“Well, we’re going to meddle in Karas’s life,” Nick said, his voice taut with fury. “When I find that son of a bitch—”
“When we find him,” Rafe said sharply.
“When we find Karas, he’s going to wish he’d never been born.”
The deck door banged open. “Try it,” a hard male voice said. “I hope to hell you do.”
Demetrios stood in the doorway, face white with rage, eyes hot with it, his fists bunched at his sides.
“Karas,” Nick said, his voice cold. He stepped forward. So did Rafe. “I didn’t think you’d be stupid enough to show up here.”
“Come on.” Demetrios took a wider stance and beckoned the men towards him. “Come on, take a swing. I’d love to take you on, the both of you.” His voice roughened. “Who in hell are you, any of you, to play God with a man’s life?”
“What are you doing here?” Rafe demanded.
“It’s none of your business.”
“It damn well is,” Nick growled. “Answer the question. What are you doing here?”
“I came to talk to Samantha.”
“Yeah, well, if you know what’s good for you—”
“If I did,” Demetrios said gruffly, “I sure as hell wouldn’t…” He hesitated. Some of his belligerence seemed to ease. “Is she here?”
Nobody answered, but they didn’t have to. Five faces turned towards the lawn. Demetrios moved towards the steps that led down from the deck. Rafe and Nick moved, too, and blocked his way, but he’d already seen her, his Sam, staring up at him as if he were a ghost, and he wondered how she could do this to him, make him want to love her and hate her in the same heartbeat.
She was going to run. He could see it in her posture, run the way she had the night she’d left him, the way she had when they’d first met, but he wasn’t going to let her get away with it. She had to face him and tell him why she didn’t want him. He’d tell her the same thing. And then—and then—
He took a steadying breath and looked at the two men standing in front of him.
“Get out of my way,” he said softly.
Rafe folded his arms. So did Nick.
“This is between Samantha and me, nobody else.” A muscle knotted in his jaw. “If I have to go through you, I will. I’ll do whatever it takes to reach Sam. Is that clear?”
Marta moved quickly, placed herself between her sons-in-law and Demetrios. She took a long look at the man she’d been prepared to despise. He probably hadn’t shaved in a couple of days and his hair looked as if he’d spent hours running his hands through it. But he was, just as her daughter had said, sexy and gorgeous—and he was looking past all of them, looking at her little girl in a way that would surely make any woman’s heartbeat quicken.
Sam was looking back at him, her eyes brimming with tears, the only kind of tears a woman should ever cry, Marta thought, and felt her heart lift.
“Of course it’s clear,” she said softly. “It’s as clear as glass. Rafe? Nicholas? Let him pass.”
“Marta. You don’t mean that. This man—”
“I do mean it. Let him pass.” Briskly, she clapped her hands. “Everyone inside.” Her daughters frowned. Their husbands looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Trust me. Samantha’s going to be fine.”
She shooed them all through the door, knowing they didn’t believe her, that her daughters would argue with her while her sons-in-law paced the house like attack dogs just waiting for a sign that they were needed.
Marta smiled to herself. Men were so predictable. How come she’d forgotten that?
CHAPTER TWELVE
SAM watched in disbelief as her sisters and her tough-as-nails brothers-in-law went into the house.
“We want to help you,” Carin had said. Amanda had blinked back tears. And when Demetrios appeared, Rafe and Nick made it sound as if they’d never let him get anywhere near her.
Instead, they’d disappeared. Even her mother had walked away.
Wonderful. The very people who’d all but pushed her into Demetrios Karas’s arms had abandoned her. She hadn’t been able to hear what they were saying up on the deck, but everyone’s body language had been simple enough to read. Her mother was upset, her sisters were frantic, their husbands were infuriated…and Demetrios had gotten his way. It would have been hard to believe if she hadn’t seen what he was like when he wanted something.
When it came to displays of bad temper and arrogant, pigheaded stubbornness, he’d always be the winner.
Now he was coming down the wide wooden steps, taking his time, looking macho and irate.
“Sam,” he said.
His voice was soft, a whisper of smoke in contrast to the banked anger in his eyes.
