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‘I think,’ Alekos purred as he watched the young man reach out to touch Kelly’s golden hair, ‘that if Theo does not take his hands off my woman within the next two seconds I will look elsewhere for finance.’
The man froze and his hand dropped to his lap.
Alekos smiled. ‘Good decision.’ He switched to Greek, knowing that Kelly wouldn’t be able to follow the conversation. ‘Touch her again and you will find yourself working at the supermarket checkout.’
Kelly was staring at him as if he’d gone mad.
Maybe he had, Alekos thought savagely, noticing that his knuckles on the glass were white. Never before had he lost control during what was, essentially, a business meeting. For once in his life he hadn’t cared about the end, only the means; if the means meant allowing some guy barely out of his cradle to paw Kelly, he wasn’t interested.
Takis broke the sudden stillness around the table. He laughed and lifted his glass. ‘Never underestimate what a Greek man will do when defending his woman, heh? We will drink to young love.’ There was a faint ping as he tapped his glass against Alekos’s. ‘This relationship is serious, no?’
Alekos saw Kelly blush.
‘It is time you settled down, that’s good.’ Takis gave a fatalistic shrug, as if it were a fate that befell every man eventually. ‘You will need strong sons to take over that shipping business of yours. Kelly is not Greek, but—’ he smiled forgivingly ‘—never mind. She is beautiful, and I can tell that she will give you strong sons.’
Alekos felt the familiar rush of blind panic. Sons: more than one. Lots of children, all depending on him for their happiness and wellbeing.
He reached for his wine glass and drank.
‘The sooner you start, the better.’ Takis didn’t seem to notice the sudden crackle of tension and the stillness of Kelly’s shoulders. ‘The job of a Greek wife is to have Greek babies.’
Wondering whether Takis was tightening the screw on purpose, Alekos winced as he anticipated Kelly’s outrage at that blatantly sexist comment. Intent on heading off bloodshed, he decided to intervene before she exploded. Their rel
ationship, he thought, was too delicately balanced to weather too great a storm. ‘This discussion is a little premature,’ he said smoothly, but if he’d expected gratitude from Kelly he was disappointed.
She looked him in the eyes, her face as white as the napkin she placed carefully on the table in front of her.
‘You think the discussion is premature? I think overdue would be a better word, don’t you?’
Detecting something in her tone, Alekos lowered his glass slowly, aware of the sudden interest from everyone in the restaurant.
Her eyes suspiciously bright, Kelly stood up, her chair scraping on the floor. ‘Excuse me,’ she muttered stiffly. ‘I need to use the bathroom.’
Exchanging looks of embarrassment and fascination, the men rose to their feet in a gesture of old-fashioned courtesy, and Alekos took one look at the ultra-shiny floor of the restaurant and decided that he’d better follow her.
He sprang upright, threw a final, fulminating look of warning towards the young businessman who was now several shades paler than he’d been at the beginning of the evening and followed Kelly.
The thin spike of her heel echoed on the marble, each angry tap a furious indicator of her mood. A few paces behind her, Alekos was treated to a close-up view of her incredible legs and wondered whether they could get away with leaving before dessert.
‘You’d better take my arm before you slip,’ he drawled as he lengthened his stride to catch up with her. ‘And maybe you’d better not talk so much next time. I know Takis is old-fashioned when it comes to his views on women, but you almost blew that.’
‘I blew it? You denied our baby!’ She whirled to face him, her eyes furious and hurt. ‘You’re never going to change, are you? I’m just kidding myself. This past few weeks I thought you were coming round to the whole idea, but the truth is that you’d just buried it. You’re just doing what you do best—pretending it isn’t happening!’
‘That is not true.’
‘It is true.’ She virtually spat the words at him. ‘When Takis said you should be thinking of babies, you said it was a little premature. Well, how much time do you need, Alekos?’
‘I have no intention of discussing my private life with Takis Andropolous.’
‘Oh, stop kidding yourself, Alekos! You don’t want this baby. You never did. The only reason you’re sticking with me is because you want sex. And don’t you dare tell me that I was the one who almost blew the meeting—you were the one who sat there, all jealous and possessive, glaring at me across the table when I’m trying to chat to that guy you made me sit next to! You were the one who started a tirade of Greek, knowing I wouldn’t be able to understand a word anyone was saying, and you were the one who left me sitting there drowning in all this testosterone and chest thumping while you lot were all glaring at each other!’
Alekos watched in appalled fascination as she drew breath. ‘Kelly—’
‘I haven’t finished! I could have forgiven you for all that because you’ve obviously got some weird views on women that come with being Greek, but I will never forgive you for denying the existence of my baby.’
Swearing under his breath, Alekos shot a fulminating look at the riveted diners. ‘I did not deny the existence of our baby.’
‘You did! And don’t you dare call it our baby. You haven’t once mentioned it over the past few weeks. You buy me flowers, jewellery, anything you think might soften me up so that I’ll have sex with you, but do you think of the baby? No. Do you mention the baby? No. And don’t use bad language in front of our child. I may not speak Greek, but I can tell from your tone of voice that you were saying something that no one under the age of eighteen should hear.’
