With a grimace he reached for one of the bottles, which contained vitamins. Nikos opened it and could smell them before emptying the pills on the bed. He examined the second vial, of iron pills. The third held a prescription drug issued from the same pharmacy in Florida. Dr. Verl Sanders. Three a day as necessary for nausea and/or vomiting. The date on all three bottles indicated they’d been issued two days ago.
She was pregnant. Just as his father had intimated...
He swung his head in her direction. By now she’d come back out and was sitting on the chair. “Please, Dev.” Her blue eyes begged him, out of a face with a slight pallor he hadn’t noticed before. Come to think of it, with that wan complexion, she didn’t look the same. The glow of health that had radiated off her in the Caribbean was missing. “If I could have one of those small greenish pills with some water?”
She still insisted on using his fictitious name. Nikos picked up one of the pills, then grasped her upper arm and led her back into his bathroom. Her firm flesh, warm from walking on the island in the sun, was a potent reminder of what he’d been torn from at the resort, but that golden quality about her had disappeared.
“Use the cup from the dispenser.”
Stephanie took one and put it under the faucet. When he handed her the pill, she swallowed it with half a cup of water. He’d expected resistance, but the eager way she drank and the slight tremor of the hand holding the cup revealed a vulnerability that brought out his protective instincts and caused his mind to reel.
“How far along are you?”
The empty cup fell into the sink. This was no act. She weaved in place, causing him to tighten his grip on her arm so she wouldn’t fall. Her eyes stared at him in the mirror. “You do the math.”
That comment—just when he’d felt himself softening toward her—caught him on the raw. He gripped her other arm to bring her close to him, and gave her a little shake. “Whose baby is it? Rob’s?”
“You can ask me that?” she cried, sounding so wounded it almost got to him.
“Very easily.”
Her head fell back on the slender column of her neck. “Rob? The guy I only had one dinner date with? I was never intimate with him or anyone else! I can’t believe you brought his name up.”
“I used protection, Stephanie.”
“That’s what I told Dr. Sanders. He said no protection was perfect, and informed me I was going to have a baby. I’m three months along.”
She’d already gone through her first trimester? He’d been in absolute hell during that same time period.
“Call him and he’ll confirm it. If you can conceive of my being with another man after what we shared on vacation, then your imagination is greater than mine could ever be. After it’s born and you’re still in doubt, then a simple DNA test will tell you the truth.”
The blood hammered in his ears. He searched her eyes, trying to find any trace of duplicity in her, but could see none. His lips twisted. “So your carefully laid plan had the consequence you’d hoped for, and now you’re ready to turn this to your advantage?”
“What advantage?” she blurted angrily. “When you were through with me, you sent me flowers and couldn’t have made it clearer our interlude was over. But I happen to believe that a man who’s a womanizer still deserves to know he’s going to be a father. That’s the real reason I’m here!”
The real reason. Which truth was the truth?
“I could have sent you a bouquet with a note congratulating you on your new status. But I had no idea where to send it, so I decided to do the decent thing and come in person, hoping to find Dev Harris. Instead I found you.”
With her wintry indictment, she jerked herself out of his arms and hurried back to the bedroom. “Now that you’ve been given the news, I need to catch the boat back to Chios.” She started to put the contents of her purse back, but his hand was faster, preventing her.
“I’m afraid not. There won’t be another one until tomorrow.” He slid her cell phone and passport in a pocket of his pants.
Her head swerved to meet his piercing gaze. “I never wanted or expected anything from you, and that’s a good thing, because I don’t know who you are.”
“Nor I you.” His voice grated. “Except in the biblical sense.” He saw a glint of pain in her eyes before she started for the doorway. “Go ahead, but without a passport, you won’t be allowed to board the plane back to the States.”
“You can’t keep me here! I have a job to get back to, a condo to take care of. My flight leaves for Florida in the morning.”
“You should have thought of that before you ever targeted me.”
Her naturally arched brows frowned in puzzlement. “You certainly have an inflated opinion of yourself. I’ve met men in Florida with a lot of money. Maybe not as much as the Vassalos family, but enough to keep a grasping woman in style for the rest of her life. Since you can’t wait for me to be gone, how long do you intend to keep me here?”
“For as long as it takes to get the truth from you.”
She sat down on the edge of the bed as if she was too weak to stand. Her pallor convinced him that part of her story was the truth. She was nauseous, but maybe it covered something other than pregnancy. Kon’s wife had done a spectacular job of convincing him she was pregnant.
“Dev... We met purely by accident, when I was scuba diving at the resort with my friends from Crystal River.”
“Yet you managed to locate me here without any difficulty whatsoever. Now you’re telling me you’re pregnant with my child. We both know you were already pregnant when you slept with me on vacation. If you’re hoping to inveigle your way into my life with this announcement, it won’t work.”
By now her hands had formed into fists, and she jumped up from the bed. “I don’t want to stay here!” she cried, sounding on the verge of hysteria. “I can’t! I’m expected back at work. My friends will wonder where I am.”
He would never have credited her with being an hysterical woman. It didn’t fit with what he knew about her. Yet what did he really know, except what she’d allowed him to see while they were both on vacation? “No problem. You can call them and tell them you’ve been detained.”
“Dev—”
“It’s Nikos, remember?”
“All right then. Nikos. Please don’t do this. I need to get back to the hotel in Chios for my personal belongings.”
“We’ll sail there and Yannis will collect them for you.”
“Yannis?”
“He’s a seaman who worked for my family when I was boy. Now he works for me.”
“What do you mean, collect?” she asked in fresh alarm.
“After we leave Chios, we won’t be touching land again for at least two weeks.”
After letting out a moan, she started pacing, then stopped. “Call my obstetrician in Florida. He’ll verify the dates so you’ll have your proof.”
“That won’t prove anything. You could have been with a man the night before we met. Maybe several.”
A gasp escaped. “Surely you don’t believe that! There was only you. Phone Delia. She’ll verify everything.”
“How much did you pay her and her boyfriend to tell me a lie if I called her?”
Stephanie paled more. “Nikos...who are you?”
He raked a hand through his hair, wondering the same