by Olivia Gates
Six
Selene spent the night in an unremitting fever.
Every moment of the day Aris had spent with her, with them, kept replaying in a loop inside her head until she felt her vital circuitry overheating, melting.
Aris—as she suddenly could only think of him—could have stayed the night if he’d wanted. He must have known he could have made her beg him to stay. But he hadn’t. Why?
He’d wanted to. At least, he’d wanted sex. Her body pounded its demand for him again as it relived feeling the daunting hardness of his desire against her molten core. Yet he’d still walked away. She could think of only one reason why.
This experiment he was conducting didn’t include sex as one of its parameters. As she’d said more than once, nothing to prove in that arena. Sexually, they were compatible, explosively so.
But…were they? Maybe he responded like that to any reasonably attractive female who had the hots for him. As for her reaction, it must be what he got from all women. He’d intimated that what they shared was special, but men did say things like that in their efforts to get resistant women to agree to their casual arrangements. But now, as he’d also made it clear, things were no longer that simple. Alex complicated matters. Now casual sex wasn’t in Aris’s best interests, or those of his “test.”
By the time the first strands of dawn filtered through her bedroom window, her turmoil had reached its zenith.
And she decided. She’d call him first thing in the morning. Tell him she wasn’t continuing this experiment. If he wanted to continue to see Alex, they could come to an arrangement. If the arrangement worked, and in a couple years’ time, if he lasted that long and proved to be a constant and positive presence in Alex’s life, they would discuss making Alex his legally.
She didn’t want to be included in this test. She had no doubt the part concerning them would either collapse dramatically or expire gradually. And she didn’t enter into endeavors she knew were doomed to failure, no matter the temptation.
At 8:00 a.m. sharp, she phoned him.
Seconds later, she heard a no-frills, classic ringtone. On the other side of her condo’s door.
Her heart gave one violent boom before it stumbled into a mad gallop.
Aris. He was on her doorstep. He’d come back.
She expected him to see her number, reject the call, ring the doorbell. But since when did he ever do the expected?
The phone she still had clamped to her ear clicked and his velvet-night voice poured right into her brain. “Kalimera, Selene. I hope you had a better night than the one I had.”
“If you had a terrible night, we have a stalemate.”
A dark chuckle, male smugness made audible, purred into her ear, vibrated along her already-strung-tight nerves, made her palms itch, made her press her thighs together. “And you’re going to punish me by leaving me standing on your doorstep?”
So he knew she knew he was outside her door. She wouldn’t ask how he knew, wouldn’t bother pretending she hadn’t known. “If you think you deserve punishment, you evidently think you’re the reason for my terrible night.”
“I know you’re the reason for mine.” Suddenly his voice dipped into a whisper potent enough to blow a woman’s hormonal fuses. “I wouldn’t mind you punishing me, though. In fact, the very idea is appealing to me more by the second. But only if you do it…firsthand. Open the door and dish it out, kala mou.”
On top of everything he had to go Greek on her and call her “my beauty” and in that devastatingly sensual way, too. How would she tell him of her resolution now?
She had to, though. Somehow. She should just open the door and get it over with.
She rose on jellified legs, teetered to the door, opened it.
And Aris was standing there, overwhelming all over again in a casual-chic silk suit the color of his eyes.
This time, he had a woman with him.
She looked her confusion from him to the woman and back.
He only singed her with one of those smiles he was suddenly generous with. “Selene, I want you to meet Caliope.”
Selene looked dazedly at the stunningly beautiful woman she judged to be a couple years younger than her, who was clinging to his arm as if she was afraid to get blown away in an unexpected hurricane if she didn’t hang on tight enough.
She was Selene’s height, but far more curvaceous. Her skin boasted the most perfect sun-kissed tan she’d ever seen, looked incandescent against her white blouse and cardigan, also showed off hair streaked a hundred shades of bronze, caramel and gold and the most intense azure eyes that didn’t belong to a cat.
