His Reputation Precedes Him

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘Did Jack tell Yvette about your meeting?’ Markos pressured.

  ‘I have no idea,’ she answered honestly. ‘He may have done. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t have.’

  Markos gave a disgusted snort. ‘I can think of plenty of reasons a man wouldn’t tell his heavily pregnant second wife that he was going off to meet his first wife!’

  ‘I said it wasn’t like that!’ Eva glared at Markos. ‘Jack and I had…unresolved issues we needed to talk about—no, damn it, not those sort of issues!’ she snapped angrily when she saw how the censure in Markos’s eyes had deepened. ‘There was so much anger between us still when we parted and divorced. I had wanted a baby so much, and Jack— He refused even to consider adoption, and he was totally against the idea of IVF with another man’s donated sperm. It caused a huge rift and we drifted apart. He began to have affairs—’

  ‘Just a minute.’ Markos’s voice was husky as he halted her. ‘I thought you told me that you were the one who couldn’t have children.’

  A frown creased her creamy brow as she slowly shook her head. ‘I couldn’t have said that because it isn’t true.’

  No, she hadn’t exactly said that, Markos realised, slightly dazed.

  What Eva had said was that she and Jack had had tests, and that it wasn’t possible for them to have a child together. He had made the assumption that night, because of Eva’s distress, that she was the one incapable of having a child of her own.

  Markos frowned darkly. ‘But if Cabot Grey is sterile, then how are he and Yvette—?’

  ‘Don’t ask.’ Eva gave a weary shake of her head. ‘As far as the world is concerned—and, more importantly, Jonathan Cabot Grey Senior—the baby Yvette is expecting is Jack’s son and heir. And I think it’s best for all concerned if it remains that way.’

  Markos felt short of breath—as if someone had punched him hard in the chest. Damn it, he hadn’t used contraception when the two of them made love because he had believed a pregnancy was impossible! ‘So you are able to have children?’

  ‘Yes,’ she confirmed flatly. ‘In fact I— Look, as our conversation has gone this far, I might as well be completely honest with you.’

  ‘That would certainly be a novelty!’ He looked at her coldly.

  Her eyes flashed deeply golden. ‘I have never been dishonest with you!’

  ‘Except by omission.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ she acknowledged heavily, her gaze no longer quite meeting his. ‘The truth is I decided some months ago to have a child of my own by IVF.’

  Markos’s thoughts were already reeling from one realisation to another, one question to another, and each one was becoming wilder than the last. Eva could have a baby, after all. In fact it now appeared she had coolly and calmly decided to do exactly that ‘some months ago’…

  His gaze sharpened. ‘And can it be that you were considering the blue-eyed blond-haired Glen Asher as a possible candidate to be the donor for this IVF?’

  The warmth of colour entered the paleness of Eva’s cheeks. ‘I considered it, yes.’

  ‘And did he agree?’ Markos grated harshly, feeling a fury building up inside him the like of which he had never experienced before.

  Eva’s smile was completely lacking in humour. ‘We didn’t get far enough in our friendship for me to broach such a sensitive subject as IVF with him.’

  Markos gave a disgusted shake of his head. ‘Why not just forget the whole idea of IVF and instead just go to bed with him and hope for the desired result? He would certainly have been willing!’

  Her throat moved convulsively as she swallowed before speaking. ‘After my marriage to Jack I didn’t want the trauma of being intimately involved again. Nor did I want the complication of having my child’s life ripped apart by estranged parents, and so I thought—I thought a legal contract with a sperm donor, followed by IVF—’

  ‘It seems to me, with all your talk of “I didn’t want” and “nor did I want”, that you weren’t thinking of anything or anyone but yourself, Eva,’ Markos cut in coldly.

  No, she hadn’t, Eva acknowledged numbly. The woman she had been—cool and businesslike, and determined not to become physically involved with any man—had made her decision to have a baby without emotion, without any real thought for the emotional consequences of those actions.

