“Yes, but—”
“Which makes sense if he’s been able to track you. All he has to do is have his friend pull reports of a Kiera Taylor. The same goes for your bank cards, assuming he can get access to that info.”
“He can,” I said, rubbing my arms against the chill that made goose bumps prickle on them. “He has done it in the past.”
“Marry me. Change your name to Papaioannou. You can use my bank cards until we get you your own. Your ex won’t be able to follow you, because Kiera Taylor will disappear.”
I was shaking my head before he finished. “A name change wouldn’t solve anything. He’s sure to be watching for that.”
“Would he watch for you to be married?”
“No,” I admitted slowly. “He doesn’t think I have enough value to attract anyone else.”
Theo smiled. “That’s the perfect solution to the problem, then.”
“Far from it. Marriage is...marriage. If I’m not going to take a couple of bags of clothes from you, what makes you think I’ll accept access to your bank accounts? I’m a lot of things, Theo, but mercenary isn’t one of them.”
“I know you aren’t mercenary. If you like, we can ...” He paused, obviously trying to find a solution. “You can write me a check for the balance in your accounts. I’ll put that same amount in a special account for you, one with your new name. It’ll be your money, just moved to an account where your ex won’t think of looking.”
“That seems reasonable,” I admitted, relieved that I wouldn’t have to use my bank cards after all. “Or it would be if the idea of marrying you wasn’t harebrained. Theo, did you not listen at all when I told you that it’s just too dangerous for me to be around you and Peter?”
“I listened. And I agree that if you posed a real danger, I would make sure that Peter was well away from you. But I don’t think there’s a problem.”
“Misha could be here in Auckland—” I started to protest.
“And that’s where my plan really shines,” he said, smiling. “After we get married at the local registrar’s office, we go off to my sheep farm.”
“You have a sheep farm?” I asked, wondering why anything about him surprised me. “Here? In New Zealand?”
“I do. It’s very private. You have to take either a boat or a helicopter to get to it, and that makes it the ideal place for the new Mrs. Papaioannou to live without worry that a vicious brute will track her down. You’ll like the farm. It’s small but very picturesque. The man I bought it from lives there still with his wife and daughter, taking care of the sheep and house for me.”
The idea danced in front of my mind with tantalizing clarity. “Spinning wheels,” I said, telling myself I was a fool to even think I had a chance of safety. Still, if Theo had an isolated farm ... “Sheep’s hooves. Rolled-up bundles of wool.”
“Plump little breasts,” he said, bending down to kiss the tops of my breasts where they were visible rising above my shirt. “The round, perfect globes of an ass.”
“Oh, this is ridiculous,” I said, dismissing the image of the three of us on some wild, idyllically rugged sheep farm. “I can’t believe you’re offering to marry a woman you met the day before.”
“That’s what we Papaioannou men do,” he said with a half grin.
I thought about it. I really thought about it, but in the end, I shook my head. “Thank you for offering, but there are just too many issues with it. Like what happens when you meet a woman you really want to be married to? What will happen when I have to leave you? What will your family think?”
“All of that is unimportant,” he said, his eyes earnest. “What matters is your safety, and Peter’s happiness.”
“If you’re thinking of me being his nanny—”
“I’m thinking of you being his mother. Well, stepmother. But mother in all the important senses of the word.”
I gawked at him, outright openmouthed gawked at him. “Me? Who you met yesterday?”
His grin flashed, making my innards melt. “I told you, we Papaioannou work fast.”
“That’s not fast—that’s insane. No, Theo.” I stopped him from going on. “Thank you, but no. I’ll ... I’ll stay with you until you get a proper nanny, one who doesn’t make you fire her five minutes after hiring, but that’s it. And I’m not going to take clothes or shoes or tiny bits of lace that would probably get stuck in my butt crack. OK?”
He didn’t like it, but he didn’t argue anymore. “I’m willing to call a truce if you are.”
I watched him for a few seconds. “Because you want sex?”