She started to nod at the woman, not sure what to think, what to say. The woman let go of Aris, extended a hand to her. Selene took her hand only for the woman to pull her closer, looking at her avidly.
Then she blurted out, “Is it true? You have Aristedes’s son?”
Selene’s eyes swung up to Aris. He’d told her? Whoever she was?
But she couldn’t even accuse him of breaching her trust. She hadn’t asked him to keep it a secret. Why had she thought he would? It might be in his best interest to expose her, to force her to acknowledge him as Alex’s father.
As if reading her anxiety and suspicions, Aris gave her a placating glance. “If you want a secret kept, you trust it to Caliope.” Aris looked down into Caliope’s suddenly sheepish eyes. “I bet even I haven’t developed as unreadable a poker face and demeanor as my youngest sister—when she wants.”
Sister?
He looked back at Selene. “Since Eleni isn’t coming today, I drafted Caliope into babysitting Alex while we’re out.”
“Out?” Selene echoed, her confusion deepening.
Caliope rolled her eyes. “You didn’t know, huh? Should have guessed he’s drafting you into an outing, too.”
Aristedes raised a sardonic eyebrow at his sister. “I drafted you only until you knew what this was all about, then I couldn’t walk fast enough to keep up with you as you zoomed to my car.”
“You bet I’d zoom, when my oldest brother comes telling me he has a ten-month-old baby, when I didn’t even know he was capable of procreating…” She winced, bit her lip. “I didn’t mean it that way, of course, since anyone looking at you will know you are, that way. I meant I always thought you weren’t exactly human—”
As Caliope gasped, then spluttered inaudible self-abuse at herself, Aris’s remaining eyebrow joined his raised one. “Always nice to know for sure what my ‘family’ thinks of me.”
“You know we love you, in spite of everything we think of you—” Caliope stopped again, grimaced, then groaned, “Okay, I’ll shut up now. Preferably forever.”
Aris gave a huff, twisted his lips at his sister’s red-faced distress. “Now that we’ve had that character-assassinating promo campaign in front of Selene, the mother of my miracle child, let’s hope we get invited over her threshold.”
“You mean she keeps you just outside, like a vampire…?”
Aris looked whimsically into Selene’s no doubt still-stricken eye as Caliope choked into chagrined self-chastisement. “First, I’m a different species, then a species incapable of procreating with humans, now we get to the specifics about what kind of inhuman entity I am. Will you at least prove to this know-it-all that she got…which one wrong?”
“Her assessment isn’t far from the truth,” Selene heard herself croak as she stepped back, wordlessly inviting them to come in. “You do suck the lifeblood out of rivals.”
“So you think so, too? But you couldn’t resist him, huh? That actually supports my theory.”
As Caliope eagerly asked her corroboration, Selene revised her estimate of her age. Caliope felt younger than she’d first thought, probably in her early twenties, making the difference between her age and Aris’s more than fifteen years. She hadn’t known he had siblings that much younger. Or that he’d treat one with such patience and indulgence.
What else didn’t she know about him?
“He’ll probably wake up now,” Selene said, feeling bad that she’d collaborated with his sister in “smearing” him. Not that he sounded hurt or anything. It seemed he included her in his forbearance. But then, he had said he’d enjoy her “punishing” him…
“Great!” Caliope exclaimed. “I can’t believe I actually have a nephew from Aristedes! And I get to spend a day with him!”
“But I can’t leave Alex!” Selene protested, feeling this development snowballing, having no idea how to stop it.
Caliope put a reassuring, exquisitely manicured hand on her forearm. “You can. With my two older sisters married and breeding like crazy, they provided me with all sorts of kids to babysit. I’m an old hand at it by now.” She hesitated. “Though we’re talking about Aristedes’s son here.” Then she seemed to get worried. “Maybe he’ll be too much for me to handle!”
Selene, who didn’t want anyone babysitting Alex, especially not to go out with his father, still took exception to Caliope’s dawning anxiety.
