Page 6 of The Heir Affair

Not good.

‘I’ve just paid a hundred grand for the privilege of your company,’ he said, his voice so low she could barely hear it above the sound of the tourists milling around them enjoying the nightlife, unlike her. But she could hear the outrage just fine. Apparently, he hadn’t been completely unmoved by the cost of that transaction after all.

Definitely good.

‘You need to get into this cab before I lose what’s left of my temper,’ he finished.

She wasn’t scared of him. Or his threats. Nor did she feel remotely guilty he’d been forced to pay such an exorbitant amount to get his way. But as the feral heat seemed to crackle between them in the warm evening air, the need to defuse the situation occurred to her.

The conversation they needed to have would require maturity. And common sense. And having a massive pissing contest in public would not make it any easier. Especially as she could already see some of the tourists nearby had noticed them together and recognised who he was, from the way they were staring so avidly.

As much as she despised this man, she genuinely hadn’t come here to upset his plans or his life any more than was necessary. She’d simply come here to do the right thing for her child. Because every child deserved to have their father know they existed.

Of course, when she’d decided she had to tell him, she’d assumed he wouldn’t want to know, or would accuse her of lying that he was the father. She had not anticipated his furious reaction, so this situation was already more complicated than she had expected. But she didn’t plan to complicate it further. Nor did she plan to give him any ammunition for the suspicions she could already see swirling in those furious blue eyes by drawing more attention to their meeting than was necessary.

‘Fine, I’ll get in the cab,’ she said, shrugging off that controlling handagain. ‘But FYI, you’re not the boss of me, no matter how much you had to pay Serge. Understand?’

His jaw tensed, but he gave a curt nod. ‘Noted.’

She got into the car, then scooted across the leather seat so fast she almost got whiplash, while Caras reeled off directions to the driver.

But as he folded his tall frame in next to her, and buckled himself in, she realised two unfortunate facts.

Firstly, his presence was so dominating, no matter how far she scooted he still seemed to take up all the available oxygen in the car. And secondly, she had been so busy scooting, she hadn’t paid attention to the directions he’d given the driver. So, when the car sped off into the night, she had absolutely no clue whatsoever where he was taking her.

Definitely not good.

CHAPTER THREE

When they arrivedat their destination, Xander handed several bills to the driver, his jaw now clenched so tight his teeth ached.

The woman beside him had not said a word during the short drive along the wharf to the marina, but he could feel her animosity.

What exactly did she have to be so angry about? She was not the one who had been unaware she was going to become a parent for five solid months.

He climbed out of the car and headed around the back to open her door.

She peered out, but remained seated. ‘Where are we?’

‘My yacht is moored in the bay,’ he said tightly, annoyed he was having to explain himself. ‘We require privacy for this conversation, so that is where we are headed.’

Her gaze met his. ‘You don’t have somewhere we can go on land?’

‘No, I do not,’ he replied, which wasn’t precisely true. Caras Shipping had hired the penthouse floor and the roof garden at the principality’s main casino hotel. It would be the venue for the event early next week celebrating the announcement of his engagement to Freya and the port deal that would base Caras Cruises in Galicos.

But he had not bought property in Galicos yet, preferring to live on the yacht when he was visiting the principality forbusiness purposes. He steeled himself against examining why that was, because he had a bad feeling his decision not to buy a home here yet—despite his planned marriage—had a lot to do with the obsession he had been unable to shake with the woman refusing to leave the cab.

His gaze strayed again to the evidence of her pregnancy. And the knots in his gut tightened. He had no idea how he felt about the prospect of fatherhood. He had never really considered becoming a parent. The truth was, when she had confirmed what he had already suspected—that the baby was his—his first reaction had been shock followed by panic. Because all he had been able to think about in those first moments of dawning awareness were those nights in Athens, with his brother’s fragile body curled beside him. Those dark hours before dawn, when he had woken, sweating, or shivering, his belly empty, his heart racing, and the terror had consumed him that he would not be able to keep them both safe and together for another day.

But the fierce protectiveness now towards the life growing inside her was hard to ignore. And went some way to curbing the old fears.

‘Get out of the car, Poppy,’ he managed, trying not to shout—while she had been belligerent at the restaurant, she seemed more wary now.

She glanced up at him, her expression as tense as he felt, but he could see the flicker of panic she was trying to hide. ‘We could go to my hostel?’ she offered. ‘Pretty much everyone there works nights, so it’ll be virtually empty.’

He bit into his tongue, to stop himself from informing her exactly what he thought of that asinine suggestion.

‘We will not be alone on the yacht, if that is your concern,’ he managed, barely containing his temper now. Did she think he was going to hurt her? What kind of a monster did she think he was? ‘I have staff, and my brother, Theo, will also be there.’