Modern Romance August 2018 Books 5-8 Collection. Julia James

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       CHAPTER NINE

      FOR A FEW seconds Ava could not breathe, and there was an odd rushing sensation in her ears. Giannis had not said that he wanted to marry her, she noted. And why would he? All he wanted was the baby she carried, and she was simply a necessary part of the equation.

      ‘You’re crazy,’ she said flatly. ‘It wouldn’t work.’

      He pulled up a footstool and sat down in front of her, so close that it would be easy to stretch out her hand and touch the silken darkness of his hair—easy and yet impossible.

      ‘What is the alternative?’ he asked levelly. ‘Even if we came to an amicable agreement about shared custody, a child needs stability, which I can provide in Greece at Villa Delphine. I could buy a house for you in England and we could send our child back and forth between us like a ping-pong ball—Christmas with you, first birthday with me, and so on. But that wouldn’t make me happy, I don’t think it would make you happy and I’m certain it would not be a happy childhood for our son or daughter.’

      Ava couldn’t argue with his logic. Everything Giannis said made sense. But her emotions weren’t logical or sensible; they were all over the place. She tensed when he took hold of her hand and rubbed his thumb lightly over the pulse thudding in her wrist.

      ‘Like it or not, you and the baby are my responsibility and I want to take care of both of you.’ He met her gaze and the gleam in his dark eyes sent a quiver of reaction through her. ‘Our relationship worked very well for the month that we pretended to be engaged,’ he murmured.

      It would be too easy to be seduced by his charisma and fall under his spell, but if she was going to survive him she had to be strong and in control. ‘We did not have a relationship—we had sex,’ she reminded him tartly.

      The word hung in the air between them, taunting Ava with memories of their wild passion and Giannis’s body claiming hers with powerful thrusts.

      ‘Don’t knock it, glykiá mou,’ he drawled. ‘You enjoyed it as much as I did.’

      Hot-faced with embarrassment, she dropped her gaze from his amused expression and wondered what he was thinking. Her pregnancy was not really showing yet, but she was conscious of her thickening waistline which meant that she had to leave the button on her jeans undone. Before Giannis had met her, he had slept with some of the world’s most beautiful women—and she doubted his bed had been empty for the past months that they had been apart.

      ‘So, do you expect it to be a proper marriage?’ she said stiffly.

      His eyes narrowed. ‘I do not expect anything, certainly not intimacy, unless you decide it is what you want.’

      She should feel relieved by Giannis’s assurance that he would not put pressure on her to consummate their marriage, but Ava felt even more confused. He was a red-blooded male and celibacy would not be a natural state for him. But perhaps he intended to find pleasure elsewhere. For her own protection she needed to ignore the chemistry between them while she was still unsure if she could believe his insistence that he was not a criminal.

      Giannis stood up and offered her his hand to help her to her feet. ‘What is your answer?’

      She ignored his hand. ‘I need time to consider my options.’ Her tone was as cool as his. They could have been discussing a business deal instead of a decision which would affect the rest of their lives. But her pregnancy had already had a fundamental effect, and it occurred to her that, whether or not she accepted his proposal, they would be linked for ever by the child they had created between them.

      ‘Do not consider them for too long,’ he said as he ushered her out of the drawing room and across the hall to the dining room. ‘I intend for us to be married well before the baby is born.’ The implacable note in Giannis’s voice warned Ava that the only option he would accept was her agreement to become his wife.

      * * *

      ‘The gel will feel cold, I’m afraid,’ the sonographer said cheerfully before she squirted a dollop of thick, clear lubricant onto Ava’s stomach.

      Ava tried to suck her tummy in as the sonographer smeared the gel over her bump. She was intensely conscious of Giannis sitting beside the hospital bed where she was lying for the ultrasound scan. Her top was tucked up under her breasts and her trousers were pushed down low on her hips, leaving her stomach bare. From her angle, looking down her body, her stomach seemed huge, which was hardly surprising after she had spent the past couple of weeks enjoying Giannis’s housekeeper’s wonderful cooking, she thought ruefully.

      ‘I understand you need to eat for two,’ Joan had said cheerfully when Giannis announced that he and Ava would be getting married as soon as it could be arranged. The wedding could not take place until twenty-eight days after they had given notice at the local register office.

      The bright lights in the scanning room made the pink sapphire ring on Ava’s finger sparkle. This time her engagement was real, and her heart lurched at the thought that very soon she would be Giannis’s wife.

      She had accepted his proposal the day after he had asked her to marry him—following a sleepless night when she’d faced the stark choice of having to believe him or Stefanos Markou’s nephew. On a practical level she knew that Giannis was determined to be a father to his baby and she concluded that she would be in a better position to safeguard herself and her child if she was married to him.

      ‘You can choose a different ring if you would prefer not to wear this one,’ he’d said when he had returned the pink sapphire heart to her.

      Ava had slid the ring onto her finger and told herself that she hadn’t missed it being there for the past few months. ‘It seems fitting to keep the ring that you gave me while I was your fake fiancée, seeing as our marriage will be one of convenience,’ she’d said stubbornly, determined he would not know how much she had missed him.

      His eyes had gleamed dangerously but he’d said evenly, ‘Whatever you wish, glykiá mou.’

      What she had wished was for him to pull her into his arms and kiss her senseless so that she could pretend they were lovers back on Spetses—before rumours, doubts and her pregnancy had driven a wedge between them. But Giannis had walked out of the room and she’d felt too vulnerable to go after him and make the first move to try to break the stalemate in their relationship.

      She pulled her mind back to the present as the sonographer moved the probe over her stomach. ‘If you look on the screen, here is Baby’s heart—you can see it beating. And this here is one of Baby’s hands...and just here is the other hand...’ The sonographer pointed to the grey image on the screen. ‘You can make out Baby’s face quite clearly.’