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And there it was, she thought melodramatically, Eros exerting control again. He had smoothly brought the thorny topic of his rare visits to London right back to where they had started and placed it before her again like a reproach, cutting through her attempt to sidetrack him.
‘You may know my paternal grandfather,’ Winnie remarked abruptly, determined not to fall into the trap of shouldering blame for his unavailability to act as a regular father. ‘Stamboulas Fotakis. My sisters and I only met him recently.’
Eros’s scrutiny was level and cool and uniquely uninformative. ‘Who hasn’t heard of Bull Fotakis? He’s a legend in his own lifetime. Why didn’t you mention that connection two years ago?’
Winnie laid down her knife and fork and grasped her glass. ‘To be honest, mentioning it never even crossed my mind. At that point I hadn’t met him or, indeed, had any contact with him. My father parted with him on bad terms but we don’t have any other relatives. My sisters were too young when my parents died to appreciate that we did have a grandparent still living. When I told them about him, they were curious and keen to get to know him,’ she said truthfully. ‘We are very grateful for the house he allows us to live in.’
The lean, strong lineaments of his darkly handsome face had pulled taut. ‘It’s my job to be keeping you and my child, not your grandfather’s,’ he declared bluntly.
He would make a terrific poker player, she thought wryly, for he had betrayed no strong reaction to her admission of her grandfather’s identity, indeed had merely turned the spotlight straight back to himself.
‘That’s a rather old-fashioned outlook, if you don’t mind me saying,’ Winnie dared, pausing to sip her wine and refresh her dry mouth.
‘I do mind you saying it,’ Eros countered, green eyes glittering like shards of sea glass between lush black lashes. ‘My son and the mother of my child are solely my responsibility. There’s nothing old-fashioned about that conviction. Even the law would back me up. I should be maintaining both of you.’
Winnie paled, her appetite dwindling even more beneath the sheer weight of his gaze. He was so intense and Teddy emanated that same intensity in whatever he did, suggesting that it was a family trait. ‘Let’s not argue,’ she muttered uneasily, gathering that he was planning to persuade her to accept financial help from him.
‘Undoubtedly, we will find much to argue about,’ Eros told her, dismaying her with his insouciance at that prospect because Winnie was no fan of conflict, particularly around Teddy. ‘Eat up,’ he urged lightly.
‘Why is it so important for you to be a big part of Teddy’s life?’ Winnie pressed more boldly.
‘My father divorced my mother when I was eight and I barely saw him after that,’ Eros admitted, disconcerting her with that admission. ‘He remarried and my stepmother had no interest in kids. That marriage broke down, as well. My father lived a chaotic life after he left my mother and he didn’t have the time or the energy to continue being a parent. By the time I was eighteen and he was dying, he was a stranger.’
Winnie winced. ‘I’m sorry. I had no idea.’
‘But perhaps you will now understand why I see my role in Teddy’s life as being a role of crucial importance for his benefit as well as mine,’ he murmured sibilantly, his eyes veiled, his expression grave.
‘Yes,’ she conceded reluctantly. ‘Yes, I can see that an absent father would leave an impression on you.’
‘Fortunately for me, when I was setting up my first business, I met an older man who acted as my mentor and steered me away from more imprudent investments,’ he admitted wryly. ‘Without Filipe’s backing, my first venture would have run aground. He was the father my own father was too busy and selfish to be. I don’t ever want my son to view me in that light.’
‘Naturally not,’ Winnie agreed, pushing her plate away.
Involuntarily, she was entranced by the informative glimpse he was giving her of his younger years because Eros had always been very tight-lipped about his background. He had backed away or ignored intrusive questions and if she persisted, he had shut her down with brooding silence. He had stubbornly resisted her once-overwhelming desire to know everything there was to know about him, but then possibly he had been afraid that he might stumble if he talked too freely and accidentally reveal that he was married. Nothing would ever persuade her that he had kept that dark secret unintentionally.
She watched him eat his dessert with eyes that brimmed with growing amusement and memories. Eros had a very sweet tooth. He only ever indulged it at mealtimes and she knew he worked hard in the gym to stay lean and fit. He ushered her back into the comfortable living area, carrying her wine for her.
