AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He was nothing.” The words held more bitterness than the taste of strong coffee lingering on his tongue.
Dion’s eyes rolled skyward. “Okay, whatever. I’m not going to beat my head against a wall when you’re being stubborn as a mule. I want you in the office tomorrow. You need to show your face around.”
“Fine,” he grunted. “I will drag my ass into the office and pretend like it makes a difference, okay?”
“That’s all I’m asking,” Dion said. “And maybe try not to bite anyone’s head off.”
“No promises.”
They walked through to the front of the house, and Dion regaled him with the previous day’s business. Dion was the only person in his life who could see past Nico’s tough exterior. Truthfully, he didn’t always like that. He preferred to keep people at arm’s length by whatever means necessary. But Dion’s presence calmed him, so much that he almost missed the taxi pulling into his driveway through the front window.
The second he saw a delicate ankle and sandal-clad foot extend out of the open door, he knew his day was about to get a hell of a lot more complicated.
Chapter Seven
Marianna’s stomach churned so hard she was certain the rubbery airplane food was going to come back up any second now. Steadying herself with a palm against the door of the taxi, she sucked in long, deep breaths.
You can do this. It’ll be a few minutes of pain, but then it will all be out in the open.
She’d never thought about how she might propose to a man. Perhaps there was some traditional part of her that believed in gender norms after all, because she’d always assumed a man would one day propose to her. Not the other way around.
Even though she believed an offer of marriage to be the best solution, the thought of seeing Nico again had kept her on edge since the doctor back home confirmed her pregnancy last week. Marianna pressed a hand to her stomach to quell the nauseating swish of nerves.
Before she even had the chance to reach the front door, it swung open. Nico filled the entrance to the house like a bronzed guard, a white T-shirt clinging to the hard muscles in his chest and making his olive skin seem even deeper and more perfect. Thick, dark stubble coated his jaw, giving him a dangerous, wild edge. Marianna sucked in a breath, fighting the urge to run her fingertips over his face, to feel the whiskers scratching her skin.
A second person came up beside Nico. The man appeared to be about the same age, though he was dressed in a lightweight gray suit and a crisp white shirt. He was handsome, slick. But had none of the darkly magnetic pull that Nico possessed.
The man said something in Greek and walked out of the house, giving Marianna a polite nod as he headed to a white sports car parked outside. The sound of the engine turning over was deafening in the loaded silence. A second later, the car zipped away and the sound of the ocean came back, the calming to-ing and fro-ing of waves doing little to settle Marianna’s nerves. Nico looked…pissed.
“What are you doing here?” No invitation to come in and talk, just a question hard-edged with suspicion.
Marianna opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. Her throat closed up, strangling the words into silence.
“If this is about your brother’s business, my mind was already made up. I don’t care what tricks you pull, you won’t change my opinion.”
“I’m pregnant.” Marianna blurted the words out and Nico’s face paled in an instant.
His guarded expression dropped like a stone through water, his icy eyes widening in shock. But he recovered quickly, far quicker than she’d expected him to. He must have been experienced in receiving unfavorable news.
“Come inside,” he said, stepping back and holding the door. “The last thing I need is for you to bring gossip to my doorstep.”
Nico’s house was nothing like what Marianna had imagined when she’d visited last time and only seen the outside. She’d expected it to feel cold and somewhat impersonal. Uber-modern to the point of harshness. Like the man himself. But instead the enormous space felt light and airy. The furniture was sleek and expensive-looking, but soft touches dotted the room. A heavy-looking book with a worn bookmark poking out one end sat on the coffee table. Atop it were a pair of simple reading glasses. A newspaper was close by.
It looked like…a home.
What did you expect? Gargoyles and a watchtower?
Yeah, kinda.
Nico dropped down onto one of the armchairs and braced his palms against his knees. “Please explain what your pregnancy has to do with me, Marianna.”
Unsure whether she should sit or stand, she perched on the edge of the couch and knotted her hands in her lap. The tight grip made her already fair skin snow-white around her knuckles. She was shaking, but she wouldn’t let him see it.
“Don’t you understand the birds and the bees?” she asked, doing her best to speak slowly and calmly.
She might not have enough experience in romance, but she sure as hell knew how to deal with men in positions of power. More than one arrogant professor had tried to put her down during the course of her studies, treating her as though she was stupid because she was young and a woman. They never expected her to bite back and, judging by Nico’s raised brow, neither had he.
