Greek Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress

Lindy recognised the tough edge of assurance in his measuring scrutiny and knew that her response had weakened her position. ‘I didn’t take fright…I just realised that what we were doing was absolutely wrong.’

‘How?’ Atreus incised aggressively.

‘If we’re not getting married but we hope to raise a child together we need to forge a new relationship—as friends,’ Lindy informed him squarely.

‘When I want to drag you off to bed I’m not capable of being your friend, glikia mou.’

Outraged by his attitude, when she saw her own as being by far the more reasonable, Lindy snapped, ‘Of course you could. You’ve managed without me for months. You’ve been out with at least a dozen other women!’

Atreus released his breath in a sharp hiss. ‘So that’s what I’m paying for?’

Lindy squeezed her hands into fists and prayed for self-control. ‘You’re not paying for anything, Atreus. I’m not that kind of woman. I’m not trying to settle some stupid score.’

Atreus sent her a glittering glance, fierce pride etched in the sombre set of his handsome features. ‘I asked you to marry me. Shouldn’t that be enough to clear the decks between us?’

Lindy paled. ‘I want what’s best for both of us.’

‘And you also want me,’ he stated with insolent certainty. ‘Desire is a healthy basis for marriage but a seriously bad basis for friendship.’

Agonised colour washed to the very roots of Lindy’s hair. ‘Then we’ll have to settle on something in between and learn as we go,’ she argued shakily. ‘Because if you’re serious about wanting to be part of our child’s life I’m more than willing to accept you in that role…but not as my husband.’

‘When do you next go for a medical check-up?’ Atreus shot at her without warning, his dissatisfaction with her unhidden.

‘Next week,’ she answered tautly.

‘Let me know the time and the place now and I’ll be there. Without flowers or a proposal,’ he added with silken derision.

Lindy lost colour. He was offended. His pride had been hurt. She didn’t blame him for feeling as he did. He was a very rich man who had probably been raised from no age at all to see himself as one hell of a marital prize. All his adult life women had been trying to get him to the altar without success. Yet he had offered up his freedom as a sacrifice for the sake of their unborn child and she had dared to reject him. But wasn’t that wiser than letting him plunge into a marriage to her in which she was convinced he would end up feeling trapped and hating her? It would have been so easy to say yes, she acknowledged painfully, so easy to simply take him at his word, bury her head in the sand and accept him.

Having arranged their next meeting, Atreus sprang back into his Bugatti. It was a dangerously fast vehicle that she would have nagged him for driving had she been his wife. Of course he would just have given her one of his dark stubborn looks and gone ahead and driven it anyway, she reflected ruefully. Atreus would never be tamed or obedient, and she wasn’t sure she would ever find it possible to stop wanting him.

Ben dropped in for a visit the following evening and told her she was crazy to have turned down Atreus’s marriage proposal. ‘What the hell were you thinking of?’ he demanded in apparent disbelief. ‘Now you’re going to be saddled with a child, it was the best offer you’re ever likely to get!’

Since the day Lindy had told Ben that she was pregnant she had seen a great deal less of him. The possessive attitude he had appeared to develop towards her during her affair with Atreus had vanished. Ben seemed to think that a woman with a child had zero attraction for other men and little chance of meeting a permanent partner. That attitude, added to his aversion to anything to do with pregnancy, had not endeared him to Lindy, who found herself trying pointlessly to suck in her stomach when he was around. It was finally beginning to dawn on her that Ben was very immature.

The weeks that followed marked a new departure in Lindy’s relationship with Atreus. He was more distant with her, but much more involved in her life than she had ever dreamt he would be. As he had suggested she took on an assistant to help with the business, and her stress level eased while she worked shorter hours and found it easier to take time off.

Atreus accompanied her to all her medical appointments, and when she was sent for a scan at the nearest hospital he met her there. He was endearingly fascinated by the images of the baby on the monitor, and quite stunned by the news that she was expecting a boy.

Afterwards, he insisted that she dine at his London apartment and that she stayed there for the night. Exhausted by the day she’d had, and in no mood to face the journey home by herself, Lindy agreed and called her assistant, Wendy, to ask her to feed the dogs. Never having visited Atreus’s home before, she was very curious, but the huge, airy penthouse apartment with its designer furniture and wide open spaces had an anonymous, impersonal quality that left her cold.