didn’t want children because my parents never really wanted me—that was a major turn-off. I also spent a lot of time helping to look after the younger kids when I was a teenager in the foster system and I saw kids back then as nothing more than a time-consuming responsibility who stole away your freedom,’ Betsy explained ruefully. ‘I genuinely didn’t ever expect to start wanting a baby, but I was too young when I made that decision and shared it with you.’
Nik nodded grimly. ‘I will give you that. So, what changed?’
Her small face stiffened. ‘You were away on business so much. I was bored, lonely, and then one day I woke up and somehow I believed a baby would be the best thing that ever happened to me and that everything would be improved with a child in the picture.’
‘But you became obsessed by your desire for a child.’ Nik sighed. ‘I’m afraid I didn’t understand how important having a baby had come to mean to you...that it was as much an emotional as a physical desire.’
Betsy tore her croissant into at least ten pieces and then began buttering each one while deciding that nothing less than honesty would suffice. ‘Yes, I was obsessed,’ she agreed, thinking back to the vitamins she had taken, the temperature charts to check when she was ovulating, the acupuncture and yoga sessions, the state of mind and pure desperation that had persuaded her that she would do literally anything to become pregnant.
Nik hadn’t expected her to admit that. ‘I felt shut out and extremely uncomfortable because I knew that no matter what you did it would be in vain.’
‘Obviously,’ Betsy conceded, glad to hear that guilt had afflicted him even if he didn’t have the right word to quantify the feeling.
‘I assumed you would just give up and forget about it eventually,’ he admitted with what would have been poignant ignorance had it only related to a less sensitive subject.
‘No, what you can’t have, you just want more,’ Betsy whispered ruefully.
And now she had finally got it and she was almost in Greece and Nik was back in her life. Was that what she wanted? Betsy was ashamed to realise that she truly didn’t know any more. Her troubled gaze rested on him, skimming over his bold bronzed profile before skipping down the long, straight slope of his perfect nose to linger on the full curve of his sensual mouth, and as if aware of her scrutiny he turned his handsome dark head. Eyes that were glittering slivers of bright green ringed by luxuriant black lashes transfixed her with stunning effect. Her mouth ran dry and her tummy flipped a helpless somersault.
But that was her body reacting, not her mind, Betsy reasoned shamefacedly. Sadly, her brain was going round and round in ever-shrinking circles without reaching any definitive conclusion and it had been doing that for weeks. What did she want? Could she forgive him? Was he sincere? How could he simply walk away and then walk back? Could he really care about their baby’s future? And what about her? Her needs? Her wants? Her happiness?
MR XENOPHON PLEATED his fingers and surveyed his anxious patient and her even more anxious husband. He had run a battery of standard tests and reached certain obvious conclusions.
‘You are very stressed, Mrs Christakis,’ he told Betsy gently. ‘And although you don’t yet seem to be aware of the fact, you are carrying twins. A twin pregnancy will be a heavier burden—’
‘She’s stressed?’ Nik demanded as if the concept was entirely foreign to him.
‘You are both very stressed,’ the doctor pronounced mildly. ‘Why is not my concern but you both need to find some way of reducing that stress for the sake of your wife’s health.’
Betsy finally unpeeled her tongue from the roof of her mouth. ‘I’m expecting...twins?’ she finally pressed for clarification.
‘My grandfather was a twin,’ Nik commented, very much in the tone of someone owning up to a regrettable secret.
Not one but two babies, Betsy reflected in a daze. Nik was probably filled with horror at the prospect of what might well strike him as a positive horde of babies.
‘Mrs Christakis is in poor condition right now for a twin pregnancy, which will demand more of her and her body,’ Mr Xenophon informed them calmly before focusing his attention on Betsy to continue. ‘You are underweight even for your petite frame. You are anaemic. Clearly, you’re not eating enough for a pregnant lady who needs all her strength. Your blood pressure is not good either. It’s not bad but it is not what it should be. Thankfully, all those problems are easily curable with a sensible approach. The stress is most probably causing the rise in your blood pressure but you need to find your own solution to dealing with that. It should involve lots of rest and reasonable exercise. There is a higher risk of premature birth with twins. You must both make the mother-to-be’s health your top priority.’
While listening, Nik had slowly lost all his natural colour. It was beginning to sink in to him that just being pregnant could be dangerous, seriously dangerous, for a woman’s health. The mere idea of anything happening to Betsy sent a queasy roll through his stomach and he swallowed hard. ‘Whatever it takes to improve Betsy’s state of health, it will be done.’
‘Twins,’ Betsy mused in a complete stupor as they emerged onto the sunlit pavement to climb back into the waiting limousine. ‘I saw the nurse pointing during the scan but, of course, I couldn’t understand what she was saying. Didn’t you?’
‘I wasn’t looking at the screen or listening. I was looking at you because you looked so worried—’
‘I never dreamt... Twins! I mean, I’ve barely changed shape—’
The concept of two babies battling to occupy Betsy’s tiny, fragile body at one and the same time only filled Nik with guilt and fear. Had he been more careful, had he thought to use precautions, had he suppressed his desire for her, none of this would have happened, he acknowledged angrily. But then, had she not fallen pregnant, would he have her back in his life? He thought not. And oddly enough, that acknowledgement banished all the razor-edged regrets attacking him.
Cristo’s wife, Belle, phoned when they were walking back through the airport.
‘Where the heck have you been?’
‘Greece. Nik flew me to Athens to see an obstetrician.’
‘As you do,’ Belle mocked after a disconcerted pause. ‘When will you be home?’
Betsy asked Nik. He veiled his gaze. ‘I don’t plan for us to return immediately,’ he admitted. ‘After what the doctor said I thought a week of rest and relaxation here would be a wiser idea... What do you think?’
The addition of the ‘what do you think?’ question was a groundbreaking improvement from Nik’s domineering corner.
‘I’ll phone you later,’ Betsy told her sister-in-law, and in the VIP travel lounge she sat down beside her husband. ‘Where are you planning on taking me?’
‘The island of Vesos, where I spent my first years in my grandfather’s home.’
Betsy hadn’t known even that small fact about his childhood and even had she been furious with him, which for once she was not, she would not have missed the chance to see the island.
