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All relaxation jettisoned, Leonidas strode forward. ‘Theos mou—that night was neither of those things.’
Maribel wasn’t listening. ‘Wasn’t it enough that I let you see Elias? Does everything have to be your way?’
‘I want both of you in my life on an open and honest basis,’ Leonidas informed her boldly.
‘And if you can’t get what you want by asking, you’ll fight dirty?’ Maribel was starting to tremble with rage. ‘All you’ve done is prove is how right I was to distrust you. I’m finished with you, absolutely, totally finished. I gave you a chance and you blew it—’
‘You, not I, made this a fight. I won’t walk away from either of you.’
‘You’ve been walking away from women all your life and, right at this moment, the son that you pretend to value so much is hiding under the table with the dog!’ Her blue eyes were glistening with wrathful tears of condemnation, her anger all-consuming. ‘Elias doesn’t understand why I’m unhappy, why the curtains can’t be opened, why it’s dark, why it’s so noisy outside, or why he can’t go out to play the way he usually does. He’s scared and he’s upset. You are his father and you did that to him today.’
Leonidas had paled below the healthy bronze of his complexion.
‘And why did you do it?’ Maribel breathed fiercely. ‘Because you are an arrogant bastard, who can’t see past winning. Well, today, you lost, Leonidas. You scored a spectacular own goal. I can’t trust you. I’m afraid now. You’re a threat to me and to my son. You’d have to marry me to see Elias again.’
His ebony brows snapped together. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘Because that’s the only way I could ever feel safe letting you have access to him again! I don’t have the resources or the connections to stand up to you. Only a wife could fight you on the same level. As we both know, that’s not going to happen, so please leave us alone. With a bit of luck the paparazzi will then get bored and go away. I have no wish to live in the public eye.’
Leonidas was stunned by her attitude. ‘You can’t bar me from your lives.’
‘Why not? I’ve seen what you can do with your money and your influence. It’s my duty to protect my son and I can’t compete with you—’
‘Elias does not need to be protected from me!’ Leonidas closed his hands over her narrow wrists to prevent her backing away from him.
‘Doesn’t he? What sort of an influence will you be?’ Maribel almost sobbed, for rage and sorrow had melded into a combustible mix inside her. ‘You own dozens of houses, but you’ve never lived in a proper home. Even as a child you didn’t have rules, you just did as you liked. You had a miniature Ferrari and your own race track at ten years old. You can’t give Elias or teach him what you never knew yourself.’
‘If you move in Heyward Park and stop being so stubborn and difficult, mali mou,’ Leonidas breathed in a raw undertone, ‘I might learn. That is, if I have anything to learn, and I am not convinced that I do.’
Scorching dark golden eyes blazed down into hers and sentenced her to stillness. There was a sob locked in her throat and a maelstrom of emotion fighting for an exit inside her slim, taut figure. She would never be happy in a casual living arrangement of that nature. He was an addiction she needed to cure, not surrender to. While she adored Elias, she believed that she would have been happier had she never met his father. ‘I want my life back. A clean break.’
‘No.’ Long brown fingers meshed into the fall of her chestnut hair to angle her head back. He brought his arrogant dark head down and grazed the tender skin of her throat with his lips and the edge of his teeth. Her every skin cell jangled into vibrant, energetic life and an achingly sharp pang of pleasure-pain tightened low in her tummy.
For a split-second Maribel wanted Leonidas so much it hurt. In a devastating burst of intimate images she recalled the passionate weight of his lean, strong body over hers that night in her cousin’s house. A passion that had cost her so much she was still paying for it. Just as quickly she remembered her aunt’s verbal attack. When was enough enough? Stinging tears at the back of her mortified eyes, she mustered her self-discipline and she pulled free of him. Her oval face was pale and tight with self-control.
‘No,’ Maribel told him in flat refusal. ‘You’re bad news for me.’
No woman had ever told Leonidas that he was bad news before.
‘I’ve said all I’ve got to say.’ Maribel walked back to the door, all churned up inside and frozen on the outside. ‘Stay away from us. I don’t owe you anything. Only a few weeks ago you didn’t know Elias existed and you were perfectly happy and content. I wish you had never come to visit me. You lifted the lid on Pandora’s box.’
