Page 27 of The Greek Tycoon's Baby Bargain

It was the sweetest kiss she could ever remember—but maybe that was because it had been so long since he had kissed her. Or perhaps because the feminine side of her nature yearned for the perfect celebration to seal the birth of their children. She opened her lips to his and stifled a little moan as she lost herself in the sheer pleasure of it.

He held back as he grazed his mouth against hers as if he were discovering it through touch alone. ‘I want to take you to bed,’ he said unsteadily. ‘But perhaps it is too soon.’

She knew that; she wanted it too. Yet this could not be right, could it? Not on so many levels which had nothing to do with the fact that she had only recently given birth. Warning bells rang loud in her head. Their relationship was over—and Xandros was in the process of calling the shots. Insisting that she move somewhere bigger, which he was going to pay for. And even though she knew that made sense, if she then allowed him to engage in easy sex—wouldn’t that make her look morally corrupt? As if she were selling herself for favours?

Next thing and he’d be employing some hot-shot lawyer to insist that she was morally unfit to bring up his children. She wouldn’t put it past him. Come to think of it—she wouldn’t put anything past him.

More than that, she still had feelings for him—of course she did. Trying to fall out of love with somebody wasn’t like turning off a light switch—it was more like an unpredictable sea and you still got waves of it washing over you when you least expected it. There was a pretty big one threatening to engulf her right now.

Even though her breasts were tingling and the heavy beat of blood had begun to throb shamefully at all her pulse points, Rebecca pushed at the hard wall of his chest, resisting the urge to creep her fingers beneath his shirt and trickle at the whorls of hair with her nails. How much of sexual reaction was habit and conditioning? she wondered hazily. Yet surely the ache in her heart had nothing to do with habit?

‘We must stop this right now, Xandros,’ she said. ‘This is wrong! You know it is!’

Wrong? He had to fight every instinct he possessed to allow her to break the embrace, but Xandros let her pull fractionally away from him, his breathing ragged as he waited for the hard heat of desire to subside.

‘No,’ he negated harshly as he stared down into her darkened eyes—seeing the full flush of desire in her cheeks and the tremble of her lips. ‘That is where you are so very mistaken, my beauty. Of all things in this whole crazy situation apart from our beautiful children—this…this…’ and he arrogantly brushed his palm over her breasts, feeling them pin-point into life against him ‘…is the only thing which is remotely right between us.’ Black eyes roved over her in critical assessment. ‘And you are a hypocrite if you deny that to yourself, Rebecca—let alone to me.’

More than anything she wanted to reach up and pull his dark head down towards her and to continue losing herself in another sweet, drugging kiss. But a kiss could fool you. It could make you imagine stuff which wasn’t there and Rebecca couldn’t face any more hurt. Not now—when she had to be strong for her boys. Xandros didn’t love her and there was nothing to be gained from thinking that he ever would.

Afraid to inflame him—or herself—any further, she took a step back, playing for time as she reminded herself of the reality, rather than fantasy. Because soon he would be gone from her life—back to his glitzy tower in New York—and the last thing she needed was to tie herself closer to him emotionally.

‘Yes, the sex was always very good,’ she agreed brutally. ‘I’m sure it always is with you—but that that’s not relevant any more, Xandros.’

‘You don’t think so?’ he taunted silkily.

‘I know so. When our relationship ended—it ended. We can’t just pretend that didn’t happen simply because we still happen to desire one another. It isn’t fair on anyone.’

He stared into the violet-blue eyes, forcing his desire to subside as he registered that she meant it. And yet strangely he had never respected her quite as much as he did right then—with her untidy hair and her defiant expression and her bold statement. When had a woman last taken the facts and looked at them with cool assessment before standing her ground like that—against what they both really wanted and against his wishes?

‘Very well. I will concentrate instead on what needs to be done. You want a garden, and you shall have a garden. I will make sure we have a house by the end of the week,’ he vowed softly.

There was the tiniest of pauses. We. Rebecca was certain it was a slip of the tongue—it had to be. She gave him a nervous smile. ‘And you’ll be going back to the States soon, I expect. You have a business to run.’

Xandros heard the hope in her voice, even though he could see she was doing her best to disguise it. And in that moment, something inside him changed.

Up until now he had not thought beyond the next action—and that had been the need to get her and the babies out of this coop of a place. But Rebecca’s words forced him to look further into a future where two little babies who carried half his genes would be growing up into boys, and then men. And then what? Didn’t he need to stamp his presence on their conscious minds—to bond with them early so that they would know him as their father?

After all, who knew what their mother might do once she realised that he really was not planning to marry her? Who was to say that she wouldn’t grow bored with the daily grind of child-rearing and long for some kind of excitement which would take her away from it—as his own mother had done. And who better to step in, if that should be the case?

But only if they know you.

He gave her a hard, glittering smile. ‘I don’t remember saying anything about going back to the States,’ he said.

Something warned her as surely as if a cold, clammy hand had reached out and grabbed her by the back of the neck. ‘But I thought—’

‘What?’ he enquired, mock-pleasantly. ‘What did you think, Rebecca?’

Don’t let him intimidate you—because if you show weakness, then you really will be lost.

‘Well, your offices are in New York, aren’t they? And you’re a busy man—you certainly can’t afford the time to hang around here.’

‘Can’t I?’ His black eyes bored into her with something approaching amusement. What did she think he was going to do? Pay up for her to live in luxury and then creep away like some kind of patsy? ‘I can do whatever I like, Rebecca—and what I’d like right now is to be close to my children. I want to be there when they wake up in the morning and turn the light out last thing at night.’

It took several seconds for his meaning to sink in, and when it did she felt almost light-headed with fear. ‘You mean…you mean…you’re planning to move in with us?’

He watched the colour drain from her face, saw the violet eyes cloud with apprehension, but he hardened his heart against the expression in them. ‘Of course I am. How could you ever consider otherwise?’ He leaned forward and his eyes were as cold as the black ice which glittered on the roads during the most unforgiving of winter days. ‘Did you really think that I was going to buy you a big house and then be airbrushed from my sons’ lives? Did you really think I was the type of man to pay all the bills and then be sidelined, Rebecca? I’m not quite of the right age to be considered for the role of sugar-daddy.’

She opened her mouth to tell him that he had been the one to insist on a bigger place to live—and now he was holding her to ransom over it. Twisting it round to make her sound like some manipulative gold-digger just out for what she could get! Was he so rich that he hadn’t bothered to check that she hadn’t touched a penny of the money he had been sending her? ‘And what if I told you that I would rather stay in this cramped place than share a palace with you?’

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