Winnie grew apprehensive again, sensing that Eros was about to state his demands with regard to their son. He strolled over to the windows and opened the doors onto the balcony, allowing the sounds of the world outside to intrude. She followed him out onto the roof garden, clutching her glass like a lifeline and settling down in a padded seat while he leant up against the balustrade, unperturbed by the light breeze tousling his black curls.
‘I’ve reached the conclusion that we should get married,’ Eros murmured silkily and without the smallest effort to prepare her for that startling announcement. ‘It would settle every problem and then we could both support Teddy.’
Winnie froze in shock and stared at him, huge brown eyes welded to his lean dark features and the brilliance of his intense green eyes. Memories unravelled inside her head, tossing her back in time, momentarily burying her in intimate recollections. Eros always looked most alert in the grip of passion and she sensed that for some reason the idea of marrying her fell into that same category of being something he wanted a great deal. Why, she had no idea, but she was convinced that it was truly important to him. Certainly not for sex or for her own self, she gathered, since he had let her walk out of his life two years earlier and made no attempt to see her again. Finding her when she had only moved back in with her sisters wouldn’t have been that much of a challenge for Eros. But at best on his terms, she had only been a fling and at worst, a casual mistress, not a woman he either needed or really cared about and he hadn’t looked for her.
‘Why do you think that we should marry?’ she almost croaked, her throat dry with stress and confusion.
‘Teddy.’ Eros shrugged a shoulder. ‘There’s no other way to give him everything he needs.’
‘That’s nonsensical!’ Winnie objected boldly. ‘Loads of couples live separate lives and share their children perfectly happily.’
‘And how are we going to share Teddy when I’m based in Greece?’ Eros derided.
‘That’s not my problem,’ Winnie told him thinly. ‘Maybe you could start spending more time here?’
‘I asked you to marry me,’ Eros reminded her very drily. ‘Don’t you think you should be a little more gracious?’
An angry flush of chagrin mantled Winnie’s cheekbones. Suspicion infiltrated her, swiftly followed by comprehension. Hadn’t she just told him that one of the richest men in the world was her grandfather? In Eros’s eyes, she had evidently become an eligible bride because she was no longer a penniless cook. ‘No, I don’t,’ she snapped back resentfully. ‘You certainly wouldn’t have asked me to marry you two years ago!’
‘Not unless I wished to be tried as a bigamist,’ he fielded with sardonic bite. ‘I wasn’t free to marry then and Teddy didn’t exist. But now we have Teddy to consider and I would like my son to carry my name.’
‘He’s perfectly happy with my name!’ Winnie parried with spirit. ‘You know very well that you don’t really want to marry me, Eros. I’m just a woman you slept with who became inconveniently pregnant.’
Eros ignored that statement. ‘I want my son in my home and I can’t have him without his mother.’
Winnie lost her angry colour and dropped her gaze, the pain of rejection slicing through her. ‘Oh, than
k you very much,’ she framed curtly.
‘Thee mou...’ Eros growled in sudden seething frustration. ‘Of course I want you too!’
Winnie rose from her seat and set her glass down with a sharp little snap. ‘Well, maybe...just maybe, Mr Ego, I don’t want you!’ she slung back.
‘It would take me only five minutes to prove otherwise,’ Eros bit out in unhesitating challenge. ‘Let me list all the many reasons why we should marry.’
‘Oh, spare me the lecture, please,’ Winnie muttered witheringly. ‘Or why not start with the fact that the idea would never have occurred to you if I hadn’t told you that I was related to Stam Fotakis?’
Eros stared back at her in shock, noticeably turning pale beneath his bronzed skin, the angles of his high cheekbones starkly prominent and taut. ‘You actually think I want you for the money you may one day inherit?’ he breathed in incredulous rage.
No, definitely not a gold-digger, Winnie decided, reckoning that no man could fake that amount of disbelief and outrage. It was time for her to bow smartly out of their civil little dinner date before they came to physical blows. ‘I think I should go home now.’
