The Greek Tycoon's Baby

by Lynne Graham


Chapter One

DAY ONE: MONDAY
When the stretch limo pulled up outside, the executives waiting in the foyer fell silent. The new owner of Devlin Systems, the Greek multimillionaire, Leos Kiriakos, had arrived. His ruthless reputation had preceded him and the tension was electric. Everyone was expecting a huge round of redundancies by the end of the month.
Susie Marshall, the slender redhead on reception, was pale as death, her entire concentration centered on the entrance doors being swept open. In just seconds, she would see him for the first time in fourteen long, endless months...
Her co-worker, Jayne, a chatty blonde, whispered, "Bet he’s not anything as attractive as his publicity photos!"
Susie snatched in an unsteady breath and clenched her hands tightly together. From the instant Leos Kiriakos had added Devlin Systems to his global business empire, nobody had been interested in talking about anything else. Frantically trying to calculate how to avoid being seen by Leos when she had the misfortune to work on the front desk had run Susie’s nerves ragged.


"In fact, it’s my bet that below chin level, our Leos will be short and round, and about as sexy as a socks-wash!" Jayne said ruefully.
In immediate contradiction of that forecast, a male who was an easy six foot four inches tall strode in. With his wide shoulders, lean hips and long powerful legs, he had the well-honed physique of a natural athlete. From the crown of his proud dark head to the soles of his hand-made shoes, he was, by any standard, spectacular.
"I have just died and gone to heaven...." Jayne swore as the executives engulfed Leos Kiriakos, desperate to make a good first impression. "Drop dead gorgeous and loaded!"
"Yes..." Susie mumbled shakily, unable to drag her eyes from those bold, bronzed features. She was dizzy with a longing that shamed her, for the bittersweet memory of the last night she had spent in Leos’ arms now felt like a guilty secret.
While Leos appeared fully occupied, Susie left the desk and headed for the cloakroom, intending to stay there until the coast was clear.
"Susie...?"
In shock, she froze in her tracks, the startling intervention of that rich, dark voice on a clear and rising question so horrifically unexpected, she almost died right there and then. Slowly, she turned. The men surrounding Leos had parted like the Red Sea.
Heart racing so fast she was afraid she would faint, Susie collided with glittering tawny-golden eyes set between black, spiky lashes. Having initially moved forward, Leos stilled and moved an authorative hand to indicate that she should come to him. His lean, strong face was as hard as granite.
"You work here?" Leos enquired grimly.
Painfully conscious that they were now the focus of astonished stares and surrounded by total silence, Susie nodded jerkily.
"In what capacity?" His fabulous bone structure was taut, the long-lashed brilliance of his eyes raking over her like slashing shards of ice.
"I’m on reception." Susie practically whispered.
His aggressive jawline squared. With a bleak nod of dismissal, Leos swung away from her — again.

Chapter Two
DAY TWO: TUESDAY
Susie peered at her still-swollen eyes in the vanity mirror and suppressed a groan. She had not slept the night before.
A plaintive cry sent her whirling round. Across the room, her baby son was clutching his crib bars in frustration. His toy keys had fallen to the carpet. As she restored the ring to his tiny grasping hand, she smiled as his cross little face cleared like magic.
Ben was six months old. He had silky dark curls, huge melting brown eyes and dimples. His features were still rounded and indistinct but he already bore a marked resemblance to his father in hair, skin, and eye color, Susie conceded wretchedly.
And there was no denying that she was wretched. Only yesterday, Leos had looked at her with icy hostility. His attitude had really hurt. But then, she and Leos had not parted the best of friends and the pain of that cruel severance remained, biting deepest whenever she looked at the son she adored.
Coping as a single parent had not been easy. Her brother David, who worked abroad, allowed her to live rent-free in his apartment. Without his generosity, she would have been forced to live on welfare. Having Ben cared for in the Devlin Systems day care swallowed half of her salary. What was left over would not stretch to paying a London rent and living expenses as well.
On the bus to work, Susie thought back uneasily to Jayne’s reaction to what she had witnessed.
"Well, you’ve certainly been a dark horse," Jayne had sniped. "Why didn’t you say that you actually knew Leos Kiriakos?"
So Susie had told part of the truth but not the whole. Although she had a business degree, she’d been working as an office temp when she first met Leos Kiriakos. While he was over on London on business, flu had laid low two of his personal staff. Susie had arrived at his hotel suite, proud to have got the opportunity but secretly quaking in her shoes. She had fallen in love at first sight of his breathtaking smile. In a split second, he had gone from being the intimidating and powerful Greek tycoon, whom she wanted to impress with her efficiency, to being simply the man of her dreams.
When Leos had asked her out to dinner, she had been overjoyed. Six weeks of ecstatic happiness followed before everything began to go wrong...
Susie hurried into the Devlin Systems building and left Ben in the ground floor nursery. As always, leaving him was a wrench. And like every other employee using the excellent childcare facility, she was anxiously wondering whether Leos Kiriakos would keep such a staff luxury.
When she arrived at reception, Jayne pushed a sheet of paper toward her. "Looks like you’re on the way up..."
Susie frowned. "What’s this?"
"Personnel sent it down. You have an interview with Leos Kiriakos tomorrow afternoon." Jayne’s envy was unconcealed. "You must have made quite an impression the last time you worked for him..."

