Page 19 of The Nicolaides Baby

He held her gaze. “There will be no engagement announcement.”

She held his stare for several seconds and then shook her head. “Unbelievable,” she said, laughing and throwing herself in the chair behind her. “In fact, this is rich.” She crossed her legs and let out another laugh. “Or not, depending on how you look at it. Because, believe me,darling, you aren’t just losing out on all of this,” she said, waving her hand up and down her body. “With this ridiculous and premature decision, you’re also losing a lucrative merger that could gainbothof our families billions of dollars.” She crossed her arms and looked him up and down before frowning. “Obviously you’ve let grief cloud what is usually excellent judgment. So, perhaps I won’t hold this lapse against you.”

He sat back down in his seat and rested his arms on his desk. “Gia, this is no lapse in judgment. I’ve thought this out thoroughly. Iwillbe taking physical custody of my nephew in a few weeks. Iwillbe relocating back to Santorini to my parents’ villa so they can help me raise him.” He sat back in his seat and let his gaze roam over her tense features that had grown more and more angry with each of his revelations. “And when I eventually do marry, it will be to someone who will want to be a mother to him. Do you honestly see yourself in that role?” Surely she could understand what he was saying. A marriage between them was no longer the right thing.

“That’s what nannies are for,” she said, deadpan. “Or you could sign custody of it over to your mother and father. For God’s sakes, why not let them have it. It would make more sense than giving it to you.”

“Lukas isn’t anit.” He’d never stopped to realize in all the time during their relationship that she didn’t really want the same things he did—to have children, to make a family like the one he’d grown up in. Maybe it was something he hadn’t let himself realize until recently. But that was exactly what he wanted.

And it was something he couldn’t see having with Gia.

“Again, you’re taking issue with a word.” She raised a brow at him, a look of revelation dawning in her dark brown eyes. “It’s that Stallings woman—Andreas’s sister-in-law—isn’t it.” She huffed out a laugh. “Pséftiki poutána!”

“Enough. She has nothing to do with this. She’s also not fake, and she’s most definitely not a whore.” He leaned forward again. “And you should watch how you talk about her because sheisfamily.”

“Malakíes,” she said, cutting her hand through the air and rising from her seat after calling bullshit. For a beautiful woman, she had an ugly temper—something else he’d overlooked. She stood looking down her nose at him and smirked.

“You might be able to fool everyone else, but I know you. I even tried to overlook it when I caught how you looked at her. Because, you see,agápi mou,I know how your eyes heat when you want someone. Hell, I’ve seen the look enough when you’ve looked at me.” Her lips tensed in a straight line. “And you, Leo Nicolaides, want Rowan Stallings.”

He didn’t deny it as she pivoted on her heel and walked away from him. How could he, when he couldn’t deny it to himself?

Gia stopped as she unlocked and opened the door—another short laugh leaving her. “You know,” she said, turning with a half-grin. “I have a feeling you’re going to regret this. And soon.” With that, she walked out of his office. He didn’t catch the sounds of any doors being slammed, which somehow surprised him. He sat back in his seat and let out a harsh breath.

“Well, that went better than I expected.”

7

The monitors beepedwhile the slight body they were attached to lay against her bare upper chest. Rowan slowly rocked Lukas and relished the little noises he had started to make. It had been two weeks since his birth, and he was steadily gaining weight. She just wished—

“Ms. Stalling?”

She looked up to find one of the nurses holding a small bottle of formula.

“Would you like to feed him?”

“I can?” Her eyes went to Leo entering the room after taking a call.

He rushed toward her, his brows drawn down in worry. “Is something wrong?”

“I can feed him,” she said, unable to keep the awed excitement from her voice.

A slow grin spread across his face as her heart rate skyrocketed. Because there it was, that rare true smile she’d only seen a few times all those years ago—and hardly at all the last two weeks. The curve of his mouth took her back to that night when he’d smiled with such pleasure each time she’d fallen apart in his arms. She remembered watching in fascination the change that would immediately come over him. His smile faded and face hardened with each surge into her body while his intense blue gaze held hers until he followed her in bliss.

Four years later and that smile was still just as devastating.

For heaven’s sake, she thought, as warmth pooled low in her body and her pulse raced. She needed to pull herself together, but it was hard when the urge to feel those lips against hers almost had her reaching a hand out to drag him close.

“Here you go,” the nurse said, bringing Rowan out of her thoughts of Leo. She released a calming breath and took the warm bottle of formula. The nurse smiled at her. “You’re an old hand at this, right?” After a couple of weeks of daily visits, she and most of the nurses had struck up friendships, so they knew about Mara.

“Yes.” Rowan smiled back, refocusing on more important things than Leo’s lips and body and… “Thanks.” She adjusted Lukas until he was cradled in the crook of her arm. “Leo, could you fix the blanket, please.” He tucked it up around Lukas’s body where it had slipped down before crouching in front of her. His eyes held a different kind of intensity than the look she’d just been dwelling on.

She held the bottle close to Lukas’s mouth and smiled down at the face of the child she’d grown to love as if he were her own. Okay, she could do this. She’d breastfed Mara for two years but had supplemented with bottles when necessary. But regardless of the means, the method was the same. She brushed the nipple across Lukas’s tiny lips and teased his mouth open to let some of the formula drip onto his tongue.

“What a face,” Leo said, slightly laughing when Lukas stuck his tongue out and wrinkled his face. Leo quickly sobered and looked up at her, concern evident in his eyes. “What if he doesn’t like formula?” He stroked over Lukas’s covered head. “Or what if it doesn’t set well with him.” He sat back on his haunches. “I wonder if there’s still such a thing as wet nurses? I could—”

“Leo, this is his first time on a bottle.” Rowan grinned and worked the nipple over the baby’s mouth again in the same way. “So before you start accosting new mothers down the hall about renting out their breasts, let’s see if I can’t get him to take it.”

“I wouldn’t have accosted them—not really.” He frowned up at her. “And I assure you, I could make it well worth their while.”

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