“Because I don’t want to argue anymore, not when it’s clear you’ve made up your mind.” He leaned forward and nipped my lower lip. “Although if you wanted me to make passionate, steamy love to you, then I am more than happy to do that, too.”
I didn’t even ask myself what the wise course to follow would be. I simply held my arms open and said, “Yes, please.”
Theo’s body curled around me kept my dreams at bay that night, although I woke up at one point in the middle of the night to find him standing over the crib, just watching Peter.
“Is he OK?” I asked, sitting up.
“Yes. I was just watching him sleep.” He stood there for another minute, then got back into bed with me, reaching for me, tucking me against his beautiful chest. “I alternate between being furious with Nastya for keeping his existence from me, stealing his first ten months away, and wanting to get on my knees with gratitude that she’s giving him up to me.”
“She’s given you full custody?”
“She said she would. Evidently her mother took care of him since he was born. Nastya said she’d only seen him a half-dozen times, and now her mother is ill in the hospital and not expected to live much longer.”
“Poor thing,” I said, feeling a pang for a woman who clearly tried to do her best for her grandchild. “Can you get her name and address?”
“I suppose so. Do I need to? She has no legal rights to Peter.”
“No, but she must have loved him, and if she’s in the hospital and near the end of her time, she would probably like to see him. Or at least some video of him. Maybe you could FaceTime her.”
He was silent for a moment; then he heaved a big sigh. “And this is yet another reason why I need you in my life. I didn’t even consider what she was going through, but you’re absolutely right. I will put my assistant on to locating her, and at the very least, we’ll do video calls with her.”
I smiled into his chest, relaxing as the pull of his heat sank into me. I might not be able to stay with Theo, but I was determined to enjoy the time I had with him.
NINE
Theo wasn’t impressed by the way the day started. First, he slept past the time he wanted to get up, mostly because having Kiera pressed up against him at night seemed to serve as some sort of a sleep aid. Never one to sleep soundly through the night, he had found her presence oddly comforting, and even though he woke up once to use the toilet, and then checked on Peter, he had fallen back asleep almost immediately with Kiera in his arms.
He thought the morning might be salvaged when he encouraged her to ride him like a rented mule, but just as her rhythm started going a little wild, and his hip thrusts upward were decidedly of the racing-toward-the-finish manner, Peter woke up and started crying.
“Poor little mite,” Kiera said a few minutes later when they peeled back his diaper to find his ass red and angry. “I’d cry, too, if I had that all over my bottom. Right, where’s that tube of rash ointment?”
Theo hovered over her as she read the instructions, cleaning the baby’s ass before anointing the red cheeks. By then Peter had stopped crying, but his face was red and he looked as out of sorts with life as Theo felt.
Breakfast was trying, with Peter not wanting any of the food they offered him. Kiera managed to get a little formula and yogurt inside him, but after an hour, they conceded defeat.
“That’s as good as it’s going to get,
I think,” Kiera told him, wiping Peter’s face and sticky hands with a damp cloth. “His bottom must really be hurting if it’s making him this cranky.”
Theo glanced at the clock. They really should have been out of here almost two hours before. “But a few more minutes won’t hurt. Are you packed?” he asked Kiera.
“Yes. I’ll finish with Peter’s things if you can watch him.”
Theo nodded, dialing a number and holding his phone to his ear with one hand, while offering Peter’s chew toy to him with the other. The baby sat on his lap, looking disgruntled as he chewed in a desultory fashion on the toy.
“Hello? Pappamaumau residence,” a familiar voice said into his ear.
“Hullo, Harry,” he said, smiling despite the dismal morning.
“Theo!” she shrieked, damn near bursting his eardrum. “Iakovos, it’s Theo! No, you can’t have this phone—go get your own. Theo, where are you? Why did a strange woman ask me if I trusted you? Why haven’t you called us in forever?”
