The Greek Bachelors Collection. Rebecca Winters

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СКАЧАТЬ for his.

      It was like a fairy tale, but she’d had another run of doubts as recently as last night. They’d had dinner with Adara and Gideon. Nic and Rowan had their own apartment in the city, but had joined them in the family suite. The babies had reunited into a loud, happy flock that Theo had stood apart from while the others dove in with quick hands to retrieve a dropped toy or change a bottom. Gideon, as Adara had predicted, took to Zephyr like he’d made him, rolling on the floor with all the children, far more relaxed than she’d ever expected the cool, stern Director of the Board for the Makricosta empire to be.

      Theo, on the other hand, wasn’t as forward with his affection, waiting for the little ones to come to him, saying something about them probably not remembering him.

      After a night of agonizing whether he shared her dream for a loving family, she’d woken to find Theo on his back on the lounge floor, Zephyr lifted like a superhero above him, both of them laughing as Theo lowered him to make growling noises against his little belly. It was exactly the game Gideon had played with all the children the night before.

      She’d pretended she needed her phone to hide her moved tears.

      He just needs someone to show him how to love, she reasoned. She was that person. Somehow she’d overcome her mistrust and was falling for him. It was only fair to believe he had the capacity to love her back, given time and enough trust between them.

      A door opened and closed in the suite behind her.

      Her ruminations fell away and she smiled with anticipation, expecting him to come to her. Sometimes he checked on Zephyr first, if he was napping, which he was. Then they’d neck until they were breathless and oh, why weren’t they married yet? She was growing impatient to feel his skin, his hands, him.

      Swallowing the rush of feeling, she blinked the smeared colors of the Parthenon from her eyes and turned with a beaming smile.

      And saw Theo making out with a woman against the wall, just inside the entry doors of the penthouse.

      No.

      Squinching the wetness from her eyes, she swiped her forearm over them as she stumbled on bare feet across the marble tiles of the rooftop garden, around the end of the pool and up to the point where the air-conditioning of the interior blended with the heat of the outdoors.

      Maybe that was her own body causing the hot and cold baffling through her as she stared with disbelief at a familiar back. His shoulders flexed beneath his white shirt as he guided a woman’s leg to his hip then slid his hand under the edge of her polka dot skirt. Sharp pink talons poked through his brown hair as they kissed.

      A million thoughts whirled like tornado debris in her mind. He had said he was going for a haircut. That wasn’t the shirt he was wearing this morning. Where did he think she was that he would bring some floozy back to where they were staying?

      Nothing in the world could have prepared her for this. Except a senior chambermaid had taught her what to do in exactly this situation on her first day of work ten years ago.

      “Housekeeping!” Jaya blurted in a shrill voice.

      With a squeal, the woman’s platform sandal clapped to the floor.

      He barely lifted his head. “Come back another time.” He chased another kiss.

      It was Theo’s voice, but the way he ignored her wasn’t Theo.

      “Demitri?” she hazarded.

      His head came up again and he sent a laconic glance over his shoulder. “Jaya?”

      “You’re married?” the woman gasped.

      “Hell, no. My brother’s fiancée. Jaya, we’re going to need some privacy. Can you...?” He gave her a “shove-off” motion.

      “Of course.” She grasped for her wits and searched for her purse. “I’ve been waiting for the baby to wake so I could go shopping, but if you’ll listen for him—”

      Demitri released his partner and reached for the doorknob, blocking Jaya’s exit as he pressed his mate through it. “Wait for me at the elevator,” he told her as he kissed her pout and gave her a pat on the behind before closing her out.

      Jaya returned her purse to the side table and folded her arms, waiting for his next move with her brows in her hairline.

      He turned to her with an amused smile. “Well played.”

      Now she saw him properly, she could see the resemblance was strong, but not identical. He was obviously younger and not quite as handsome as Theo. Too devilish.

      “I thought leaving babies with bachelor uncles was how your family does things.”

      He snorted. “I remembered you as shy and quiet. Made me wonder where Theo found the...”

      His pause prompted her to fill in one of the thousand slang words men used to describe the source of their fertility and courage. She held her breath, waiting to hear which vulgar term he would pick.

      “...temerity,” he provided with a wicked tilt of his grin, “to date you.”

      He was a brat, through and through. She’d known it from her few interactions with him and now that Theo had explained about their family she even understood why. Demitri got away with his cheeky, outrageous behavior because no one stopped him.

      “Speaking of dates, is that yours for the wedding? Because your family is staying in another suite. I’m expecting mine here shortly.”

      He shrugged off the information. “No, I don’t even know her name. I picked her up in the bar.” He was utterly without shame or consideration for others.

      Genuinely curious about that, she cocked her head. “Why do you like to take people so off guard? Does it give you a sense of power to introduce chaos?”

      He barely blinked, but narrowed his eyes in reassessment. “Here I thought I was behaving. The last time Theo was engaged, I picked up his bride.”

      When she caught a shocked breath, he smiled.

      “He never mentioned that?”

      She could have kicked him in his temerities, she was so infuriated by his smug air at having disarmed her. How could he do something so awful as seduce his brother’s intended? And be proud of it?

      Why hadn’t Theo told her?

      “He knows you’re not my type,” was the best retort she could manage.

      The door lock hummed then opened.

      Theo paused to take in Demitri slouched beside the door and Jaya standing across the other side of the lounge, arms crossed in dismay.

      “Jaya was just reminding me I’m not her type,” Demitri said flippantly. “Good thing I’ve been preapproved down the hall.”

      Theo stopped Demitri’s exit with two straight fingers poked into his chest.

      Jaya found herself holding her breath, never having seen him angry, not like that. Instant and icy cold, completely СКАЧАТЬ