…
Andreas looked down into her accusing blue eyes and reminded himself not to lose his temper, however hurtful her remarks. Kizzy was no doubt still reeling from the discovery that she was in the early stages of pregnancy and trying to come to terms with that information—as he was too. The news of her pregnancy had come as a visceral shock to Andreas when one of the nurses had casually mentioned it, rattling off the blood tests they would have to perform—the staff had clearly assumed that he knew.
Kizzy had still been unconscious then and so had missed the look of elation that must have crossed his face. This meant she had to stay with him in Greece now. She was carrying his heir and they would, of course, have to get married.
Andreas had watched his lover sleep and felt a wave of possessiveness flood his body at how small and fragile in the white nest of the hospital bed she looked. The mother of his child. The two most important things in his life seemed so dangerously vulnerable—they needed him.
He had vowed there and then to protect them both with his life.
The feeling of dread and entrapment he might have expected to feel under such circumstances had not materialized. He thought he had been meticulous about contraception, yet somehow this baby had happened, so it was clearly destined to be. His heart swelled at the thought that in a few months he would be holding his very own child in his arms and that he would have such a perfect wife. He felt warm and excited. And protective and proud.
He was going to make his new family the biggest success of his life. More than ever it was essential not to show any kind of weakness though. Kizzy had to know that she could rely on him, that he would be her rock to cling to and the best father there could ever be.
Now though, he was finding it surprisingly hard to hold on to those feelings of strength and self-control, when every look she shot him seemed to accuse Andreas of not matching up to her ideal husband.
“I couldn’t bear to be tied to a man who cheated on me,” Kizzy continued relentlessly, meeting his stare. “Not even for the sake of my baby. Don’t you remember what that did to your mother?”
“I will not cheat on you, Kizzy. That’s one promise I can make.”
“Is that what you told your first wife?”
“I didn’t need to; we made solemn vows in the house of God in front of everyone who was dear to us. I was never unfaithful to her during our marriage.”
“So what went wrong? I need to know, Andreas. I need to know a lot of things before I can even begin to consider becoming your wife.”
“It’s all in the past! My first marriage has nothing to do with you or what is happening now. She is gone and won’t be coming back. There is nothing to be gained from raking over old wounds and I will not be manipulated into talking about such things.” His chest rose and fell with exasperation. “You have to trust me on this, Kizzy. It’s for the best.”
“But how can I trust you?” Tears were brimming behind her lashes now and she bowed her head in anguish. “I saw you, Andreas! I saw you with your new girlfriend at the villa. That’s why I took off to the acropolis, I was so humiliated—”
Roughly, Kizzy swiped her forearm across her face—no, she would not let him see her cry. He must never know how much his infidelity had affected her, how it crushed her soul.
“You both seemed to be having a nice time of it while I was supposed to be at work.” Kizzy glanced up at his uncharacteristic silence, and noted, with bittersweet agony, the look of guilty confusion on his face. “A lovers’ tryst in the tower, was it? I guess that’s where you must go together. It’s the only part of the villa that’s been resolutely locked since you asked me to move in. Your secret lovers’ hideaway—”
“Stop it!” Andreas suddenly bellowed. “Stop it now! The heat exhaustion has clearly affected your mind as well as your body!”
“Oh no, you won’t brush me off that easily,” Kizzy replied with a swift, answering anger. She drew a painful breath. “I saw you both with my own eyes. I saw you kiss her. Explain that, if you can.”
Andreas pushed himself away from the back of the chair he had been leaning on. It rattled over onto the stone tiled floor, its impact echoing in the heavy, torturous silence that had fallen between them.
“What you saw was me kissing Liz goodbye. She’d come by with the keys to the safe and wanted to thank me for her going-away gift.”
Andreas struggled to retain control. The emotional turbulence within him had blurred his vision to the extent that all he could register was the paleness of her face and the thunder raging beneath his chest wall. Nonetheless, he managed to keep his voice level.
“Remember Liz? Liz, the office manager who believes in love?” He waited, breathing heavily, and watched the uncertainty begin to grow on her face. “Think about it, why the hell would an engaged woman throw all that away for a quick fumble with the ex-boss?”
“She—she didn’t sound very Australian,” Kizzy replied hesitantly. “In fact, she looked like a picture-perfect little Greek girl from where I was standing.”
“For God’s sake, she is Greek! Liz is short for Lizandra. Her boyfriend’s the Australian; they’re going to start married life back in his country.”
“Oh.”
“Oh, indeed,” Andreas replied with a sudden look of despair on his face. “And you would deny our child its birthright because of this delusion? I thought better of you,” he added harshly. “I never thought I’d see you put yourself before your child.”
His words lanced through her with such painful force that Kizzy was momentarily unable to act rationally and her first instinct was to lash out verbally in retaliation for the way he was making her feel.
“You’ve never even stopped to ask if I want to have this baby, have you?”
Andreas’s face seemed to fuse into pure gray granite for a second or two of agonizing silence as he digested what she had said.
“Don’t ever say anything like that again.” His voice was husky, laced with pain. “You said yourself that having a baby was one of your dreams. Well, now a miracle has occurred and, God willing, you will have your baby. Just don’t try to pretend that my genes aren’t good enough for you now, just to hurt me. I warn you, Kizzy Dean, I will only be pushed so far.”
Kizzy had felt burning shame beneath her breastbone the second the words had passed her lips. It had been an unforgivable thing to say and he was right, she’d just wanted to hurt him. In the process, however, she had hurt herself even more.