The Greek Tycoon's Lover (19 page)

When he finally pulled back, his mouth smiled down into hers. “See? We’re good together.”

Her body was shivering in reaction but she pulled out of his arms, shaking her head in response to his kiss. “That’s just sex. I’ve never denied that we aren’t good in bed together. Just that I can’t marry you,” she said, pulling out of his arms. She saw his eyes narrow and shivered, expecting the anger to return and bracing for it.

His face was expressionless as he said, “Wrong answer. I’ll stop by your office to drive us home for the dinner party tonight,” he said and walked back behind his desk, picking up the document he’d been reading when she came in less than a half hour ago.

Helen started to say something, but Alessandra buzzed through, reminding him that he had a meeting in two minutes.

“Was there anything else, Helen?” he asked.

Her mouth snapped closed and she shook her head. “No. And don’t worry about getting me tonight. I’ll find my way there. I’ve already moved my clothes into the corporate apartments. I’ll be at your penthouse at the appropriate time,” she said stiffly and walked angrily out of his office.

Dimitri smiled as he watched her stiff walk. He didn’t understand what could be causing her to be so violently opposed to marriage, but he would break through her defenses and find out what it was. In the mean time, he picked up his phone. “Alessandra, Helen dropped off some suitcases at the corporate suite this morning. Could you have them transferred back to my place? Have the manager change the locks as well.”

Helen walked carefully back to her office, the anger making her stomach queasy again. She also had a headache because she hadn’t been able to stomach any coffee yet. She needed the caffeine, but the thought of a cup of coffee only made her more nauseous. With too many feelings hitting her on all sides, she couldn’t take a headache on top of everything else. She hurried down to the drug store to pick up some aspirin. She was desperate by the time she came back to her office but as soon as she walked in, she saw the lists. Picking up the papers, she read through the notes, almost smiling at Dimitri’s bold script. The paper contained a list of several more dinner parties and social activities she was to organize for him. She swallowed the pills quickly, then drank an entire glass of water, hoping the pain killers took hold quickly.

The afternoon went by more quickly than she could have hoped for. She was desperate to get tonight’s dinner party over with so she could escape Dimitri’s presence. She didn’t like the idea of sleeping alone, but she needed time and space to get through the rest of the time with him. Once she was alone, she could formulate a plan, something that would help her defend herself against his actions.

There was another dinner party planned for Friday evening and then they were scheduled to attend some charity ball the next night but she was sure she could beg off from that. And if he refused to let her off the hook, she’d simply refuse to attend with him, arriving separately. The most she’d have to deal with was his presence at dinner, then she could easily slip away.

“Time to go,” Dimitri announced in her doorway.

Helen jumped at the sound of his voice, so absorbed in planning her strategy she hadn’t heard him approach. But she glanced up and then quickly down. His jacket was slung over his shoulder and his tie loosened, the top button of his shirt undone and he looked like every woman’s dream. “I’ll meet you at your place in time for the dinner party,” she said and was proud of her firm tone.

He raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly. “That would be a little odd, wouldn’t it? Since we’re both going to the same place.”

“I told you, my clothes are at the corporate apartment. Besides, I’ve already informed Marie that I won’t be dining at the table tonight, so there’s no need for me to actually change clothes. I’ll just work the party in the background to ensure that everything goes well.”

He shook his head. “Not a good plan. I won’t accept it. And your clothes were brought back to the penthouse so shut down your computer,” he said and pressed the save button on her keyboard, “and let’s go. You will not be working the party in the background. You will be sitting at the head of the table, looking like my fiancée even if you don’t want the position.”

Helen gritted her teeth at his high-handed tactics. She was also angry with herself because she should have anticipated this move. “You’re being completely unreasonable about this,” she said angrily, standing up and facing him with her hands fisted at her sides. “Why can’t you just accept that we’re over? Move on, go find someone who wants to be your wife!”