  The woman she had been…

  Eva knew she was no longer that hurt and disillusioned woman. She had ceased being that woman even before she and Markos had made love together. She had become another woman completely when she’d fallen in love with him…

  It was a love which she knew, just from looking at the disgust now on Markos’s face when he looked at her, was even more doomed than her marriage to Jack had been.

  ‘Did you seriously think that Glen Asher—that any man,’ Markos continued disgustedly, ‘would just calmly agree to cold-bloodedly, cold-heartedly donate his sperm for you to be impregnated with?’

  She moved agitatedly. ‘As you’ve just pointed out, I don’t believe I had been thinking straight for some time.’

  She didn’t particularly care for the way Markos was now looking at her from between narrowed lids, as if she were a specimen under a microscope—a hitherto unknown species he was trying, and not succeeding, to understand. And what little he did understand he didn’t particularly like.

  ‘You could be pregnant now, Eva.’

  ‘What…?’

  His mouth was a thin straight line. ‘Three weeks ago I believed, from our previous conversation, that you were incapable of becoming pregnant, rendering precautions unnecessary when we made love together. Did you take any steps yourself to prevent a pregnancy?’

  Eva stared at him uncomprehendingly. No, of course she hadn’t. There had never been any reason for her to. She had known she couldn’t become pregnant during her marriage, and there had been no other man intimately in her life since her divorce, so there had never been any need for the use of any sort of contraception.

  Markos had now been intimately in her life—however briefly. Several times.

  ‘Are you pregnant, Eva?’ Markos repeated harshly.

  Was she? Eva desperately tried to recall when she had last had a period and failed utterly, her mind having gone a complete blank.

  Of course she wasn’t pregnant!

  Was she…?

  * * *

  Markos didn’t feel in the least encouraged by the way Eva’s face had turned a sickly grey colour. As if she were fighting down nausea.

  Nausea possibly caused by early pregnancy…

  The irony of this situation wasn’t lost on Markos. Eva’s cousin, and other ambitious women like her, would, he knew, quite happily become pregnant as a way of entrapping a wealthy man into marriage. Typically Eva—contrarily so!—she had decided to become pregnant by totally eliminating any physical intimacy or personal knowledge of the man who had made her so!

  Unfortunately for Eva that was never going to happen if it turned out she was now carrying his child.

  ‘Well?’ he prompted tersely.

  Eva determinedly gathered her scattered thoughts together, knowing this was neither the time nor the place for her to dwell on the chaos of her own thoughts. ‘I can’t believe you’re so full of yourself, Markos, that you actually believe yourself to be so virile a woman would become pregnant from just one day of unprotected sex with you!’ she added mockingly.

  The coldness in those deep emerald eyes deepened. ‘One day during which we indulged in several occasions of unprotected sex,’ he corrected harshly.

  She gave an unconcerned shrug. ‘Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, Markos, but I guess you really aren’t as potent as you thought you were.’

  Was that disappointment he was feeling? Markos wondered scowlingly. Or did he feel disappointment because he had realised, with the flatness of Eva’s denial of pregnancy, that their relationship—friendship—whatever—had now to come to an end?

  There had been too much said for the two of them
to carry on with even their business arrangement as if nothing had happened.

  ‘Damn it!’ Markos cursed. ‘Why do you have to be so damned complicated?’

  She gave a wistful smile. ‘Just unlucky for you, I guess.’

  Markos thought back to the first time he had seen Eva at Senator Ashcroft’s drinks party, to his instant awareness of her, his instant attraction to the voluptuously beautiful woman in the red gown who’d drawn him towards her like a magnet. Then the situation had been uncomplicated. Then she had just been a lushly beautiful woman in a red gown that he had wanted to make love to.

  Markos had never done complicated. A woman either was or was not interested in a brief and meaningless affair. He had never had the time or the inclination for anything more than that.

  ‘Am I allowed to leave now?’

  Markos’s mouth tightened and he looked up to find himself the focus of beautiful gold-coloured eyes that danced with bittersweet laughter.

  ‘I’m glad one of us finds this situation amusing!’