Chapter Three
DAY THREE: WEDNESDAY
At ten to three the next day, Susie presented herself on the top floor, dressed in a dark-green skirt suit, with a longer-length jacket, her streaky red-gold curls caught up in a clip, her emerald eyes were strained, the pallor marking her delicate features pronounced.
Two sleepless nights in a row. She had lain awake fretting about whether or not Leos now knew that she had a child. Leos, who had once angrily given forth on the subject of a friend "trapped for the next 20 years by a pregnant woman on the make!"
Had Leos looked at her personnel file? If he had, he would surely have found out that she had given birth to a premature baby, eight months after they broke up!
She was sent straight down the corridor to the managing director’s office. Sick with nervous tension, she knocked on the door and entered.
Leos was on the phone, his hard, chiseled profile intent. He indicated the chair set several feet from his desk and returned to his call. Susie sat down and tried to keep her hands steady. She tried crazily to recall what constituted defensive body language, for Leos was certain to know. As she watched him, an emotional pain that was almost physical held her taut.
He had replaced her with another woman without telling her. But then there had been extenuating circumstances for his behavior. And the truth was, Susie had yet to get over her affair with Leos Kiriakos.
"Sorry about that." Pushing aside the phone, Leos sprang upright, emanating the megawatt energy that was so much a part of him. "Stop looking at me like a scared little mouse, Susie. I didn’t bring you up here either to sack you or abuse you. Believe it or not, I can take having been dumped without behaving like Neanderthal man!"
Was this the guy who had growled down the phone at her 14 months ago, "no woman dumps me!" Connecting with eyes of stunning tawny-gold clarity set below level ebony brows, Susie was mesmerized, her heart hammering, her bewildered mind blank. Fortunately Leos was still talking, his rich-accented drawl like evocative long-missed music on her ears.
"I need a social secretary for the next month." Lithe as a jungle cat, Leos strolled over to the tinted windows. "You’re quick, you’re clever. You don’t irritate the hell out of me with stupid questions. When I move on from here, you’ll be an executive assistant on the management team."
Disconcerted by his every word, Susie just sank deeper into shock. Clearly, she had been over-sensitive on the day of his arrival, mistaking his natural surprise at seeing her as hostility. "Social s-secretary?"
Leos quoted a salary that made her head spin and then glanced at his gold watch with impatience. "If you want the position it’s yours and you start tomorrow. We’ll discuss your duties then. I’m rather pushed for time today."
"I’ll take it..." she heard herself say, even though his quite shattering indifference to their former relationship pierced her like a knife....


Chapter Four
DAY FOUR: THURSDAY MORNING
Leos was chairing a board meeting when Susie arrived.
Nervous as a cat on hot bricks, she organized the small office allotted to her. Finally, the phone rang and she was summoned into the boardroom. Leos immediately stood up, provoking a noisy thrusting back of seats as the all-male management team surged to emulate his good manners.
"Not only has Miss Marshall a topflight marketing degree, but she is also fluent in French and Spanish," Leos said, disconcerting Susie a great deal with that introduction. "What was she doing down on reception?"
Looking aghast, the personnel manager froze.
"A business that fails to place promising staff in a key position is wasteful." Leos delivered. "I have also taken note of the fact that there are no female managers, an extraordinary achievement in a firm this size."
On that thought for the day, Leos closed the meeting. Suddenly, Susie understood that there had been nothing personal about his decision to promote her. He had simply used her to highlight his lecture about equal opportunities! A confusing mixture of reluctant admiration, pain and resentment assailed her.
A vision of masculine sophistication in a superb gray business suit, Leos showed Susie into his office. "Last month Devlin Systems settled two charges of sexual discrimination out of court. There will not be a third —"
"I thought you didn’t approve of working women —"
Leos raised a brow. "You were the first working woman I took to my bed and you were often unavailable when I wanted you. What I seek for my own satisfaction in my private life has no relation to my opinions as an employer."
Hotly flushed in receipt of that blunt clarification, Susie tore her gaze from his and regretted her own over-familiar comment. All those months ago, she had only actually worked for Leos for three days before their passionate affair began and she had moved on to another agency placement.
"I have a long list of tasks for you," Leos continued without skipping a beat, the heavy silence not seeming to disturb him in the slightest.
But then, she already knew that he did not have a sensitive bone in his body, didn’t she? Everything Leos did merely emphasized that she had never been more than a casual bed partner — on his terms. Her throat convulsed with tears.
He extended an audiotape to her. "It’s all on here. First, you send out the invitations to the dinner party. Then you can nip over to Bond Street and choose a bracelet for Brigitte. I’ll fill in the gift card."
Powered by a near-agonizing sense of humiliation and pain, Susie lifted her head, green eyes alight with outrage.
"You are asking me to choose jewelry for your current lover?’ she exclaimed and flung the tape back at his feet. "You call that work? I call it victimization and revenge. Burn in hell, Leos!’
Leos studied her with incredulous tawny eyes.
"I hate you...I really hate you! You were the biggest mistake I ever made in my whole life!" And on that embittered declaration, Susie stalked out....








Chapter Five

DAY FOUR: THURSDAY AFTERNOON
An hour later, Susie’s tumultuous emotions calmed enough for her to slowly fill with horror at her own behavior.
She had spent 10 minutes silently sobbing in the cloakroom, 20 minutes trying to pull herself back together and the subsequent 30 minutes hugging Ben in the day care.
Ben, whose comfort and security were dependant on her success in the job market. Ben, whose mother had just lost her foolish head and screamed like a shrew at a monstrously insensitive male. Ben, whose mother now had to eat humble pie for his sake.
Back on the top floor, Susie knocked on Leos’ office door with a hand she couldn’t keep steady. Infuriated with herself, she whirled back flat against the wall and breathed in deeply before going in.
Lounging back in his desk chair, Leos surveyed her, his lean, powerful face unreadable.
"I owe you an apology. I don’t know what came over me." Susie attempted to look through him rather than at him.
"I have a very good idea what came over you," Leos drawled softly.
"Naturally, I’m willing to carry out whatever duties the job entails," Susie stated hurriedly, to avoid him passing an opinion on what had provoked her.
"Including shopping for the woman in my life?" Leos inquired even more silkily.
Susie shivered and her hands knotted into fists. She didn’t argue but she couldn’t force out a word of agreement.
"To think that while we were together I never once saw that temper." Narrowed tawny eyes were pinned to her with laser light intensity. "You were hysterical earlier."
"And offensive. I’m sorry," she told him tightly. "It won’t happen again."
"Brigitte is my brother’s wife. The dinner party is to celebrate her birthday...." Leos watched the tide of pink mortification sweep up over Susie’s complexion.
But her relief was so intense at that news, it outweighed her embarrassment. Involuntarily, she met his eyes. His wide, passionate mouth curved into a slow, burning smile and her willpower went into free fall, allowing disturbingly intimate memories to surface:
Leos kissing her with driving hunger, sending her out of control with excitement. Heat consumed her entire skin surface. She trembled, heartbeat speeding, pulses racing in concert, as she felt her treacherous body respond as it had always done to his potent sexuality.
And then she recalled the angry, half-naked blonde she had found in his apartment 14 months back. It had been her own fault, rushing over there without an invitation, finally making use of the key he had given her — wanting to surprise him — mercifully failing to do so. Fortunately, Leos had already gone, but his blonde bombshell hadn’t got around to putting her clothes back on. That humiliating memory doused the wanton heat inside her as efficiently as a bucket of ice water.
"Susie...?" Leos questioned almost roughly.
Susie wrenched her shamed gaze from him. "Am I still working for you?"
"The tape’s in your office, along with an address book. There’s a pile of correspondence to take care of as well. I’ll be out of the office until Monday..."