“Don’t run, Sam. I’m warning you. I have no intention of letting you get away this time.”
Don’t run? Was that a new command, a variation on “stay”? Sam lifted her chin. He was right, she’d been going to run, though not for whatever reasons his self-conceit would probably dredge up but the choice was hers, not his.
She folded her arms, watched as he came down the last step and started towards her. She’d been stunned to see him but now that the shock was over, she was sure she knew the reason he’d come after her. Women didn’t slip out of Demetrios Karas’s bed and steal away in the middle of the night. Maybe it was a good thing he was here. She hadn’t stolen away; she’d simply left him. There was a difference, and he needed to know it…
But he didn’t need to know she was pregnant. He mustn’t know she was pregnant! Sam felt a stab of panic. In the surprise of the last minutes, she’d forgotten all about that. There were changes in her body, ones she’d finally let herself see—see and love, because her baby had gone from being a nonentity to a new life she longed for.
He stopped a few feet from her and folded his arms. Sam dragged in a breath. Would her baby look like its father? Would it have his eyes? His dark hair? Would looking at her child always remind her of how deeply she’d loved Demetrios?
It was stupid to think about that now. Besides, it wasn’t true. She’d only imagined she loved him. What woman in her right mind would love a man like him? All she had to do was look at that infamous scowl to know that there was nothing the least bit lovable about him.
And even though she felt as if his eyes were burning holes in her, he’d never see that she was pregnant. She was wearing an enormous old T-shirt, a relic of her university days, that hung as shapeless as a tent to her knees. Nobody who looked at her could possibly—
“Thee mou,” Demetrios whispered. “You are with child!”
Sam didn’t hesitate. She turned and ran. He was right behind her.
“Sam? Sam, stop!”
She ran harder.
“Sam!” She could hear the whiplash of anger in the way he called out her name. “Samantha, are you crazy? You are pregnant. Pregnant women should not run.”
She raced through the garden, towards the fountain that stood at its hidden heart.
“Are you deaf?” he roared, right on her heels. “I am ordering you to stop!”
That’s it, she thought, that was absolutely, positively it. She spun towards him, her blood hot with fury and frustration.
?
??Sam,” he said, and she did what she had so often longed to do, raised her hand and slapped his face.
“Damn you, Demetrios,” she said…except, to her horror, she didn’t say it. She sobbed it. She was weeping, tears spilling from her eyes like rain from the skies that day, all those months ago, when she’d been stupid enough to let him drag her into his life.
“Kitten,” he whispered, and then she was in his arms and he was kissing her.
“Go away.” She put her arms around his neck and clung to him. “Go back to Greece,” she sobbed between kisses. “Get out of my life.”
“I cannot do that, gataki.” He cupped her face in his hands. He was smiling, she saw, but his eyes were almost as wet as hers. “I am your life, just as you are mine.”
“You see?” Sam pressed a kiss to his mouth. “You always think you know what I’m thinking. And you don’t. How could you possibly know how much—how much—”
“I love you,” he said softly. “That is how I know. I adore you, kitten. Se latrévo. I love you more than words can ever say.” He drew back, just enough so he could lay his hand gently over her belly. “And I will love this child with all my heart, and all the children you and I will have together.”
Sam gave a broken little laugh. “There you go, planning my life for me.”
“No,” he said gruffly, “never that.”
“Demetrios.” She reached up and clasped his wrists. “I was teasing you.”
“And I am serious, sweetheart. I will never make you feel as if your life is mine to control.” He took a deep breath, then expelled it. “My father created a gilded cage for my mother but it was a cage, nevertheless. I will not do that to you. I have a home in New York, Sam. Whenever you wish, we will fly there. If you want to work, you will do so. I love you. I need you. But I do not wish to own you. Do you see?”
“Yes,” she said, “oh yes, my love, I do. I see that you are my heart, my soul, my life.”
Demetrios gathered her close and kissed her again. Sam sighed and leaned back in his arms.
“I didn’t know about the baby when I left you,” she said softly. “Although, to be honest, it wouldn’t have changed anything. I’d have gone anyway. I couldn’t have stayed, not when I thought you wanted to end things between us.”