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The instant Maribel entered the drawing room, Leonidas swung round, but before he could say anything she spoke. ‘Let’s just concentrate on Elias—’
‘Theos mou, Maribel—’
‘That’s the only business we have to discuss. We should avoid anything of a more personal nature.’
Leonidas dealt her a fulminating appraisal. ‘Elias is not business.’
‘Elias is the only reason I am still in this house and speaking to you,’ Maribel confided jerkily.
‘Very well.’ His strong jawline clenched. ‘I would like DNA-testing to be done, not because I doubt that Elias is my son, but because there should be no room for any person to doubt that he is a Pallis.’
‘All right,’ Maribel conceded.
‘I would also like your support in having his birth certificate changed to carry my name.’
‘If you feel it’s necessary.’ Although Maribel was feeling totally devastated after what had happened between them, she was doing her utmost to conceal the fact. But it was a challenge to behave normally, when even looking at his lean, strong face actually hurt her. ‘Anything else?’
‘I’m attending a family wedding tomorrow in Athens,’ Leonidas informed her. ‘I would like you and Elias to accompany me as my guests. I plan to introduce him to my relatives.’
Maribel stiffened into the defensive mode she had been striving to hold at bay. ‘We can’t come. Apart from anything else, I’m working tomorrow—’
‘I’ll take Elias and the nanny, then,’ Leonidas traded without hesitation. And she noticed, could really not help noticing, how quickly he was able to dispense with the concept of having her as a companion.
‘He’s too young to leave me and I won’t agree to you taking him out of the country without me. I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is for the present,’ Maribel told him, her hands lacing restively together when she saw the grim tension tighten his fantastic bone structure. ‘I will try to be reasonable in other ways, though. But I would ask you to think again about telling people that you have a son.’
‘You have a problem with that, as well?’ Leonidas shot back at her, his anger at that request palpable.
‘I would prefer it to stay a secret for as long as possible. The press attention and public notice that it would generate could make my life with Elias very difficult.’
‘That is precisely why I suggested that you live in one of my properties where your security needs can be met without fuss.’
‘But we won’t have security needs if you let your connection to Elias remain a private one. I would appreciate it if my life could go on the same way it always has—’
‘That’s no longer possible.’
‘You’re not being fair to me,’ she protested.
‘Less than half an hour ago—for the right offer—you were willing to surrender all autonomy over your life, your job and your child.’ Leonidas voiced that reminder with derisive emphasis.
Maribel went white at the biting cruelty of that statement. The misunderstanding had mortified her, and only courage stiffened her backbone. ‘More fool me,’ she muttered with scorn. ‘To believe, for even five minutes, that you would make that much of a commitment to either Elias or me! You don’t even recognise when I’m trying to be generous—’
‘Generous?’ Leonidas threw up lean brown hands in forceful disagreement. ‘When you even object to me taking him to my home in Greece? How is that generous?’
‘You’re lucky I’m still here after that sleazy proposition you put to me!’
‘It was not sleazy. Naturally, I would prefer my son to live in a manner appropriate to his status. I want to take care of both of you.’
‘No, you don’t. You want the ability to play father any time you like at the cost of my freedom—oh, yes, and occasional sex. Was that to keep me happy? Stop me from looking around for long enough to give Elias a stepfather?’ she demanded in disgust. ‘Or was it just a power play or a power lay? You would sleep with me because you could?’
Those twin offensive cracks about stepfathers and power lays sent raw fury roaring through his lean, powerful frame. ‘I’ve offered you more than I have ever offered a woman,’ Leonidas intoned with disdain, outraged by her attack.
‘But not any kind of a promise that might curtail your freedom. And without that it was a rotten, lousy offer. Elias needs caring and commitment. I’m sorry, but there’s no short cut and no quick fix to supplying those. Do you really think that a casual affair with your son’s mother would give him a stable, happy home? It wouldn’t last five minutes, and when it broke down Elias would suffer. You can’t buy access to him through me.’
