Della curled her lip. ‘We looked after you when you were a child, Grace. Now I expect you to look after us and ensure that there is no reason for Leo Zikos to sack your uncle from his job or withdraw business from my legal firm. After all, it’s your fault that I was brusque with him... I know I offended him but he arrived in the middle of a family crisis... Make sure he understands that.’
Grace was astonished by the entire tenor of the conversation. Della was scared that her comfortable life was under threat. Only genuine anxiety on that score would have persuaded the older woman to meet up with her despised niece and ask her for help to smooth over any offence caused. Grace thought it best not to mention that she was currently at serious odds with Leo herself, having called him a lying, cheating scumbag without integrity.
‘I’ll check out the situation for you and, if necessary, explain things,’ Grace promised to bring the uncomfortable meeting to an end. ‘But I really don’t think you have anything to worry about.’
‘Grace, you have about as much idea as to how the very wealthy expect to be treated as a farm animal!’ her aunt told her with raw-edged impatience.
Back at the hotel, Grace ordered a meal from room service and lay on the bed, pondering that strange encounter. She believed that her aunt was panicking without good cause. But hadn’t she already discovered that she did not know Leo as well as she had assumed? It was not a situation she could ignore, was it? Leo could well be the vengeful type when people crossed him. Della had probably been very rude to him: Della in a temper didn’t hold back. As Grace thrust her tray away, she lifted her phone, her conscience twanging. She couldn’t simply ignore her aunt’s fears simply because she herself did not want to speak to Leo.
‘Grace...’ Leo growled down the phone like a grizzly bear, apparently not in any better a mood than when she had last seen him.
‘I need to talk to you,’ Grace advanced stiffly.
‘I’ll be with you in an hour.’ At the other end of the phone, Leo smiled with a strong sense of satisfaction. Clearly, Grace had calmed down and finally seen sense. Nobody was perfect. He had made one mistake. And she needed him, of course she did; he was the father of her baby...
An hour later, a knock sounded on the door and Grace used the peephole, recognising one of Leo’s bodyguards before opening the door. ‘Yes?’
‘The boss is on the top floor waiting for you,’ she was told.
Grace grabbed her key card and followed the man into the lift. Of course, if Leo owned the place he would have an office or something in the building, she guessed. She breathed in slow and deep at the thought of seeing Leo again. She could handle it; she could handle him without letting herself down. Couldn’t she? She had never been one of those girls who was a pushover for a good-looking, smooth-tongued male, although to be honest, she reasoned, she had met none before Leo, which meant that Leo kind of reigned supreme in her imagination as the ultimate player.
She smoothed damp palms down over the denim skirt she had teamed with a green T-shirt. Dressing up for him? That suspicion was a joke when she recalled how Marina had looked, all glossy and glitzy with wonderfully smooth straight hair and amazing make-up. No bad fairy had cursed Marina at birth with red curly hair and freckles, not to mention breasts and hips that would have suited someone much taller.
She walked into a beautifully decorated large room. It had a bed like hers but there the similarity ended because it was much more of a five-star suite. Leo was by the window, broad, straight shoulders taut with a tension she could feel, and in spite of her inner strictures her heart leapt even before he swung round to face her.
‘Grace...’ he said and his dark deep drawl shimmied down her spine with the potent sexual charisma that was so much a part of him.
Leo felt a hard-on kick in as he focused momentarily on the swell of Grace’s high, full breasts below the thin top and the slender perfection of the thighs he hadn’t had a good look at since they first met. Diavelos, he loved her body, he really, really loved her body. It just did it for him every time the way no other woman’s ever had. He looked and he simply wanted to touch, taste, take.
‘I wanted to see you to discuss something...probably something you’ll consider quite silly,’ Grace warned him uncomfortably, striving to not quite focus on his lean, darkly handsome features with a mouth running dry and a tummy turning somersaults. But there he was, gorgeous, no denying that, she conceded helplessly while she fought to concentrate on what she had to say.
Leo had the celebratory champagne standing by on ice. He knew she was pregnant but was convinced that one little sip would do no harm simply to mark the occasion, because of course she wanted to see him to tell him that she was ready to marry him. The true celebration would be taking her back to bed again, knowing she was his...finally. When it dawned on him that Grace was burbling on for some strange reason about her uncle’s job and her aunt’s legal firm, he was perplexed, until the proverbial penny dropped and he made the necessary leap of understanding. Of course, what else would a lying, cheating scumbag do but throw his weight around through threats and intimidation?
‘And you’re afraid that I took offence?’ Leo prompted, taking very much more offence from what she was saying than from anything her shrewish aunt had thrown at him.
‘Yes, of course, I know you’re not really like that...’ Grace assured him.
No, you don’t know. They wouldn’t be having this conversation if she knew him and without warning a scorching tide of rage was washing over Leo like a dangerous floodtide.
Grace stared at Leo, noticing that his big powerful body had gone very, very still. His dark eyes shone as bright as gold ingots below his lush black lashes.
‘They’re my family...I do care about what happens to them,’ Grace framed in uncertain continuation. ‘They really don’t deserve to be dragged into this mess between us.’
‘I won’t adversely affect their lives in any way if you agree to marry me,’ Leo delivered in a tone that brought gooseflesh to her bare arms.
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘I think you heard me, Grace. If you do what I want and marry me, I will promise not to interfere with your uncle and aunt’s continuing employment.’
Before his shrewd, hard gaze, Grace turned white. ‘You can’t mean that, not that you would seriously threaten their livelihoods just because I’m not doing what you want?’
‘I mean it,’ Leo asserted with fierce emphasis. ‘I’ve run out of patience. I want to marry you and I want that child you’re carrying. So, think very carefully about what you decide to do next.’
‘But that’s complete blackmail!’ Grace shot back at him, trembling like a leaf in shock and barely able to credit what he was telling her.
‘I never pretended to be a knight on a white horse, Grace. You and that baby are mine and the sooner you acknowledge that, the happier we will all be.’
‘I don’t belong to anyone. I belong to myself,’ Grace argued through gritted teeth, battling a terrifying sense of panic as hard as she could because Leo had just trashed the faith she hadn’t known she still cherished in him.
Leo stalked closer, well over six feet of powerfully built and determined masculinity. ‘That
