don’t have a phone.’
He dug a card out of his pocket, printed a number on it and extended it to her. ‘It’s my personal number.’
His personal number. Her eyes prickled and stung like mad. She wanted to scrunch the card up and throw it at him, because he had been so careful not to give her that number eighteen months earlier. Her throat was so thick with tears that she could hardly breathe, much less hurl the tart comment she wanted to fling. She had loved him so much. It had been a savage hurt when he’d rejected her, and to be forced back into his radius and made to feel as undesirable as the plague was salt in that wound.
Alexandros watched her cross the busy pavement. She moved with the sinuous grace and light step of a dancer. He tore his attention from her, refusing to acknowledge that reflection, and the door closed, leaving him alone with his bleak thoughts. If a man could be said to have ditched a woman with good intentions, he was that man. Now it seemed that although he owned the race in the cut-throat world of high finance, his private life was destined to be a disaster area. Once again he had screwed up. Once again he would have to pay the price. As she had paid it. Just what he needed, he reflected with a bitterness he could not suppress: a guilt trip that would last the rest of his life.
How likely was it that her children were his? He remembered Katie’s indiscreet, straight-from-the heart forthrightness. He had found her honesty such a novelty. There had been no half-truths and no evasions. Very refreshing—until she’d said those fatal words he could not stand to hear on another woman’s lips. I love you—that little phrase that Ianthe had made so much her own.
Why had he let Katie get out of the limo? Chances were she was telling the truth and he was the father of her twins. He suppressed a shudder. He knew exactly what was required of him. He knew he had absolutely no business thinking about himself or about how he felt. He had dug his own grave. He recalled that Katie didn’t even have a phone. He swore long and low under his breath. Perhaps she needed food more.
‘You have appointments, boss,’ Cyrus remarked in an apologetic tone.
Alexandros ignored that reminder. Acting purely on impulse, he went to Harrods and bought an enormous hamper, and the latest mobile phone in Katie’s favourite colour. His own out-of-character behaviour seriously spooked him. He called his lawyer. His lawyer called for legal reinforcements and urged crisis talks, DNA specialists and extreme prudence. Alexandros might still have acted on his gut instincts, had it not been for the timely reminder of the potential for a huge scandal. Personal visits and gifts, it was pointed out, would only reinforce any claims made against him, and add to the risk of sordid publicity.
‘Your grandparents…’
The reminder was sufficient to halt Alexandros in his tracks. Pelias and Calliope Christakis would be very distressed if an unsavoury scandal engulfed their grandson. The older couple were not of an age where their continuing good health could be taken for granted either. In the short term, Alexandros grudgingly accepted that a discreet and cautious course would be wisest.
Katie was intercepted before she could climb the stairs to her room.
‘Miss Fletcher?’
It was the same thin fair man she had seen watching her in the foyer of CTK bank. ‘Yes?’
He handed her his card as an introduction. ‘I’m Trev. I work for the Daily Globe. Mind me asking what your connection to Alexandros Christakis is?’
Taken aback, Katie muttered, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about—’
‘But you do. You just got out of the bloke’s limo!’
‘You saw me? Did you follow me all the way from the bank? And to my friend’s as well?’ Katie was unnerved by that awareness, and turned towards the stairs again.
The reporter was in her way. ‘I hear you have a couple of kids…’
‘What’s that got to do with you?’
‘Christakis is a very interesting guy. If you have anything to tell us about him it could be well worth your while,’ he told her with a meaningful look. ‘People don’t talk about him. He lives in a world most of us can only envy. So anything of an exciting personal nature would have a very high cash value.’
Katie hesitated, distaste filling her. She wanted to tell him to get lost and leave her alone. If only Alexandros had given her a more concrete promise of support than a phone number! Leanne had said that she should be prepared to do anything to give Toby and Connor a better start in life. But talking to a newspaper in return for money struck her as sleazy, and she wanted to think that she was above doing that sort of thing. And yet she was also painfully aware that it was her job to provide her children with a decent home, and achieving that would require cold hard cash.
‘We’re on your trail now, so if there’s any dirt to dig we’ll find it anyway.’ Threat and warning were linked in Trev’s hopeful appraisal. ‘So why don’t you make it easier for us and turn a profit too?’
‘I’m not interested.’ Even as she spoke, Katie did not know whether or not she was making the right decision.
An hour later she went back to Leanne’s, to pick up Toby and Connor. While her friend saw her mother out of the flat, Katie scooped up her sons, one at a time out of the buggy, and hugged them tight. After a busy morning of occupation, Toby gave her a huge sunny smile, and Connor laughed.
‘So, tell…’ Leanne urged impatiently. ‘What happened? Did you get to see Alexandros?’
Katie explained, while her friend listened with avid interest and made her describe the limo in detail.
‘Alexandros is obviously stinking rich.’ A calculating expression formed on Leanne’s pretty face. ‘And the best offer he can make you is a DNA test?’ she sneered. ‘He’ll need to do a lot better than that!’
‘He was shocked…I’ll give him a couple of days and see what happens.’ Katie displayed the card she had been given by the journalist to the brunette.
‘Whoopy-do!’ Leanne snatched the card to study it, more impressed by the interest of the Daily Globe than by anything else. ‘This Trev took the trouble to follow you? Hey, Alexandros must be a real celebrity! And you turned the reporter’s offer down? Are you out of your tiny mind?’
‘I have to give Alexandros a chance to help us first.’
‘But if the press find out whose kids Toby and Connor are without your input, you won’t make any money at all!’
Katie was beginning to feel uncomfortable. ‘I know, but I don’t think anyone will work out what my relationship was with Alexandros any time soon. I mean, nobody knows about us—’
‘You could make pots of money out of this, Katie. Haven’t you got the guts to go for it?’ her friend demanded
‘Alexandros would hate that kind of publicity, and he’d never forgive me for it.’
‘So what? What’s he to you?’
‘He’ll always be the twins’ father. I don’t want to make an enemy of him. Flogging our story to the newspapers has to be a last resort for me.’
Leanne gave her a scornful look. ‘You’re being
