“It’s not our baby,” Leander growled. “She was taking birth control—”
A group of people passed by with luggage, obviously early morning checkouts. But they slowed down when they passed by what was most obviously a scene.
Then I heard the whisper, “Hey, isn’t that—” I didn’t catch all of it but I did hear Mavros.
Shit. As of the moment I was still officially their publicist. I breathed out hard. “Fine,” I hissed. “I’ll come back to the room to talk.” Janus looked triumphant and I pointed in his face. “It doesn’t mean I’m staying.”
He nodded and all but dragged me back towards the hotel suite.
My brain spun like a tilt-a-whirl all the way there, and yet it still wasn’t enough time to get my wits straight before we were back in the room and they were bombarding me with questions.
“How soon can we get a DNA test?” Leander asked, right as Janus, who’d never let go of my arm, reached to cradle my tummy.
I yanked back from him. “I’m not getting a DNA test,” I said indignantly. “If you can’t believe me that I haven’t had sex with anyone else, then you don’t need to be part of my kid’s life. Jesus,” I said, throwing my hands up in the air. “You think I have to go find more men to sleep with! You all just fucked every hole I have at the same time. Who do you think I am?”
But it was obvious staring into Leander’s stony face who he thought I was. Geena. Or one of the other incalculable number of women they’d done this with before.
And I’d thought I was special. That what was between us was different.
“We know you aren’t like anyone else. You’re different,” Janus said, and I just rolled my eyes. “Special.”
“Ha,” I said right into his face.
But Janus wasn’t backing down. He grabbed my cheeks, gripping my face as he forced me to look at him. “Ignore my fucking ignorant brother and listen.”
His chameleon eyes sparkled silver. “This is the most exciting news of my entire life. You’ve made me the happiest man alive. You’re going to have our baby, honey. I love you.” He bent his forehead against mine. “You love me.” He said it firmly, as if to remind me. “It’s okay if this had you running scared. I understand.”
“I fucking don’t!” Leander bit out. “It’s as much of a betrayal as any woman we’ve ever known. And to me this looks like a trap to catch a couple of celebrities. Even if it is real, as soon as we started taking you raw-dog, what? Did you replace the birth control with sugar pills?”
I jerked away from Janus, fury spiking in a way I’d never felt before. I flew at Leander. “You bastard!” I wanted to hit him. I wanted to make him hurt the way he was hurting me. But he caught my wrists before I could even make contact.
And then he laughed at me and it was not a nice laugh. “Oh, poor little girl. Whored yourself out to the biggest celebrity you could find and for what? I’ll get my DNA test. And if this is indeed my runt in your belly, you’ll never see a goddamn dime, I promise you that.”
I wanted to scream at him.
Instead, I spat in his face.
For a second, everyone in the room froze.
And then the cruelest smile yet curled up Leander’s face as he wiped my spittle from his face with his shoulder. His grip on my shoulders tightened.
“Oh, pet. We’ve been taking it so easy on you. You’re going to be in for nine months of hell as you learn the meaning of obedience.”
I quivered in his arms. “I hate you,” I hissed.
He smiled even wider, his quicksilver eyes turning darker than I’d ever seen them. “Oh baby girl, you don’t even understand the meaning of the word yet…”