Before she could defend Alex, Aris barked a laugh. “I assure you, Caliope, Alex isn’t as monstrous as his father.”
“I didn’t mean that!” Caliope rolled her eyes and groaned. “Maybe I’ll just record that statement, and put it on auto replay.” Her embarrassment deepened as she looked at Selene. “Really, I meant no offense to your baby, since that would reflect on you, too.” A second’s pause. “Okay, I’m babbling, but it’s not every day the Sarantos chieftain comes confiding in me and asking—insert gasps of shock and fainting thuds here—for my help.”
Aris looked at Caliope sardonically. “And you’re working as hard as you can to make it the last time.”
“Oh, no!” Caliope gasped. “I’ll shut up now, I swear. And I’ll be your best babysitter ever, you’ll have to use me again.”
“And that will be up to Selene.” Aris turned his eyes to her. “Can I go fetch Alex now?”
Selene’s first instinct was to cry out that she would. But she held back. He was Alex’s father. And even if she wasn’t ready, not by a long shot, to declare that to the world and didn’t think one day in Alex’s company qualified Aris to be his father for the rest of his life, he’d proved that he could be trusted with Alex. In the short term. In the long run… that remained to be seen.
She nodded her consent. And her heart turned over in her chest—at the unadulterated eagerness and elation that blazed on his face as he zoomed away, homing in on Alex’s nursery as if she’d had him on a leash and had just released him.
Caliope giggled. “Whoa! Is that my oldest brother?” Selene didn’t know she was smiling until Caliope’s next words wiped the satisfied expression off her face. “And if it is, for how long?”
Caliope was still kicking herself by the time Aris walked back. It was only the sight of an adorably sleep-rumpled if gleeful Alex in his arms that brought her apologies to an abrupt halt.
She rose, an expression of open wonder seizing her stunning face. “Oh. My. God! So human cloning has been achieved!”
“Alex, this pretty lady with the big mouth is your aunt Caliope.” Aris chuckled as Caliope bounced toward them, all uncontainable delight. Alex inspected her with interest as his father went on explaining. “This means she’s my kid sister, even though it seems that’s not one of her favorite facts.”
Caliope gasped, her tan darkening with mortification. Aris gave her a quick wink, as if to tell her he was okay with it, had never expected anything else.
Again, to Selene’s total amazement, it seemed as if Alex understood his father’s every word. She could swear he would have nodded if he knew how. In lieu of a nod, he gave a loud squeal and giggled, burying his face shyly in his father’s endless chest.
“Can I hold you now, Alex?” Caliope extended her arms to him. “I’ll drop dead of cuteness deprivation if I don’t!”
And again, Alex stunned Selene. He gave a suspicious whimper as that beautiful angel reached for him, buried deeper into his father’s hold. This after he’d thrown himself at the intimidating juggernaut he had for a father at first sight.
Aris kissed the top of Alex’s head, put his finger below his chin, bringing his gaze up to his. “Now, now, Alex. She’s not the monster she looks.” He gave Caliope a bedeviling glance. “She’s nice—” his goading rose a notch higher as he crossed his fingers “—and loves kids. But a word of warning, she doesn’t let adorable tykes like you get away with much. I’m taking your mama out, and I don’t want her worrying about you the entire time. So be a good boy, don’t give your auntie Caliope any hassles and let her entertain you. But I promise we’ll be back before your bedtime. Deal?”
Alex, who seemed totally taken with his father’s voice and words, squeaked a merry acknowledgment.
Aris kissed his forehead, leaned him closer to Caliope. “Now let’s be nice to your auntie and let her hold you before she hyperventilates.”
This time, Alex pitched into Caliope’s waiting arms.
Caliope began chattering to him, taking him away as if escaping with a gift before its giver changed his mind. Alex seemed fine with it, evidently taking his father’s vouching for her to heart and promptly began examining her face and hair and accessories.