  Eva wasn’t in the least amused at the idea of never seeing Markos again, but it was better than crying. She had already broken down emotionally enough in Markos’s company. She certainly didn’t intend to let him see her doing it now because she knew, despite everything, that she was in love with him. That would just be too humiliating.

  She drew in a deep breath. ‘Can I take it that you would now be happier if another interior designer took over refurbishing the rest of your apartment?’

  A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. ‘You can.’

  ‘That’s what I thought.’ Eva nodded abruptly. ‘Well, it’s been…interesting meeting you, Markos.’ She slung her bag over her shoulder in preparation for leaving.

  ‘Don’t forget to send me the bill for the work you’ve already done,’ he reminded her flatly.

  ‘And don’t you forget to change the security code on your private lift,’ she said lightly.

  He arched one dark and mocking brow. ‘Is there any danger of your ever wanting to come back here?’

  ‘Probably not,’ she acknowledged with a tight smile.

  ‘Then why would I bother changing the security code?’ He shrugged unconcernedly.

  Eva hesitated. ‘I’m sure you’re not really interested, but I—I’ve now decided not to go ahead with my plans for IVF.’

  A nerve pulsed in his jaw. ‘Why not?’

  She gave a wistful smile, knowing she couldn’t tell Markos the real reason—that, having fallen in love with him, it was impossible for her ever to want anyone else’s child but his. ‘Maybe I’m no longer that selfish.’

  ‘I was wrong to say that,’ Markos spoke huskily. ‘After what you went through during your marriage to Cabot Grey it was not selfish to want a child of your own, Eva.’

  ‘Merely ill-advised?’ She grimaced.

  ‘Not that either.’ He gave a slow shake of his head.

  ‘Then what was it?’

  ‘I have absolutely no idea,’ he admitted evenly.

  She nodded abruptly. ‘Goodbye, Markos.’

  ‘Eva,’ he returned tersely.

  She wouldn’t cry, Eva told herself firmly as she walked over to step inside the waiting lift before turning to look across at Markos where he stood so tall and darkly handsome—and icily distant—across the room.

  She would not cry.

  She had loved and lost, yes, but she had no one to blame for that but herself.

  It was a loss Eva had a feeling she was going to have to live with for the rest of her life…

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EVA paced restlessly up and down her apartment the following morning, checking her watch constantly as she waited—and waited!—for what might be considered a reasonable time to telephone someone—to telephone Markos!—on a Saturday morning.

  Seven a.m.

  Seven-fifteen.

  Seven-thirty.

  Seven forty-five.

  And each of those minutes seemed like an hour as the second hand on Eva’s watch crawled round more slowly with every second, increasing her tension. Those minutes had been crawling round all night as Eva had felt too restless even to go to bed, let alone try to sleep.

  Eight a.m.

  Eight fifteen.

  Eight-thirty.

  Was eight thirty still too early to telephone Markos? Would he still be in—?

  Eva’s nerves were strung out so tightly that she jumped about two feet in the air as the tune of her mobile ringing broke shrilly into the silence. She took several seconds to settle her jitteriness before picking up the phone, distractedly noting that the caller ID was ‘unknown’ and hoping whoever it was would get off the line quickly, so that she could put her own call through to Markos. Before she lost her nerve.

  ‘Evangeline Grey,’ she answered briskly.

  ‘Eva.’

  Just her name. Just that one word. And yet Eva knew without a shadow of a doubt that the person on the other end of the line was Markos.

  ‘How strange, Markos, I was just about to call you…’ she told him huskily.

  ‘You were?’

  She could hear the surprise in his tone. ‘I need to talk to you.’

  ‘You do?’

  Eva gave a slightly breathless laugh as Markos also continued to sound less than his usually arrogantly confident self. ‘Yes, I do. Is it convenient for me to come over now?’

  ‘Not necessary. I’m already in the car on my way over to see you,’ he came back dryly.

  Now it was Eva’s turn to feel surprised, and her fingers tightened about the mobile, the inside of her mouth having gone suddenly dry.

