For the Greek Tycoon's Pleasure: The Greek's Pregnant Lover

“I did not say I wasn’t.” Merely that Piper deserved better than what he had to offer her.

“So, what is the problem?”

“She wants to be in love with her next husband,” Zephyr explained grimly. “Like she was with Art.”

“And you do not love her?”

“No.”

“Bull.”

Zephyr shook his head. “Love doesn’t work for everybody.” At least on that truth, he was one hundred percent convinced. And he was one of those people.

Neo sighed. “You’re right, but giving up before you even try isn’t like you.”

“Sometimes trying is the stupidest thing of all to do.”

“That does not sound like you.”

“And you sound like a broken record,” Zephyr retorted.

“So, say something that makes me understand this defeatist attitude of yours.”

“She left last night.”

“When you wanted her to stay.” Neo knew him so well, he did not even have to make it a question.

“She said she was sorry.” Just like his mother had done, over and over again—first when leaving him behind and then when she refused to bring his little sister back to visit.

In situations like this, sorry didn’t mean anything.

“She also said she would call you, ne?”

“Yes.”

“So, trust her to do it.”

“When?” Zephyr snapped.

“When she is ready.”

“You were not this complacent with Cass.”

“I was in love with Cassandra.” Neo’s look challenged Zephyr.

Apparently, if he was not in love, he had no right to be worried, cautious or impatient. Like hell. “So, because I’m not playing the romantic hero, I have to wait and wonder if my lover carries my child?”

“You have to wait because she will call when she is ready and not before.”

“I am well aware of that.” And it was doing nothing for his mood, which he was sure was obvious, even to Neo.

Neo looked at him like he was a newly discovered species. “I still cannot believe you had a lover for almost a year and I did not know it.”

“I did not consider her my lover.”

An unholy light gleamed in Neo’s eyes. “My friend, this just gets better and better. When did that change?”

“In Greece.”

“That trip had a pretty big impact even before the missing birth control patch was discovered.”

“If you say so.”

“What I say does not matter. On the other hand, what you and Piper say is of utmost importance.”

“She said she would call, and she has not,” Zephyr all but growled.

“Be patient and believe in your friendship if you will believe in nothing else.”

“I have no other option.”

“Then make it work for you, that is what men like us do. We do not give up.”

That was one truth Zephyr could not deny.

Neo left and Zephyr forced himself to get to work on the piles of urgent papers and messages stacked on top of his desk from his time out of the office. It was nine o’clock that night before he admitted temporary defeat and left his office.

Piper still had not called, though he had called her on the hour, every hour, since the afternoon.

Piper sat outside the Seattle Aquarium, watching children and adults come and go. Her hand rested against her lower abdomen. She didn’t feel any different. Her body had not changed at all, but inside her womb a baby grew. Her baby. Zephyr’s baby. Their child.

The wholly unexpected fulfillment of one of her dearest hopes.

She should have called right away and told him the news, but she couldn’t. She had to think and she couldn’t do that around him right now.

She loved a man who had taken great pains to make sure she understood he would never love her. And that same man was going to ask her to marry him. She was sure of it.

Because she carried his child.

In a normal world, that would result in an immediate and outright refusal on her part. Before meeting and falling in love with Zephyr Nikos, she would never have even considered for one second marrying a man who did not profess to love her. But Zephyr’s perspective was a unique one.

In his world, love guaranteed nothing but pain. He hadn’t come out and said so, but his story about his past made that clear. He had loved his mother and she had abandoned him to an orphanage. He had loved both of his half siblings, but they had been taken from him.

Even if he did love Piper, he might never be able to admit it.

One of the questions that chased round and round in her brain was whether or not she could accept that and marry him anyway. She had no doubts about her ability to raise this child on her own. She was an educated woman with her own successful business. She wasn’t a billionaire, but she wasn’t a pauper, either.

