The Greek Billionaire's Baby Revenge(46)

She laughed out of pure happiness. “Nikos, I’ll marry you.”



As Nikos held Anna in his arms through the long, interminable night, he stared up at the moonlight creeping slowly across the ceiling above the wide bed. He held her close, listening to her sighs of sleep against his bare shoulder. She was so sweet. So trusting.

And he’d deceived her.

I did what I had to do, he told himself fiercely. Anna would be his forever. Michael would have a permanent family. He’d saved his family. He’d matched his wits against hers, laying siege against her heart until it fell, like a golden city overrun by a savage army.

But he’d never thought winning would feel like this.

He’d lied to her. Now, even holding her in his arms, so warm and soft against him, he felt cold. He stared down at her lovely face in the shadows and moonlight. She was smiling in her sleep, pressing her body against his. She was radiating warmth and contentment. She believed that he finally loved her. She believed in happy endings—even for a man like him.

His whole body was racked with tension. But even as he tried to justify what he’d done the thought that she would learn soon enough about his lie pounded through him. She wouldn’t be satisfied with an unlimited bank account in lieu of his love. She would demand things of him—emotion, energy, vulnerability—that he simply couldn’t give. Not even if he tried. He just wasn’t made that way.

And as soon as she found out how she’d been deceived, her joy would be snuffed out like a candle. It would cause the bright new light in her to go out, perhaps forever.

Shortly before dawn he heard snuffling moans from the next room, where Mrs. Burbridge had brought their baby to spend the night. At their son’s cries, Anna stirred in his arms.

She gently pushed out of his embrace and crept into the baby’s room to nurse, before returning back into his bed.

“Nikos?” Anna whispered.

He kept his breathing even, feigning sleep.

“Thank you,” she said, so quietly it was barely audible. “I have the home I dreamed of, the family I dreamed of. I don’t know what I did to deserve this. Thank you for loving me.”

God, this was intolerable. He turned on his side, pulling away from her, every nerve taut. As soon as he was sure she was really asleep, he sat up in bed. Feeling bone-weary, he raked his hands through his hair and rose slowly from the bed.

Glancing at Anna, slumbering peacefully beneath the white goosedown comforter, he came to a decision. He looked at the clock. It was almost six. He’d intended to have her sign the prenuptial agreement as soon as she woke, then drive straight to the courthouse for a license. He’d planned for them to be married at a drive-thru chapel before breakfast.

But, no matter how pure his motives, now that he held her fate in the palm of his hands he just couldn’t do it. He couldn’t take her honesty and trust and love and use them as weapons against her. He couldn’t break her heart and destroy her life, no matter how good his motives might be.

Anna Rostoff deserved a man who could love her with his whole heart.

If he wasn’t that man, he had to let her go.

A fine time to grow a conscience, Nikos thought bleakly. Apparently he did have one last bit of honor left.

He gave Anna one final, lingering glance. Her dark hair was sprawled across his pillow, her creamy skin like ivory against the white thousand-count sheets. Her cheeks still glowed pink, a remnant of their lovemaking, and her lips curved into a soft smile as she sighed in her sleep.#p#分页标题#e#

It was an image he knew he’d never see again.



Anna woke in a flood of early-morning light with one bright thought: today was her wedding day!

She stretched her limbs against the luxurious sheets with a contented yawn. Her body felt sore. A good kind of sore. She smiled to herself, almost blushing as she remembered everything Nikos had done to her last night. She’d woken up twice for the baby, but, as worn out as she’d been from their lovemaking, with Nikos’s hard body curled protectively around hers she’d still had an amazing night’s sleep.

She glanced over to the wall of windows, revealing the wide blue Nevada sky from the twentieth-floor penthouse. She’d never felt happy like this before. Safe. Optimistic. Secure. For the first time in her whole life she not only had a home, she had someone who would actually watch over and protect her, instead of just looking out for their own interests. And she had someone she could protect and love in return not because she had to, but because she wanted to.

She and Nikos would be partners, in work as in life. Together they’d be as unbreakable as tempered steel.