“Theo,” a deep male voice said, one that brought back so many memories. “Why are you worrying Harry like that? Who was the woman? And where the hell are you?”
“I didn’t mean to, someone I’m trying to convince to marry me, and New Zealand.”
“Marry you?” Harry said on a gasp. “Oh, Theo, I’m so happy for you! I want to hear everything! How did you meet her? Who is she? Why isn’t she being convinced? Wait, did you tell her about the list? Is she annoyed about that? Just tell her that as soon as she marries you, you’ll be off it.”
“I didn’t realize I was on one,” he said, a little stunned by the flow of Harry’s conversation. Iakovos always likened her to a storm, and he could see why. She was an unstoppable force once she got going.
“Number ten with a bullet,” Harry said with a disgusted note in her voice.
“Ten is a decent start,” Iakovos said. “It’s no three, but you have to start somewhere.”
“Three,” Harry drawled, annoyance dripping off the word.
Theo had to laugh. “I would love to talk to you both about Jake’s past history on the list, but I am very short on time, and I have an important question to ask you.”
“Is something wrong?” Iakovos asked.
“Kind of. Is a diaper rash serious? I don’t know if we should stop by the doctor or if Peter is just angry with us because his ass hurts.”
Silence greeted his question for a good twenty seconds, at which point Harry said, “Diaper rash?” at the same time Iakovos asked, “Peter?”
“You have a baby?” Harry asked, her voice filled with incredulity. “With this mystery woman who called?”
“I have a baby. Not with Kiera, though, although I suppose Peter will be hers, too, if she marries me and becomes his stepmother.” He took a deep breath and, before Harry exploded with questions, quickly ran through the history with Nastya, skating over how long he’d known Kiera, presenting her instead as a longtime girlfriend. “What we want to know is whether diaper rash is serious.”
Kiera pulled a suitcase into the living area, looking around to see if she had missed anything before coming over to take Peter.
“That depends. How bad is it?” Harry asked slowly.
“They want to know how bad his ass is,” Theo told Kiera. “What would you say on a scale of one to ten?”
“Six?” she asked.
He nodded. “He has a level six ass.”
Harry made an odd noise like she had choked on something.
“How old is he?” Iakovos asked.
“Ten months.”
“Ah. He’s probably teething. If you have some ice, you can rub that on the gum where the tooth is coming in.”
“There is teething gel you can get, too, although we never had much luck with it,” Harry added, and spent the next five minutes offering advice for both Peter’s ass and gums. It was much harder to get them both off the phone, and he was able to do so only by swearing on the grave of his mother that he would call them in the next week.
Twenty minutes later they emerged into the lobby of the hotel, Kiera pushing the new stroller with Peter, Theo carrying his briefcase and laptop case, and two hotel employees pushing luggage carts filled high with luggage, and Peter’s toys, and swing.
“I don’t know how you think you’re getting all of that into one car,” Kiera said, glancing quickly around the lobby.
“I don’t. I called for two cars. Wait here. I’ll see if they’re outside.”
She shot him a grateful look and moved over to a corner, manipulating the stroller so it was behind the luggage carts. His assistant called as he verified the two cars were waiting for him.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, Theo, but it’s about the office that you rented in Auckland. There’s been a mix-up, and the one you chose is not available, but the company has one available at a sister site two blocks away. Shall I tell them you’ll take it? The rent is comparable, and I’m told the building is nicer, since it’s newer.”
“That’s fine,” he said, stepping into the lobby and gesturing for Kiera.
“Let me just go over the changes to the lease,” Annemarie said smoothly.
“That’s not necessary. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“I know you aren’t interested in the fine details,” she said firmly, “but it’s important you know what you’re getting into. Starting with the security system put into place in the building. It’s very high-tech, with a twenty-four-hour complement of guards who monitor anyone who comes or goes in the building—”
“First car,” he told Kiera, nodding to the black sedan that was waiting. He gestured to the hotel porters to put the luggage in the second car, one eye on Kiera while she unsnapped the baby’s car seat from the stroller and leaned into the back of the sedan to strap Peter and his seat in.
