Page 43 of After-Hours Heir

He had done that. But it had been in a bid to preserve his way of being. He had recognized whatever he was feeling for her was… It was an anomaly, and he could not allow it. That seemed reasonable to him.

It was reasonable.

He found himself setting his whiskey down on the table, abandoning dinner and walking out of the room.

He found himself compelled to walk up the stairs. Toward her.

Perhaps she would be angry. Maybe she would shout at him and tell him to leave.

He paused at the door and raised his hand to knock, even as he chided himself of the ridiculousness of having to knock to enter a room in his own home.

He did, though. To prove a level of civility even to his own self.

But it was firm. Decisive.

“Go away, Christos.”

“Sylvie,” he said. “I wish to speak to you.”

“And I don’t wish to speak to you.”

He growled, and reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

Baby: Don’t be like this.

Kid: Like what?

Baby: Petulant.

Kid: It isn’t petulant to need some time alone after the day that I’ve had. And it isn’t like I’m going to get any emotional support from you.

Baby: I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you feel this way.

It was easier to type it than it was to say it. He didn’t even really know how to think it.

Baby: I know that everything changed for you today. I felt that it must be the same for you as it was for me, but I recognize that it isn’t. You are…pregnant. This is perhaps scary?

He heard footsteps, and then the door opened slightly.

He looked up from his phone, at her. “Are you trying to be human?”

“I’m trying to talk to you. The way that we did. Because we did one time.”

“And then you stopped.”

He didn’t want to explain that.

“I didn’t see anywhere for it to go.”

“Well. Fate intervened and laughed at you.”

He couldn’t argue with that.

“Yes, it did.”

She was barefoot now, wearing a matching pajama set with leopards on them. She looked soft, sexy.

He found himself wondering what it would be like to kiss her, knowing that it was Sylvie.