Penniless and Secretly Pregnant

The door opened, and he saw Daisy’s furious, tear-stained face.

In spite of everything, his heart twisted at the sight. Her pale green eyes, fringed with thick black lashes, were luminous against her skin, with a few adorable freckles scattered across her nose. Her lips were pink and full, as she chewed on her lower lip, as if trying to bite back angry words.

Her body, in the fullness of pregnancy, was lush and feminine. She’d taken off her long puffy coat, and was dressed simply, in a long-sleeved white shirt over black leggings. But she was somehow even more alluring to him than the night of the cocktail party, when she’d been wearing that low-cut green dress, with her breasts overflowing. He’d thought the dress was simply tight, but now he realized her breasts had already been swollen by pregnancy. Pregnant. With his baby.

A baby she was trying to keep from Leonidas, who was here and ready to take responsibility. Who wanted to be a father!

Interesting. He blinked. He hadn’t realized it until now. He’d always thought he had no interest in fatherhood, no interest in settling down. What did he know about being a good parent?

But now he wanted it more than anything.

Daisy tossed her head with an angry, shuddering breath. “How dare you threaten me with lawyers?”

“How dare you try to steal my child?” he retorted, pushing into the apartment without touching her.

It was the first time he’d been back here since their days as lovers. The apartment looked just as he remembered, modern and new, with a gas fireplace and an extraordinary view of the bridge and Manhattan skyline. The only new changes were a slapdash Van Gogh pastiche now hanging in the foyer, and the large dog bed sitting near the fire, where a long-limbed, floppy yellow dog drowsed.

Leonidas took a deep breath, dizzy with the memory of how happy he’d been here, in those stolen hours when he’d been simply Leo, nothing more. This was enemy territory—Daisy’s home—but it somehow still felt warm. Far more than his own multimillion-dollar homes around the world.

He felt suddenly insecure.

“You said this is Franck Bain’s apartment,” he said slowly.

“So?”

“Why has he let you stay so long? Are you lovers?”

Closing the door behind him, Daisy said coldly, “It’s none of your business, but no. He was my father’s friend, and he is trying to help me. That’s all.”

“Why would I believe that?”

“Why would you even care?” She looked at him challengingly. “I’m sure you’ve had lovers by the score since you tossed me out of your house.”

But he hadn’t. He hadn’t had sex in five months—not since their last time together. But that was the last thing Leonidas wanted to admit to Daisy. He lifted his chin. “I did not toss you out.”

“You asked me what I was still doing at your house. And told me to go!”

“Funny, I mostly remember you insulting me, calling me a liar and saying how badly you wished you could hurt me.” He gave a low, bitter laugh. “I guess you figured out a way, didn’t you? By not telling me you were pregnant.”

The two of them stared at each other in the fading red light, an electric current of hatred sizzling the air between them.

They were so close, he thought. Their bodies could touch with the slightest movement. His gaze fell unwillingly to her lips.

He saw a shiver pass over Daisy.

“You’re a bastard,” she whispered.

Those were truer words than she knew. He took a deep breath, struggling to hold back his insecurity, his pain. He met her gaze evenly.

“You didn’t always think so.” His gaze moved toward the hallway, toward the dark shadow of her bedroom door. “When we spent hours in bed. You wanted me then. Just as I wanted you.”

Her lips parted. Then she swallowed, stepping back.

“You’re charming when you want to be.” Her jaw hardened. “But beneath your good looks, your money, your charm—you’re nothing.”

You little monster. I wish you’d never been born!

In spite of his best efforts, emotion flooded through him—emotion he’d spent his whole adult life trying to outrun and prove wrong, by the company he’d built, by his massively increasing fortune, by the beautiful women he’d bedded, by his worldwide acclaim.