She clung to him afterwards, her body awash with satiation and satisfaction. He ran his fingers over her face, gently touching her while she drifted off into a much need sleep.
It hit him at that moment that despite everything, he could still love her, and that probably he’d never stopped. He hated their past, hated what had happened between them, but despite everything, he could not hate her.
But now was not the time to tell her. There were still too many independent variables, too many circumstances still out of his control.
She had betrayed him after all, and giving her too much power over him might leave him open for even more heartbreak.
Because, as he ran his fingers over her closed eyelids and down her face, her crimes had been terrible. Finding her with his brother had ripped him to pieces.
That he could have maybe dealt with. Her leaving him had shredded his heart. She’d chosen another man and forsaken him. But fate and circumstances had forced her return, and she was here.
He knew the pain he felt at being betrayed would erase each time they made love, each time he had her back in his arms and his bed. She was here now, where she belonged. She would marry him, bear his children. The years would temper the ugly past; make it into distant memories left forgotten. Fate could a times be kind.
He cradled her into his arms and let himself begin to sleep. They needed their rest. Nick wasn’t yet sleeping through the night although the baby monitor had been blessedly silent.
He owed it to that innocent child to protect his mother and somehow convince her that all of their futures looked bright, that the three of them would be a happy family. Somehow Alex would do it without making himself vulnerable, without saying the words that gave her the power to hurt him.
He could not bear it if she left again.
*****
Chapter Ten
Theo Pappas interrupted Lauren’s newfound happiness three days later by showing up at the hotel suite, again uninvited and unwelcome.
Alex, of course, let him in. Lauren, about to return to the living area, took a step back and closed the door all but a crack.
“We need to talk,” Theo said to Alex. He glanced around the living area of the suite. “Where is she?”
“With Nick,” Alex answered. “It’s his bedtime. They can’t hear us.”
“Good,” Theo said. He adjusted a cufflink and Lauren ducked behind the door. Despite what Alex said, she could hear.
“The board is not happy with you, Alex,” Theo said. “You have dawdled on matters for far too long and your service to the company is in question. I cannot protect you any longer.”
Lauren peered through the crack in the door in time to see Alex cross his arms across his chest. “Why don’t you explain,” he said.
“My father cannot believe that you negotiated a merger with Damien Favazza. Do you not know that the bad blood between our family and his goes back for generations? Ask my father.”
“I did what I thought was best. Our companies are stronger together.”
“You did wrong. But Andrelle, that company holds more promise.”
“They were trying to take us over. A merger will stop that.”
“Andrelle might have been hostile at first, but if we negotiate with them we can change things. Theirs is a good offer that you fight, Alex. It’s no longer unwanted. Most of the board members, like my father, are old. They want to retire, spend their golden years gambling and cruising the Mediterranean on their new yachts. A buy out would make everyone rich.”
“They can sail the world now. No one is stopping them. Most of them have small fortunes thanks to my father’s blood, sweat and tears. I have made offers to each of them to buy out their Pappas Foods stock. I have the capital to do it. They can go any time.”
“No one is questioning your personal financial situation. But they want the best offer. Besides, you do not inspire them with confidence that you will not eventually destroy this company as you have your life. You are living with a non-Greek woman who has given birth to your brother’s baby. You haven’t married her and the baby has not yet been christened. The talk, Alex, you know the talk. Are you a man or a mouse? That’s what they’re asking.”
“I know the talk,” Alex said. He set his chin forward stubbornly in the line Lauren had seen many times before. “And you, Theo, do you agree with the talk? Do you stand with me or are you against me as well?”
Theo gave an erratic gesture with his hands. “No one is against you, Alex. You should not see things like that. The family worries about you, though. You have obligations and you are faltering. The woman, she is a distraction.”
Alex’s temper increased and he paced. “I have doubled our growth this past year. I’ve dealt with stockholders who never should have been stockholders and returned their stock to Pappas control. I have spent a month in Greece negotiating a truce and better market share. The board of directors should be pleased with my management and their profits.”
Theo shrugged his wide shoulders. “They see it you’ve been personally trying to buy back the shares so that you own the majority and control the company yourself. They see you forcing them out.”
“My father, Theo, and yours. That’s all who controlled the company before your father started selling stock everywhere. The only way to keep the business in the immediate family and under family control is to own all the stock. A family company should be owned and run by family, not by their friends and distant cousins hundreds of times removed. It was your father who convinced my father to overextend this company two years ago, thus necessitating this stock fiasco and subjecting us to endless takeover attempts.”
“My father sees it as a slap in the face.”
“Maybe your father needs to join the twenty-first century. If he no longer wants in, tell him to sell me his stock.”
Theo’s face contorted.
“Go on,” Alex said flatly. “Say it all, cousin. You appear to be holding back something.”
“Alex, your mother was never involved with the family business. Her lifestyle is secure with the sound investments your father made before Alzheimer’s. Christopher is dead. The board sees your inaction in this Lauren matter as another indication of your instability.”
“I am not instable.”
