“Is that a threat?”
“I will be part of my son’s life, one way or another.”
Glaring at him, she lifted her chin. “I won’t be bullied into marriage. I don’t care how rich or powerful you are. Family is what matters. Not money.”
And as Stavros looked down at her in the cold mountain air, everything became crystal clear.
He had little experience managing tricky relationships. In the past, if a mistress ever got too demanding, he’d simply ended the relationship.
So think of it as a business deal. He coolly reassessed the situation. A hostile takeover. He looked down at the tiny dark-haired baby. He wanted to be a steady, permanent part of his child’s life. Clearly, the best way to do that was to marry Holly. But she didn’t want to marry him. She didn’t want his money. She didn’t want his name.
So how best to negotiate? How to win?
He could brutally fight her for custody. With his deep pockets, his lawyers would crush her. But inexperienced as Stavros was with long-term relationships, he didn’t think this would ultimately lead to a happy home for their child.
How else could he get leverage?
Then he realized. She’d just revealed her weakness. Family is what matters, she’d said. And she’d shown that belief in every aspect of her life. She’d given up college and her own dreams, given up years of her life for that worthless sister of hers. She’d quit her job and fled to Europe when she’d thought she needed to protect her baby.
How could he use her own heart against her?
A sudden idea occurred to him. It made him feel sick inside. He tried to think of something else.
But Holly already looked as if she were ready to turn on her heel and stalk away, taking their child with her. He needed some way to spend time with her. To make her calm down and see reason. And he could think of only one way.
Since she was none too pleased with her sister at that moment, dragging her to New York wasn’t an option.
But Freddie had a grandfather.
If Stavros tried to convince Holly that Aristides Minos deserved to meet the baby, he doubted her tender heart would resist. At least until she met the loathsome man. There was a reason Stavros despised his father to the core.
But a trip to Greece would give Stavros the time he needed to convince Holly to marry him. With any luck, he argued with himself, the old man wouldn’t even be home.
Deliberately relaxing his shoulders, Stavros gave Holly his most charming smile. “I don’t want to fight with you.”
“Fine.” Suspicion creased her forehead. “But I still won’t marry you.”
“Of course you won’t,” he said easily, still smiling. “You don’t trust me. Because I treated you so badly.”
Her lips parted. Then she narrowed her eyes. “Whatever you’re doing, it’s not going to work. My answer’s still no.”
She was too intuitive by half. “All right. So let’s talk about Freddie. And what’s best for him.”
Holly snorted. “A father, you’re going to say. But he doesn’t need a father like you, who’s selfish and—”
“My own father is honest to a fault,” he interrupted. “Doesn’t he have the right to meet his grandson?”
That stopped her angry words. She closed her mouth, then said uncertainly, “You have a father?”
Stavros gave her a crooked smile. “As your friend Hans said, everyone has a father.”
“But you’ve never mentioned him. I assumed he was dead.”
“You assumed wrong.” Stavros had just wished his father was dead. Many, many times, after he’d divorced his mother and cut them off without a penny. After he’d ignored all of Stavros’s frantic pleas for help when he was seventeen, and she’d gotten that fatal diagnosis. Pushing the awful memories away, Stavros said blandly, “I’m his only son.” It was a guess. For all he knew, the man had ten other children he was ignoring or neglecting around the world. “Would you keep him from his only grandchild?”
Emotions crossed Holly’s face. It was almost too easy to read her. First, she wanted to angrily refuse. Then he saw sympathy, and regret.
“Is he like you?” she said finally. “Your father?”