Page 14 of Reunited By the Greek's Baby

His skin pricked as if pierced. He’d never seen her so upset. He could understand ill feeling over how they’d parted. But not this.

‘Yes, deserve. You’re overwrought. You’re not making sense.’

‘Overwrought!’ Liquid spilled from her mug as she slammed it down. Her face turned from pale to flushed. ‘Next you’ll tell me I imagined that letter.’

Theo paused. One of them had to stay calm. Briefly he wondered if her mood swing was bad for the baby. It couldn’t be good for her. This was unlike the Isla he knew. He was both fascinated and horrified.

And reluctantly admiring.

In a perverse way her prickly aggressiveness appealed to a man used to fawning sycophants. But it was more than that. The glitter in her eyes, the sharp rise of her breasts as she tugged in air, her intense focus and vibrancy made him aware of her as a woman. A woman with whom he’d shared so many intimacies, such secret pleasure that even her concentrated fury was a reminder of the passion that had ensnared him.

What sort of man was he to be excited by a woman’s fury? To prefer it to her steely attempts to blank out all emotion as if blocking him from her life?

He was like a kid taunting a pretty girl because any attention was better than none. Shocked at himself, Theo leaned back, away from her.

‘I don’t know about a letter. There’s obviously some misunderstanding.’

‘I suppose you don’t know Petro Skouras either?’

‘Petro? He’s my lawyer.’ One of them, and one of his oldest friends. ‘What has he to do with this?’ Though Theo had a sinking feeling he began to understand.

‘He wrote to me on your behalf. Said that if I tried to contact you again the police would arrest me.’

Theo’s breath hissed. Horror prickled his scalp as he met Isla’s needle-sharp stare.

How could Petro have done that to her? So many acquaintances and so-called friends had turned away from Theo when he was arrested. His reputation had been sullied with an avalanche of lies and innuendoes. But this woman had stood by him. Until he’d done what was needed and pushed her away.

It made Theo ashamed.

He swore softly and comprehensively.

He’d asked Petro to find a way to stop her visiting. Their relationship couldn’t go on. At the time he’d feared old man Stavroulis might target her. Plus he’d needed to focus on fighting the case against him and dealing with the fallout. He had responsibilities that had to take priority over a budding relationship with a pretty Englishwoman.

Petro had suggested the non-disclosure agreement and Theo had reluctantly agreed. It was brutal and offensive but it meant she’d leave and he wouldn’t have to worry about her as well as everything else in the fiasco his life had become.

‘You’re talking about the non-disclosure agreement?’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘No, that was bad enough. As insults went it was pretty low. But I meant the threat of arrest for harassment.’

‘Harassment? You?’ Isla blinked as if his tone took her by surprise. ‘When was this?’

Her throat worked. ‘Does it really matter?’

‘When, Isla?’

‘When I was back in England. When I found I was pregnant.’

Gone was the strident fury, in its place a weariness that seemed to weigh her down. Her shoulders slumped and she sagged back in the ugly chair as if drained of energy.

Theo’s heart hammered. He hated seeing her like this. He exhaled slowly, searching for calm. ‘You tried to contact me?’

It was something he hadn’t allowed himself to think about, but after doing what was needed and pushing her away, Theo had missed her. Missed the comfort of her on his side, ready to visit and support him. Ready to believe in him.

‘I emailed your office. I’d tried calling but your phone number didn’t work.’

‘I got a new one.’

Because the press had got it and shared it. What use was a phone that rang nonstop twenty-four hours a day with abusive calls and texts? Some were from civic-minded citizens but he guessed most were from people paid by Spiro Stavroulis to make his life hell.

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