Chapter Six

DAY FIVE: FRIDAY
Susie went to work, reminding herself that Leos would only be at Devlin Systems for a further three weeks. Almost a week had gone already and he still had no idea that she had a child. Why should he find out? Who, after all, would choose to comment on the fact?
The day before, Susie had kept on endlessly replaying the latest audiotape just to listen to Leos’ dark, deep, accented drawl. She had learnt that he had recently bought a house in London and that she was to organize his dinner party. The caterers were already booked but Susie had to see them to organize the finer details. Ruefully wondering why Leos’ efficient Greek manservant, Stamatis, was not taking care of such domestic matters for him. Susie’s increasingly confused and pained thoughts inevitably took her back nearly 18 months.
She had fallen for Leos Kiriakos like a ton of bricks and had counted no costs when he became her first lover. She had known that Leos had a fast reputation with women. Gorgeous, wealthy, dazzlingly successful and then only 29 years old, Leos had had the world at his feet. However, what hurt Susie most was acknowledging that she could not entirely blame Leos for getting tired of her....
A few weeks into their magical, romantic affair, her mother had died suddenly. In every way possible, Leos had been supportive. However, Susie had changed into a moody misery. What male wanted to deal with such problems after a mere few weeks? Naturally, Leos had got fed up, but her dependency on him had made it difficult for him to ditch her, so he had let their relationship drift, doubtless hoping that she would get the message on her own.
Unfortunately, Susie recalled, drifting back to the present with her eyes swimming with tears as she fed Ben in the day care over her lunch hour, the first and only message she had received had been the half-naked blonde. Dumping Leos on the phone that same day had been a pitiful attempt to save face, for she hadn’t mentioned her humiliating encounter with her replacement.
Late that afternoon an elegant, vivacious brunette strolled into Susie’s office. "I’m Alisha James. Get hold of Leos for me and inform him that I’m free this weekend after all." A sultry smile curved her ripe mouth. "Tell him I have the most divine ideas for his bedroom!"
Susie reddened, striving to keep her friendly smile in place. "I’m afraid I only have access to a message service. I don’t know where Mr. Kiriakos is, but I’ll try to find out."
Alisha laughed throatily. "No need. When Leos gets the message — and don’t you dare change a word of it — he’ll know where to find me waiting."
As the brunette departed, Susie dialed Leos’ message service, loathing him and the position he had put her in with bitter, angry pain. She passed on Alisha’s provocative invitation, and then tormenting, humiliating jealousy flooded her and she said with artificial brightness to punish herself, "have a great weekend!"

Chapter Seven

DAY EIGHT: MONDAY MORNING
Susie had spent the weekend in torment at the idea of what Leos might be doing with Alisha James.
Ashamed at the emotional turmoil that had destroyed her ability to sleep a single night through and utterly exhausted, Susie arrived at work. She was so angry with herself. Plenty of women had their hearts broken and got on with their lives. Leos was giving her a terrific career opportunity. That was all she should be concentrating on.
Entering her office, she was dismayed to find Leos waiting for her. Sheathed in a superb charcoal grey suit, lean strong face firm, he settled his dark eyes on her.
She stilled. "Is there something wrong?"
"Thee mou...it is well for you that I have had two days to cool down." Hard mouth compressed, jawline squared, Leos surveyed her in angry challenge. "How dare you leave such a message for me? That nonsense from Alisha crowned by your snide comment!"
While now appreciating that Leos did not like provocative messages made through third parties, Susie could not comprehend how wishing him a great weekend could have acquired the label of "snide."
"I don’t understand."
"No...?" Derision glittered in his level gaze. "Do you honestly believe that I can’t recognize jealousy when I see and hear it?"
Susie reddened fiercely. She was too honest to lie and too mortified to continue meeting his scrutiny. He had to think that either she was neurotically possessive or still madly keen on him.
Perhaps, had he not hurt her so badly, or had she not given birth to his baby, she would have managed to wholly detach herself from their shared past. However, with Ben around, their affair was still very much a major event in her memory, even it is wasn’t in his.
Without warning, Leos abandoned his confrontational stance. He reached down for her hand, thoroughly disconcerting her with that sudden switch in mood. "Susie...I didn’t intend to say that. I’m sorry."
Susie stared down at the strong brown hand cradling hers, drawn by the warmth and solidarity of him but sent reeling by memories that tormented her. "That’s okay."
"Let’s have lunch together and clear the air," he suggested.
Lunch? Wildly conscious of the proximity of his lean, powerful physique, Susie trembled, torn by resentment and longing. If only it were that simple, she thought painfully. If only they could act like sane, civilized people. Evidently he was capable of that feat but, sadly, she was not.
"There is no reason for us to be enemies," Leos continued.
Really? For an insane instant, she wanted to scream back at him in denial. He had gone to bed with another woman while she still believed he was hers. She might have understood but she had not forgiven.
"I’m sorry..." Susie eased free and backed away, exhaustion weighing her down. "I’ll be more comfortable if we stick to a working relationship."
Shimmering, dark eyes held hers. The silence seethed. Leos inclined his dark head and strode out of her office....

Chapter Eight

DAY EIGHT: MONDAY AFTERNOON
Susie stretched out a sleepy hand and felt something furry and unfamiliar. Extending her fingers she touched cool...leather? Her eyes opened on a startling view of Leos’ office.
Leos strolled into the picture, all fluid grace and cool.
Susie sat up on the leather sofa, hampered by the fake fur rug still wrapped round her. "What on earth —?"
Leos shrugged "I found you asleep at your desk before lunch. I tried to wake you but you were well away —"
"You should have shaken me awake!" Bright hair tumbling loose round her shoulders, Susie fought free of the rug and stood up to look for her shoes. "For goodness sake, why did you bring me in here?"
Leos frowned, "Where else could you sleep in comfort?"
"But you must’ve carried me in..." Susie protested. "Who knows about this?"
"Nobody. I sneaked you in." His charismatic smile tilted her heart on its axis and left her breathless. "Susie...you looked worn out this morning."
"Nevertheless..." Attempting to disconnect from the magnetic charge of his tawny gaze, Susie combed her hair awkwardly with her fingers. "I feel such a mess —"
"I like your hair down...as you used to wear it." Leos moved closer. "It’s pretty, natural. I can see all the colors."
Susie could feel his approach pulse through her every skin-cell. Her mouth was dry, her heart thumping. The atmosphere sizzled with sexual awareness. She quivered but her feet stayed put. Caught unprepared, brain still foggy with sleep, her barriers were down and she could not resist the dark force of his attraction, or her own craving for physical contact.
Leos settled his hands on her taut shoulders. "I’m not into sexually harassing employees. So you choose whether or not to walk away —"
Susie gulped. "I —"
"But if you don’t walk away now, there’s no going back," Leos warned huskily.
Meeting those brilliant eyes, she told herself it was a dream — a dream from which she did not intend to awaken. He moved one hand to her spine and eased her closer. You’re not dreaming, you’re wide awake, Susie, her conscience shrieked against her will. But she heard herself mumble, "Just one kiss..."
Leos folded her into his arms and knotted his fingers into her bright hair, satisfaction blazing in his smoldering gaze as he scanned her face. "You are bargaining with me...or yourself?"
He didn’t wait for her reply and while she was still trying to fight herself, he brought his expert mouth down on hers. By that stage, weak with anticipation, she felt like a powder keg craving a flame. And whoosh...Leos did not disappoint.
She burned with excitement and joy, wanting, needing to touch him, close her straining fingers into the thick silk of his hair, shape his arrogant dark head, settle her palms to his proud cheekbones, hold him tight. Hold him fast, never, ever let him go again...
Leos lifted his head. "It’s almost six. We’ll have dinner...talk —"
"Almost six?" Susie exclaimed, tearing herself free and racing for the door. The day care shut at half-past five and she was late picking up Ben!