“Yes, but if your goal is to recover Pappas Foods, it seems odd that you have not started on the home front. You have not gotten control of Christopher’s shares before Lauren realized that while the court won’t take them away, she can sell them to whomever she wishes. Christopher should never have made such a will. His shares should have gone to you.”
Lauren could see that Alex struggled for control. “Water under a bridge, Theo. What is done cannot be undone. She offered to sell them to me and I said no. My brother is gone and he obviously planned on marrying her. The past is past.”
“Yes, and I mean no ill in speaking of him. But Alex, you need to show the family that you are in control. You insult my father by doing business with his enemy’s son. You further insult the family honor by allowing Christopher’s son to be a bastard. As much as I hate to say it, to do that you need to marry that girl.”
“I don’t work on your or anyone’s timetable.”
“You know Christopher’s will and the conditions of his trust. You marry her and you control the shares. Yet, two months later you still make no movement to do so and tell everyone the shares and Lauren are to be left alone. What else can the family think? She has you by the balls. They see that you have gone soft over a woman with no Greek heritage, no sense of responsibility to uphold Greek traditions. She betrayed you, for God’s sake, Alex. She slept with your brother and had his brat. Yet you let her be your one weakness, your Achilles’ heel. It is bad enough you must marry her, a non-Greek gold digger, but at least get it done. Better yet, get her heavy with child so that everyone believes you are a man and not a mere boy trying to run a business.”
“You should not be speaking to me like this,” Alex said.
Lauren had never seen him so angry.
“No,” Theo said. He stepped back a pace and lowered his head in a gesture indicating humbleness. “Perhaps I should not. But I am your cousin and it is my obligation to warn you that rough times are on the horizon if you cannot do your family duty. She is poison, Alex. She has always been your poison. She is your slow death. She needs to be…”
Alex cut him off. “I will take the matters you have brought to my attention under advisement and consider what you have said.”
“The judge is free this Friday. I took the liberty to call. Get it done, Alex. None of us want you to marry her nor will we welcome her to our family with open arms, but as we have no other choice, we will accept her as your wife. Prove yourself stable and marry her and secure her Christopher’s shares. It is your family duty.”
“You should go now,” Alex dropped his arms to his side.
“As you wish.”
As Theo strode towards the front door, Lauren stepped away from her bedroom door and closed it quietly. She’d forgotten about the stock shares. She knew she voted the proxies, but she hadn’t realized she had the power to sell them, or that transfer of ownership of the shares would go to Alex when they wed.
Oh Christopher, what have you done? Lauren felt the true magnitude of her friend’s actions. Christopher had assumed that eventually Alex and Lauren would make up and all would be well.
It had almost happened, except for Christopher hadn’t known about the business problems. He hadn’t known about the current Pappas Foods takeover, or the board of directors’ sudden lack of faith in Alex who was against the Andrelle buyout.
Christopher had just been trying to help her and the baby by providing for them.
Lauren walked out in the living room but Alex had already retired into his study. He’d closed the door. That meant he was handling business.
She walked towards it and raised her hand to knock. Before striking the door, though, she lowered her hand. They’d shared an idyllic few days and some mind-blowing sex. But his family business had again reared its ugly head.
Her missionary father had been a workaholic. He’d never been around for her or her mother, breaking promise after promise when one of the members of his congregation would need him. His work, his calling, had always come first even to the point he’d risked death and lost.
But maybe she should try. Perhaps she did have weapons with which to fight. She opened the door and stepped inside.
Alex sat in his desk chair his head back and his eyes closed. They flew open as she dropped to her knees and forced his zipper.
“What?” He tried to push away her seeking hands.
She hadn’t fought for him last time but instead had run away. She’d let Theo win. Well, she wasn’t allowing that to happen this time. She could reach Alex and allow him to find peace and solace with her.
He gave in to her roving hands, and edged forward as she drew forth his member. Her lips encircled him and he jerked. She had the power to change things. No longer would she be passive. If she wanted business to be less of a priority, she had to step it up. But her reasons got lost as she lathed and sucked, lost in giving his man she loved the ultimate pleasure. He tried to make her stop, but she refused until he gave a great cry and she felt him shudder. Then, business forgotten, he cradled her into his arms and took her to bed.
*****
Chapter Eleven
Lauren awoke with a start the next morning. They’d made love all night. “Alex?” She wrapped a robe around her. One glance around the living room told her he’d already left the hotel suite.
Disappointment filled her and she went to Nick’s crib and gazed at her son. He was awake and waving his fist in the air. “I see you’ve been a good boy and let mommy sleep for a little while longer while you amused yourself,” she said.
Nick’s eyes grew brighter and she picked him up. She rubbed his downy soft head. He’d lost all his birth hair and the new hair coming in showed he would have dark hair like his father’s.
“So what shall we do today?” Lauren asked her son. “It’s supposed to be gorgeous today so what about a long walk in Central Park this afternoon? How does that sound?”
Nick simply gurgled at her and Lauren smiled. “I love you too.” She gave him a kiss.