“I have found someone. You. And I’m perfectly happy with my selection, but thank you very much for the easy out if I change my mind, which I won’t, by the way.” He pulled her around her desk, ignoring her resistance, and picked up her purse. “We need to get moving. You have to change clothes,” was all he would say.

Helen wanted to fight him but she needed to pick her battles.

Chapter 10

The evening was a huge success but she was angry the whole evening. She was sitting at the head of the table, glaring at Dimitri almost all night. She smiled at the appropriate moments and laughed at all the jokes which were light and very political since this group was made up mostly of high level government officials. But she was seething with anger the whole night. Her stomach wasn’t bothering her too much so at least something was going right, she told herself as she led the way through from the dining room to the huge great room for coffee.

Everyone took a seat and she looked around, grateful when Marie arrived immediately with the coffee and brandy tray, setting it in front of Helen and then departing. Helen took one whiff of the strong brew and almost passed out. Standing up suddenly, she took several steps away, then turned to the guests who were all staring curiously. “I’m sorry,” Helen started to say, “but Marie forgot something. I’ll be right back. Dimitri, would you pour?” she asked, then left without waiting for his response.

She made it all the way to the hallway between the kitchen and the living room before her mind blanked out on her. She fell to the ground in a dead faint, unaware of anything or anyone.

Dimitri watched Helen leave, his mind racing to figure out what was going on. Helen looked like she’d just seen a ghost and no one was believing her story about Marie forgetting something.

He walked over to the coffee tray and stared down at the various pots. A gentle, aging hand settled on his sleeve, halting him from the mundane task of pouring coffee for his guests. “Dimitri, how about if I pour and you go see what’s happened to Helen?” Danielle Oporous suggested. “She didn’t look well.”

Dimitri smiled gratefully at the elderly woman, then disappeared in the direction Helen had taken.

When he stepped into the hallway, he swore violently under his breath when he saw Helen’s body laying on the hard, marble floor. “Call an ambulance,” he yelled toward the kitchen. He was only slightly aware of Marie stepping into the hallway, then just as quickly disappearing, hopefully to call for an ambulance. Dimitri picked up Helen’s hand and felt for a pulse. When he found it, he moved his hands quickly down her body, searching for injuries. His mind started to panic when he found no visible signs of a problem. Lifting her into his arms, he carried her into his office, the closest room to her present position, and lowered her gently down onto a leather sofa. He then felt her forehead and almost fainted with relief himself when he saw her eyes flicker.

Marie came in with the wireless phone to her ear, speaking quickly in Greek. “Tell them to hurry,” he snapped, holding Helen’s shoulder with one hand when she tried to sit up and touching her forehead with the other, trying to determine if she was sick.

“Just stay where you are. An ambulance is on the way,” he said quickly, soothingly. “Where do you hurt?” he asked gently.

“Hurt?” Helen asked, confused by all the commotion. “I’m fine. Why am I lying on the sofa?”

“You were lying in the hallway just a moment ago.”

“Why?”

Dimitri almost laughed at the ridiculous question. “That’s exactly what I’d like to know,” he said.

Helen shook her head, then stopped when the dizziness returned. “I’m fine. I’m just tense,” she said. “The coffee makes me feel sick.”

Marie’s eyes watched her closely and she stopped talking into the phone. When a smile slowly formed over her face, she laughed out loud and spoke rapidly into the phone again. Helen had no idea what she said, her Greek still not good enough to even converse stiltingly.

“What’s so funny?” Helen asked, still trying to sit up and push Dimitri’s hand away at the same time.

Marie spoke to Dimitri and walked away, chuckling in what Helen could only describe as gleeful. “What did she say?” Helen asked, finally able to sit up and noticed that his expression was not gleeful, but outright stunned.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, forgetting instantly that she was angry with him. He was worried and it showed all over his face. “Maybe you should sit down,” she said, standing up and pulling him over to the sofa. She pushed at his shoulders until he was now sitting. Bending down, she looked into his eyes and felt his forehead. “Dimitri, are you okay?” she asked, almost terrified of anything happening to him.

