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“He might have bellowed a bit loudly just before he dragged us out,” Bella said with an innocent grin.
Jewel wrapped an arm around Bella in a show of loyalty.
“Just what we needed around here. Another woman to cause trouble,” Chrysander said with a mock groan.
The door opened, and this time Marley came out with Theron and Piers on her heels. Both men wore expressions of suspicion as they surveyed Chrysander laughing with Bella and Jewel.
“Whatever he’s said, don’t believe a word,” Theron said as he dragged Bella back against his side.
“Why do I gain the impression that my family is plotting against me?” Piers murmured as he went to stand at Jewel’s side.
She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close. Then she leaned up to brush her lips across his jaw. “You’re being paranoid. Chrysander was just divulging all your family secrets.”
Both Theron and Piers donned expressions of horror. Chrysander held up his hands. “Don’t worry. I’ve told them nothing you’ll be sorry for later.”
“You mean there is dirt they’d be sorry for?” Bella asked. “Do tell. Theron always acts as if I’m the troublemaker in the family.”
Jewel relaxed against Piers and enjoyed the laughing and teasing that went on between the others. She already liked Bella and Marley so much, and she was beginning to lose her uneasiness around Theron and Chrysander. To their credit, both men had seemingly accepted her presence in Piers’s life.
Piers’s hand went to her belly as it often did, rubbing lightly over the swell. She wasn’t even sure he realized what he was doing, but it made her heart ache with love for him.
She was beginning to realize that for all his coldness and aloofness that he was a man of great passion. When he loved, he did so with everything he had. How fortunate both her and her child would be to have his love and devotion. She would never have to worry about being alone or of being accepted again.
“Are you ready for dinner, yineka mou?” he murmured close to her ear. “I have it on good authority that the chef has prepared all your favorites tonight.”
“Hmmm, I think I could get used to being so spoiled,” she said with a sigh.
“You’re easily satisfied,” he teased.
“I just want you,” she said seriously.
Fire blazed in his eyes, and his grip tightened around her midsection.
“Don’t tempt me so or I’ll forget we have guests and take you upstairs to bed.”
“And this would be bad why? Your brothers all have wives. Surely they’d understand.”
He laughed and kissed her on the nose. “You’re bad for my control, yineka mou. Come, let’s go eat. I’ll carry you up to bed later.”
Seventeen
“M rs. Anetakis, there is a call for you.”
Jewel looked up to see the maid holding the cordless phone out to her. She took it and smiled her thanks at the younger woman. After she’d retreated, Jewel put the phone to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Jewel, this is Chrysander. I have some information for you about Eric. I’m glad you asked me to look into this. The news is not good.”
Jewel frowned and got up from her seat at the breakfast table on the terrace. She ducked back inside so she could better hear over the distant roar of the ocean.
“What’s wrong?”
“I found him. He’s in foster care. He was made a ward of the state of Florida two years ago. He’s been through six homes in that time.”
“Oh no. No, no, no,” she whispered. Her fingers curled tightly around the phone as she battled tears. This would destroy Piers.
“Jewel, are you all right?”
She swallowed the knot in her throat. Memories that she’d spent her life suppressing boiled to the surface.
“I’m okay,” she said shakily. “Thank you for doing this, Chrysander. I’d appreciate it if you could e-mail me all the information you have. I want to thoroughly investigate this before I tell Piers.”
“I understand. I’ll send it over as soon as we get off the phone. And Jewel, if you need any further help from me, let me know.”
“Thanks, Chrysander. How is Marley doing?”
Chrysander sighed. “It’s been difficult for her. She’s already ill with the pregnancy, and the stress of having to identify the kidnappers and give more statements is getting to her.”
“I’m sorry,” she offered softly. “Will you be much longer in New York? Will she have to remain there for the trial?”
“Not if I can help it,” he said fiercely. “The District Attorney has offered a plea bargain. If they accept it, then they’ll forego a trial, and Marley will be finished with this nightmare.”
“Give her my love, please.”
“I will. Let me know if there is anything else I can do.”