Midday was a busy time at the hotel, and he had trouble hearing Annemarie over the sound of the cars pulling up and leaving, voices calling to one another, and the hum of traffic on the street beyond. Annemarie’s voice droned on detailing information he hadn’t the slightest interest in, but long experience with her had taught him that he’d just have to let her work through it before he could hang up. He glanced toward the car with Kiera as the men finished loading the last of the luggage, handing them a healthy tip, his eyes narrowing. He didn’t see Kiera at all in the backseat, and yet the stroller was sitting outside the waiting car. He walked toward it, Annemarie’s voice continuing in his ear. As he got closer, he could see Peter’s round head where it bobbed in the back, but there was no sign of Kiera. He opened the door, and was shocked to see her crouched down in the footwell, her eyes huge and filled with terror.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, hanging up his phone without regard to what Annemarie was saying.
“Get in the car,” she hissed, gesturing him in.
“What? Why are you down there? Did something frighten you?” He glanced around but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Ahead of them, two men stood next to a car, one supervising the unloading of luggage, while the other consulted his phone. Behind them, a Japanese family was pausing for a selfie with the doorman. People streamed into and out of the lobby, but nowhere did he see anything that could have caused such a response in Kiera.
“Just get in the car,” she whispered, her voice throbbing with emotion.
“All right,” he said, turning to fold the stroller down so he could put it in the front seat.
“No, leave it! Just get in!”
“I just bought this. It’s a very nice model,” he said, examining the various knobs and switches on it, trying to figure out how to make it fold up.
Kiera made a sobbing noise that went straight to his heart. “If you get in the car right now and leave the damned thing behind, I’ll marry you.”
That got his attention.
He looked in at her, glanced around one last time, and made his decision. He got in the car, telling the driver to go.
Kiera closed her
eyes, her hands shaking as she allowed him to help her out of where she’d wedged herself. Peter started to cry, obviously feeling just as awful as both of them.
“What happened?” Theo asked when she got onto the seat on the far side of Peter. He dug Peter’s chew toy out of where he’d stuffed it in his pocket, giving it to him before looking over his head at Kiera. “Did someone say something to you?”
“No,” she said, craning her neck to look behind her, then slumped back in the seat, her eyes closed. “He was there.”
Rage filled Theo, enough rage that he almost told the driver to turn around. He had to struggle with his temper for a few minutes, using all the control techniques he’d been taught at the clinic, eventually calming down enough to ask, “Where?”
“Ahead of us a couple of cars.” Her eyes turned to him, filled with so much fear, he wanted to pull her onto his lap and kiss her until she forgot it. He wanted to kill the bastard who did this to his beautiful, brave gazelle. He wanted to make Kiera understand that she would never have to worry now that he was in her life.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes.” She shivered. “Theo, he was so close to seeing me. Armen was there, too, his enforcer. They were together, right there, right in front of me. Either one of them could have seen me!”
“But they didn’t. It’s all right, Kiera. They didn’t see you.”
She didn’t seem to hear him. “I’d just put Peter into the car when I caught the sight of Misha coming out of the car. He had his phone in his hand—otherwise he would have looked up and seen me. Armen was getting luggage out... Oh my God, he’s here. He found me. Melon balls. Mozzarella balls. Those cheese balls with shredded nuts on them.”
“He hasn’t found you. You’re safe with me. Kiera, look at me.”
“Doughnut holes.” Reluctantly, she met his gaze.
“Are you safe? Right now, are you safe?”
She rubbed her arms again, but nodded. “Yes, I’m safe.”
“I won’t ever let that change.” He raised his voice. “Driver, we’re going to the registry office before we go to the airport.” Theo spoke deliberately despite the fury that filled him. He texted a fast apology to Annemarie, telling her to move his afternoon meetings to the following day.
Ever Fallen in Love Page 11