Dimitri’s eyes slowly started to refocus again and he looked at her, his eyes taking it all in as slowly, he started to smile.

Helen shook her head and tsked. “Dimitri, if you aren’t sick then I’m not sure what’s going on. Why are you looking at me so strangely?”

He still just sat there and watched her and eventually, Helen huffed away. “If you’re going to simply stare at me, then I’m going to go see about our guests. I assume they are still having coffee?” she asked, not bothering to turn back to face him.

All the air in Helen’s lungs left her when she was suddenly caught up in Dimitri’s arms and carried back to the sofa. “You’re pregnant?” he asked. “And when were you going to tell me? Once you’d finally convinced me that we had to break up?”

It was Helen’s turn to be shocked and she could only stare up into his handsome, smiling face as his words sunk in, the pain filling her up as she realized she was going to have to disappoint him. And then the whole pitiful, humiliating truth would come out. “No. I’m not. I can’t,” she said sadly and pulled herself out of his arms.

“Don’t even try that on me, Helen. When was your last period?” he demanded, stopping her progress and spinning her around, then holding her upper arms as her head started swimming and her body swayed slightly. “Sorry,” he said, but he didn’t look sorry, she thought. “And why this sudden aversion to coffee? Fainting even at the smell of it? All signs of a pregnancy, according to Marie,” he explained.

Helen opened her mouth to speak, then stopped, thinking back. Her periods were always a little off, but she calculated back and realized that she hadn’t had a period since she’d left London. They were never that far off, she knew. Nine weeks?

And the coffee aversion had been sudden, even she acknowledged that. And her queasy stomach?

Shaking her head, she stood up and turned her back on Dimitri before taking a deep breath. “No. I can’t be pregnant,” she said, bracing her hands on the desk.

“Is this the same ‘can’t’ as in you can’t marry me instead of ‘won’t’ marry me?” he inquired softly.

It took her a long moment to get her voice under control. “No. This isn’t the same thing.” The pain obviously coming through in her voice because his face was no longer smiling, but concerned.

“Is your explanation going to clarify why you can’t and or won’t marry me?” he asked.

“Yes.” Helen sniffed and closed her eyes, leaning her head against his shoulder. “I can’t marry you because I can’t get pregnant.”

He waited patiently, letting her tell the story. But when she didn’t continue, he gently prompted, “How do you know?”

Sighing heavily, sadly, Helen accepted that she would have to explain. “About ten years ago, I was in a car accident. We were driving through an intersection and another car didn’t realize they were required to stop. The man had been drinking and simply ignored, or didn’t notice the red light. He crashed into the side of our vehicle. I was in the back seat and took most of the impact. I was in the hospital for over a month as they slowly repaired my body. But the one thing that they weren’t able to completely repair was my reproductive organs. The accident left me with a defect that has a larger than normal gap between the Fallopian tubes and the ovaries. It means that the egg disappears and disintegrates within my body before it can reach the uterus. In other words,” she explained sadly, “I can’t be pregnant, now or in the future.”

“And you’re sure that this defect eliminates the possibility of a pregnancy?”

Helen laughed harshly. “I’m sure. The doctors tried several different surgeries to correct the damage but in the end, they said it would have to heal the way it was. They ran into the possibility of damaging the surrounding organs if they kept trying.”

His hands were gently rubbing her shoulder soothingly and his chin was propped on top of her head. “So you’re disallowing the possibility that you might not still have this issue? Or that you’ve grown out of it?” he asked, moving up to lay his hands on her shoulders.

“No. I’m not disallowing it. I already mentioned that I was tested when I became a teenager. I have the deformity. The doctors were sure it isn’t possible to grow out of it. The gap is just too wide and apparently gets wider with age.”