Greek Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress

‘Paternity battles?’ Lindy parroted in dismay. ‘Are you saying that you already have a child?’

‘None that I know of—a reality that some women have in the past chosen to regard as a challenge.’

Lindy collided with hard dark eyes and recognised that this reality still had the power to rouse his anger. ‘In what way…a challenge?’

‘A rich man is a lucrative target in the paternity stakes,’ he extended with rich cynicism. ‘Thankfully, DNA tests proved that I was not the father of either child. But if I hadn’t been able to prove that I would have been made financially responsible for those women and their offspring for many years to come.’

‘Naturally you wouldn’t want a child in those circumstances,’ Lindy remarked with understanding.

‘I will only want a child when I’m married.’

That declaration hung there like a second slap in the face; having already told her that he didn’t want a child with her, or until he was married, he was effectively letting her know that she was not in the running as a potential wife. Had she thought she might be? Lindy eased away from him with the stealth of a mouse hoping to escape a cat ready to pounce. All of a sudden, lying in Atreus’s arms no longer felt like a safe and proper harbour.

‘And what sort of woman are you planning to marry?’ she heard herself enquire. Having gone so far, she thought she might as well fully satisfy her curiosity.

Atreus skimmed a glance at her pale, pinched profile. ‘I don’t think we should stray any deeper into this conversation.’

‘Atreus, it’s clear that you’ve already thought in depth about your future and planned it all out,’ Lindy pointed out in a tight, stretched tone he had never heard from her lips before. ‘I think it’s a reasonable question for me to ask after the length of time we’ve been together.’

Annoyed with her for opening the subject in the first place, and disregarding his every attempt to head her off at the pass, Atreus rested simmering golden eyes on her. ‘I’ll marry a wealthy woman from a background similar to my own.’

Until that deeply wounding moment Lindy had not appreciated just how far her dreams had gone. Nor had she grasped how painful it might be to realise that she had never had and could never have a chance of becoming a contender in the bridal stakes. She had neither wealth nor background to impress him with, and as such could never be anything other than a casual lover on his terms. In an abrupt movement, she snaked out of bed and began to get dressed in haste.

Ben’s confident assurance that she wouldn’t like the answer she got from Atreus was already reverberating like a death knell in her ears. Atreus didn’t love her. Feeling as he did, how could he possibly care for her in any way? He didn’t even see her as being in any way special. That she was poor, industrious and the child of working class uneducated parents would always hang on her like a badge of shame in his eyes.

‘Lindy…what’s going on here?’ Atreus demanded in growing exasperation.

‘Nothing’s going on,’ she fielded flatly. ‘But I do I think that you should have been more frank with me months ago. I didn’t realise that I was in a dead-end affair.’

‘What’s dead-end about it?’ Atreus raked back at her with splintering impatience. ‘It’s not as though I’m planning to get married any time soon!’

‘You’re such a snob, too!’ Lindy delivered her judgement with scorn. ‘I haven’t got money or a fancy family tree, so you’ve never taken me seriously…’

Atreus was a vibrant male presence as he lounged back against the tossed pillows, his wide shoulders and bronzed torso providing a startling contrast with the plain white bedlinen. ‘Why would I take you seriously?’ he cut in lethally. ‘We’ve had a good time together. Snobbery didn’t come into it. In fact, it’s more likely that the differences between us made our relationship more entertaining…’

‘Well, I’m not finding it entertaining at this moment!’ Lindy launched back at him, her lush mouth biting off that last word as she forced her lips shut again. She didn’t trust herself. She could not be sure what words might come out of her mouth next, and she was fighting to retain a little dignity. Even so, she was devastated. The man she loved was talking down to her in the shallowest and most patronising way, telling her that they’d simply had a good time together when her feelings for him ran so much deeper and stronger. She had entertained him because her differences had provided him with a welcome diversion.