“Nothing.”
He arched a brow. “Try again.”
“It is a...gift. For a friend.”
“A gift for a friend?”
“Yessss,” she said, drawing the word out to give herself time to think of more to add to her very stupid lie. “Because she asked for something that could tell the future and I thought...Magic 8 Ball or pregnancy test? And I went with pregnancy test because it gives specific yes or no answers to very specific questions.”
“Do you think you’re pregnant?”
“Right now? I think I’m absent a period. Which under normal circumstances would be like, ‘Hey, great timing, because I’m supposed to be getting married.’”
“But?”
“Under the circumstances of ‘I slept with my fiancé’s enemy a month ago’ I find it a bit worrisome, and yes, I think I might be pregnant.”
“Go and find out,” he said, moving away from her. “Now.”
“So now I’m supposed to pee on your command? What if I don’t have to go?”
“You were about to go—don’t play that way.”
His jaw was set, his skin pale. He wasn’t taking this much better than she was. “Honestly, Alex, what do you care if I am?”
“I care because I will be a part of that child’s life.”
“You will not be,” she said, the words coming out before she had a chance to think them through.
“You think I’m going to let that man near any child of mine?” he asked, rage rolling off him like a force field, pushing her back. “I know what happens to children who get near the Kouklakis family. I doubt you do.”
“Ajax is...he’s not a Kouklakis. He’s...”
“Got an alias. How foolish are you? He’s changed his name.”
“I don’t...”
“Go and take the test.”
She didn’t even have it in her to argue with him now. She nodded slowly, holding the box in numb fingers as she backed into the bathroom. Alex watched Rachel’s retreating form, his heart pounding so hard he thought it might hammer through his chest and flop onto the bed, leaving a crimson stain on that pristine white duvet of hers.
A child.
His child.
This wasn’t about revenge anymore. It hadn’t been, not from the moment he’d claimed Rachel as his own. He wanted her, and he would have her. That was why he was here.
And because he refused to allow Ajax Kouros anywhere near a son or daughter of his.
No, Ajax didn’t deal in human or drug trafficking, and Alex knew that. He knew, from the extensive research he’d done on the subject, that Ajax’s business was entirely legitimate.
But bad blood was bad blood. Alex knew it. He felt it. He’d been born with the same blood as Alex, and he would never truly escape it. Alex hadn’t, why should Ajax?
He shook it off. That thought. That burning sensation he felt whenever he imagined poison running through his own veins.
Things had changed for him.
Alex had made his fortune playing the stock market, first with other people’s money, and now with his own. He was a gambler by nature, and doing it in the realm of the financial had been lucrative. Because like any good gambler, he had a skill for it. It wasn’t pure luck, it was research. Memory. A natural feel for it.
It had earned him millions. On his twenty-sixth birthday, only six months ago, he’d netted his first billion.
He wasn’t powerless anymore. He never would be again.
The bathroom door opened and Rachel appeared, white-faced, blue eyes watery.
“What?” he asked.
“There were two lines.”
“Well, what does that mean?” he asked, tension making his heart race, pumping too much restless energy in his muscles.
“It means that I’m pregnant. And before you ask—it is your baby, I won’t lie to you about that.”
“You will not marry him.”
“You know there are like...a thousand wedding guests coming? A hundred reporters?”
“You have two options, Rachel,” he said, the adrenaline that was spiking through him making his mind run quickly. “You leave with me, now, don’t speak to anyone. Or you go forward with the wedding. But mark my words, if you do that, I will stop the ceremony and I will tell everyone that you are pregnant with my child. That I seduced you in Corfu and that you gave it up to me in record time. Even without a paternity test, your precious Ajax will know. Because I’m the only man that’s had you. And a due date with that big of a gap from your wedding night won’t lie.”
“The press...”
“The press is here, and they’ll hear and report every word I say. But the decision is yours.”
“It’s not mine,” she said, crossing her arms beneath her breasts. She was still wearing nothing more than her underwear. “I’m in an impossible situation here. I can’t go back. I can’t fix this. I can’t...” she paused. “I could get a...” She looked away from him. “I could make it go away.”
His stomach clenched. “No.”
She shook her head, her blue eyes filling with tears. “You’re right. I can’t. I just... I can’t.”
“Come with me.”
“And what?”
“Marry me.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“YOU’RE INSANE,” RACHEL SAID, aiming the air-conditioning vent at her face as Alex’s red sports car peeled out of the driveway of the family estate.
Holy crap. She’d done it. She was running away from her wedding. She had...almost nothing. A few clothes, her favorite shoes. Her computer, her phone, her books.
But when he’d told her about the options, it was like seeing ahead, straight and clear. She could go out there, dressed all in white, the virginal bride, and promise herself to Ajax, knowing she was carrying another man’s baby. Knowing the press would slaughter all involved if Alex strode down the aisle after her and told everyone in attendance what she’d done.
That was something she’d known she couldn’t do even before she’d confirmed the pregnancy.
She knew the position she was in. She’d been made so fully aware of it that day in her father’s office when he’d told her he would no longer shield her from the scandal she was exposing herself to.
She’d managed to stay perfect in the eyes of the public and because of that the media had placed her on a pedestal. That meant that any whiff of scandal would send a mob of reporters out to knock her straight off it.
Nobody liked a paragon, not really. They only kept her around for the chance to see her fall. She’d been spared that fate. Her father had protected her from the consequences of her actions, and after seeing the extent to which she could have ruined things for herself she’d decided that she would be playing the part of dutiful daughter, and wife, for the rest of her life.
And all she’d done was delay the inevitable—she saw that now.
It would be vicious when they found out about this, and no matter how she played this, she would come out the villain. She knew it for certain. But she didn’t have the strength to have it happen in front of an audience. To let Alex say his piece