Zephyr could be part of the baby’s life without marrying her as well. But he couldn’t be a full-time dad if they didn’t live together. Even in the best shared custody arrangements, both parents were forced to take a less pervasive role in their child’s life.

And Zephyr wasn’t going to be content with the role of part-time dad. Just because she refused to marry him did not mean he would not one day marry. He didn’t just want to be a father; he wanted a family. That had been obvious when they’d visited the aquarium together.

He wanted what he saw all around him, and she could not blame him.

Which led to the other question that chased the first one over and over again: could she bear to stand aside while he married another woman and built a whole family with her? Could she stand her own child only having half-time with his or her daddy while others that came later got him each and every day?

Unlike Zephyr, her time at the Seattle Aquarium was doing nothing to help her think of answers to those hard questions.

Zephyr let himself into his empty apartment, annoyed when he realized the cleaning service had left the lights on in the living room again. His power bill was not the issue; indiscriminate wasteful use of the planet’s resources was.

It had been almost a week since Piper was supposed to have called him. She hadn’t been in to work, at least according to her assistant, Brandi. He’d gone by Piper’s apartment, but she hadn’t answered the door. Her phone had to be off and he’d finally stopped calling, but each day that went by echoed feelings he thought he would never again have to experience.

The fear of being abandoned was a live thing inside of him, but he hid it, even from Neo. He couldn’t stand the feeling of helplessness that grew with every hour she did not call. Had he lost his friend? Was she going to try to keep him from his child if she was indeed pregnant?

One thing he knew was that he might feel helpless, but he wasn’t. If she carried his child, she was not going to keep it away from him like his brother and sister had been. He would be a part of this child’s life, even if marrying its mother wasn’t an option.

He would fight for custody. She could be the weekend parent, if she didn’t want to marry him. She was still building her business, she’d said so herself. He could free more of his time to parent their child hands-on and any decent judge would see that.

Disgusted with the direction of his thoughts, he yanked off his already loosened tie as he strode into the living room. He stopped dead at the sight that greeted him.

Piper was curled on his sofa, under a quilt he had brought back from Greece many years ago. As if she could sense his presence, her eyelids fluttered and then opened.

She gazed up at him drowsily. “Hi.”

“You said you would call.”

“I couldn’t. I had to think.”

“So, you left me hanging for almost a week?”

She flinched at the ice in his voice, but he could not help that. “I decided it wasn’t something we should discuss on the phone but, um…maybe I should have called and told you that.”

“Yes, you should have. I have been worried. I went by your apartment. You did not answer the door.”

“I wasn’t there. I went to my favorite place to think after trying yours and getting nowhere.”

“Where is that?” he demanded.

“The beach.”

“You could not have let me know you went out of town?”

“If I had called you, you would have talked me into seeing you.”

“Maybe because that was what we both needed.” Frustrated anger laced his voice. “At the very least, you could have let me know that you were waiting here today.”

“I should have,” she acknowledged as she sat up and brushed her hair back off her face. The beach might be her favorite place to think, but it had brought her no peace and despite just waking from a nap, she looked like she hadn’t been getting enough sleep. “I was just so tired and thought you would come up after work. I didn’t realize you would work until bedtime.”

“It is hardly that.”

“Close enough.”

“Damn it! Do not try to sidestep the issue. If I had known you were here, I would have left my office immediately.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly to prevent his volume from increasing. “I was worried. Do you understand that?” Did she care? “I called your cell over and over again.”

She looked down so he could not see her eyes, and target the guilt he would see there. “I turned it off.”

“I figured that out.”

She nodded. She stood up and came to him, then tilted her head back so their gazes met. Emotions he did not understand swirled in her blue depths.

“Tell me,” he demanded, his tone softer than he intended.

How could he help feeling compassion? She looked like hell.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call. It was inconsiderate and selfish of me. I should have called, no matter how hard it would have been. I kept thinking and thinking, but I couldn’t make sense of anything no matter which way I looked at it. When I finally got here today, it was past four. I really thought I’d take a short nap and you would be here. And then we could talk.”

