Her father stared her down. “Only a little longer than you’ve kept him from his son.”
“I would like to meet him,” Darius said quietly. “But if you don’t want me around after that, I won’t stay.”
Trembling, she tossed her head defiantly. “Did he tell you the baby’s name?”
“No.”
“It’s Howard.” She lifted her chin, folding her arms. “Howard Eugenios Spencer.”
To her shock, Darius didn’t scowl or bluster. He didn’t even flinch. He just looked at her with that same strange glow of longing in his eyes.
“That’s not the name I would have chosen.” Triumph surged through her as she waited for him to be sarcastic and show his true colors in front of her father. Instead, he just said quietly, “His last name should be Kyrillos.”
Darius was upset only about the surname? Not about the fact that she’d named their precious baby son after her father—his hated enemy?
“Aren’t you furious?” she said, dropping her arms in bewilderment.
His lips curved as he looked down at her father, then slowly shook his head. “Not as much as I used to be.”
Darius came toward her. It took all Letty’s willpower not to step back from him as he towered over her. It wasn’t him she was afraid of, but herself. Her whole body was trembling with her own longing. Her need. She missed him.
But she couldn’t. She’d made her choice! She wouldn’t be married to a man who didn’t love her!
“Please let me see my son,” he said humbly. He bowed his head, as if waiting for her verdict.
“Let him,” her father said.
Looking between the two men, she knew she was outnumbered. She snapped, “Fine.”
Turning on her heel, she walked out. She didn’t look back to see if Darius was following her. Her hands were trembling.
All these weeks when she’d pushed him away, she’d pictured him as angry, arrogant, heartless. It was why she hadn’t been tempted to open his letters—why would she, when she knew he’d only be yelling at her?
She’d never once imagined Darius looking at her the way he did now, with such heartbreaking need. But it wasn’t just desire. He had an expression in his eyes that she hadn’t seen since—
No! She wasn’t going to let her own longing talk her into seeing things in his eyes that weren’t there, things that didn’t exist.
Pressing a finger to her lips, she quietly pushed open the nursery door and crept into the shadowy room, motioning for him to follow. Darius came in behind her.
Then, as they both stood over the crib, Letty made the mistake of looking at her husband when he saw their son for the very first time.
Darius’s dark eyes turned fierce, almost bewildered with love when he looked at their sleeping baby. Tenderly, he reached out in the semidarkness and stroked his dark downy head as he slept.
“My son,” he whispered. “My sweet boy.”
A lump rose in her throat so huge it almost choked her. And she suddenly knew that Darius wasn’t the only one who’d been heartless.
What had she done?
Blinded by furious grief at his lie about her father, Letty had actually kept Darius from his own firstborn son. For six weeks.
Anguish and regret rushed through her in a torrent of pain. Even if Darius could never love her, she had no doubt that he loved their baby. Especially as she watched him now, gently stroking their baby’s small back through his Santa onesie as the sleeping child gave a soft snuffle in the shadowy room.
She’d had no right to steal his child away.
“I’m sorry,” she choked out. He looked up.
“You’re sorry?”