Leonidas stared at her in shock. He’d never imagined that he’d become a father. And he’d never imagined that his baby’s mother could hate him so much.
The soft drizzle had turned to sleet, falling from the darkening sky. Nearby, he could almost hear the rush of the East River, the muffled roar of traffic from the looming bridge.
Just go away, and leave us alone.
He heard the echo of his mother’s voice when he was five years old.
Stop bothering me. I’m sick of your whimpering. Leave me alone.
Since their breakup last October, through a gray fall and grayer winter, Leonidas had tried to keep thoughts of Daisy at bay. Yes, she was beautiful. But so what? The world was full of beautiful women. Yes, she was clever. Diabolically so, since she’d lured him so easily into wanting her, into believing she was different from the rest. Into believing her love could somehow save his soul and make him a better man.
Ridiculous. It humiliated him to remember. He’d acted like a fool, believing their connection had been based on anything more than sexual desire.
He couldn’t let down his guard. He couldn’t let himself depend on anyone’s love.
Daisy Cassidy had been the most exhilarating lover he’d ever had, but she was also the most dangerous. He’d needed to get her out of his life. Out from beneath his skin.
So the day after their argument, he’d left New York, vowing to forget her. And he had.
By day.
But night was a different matter. His body could not forget. Against his will, all these months later, he still dreamed of her, erotic dreams of a sensual virgin, luring him inexorably to his destruction. In the dream, he gave her everything—not just his body, not just his fortune, he gave her his heart. Then she always took it in her grasp and crushed it to dripping blood and burned ash.
Two days before, he’d woken after one particularly agonizing dream at his luxury apartment on the Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris, gasping and filled with despair.
Ever since their affair had ended, his days had been gray. He barely cared about the billion-dollar conglomerate which had once been his passion. Even his formerly docile board was starting to whisper that perhaps he should step down as CEO.
Leonidas could hardly blame them. He’d lost his appetite for business. He’d lost his edge. The truth was, he just didn’t give a damn anymore. How long would he be tormented by these dreams of her—dreams that could never again be real?
Then he’d suddenly gotten angry.
He realized he hadn’t visited his company’s headquarters back in New York once since that disastrous cocktail party. Daisy had driven him out of the city. He’d left his ex-girlfriend in victorious possession of the entire continent. But even on the other side of the world, she destroyed his peace.
No longer.
Grimly, he’d called his chief of security at the New York office. “Find out about Daisy Cassidy. I want to know what she’s doing.”
Then he’d called his pilot to arrange the flight back to New York. He was done running from her. He’d done nothing wrong. Nothing. Maybe, once he was back amid the hum and energy of his company’s headquarters, he’d regain some of his old passion for the luxury business.
But he didn’t relish the thought of Daisy ambushing him at some Manhattan event, or seeing her on another man’s arm. He hoped his chief of security would tell him she’d moved to Miami—or better yet, Siberia. Either way, Leonidas wanted to be prepared.
But he’d had no defense against what his security chief had told him.
Daisy Cassidy was six months pregnant, according to her friends. And refusing to say who the father might be.
But Leonidas knew. Daisy had been a virgin their first night, and she’d been faithful for the month of their affair—he had no doubt of that.
The baby had to be his.
Leonidas had felt restless, jittery, on the flight back to New York yesterday, wondering if she’d already known she was pregnant the night she’d walked out on him. Back at his West Village mansion, he’d collapsed, and slept like the dead. But at least he hadn’t been tormented by dreams.
Waking up late, he’d gone to the office, but had lasted only two hours before he’d called his driver to take him across the river. He’d waited outside the Brooklyn co-op where Daisy lived, tension building inside him as he tried to decide whether to go inside. Once he confirmed her pregnancy, there would be no going back.
Then he saw her, walking her dog on the street.
Leonidas hadn’t been able to tear his eyes away. Daisy was more beautiful than ever, her green eyes shining, her face radiant, and her body lush with pregnancy. She’d gained some weight, and her fuller curves suited her, making her even more impossibly desirable.
Why hadn’t she told him she was pregnant? Did she really hate him so much that she wouldn’t even accept his financial support for their child? It seemed incredibly reckless and wrong. She could have been pampered in her pregnancy. Instead, by all accounts she was still working on her feet as a waitress, and living in another man’s apartment. The same apartment where she and Leonidas had conceived this child. No wonder he felt so off-kilter and dizzy.