“Instead I worked late, trying to keep my mind off the fact you did not keep your promise to call.” Almost a week ago, but he had already said that and she had acknowledged it.

She nodded. “This situation is scary, Zephyr.”

“I agree, but I would think that two friends facing down fear together would work better than each trying deal with it on his or her own.”

“I’m sure you’re right.” She looked away again. “I just…I knew you’d want to get married and I didn’t know what I wanted to do about that.”

“So, you are pregnant.”

She met his gaze, hers suspiciously glossy. “Yes, we’re either very unlucky or wildly fortunate, depending on how you want to look at it.”

“How do you look at it?” he demanded.

“Wildly fortunate? How else? I’m thrilled to be having your baby even if this whole situation scares me to death.” She looked ready to shake apart.

Damn it. He would have noticed how fragile she was earlier if he hadn’t been working through his own turmoil. He did not want to tell her the plans he’d been making when he first arrived, but would she give him a choice?

Hoping to convince her of their best option yet, he pulled her into his arms, keeping their gazes connected even as their bodies pressed together in comfort. “What are you so frightened of?”

“A lot of things.”

“What scares you the most?”

“That I’ll agree to marry you, we’ll do the deed and then you’ll finally fall in love—with someone else.”

That was at the top of her fear factor list? He couldn’t have been more stunned if she said she was terrified of an alien invasion snatching their baby from her womb. “I am not going to fall in love with another woman.”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

“Yes, I can. Trust me, Piper. It is not even a possibility.” Of all the things he’d been considering over her week-long silence, that was not one of them.

“Do you think there is even a tiny chance that someday you might fall in love with me?” She buried her face against his chest and waited for his answer.

He wanted to lie; it would make things so much easier, but he could not. “If I was capable of falling in love, I already would have.”

“You really believe that?”

“Absolutely.”

Her head tilted back so he could see her glare. “Everyone is capable of love.”

“That is debatable.”

“Yes, I guess it is.” She grimaced. “There are certainly people that make a great case for that point of view anyway. I never considered you one of them, however.”

He could not help that. He shrugged. “What else scares you?”

“Oh, the usual, what will happen to my business, what if I lose the baby, what if I’m a terrible mother, am I going to turn into a whale, can I learn Greek?” Her litany of worries came out in a voice garbled by suppressed tears he did not know what to do about.

“You are going to marry me.” Why else would she need to learn Greek?

“How can I do anything else? I’ve looked at this situation from every side until I’m sick with it. If I don’t marry you, we’ll have to share custody and I’m not naive enough to think you are going to settle for being a weekend dad. You’ll fight for at least equal custody, if not majority custody.”

He was shocked. She realized that. “I…”

“Don’t try to deny it.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

Her lips trembled, but she blinked away the incipient moisture in her troubled blue eyes. “Good. We can’t build a marriage on lies.”

“I agree.”

“The custody issue wasn’t even the most distressing.”

“It was not?” What could have worried her more?

“No. It was the certainty that if I didn’t marry you, one day you would marry someone else and build a whole family with them.”

“The thought of me married to someone else bothers you?” he asked, just to clarify. She had left him without any sort of contact for almost a week after all.

“Of course it does. I love you.”

Something inside his chest stuttered. “You love me?”

“Yes.”

“Like a friend.” He attempted to qualify.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and shook her head, those terrifying tears of hers spilling over now. “No, not like a friend.”

“You won’t convince anyone you love me like a brother.” Maybe there was some special kind of love women left for the father of their children.

She shook her head again, a mysterious smile flirting with the edge of her lips, despite the sadness in her eyes. “Like the only man in my universe, like the other half of my heart, like the part of my soul that’s been missing my whole life but I didn’t know it.”

He would have staggered if they hadn’t been holding each other so tightly. “Is that how you loved Art?” He did not know why he asked except for as some form of penance, because one thing he never wanted to hear was that she had loved her ex like that.

