t he just talk about how he felt and if he was incapable, why not let her sort it out?

‘Are you annoyed with me?’ Alana asked in the darkness of their bed the night before they were to fly to Athens for the charity benefit.

Ares froze. ‘No. Why would you think that?’

‘You avoid me—’

‘I work long hours,’ he contradicted.

‘Because you want to, not because youhaveto.’

‘Working hard is in my DNA.’

‘Being avoided and deprived of sex is not in mine.’

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