One Night...Nine-Month Scandal

I’m not a father. He’d actually said those words.

I’m not a father.

What was she doing with him? She was a complete and utter fool, trying to shape this relationship into something that looked normal.

She was kidding herself if she ever thought he was going to suddenly come round to having children. And just because she was sympathetic to his reasons didn’t mean she was willing to allow her child to have the same dysfunctional relationship with him that she’d had with her father. No way was she going to have her child waiting on a doorstep for a father who just wasn’t interested.

I’m not a father.

‘Alekos!’ A woman with sloe eyes and an impossibly slender frame joined their group, kissing first Alekos and then Constantine. ‘Isn’t this a terrible crush? Still, it’s good to do one’s bit for the arts.’ Her eyes fastened on Kelly’s dress and then widened. ‘Is that—?’

‘Tatiana, this is Kelly.’ Alekos interrupted the woman swiftly but Kelly stared at her numbly, wondering why her dress was causing such a stir.

Why was everyone so shallow? Yes it was pretty, and she liked having something special to wear as much as the next girl, but no dress, however gorgeous, could make up for a completely deficient relationship.

I’m not a father.

‘Why are you staring at my dress?’

Tatiana laughed, a sound like glass shattering. ‘It’s by Marianna, isn’t it? Lucky you. She only designs for the favoured few. Completely impossible to get hold of any of her pieces.’ She gave Alekos a knowing smile. ‘Unless you have a particular place in her heart, of course.’

By Marianna.

Marianna?

Kelly stared at the woman. Then she looked down at the gold dress, remembering how tense Alekos had been when he’d given it to her.

No wonder, she thought numbly. No wonder he’d been behaving oddly.

He must have been terrified that she’d find out.

What sort of insensitive brute dressed his current girlfriend in his ex’s creations?

The same insensitive brute who still denied the existence of their baby. The same insensitive brute who hadn’t told her to move her ring to the other hand.

Her eyes scalded by tears, Kelly stared hard at the Bellini on the wall, wondering if Renaissance man had been any more considerate than modern man.

Fisting her hand into the gold dress, she pulled it off the ground and swept towards the exit, brushing against a fine Renaissance sculpture in her attempt to get away as fast as possible.

As she ran back down the red carpet, her eyes stung and there was a solid lump lodged in her throat.

She’d expected something to shatter into a million pieces that night. She just hadn’t expected it to be her heart.

The hotel suite was like a glass capsule, suspended midair over the lagoon, but if Alekos had expected a display of Kelly’s normal exuberant enthusiasm then he was disappointed.

He’d caught up with her at the end of the red carpet and bundled her into the back of his waiting limousine, concerned that she hadn’t appeared to be thinking about where she was going or what she was doing.

Once they’d arrived at the hotel, she’d stalked into the room ahead of him, tugged off her shoes and dropped them on the floor without giving him a backward glance. Now she had her hands behind her back, wriggling and writhing in an attempt to undo the invisible zip, clearly determined not to ask for his help.

She was seething; furiously angry.

Alekos strolled across to her and put his hands on her back, but she knocked him away.

‘Don’t touch me.’ Her voice was shaking. ‘On second thoughts, unzip this stupid dress so that I can take it off. I don’t want to be wearing something made by one of your ex-girlfriends.’

Alekos took a deep breath. ‘It did occur to me that you would be upset that the dress was by Marianna, which is why I didn’t tell you.’

‘It would have been better if you hadn’t given me a dress by her in the first place!’