Page 22 of Billion-Dollar Baby Shock

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‘Tara?’

Tara sat up straight, disorientated.Dion was standing at the end of the bed.It all came rushing back.

‘Niko,’ she breathed, looking for the monitor and not seeing it where she left it.‘Where’s Niko?Did I not hear him?’

She was aware of Dion giving her a look but then he said, ‘He’s fine.Maria, the nanny, is here.He’s with her downstairs.’

Tara immediately felt a sense of possessiveness and had to remind herself that she wasn’t yet confirmed as Niko’s mother.She got off the bed.‘Sorry, I fell asleep.’She was conscious of her jeans and T-shirt.Messy hair.

‘The nurse is here from my doctor’s office to take a swab.He’s already done Niko.’

The DNA test.

‘Of course.’Tara slipped her feet into her sneakers and followed Dion out of the bedroom and into the main part of the villa.She could hear the sounds of Niko from the kitchen and longed to go to him but this was obviously important.

They went through the impressive reception hall and into one of the corridors leading off the hall.Then they were in a suite of rooms.His home office.She followed him into the inner room and saw a young man in what looked like a hospital uniform of dark blue scrubs.

Tara sat down and let the nurse swab inside her mouth.Dion stood in the corner looking brooding, arms folded across his chest.The nurse bagged up the swab and spoke to Dion in Greek before nodding at Tara and leaving.

Dion stayed standing in the corner of the room.‘We’ll have the results tomorrow.’

‘That fast?’

He nodded.Then he looked at his watch and said, ‘I have an event to go to this evening.Feel free to help yourself to food from the fridge.The housekeeper will have left something ready to heat.I mostly eat out.’

‘Even since Niko?’

He looked at her and his jaw clenched.He obviously didn’t like her implication.‘I have sole custody of my son.How I choose to bring him up is not up for discussion.’

Tara stood up.‘When it’s proven that I’m his mother I will have rights, Dion.’

‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.’

Clearly he still expected that this DNA test would come back negative and he could be shot of her, and this was all a reminder that he didn’t want her here.The atmosphere between them couldn’t be more different from the previous evening, when she’d grown dizzy under the full impact of his charm and seduction.He hadn’t even had to seduce her all that much.One blistering-hot kiss and she’d been ready to get onto a helicopter and let him take her anywhere.

‘I’ll go and introduce myself to Maria.’

She turned and left the room before he could see the humiliation she felt for being so…easy.She found the nanny, a perfectly pleasant dark-haired young woman, in the kitchen with Niko and did her best to push out of her mind that tomorrow she would be embarking on a very different life path.

* * *

When Dion returned from the event he felt restless and irritable.He undid his bow tie and opened it and the topbutton of his shirt, feeling constricted.All evening he’d been distracted.Thinking ofherand how she’d been like such a breath of fresh air when he’d spotted her last night.

She was a Trojan horse, not a breath of fresh air.She was here, under his roof, and she couldn’t have planned it better.

But when he got near to the bedrooms he heard the cry of a baby and saw a shadowy figure pushing open the door to Niko’s room.He knew it wasn’t Maria.Because he knew the figure in those soft jeans and T-shirt intimately.

And he wanted to know her again.

At that moment a sleepy Maria appeared in the corridor, belting her robe over pyjamas.Then both women saw Dion and startled.Dion put out a hand.‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.’

Tara was framed in Niko’s doorway.She said, ‘It’s okay, Maria, I was up watching a movie.Why don’t I check on him and you go back to bed?’

The nanny shot Dion a worried glance, clearly not used to having to answer to anyone else, but after a moment’s hesitation he just nodded and said, ‘It’s fine, go back to bed, Maria, thank you.’

Dion followed Tara into the baby’s bedroom illuminated only by a low light.She went over to the cot and lifted Niko out.He looked sleepy and Dion had that sense again of not knowing what he should do, but hating himself for this fear of interaction.