Billionaires: The Daredevil: Claimed for Makarov's Baby / Defying the Billionaire's Command / Redeeming the Billionaire SEAL. Michelle Conder
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I’ve enjoyed working for you, for the most part,’ she said quietly. ‘Actually, I used to admire and respect you very much.’
His eyes narrowed, as if he had misheard her. He knitted together the dark eyebrows which contrasted so vividly with the deep gold of his hair. ‘Used to?’
‘Sorry to use the past tense,’ she said, not sounding sorry at all. ‘But it’s hard to admire someone who is behaving like an idiot.’
‘An idiot?’ he echoed incredulously.
It hadn’t been easy to continue, but she had forced herself to finish what she’d started. ‘What else would you call someone who lives the way you do?’ she demanded. ‘Who goes from day to day on a knife edge, taking all kinds of unnecessary risks? How long do you think your body will survive on too much booze and not enough sleep? How long before your lifestyle impacts on your ability to make razor-sharp business decisions? You’re not indestructible, Dimitri—even if you think you are.’
She curled her lips in disgust as she shot the messy room one last withering look—though if he’d been a little more perceptive he might have noticed the distress in her eyes, which had made her start sobbing her heart out the moment she got home to her lovely apartment.
She remembered raising her head from one of the tear-soaked cushions and looking around the luxury home which Dimitri’s generous salary had enabled her to rent, knowing that this kind of lifestyle would soon be a thing of the past. Because she wasn’t rich and she shouldn’t pretend otherwise. She had simply worked for a rich man and now she carried his child beneath her heart while he looked at her with impatient eyes—eager to get back to one of the sexiest women she had ever seen.
‘You came round to my apartment and gave me a piece of your mind,’ said Dimitri slowly, his voice breaking into her thoughts and bringing Erin right back to the present. To the luxury car heading towards the city and the man whose icy eyes were boring into her. She looked deep into their pale glitter.
‘And found you with another woman,’ she said.
Dimitri nodded. Yes, she had found him with another woman. Someone whose face he couldn’t even remember, let alone her name. There had been a lot of women like that. One beautiful blonde merging into another, like a blurred and naked merry-go-round whirling through his life and his bedroom.
But he did remember the look of disgust on Erin’s face and his instinctive fury that she should dare to judge him. What right did she have to judge him? She had made out that she was some paragon of virtue—but she hadn’t been so damned virtuous when her nails had been raking his naked back and urging him into her sticky warmth, had she? She had certainly blown her goody-two-shoes image right out of the sky that night.
But even though he’d told himself he didn’t care what Erin Turner thought about him—he’d found himself thinking about the things she’d said. And there had been a lot of time to consider them during those fruitless months spent seeking a replacement secretary who came even close to her abilities.
His mind cleared as he stared into the clear green light of her eyes.
‘And that was enough to prevent you from telling me you were pregnant, was it?’ he demanded. ‘A simple case of sexual jealousy—because you found me with another woman?’
Erin didn’t say anything. Not at first. He made her sound unreasonable—as if she’d simply acted out of pique because her pride had been hurt. But it hadn’t just been about the naked blonde. Of much greater concern had been his chaotic lifestyle which might not have changed. And if that was the case, she would protect Leo from him with every last breath in her body. She had agreed to spend a weekend with him because she’d been in a position of weakness, but she was not going to be cowed into behaving like a victim. So why not tell him the truth? She had nothing left to lose...
‘There was nothing simple about it,’ she said. ‘I didn’t want my child to be part of your world.’
His blue eyes were like ice. ‘And you were to be the judge and the jury?’
She shrugged. ‘Why not? Nobody else ever dared tell you the truth—or if they did, you didn’t bother listening to them. Loukas Sarantos told you often enough, before he left your employment.’ And suddenly she realised that something else about him was different, and she screwed up her face in confusion as she remembered the eternal shadowy presence which had never been far from his side. ‘Where’s your bodyguard?’ she asked. ‘You never go anywhere without a bodyguard.’
‘Not any more.’ A faint smile lifted the edges of his lips. ‘Surprised, Erin?’
‘A little.’ She nodded. ‘Actually, more than a little. What happened?’
He shrugged. ‘After Loukas left I could never find anyone else I could bear to have around me 24/7—you know that. And then you left, too.’
Her word fell like a stone into the silence which followed. ‘And?’
He glanced out of the window at the stop-start traffic. ‘And I realised I was sick of the press dogging my every move and everyone standing on the sidelines waiting for me to tip over the edge.’ He turned back to her again. ‘So I decided to tie up a few loose ends—actually, more than a few. I cleaned up my act and became Mr Respectable.’
‘You?’ she echoed. ‘Respectable?’
He gave another mirthless smile. ‘An image you probably find as difficult to process as much as I do the thought of you as a mother.’
‘Touché.’ She sighed, wishing she had some kind of magic wand to wave. But if she did, what would she wish for? That she’d never met him? If she wished for that, then she wouldn’t have Leo—and she couldn’t bear that. ‘So what now?’ she questioned.
There was a pause as his gaze flicked over her.
‘My car is going to drop me off at my office and then it will take you out to the airport, to one of the hotels there. I’ve had Sofia book you into a suite.’
She looked at him blankly. ‘A hotel?’
‘Of course. We’re flying out first thing and it makes sense for you to be close to the airport. You’re masquerading as my secretary, Erin—where else would you go? You can’t stay home—and you surely weren’t expecting to spend the night with me?’
His sarcastic words stung her and made a dull rush of colour stab at her cheeks, but the worst thing of all was that they touched on the truth. Had she thought he would be taking her back to that elegant, bonsai-filled apartment of his where there were more than enough spare bedrooms? Maybe she had—when the truth of it was that since he’d kissed her so coldly yet so passionately in the register office, he hadn’t come near her.
She tried to mirror the faint cruelty of his smile. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Dimitri,’ she said. ‘I’m not a complete sucker for punishment.’
IT WAS A long time since Erin had stayed in a five-star hotel. Not since she’d worked for Dimitri, when luxury had been the norm. When she’d taken for granted the valets and bellboys and meals which arrived on silent trolleys concealed by heavy silver domes.
Dimitri’s car had dropped her off at the Heathrow branch of the Granchester hotel chain, which was tucked away only ten minutes’ drive from Heathrow. True, her suite didn’t have the greatest view in the world but the bathroom was every woman’s fantasy. After stripping off all her clothes, she lost herself in a world of scented bubbles and dried her hair and was just padding around in the oversized towelling robe, when the doorbell rang.
At first she thought it might be the soup and salad she’d ordered from room service, but instead she found Dimitri’s assistant, Sofia, standing there, her arms laden down with glossy bags and shoe boxes.