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The office door sprang open without warning. ‘Why on earth is there a crowd of people hanging around outside?’ demanded the older woman with whom Maribel shared the office. ‘Oh—sorry. I didn’t realise that you had someone with you. Am I interrupting?’
‘Not at all,’ Leonidas murmured impassively. ‘I was about to leave.’
Gripped by a giant wave of frustration, Maribel watched Leonidas depart. She could not understand why she should feel bereft when he walked away. Her office was no place for emotional discussions. He needed to think about what she had said, as well. Her hand crept up to her lower lip, which was still swollen from the erotic heat of his. It was so typical of Leonidas to try and blur serious issues with sex. He could handle sex. He could handle it beautifully. It was the emotional stuff he couldn’t and wouldn’t deal with.
Wide-eyed, her colleague hurried back to the doorway. ‘Good heavens, was that who I think it is? Was that actually Leonidas Pallis?’
A mass of speculative faces peered in at Maribel, as though she were a rare animal on display in a zoo for the first time…
CHAPTER FOUR
MARIBEL could not sleep that night, or indeed during the night that followed.
How long was it since she had fallen in love with Leonidas Pallis? Almost seven years. It sounded like a prison term and had often felt like one, while she’d struggled to feel something—anything—for a more suitable man. Her heart might as well have been locked away in a cell, for neither intelligence nor practicality had exercised the smallest influence over what she felt. She had done her utmost to get over him. She knew his every flaw and failing. She did not respect him as a person. Yet helpless sympathy for a male so divorced from his emotions that he did not even recognise grief had led to her lowering her guard after her cousin’s funeral. And, to the conception of the son she adored.
Who are you to judge me? She was still pondering that question at dawn on the second day after his latest visit. As she had not expected to see Leonidas again, it had not occurred to her that he would ever find out about Elias. Now that he had, everything had changed and she had been too slow to recognise that truth. Suddenly she was being forced to justify the decisions she had made and she was no longer confident that she had the right to deny Elias all contact with his father. Accustomed as she was to keeping her own counsel, she felt that she was too emotionally involved and that it might be wise to ask for a second opinion from someone she could trust to be discreet.
Later that morning, Maribel went over to see Ginny Bell and finally told the older woman who had fathered her son.
For the space of an entire minute, the older woman simply stared back at her with rounded eyes of shock and disbelief. ‘Leonidas Pallis? The Greek billionaire who’s always plastered all over the celebrity magazines? Imogen’s ex?’
Red as a beetroot, Maribel nodded affirmation.
‘My goodness. You do put new meaning into that saying about being a dark horse!’ Ginny exclaimed. ‘Leonidas Pallis is really Elias’ father?’
‘Yes.’
‘I never liked to ask who he was, when you didn’t seem to want to talk about it.’ Ginny shook her head in wonderment over what she had just been told. ‘I must be frank. I’m gobsmacked. What prompted you to suddenly tell me about this now?’
‘Leonidas has just found out about Elias and he wants to see him.’ Maribel compressed her lips. ‘I’ve been saying no.’
Ginny grimaced. ‘Surely that’s not a good idea, Maribel. Is it wise to get on the wrong side of a man that powerful?’
‘He is very annoyed about my attitude,’ Maribel conceded unhappily.
‘If someone told you that you couldn’t see your child, wouldn’t you be angry?’ the older woman prompted wryly. ‘Try to put yourself in his shoes and be fair.’
‘That’s not easy,’ Maribel confided chokily.
‘But why run the risk of turning Leonidas into an enemy? Wouldn’t that be more dangerous? I’ve heard some heart-rending stories about children being snatched away by disaffected foreign fathers.’
Ginny could have said nothing more guaranteed to make Maribel’s blood run cold in her veins. ‘Don’t scare me, Ginny.’
‘You’re playing with some pretty strong emotional issues here. That’s why I would try to be reasonable, if I were you.’
‘But I think that Leonidas is just curious. I don’t see him getting that involved with Elias,’ Maribel said tautly. ‘Leonidas has never been that fussed about kids.’
The older woman subjected her to a shrewd appraisal. ‘You really know Leonidas Pallis very well, don’t you?’
