He raised his eyes, cast his gaze above her head, his whole body tensing, reminding her of a great cat priming for an all-out run.
Then his voice dipped an octave lower. “He’s awake.”
She stared at him in incomprehension for a moment, before she heard it, too. Alex’s usual wake-up babble.
He lowered his eyes to her, and time seemed to warp. Her senses, too, since she couldn’t really be seeing this on Aristedes’s face, sensing it blasting off of him. Amazement, vulnerability, transforming his hard, unyielding beauty into a mask of pliable wonder.
As insane as it seemed to her, she thought he was experiencing the same thing she felt every time she heard her son’s self-entertaining noises. Pure and instant heart-melt.
Suddenly the noises stopped. Then a wail went off, severing her nerves wholesale.
Panic exploded inside her, propelling her around, sending her streaking with all senses zooming ahead of her to the nursery. She barely heard her condo door slam shut, reverberating the sitting area’s windows, or the masculine footsteps almost overlapping with hers in a staccato of urgency on her polished hardwood floors.
She burst into the nursery. It was cloaked in darkness. But she knew the unobstructed path to Alex’s crib by heart, hurtled there, even as she realized his wails had died down to be replaced by noises of exertion.
“I’m here, sweetie,” she gasped as the blackout curtains were drawn open, flooding the room in the cool sunlight of New York City’s early April morning.
She realized it was Aristedes’s doing as she anxiously surveyed Alex and came to a stop beside his crib. It seemed he’d again tried to climb out of it and failed, bringing on that explosive fit of frustration before he’d picked himself up and had been trying again when they’d burst into the nursery.
Alex blinked, adapting to the sudden light, before focusing on her and gifting her with that single-dimpled, soul-possessing smile of his. He reached out his chubby arms to her, part delighted to see her, part finding her a solution to his dilemma. She reached down to him as eagerly, her fright draining.
She picked him up, hugged his warm, resilient body to her heart, inhaled his beloved scent as she kissed his downy cheeks, cooing good-morning to him and soft chastisements about being in too much of a hurry to leave his infancy behind. He burrowed his face into her bosom like a delighted kitten, gurgling his contentment. Then he stilled, snapped up his head, his eyes rounding as he gazed over her shoulder, his flushed lips, the miniature of Aristedes’s, forming an adorable O of astonishment.
She swung around, found Aristedes standing a pace away, dwarfing them, making her feel as if he could contain them both inside his great body. He was looking at Alex, a stunned expression in his eyes, the rest of his face frozen.
She heard the sharpness of his indrawn breath when Alex pitched from her arms, lunging toward him, arms wide-open in an imperative demand to be held.
Alex had never reached out to anyone like that. Not even his uncles, who’d been around since he was born—he’d let them hold him only after she’d encouraged him, hugged them and showed him they were safe and dear to her.
She’d thought the first time he’d done this with Aristedes had been a fluke. That he’d been upset with Eleni and had been seeking to escape her hold by commanding the only other adult around to remove him from her grasp.
But there was no denying what she saw. This was for Aristedes. Alex wanted his father to hold him.
She reeled. Could it be Alex had recognized Aristedes, his blood calling to his? And what about Aristedes?
The first time Alex had done that, even when Aristedes had begun to succumb to Alex’s tearful, heart-tugging demand, and even from afar, she’d seen how…unsettled he’d been. Her eyes clung to him now, feverishly trying to read his reaction. She could sense worry still. But it was of a different kind, something she’d never thought she’d see on Aristedes’s face. Almost…trepidation.
He turned bemused eyes to her, letting her decide whether he could hold Alex or not, explaining his own worry. “I’ve never held a baby.”
“Not even your brothers and sisters?” she whispered.
He shook his head. “No. I never had pets, either.”
“He’s no longer scary to hold.” She decided to let Alex steer them both in this since she was totally lost, and Aristedes looked as out of his depth as she felt. She loosened her grasp on Alex, felt she was letting her heart go, trusting it to Aristedes.
Aristedes received the eager Alex with hands that visibly shook. As soon as the tiny yet strong body filled his large hands, they convulsed. Alex gave a squeak of protest.
Selene snapped a soothing hand to Alex, another to one of Aristedes’s hands. “You don’t need to hold on tight. He holds himself up perfectly now. You just cradle him, let him lean into your hold.”
Aristedes nodded, looking poleaxed as he cautiously loosened his hold, as if he was still afraid Alex would spill out or come apart. Alex wriggled, made himself comfortable in Aristedes’s power and started to explore him with avid glances and hands all over his father’s face and chest.
“Hello, Alex.” He transferred his gaze from Alex to her, shell-shocked traces still glittering in the eyes she could now see would be Alex’s almost four decades into the future. “Shall I introduce myself, or will you do the honors?”
She couldn’t have spoken if someone had demanded it of her at gunpoint. She gestured for him to go ahead.
Aristedes expanded his expansive chest on a huge breath. The movement raised and lowered Alex, which he found extremely entertaining, giggling and slamming both hands on Aristedes’s chest, demanding he do it again.
Aristedes understood and did it again, before he began simulating the movement without breathing deep. Alex deciphered the difference and made his objections known with a sharp yelp, slapping Aristedes’s chest as if commanding he move it once more.
Aristedes placed a hand on top of both of Alex’s, holding them over his heart. “I’m not hyperventilating just because you think it’s a fun game. Not a good start to our…acquaintance, for me to be dizzy and to be doing your bidding already.”
Alex stilled, listening to Aristedes’s deep, modulated voice, looking as if hypnotized into those eyes that Selene knew firsthand wielded mind-controlling powers. She was sure that if Alex knew how to say “yes, sir,” he would have said it.
“Now that I have your attention, let me tell you who I am. I’m your father, Alex.”