Aris turned to Selene. “Why don’t you get dressed while Alex and Caliope get acquainted?”
“Why do you want to go out?” She shook her spinning head. “You’re both welcome to stay with us today.”
“No. We need to have some time alone.”
“Okay, then,” she countered, floundering. “How about after Alex goes to bed? Caliope can babysit him without incident while he sleeps. I have a ton of series DVDs for her to watch while we’re out catching a late dinner or movie or something.”
“Do you have Lost?” Caliope perked up from across the room. “And House? And Star Trek?”
“I have the complete seasons of House,” Selene said, hoping this would be the alternative to this “outing” right now, and she’d find a way to tell him of her resolution before it came to pass. “And Star Trek: The Original Series and The Next Generation.”
Caliope whooped in excitement. “I’ll sleep over if you like!”
“No, she wouldn’t like,” Aris said emphatically.
Caliope grunted in protest, and Selene glared at him. “I’ll make the decisions for myself, thank you. And I don’t want to go out with you.”
There, she’d said it.
Maddeningly, he gave her one of those part indulgent, part devouring smiles that rocked her to her foundations. “You do. But you seem to have decided it’s better not to give me a full test run after all.” He’d read her mind! “But I’ll hold you to your word to give it to me, demand the extra day I earned.”
She swallowed. “I never gave you my word, and you declared you earned an extra day, not I.”
“Your word was implicit when you let me have yesterday, so was your agreement to my declaration when you didn’t contest it.”
“I wasn’t in much of a condition to contest anything in both situations.”
His gaze stilled on her, all traces of humor disappearing. “Don’t fight me, Selene. There’s no need for you to.”
“There’s plenty of need. It’s what people do when they find themselves being taken over. And you’re the master of takeovers.”
Her accusation slid right off him. He shrugged. “I’m only making sure I’m given a full and fair test. You know a couple sides to me, the businessman and the lover. This is the best way we can discover if there’s more to me than that. And whether we have more than unquenchable lust and an incredible baby in common.”
“L
isten…about this first commonality…” she started, and he pulled her into his arms.
His lips captured her still-open ones, seared her with his hunger, evaporating every intention of telling him to leave her out of the equation along with every objection and trepidation.
Time expanded, her senses warped. She thought she heard a feminine voice exclaim “Woohoo” and a baby shrieking in delight. She knew she should be mortified, fuzzily thought she’d have to be so after he ended this mind-blanking pleasure.
Then he did. He raised his head enough to look down at her. She vaguely knew she was still clinging to him as if she’d always needed and would always need his support.
He bent for another kiss as if compelled to before he withdrew, ran a possessive finger down her cheek. “What about that first commonality?”
And she knew there was no way she could tell him she didn’t want more of him, with him, and mean it. She didn’t know where this could lead, had a feeling nowhere good, but it was no use. This was unstoppable, what she craved from him was overpowering. She had to capitulate to its demand. For now.
She pulled back from his arms, congratulated herself on turning around and tossing him a glance over her shoulder without falling over. “Fine. I will give you today, too. But anything else, you check with me first.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He riddled her vision with another smile then drawled, “And wear a skirt.”
Her knees knocked.
“I will when you do,” she bit off.
She strode off fuming, her heat raging higher as his guffaws followed her all the way to her bedroom.
Selene wore a skirt.
Technically. As part of a dress. And no, she hadn’t succumbed to Aris’s demand. It was the most flattering daytime outfit she had in a wardrobe made of lawyerlike formal wear or mom-with-drooling-baby casual clothes. She wasn’t going out with that paragon of male beauty and elegance looking less than her absolute best.
And she was sticking to that story.
Aris had smoldered his satisfaction at seeing her, poured leisurely lust along the curve of her hips in the flowing dress the color of her eyes, down the smoothness of her panty-hosed legs to her platform shoes. He hadn’t put his triumph into words, though. Wise man. She would have hurt him if he had.