Page 26 of After-Hours Heir

“You don’t need to see it.” She picked it up and went back to the text screen.

Kid: I’m here.

He took out his own phone, and she saw her message pop up right there.

“This is unbelievable,” she said.

He was still saying nothing.

“Aren’t you going to say something? Are you going to throw your head back and laugh and say something about how this was part of your evil plan?”

She had already accepted that it wasn’t. But honestly, seeing him stunned was disconcerting. She would almost prefer to see him laugh maniacally, because then at least one of them would know what was going on. At least one of them would have some hint of a plan, whereas at the moment, neither of them had any idea what they were doing. She was an idiot. And he was an asshole. And the two of them were having a baby.

No.

That thought wrenched her apart inside. She was screaming inside. Running out the door, in her heart. But in reality she was just standing there. Staring. Unable to move.

A baby.Christos’sbaby. If she thought that he was ruthless when it came to business, how much more ruthless would he be in a situation like this?

It was incomprehensible.

“What do you drink?”

“A latte. And I usually get a croissant. But I’m not sure that I…”

He turned away from her and went up to the counter. “An espresso, please. And a latte. A croissant as well.”

It was weird to watch him be civil to someone. She just wasn’t used to it.

She watched his back, trying to…make some sense of this.

And when he turned to her, her heart stopped beating.

She had kissed him. That ruthless mouth had traveled all over her body. Had licked the most intimate part of her.

Those hands had touched every curve.

She had moved her hands over his chest. She had taken him inside of her.

She wished that she could feel something. Some connection, some sense of intimacy. It was too jarring to think of him as the man that she had spent all that time talking to.

And it was even more impossible to think of him as the man that she had slept with.

Except…

The aftermath. The way that he had withdrawn from her like that:thatfelt like Christos.

The way he had gone dark.

That actually made sense. As did his desire for anonymity. Because, of course, anyone would have known who he was. And for some reason, he had needed anonymity to communicate with her.

Was there another facet to this man that she had never considered?

She supposed that if there was, she of all people should have some insight into it, but she only felt more confused.

“Did you know?”

“No,” she said, laughing as they went over to a table and sat.