‘I told you, my relationship with my son is not your concern.’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ she retorted angrily. ‘How can you say that?’
‘He’s my son.’
‘Not that you’d know it,’ she retorted, then wished she hadn’t when he took a step backward, as though physically reeling from her comment. She took in a breath, needing to remember how to stay calm when calm was the opposite of how she felt.
‘Look, when I’m not here, you’re going to need to know how to be some kind of father to him. You’ve uprooted him, dragged him across to Greece, and for what? So he can be pampered by people he doesn’t know?’
‘He has you.’
She shook her head. ‘I’m not enough. You’re his father. And if the reason you’re staying away all day and into the night is because you don’t want to see me then I’ll go away again, Santos.’
‘Don’t threaten me
.’
‘I’m not threatening you. I will pack my bags and leave tomorrow unless you promise to start spending time with him.’
‘It’s not that easy!’ His voice was raised and there was something in his features, a sense of panic or disbelief; she couldn’t say. He controlled his temper, lowering his voice. ‘It’s not that easy.’
‘It’s not meant to be easy. He didn’t choose to lose his mother, and you didn’t choose to discover you’re a father to a six-year-old boy, but that’s the situation.’ She held his gaze. ‘If the idea of seeing me is so distasteful to you—like you’re worried I’m going to throw myself at your feet or something—then don’t. Believe me when I tell you, I’ll very happily go to the other side of the island when you’re in the house, if that’s what it takes.’ She glared at him to underscore how serious she was. ‘Just spend time with your son, Santos. He needs to know you.’
CHAPTER NINE
KNOWING SHE WAS right did nothing to mute his irritation. In fact, it only served to increase it. What the hell had he been doing?
He’d brought Cameron to Agrios Nisi and sooner or later he had to find a way to draw him into his life. He had to break through the barriers and forge some kind of connection with his child.
Amelia was completely right. Worse, she was right that he’d let a need to control the desire he felt for her come between spending time with his son. That was unforgivable and yet it was also confirmation.
Confirmation that he was more like his father than he cared to admit. Completely incapable of giving his son what he needed.
But that didn’t give him an excuse not to try.
‘Cameron?’ He found the boy building a spaceship out of plastic bricks in his room, and watched him for several moments before crouching down at his side.
‘It’s a Jedi cruiser.’
Santos’s smile was instinctive. ‘You like building star ships?’
‘I guess so.’ Cameron shrugged and Santos’s heart went out to him.
‘What else do you like?’
Cameron’s eyes were exactly like his own. Santos stared into them as something beat across his heart.
‘I don’t know.’ Another shrug.
‘Do you like the beach?’
‘I never saw the beach before I came here.’
Anger flashed in his belly; he ignored it. ‘I have a yacht, you know.’
Cameron hesitated a moment. ‘I like building yachts.’
‘Do you?’