know!”
Nikos...
Somehow she’d thought Dev would soften while they were alone, and tell her why he’d lied to her. But the inscrutable man facing her bore little resemblance to her secret Adonis who’d brought her joy every second they’d been together. It hadn’t mattered whether they’d been walking on the beach or finding glorious sights in the aqua depths of the sea.
She decided this man didn’t deserve to know about the baby until it was born. He wouldn’t believe her if she told him now, anyway. In fact, she was beginning to think he’d drummed up this betrayal business on purpose, to get rid of her. He’d probably pulled the same excuse on his other lovers when he was through with them. If that was true, he’d done a stellar job.
Now that she had the main phone number of Vassalos Shipping, she could always leave a message for him next January. If he cared to answer, he’d learn then that he was a new father, not before.
His smile was beautifully cruel. “You’ve been playing me for a reason. Now I want to know what it is.”
Stephanie drew in a fortifying breath. “I’d hoped to get an honest answer out of you, but you’re not Dev Harris. Let’s just say I don’t want to ruin my memory of him. You, sir, are someone I don’t care to know. For all I know you have a wife and children. The thought of committing adultery with you makes me sick.”
She would have reached for her purse to leave, but that’s when she saw a cane resting against the wall at the side of the closet. Stephanie looked up at Dev, noticing he’d lost a little color and was braced against the door to prevent her escape.
When he’d grabbed her earlier on deck, they’d both weaved a little. She’d thought it was because the impact had caught him totally off guard, but now she knew that wasn’t true. He was unsteady. Something serious must have happened for a man as fit as he was to need a cane. Why was he being so brutal to her? She couldn’t comprehend it.
“What is it you want, if not money?”
“A little honesty. I—I feel like I’m in the middle of a nightmare.” Her voice faltered.
“You’re part of mine, didn’t you know?” he growled. “Can you still stand there and tell me you found me through Delia’s boyfriend?”
“It’s the truth!”
“Surely you can do better than that.” His tone stung like a whiplash.
“Dev... Nikos... Tell me what I’ve done?” Her cry rang in the cabin’s interior. “Are you truly so devoid of feeling that you can leave me hanging like this without one word of explanation?”
“Isn’t this a case of the pot calling the kettle black?”
Stephanie had taken enough of his abuse. “Let me pass.” She feared she was going to be sick.
His black brows furrowed. “You’re not wanted here, but since you’ve shown up anyway, you’re not going anywhere until I get an honest explanation.”
She shook her head. “Why do you continue to accuse me of something I don’t understand?”
Anger marred his arresting features. “Who told you about me? How did you know I’d be staying at that particular resort? Where did you get your information?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You were obviously lying in wait for me at the resort.”
“You mean like some femme fatale, so I could get you to sleep with me?”
“Were you hoping to get pregnant by a rich man? Is that it? Your latest boyfriend didn’t quite live up to your dreams?”
By this time she was fuming. “Let’s presume for a minute you guessed it and that was my sin. What about your sin? You slept with me, too.”
He hunched of his broad shoulders slightly. “So I did.”
“Only it seems just one night was all you wanted before you moved on. Now that I’ve come here, you’re disgusted to see me and obviously regret our interlude.” With her hair caught back in a short ponytail, and her probable lack of color, she realized she must look dreadful to him.
“But not you.” His eyes had become mere slits. “Who told you about me and my family? How did you know about me?”
She couldn’t believe her ears. “No one!” Only an innocent child who doesn’t have a voice yet. “I was foolish enough to come looking for you here b-because I couldn’t believe it was over between us,” she stammered. That was the truth, just not all of it.
His expression remained implacable.
Stephanie averted her eyes. “It was wrong of me to sleep with you. I was raised to be wiser than that, a lesson I learned too late. But no, Dev. No matter how much you despise me for coming here uninvited, I could never regret anything so beautiful. Now I’m leaving, but I need to use your bathroom first.” She was going to be sick.
STEPHANIE SWEPT PAST him, causing Nikos to bite down hard so hard he almost cracked a tooth. That week in the Caribbean with her had been beautiful. The most beautiful experience of his life. To think it had been a deliberate setup!
Enflamed to realize she’d used him, Nikos snatched her purse from the chair and dumped the contents on the bed, hoping to learn something. Anything!
Among the contents were three vials of pills, a wallet, a phone, a key card for the Persephone Hotel along the waterfront in Chios, an airline ticket and her passport. He examined it but saw no red flag. Her wallet gave no clues except some pictures. Two of them were of her and Nikos. Another was of her friends and still another of a woman who looked to be her mother. He also found her business card from Crystal River Water Tours.
With a grimace he reached for one of the bottles, which contained vitamins. Nikos opened it and could smell them before emptying the pills on the bed. He examined the second vial, of iron pills. The third held a prescription drug issued from the same pharmacy in Florida. Dr. Verl Sanders. Three a day as necessary for nausea and/or vomiting. The date on all three bottles indicated they’d been issued two days ago.
She was pregnant. Just as his father had intimated...
He swung his head in her direction. By now she’d come back out and was sitting on the chair. “Please, Dev.” Her blue eyes begged him, out of a face with a slight pallor he hadn’t noticed before. Come to think of it, with that wan complexion, she didn’t look the same. The glow of health that had radiated off her in the Caribbean was missing. “If I could have one of those small greenish pills with some water?”
She still insisted on using his fictitious name. Nikos picked up one of the pills, then grasped her upper arm and led her back into his bathroom. Her firm flesh, warm from walking on the island in the sun, was a potent reminder of what he’d been torn from at the resort, but that golden quality about her had disappeared.
“Use the cup from the dispenser.”
Stephanie took one and put it under the faucet. When he handed her the pill, she swallowed it with half a cup of water. He’d expected resistance, but the eager way she drank and the slight tremor of the hand holding the cup revealed a vulnerability that brought out his protective instincts and caused his mind to reel.
“How far along are you?”
The empty cup fell into the sink. This was no act. She weaved in place, causing him to tighten his grip on her arm so she wouldn’t fall. Her eyes stared at him in the mirror. “You do the math.”
That comment—just when he’d felt himself softening toward her—caught him on the raw. He gripped her other arm to bring her close to him, and gave her a little shake. “Whose baby is it? Rob’s?”