“My feelings for Art weren’t even a shadow of what is in my heart for you.”

Could he believe that? And if he did, what difference did it make? His mother had loved him, too, but she’d walked away when a choice had to be made. “And yet, you did not call.”

“Loving you doesn’t make me perfect, or even perfectly unselfish. In fact, it makes me terribly self-focused because it makes me so vulnerable to being hurt by you. I want to marry you so I know you won’t—can’t—leave me.” The tears were in her voice now. “I want to be with you for the rest of my life and I wanted to be pregnant so bad, it was an ache in my gut that wouldn’t let me sleep at all the night before the doctor’s office called. I spent the darkest hours of that night in a perfect agony of guilt and unable to change my desires one jot even because of it. Did you hear all those I’s and me’s?”

“You wanted to carry my child?” he asked, ignoring self-flagellating guilt.

“Yes, more than anything. Which probably makes you wonder if I lost my patch on purpose, but I swear to you that I didn’t.”

“Of course not, but why did you want to?”

“Have you been listening to me at all? I knew a baby would tie you to me. Not because I’m not capable of being a single mother, but because you would not want me to be. I’m really ashamed of feeling that way, but I can’t change it. I never would have done it on purpose, but I won’t pretend I don’t feel wildly fortunate, either. Which probably should make you reconsider whether or not you should marry me.”

“So, if you wanted it so bad, why stay away so long?”

“Because when I got what I thought I wanted, I pictured a lifetime of being married to a man who is not in love with me and it terrified me.”

“You have been so unhappy these past months?”

“No.”

“Then, why should you be unhappy as my wife?” he demanded. Didn’t she see how illogical she was being?

“I’m hoping I won’t be.”

“I’ll make sure of it.” She was going to accuse him of arrogance again, but before she got a chance, he decided to offer his own truth. “I also wanted you to be pregnant and I am very glad you have decided to marry me.”

He could not resist the expression his words brought to her face, he kissed her and they spent several minutes lost in a very pleasant joint effort to leave an indelible mark on the other’s lips.

“Do you think our mutual selfishness negates itself?” she asked as if the answer really mattered to her.

“I think that as long as we are both pleased with the outcome, it does not matter.”

“I think maybe you’re right.” She looked up at him through her lashes. “Can we make love now?”

“Is it safe for the baby?”

“Very.”

“You asked?”

“Of course I did. I know what we’re like together and we are going to be together a lot now.”

He liked the sound of that, though a tiny voice inside warned him not to get too used to it as it could all be taken away. After all, she had cut herself off from him while making her decision, showing she did not need him even if she loved him. “You’ll move in with me?”

“This weekend.”

“We are not sleeping apart again meantime.”

“No, but I need to work and won’t have time to pack for the move until the weekend.”

“I’ll hire movers.”

“I’ll still need to be there to supervise.”

He could not argue that. “Do you want a big wedding?”

“No.” She gave him a nervous look complete with a bitten bottom lip. “I just want our families there.”

“I don’t have any family.”

“Oh, yes you do. I know your secrets now. Besides Neo, who is your brother in everything but genetics, there is your mother, her husband and your half siblings, et al. And I want them at our wedding.”

“Why?”

“Because someday, I think it’s going to matter to you that they were there. Besides, it will hurt your sister’s feelings if we don’t invite her.”

“Why do you think so?” Piper saw things so differently than he did; he didn’t always understand what made her say the things she did.

“She insisted on you meeting her children, didn’t she? She considers you her brother and she’d be devastated if she discovered you didn’t feel the same.”

“I do. For good, or ill, she is my sister.”

“It’s all to the good.”

“So you say.”

“I’m almost a mother. I’m practically an oracle now. It comes with the territory,” she said, tongue firmly in cheek.

And he laughed like he was supposed to before sweeping her into his arms. Making love sounded better than talking about his family. “What you are now, is mine.”