Chapter Nine

DAY EIGHT: MONDAY EVENING
Safely home again, Susie had just settled Ben for the night when the apartment doorbell sounded.
Peering through the peephole, she saw Leos and panic gripped her. Too late she appreciated that running out on Leos without explanation had been even more stupid than kissing him again. Reminding herself that Ben rarely stirred after he went to sleep, she opened the door.
"Why did you rush off like that?" Leos demanded, strong, dark features taut.
Face burning, conflicting emotions tearing at her, Susie went into the sitting room ahead of him. "Regret... embarrassment —"
"No need for either... " A lean hand closed to her shoulder and turned her back to face him. His eyes sought hers. "I want you back, Susie."
Shock held her still.
With a slumberous sigh, Leos lifted a hand and gently ran a forefinger along the line of her full lower lip. "Why so surprised? You should know I don’t play games. What you see is what you get —"
"Is it really?" The question erupted from Susie and she whirled away from him, physical senses singing from his touch but her mind a stormy sea of bewilderment. "Does Alisha James know you’re here?"
Leos released a rueful groan. "Where I go or what I do has nothing to do with my decorator —"
"Your... what?"
"Alisha’s firm is decorating my house."
Though the brunette evidently aspired to a more intimate connection with Leos then she had yet achieved, Susie was embarrassed at having made yet another false assumption.
"Wrong... again." His lustrous eyes now bright with amusement, Leos studied Susie’s expression. "But who cares? I don’t. Right now, the only woman I want in my life is you —"
A jarring laugh escaped Susie. "You told me that once before —"
"I don’t understand your bitterness. You ditched me." Humor set aside, lean powerful face intent, Leos frowned. "Were you crying wolf when you did that? Was I supposed to run after you and try to change your mind?"
"No —"
"It was a bad time for you because you’d lost your mother. But you slammed the door on what we had as if it meant nothing to you. I need you to explain why you did that."
Susie’s eyes widened at his demand. Leos sounded so sincere. Possibly he was not aware that she had found that blonde in his apartment. But he was a clever guy; he had to have suspected that she had discovered his infidelity.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Susie lifted up her chin. "Why are you acting innocent? Did you think I wouldn’t find out?"
"Find... out... what?" Leos trailed out with exaggerated frustration.
"You were two-timing me... and you know you were!"
His fabulous bone structure clenched hard. "That’s a downright lie —"
"Oh, come on... I used that key you gave me for your apartment. A six-foot-tall blonde dressed in only her underwear walked out of your bedroom!"
Susie recognized the exact moment Leos made the connection. He paled with anger beneath his bronzed skin. He breathed something raw in Greek and swinging on his heel, he strode back out of the hall. "If I stay here I’ll say much that I will live to regret!"

Chapter Ten

DAY NINE: TUESDAY MORNING
Leos phoned Susie at nine-thirty the next morning.
"I won’t be in until later. But I’ve just remembered that I didn’t ask you to keep Wednesday evening free —"
"Why?"
"The dinner party. You’ll be acting as my hostess," Leos informed her dryly. "Choice doesn’t come into it either, Susie. I want you there."
"But I would prefer —"
"In your current capacity, it’s a reasonable request. If you want a working relationship, start treating me like your employer."
At that pointed reminder, Susie’s cheeks flamed. She was seriously tempted to put her head down and cry. Last night, she had finally faced up to her emotional turmoil. Being around Leos was tearing her apart because she was still in love with him. Learning that Leos wanted her back was almost more than she could handle.
A second chance, an insane little voice had whispered in the back of her mind, shaming and infuriating her — for what could be more impossible in the current circumstances?
Leos Kiriakos had not the faintest idea that she had given birth to his child! They had parted before she realized that she was pregnant. Even worse, that development could be laid almost exclusively at her own door. She had been grieving for her mother and had twice forgotten to take her contraceptive pills. Leos had then swept her off to Paris in the rather touching last-chance belief that a romantic weekend might magically dry her tears and cheer her up. Well, she hadn’t cheered up but she had spent the night in his arms. Ben had been conceived in Paris.
Over her lunch hour, she and Ben made a mad dash out to the shops. As always, it was a struggle to steer the buggy through the crowds but Ben adored getting out and about. Back in the Devlin Systems building, Susie headed for the daycare.
By the time she saw Leos standing by the elevators, it was too late to do anything but just attempt to walk on by with a jerky nod of acknowledgement. Ebony brows pleating at the sight of her pushing a buggy, Leos froze in surprise.
Every scrap of color drained from Susie’s complexion. Time was moving in slow motion for her. An elevator arrived with a loud pinging noise. Leos was still staring. She saw his hesitation and then he forced her to a standstill by moving forward. "Where did you steal the baby from?"
Her heart felt like it was hammering inside her throat, making it impossible for her to breathe. "The daycare... "
"What daycare?"
"Devlin Systems has a daycare... "
"Has it really?" Leos frowned. "I wonder why I wasn’t shown it when I was getting the official tour."
"It’s beside the cafeteria. I imagine people thought you might not be interested," Susie whispered shakily.
"So who does the baby belong to?"
Her own lifetime seemed to stretch in the silence which followed.
Susie parted dry lips. "He’s... he’s mine."
Leos studied her in stunned silence. Then his tawny eyes darkened with incredulous fury. "Thanks for telling me!"
Without another word, he strode into the elevator...

