The Marakaios Baby (The Marakaios Brides 2)

She sniffed and shook her head. ‘Nothing. I’m just emotional because I’m pregnant. And being at the doctor’s office...hearing the heartbeat...’

Leo frowned. ‘That was a good thing, was it not?’

‘Yes. Yes, of course it was.’

And yet hearing that heartbeat had also terrified her—because what if it stopped? What if the next time she had an ultrasound she heard nothing but yawning, endless silence? She was used to expecting, and experiencing, the worst. She couldn’t bear for it to happen again, and yet she still braced herself for it.

‘Here.’ Leo opened the bag of melba toast and handed her a piece. ‘Eat something. You’ll feel better.’

But his kindness only made her feel worse; it opened her up so she felt broken and jagged inside. She’d told him she’d wanted an amicable marriage, but now she wondered if Leo’s coldness, even his snideness, would have been easier to handle. These little kindnesses hurt her, made her realise how much they’d both given up—and all because she hadn’t felt strong or brave enough to risk the real thing.

But it was too late for regrets, she reminded herself as she took a piece of toast and munched obediently. And it was better this way. If she kept telling herself that perhaps she’d start to believe it.

* * *

Leo watched as Margo ate a piece of toast, her shoulders hunched against the winter wind, her face pale and composed now, although he could still see the sheen of tears in her dark eyes, turning them luminous and twisting his gut.

He didn’t want her to cry. He had been angry and alarmed when he’d thought the doctor had hurt her during the ultrasound. He felt worse now, seeing her near tears. He still had feelings for Margo—feelings he had neither expected nor wanted to have. Feelings which had led him to agreeing to this marriage.

For the last four months he’d refused even to think of her. She’d been as good as dead to him. And since she’d come back into his life twenty-four hours ago he’d made sure to keep both his distance and his composure. But he hadn’t been keeping either. He saw that now. He’d been fooling himself—punishing her with snide or sarcastic comments because it was easier than grabbing her by the shoulders and demanding to know why she’d left him. Or maybe just kissing her senseless.

Who cared what her reasons had been? She was here now.

And she rejected you once. Why shouldn’t she again?

But he didn’t need to punish her any more. Perhaps he never should have, if she really was telling the truth when she said there hadn’t been anyone else. He could at least be amicable. Amicable and no more.

‘We should get back,’ he said. ‘You look like you need a rest. And I need to arrange the wedding details.’

Margo’s step faltered. ‘The wedding? Already?’

‘We’ll marry tomorrow afternoon in a civil service here in Athens. Pending the paternity results, of course.’ Margo looked dazed by that news, but he continued, an edge to his voice. ‘Surely, considering our circumstances, you don’t expect the whole church and white dress affair?’

Fire flashed in her eyes. ‘Are you really so old-fashioned and chauvinistic?’

‘How is that either of those things?’ Leo demanded. ‘We’re getting married for the sake of this child, Margo—not because we love each other or even want to be with each other.’

He was saying it for his own sake as well as hers, and somehow that just made him even more furious. ‘A church wedding would be a mockery.’

‘And a white dress would too, I suppose?’

‘This isn’t some criticism of you,’ Leo answered. ‘It’s simply a statement of fact and what our marriage really is. What it will be.’

‘Fine,’ Margo answered, her eyes still flashing. ‘Fine,’ she said again and, dropping the remnants of her toast in the bin, she walked past him towards the car.

CHAPTER SIX

SHE COULDN’T SLEEP. Margo had tossed and turned in the guest bedroom for several hours before she’d finally given up trying. It wasn’t the bed—it was one of the most comfortable she’d ever slept in. And it wasn’t that she wasn’t tired, because she still felt exhausted. Even so her mind seethed with half-formed questions and thoughts, and they spun around in her brain until she decided to make herself some herbal tea in an attempt to help her sleep.

She reached for her dressing gown and the box of ginger tea she’d brought with her; it was one of the few things she could stomach. Tiptoeing out of her bedroom, not wanting to disturb Leo, she made her way to the kitchen.