From One Night to Wife

‘That won’t be necessary.’ She pushed away from him roughly. ‘I have seen doctors in England.’

He looked again at the image, his sharp gaze scanning the information. All the evidence he needed that the baby was his was there, but it was seeing the fuzzy image, knowing it was his baby, that pulled on his heart, creating a tight band across his chest as unfamiliar as if the sea around the island had frozen.

‘Even so, you will see a doctor once we arrive in Athens.’

‘I’m not going with you, Nikos. And I can’t marry you.’

Her voice was filled with emotion, and if he’d been a man with a heart he would have asked why. He would have taken her hand and told her they’d work it out. But he didn’t have a heart.

‘Once you agree to be my wife, to stay in Greece and to live as a family, I will give you what you want.’ He delivered the words in a cool and dominant tone, ignoring the way she visibly flinched.

‘I’ve told you—I don’t want anything from you.’

‘I’m sure your sister wouldn’t like to know you’d turned down a chance of her continuing with her IVF treatment.’

‘What?’ She crossed the floor and came to stand directly in front of him. ‘That is blackmail.’

‘No, it’s getting what I want at whatever price has to be paid.’

‘It’s blackmail—and totally ruthless.’ She hissed the words at him and, despite the situation, he admired her staying power.

‘Ruthless, maybe—but it is my only deal.’ He laid his final card down and waited for her surrender. ‘Take it or leave it.’

‘How can you even think I would accept such terms?’

She snatched the scan photo back and looked down at it, holding it tightly. When she looked up at him the glitter in her eyes bellied the anger he’d provoked.

‘Don’t go against me, Serena.’

The warning in his voice didn’t go unnoticed.

‘I’m not going against you. All I want is to do the best for us both—me and my baby.’

Anger shattered around the periphery of his vision and he inhaled deeply, locking his gaze to hers. He’d never expected such challenge, such dismissal of his deal.

‘You forget. It is my child too.’

* * *

The bristling atmosphere pressed down on Serena as Nikos stood watching—waiting for her answer. She looked again at the scan photo in her hands. The knowledge that she had the power to give the same experience to her sister, or deny her, sickened her. She closed her eyes against the nausea—and against Nikos’s merciless scrutiny.

Secretly she’d dreamed of marriage and happy-ever-after, but those dreams had finally died the moment she’d heard Nikos condemn the idea of love. How could she marry a man who not only admitted he hadn’t ever wanted to be a father, but one who firmly believed love had nothing to do with marriage?

‘But marriage...?’ Still stunned by his proposed deal, delivered without a hint of compassion, she could hardly form a sentence. Exasperation and fury raged through her, quelling the nausea of moments ago. ‘That’s a drastic step, Nikos. What if you meet someone you actually want to marry?’

‘Marriage has never been on my agenda.’

The icy tone left her in no doubt that he meant it.

‘So why marry me?’

Deep down she knew the answer—knew it was because he was opposed to his child being illegitimate. But that went against everything she’d ever wanted for her future. It meant their being forced together because of a baby—a copy of her childhood exactly.

He closed the distance between them, coming so close her heart raced—whether due to the attraction she couldn’t completely dismiss or the seriousness of their discussion, she couldn’t tell.

‘Call me old-fashioned, but my child—my heir—will not be born out of wedlock.’ His voice dripped with disdain as he towered over her. ‘You must decide, Serena—and right now. My plane is waiting.’

All sorts of scenarios rushed through her mind as he watched her, and she wondered if he could see them playing out. She saw her sister happy and content, with a baby in her arms. Saw her own child looking into its father’s eyes and smiling for the first time. These were things she could control just by accepting this bizarre proposal.

An image of herself in Nikos’s arms, being kissed with fiery passion, followed swiftly. The passion had existed once, but could it ever turn to love? Could he ever fall in love with her the way she’d fallen in love with him? If they could find that passion again, surely they could find love one day.