For the Greek Tycoon's Pleasure: The Greek's Pregnant Lover. Lucy Gordon

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      Brandi had done a lot of the preliminary work and it had only been a matter of changing a few things before it was ready for presentation. Thank goodness. Piper’s mind was scattered to the four winds.

      But scattered or not, there was one thing she was sure of: they would be happy together. If she didn’t believe that, she would not be moving in with him, much less marrying him. But she did believe it, deep in her bones. He was perfect for her, even if he had a mental block where love was concerned. And she was perfect for him.

      No matter how much everything else scared her, she had to cling to that knowledge.

      And right now she had to work.

      Giving a final read-through to the design proposal for a local private attorney’s office space, she left her office and headed toward the shop floor in search of her assistant.

      “Hello, Pip.”

      Piper’s head snapped up at the male voice she had not heard since leaving New York.

      Wearing a designer suit from last year’s line and looking years older than the last time she’d seen her ex-husband, Art Bellingham stood not five feet in front of her.

      “What are you doing here?” she blurted out, her usual professional persona deserting her completely.

      “An old friend can’t drop by to visit?” He tried the smirking half smile she used to find so sophisticated, but now just seemed cheesy.

      “You are not an old friend.”

      “That hurts, Pip. We were friends once.” Now he was laying on the charm.

      It wasn’t working, not even sort of. She shook her head, clearing the cobwebs old memories had spun so quickly the moment she heard that annoying old nickname, and then looked around for her assistant, Brandi. Watching Piper and Art with avid interest, her twenty-two-year-old assistant was standing near a display of sample drapery fabrics.

      Piper held the design proposal out to her. “Put this in presentation format and get the color boards we made to go with it. You’ll be presenting it to the client at tomorrow morning’s meeting.”

      “You sure I’m ready for that, boss?” Brandi asked, her focus now completely on the designs in her hands.

      “Yes.” The younger woman had done supervised presentations with aplomb. She was ready to fly solo.

      “Fab! I’ll get right on this.” She rushed toward their work corner.

      That took care of one distraction.

      “Is this a business or social call?” Piper asked Art, feeling more in control of herself.

      “A little of both, Pip.”

      “My name is Piper. I hate that nickname. I always did.” And he’d always insisted on using it.

      “Hey, don’t get all offended.” He put his hands up in mock supplication. “It’s not always easy letting go of the past.”

      She crossed her arms and gave him a look she had learned from Zephyr when he dealt with particularly irritating suppliers. “Funny, after the way you blackballed my name in the New York interior design industry, I had no problem leaving my past behind.”

      “Is that why you sicced your billion-dollar pit bull on me?” He frowned and shook his head, signs of his disappointment that had affected her at one time like an arrow to the heart.

      Now she felt nothing but some amusement that he thought the guilt card could ever work between them again. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

      “I was hurt when you walked away from our marriage. I may have said some things that could be taken in a detrimental way,” he said like he was sharing some big confidence, “but that’s no reason for you to destroy a design firm that’s been in my family for three generations. I thought better of you, Pip—Piper, I really did.”

      His guilt trip attempts were getting old fast. “I repeat…I do not know what you are talking about.” She tapped her sandal-clad foot. “Start making sense, or take your smarmy self out of my shop.”

      “Smarmy? Piper, is that really how you see me?”

      “That wounded look stopped working before our marriage did, and I don’t think you want chapter and verse on how I see you, Art.”

      He looked startled for a moment and then sighed. “You may be right about that. Look, I understand you having some sour grapes toward me, I really do.”

      “That’s big of you.”

      He frowned. “But not my company. You built a name for yourself with Très Bon.”

      Seriously? He was going to use that argument about this—whatever this was. “A name that you dirtied with your rotten, not to mention untrue slurs.”

      “I told you, I was smarting from our breakup. I exaggerated some things. I wasn’t myself.”

      “You made stuff up with the creativity of a fiction writer.”

      He grimaced. “You may have a point.”

      She was so done with this conversation. “So, you’re here to apologize?”

      “If that’s what it takes.”

      “To do what exactly?” Piper asked, still bewildered as to what her ex was talking about.

      “To get me off Zephyr Nikos’s most wanted list.”

      Now, that was unexpected. “Zephyr? What has he got to do with you, or Très Bon for that matter?” Très Bon was not the type of design firm Zephyr used on his projects. They lacked the innovative approach he considered a must.

      “He’s been blackballing my company in circles that have debilitating influence.”

      “You don’t honestly believe I convinced him to blackball you?” Piper asked, deeply offended. “You know me better than that.”

      “I thought I did, but a man like that wouldn’t go after me without motivation. I’m beneath his notice.” And didn’t it pain Art to admit it?

      “If he’s been slandering you, why haven’t you filed a lawsuit?”

      “Right, like the man would be stupid enough to say anything he could be held liable for in a court of law.”

      “That’s the first thing you’ve said that makes any sense. Zephyr is a very busy man. Why would he take even a few minutes from his jam-packed schedule to besmirch your company’s vaunted reputation?”

      “Ask him! All I know is that Très Bon is on the verge of bankruptcy and it’s all that bastard’s fault.”

      “First, don’t you ever insult Zephyr Nikos in my presence again. He’s a hundred times the man you are, or could even hope to be. Second, if you’re on the verge of bankruptcy, it has more to do with the way you СКАЧАТЬ