Princess's Pregnancy Secret

CHAPTER FIVE

HE’D KNOWN HER eyes weren’t that unnaturally intense indigo they’d been at the ball, but the discovery of their true colour had stolen a breath that Damon still hadn’t recovered. They were sea green—a myriad of bewitching shades—and he couldn’t summon the strength to look away.

She lies.

He reminded himself. Again.

The alluring Princess Eleni Nicolaides had used him and he couldn’t possibly be considering kissing her. He’d not been completely certain before but he was now—she was pregnant. To him.

Grimly he shoved himself out of the car and stalked around it to open her door. Impatiently he watched the emotions flicker across her too-expressive face—wariness, curiosity, decision—and beneath those? Desire.

His body tightened. More than anger, this was possessiveness. So off-base. Rigid with self-control, he took her arm, steeling himself not to respond to the electricity that surged between them. It took only a minute to guide her down the steps and along the wooden landing to his yacht. She stopped and stared at it.

‘Eleni,’ he prompted her curtly. ‘We need to talk.’

‘You have to take me back soon.’ She twisted her hands together. ‘They’ll be wondering where I am.’

‘They can wonder for a while yet,’ he muttered.

He hustled her past the cabin and through to the lounge. The windows were tinted so no one on deck could see them, and his sparse crew were under strict instruction to stay out of sight and work quickly. He remained in front of the only exit to the room. He couldn’t be careful enough with her.

‘Take off the cap.’ He could hardly push the words past the burr in his throat, but he needed to see her with no damn disguise.

She lifted the cap. Her hair wasn’t long and blue, it was cut to a length just below her chin and was blonde—corn silk soft, all natural and, right now, tousled.

‘How did you figure out who I was?’ she asked in that damnably raspy voice.

He shook his head.

Once he’d realised who his mystery lover was, he’d been lame enough to look online. But she was more perfect in the flesh. Tall and slender, strong and feminine, with those curves that caused the most base reaction in him. Her complexion was flawless and her sweetheart-shaped face captivating. But her beauty was a façade that apparently masked a shockingly salacious soul. He was determined to get to the truth.

‘You knew I was going to be at the hospital,’ she said after he didn’t reply to her first question. ‘How?’

Her fingers trembled as she fidgeted with the cap, but he’d not brought her here to answer her questions.

‘Were you going to tell him?’ he asked.

He glared as she didn’t answer. She was so good at avoiding everything important, wasn’t she?

He felt the vibration beneath the deck as the engines fired up. About time. Icily satisfied, he silently kept watching. Now she’d be tested. Sure enough, as the yacht moved she strode to the window.

‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked, her volume rising.

‘Somewhere private.’ Somewhere isolated. Triumph rushed at the prospect of having her completely alone.

‘This is private. We don’t need to move to make it more so.’ Panic filled her voice and turned wide eyes on him. ‘This is abduction.’

‘Is it?’ he asked, uncaring. ‘But you agreed to come with me.’

‘I didn’t realise you meant...’ She paled. ‘I can’t just leave.’

He hardened his heart. ‘Why not? You’ve done that before.’

This was the woman who’d had sex with him when she knew she was about to announce her engagement to another man. Who’d then run off without another word. And who was now pregnant and concealing it—apparently from everyone.

The betrayal burned like no other. He hated being used. His father had used him as cover for his long-term infidelities. His mother had used his entire existence to promote her political aspirations—hell, she’d even told him she never would have had him if it weren’t for the possible benefit to her career. His father had not only agreed, he’d expected Damon to understand and become the same. A parasite—using anyone and anything to enhance success. He’d refused and he’d vowed that he’d never let anyone use him again.

But Eleni had.

Yet that look on her face now was torture—those shimmering eyes, the quiver of her full lips.

Desire tore through his self-control, forcing him closer to her. Furious, he locked it down, viciously clenching his fists and shoving them into his trouser pockets. It was this uncontrolled lust that had got him into this mess in the first place.

It was insane. Once more he reminded himself he knew nothing of importance about her other than her shocking ability to conceal information. But as he watched, she whitened further. Whitened to the point of—

‘Eleni?’ He rushed forward.

‘Oh, hell.’ She pressed her hand to her mouth.

Oh, hell was right. He reached for a decorative bowl just in time.

* * *

Oh, no. No.

Eleni groaned but the sickness couldn’t be stopped. Of all the mortifying things to happen.

‘Sit down before you fall down,’ he muttered.

‘I’m not used to being on the water,’ she replied.

‘If you’re going to lie, at least try to make it believable. It’s well known you love sailing, Princess. Your illness is caused by your pregnancy.’

She was too queasy to bother trying to contradict him. What was the point? ‘I need fresh air.’

‘You need to stay in here until we’re away from the island.’

‘You can’t be serious.’ Aghast, she stared up at him. ‘You’re going to cause an international incident.’

‘Do you think so?’ He stared at her grimly. ‘I think the spectacle is only going to get even more insane when they find out I’m the father of your unborn child.’

She closed her eyes and groaned. ‘At least let me use a bathroom.’

‘Of course.’

He guided her to a small room. He opened a drawer and handed her a toothbrush, still in its packet. She took it, silently grateful as he left her in privacy.

But he was just outside the door when she opened it again a few minutes later.

She walked back into the lounge just as a uniformed crew member was leaving. The man didn’t say a word, didn’t meet her eyes. He simply melted from the room.

‘Who was that?’ she asked.

‘Someone extremely discreet and very well paid.’

He’d left fresh water in a tall glass and a few crackers on a plate. She turned away; there was no way she could e

at anything right now.

‘You’re naive if you think he won’t sell your secrets.’ The man had recognised her. It was only a matter of time before people came to her rescue.

‘I’ve been betrayed before, Eleni. I know how to make my business safe.’

Eleni looked at the hard edge of Damon’s jaw and wondered who had betrayed him. ‘Your business?’

‘My baby.’

Her blood chilled. ‘So you planned this.’

There’d been a crew ready and waiting on this boat and no doubt he paid them ridiculously well. He’d gone to huge trouble to get her away from the palace. Maybe she ought to feel scared, she barely knew him after all, but she didn’t believe she was in danger. Rather, in that second, the craziest feeling bloomed in her chest.

Relief.

His eyes narrowed. ‘You know this isn’t about rescuing you.’

His words hit like bullets. She shrank, horrified that he’d seen her selfishness. Guilt brought defensiveness with it. ‘I don’t need rescuing.’

His smile mocked. ‘No?’

Damon was more dangerous than she’d realised. She couldn’t cope with her reaction to him. It was as if everything else in the world, everything that mattered, simply evaporated in his presence. His pull was too strong.

But then she remembered he wasn’t certain she was pregnant to him. Perhaps her way out was to convince him he wasn’t the father. Then he’d return her to Palisades. She’d go to Giorgos. She should have gone to Giorgos already.

‘I can’t stay here,’ she pleaded.

‘Give in, Eleni,’ he replied indifferently. ‘You already are. The question is, can you be honest?’

Not with him. Not now.

But she burned to prove that she didn’t need ‘rescuing’—not from her situation, or from herself. He strolled towards her but she wasn’t fooled by the ease of his movement. He was furious. Well, that made two of them.

‘How many other possibilities are there?’ he asked too softly, his gaze penetrating.

‘Excuse me?’ She tensed as he came within touching distance.

‘Who are the other men who might be the father of your child?’ He watched her so intently she feared he could see every hidden thought, every contrary emotion.

‘Can you even remember them all?’ he challenged.