“I was expecting you,” he said. True, not this soon, but he’d figured she’d come to him with her answer.
“I know,” she said, quietly.
She glanced at her son and then back up at him and he saw a hint of protectiveness in her gaze along with that other emotion he could never identify.
She cleared her throat. “I was discussing your proposal with Theo and he has a few questions.”
He was surprised. But in a good way. Theo would one day run a multibillion dollar corporation. Learning to weigh options and make decisions was an important step to learn.
“What are your questions, Theo?”
“I want to know about Greece,Baba.”
Baba. He hated hearing that from the little boy. He was Theo’s uncle, not his father. He needed to talk to Ava and deal with this. But not in front of Theo. “Perfectly understandable. Come over here and I’ll show you some pictures of our home.”
The boy hesitated and Ava bent over to pick him up. “Ava, put him down.”
She set him on his feet.
“Are you afraid of me?” he asked Theo.
The boy shrugged, his eyes the dark obsidian that Christos saw every morning in the mirror. He didn’t want the boy to fear him. But, to be honest, he had no idea what to do.
He glanced at Ava and she straightened. “Come on, Theo. I’m curious about how the Theakis household has changed since I was last there.”
They crossed the room together. And though he knew he held all the cards in this situation, he felt like an outsider.
“Doesthis mean that you’ve decided to accept my offer?” Christos asked.
“We’ve been talking it over. I want to make sure that Theo will be happy.” Ava tried to keep her voice cordial. She’d spent the entire afternoon on the treadmill in her bedroom, running off the anger that had sprouted deep inside when he’d said he waswillingto marry her.
She’d wanted to tell him to take a flying leap into the ocean and swim back to Greece, but Theo was enthralled by Christos. He’d spent all afternoon asking her questions about him. And then finally asked if he was going to have a father. And Ava’s heart had broken. She did the best she could for her son, but she couldn’t be a father.
Christos nodded at her in a way that revealed nothing of what he felt. Ava didn’t know what she wanted from this meeting with Christos, but him sitting, aloof, behind that large walnut desk wasn’t it.
He thought he held all the cards, she knew that. She could tell from the way he was staying seated in his position of power. She’d come to him. The problem was she was drawn to that arrogance. To the utter confidence that he exuded.
His chest was bare and she struggled to keep her gaze from it. From that gold medallion nestled in his chest hair. He’d always been in good shape and he certainly hadn’t let himself go in the five years since she’d seen him.
Too bad, because it would be so much easier to resist him if he’d developed a beer gut like many of her other male friends. Some sign of emotion from Christos would also make things easier on her but he was still the iceman when it came to feelings. The only time he’d ever revealed any fire had been when they’d made love. And, of course, when she’d seen the hard side of his temper.
Theo’s hand trembled a little in hers. He wasn’t afraid of Christos exactly, but his exposure to men had been limited. At the school most of the staff were women. Her best friend Laurette was engaged, but her fiancé, Paul, traveled a lot, so even he wasn’t around much. Though he did make a fuss over Theo when he came to her house.
“The Theakis family compound is on an island in the Aegean,” Ava said. They didn’t just live on the island, they practically owned it. They had properties all over Europe and the world, but Mykonos was their base of operations.
Christos reached out and lifted Theo onto his lap. Her son looked so small against the thick muscles of Christos’s chest and arms. He reached around Theo to hit a button on his computer and images started flashing up on the screen.
He leaned in low and for a moment brushed his nose over her son’s head, inhaling deeply. Then Christos looked up at her and she saw a yearning in his eyes. But what did it mean? Did he want Theo, or wish that Theo was his son?
She regretted not taking the paternity test years ago, but a part of her still stood by her conviction. The man she’d made love to should have known she’d never lie about something as important as intimacy. The other lies she’d told…they were little ones.
She blinked back a few tears. She was looking for some sign that he wanted Theo for more than continuing his line.
Images from a past that she’d locked away flashed on the computer screen. Mykonos had changed little in five years. Why should it? The island dated back to the very beginning of recorded time and the few short years since she’d been there…
She realized she wasn’t ready to take a trip down memory lane, not even to ease her son about his upcoming move to the Greek island. And she knew that Christos hadn’t been kidding about taking Theo.
“Will you excuse me for a minute?” she said.
