“Oh, sir.” The salesgirl looked sorrowful. “I’m afraid that’s impossible...”
“Of course it’s possible for Mr. Kyrillos,” the white-haired manager snapped, turning to them with a bright smile. “A pregnant woman must never go hungry. What would madame like?”
“Everything,” Darius said. “Send down a tray or two. We’ll be here a while. We need a ball gown, but also a great deal more. Shoes, accessories, maternity clothes. Price is no object. We may be here for hours.”
“Yes, sir,” the woman replied happily, clapping her hands at her assistants, who rushed to obey.
“Darius, you don’t need to make a fuss!”
“You’re wrong. I can see all too well that I need to be in charge. Because you’ve always been better at taking care of others than yourself.” He drew Letty gently to the white sofa. “Here. Sit down. Take a breath.”
“But I left all those dresses in the changing room—”
“They will wait. Relax. You do not have to shop hungry. Breakfast is on its way.”
The white leather cushion shifted beneath them, tipping her toward him on the sofa. The edge of her thigh brushed against his. She jumped away with an intake of breath, looking up at him with big eyes.
“I’m not your responsibility.”
“You are now.” Reaching out, he tucked a long tendril of her dark hair back behind her ear and said softly, “And taking care of you will be my pleasure.”
His...pleasure?
A sudden terrifying thought occurred to her.
“Darius,” she said haltingly, unable to meet his eyes. “You surely can’t think...”
“Think what?”
Taking her courage in her hands, she looked into his dark wicked eyes. However charming he might seem at the moment, she couldn’t forget the heartless man he’d revealed himself to be. She couldn’t let herself confuse him with the boy she’d once loved. No matter how much Darius’s dark eyes, his smile, his kindness might seem the same. He was nothing like the man she’d loved.
“You can’t think...” She took a deep breath. “That our marriage would be real.”
“Of course it will be real. Legal in any court.”
“I mean...” She licked her lips, hating him for making her spell it out. “It would just be a marriage of convenience, nothing more. For our baby. We wouldn’t... You and I, we would never...”
“You will sleep in my bed, Letty.” His dark eyes burned through her. “Naked. Every single night.”
His sensual voice swirled around her body like a hot wind, making her toes curl.
She had to resist. She had no intention of sleeping with him again, no matter how seductive he might be. She’d been a virgin till twenty-eight, waiting for love. That love was gone.
“I loved you the night we conceived our baby. Everything has changed. Unlike you, I can’t have sex with a cold heart,” she said in a low voice. “No love, no sex.”
He wrapped her hand in his larger one. She felt his palm against hers, and a shiver ricocheted through Letty’s body, deep, to blood and bone. He leaned forward.
“We’ll see,” he whispered.
CHAPTER SIX
LETTY WAS SAVED when the salesgirls interrupted them with trays of pastries and fruit and juices, followed closely behind by yet more racks of clothes for her to consider.
A proper breakfast tray soon followed with maple bacon pancakes drizzled in maple syrup, hash brown potatoes and hot fried sausages. Thus fortified, Letty spent another hour trying on all the clothes she liked in that luxury store. Then they moved to a designer boutique. Then an exclusive department store.
By the end of the afternoon, Darius had bought her so many bags of clothes, he’d had to call his bodyguard and driver down to Fifth Avenue to carry everything back to the penthouse.
He took her to a world-famous jewelry store where they were ushered to an exclusive, private floor. She tried to protest, for about the thirtieth time. “You really don’t need to keep spending more money on me!”