Page 10 of 2 Books in One Bundle

But she would not be intimidated. Or distracted, no matter how unexpectedly thrilling she found this particular version of him. Thanks to her tough adolescence, she was no pushover either and she certainly wasn’t going to agree to something neither of them had had time to consider. Plenty of people had children out of wedlock. It was hardly taboo these days.

And anyway, when she got married it would be for love. She wanted a husband who adored her, and a genuine partnership based on friendship and respect. She hadn’t just dreamed of creating a successful business and gaining financial security all these years. She also, perhaps even more desperately, yearned for a family. She’d been on her own for so long, and in the quiet early hours of the morning, when she hadn’t been able to sleep and sometimes still couldn’t, she ached with loneliness that grew by the day.

Admittedly, she hadn’t had much luck on that front. When it came to relationships, she knew she came across as clingy and needy, pushing for too much too soon, because she’d been told so by her last boyfriend while he’d been breaking up with her. And in the aftermath, during which she’d forced herself to revisit and analyse her two relationships before that one, she’d discovered a pattern that, with hindsight, was pretty self-destructive.

She’d vowed to do things differently next time, to remove the pressure and let things play out at their own speed, but ‘differently’ did not mean blindly tying herself to a man she barely knew simply because she was pregnant and he didn’t trust her.

‘Well, it’ll have to be enough for now,’ she said firmly, refusing to indulge his posturing and needing to escape both the unsettling intensity with which he was looking at her and the bizarre desire to step in closer. ‘It’s far too early to be talking about that sort of commitment. Or any sort of commitment, for that matter. The first trimester can be precarious and, according to the doctor, I’m only a couple of months into it. Anything could happen in the next few weeks. So let’s just see how things go.’

As CEO of one of the world’s largest privately owned companies, ‘seeing how things went’ was not Zander’s preferred way of doing things and if Mia hadn’t shot off before he’d had the time and the head space to process the stunning realisation that she’d challenged him, he’d have informed her of that fact.

But in the days that followed he repeatedly revisited their conversation and eventually concluded that in this situation the unilateral decision-making and expecting everyone to go along with it that he was used to was probably not going to work. Mia wasn’t one of his employees or a potential business partner. She was the mother of his child, with opinions of her own.

However, he wasn’t unduly worried. There was plenty of time to persuade her to see things his way. Everyone did, in the end, and he remained ever more convinced that marriage was the only way to guarantee the outcome he desired. His request for her birth certificate so he could begin the paperwork had so far gone unanswered, but if that situation persisted he’d simply request a copy of the public document for himself.

He had plenty of time too to get a grip on the idea of impending fatherhood. Having unblocked Mia’s number and reinstated her as a contact, he’d read her messages and listened to her voicemails, and the news was sinking in. Gradually.

At some point he’d find a way through the chaos in his head, he was certain. He wouldn’t be riding this weird, frustratingly irrepressible roller coaster of panic and confusion, pride and elation for ever and he’d soon tire of imagining what the kid he’d created with Mia might look like.

Unwelcome thoughts of his own parents and his relationship with them kept popping up to plague him, which was annoying when that bore no relevance to anything, but with effort he was just about managing to suppress at least those. His entire life had been turned upside down. It was only natural for his thoughts to be in disarray and his focus to be off.

‘Are you listening to a word I’ve been saying?’

From behind his desk, Zander stifled a sigh and returned his attention to his one surviving parent, his mother, who’d waltzed into his office ten minutes ago without an appointment, swathed in caramel cashmere and indignation. ‘Your dividends are down this year because we’ve invested heavily in the Kallis side of the business,’ he said. ‘We bought a fleet of cruise ships and overhauled six of the shipyards. It was all in the shareholders’ report. Did you read it?’

Selene pouted. ‘No.’

There was a surprise. ‘Your income will be back to seven figures next year.’

‘What am I meant to do in the meantime?’

With the several hundreds of thousands of euros she’d still receive? Quite honestly, he didn’t care. ‘You could try economising.’

‘I don’t even know what that means,’ she said petulantly. ‘You’re more of a disappointment than Leo was when he sat behind that desk. I never thoughtyouwould spoil my fun too. I do miss your father.’

Selene’s criticism ricocheted off his armour without making so much as a dent, but miss his father? That was a joke. Not only had the ink barely had time to dry on the marriage certificate before she’d embarked on a string of affairs that she’d made little attempt to hide, but also the only person she had any sort of feeling for was herself. Edward Stanhope had been so busy merging his banking empire with Selene’s shipping one, which he’d acquired on their marriage, he’d turned a blind eye to his wife’s scandalous behaviour and her profligacy, and it was that that she missed.

‘You’ll survive.’

‘I don’t know how. You’ll be tossing me out of the house and onto the streets next.’

Zander gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to tell his mother to grow up because that approach had never worked. ‘Was there anything else?’ he asked instead. Such as, say, an enquiry into how he was. What plans he might have for Christmas. Whether he had any major news to impart.

‘No,’ she said, rising elegantly from the chair and throwing one end of her scarf over her shoulder. ‘I’m late for my flight as it is, and I don’t suppose they’ll hold it for me. Really, this is a very inconvenient time of year for the jet to have a technical fault. It’s eleven hours to the Maldives. It’s going to be ghastly, even in first class.’

From habit, Zander got up too, and was about to stride to the door to open it to let his mother and her eternal disappointment in him out when his phone rang. He glanced down at the screen and, on seeing who it was, stopped in his tracks.

‘Excuse me,’ he muttered with a frown. ‘I need to take this. You can see yourself out.’

With a huff and a pointed comment about manners, his mother flounced from his office, but all Zander was interested in now was why Mia was calling him after four days’ silence. Could she have considered his proposal and concluded it was for the best? Was that why his pulse had spiked? Because he’d won?

‘Mia.’

‘Hi,’ she said. ‘Are you busy?’

Always. He had a series of meetings this Monday afternoon and the delightful interlude with his mother had already set him back half an hour. But something in her voice concerned him. He thought he could detect a note of desperation behind her words and a certain raggedness to her breathing, and he didn’t like any of it.

‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m not. What’s going on?’

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