hoped she’d move away and begin to defuse this charged moment, but she didn’t. Her gaze was fixed on Zephyr’s face.
The boy looked at her with his unblinking brown eyes. Makricosta eyes.
“Theo.” She spoke his name with myriad inflections. Shock, awe, surprise, approval. Exasperated disapproval.
As he braced himself for whatever she would say, he felt a feminine hand rest on his biceps. Jaya. If he’d had a free hand, he would have wrapped it around her waist and pulled her in close. He might be willing to face the scrutiny of his family without apology, but it wasn’t easy. How such a slight woman could be his shield against them, he didn’t understand, but he had an intense need to wield her in just that way.
“He didn’t know,” Jaya said. The tips of her fingers dug into his tense arm. “Not until I told him yesterday.”
Had it only been a day?
He drew in a breath, realizing he’d neglected to take in air for several seconds. Looking into Jaya’s eyes, he let her know she didn’t have to protect him that much. It was his own damned fault he hadn’t known about his son.
It’s okay, she seemed to reassure with a softening of her touch on his arm. Our secret. And therein lay her appeal. He feared every stumble, too used to being knocked down a second time for daring to err. She was a forgiving person, though. She was so softhearted, she’d help him to his feet after a face-plant. He wanted to kiss her for it.
Hell, he wanted to kiss her, period. He dragged himself free of their locked stare in time to hear Rowan ask Nic, “Will it be a full Indian wedding, do you think? I’ve always wanted to go to one.”
Jaya’s touch on his arm fell away.
Theo stiffened, struck anew by rejection.
“I’m making assumptions, aren’t I?” Rowan said with a blush and a reach for her daughter. “Come on, Evie, let’s find Androu’s cup for him.”
“I’ll help,” Nic said, taking Androu as he passed Adara. “Drink, champ?”
Jaya watched the Viking blond media mogul and his petite wife distance themselves toward the kitchen, leaving Adara staring at their ill at ease vignette.
Zephyr was comfortable enough, she supposed, taking a break from draining his cup to huff a breath and stare after his cousins, but she was hyper-conscious of Theo statue-stiff next to her.
“Will he come to me?” Adara asked, approaching with hands raised.
Her intense focus, the way she caught her breath as Zephyr went to her, the way she enfolded him and pressed her smile into his hair, all made Jaya want to turn her crinkling forehead into Theo’s chest.
Having Zephyr accepted by Theo’s sister was beyond her dreams. She wished she’d known it would go this well or she might have tried harder to reach him. She might have gone directly to Adara.
“I should have—” Jaya began.
“Don’t.” He caught her wrist. “I should have,” he said, as if he knew what she’d been about to say. His hand slid to mesh with hers, palm to palm, fingers entwined.
It was such a startling gesture she could only cling to him, at sea as to how to react. He’d surprised her by claiming Zephyr so openly when she’d been expecting to be treated like a dirty little secret. Having him hold her hand as if there was something between them besides a baby was a kind of magic she knew she shouldn’t believe in, but she wanted to.
“I never thought I’d hold your baby,” Adara said with a misty smile. “I hoped Androu would rub off on you, but— Wait a minute. How old is he?” She pulled back to study the boy, eyes narrow as she lifted them to Theo’s culpable swallow.
“It was—” Jaya started to excuse, but Theo squeezed her hand. Her entire being was warmed by his firm grip, radiating heat up her arm and into her chest.
“I’m not going to offer excuses—or details. Fire me if you have to,” Theo said.
Adara gave him a look between stern and maddened. “I’ll assume that if you deserved to be fired, you’d say so. Demitri is the one that needs reminders about employees being off-limits. Besides, I can’t be mad. We have a nephew. Gideon will be over the moon.” She smiled at Zephyr as the boy reached for Jaya, letting him go.
Jaya had to pull her hand free of Theo’s to take Zephyr and secure him on her hip.
In the carefully emotionless way that Jaya was more familiar seeing in Adara she heard her ask Theo, “What are your plans?”
In the blink of one glance, a lot of teeming undercurrents were exchanged between brother and sister. It niggled at Jaya in a way she couldn’t interpret. They seemed almost telepathic and it made her feel left out.
She imagined there were considerations with regards to the Makricosta fortune, though. Publicity to finesse and old-fashioned concern for family. Given Theo’s dismay at learning he was a father, she expected him to request Zephyr’s existence be kept quiet.
With an impactful look at Jaya, Theo became super tall, his posture and air very authoritative. She’d seen him take a hard line when it came to accounting rules, but had never seen him turn such an uncompromising look on her.
“I don’t want to miss any more of Zephyr’s life than I have,” he said.
Oh. Jaya’s heart fluttered, surprised by this evolution in his attitude. He’d been tentative yesterday, but she supposed that had been shock. This morning he’d seemed to accept he had a son, even if it had still been a perplexing addition to his life.
Now she could see acknowledgment had moved into something more implacable that was both heartening and threatening. It had never occurred to her that she might have to fight him for her child, but she saw something in his eyes that was resolute and possessive. Something that told her Zephyr had taken up residence inside him in a way she’d been dreaming of doing since Day One.
Why did that make her jealous? She ought to be happy.
“We haven’t agreed on how we’re moving forward,” Theo continued. “But whether it’s a big wedding or not—I’ll be pushing for marriage.”
THE WORDS CAME between them in an eclipse-like flash. For a second Jaya couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see.
No. She’d already told him no. Hadn’t he heard her? But what she’d really been refusing was a marriage of convenience. If he loved her... Did he?
And how could he just announce it like that to his sister without consulting—without even asking her first?
“I haven’t convinced Jaya yet,” Theo said, taking the weight of his penetrating stare back to his sister.
Oh, sure, put it all on me, Jaya thought, working to keep a scowl off her face. Her instinct was to protest, but she didn’t want to draw Adara into it. Given the look exchanged between Nic and Rowan as they returned from the kitchen, they’d heard Theo, adding to her feeling of being outnumbered.
No one needed to know her reasons for refusing to marry except maybe Theo and she’d share that only if and when it felt right.
“We haven’t had much time to talk about anything except whose turn it is to change a bottom,” Jaya murmured, stroking a hand over Androu’s tousled hair as he toddled after Evie to their play area in the lounge.
“Understood,” Nic said. “And we’re incredibly grateful for your help. If you ever need anything, please let us know.”
“I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of each other regardless,” Rowan said with a warm smile. “Evie’s forever begging for Androu and seems equally rapt with Zephyr. I expect a few tears when we leave, to