of his and stepped back a further pace for good measure. Her cheeks were burning with mortification and inside herself she was beating herself up for revelling in that kiss. ‘No, it’s not simple.’
‘But it could be if we both act like reasonable people,’ Eros intoned. ‘I don’t want to be forced into a custody battle with you.’
Winnie froze. ‘C-custody?’ she stammered in horror. ‘Battle? Why would you do that?’
‘Because if you say no to marriage, I have no other option,’ Eros replied without hesitation. ‘I want Teddy in my life, Winnie, and I won’t settle for anything less.’
Winnie was pale and still in retreat from him. ‘Obviously I’m willing to agree arrangements for you to see Teddy,’ she reminded him. ‘I wouldn’t have come tonight if I hadn’t been willing.’
His lean dark features were shuttered and hard. ‘Occasional meetings here in London? That’s not enough. I want more.’
Winnie steeled her backbone to stay upright and she stared back at him, struggling to conceal her horror at the pressure he was putting on her. ‘You can’t have more,’ she told him flatly. ‘You can see Teddy whenever you’re able but I won’t agree to anything beyond that.’
His extraordinary eyes narrowed to glittering shards of green. ‘Then we go to court and, be warned, I will arm myself with every piece of ammunition that I can lay my hands on to strengthen my own case...’
‘You’re threatening me,’ she whispered shakily, a chill spreading through her body from deep down inside her, surprise and fear assailing her in a sickening wave.
‘You’re leaving my child in the care of a woman who was accused of working in a brothel, her name and her face plastered all over the gutter press!’ Eros condemned.
Winnie, literally, felt faint with shock that he should already be aware of that embarrassing truth. He was talking about her sister Vivi, poor Vivi, whose first job had inadvertently led to her reputation being ruined. Vivi had believed she was working for a modelling agency but in fact it had also been an escort agency, which was raided by the police and closed down for operating illegally as a brothel. Being both photogenic and naive, Vivi had been branded as a prostitute by the tabloids as she was seen fleeing the premises that same day.
‘And your other sister, who rarely goes out in public and suffers from panic attacks. How safe is Teddy with her?’ Eros enquired lethally. ‘What if she has one of those attacks when she’s supposed to be looking after my son?’
‘I hate you!’ Winnie ground out rawly, anger splintering through her like a lightning bolt, for there was nothing she would not do to protect her younger sisters. ‘How did you find out such confidential details about my family?’
‘Such details are available to anyone with the cash to have you investigated,’ Eros told her levelly.
‘You’re hateful,’ Winnie told him with a scornful, dismissive jerk of her slight shoulders. ‘I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man alive after an apocalypse! I have no respect for a man prepared to sink low enough to threaten my family while he tries to steal my son, and I wouldn’t trust a word you said—’
‘Teddy is my son and my family too,’ Eros reasoned, lifting his strong chin. ‘It is right that I do everything within my power—no matter how dirty I have to get—to do what I believe to be best for my son.’
Winnie had already retreated all the way back into the apartment. ‘Well, just you keep on telling yourself that if it makes you feel better but, unlike you, I have standards and rules I wouldn’t break... No—no matter what the temptation was!’
‘You can’t expect me to play nice in a situation where you expect me to accept that my own child will be perpetually out of my reach,’ Eros argued fiercely, green eyes snapping with intensity.
‘When the dust settles,’ Winnie responded curtly, ‘just remember that you are the one who wanted to make this a battle and fight dirty. I was the one prepared to be reasonable and fair.’
‘Really?’ Eros slanted a scornful brow. ‘Were you fair when you concealed the birth of my child from me? Were you fair when you denied Teddy his right to have a father? Were you being fair when you suggested that I could maybe arrange to be in London more often to see my son?’
Her heart-shaped face tight and pale with angry tension, Winnie screened her eyes and remained silent, reluctant to engage in further argument with him because it wasn’t getting her anywhere. No, none of that was fair. But it had not been any fairer on her when Eros had concealed the reality that he was a married man. It was, however, even more unjust when he threatened to expose her sisters in court as unsuitable carers for Teddy because of past experiences that neither young woman could have avoided or controlled.
Zoe had been bullied and abused in foster care. Vivi had been left to take the fall for a wayward young heiress from a powerful family. In short, life wasn’t fair, Winnie conceded unhappily. She had first learned that when her loving, hardworking parents had died at the hands of a drunk driver and she had learned it afresh when she had trustingly given her heart to a man who had broken it.
But Eros wasn’t going to get his hands on Teddy too, she swore vehemently to herself. She would fight back by appealing to her grandfather for help. The older man wanted her to marry some man of his choosing, so he would hardly support the idea of her marrying Eros, nor would he want Eros to have more power over his grandson than he had.
Indeed, so worked up was Winnie that she could not even wait until she got home to speak to Stam Fotakis. She phoned her grandfather on the way home and told him that Eros had demanded that she marry him.
‘It’s past time,’ Stam commented, sending her reeling with that unforeseen response. ‘But better late than never. He’s the boy’s father and when you marry him, my grandson gets his name and his birthright. Nevrakis isn’t from an old family but he has good social standing and pots of money and at least he’s not a spendthrift, womanising idiot like his late father...’
Winnie was gobsmacked by that reply enumerating Eros’s advantages and it momentarily silenced her.
‘Of course, you’ll marry him. Why wouldn’t you? He owes you a wedding ring,’ her grandfather informed her sternly. ‘It’ll put right everything that was done wrong. Tell me the date and I’ll even put in an appearance on the day.’
‘I was planning to ask you to get me a good lawyer to fight him,’ Winnie almost whispered, already reckoning that that was a hope doomed to failure.
‘No, you’ll have the benefit of my legal team when you’re divorcing him,’ Stam assured her with calm emphasis.
‘But if I don’t marry him, he’s threatening to fight me for custody of Teddy.’
‘But why wouldn’t you want to marry him and put everything right?’ the older man demanded in what sounded like honest disbelief. ‘You said you would marry to please me.’
‘Yes...anyone but Eros,’ Winnie mumbled shakily.
‘Nevrakis is my choice but don’t worry, you and the little boy will be coming home with me after the wedding,’ Stam informed her with immense satisfaction.
No
