Sensing another presence, Andreos turned towards me, his chubby arms windmilling as he babbled in delight. Then delight turned into familiar irritation as hunger kicked in and he whimpered his displeasure.
‘Someone is impatient for his feed,’ Ax mused, before his gaze dropped pointedly to my chest.
A fierce blush suffused my face. My breasts had been growing heavier in the last couple of hours. Even without the need to feed him myself I would have needed to express some milk before going to bed.
Expecting Ax to hand him over, I watched in surprise when he headed to the antique rocking chair I used for feeding Andreos. ‘You’re staying?’
‘Unless you have an objection?’ he asked, and I realised it was a genuine query.
About to say yes, I stunned myself by shaking my head.
A look flitted across his face faster than I could decipher it before he nodded. Once I was seated in the chair, which I’d discovered had been in his family for generations, Ax handed Andreos over. Then he started to move towards the adjacent sofa.
‘Um…’ I said.
He turned immediately. ‘What is it?’
‘Can you help me with my dress?’
Piercing grey eyes darkened a fraction as they moved to the halter neck of my dress. He gave a brisk nod, and in one deft move freed the fastening.
I caught the front before I was completely exposed, but there was no hiding from Ax’s focused attention as I positioned Andreos on my lap.
He latched on with greedy enthusiasm, one fist planted firmly on my breast while both chubby legs jerked up to wrap around the forearm of the hand I’d laid on his plump belly to steady him.
The familiar action tugged at my heartstrings and drew a smile.
‘Does he always do that?’ Ax rasped, his voice gruff with emotion.
For a precious few seconds I’d forgotten he was there, watching my every move, absorbing his son’s routine. Now my gaze met his and I nodded shakily, strangely overcome to be sharing this little snippet of time with the man who’d helped create my precious son.
‘Since he was two and a half months old. I think it’s his way of telling me to stay put. He’ll let me go when he’s satisfied.’
Ax lounged back in his seat and crossed his legs, a curious, heart-stopping little smile playing at his sensuous lips. ‘He’s a Xenakis. He knows what he wants.’
That display of unabashed male pride would have been unbecoming from any other man. From Ax it was a solid statement acknowledging his progeny. Progeny that would be completely his if I lost my fight.
The lance of pain to my heart made my breath catch.
‘What is it?’ Ax asked sharply. ‘Does it cause you pain?’
My gaze flew to his and I had to swallow before I could answer. ‘The breastfeeding? No, it doesn’t.’
His narrowed gaze moved from Andreos and back to me. ‘Then what is it?’
I flailed internally as I tried to find a plausible response. ‘I was just remembering our conversation in the car. Perhaps I was…a little harsh.’
One brow quirked, but it was minus the mockery I’d become used to. ‘Perhaps?’
‘Okay, I was. I… I don’t want us to butt heads over Andreos.’
His hands spread in a manner that suggested a truce. ‘Neither do I, Calypso.’
As milestones went, this was another sizeable one in an evening filled with small earthquakes of surprise. My breath caught. Andreos whimpered. I looked down to find eyes so much his father’s wide and curious upon me. Reading my every expression just as intently as his father probed beneath my skin.
‘Maybe we should discuss this further later?’
‘I agree,’ Ax responded, then proceeded to watch me with hawk-like intensity all through the feed.
When I transferred Andreos to my other breast Ax’s gaze tracked my blush after dropping once to my nipple. But this time my self-consciousness was reduced. The natural act of providing sustenance for my baby was one I realised I didn’t mind sharing with his father.
Just as abruptly as he’d wrapped his sweet limbs around my arm Andreos dropped his legs and he detached with a loud plop.
Ax rose and sauntered over, wordlessly securing my dress as I sat Andreos on my lap and rubbed his back. I was rewarded with a loud burp three minutes later.
With a gentle caress of his son’s head, Ax stepped away. ‘I have a few phone calls to make. I’ll meet you in my suite when you’re done here.’
The reminder that our suites were interconnecting and the memory of what had happened in his sent a pulse of electricity through me as I watched him walk away.
His icy indifference had receded. Something had happened on that balcony tonight. The realisation that Ax didn’t tar me with the same brush as my father had eased something in me.
I was pondering the new path this might lead to as I laid a sleepy Andreos back in his cot and then entered the suite forty-five minutes later.
Both the living room and bedroom in Ax’s suite were empty. Entering my own suite, I crossed to the dressing room, quickly undressed, then slid on my night slip before throwing a matching silk gown over it.
I was brushing my hair at my dressing table when Ax walked in, both hands in his pockets.
He paused in the doorway, his eyes holding a skin-tingling expression and resting on me for a long moment before he prowled forward. He stopped behind me and I waited, my breath locked in my throat as one hand reached out, tugged the brush from me and slowly dragged it through my hair.
For a full minute he said nothing, and the hypnotic sensation of his movements flooded my system with torrid lust.
‘You’ll be pleased to know our strategy worked,’ he drawled eventually. ‘My family and friends believe we are happily reunited. I expect my business partners to fall in line by morning.’
Something shook inside me. The easy way he laid his hand on me was a stronger warning that things were shifting. That the conversation on the balcony had indeed sparked much more than a rebellion and the need to answer it in both of us.
Before I could heed the warning he nudged me to my feet, slid his hand down my arm to link with my fingers. ‘Come with me.’
Even the imperious tone had altered, become less…autocratic.
I followed him into his living room.
There, on a wide screen, he’d set up the video I’d given him. ‘Ax…?’
‘I haven’t had a chance to watch this yet. Or perhaps I was putting it off,’ he said, with a hint of vulnerability in his voice that stunned me enough to take the seat next to him when he settled on the plush sofa.
‘You want to watch it now?’ I asked.
His eyes met mine, held me in place. ‘Yes,’ he stated simply.
With a flick of his finger on the remote the video came to life. The simple but clean walls of the hospital room in Kenya came into view before the camera swung over the machines to rest on my heavily pregnant form.
My breath strangled into nothing as the uniquely intimate and life-changing event unfolded on the screen, tugging at the very heart of me.
Beside me Ax caught his