Chapter Eleven

DAY NINE: TUESDAY AFTERNOON
By the time Susie got back up to her office, the phone was ringing.
It was Leos. "I want to see you in my office."
Stiff with strain, Susie breathed in deep. Showdown-time had arrived, she conceded heavily. And if Leos’ instantaneous rage on the ground floor was anything to go by, she could only dread what was coming next. Could there have been a worse way for Leos discover that he was a father?
Leos was by the window with a glass in his hand. He swung round, bold, bronzed features grim. "Why didn’t you just tell me you had a baby?"
"Leos —"
"Don’t you think I had the right to know?"
"Well, it was more a matter —"
"You let me kiss you... you let me think... " Leos compressed his lips, lines of strain girding his hard mouth, and then he tossed back the remainder of the whisky in his glass.
"All right, so you’re shocked —"
"What did you expect? I’ve been chasing you like some stupid kid and you sat back and you let me, knowing I didn’t have a clue what you were keeping from me!" Outraged eyes challenged her. "How could I have worked out that you’d had a child since I last saw you? It’s little more than a year since we were together —"
Susie was rigid, but her legs were starting to tremble. "I never thought of telling you... it was stupid, I believed I could keep Ben a secret —"
Leos released his breath with a stark hiss. "You had the gall to accuse me of infidelity? And all this time, do you know what I believed? I thought you dumped me because you couldn’t allow yourself to be happy even with me while you were grieving —"
"What are you getting at?" Leos seemed to be circling round, rather than centering on, the main issue, which was surely Ben.
" — and all along it was because you’d met someone else! The oldest story in the book, only I refused to see it," Leos ground out.
"I’d met... someone else?" Susie stressed in bewilderment.
"The father of your baby. Where is he? Since you’re living in your brother’s apartment, I assume the father is long gone!"
As Susie finally understood that Leos believed that she had conceived Ben with some other man, dismay and anger filled her. "You assume —"
"Forget it... I don’t want to know the sordid details!" Leos proceeded to pour himself another shot of alcohol. "In fact, I don’t even know why I said I wanted to talk to you, because really, what is there left to say?"
"You’ve already said more than enough!" Susie shot back at him in furious pain.
Leos shot her a sardonic appraisal. "You were too scared to tell me you had had a baby. Admit it —"
"I refuse to continue this conversation!"
"You have my permission to leave."
Susie reached the door. She was shaking like a leaf.
"Thee mou... now you’re trying to make me feel guilty. But your silence was inexcusable. You deceived me!"
"Just like you once deceived me! Why should I care about how you feel now?" Susie slammed out.



Chapter Twelve

DAY TEN: WEDNESDAY
At nine the following morning, Susie looked up from her computer monitor, just as Leos came in. In a fluid movement he leaned back against the door to close it.
She had spent the previous evening telling herself that she truly loathed Leos Kiriakos. How could he simply assume that her baby was some other man’s? That was the one possibility she had not foreseen. And wasn’t it peculiar that Leos had shrugged off being confronted about that blonde? Was that his idea of smart footwork? Just act like the blonde had never happened? Well, her memory was sharp as nails.
So it was unfortunate that no matter how mad and bitter Leos made her, he still took her breath away every time she saw him. Standing there, ruggedly masculine even in a formal business suit, aggressive jawline clenched, stunning eyes screened, Leos exuded a slight but perceptible discomfiture that unexpectedly tugged at her heartstrings.
"If you’ve got something to say, say it," Susie sighed.
"I suppose a sensitive but self-serving, dishonest guy would have leapt straight on the child and said ‘Wow, this is just the cutest baby I ever saw!’"
"Did you even look at Ben?"
"I didn’t want to look at him... " A split second after admitting that, Leos gritted even white teeth and spread lean brown hands in frustration. "Scratch that comment —"
"Just sensitively slipped out, did it?" Susie turned back to the computer. "Not into babies, are you?"
"No comment. I’m only here to tell you to go out this morning and buy yourself an evening gown for the dinner party." As she sat there stunned by the concept of Leos paying for anything she wore, he settled a gold credit card down on her dark desk and mentioned the name of an exclusive designer outlet. "It’s a legitimate business expense —"
"Is this an order?"
"Yes," Leos confirmed without hesitation. "Appearances are everything in my world. I don’t want anybody talking down to you —"
"I am only the hired help, Leos —"
"For how much longer?"
Susie raised shaken eyes to his. "Is that a threat?"
"You should know me better than that." Brilliant tawny-golden eyes flared with exasperation. "Call it like it is, Susie. When I look at you, I ache and you feel the same way —"
Susie quivered with an angry response, but she didn’t know whom she was most furious with: herself for her quickened breathing and shameless shivery weakness, or him for making that arrogant claim with such cool. "Did the blonde make you feel like that?"
"Never... "
"Tough... " In the charged silence, Susie tore her anguished gaze from his, shattered by that single word with which he appeared to finally admit his cruel betrayal. "You can’t turn the clock back. I could never trust you."
"How good at groveling, are you?" Leos murmured silkily on his way out.
Groveling? Not for all the tea in China, not even for a fresh start with the man she still loved.
But it was time she told him the truth about Ben, Susie conceded with bitter reluctance. Eventually, Ben would ask who his father was and expect answers. How could she allow Leos to continue believing that Ben was another man’s son? How had she ever imagined that she could keep quiet forever when it was not just her secret to keep...?

