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A Christmas Consequence for the Greek
Lucy King
“Then whyareyou here?” Zander said, ignoring her dizzying proximity and the scent he apparently hadn’t forgotten.
“Is there a problem with the payment of your invoice?” he asked.
“No.”
“Do you have some other business involving my company?”
“No.”
“Are you in trouble?”
“Not exactly.”
“I don’t have time for riddles,” he said, his surging frustration at the way Mia was addling his brainfinallyigniting some strength of character. “And I fail to see anything else we might have to discuss, so if you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere else to be.”
Wrenching himself away from her compelling gaze, Zander turned on his heel, intending to round the screen and head for the exit, practically tasting fresh air and freedom, only to come to an abrupt stop when she spoke, her words flying through the space and landing on him like darts.
“I’m pregnant.”
CHAPTER ONE
‘IKNOWYOUhave an aversion to mixing business with pleasure,’ Zander Stanhope murmured into Mia Halliday’s ear as she handed him a coupe glass filled with raspberry and champagne posset and resisted the ever-present urge to climb him like a tree, ‘because you’ve mentioned it countless times over the last four months. But as of two a.m. tonight, when this club closes and the party’s over, you no longer work for me. Just a thought.’
With a smouldering smile, his eyes glinting wickedly, Zander straightened and turned to stride off, all towering height, broad shoulders and athletic grace. Mia just stood there and stared at his retreating figure, struck dumb by his observation and frozen to the spot between a ball-juggling clown and an impossibly bendy fire-eater.
Her mind raced as she watched him sink onto a purple velvet banquette between two of his siblings and begin to make quick work of the dessert. Her heart pounded and her blood heated as his words and their implication sank in.
Just a thought.
The man was a menace, she reflected, pulling herself together to navigate the obstacle course of scantily clad dancers atop podiums, magicians, acrobats, feathers and bubbles that led from louche sensuality to the welcome clinical soullessness of the kitchen. A tall, dark, gorgeous menace.
They’d met back in June, shortly after he’d contacted her to request her catering services at the party he was throwing to celebrate his thirty-fifth birthday.
Initially, she’d thought the call some kind of bizarre prank because why would a half-Greek, half-British shipping and banking tycoon who regularly graced the pages of both the financial and tabloid press be callingher? Halliday Catering was growing and gaining a reputation for being fresh and innovative, certainly, but it did not yet cater to members of the elite world in which he operated.
Once she’d got over her shock and disbelief, she’d been ridiculously flattered when he’d told her that he’d read an article about her in a magazine and had instantly determined that no one else would do. She’d fizzled with excitement at the realisation that his influence might lead to a stampede of his well-heeled friends and acquaintances to her door, thereby securing the future of her business.
Because she tended to liaise with clients remotely in the early stages of planning an event, she never imagined that two days later he’d turn up at her premises on an industrial estate in east London to discuss the menuin person. At no point had she considered that, having done so, he’d bowl her over so thoroughly with his devastating looks and powerful presence that, from that point on, all she’d be able to think about when it came to him was sex.
Inconveniently, however, that was precisely what had happened.
Without so much as a text to inform her of his intentions, he’d strolled into her unit that afternoon and every one of her senses had switched to high alert. She’d instinctively looked up and then shot to her feet, as if her computer had given her an electric shock. She’d placed her hand in his and gazed dazedly into eyes the colour of cocoa while he’d introduced himself in deep faintly accented tones that oozed through her like warm golden syrup, and she’d been immediately gripped by an attraction that had turned out to be fierce and unrelenting.
In the weeks that followed, whenever an email dropped into her inbox, her heart skipped a beat. At the sight of his name flashing up on her phone her mouth dried and her head swam. In preparation for each of their three working lunches, she’d taken extra care with her clothes and make-up, even as she’d berated herself for her vanity.
It hadn’t helped that he’d made no secret of his attraction to her, which she really couldn’t fathom when he’d dated virtually every supermodel and socialite on the planet. However, he spoke to her as if she were the only woman in existence and ran his gaze over her body as if mentally undressing her. The intensity of his attention left her dazed and breathless and increasingly on the brink of doing the job for him.
But despite the charm he wielded like a weapon and the slow sexy smile he deployed to dazzling effect, with superhuman effort, Mia had held out. She’d refused his invitation to dinner, even saying no to a drink, and become immune to the teasing gleam in his eye. She’d ignored the knowing air that suggested he enjoyed testing her willpower by subtly laying siege to her defences and had convinced herself that the flare of emotion she’d caught in his expression when she’d turned him down must have been disbelief because in a player like him it couldn’t possibly have been hurt.
She would not jeopardise this opportunity to get her name out there by caving in to base desires and fanciful sentimentality and potentially messing up such an important job. She needed to stay focused and on track if she wanted her company to become number one in its field. To achieve the financial and environmental security she’d lacked as a child—a child who’d regularly missed school to care for her increasingly sick mother, a child who’d kept secrets and lived in fear of being ripped away by social services from everything she’d ever known—she had to remain strong.
And she had.
Until he’d murmured those words in her ear just now and sent her into a spin.