  ‘You are?’

  ‘I am,’ he assured her firmly—grimly? ‘I should reach your apartment in fifteen minutes or so, traffic allowing.’

  She heaved a shakily relieved sigh, longing to see him again, to speak with him. ‘Markos—’

  ‘I would rather we talked face to face, Eva,’ he cut in determinedly.

  ‘Okay.’ It was what she wanted too. ‘I’ll tell Security to expect you.’ She moistened her lips. ‘Drive carefully,’ she added huskily.

  ‘Depend on it.’ Markos abruptly ended the call.

  Eva switched off her mobile before replacing it carefully back on the coffee table, hardly daring to believe that Markos wanted to speak to her—that he was actually on his way to her apartment right now.

  She had spent hours the previous night, pacing from room to room in her apartment as she tried to decide what to do for the best. Talk to Markos. Don’t talk to him. And in the end it had all come back to the realisation that she had to talk to him.

  Did the fact that Markos seemed to have decided the same thing, in regard to her, make what she had to say to him easier or harder?

  No doubt in fifteen minutes or so Eva would have the answer to that question. And several more.

  * * *

  ‘I brought coffee…’ Markos held up a cardboard tray holding two take-away coffees when Eva opened her apartment door to him fifteen minutes later. ‘The “hot” young man who works in the coffee shop across the road on weekends assured me this is how you take your coffee,’ he added dryly.

  Eva felt warmth in her cheeks as she remembered that deliberately provocative conversation. On her part at least.

  ‘You told him it was for me…?’

  Markos arched mocking brows. ‘I only had to mention that you lived in this particular apartment building and he knew exactly who you were, and how you take your coffee. So much for him not noticing you, hmm?’ he added teasingly as Eva tacitly invited him into her apartment by opening the door wider and stepping aside.

  Her apartment seemed much smaller once Markos was inside, Eva noted—his very presence, in faded denims and a casual black shirt unbuttoned at the throat, with the sleeves turned up to just below his elbows, seemed to dominate even the air she breathed in so shallowly as she entered the sitting room behind him.

  ‘This is beautiful.’ Markos placed the
cardboard tray down on the coffee table as he looked about the comfort of Eva’s sitting room. The décor was in autumn colours—reds, golds, oranges, and all shades in between—and a perfect foil for her dark-haired golden-eyed beauty. ‘It suits you.’

  Eva’s face was a little pale this morning, but otherwise she looked as arrestingly beautiful as usual, in fitted black denims and a pale lemon T-shirt.

  ‘Here.’ Markos picked up the coffee he had brought for her and held it out to her. ‘You look as if you need it,’ he added.

  Her hand shook slightly as she took the insulated cup from him. ‘And then we’ll talk?’ She smiled warily.

  ‘And then we’ll talk,’ Markos confirmed, frowning as he once again noted the fragility of Eva’s appearance.

  He had spent a restless evening and a sleepless night after Eva had left his apartment the evening before, as he’d tried to accept that they were never going to see each other again. He had spent hours going over and over everything they had said during that last conversation, ultimately coming to the conclusion that none of it was of the least consequence when all he wanted was to see Eva again. To be with her. Once Markos had accepted that truth, everything else had become unimportant.

  Convincing Eva to feel the same way about him might take a little longer!

  ‘Markos…?’ Eva had no idea what thoughts were currently going through Markos’s head—when had she ever known what this enigmatic man was really thinking?—but whatever they were, they were causing him to frown darkly.

  He shook off that darkness as he straightened. ‘You said you wanted to speak to me this morning…?’

  She moistened her lips before speaking. ‘I believe we admitted we wanted to speak to each other?’

  He gave a derisive smile. ‘I’m really not in the mood to play games today, Eva.’

  ‘Me either,’ she assured him.

  This situation, the conversation they needed to have, was too important for that.

  ‘Which one of us should go first?’

  Markos was tired—not only from his lack of sleep the night before, but by the way the two of them seemed to be skirting so warily around each other this morning.