Chapter Thirteen

DAY TEN: WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
"The wildest rumors are flying around about you and the boss!" Jayne’s gaze rested on Susie with speculative heat and then dropped to the exclusive designer dress box parked beside the desk. "Watch your back, because the grapevine is exploding around this building!"
"Really?" Susie was appalled to recognize yet another dimension to her problems, one she couldn’t believe it had taken someone else to point out. She also wished she’d had the wit to hide the dress box.
"Leos Kiriakos will be moving on, but you have to work here —"
"What kind of wild rumors?"
Jayne winced. "Well, they range from the two of you supposedly spending almost the whole of Monday afternoon in his office without coming out once... to the outer reaches of credibility —"
"And the outer reaches are?" Susie mumbled.
"Nasty... that your Ben... well, you know he’s got that lovely dark coloring —"
"Say no more... " Susie dropped her head to hide her horror at the devastating accuracy of the grapevine.
"The management team thinks you’re planning to spy on their every move and report back to the boss. The word is that when you’re with Leos Kiriakos, the door is always closed."
It was perfectly true, and not at all the norm in meetings between a junior employee and a powerful business tycoon. Suffering agonies of self-blame and already pitched to the emotional heights on the knowledge that she had to tell Leos that Ben was his son, Susie swept up the phone and hit Leos’ extension number, as soon as Jayne had departed.
"Leos... I need to talk to you but I don’t want to come around to your office —"
"Why?"
"I believe our behavior has caused a lot of gossip —"
"I don’t take account of that sort of nonsense." Leos sounded very male and very superior. "Neither should you —"
"Look, we need to talk about Ben —"
"No... I’m not ready for that... I may never be ready for that," Leos spelled out with blunt emphasis.
"You don’t understand —"
"I understand perfectly. You and your child are a package deal. I may be insensitive but I’m not stupid." Leos drawled with cutting clarity. "I’ll send a car over to pick you up this evening at seven."
Click! He’d ended the conversation. Susie groaned in disbelief. Why was Leos so certain that he could get her back? Was it so obvious to him that she still cared? How dare he tell her that he was still working out whether or not he could face taking her back, now that she had a child?
Fifteen minutes later, during her lunch break, it was a shock for Susie to glance out of the daycare’s kitchen from where she was collecting Ben’s food, and see Leos in conversation with the daycare supervisor. A fixed smile on his lean strong face, he was scanning the busy room, his attention lingering on every baby within view. Finally he asked a question to his companion.
Susie watched the discomfited supervisor indicate Ben. Leos zeroed in on Ben and just paled, his fabulous bone structure rigid. One minute later, he strode back out again.

Chapter Fourteen

DAY TEN: WEDNESDAY EVENING
Had Leos worked out that Ben was his son? That was all that Susie had thought about since lunchtime. Leos had not only left the daycare, he had left the building, and he had not returned.
At seven, Susie was collected from her apartment by a limo. In the sleek midnight-blue evening gown she had selected earlier that day, she would have felt like a million dollars had her nerves not be strung as tight as piano-wires.
Leos greeted Susie in the magnificent hall of his town house. Spectacular in a well-cut dinner jacket, Leos ran appreciatively dark eyes over her and a brilliant smile slashed his wide, sensual mouth. "I want you to meet my brother and his wife before the other guests arrive."
Susie remembered once seeing a photo of his younger brother, Petros, but right at that moment, Susie would have preferred to speak to Leos alone. But, obviously, it was neither the time nor the place to make a big confession about Ben. She had been foolish to think that Leos might have guessed the truth just by looking at Ben. But she honestly didn’t know how she was going to tell Leos she had had his baby.
Leos rested a hand to her taut spine. "You remember that blonde who walked out of my bedroom and shocked you last year?"
Susie froze. "Yes... but what on earth —?"
"Brigitte had just come out of a clinic here in London after a miscarriage. I moved into a hotel to give Petros and Brigitte the privacy of my apartment until they flew back to Greece." Leos explained. "I believe Petros was in the shower when you arrived —"
"Are you trying to convince me that —?"
But Susie got no further for they had reached the drawing room, where a very tall blonde was standing beside Petros Kiriakos. Leos was attempting to convince her that the half-naked angry blonde had been Brigitte, his sister-in-law. She refused to believe it... but right there in front of her was the evidence. Brigitte was the woman whom Susie had found in Leos’ apartment and she looked rather embarrassed.
"This is a case of my sins coming back to haunt me, Susie." Brigitte gave her a rueful smile of apology. "I was so rude to you that day that I didn’t even mention our meeting to Petros, never mind anybody else! It’s no excuse, but I was very emotional at the time and you just walking in; well, I lost my temper... totally forgot that it wasn’t our apartment —"
"That’s fine... I understand. Really, please don’t worry about it!" In severe shock at what Leos had confronted her with, Susie passed his sister-in-law a small gaily-wrapped parcel with a reassuring smile. "Happy birthday, Brigitte."
Her legs felt like cottonwood sticks. The crowd of chattering guests arriving provided a welcome distraction, but Susie could not have looked at Leos had her life depended on it.
"How good at groveling, are you?" he had asked earlier. How did one grovel when the very ground had been torn from below one’s feet? Susie was reeling...

Chapter Fifteen

DAY ELEVEN: THURSDAY MORNING
It was just after midnight.
Susie saw her babysitter out. Her eyes were burning in her head but the tears refused to come. When Leos’ guest had begun leaving, she had sneaked out and caught a cab home.
"I’m very sorry that I misjudged you," she had said woodenly to Leos.
"Is that it? Is that all you’ve got to say?" Leos had demanded.
She had been far too upset to say the right things. Fourteen months ago, it had been so easy for her to believe he had betrayed her. She had just been waiting for it to happen. Being madly in love with a man who never mentioned love and never made a date more than two days ahead had just been too much for her to handle in the wake of losing her mother.
That Leos should have preferred a beautiful blonde to her sad-and-sorry self had made perfect sense. She had believed Leos was a louse, a two-timing louse. Only he wasn’t. Now she was the one in the wrong, very much in the wrong.
The doorbell buzzed. She knew it was Leos. That was when her eyes finally filled with scorching tears. She loved him so much. How had everything gone so wrong?
White dress-shirt half unbuttoned to show a bronzed slice of muscular chest, his black hair ruffled and his hard jawline roughened by stubble, Leos looked like a very sexy pirate.
Susie said, "I don’t know what to say to you —"
Leos dropped the package he was carrying and caught her into his arms, scanning her damp eyes with frowning censure. And then, without any warning at all, he was kissing her with explosive passion, crushing her soft mouth under his over and over again, until she was clinging to him in shivering excitement, senses singing, her heart racing, mind a total wasteland. Raising his proud dark head, Leos gave her a wolfish grin and lifted her.
But he didn’t carry her in search of a bedroom. He settled her on the sofa, and reappeared with the package that he tossed on to her lap.
"What... what’s this?"
"It’s for Ben —"
"B-Ben?"
"I saw him in the daycare yesterday." Dark blood scoring his fabulous cheekbones, Leos shrugged. "He gave me this big smile... he looked little and helpless... I’m not going to say he’s the cutest baby I ever saw. He’s probably the first baby I ever really looked at."
Trembling, Susie tugged a blue velvet rabbit from the packaging and her throat convulsed once more with tears.
"I had something similar as a baby... " Leos shared.
Shame and guilt engulfed Susie, making her feel the lowest of the low. "Leos... Ben well, er...Ben is six months old."
Leos continued to survey her steadily.
"Ben is your son," Susie framed shakily. "There wasn’t any other man. I fell pregnant in Paris by you."
Heart sinking, she watched comprehension grow in his eyes. Then disbelief, shock, and acceptance, followed by a look of searing condemnation.
"What you have just told me," Leos breathed harshly, "is beyond all forgiveness."
Agonized, Susie watched Leos walk out on her and listened to the slam of her front door.

