His Pregnant Bride: Pregnant by the Greek Tycoon / His Pregnant Princess / Pregnant: Father Needed. Robyn Donald
Читать онлайн книгу.
throat. She followed its progress, unable to tear her eyes from it.
‘I didn’t mean to.’ She gave a self-condemnatory groan. ‘That sounds so stupid! But I just do and say things around you that I wouldn’t even think around anyone else… I’m really sorry.’
‘Do I look offended?’
Her eyes lifted. She shook her head and restlessly twisted her hair into a knot on the nape of her neck.
Don’t even think about telling him how he looks, she cautioned herself.
‘You still want me. This is not to my mind a cause for repentance.’
‘Well, there’s no need to act as if you didn’t already know,’ she returned, centring her cross frown on his dark, devastatingly handsome face.
‘I didn’t consider it the foregone conclusion you seem to,’ he contended drily.
His eyes strayed to the exposed length of her slender throat and stayed there. Flushing, she let her hair fall and lowered her arms. Crossing them in front of her chest, oblivious to the fact the protective action pushed her compressed breasts upwards, she pursed her lips in a scornful grimace.
‘I bet you were a bundle of insecurity.’ Angolos, a victim to fragile self-esteem…? Oh, sure, that was really likely.
‘The flame that burns brightest does not always last the longest. You were very young—’
‘And stupid,’ she cut in angrily. ‘Yes, a lot of people think that, and it just goes to show that a few more years on the clock don’t necessarily make you any less stupid!’ If anything she wanted him more now than she had then.
‘So that aspect of being back with me does not fill you with disgust?’
‘The sex was always pretty fantastic,’ she grunted, avoiding his eyes as though her life depended on it. ‘It was the other stuff we were terrible at.’
‘So, we will work on the “other stuff”, and enjoy the sex,’ he announced, sounding pleased with himself, which, considering she had just told him she fancied the pants off him, was not surprising. Why did her mouth detach itself from her brain when she was around this man?
‘That remains to be seen,’ she replied as he fell in step beside her, moderating his long stride to match hers.
‘Where are we going?’
‘I’m going to pick up Nicky from Ruth’s, and then—’
‘I’ll come with you.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
GEORGIE walked into a room full of people and blinked.
‘Look at her,’ Robert Kemp teased. ‘She forgot we were coming.’ He enfolded his startled daughter in a bear hug.
‘No, of course I didn’t, Dad,’ Georgie lied. ‘How are you?’
‘We’re fine…but never mind us. How’s my favourite grandson? More to the point, where’s my favourite grandson?’ he asked, looking around the room expectantly.
Her more-observant stepmother laid a concerned hand on Georgie’s arm. ‘Is anything wrong, Georgie, dear?’
‘I’m fine, thanks, Mary. He’s in the garden, Dad.’ On cue the sound of Nicky’s high-pitched laughter drifted in through the open door. ‘No, don’t go yet,’ she added, catching her father’s arm as he headed towards the French door. ‘I need to tell you something.’ Deep breath…keep calm, be firm…don’t get apologetic. ‘No, actually I need to tell everyone something,’ she corrected.
‘Well, go on, then, don’t keep us in suspense,’ her father urged impatiently.
‘Sit down, Robert,’ his wife, her eyes on Georgie’s tense figure, instructed sharply. ‘Can’t you see there’s something wrong?’
‘There’s nothing wrong exactly, I’ve just made a decision.’
Her grandmother spoke for the first time. ‘It’s that man, isn’t it? You’ve seen him again. Oh, yes, and I’ve heard that he’s been here. You can’t drive around in a flashy car like his and not get noticed.’
‘What man?’ Robert Kemp demanded in exasperation. ‘Will someone please tell me what’s going on?’
‘The Constantine creature.’
Robert turned to his daughter, his face stern. ‘Tell me this isn’t true, Georgie.’
Georgie scanned the three faces staring accusingly at her. No wonder I feel as if I’m on trial, she thought wearily. ‘Angolos has a right to see Nicky, Dad.’
Her father groaned and clutched his head in his hands. ‘He’s sucked you in again, hasn’t he? That man has caused this family nothing but heartache since the moment he appeared and I for one wish you’d never laid eyes on him.’
‘Well, if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have Nicky, would I?’
‘Don’t be smart with me, my girl. I hope you’ve told him we don’t need him.’
‘Not exactly,’ Georgie admitted uneasily. ‘Actually,’ she added, ‘I agreed to go back to Greece with him…’
There was a stunned silence.
Her father was the first to recover his voice. He jerked his head towards the window. ‘Is he here now?’
‘Dad, please…?’ Georgie begged.
‘Were you born stupid?’ he wanted to know.
Her grandmother reached for her pillbox and popped a pill with her hand pressed significantly to her heart. ‘If that man suggested you jump into the nearest lake you would.’ There was nothing frail about her contemptuous observation. ‘All he has to do is get you into bed and you’d sell your own soul or, in this case,’ she declared dramatically, ‘your son.’
Georgie flushed at the accusation. ‘Nicky has a right to know his father, Gran.’ Does he? Didn’t he lose those rights…?
‘This isn’t about Nicky, it’s about you,’ the old lady retorted.
Georgie coloured guiltily. This was a charge she had levelled at herself. And she still couldn’t swear, hand on heart, that there wasn’t an element of truth in it. She wanted to do the right thing for Nicky, but, when the right thing involved being back with the man who was the passion of her life, could she ever be sure her decision was totally objective?
‘If that man goes near my grandson I’ll…’ Robert added.
Georgie lost her patience. Her family had been there when she’d needed them, but this was her life they were discussing.
‘You’ll what, Dad?’ she asked. ‘Teach him a lesson? Do you really think you could? Sorry.’ She bit her lip. ‘I shouldn’t have said that. I know you have my interests at heart, but this is my life. This isn’t an impulse, you know. I’ve given it a lot of thought.’
‘Well, in that case there’s no more to be said.’
Georgie heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Thank you, Dad. I really appreciate this.’
Robert looked at the hand extended to him and deliberately ignored it as he walked to his wife’s side and placed an arm around her shoulder. ‘You go to Greece with your so-called husband if that is what you want, but if you do you are no longer my daughter.’
‘You can’t mean that, Dad,’ she said, even though she knew he did.
‘Robert!’ her stepmother protested. ‘You can’t make her choose this way… He doesn’t mean it, Georgie, dear.’
‘I do mean it. You go to Greece and I wash my hands of you.’ He patted his wife’s hand. ‘Sometimes