The morning disappeared fast and it was after a late lunch that Lauren finally decided to venture out for the walk. She readied the diaper bag and called the front desk to have her pram brought up from storage.
The knock on the door told her that it had arrived.
“Wonderful,” she said opening the door. “Thank you so much. It’s such a beautiful day and…”
She stopped short. Instead of the bellman with the pram, Theo Pappas stood there.
“Hello, Lauren,” Theo said. He did not wait for an invitation but simply stepped past her and into the foyer. “I hope you don’t mind that I’ve come to speak with you.”
Lauren eyed Theo warily and deliberately left the door to the suite open. She stepped toward where Nick wiggled and kicked on his activity blanket. “I do mind. This is not a good time. The baby and I are on our way out for a long walk.”
“Ah, the bastard Pappas,” Theo said. He walked slowly over to the child and bent over. “Babies are always such ugly little creatures, aren’t they? Faces only a mother could love. So disproportionate. Their little arms barely go over their heads. Yet you women seem to like having them. My wife has had four.”
Lauren reached down and picked Nick up. “We have places we need to be. If you would please excuse us, we need to reschedule.”
Theo straightened and his knee popped with an audible crack. His face then turned deadly serious. “Let’s get right to business. This whole unfortunate matter has dragged on past its prime. How much will it take?”
“Excuse me?”
Theo gestured to the sofas. “Please sit, Lauren. I’ve wasted enough time on you already and this time you are going to listen to what I have to say and heed my advice. Ah, here’s your pram. I’ll get it.”
Seeing her escape cut off as Theo tipped the bellman, Lauren sat. The bellman gave her a friendly wave as he left.
“I will give you five minutes,” Lauren said.
He chuckled, a deadly, sinister laugh of a man gone mad. “I am so sick of your repulsive spirit. No wonder you’ve whipped Alex. A man should not let a woman best him. My wife and mistress both learned that long ago.”
“Five minutes,” Lauren repeated.
“I’ll take as long as I need,” Theo said. His gaze narrowed sharply. “I’ve been dealing with the fallout from your actions long enough, so you can be on my timetable for once. I’d suggest you humor me.”
Despite her IBF training, Lauren bristled. “I don’t put much stock in humor. And this is my home, and here my time is my own. You do not control me.”
Theo gave a dry laugh designed to demean. “Such hackles. I assume they forgot to teach you some manners in the jungle or wherever you were living. And as for controlling you, I have no desire to control you. I only want what rightfully belongs to me. Half of Pappas Foods.”
Lauren suppressed her shiver as Theo put his cards on the table. So that’s what he was after. “I need to take my son on his walk.”
“Ah yes, your son.” Theo dragged the S on son and rolled his eyes heavenward. “Is that boy even truly a Pappas? Or is he just your meal ticket, a way to snare an extremely rich man who thinks with the wrong part of his overactive anatomy?”
Lauren stood up and Nick whimpered. “I will not tolerate this discussion. It is over. Either you leave or I will.”
Theo stepped towards Lauren, his body a deliberate block to her flight. “My dear stupid girl, I always have considered myself a reasonable man. I’d hate to start being otherwise now. Please sit back down. I’ve already had to use extreme measures to get you out of my life once. I don’t wish to have to use them again, or worse, have to up the ante.”
Lauren sat. “I do not give
in to extortion.”
“Two chances to go and you refused,” Theo said with a bitter cluck of regret. “You were to rot in that jail. Clever, calling Alex. I didn’t expect that. Why couldn’t you have taken the money and gone like a good girl? It would have solved so many problems.”
“That was you who set me up.”
“Of course.” Theo seemed quite pleased with himself. “Someone has to save Alex from his idiocy and indiscretions. His father is too incapacitated to handle anything. Alex should not get all of Pappas. The other half is mine.”
Lauren tamed her hackles by stroking Nick’s back. She did not want her son to sense her growing agitation. As she figured, Theo wasn’t finished.
“We protect our family members and our family interests in whatever ways are necessary,” Theo added. “It’s not wise to cross me.”
“I have faced greater threats than you, Theo.”
“You don’t have Christopher to run to anymore and it’s not wise to underestimate me. I admit, I must give your female talents credit. You aren’t Christopher’s type of woman; yet, you managed to lure him with your worldly charms. You even had his child, thus ensuring your claim to the Pappas fortune. So since I cannot buy you out of his life anymore, perhaps I can finally convince to leave by telling you it’s the only way to save Alex. And your son.”
“Save Alex?”
“From himself from you. From losing the business he loves. Do the right thing for once or I will.”
“You don’t scare me. I doubt Alex will scare either.”
“Then you are a fool.”
Fear began to claw at Lauren as Theo stepped toward her. “You may want to put the child away, Lauren.”
“Don’t do this, Theo.” Lauren stared at him. Was he truly for real? A look into his coal black eyes indicated he was deadly serious about whatever he had planned.
She leveled her chin so that she could stare straight at him. Her brain frantically tried to determine just what he was planning.
The Greek Billionaire's Secret Baby (Contemporary Romance) Page 11