Page 4 of Twins to Tame Him

“I did that because you were ruining an innocent man!” she burst out, her own temper finally breaking the surface. “And I never meant to sleep with you. It was...” Flaming-red streaks gilded her sharp cheeks and her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. “...unplanned.”

“What a stroke to my masculinity that Dr. Laila Jaafri of the brilliant brain and the unending logic fell prey to my charms!” he bit out, sarcasm punctuating every word. “Since we’re being honest finally, tell me, was it punishment for my sins that you would hide the truth from me?”

“Of course not. Would I like to have sailed through single parenting without a hitch and forgotten about the sperm donor who actively hates me because I stole from him to stop him from ruining an innocent man? Yes! Did I constantly, every minute of every day and all the sleepless nights, struggle with the fact that I was being unfair to my children and their father by not giving them a chance to know each other? Yes! Did I then gather copious amounts of data by stalking your friends and the woman I thought you cheated on the night before the wedding with me, looking for reassurances that you would not turn into a monster—as powerful men usually do when inconvenienced—who would take my children from me when I did tell you the truth? Another resounding yes! Did the fact that it is hard to raise two boys as a single woman with no parental or community support, financially and emotionally and physically, make it inevitable because I will not let my pride and misgivings about you become obstacles to the benefits my children will have with a father around? OMG, we have another yes!”

All of this she said softly, evenly, without inflection. And yet, the very lack of emotion in them convinced Sebastian of the truth.

“So you approached Ani with the intention of finding more about me? Where?”

“At the university where she takes music classes. After talking to her once, after she told me that your wedding to her would have been nothing but an arrangement between friends to help her out, I told her the truth.” Her chest—delineated clearly even in the ugly, loose T-shirt—rose and fell, the only sign betraying the depth of her emotions.

And Sebastian realized one thing about Dr. Laila Jaafri. For all the games she’d played with him, she was logical. Maybe what she wanted from him...was what she’d outlined.

He looked away and his gaze clashed with Alexandros’s. Like him, he looked stunned. So, Ani, as loyal to her new friend as Laila had been to the man she had been bent on rescuing, hadn’t even told her husband.

As different as they were, in his twin’s gaze, Sebastian found the answer he didn’t want to admit.

Alexandros had spent his entire life trying to define who a Skalas man could be, should be, while Sebastian had tried to shrug off the oppressive expectations of the very name from the start. And yet, here was a crossroads he’d never thought he’d stand at.

This woman he didn’t trust was the mother of his children. Whether he wanted them or not was irrelevant. Whether he wanted her in his life was irrelevant. Whether he felt equipped in any way to have a role in their life was also irrelevant. It was his reality now.

The Sebastian Skalas that had survived his father’s abuse without losing his sense of self, the Sebastian that had dreamed of an affectionate, loving family as a young boy, the Sebastian that had spent years looking for a mother that had abandoned him and Alexandros to a monster she couldn’t survive herself, would never turn his back on his...sons.

“Where are they?” he asked, in a surprisingly steady voice.

“With their nanny about two and a half hours from here,” Laila said, probing his gaze. “Annika booked a luxury suite for us at this...posh hotel in Athens.”

Two hours away...

At least Annika had the good sense to persuade this stubborn woman to stay at a good hotel and not some seedy hovel. He had a feeling that wouldn’t have been an easy task.

“I thought you would want to see them,” Laila continued, “as proof, if nothing else.”

“Proof?”

“Proof that they are yours.” Laila stared at his face in that clinical, academic way of hers, he realized now, and then at Alexandros. “They have your nose and that hair but my eyes. Of course, I understand that you’ll do a paternity test.”

He bristled at her matter-of-fact tone but managed to contain his irritation. “We will bring them here, now.”

“I’d prefer to do it by myself.” When he’d have protested, she hurried on. “They’re two, Sebastian. While Nikos, older by three minutes, is friendly and trusting and very well-adjusted, Zayn is moody and sensitive. I can’t just throw you in their faces. It will take...time. And I’d prefer to...”

“Nikos and Zayn,” he repeated, feeling as if he was in a trance.

Instantly, they morphed from abstract two-year-olds to boys with real personalities.

Nikos was friendly and trusting and well-adjusted.

Zayn...was sensitive. Like Sebastian himself had been once and punished relentlessly for.

It was a miracle he could swallow, much less string words together. “My chauffeur will bring them all here.”

Laila shook her head. “It will be easier if I go—”

“You’re not going anywhere.” He opened his phone. “Which hotel?”

She studied him and then sighed. “They will be okay for a couple of hours more. We can discuss our...plans before we introduce them to you. I like to be prepared—”

“They’re my sons. Whether they understand it immediately or not, it’s irrefutable.”

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