answer.’
‘I want to see you again,’ Jax had proclaimed impatiently.
‘I’m free Thursday night.’
‘I don’t want to wait that long.’
‘All right. You can see me at midnight tomorrow when I finish my shift...unless that’s too late for you?’
‘No, that will do.’
‘But know upfront I’m not spending the night with you, so if that’s what you’re expecting, just forget about me,’ she had warned him staunchly.
Lucy had learned to be blunt with men. She thought of it as managing their expectations. She had gone out with so many men who had simply assumed that she would sleep with them at the end of the night and who had reacted badly to a refusal. But her body was the one element in her world that Lucy had always felt was truly hers and until she finally met someone who could make her want him enough to move beyond that she had no intention of sharing her body with anyone. She genuinely hadn’t expected Jax to be any different and she had slowly learned her mistake until saying no to Jax had become painful because she hadn’t been able to control her own hunger.
‘You’re too defensive. Not every guy is out to nail you—’
‘You mean you’re not?’ Lucy had exclaimed in surprise.
‘I can see that trying to be smooth and seductive with you will be a huge challenge,’ Jax had laughed, flashing her a highly amused smile.
And she had started falling for him that very night because that glorious charismatic smile of his had stopped her in her tracks and left her short of breath. She had met him the following night, sharing tapas and a couple of drinks with him in an upmarket bar. But sadly, she had dropped off to sleep in the middle of the conversation, bone tired from being on her feet serving all day. He had shaken her awake and taken her home without even attempting to kiss her, confiding that yawns weren’t sexy. He had put his phone number in her phone while she slept and the next day he began texting her, first letting her know that he would be out of the country for a couple of days, then arranging to see her on her next free night.
A day later Kat Valtinos had shown up at the bar and cornered her. ‘Jax is the ultimate playboy and you’re the British equivalent of trailer trash—’
‘Probably,’ Lucy had conceded, looking back on her troubled poverty-stricken past.
‘Obviously Jax will get bored fast and you look like the clingy sort.’
‘I haven’t had a chance to cling yet but I’m a quick learner. Does he like clingy women?’ Lucy had asked, wide-eyed. ‘Is he your boyfriend?’
‘No, a very good friend,’ Kat had declared. ‘But you’re wasting your time. I intend to marry him.’
‘Tell that to him, not to me,’ Lucy had advised and got back to work, ignoring the bitchy brunette until she’d finally stalked out in a snit at not being taken seriously.
* * *
The following morning, Lucy rose early after a sleepless night of wandering painfully through her mortifyingly fresh memories of being with Jax two years earlier. She watched her father and stepmother leave to attend the funeral. Over breakfast they had been too preoccupied with a sad and affectionate exchange of stories about their now deceased friend to notice how heavy-eyed and silent Lucy was.
But Lucy was also restless with anxiety and operating on pure adrenalin. Now that Jax knew about Bella she had to worry about how he would act on that information. She winced at the knowledge that Jax had power over her again. Certainly he had rights as a father that she could not deny. But would he choose to exercise those rights and seek an active parenting role?
Barely an hour later, Lucy received her first taste of Jax choosing to exercise his rights. A smartly dressed, fast-speaking lawyer arrived and asked her to agree to DNA testing and no sooner had she given consent, her face burning at the humiliating suspicion that Jax could doubt that he had fathered her child, than a lab technician arrived and took samples. That matter dealt with, the lawyer then settled a confidentiality agreement down in front of her. It seemed to be what Lucy had seen referred to as a ‘gagging order’ in the media and she refused to sign it, sticking to her guns when the older man persisted in his persuasions.
‘Mr Antonakos does not like what I shall describe as private matters broadcast in the public domain. If you sign this document, it will form a secure basis for good relations between you in the future.’
‘I can assure you that I have no intention of speaking to the press but I’m not prepared to sign anything that says I cannot talk about my own daughter,’ she told him quietly.
By the time the older man departed, Lucy fully understood that he had been engaged in a potential damage-limitation plan. And Lucy was utterly unnerved by Jax acting to protect himself and the reputation of the Antonakos family even before he had definitive proof that her child was his. She was appalled that he could distrust her so much that he suspected that she might sell nasty stories about him to the newspapers.
In truth she did have a very low opinion of Jax but she had every intention of keeping that low opinion to herself for her daughter’s sake. Whatever else Jax was, he was and always would be her daughter’s father and she didn’t want to do anything to damage that relationship. That meant, she registered with a sinking heart, that she would have to keep her personal feelings very much to herself. Airing her anger, resentment and bitterness would be destructive and the situation they were in where they shared a child but nothing else would be difficult enough to deal with.
An hour after the lawyer departed, Jax arrived and, for once, not in a limousine. He roared up outside on a motorbike and it was only as he doffed his helmet on the way to the front door that she realised it was him and not someone making a delivery. He was trying to be discreet, endeavouring to ensure that he wasn’t recognised, she realised. When she had first met Jax in Spain he had only recently stepped into his late brother’s role and as he had been relatively unknown there had been no paparazzi following him around then. Now that a kind of celebrity madness erupted around Jax’s every public appearance she was grateful that he was being careful because she did not want to see her face or her daughter’s appearing in articles full of embarrassing speculations.
Lucy opened the front door and stepped back. Jax strode in, bringing with him the scent of fresh air, leather and masculinity. In the narrow hall, he towered over her and she thrust the door quickly shut to walk into the spacious front room, which was sprinkled with colourful toys and baby equipment.
Jax slung his motorbike helmet down on a chair and raked impatient fingers through his black hair. ‘Where is she?’ he demanded.
‘Bella’s having a nap. I’ll get her up in ten minutes. She wakes very early in the morning and then she gets tired again...’ Realising that she was gabbling, Lucy flushed, insanely conscious of Jax’s stare.
Lucy sported cropped jeans, a pink tee shirt and bare feet. She looked very young and cute and definitely hadn’t dressed up for his benefit. Jax was irritated that she had not made the effort. He hadn’t slept much the night before. The cold shower hadn’t worked any miracle and that sexual tension piled on top of the shocking announcement Lucy had made had done nothing to help. When he had a problem Jax liked a plan to work towards, a plan with firm boundaries. Unhappily there was no convenient plan available to tell him how a man behaved when he discovered he was a father even though he had