Chapter Sixteen

DAY ELEVEN: THURSDAY AFTERNOON
Within minutes of Leos’ arrival that afternoon at Devlin Systems, Susie was called to his office.
Leos raked chilling dark eyes over her. "Why did you come in today? Are you insane?"
Insane? In the automatic way that most people clung to routine in times of crisis, it had not occurred to Susie to stay home. "I — I —"
"Did you think I would want to meet my son for the first time in the workplace nursery?" His darkly handsome features were lit by the hostility of his gaze. "You go downstairs and you take my son out of there. Then you climb into the car waiting and you take Ben to my home."
Distressed by his bitter antagonism, Susie nodded. It should have dawned on her that Leos would wish to meet Ben. But only when Leos had presented her with the velvet rabbit, signifying his willingness to accept a child he had believed to have been another man’s, had Susie appreciated how strongly Leos might feel about his own child.
"You decided I had slept with another woman and you took your revenge by denying me the right to know my son," Leos condemned.
"We broke up long before I knew I was pregnant, " Susie protested. "Do you remember talking about that friend of yours who you said was ‘trapped’ by a pregnant woman on the make?"
"Don’t try to justify yourself on that basis. That woman’s child might have been fathered by any one of a half-dozen men! We had something very different... or at least, I thought we did —"
Susie flushed with discomfiture. "But I believed you might accuse me of being on the make because you were rich... I didn’t want the same label!"
"You will tender your resignation, " Leos continued as if she hadn’t spoken, determined, it seemed, to allow her no defense.
"Sacking me, too?"
"Protecting my son’s foolish mother from further damaging her reputation and mine —"
"Only yesterday, you told me you took no heed of such nonsense —"
"You should have told me the minute I entered this building that you had a baby, and that the baby was mine! Then... " Leos vented a humorless laugh, "you should have told me the day you realized you had conceived. I wouldn’t leave any woman struggling to raise my child alone —"
"Even if it was my fault it happened in the first place?"
"Surely I’m mature enough to accept that making love can make a baby? And that sometimes that particular creative event is out of our control?"
So she was pond slime. Tried and found guilty. From every angle he made that clear. She had misjudged him, made wrong decisions, assumed the worst, surrendered to her own pessimistic expectations.
Having been assailed by tears since the early hours, Susie’s throat ached, but she still had to ask him one question. "So... if I’d come to you a year ago and admitted I was pregnant, what would you have said?"
His stunning eyes cut like golden knives into her. "I would have said it was fate... and I would have married you."
"It’s easy to be perfect and self-righteous... after the event. " Susie left, feeling that he had ripped her heart out....

Chapter Seventeen

DAY ELEVEN: THURSDAY EVENING
Leos would have married her.
No mention of love though. No doubt he would have made her feel dreadful if he had married her, Susie told herself, no doubt they would both have been miserable. He had not loved her then and now even his respect for her was gone.
"He’s really bright...." Leos was watching their six-month-old son chortle and dig under the cushion to find the velvet rabbit his father had tried to conceal from him.
"Hmm... " Seated bolt upright in the drawing room of the town house, Susie studied man and baby, the black hair, golden skin, dark eyes that made them a matching duo.
Ben sat down on the rug. He’d had a nap earlier and Leos had gotten through that hour by asking constant questions about his son. What he liked, what he ate, how he slept, how big he was in comparison with other babies of his age, how clever he was in comparison with other babies of his age, how advanced in comparison with other babies of his age. For a male, who knew nothing about babies, Leos knew it all, including the fact that Ben had been born prematurely.
Why had she had never realized that Leos might be the sort of guy willing to crawl about the floor in a suit that had cost thousands of pounds and happily pretend to be a airplane, or a horse, or a car? Leos was still surveying Ben with a shell-shocked look of pride and pleasure lightening his lean, strong face. From what she could see, discovering he was a father appeared to be a positive source of joy to Leos Kiriakos.
"He’s dropping off again," Leos groaned in disappointment, as Ben’s lashes drooped and an enormous yawn showed off his baby teeth.
"This is his bedtime."
"Why didn’t you say?" Leos reproved.
"One late night won’t harm him —"
"But we should stick to his routine, now that he’s out of that daycare and he has your full attention —"
"Yes, I’m sorry I worked and neglected him by doing what thousands of other women do to make a living —"
"Don’t be facetious. I wasn’t blaming you. I was merely pointing out that Ben will much appreciate having you all day —"
"You’re planning to keep us, are you?" Susie viewed him with bleak eyes, willing the storm of angry, wounded conflict inside her to stay down, out of sight.
Leos lifted Ben from the rug with excruciatingly gentle hands and laid him down on a sofa, boxing in his sleeping son with a line of cushions. Then he hovered just in case Ben made a sudden attempt to climb over the safety-barrier and fall. "Obviously, we’re getting married. I’ve already been making enquiries about a special license. We’ll have the wedding as soon as possible."
In one sense Leos was offering Susie all her past and present secret dreams but at that moment, all that powered her was the terrible hurt he had caused. "I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man alive on earth!"

