After his father’s heart attack, he’d hired a private investigator to find her. When the old man had seemed so fragile and Christos had made promises he wasn’t exactly sure he could keep. Find the Theakis heir and bring him home.
He’d never forgotten Ava, despite the way things had ended between them. He’d come here to claim Theo as the Theakis heir, but watching the way the light played over her hair made him realize he wanted to claim the woman, too.
“I want to know the boy.”
“Oh, okay. When?” she asked.
She was nervous; he read that easily in her stance and the way she was stammering to answer his questions. He told himself to lighten up—except, he couldn’t. What he felt about her and the boy was too intense. She’d lied to him and he wanted to see her squirm a little now.
“Today, Ava. I think we can work this out on our own without involving my attorneys.”
“Of course,” she said. “I wasn’t saying you couldn’t see him. Just asking when you wanted to.”
“Does he have our family name?”
“No.”
“Was that in the agreement with Stavros?”
She crossed her arms under her breasts and arched one eyebrow at him. The show of temper made him hotter than he’d have thought it could.
“Why do you care? You said you wanted nothing to do with my child.”
“But that has changed,” he said. “Theoisa Theakis and I need him.”
“As I just said, he sharesmylast name.”
“That will be the first thing I change. I’ll have my attorneys start the paperwork.”
“Uh, isn’t that moving fast? Why?—”
“It isn’t fast. Not after we’ve missed so much of his young life.”
She flushed—with anger, he imagined—and nodded toward him. “I’m sure that Theo will be pleased to meet you. He knows your name.”
“Very good.”
She didn’t respond to the last but he caught another glimpse of her temper in her eyes before she turned away.
“I’ll have Karin call him out of class. He’s a little afraid of the principal’s office. Maybe you should wait in the gardens. I’ll bring him to you.”
Theo chatteredas she walked him down the hall toward the gardens, asking her specific questions about Christos. But she really didn’t know what to say. Finally they stepped out into the Florida sun and he slipped his little hand in hers, quieting as he looked at the tall man standing with his back toward them.
She knelt down next to her son and hugged him close. “He’s very excited to meet you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, she is,” Christos said, coming over to them. “Theo, I’m Christos Theakis.”
Theo took Christos’s hand and shook it. “Hello, Father.”
Christos drew back and looked up at her sharply. She couldn’t read his look.
“The Greek word for father isbaba, Theo,” Ava said.
Christos drew Theo into his arms and Ava turned away. It had been easy to believe that she was doing the right thing for her son by keeping him from Christos. Christos had been very angry during their last encounter, when he’d accused her of sleeping with both Theakis brothers. And she’d been unable to defend herself against that anger.
He’d wanted her to take a DNA test to prove paternity, but she’d refused, wanting him to trust her. She knew that she’d lied to him about other things, and had acknowledged those lies, but on this matter, she had needed him to believe her. Because, before the situation with his brother had blown up, he’d told her they’d moved past her falsehoods. And she’d needed that to be true for the relationship to survive.