“You seem pretty pleased about that.” She didn’t sound too disappointed by the prospect herself.

“I am.” He carried her down the hall to his…to their bedroom.

“Are we really moving to Greece?” she asked between baby kisses smattered along his jaw.

“The island would be a good place to raise children.”

“Yes, but I’d marry you regardless.”

“You said you wanted it.”

“I do.” She grabbed his face, making him look her in the eye. “This isn’t a business transaction. I don’t love your money, or what it can buy for me. I love you, Zephyr.”

She said so, but she’d still left him and not called for almost a week. Maybe Zephyr did not understand love, but he did not think it should be so easy to hurt someone if you loved them. He wasn’t about to dwell on that now though, no more than he’d spent time pining over his mother’s defection once he’d learned he had to accept it. Piper had agreed to marry him, even though, technically, he had not asked.

That was all that mattered right now.

Without answering her assertion, Zephyr carried Piper into the bedroom and laid her on the bed oh, so carefully. She smiled up at him, but he put his finger up with the gesture to wait a minute.

He leaned over and grabbed the phone from beside the bed, then pressed two buttons.

“Memory” and “One” she would bet.

Someone picked up on the other end.

“Congratulate me. We are going to have a baby and Piper has agreed to marry me.” He smiled down at her while speaking into the phone.

Excited words in a definite masculine tone came through the headset, though they were too muffled to understand.

“Yes. I’ll call you with details tomorrow.”

Neo said something else.

“I will,” Zephyr replied. “Kalinichta.”

He hung up the phone.

“Neo?” she asked, just to be sure.

“Yes. He knew I was waiting for your phone call. He was concerned about me.” And even on the verge of making love to her, Zephyr thought to call his friend and settle his mind.

Maybe he’d wanted to share his news, too.

“You’re a special man, Zephyr Nikos. Is he happy for you?”

“For us both. He and Cass will take us out tomorrow to celebrate if you are willing.”

“Of course. Though I’ll have to work during the day. I’ve taken way more time off than I should have.”

“Do you think Brandi will relocate to the island with Cerulean Designs?”

“I’d like to ask her, but I don’t know if I can continue to pay her salary once I cut back on my client list.” Piper decided to begin undressing and remind Zephyr why he’d carried her in here to begin with. “I don’t want to work anywhere near full-time if I don’t have to.”

Chocolate-dark eyes ate her alive as she peeled off her comfort jeans and T-shirt. “I am very pleased to hear that. We will work something out regarding Brandi.”

“You mean you’re going to offer to pay her.” She paused in the act of unhooking her bra.

He could try to deny it, but she knew him. And his expression said he was already busy trying to come up with a compelling reason for doing so, given enough time.

“Why did you name your company Cerulean Designs?” he asked in an obvious bid to change the subject.

“Nice feint, but don’t think I’ve forgotten this discussion.”

“You haven’t forgotten we were about to make love, either, have you?”

“I’m not the one still completely dressed.”

“I can fix that quickly enough.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

“DO IT.”

Zephyr kicked off his designer loafers with two audible thumps as they landed somewhere on the carpet.

“After everything went down with my ex, I didn’t have a lot to smile about, much less laugh,” Piper said, answering his previous question. “I was watching a gay romance movie when the guy planning the wedding started yelling at his fabric supplier. The wedding planner was incensed that the supplier didn’t know what cerulean was, much less how to spell it. I realized I didn’t know what cerulean was, either, and I was an interior designer. I learned later it was the same shade of blue as my eyes, which I thought was sort of prophetic. Anyway, I started laughing at the movie, really amused, for the first time in too long. I named my company Cerulean Designs to remind myself that no matter what was going on in my life, there was always a reason to laugh.”

Zephyr stopped undressing and stared down at her. “That’s a great story.”

“It’s a good memory. It doesn’t hurt to have the everyday reminder that I don’t know all there is to know about design, either.”