“I will, Chrysander.”
She hung up the phone and then went to find her laptop. A few minutes later, she received Chrysander’s e-mail. She frowned as she read through the details. A few phone calls would have to be made, but she couldn’t wait to tell Piers what she’d discovered. There was no need for Eric to be in foster care when he had a family all too willing to take him in.
Piers sank into his chair behind his desk and looked ruefully at the piles of mail in front of him. Never before had he been so lax when it came to work matters. He had Jewel to thank for his inattention lately.
His e-mails were in the hundreds, his voice mail had reached capacity, and he hadn’t opened mail in several days. His brothers would give him hell, but they’d also be happy to know that work wasn’t his life any longer.
With a sigh, he powered up his computer so he could sift through the backlog of e-mails. Then he reached for his phone and turned on the speaker so he could weed through voice mails. Most were routine reports from various construction projects. A few minor emergencies from panicked hotel managers, and one offer to buy the new hotel in Rio de Janeiro. That one made him smile. There weren’t many corporations that could afford one of the Anetakis’s hotels. They spared no expense.
As soon as the voice mails were squared away, he dialed Chrysander’s number. He wanted to check in on Marley and find out the results of their trip to New York to identify her kidnappers.
When he received no answer, he called Theron instead. They spent several minutes talking about business. Theron brought him up to speed on Chrysander and Marley and then conversation drifted back to business.
As he chatted, he idly sorted through the envelopes piled on his desk. When he got to one addressed to him from the laboratory that had performed the paternity test, he froze.
“I’ll speak to you later, Theron. Give Bella my love.”
He hung up and stared at the envelope in front of him. A smile eased his face as he fingered the seal. Here would be the proof of his paternity. In black and white,
irrefutable proof that he was a father.
Last time it had gone the other way, and he’d lost everything that mattered most to him. This time…this time it would be perfect. He had a daughter on the way. His child.
Mine.
The surge of possessiveness that rocketed through his body took him by surprise.
He tossed the envelope aside. There was no need to open it. He knew what it would say. His trust in Jewel also surprised him, but he realized he did indeed have faith in her. He trusted her not to betray him.
After sorting through a few more envelopes he glanced back over at the letter. He should open it and revel in the feeling. Then he could go find Jewel and make mad, passionate love to her.
The idea made him tighten with need.
He felt like celebrating. Maybe he’d take Jewel on a trip to Paris. She loved to travel, and her doctor had pronounced her fully recovered from her surgery. To be on the safe side, he could schedule a check-up and a sonogram. Then they could take the private jet. They could make love in Paris and then maybe go on to Venice. Take the honeymoon they hadn’t been able to take when they’d gotten married.
He picked up the envelope again, smiling as he turned it over. He only hesitated a moment before tearing it open and unfolding the letter within.
He scanned the contents, the perfunctory remarks thanking him for his business, and finally he got to the bottom where the results were posted.
And he froze.
He read it again, sure that he’d missed something. But no, there it was in black and white.
He wasn’t the father.
Icy rage flooded his veins, burning, billowing until he thought he would explode. Again. It had happened again, only this time it was different. So very different.
What had she hoped to accomplish? Would she, like Joanna, wait for him to form an attachment to the child before leaving? Use the child as a bargaining tool?
Was Kirk the father or was he yet another man she dangled from her fingertips like a windup toy?
Older and wiser? He wanted to puke at his stupidity. In his arrogance, he’d imagined that he’d never be deceived as he’d been in the past, but what had he done to prevent it?
He looked down at the offending document again. His hands were shaking too much to keep it still. Damn her. Damn her to hell.
She’d wormed her way into his life, into his family’s lives. His sisters-in-law loved her, and his brothers had accepted her. Because of him. Because he’d brought her into their unsuspecting midst.
Never had he felt so sick. He wished he’d never opened the damn thing.
What a fool he’d been. What a fool he’d always be. All this time wasted on building a relationship that was based on lies and treachery. He’d bought the house of her dreams, done everything in his power to make her happy.