Chapter Eighteen

"I don’t want you doing the decent thing and marrying me... okay?" As Susie talked to Leos on the phone at nine the following morning, she was biting back sobs. "And at this hour of the day I do not want to talk about the stigma I am casting on your son by being an unmarried mother!"
"Why are you acting this way?" Leos demanded, being totally unreasonable.
Susie hung up the phone.
Leaving Ben with the neighbor, who babysat for her on the rare occasions that she went anywhere without him, Susie headed for Devlin Systems. She had to clear her desk. Hopefully, slipping in near lunchtime would attract the least attention.
Leos had been incredulous when she’d refused to marry him. Ben’s needs featured in his every argument. Sadly, Susie had not heard one word that she wanted to hear. His angry inability to forgive her for the past and his refusal to see both sides of the situation would inevitably wreck any marriage. It wasn’t enough for her to love him.
Susie had just finished clearing her desk when Leos appeared in the doorway. Unusually, he hovered. Nervous tension soaring, her heart skipped a beat. Tall, dark, devastatingly sexy, and stubborn as solid steel.
"You’ve never listened to my side of the story," Susie said.
"Meaning?"
"What it was like having my one and only affair with someone like you." Susie’s gaze clashed with his intense dark golden eyes. "You were romantic and caring but you never let me feel secure with you... you were too cool for that, too clever, even too fair to hint at a commitment you weren’t planning to make —"
Lean, powerful face taut, Leos frowned. "Susie —"
"By the time I met Brigitte in your apartment, I was already convinced you were getting bored with me. You gave me no reason to believe that we had a future beyond your next phone call," Susie asserted shakily. "Yet, you still believe I should have come running back with my big announcement that I was pregnant —"
"Don’t you think there might have been a gulf then between what I was feeling and what I was showing you I felt?" His lean hands clenched his sides.
"No. Even my Valentine card didn’t have that four letter word, love, on it, Mr. Cool." Misery was rising like a tidal wave inside Susie.
"I really do want to marry you —"
"You don’t have to marry me to see Ben." Emotion threatening to overwhelm her, Susie walked into the corridor.
"Susie... " Leos breathed raggedly.
Susie kept moving, eyes swimming with tears.
"I love you... "
Faltering, Susie blinked.
"I’ve always loved you!" Leos proclaimed with roughened force.
Fascinated faces appeared at doorways.
Susie turned in a dizzy circle. Meeting the raw vulnerable intensity of his gaze, reading the strain in his bronzed features, she saw that he meant every word. A wild surge of happiness engulfed her. "I love you too —"
"This public enough for you?" A wolfish grin slanting his mouth at the muted burst of applause from an audience that was afraid to be too enthusiastic, Leos strode toward her and swept her into his arms. "Mr. Cool just took a hike... "

Chapter Nineteen

DAY TWELVE: FRIDAY AFTERNOON
In the limousine, on the way to pick up Ben, Leos banded both arms around Susie and kept her welded to every line of his hard muscular physique. Having kissed her breathless, he was now frowning with masculine bewilderment. "I assumed you knew how I felt —"
"How? By thought-transference?"
"When we were together last year, I could have told you I loved you the first week but I decided it would be... well — "
"Cooler to keep it quiet?"
"More sensible to go with the flow for a while." His dark tawny-golden eyes scanned her with tender appreciation. "Then you lost your mother and I felt like I lost you —"
"Did you?" That admission shook Susie.
"You shut me out. I didn’t know whether to push or stand back... in the end I stood back which was the wrong thing to do —"
Susie groaned. "I though you were getting fed up with me —"
"I was devastated when you dumped me... there, I finally said it! " Leos breathed heavily. "Then I waited a couple of weeks and tried to contact you again but you’d moved —"
"Tell me, why did you just assume that Ben wasn’t yours?"
"Ben seemed small to me at first. I thought he was a couple of months younger than he is. I went haywire for a couple of days, I was sick with jealousy," he admitted ruefully.
Something that had been puzzling Susie since Wednesday evening prompted her to change the subject and say, "Stamatis answered the door to me the night of the dinner party. Why didn’t he just arrange everything for you?"
At that reference to his manservant, Leos gave her a wicked grin. "Haven’t you worked that out yet, yinkeka mou? I had to dream up a job for you!"
"Dream up?"
"Not the promotion... the social secretary angle. If you’d gone straight on to the management team, I would never have had a chance to see you alone. The minute I recovered from the shock of finding you at Devlin Systems, I decided to try and get you back —"
Susie was transfixed by what he was telling her. "But that interview you gave me... you were so impersonal —"
"If I had gotten up close and personal as I am doing now... you’d have taken fright and run!" A teasing light in his lustrous dark eyes, Leos claimed another tender kiss. "I had to convince you that I would treat you like an employee, but I’m afraid that was too much of a challenge —"
"For me too. I just couldn’t think of you as my boss —"
"I loved it when you got jealous... then you told me to have a great weekend with Alisha James and I thought you were laughing at me!"
Having long since arrived at its destination, the limo was at a standstill. Emerging from another embrace, Leos and Susie registered that fact about 10 minutes later. They rushed upstairs to Ben and told him what a wonderful baby he was. Secure in his parents’ love, Ben yawned and fell asleep, as his parents held hands and dreamed of their future....




Chapter Twenty

DAY SIXTEEN: TUESDAY MORNING

Four days later, the special license having been granted, Susie arrived at the church for their wedding.
Her brother, David, had managed to fly back from the Middle East in time to give her away. Brigitte had volunteered to be her matron of honor and Petros was standing in as Leos’ best man. Ben sat back in his new luxury buggy and beamed at all his admirers.
Wearing a gossamer-fine dress of lace and silk, Susie walked down the aisle with shining eyes. She had not a single doubt in her mind that she was loved. The weekend had passed in a non-stop blur of arrangements and excitement. They would live in London and in Corfu, where Leos also has a house. They were spending their wedding night at Leos’ London townhouse and then flying off the next day to a Caribbean villa. It was already decided that Ben’s birthday would be spent in Paris, possibly with a nanny in tow. Now that Leos got the woman he loved back, he could not plan far enough ahead.
Leos watched Susie approach the altar with a smile that made her heart sing. Leos had decided that this time around everything would be different. When he had set her back from him on Friday evening with a determined air of restraint, she had been surprised but touched when he told her why.
"The next time we make love I want you to be my wife, agape mou... "
By Monday night, restraint, he had freely admitted, had become just about the toughest challenge he had ever set himself and he had indicated a willingness to be talked out of his vow. But Susie had had to rush off and meet her brother at the airport, so pressure of time had overcome that of temptation.
Leaving the church, the ceremony over, Leos kissed her with hungry fervor. "How am I going to get through the photo session and the reception at the house?"
"Like Mr. Cool... " Susie shivered with delicious excitement against him.
Leos couldn’t take his dark tawny-golden eyes off her for a moment and she loved it. There were loads of photos of them looking deep into each other’s eyes. At the reception, it was quite impossible to separate them. When their guests had finally gone and Ben was asleep in his cot in his new room, the bridal couple finally reached the master bedroom.
Although beautifully furnished, it had yet to be decorated. Susie was surprised.
Leos smiled. "I told Alisha you would be taking care of this room —"
"When was that? Surely not that weekend you were mad at me?"
"I was still hoping to marry you —"
Susie’s heart melted.
"No way was I going to lose you a second time." Leos tugged her into rousing contact with his lithe, powerful frame. "I love you like I never thought I could love anybody."
And being loved felt like the best thing that had ever happened to her, Susie reflected dreamily, as she gave herself up to another passionate kiss.
The End

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