The Greek Billionaire's Secret Baby (Contemporary Romance) by Michele Dunaway Page B

She’d been shocked, lost and confused.
    “Can you deny that you went with him?” Alex ground out.
    “Of course I can’t. But don’t tell me how deprived you were. You were out with that actress the next weekend. It was all over the gossip rags. Don’t even begin to tell me you really cared about me.”
    Her chest heaved. “My actions barely stung you personally, Alex.  All that mattered was how your family viewed you as being less of a man. I can imagine the whispers and the scandal and how that must have bothered you. But losing me? No. All you cared about was your pride and how I’d made you look like a fool.”
    His handsome face contorted. “You are the fool if you believe that.”
    Lauren flexed her fingers and struggled for calm. How had this conversation gotten so far out of control? Hormones raged as anger consumed her. She gave in. “You know, I probably am a fool. I’ll admit it, I am! I’m having to spend the rest of my life with you!”
    His laugh was bitter. “And I with you, a lying cheat, a woman who proved to me that she was not at all the perfection I believed. Perhaps that irony might have been easier to tolerate if your infidelity had been some other man, any other man, but to betray me with my younger brother? Christopher, the brother I loved?”
    “I—” Lauren stopped. How could she deny it? To do so destroyed her cover, and with Christopher’s voice forever silenced, there was now no way she would ever be able to prove to Alex that she spoke the truth.
    She clung to the fact that her reasons had been just. They still were. Even Christopher had agreed. Theo was a loose cannon, and Alex would never see that.
    But now, viewing the anguish in Alex’s face, she felt small. She’d never expected to see him again. Certainly she never expected to live with him, to see on a daily basis, the man her soul had once loved and craved, and to daily be reminded that he now believed her guilty of the most terrible sin. The pain ripping through her was nearly unbearable.
    Somehow she found her poise. One of the rules of the field was to never let the enemy see weakness if weakness would not bring gain. She opted for tactical retreat.
    “This conversation is serving no purpose. I think I’ll have dinner in my room. Please let me know when it arrives.” She took a step towards her bedroom door.
    His voice stopped her cold. “We fill out the application for our marriage license tomorrow at three. I’ll have a car sent for you.”
    “As you wish, Alex,” she said without turning around. She couldn’t face him again without faltering. Somehow she made her legs move. “It will be as you wish.”
    #
    Alex watched her walk away until she shut her bedroom door. Being pregnant had brought out Lauren’s fire and temper. Definitely unlike when she’d first become his mistress eighteen months ago. Then Lauren had been submissive, eager to please. Not that she’d been a doormat or anything close to that. But now, now she stood firm as her own woman. She challenged him head on.
    He had to admit, the changes in her excited him. Oh, not that she hadn’t excited him before, but this new Lauren begged to be tamed. He wanted to see her spread out underneath him, her blond locks loosened from the infernal bun she now wore every minute.
    He wanted to see her hair loose around her face and teasing across the tops of her breasts. He wanted to see her framed against the crisp white of his sheets.
    He wanted to see her naked—even in her current condition, her body called to his and excited. Now though, her breasts were fuller, demanding a more gentle touch. He wanted to place both breasts in his hands, center his mouth on her nipples and kiss until she cried out in ecstasy.
    The passion flowing in her now doubled what had been there in the past, and Alex had no doubt that coming together with her again would be cataclysmal.
    His loins tightened in painful awareness. Even after her betrayal, her beauty and her