Page 39 of Christmas Baby with Her Ultra-Rich Boss

And now she wanted to know what came next for them.

There was nothem. Not in the way she wanted. She should know that. Shedidknow that.

He had told Lena, explicitly, that he did not do relationships. While he conceded that what they currently shared could be construed as a form of relationship, the fact remained that if not for their baby, neither of them would be in this bed. He was not prepared to commit himself to anyone and she knew it; the most he was prepared to do, and only because of the baby, was take things one day at a time, which was a hell of a lot more than he’d been prepared to do before. He didn’t know how long that one day at a time would last. He didn’t want to know.

He strongly suspected Lena wanted to know. She wanted to plan a future with him. He could feel it in his bones.

Future. A word that filled him with sulphur.

He’d done that whole future thing before and look how that had turned out. Betrayed. His trust destroyed. He would never put himself in that position again.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THEREWASAheaviness in Lena’s stomach from the moment she woke, a sick sense of dread. Konstantinos was leaving soon for Australia.

Clambering out of the empty bed, she pulled her kimono-style silk dressing gown on and went off in search of him.

She found him in the dining room, a variety of breakfast foods around him, reading something on his phone. He looked up as she entered and smiled.

‘You should have woken me,’ she accused, trying not to sound tearful.

‘I didn’t have the heart.’ He shifted his chair back so she could sit on his lap. ‘You were fast asleep. I was about to come and wake you.’

She sank onto his muscular thighs and kissed him. ‘When do you need to leave?’

‘In thirty minutes.’

She sighed and leaned her head back so their cheeks could press together. He was so freshly shaven that not even the slightest stubble grazed her skin.

He’d be back in a week, she reminded herself. That wasn’t so long. It hadn’t sounded long before. It had sounded short. Now her chest felt as if it had been injected with ice; Konstantinos flying to the other side of the world a stark reality.

She tried hard to hide her dejection. She didn’t want his last memory to be of her mopey. ‘All packed?’

‘Yes. My cases have already been taken to the car. Are you still planning to visit your family later?’

She nodded. ‘I’ll wait until you’ve left and then get myself sorted.’ They’d exchanged the same frequency of video calls and messaging, but her family was unaware she was already in England. She would tell them everything today.

‘Call the concierge when you’re ready. They will provide a car for you... You are sure you’re familiar with how to use the concierge service?’

‘Yep. Dial nine.’

He kissed her temple and tapped her thigh as a signal for her to get off his lap.

Sighing again, Lena slid into the chair beside his and surveyed the array of food spread out on the table. She had no appetite. While Konstantinos poured himself another of the strong Greek coffees he virtually overdosed on each morning, her tongue burned with the unspoken plea for him not to go.

‘I have given some thought to what you asked me last night,’ he said conversationally.

Her heart jolted.

Konstantinos had spent the morning drafting a speech in his head. He’d woken so early the sun—and that there actually was any sun was the only good thing about being in England in December—hadn’t even attempted to rise. Leaving Lena sleeping, he’d worked out in his gym for an hour. By the time he’d finished, sweat had poured off him and the anger that had gripped him in the wake of her unwanted question and the implications he’d sensed underlying it had diminished enough for him to think rationally.

He didn’t want to lose what they had. The sex was just too good to willingly give that up. He needed to strike a balance between making his feelings clear and not hurting her. Hurting her was the last thing he wanted to do. His prepared speech would do the trick, and allow him to fly to Australia without anything hanging over them.

‘I should tell you now my post-Christmas schedule is incredibly busy and will be so until a few weeks before your due date. Once the baby is born then, naturally, things will change and I will work my schedule so that I’m away on business for shorter periods. This will leave me with more free time to be a father and give you the support you need.’ This was something they had already discussed but he thought it worth reiterating.

‘As you know, I am not a man prepared to commit to a relationship.’ He stared at her intently, willing her to absorb what he was saying and not just hear it. ‘But I am prepared to make a form of commitment to you. I appreciate that it isn’t the full commitment I suspect you are hoping for, but it is a solution I think will suit us both very well without putting unnecessary obligations on each other, other than in respects to our child.’

Something flashed in her eyes but she didn’t attempt to speak.

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