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Yet, from what he could work out, she appeared to be theher hysterical, if she just couldn’t cope with the situation He did not accept that she didn’t like hi as he had known her She was not a changeable woiven birth to his child, rather than choose to have a termination, struck him as perfectly understandable

Lean, darkly handsome face bleak, Leonidas climbed into his limousine A Pallis and an alpha , he wasted no ti the phone, he called the executive head of his international legal team and asked for a copy of Elias Greenaway’s birth certificate to be obtained He gave the details and ignored the staggered silence that fell at the other end of the line, because Leonidas Pallis never explained his actions to anyone, or laid out the full details of a situation unless he chose to do so

‘In the hts as a father in this country’

Furiously angry and in fighting mode, Leonidas marvelled afresh at Maribel’s offensive behaviour and unreasonable attitude As he recalled her words his hostility grew ever stronger To refuse hiest that the child should be protected from him and would be better off without hied by the shameful accusations she had dared to make

And, all the while, he kept on seeing i him that defiant look, her luscious pinkdark eyes scorched and hardened How could she have had his baby without telling him? When the photo of the little boy cary with Maribel to thinking about the matter that lay at the heart of it all

CHAPTER THREE

ELIAS was grizzling noisily for attention by the tiht stance behind the front door The lione

Recovering her wits, Maribel hastened upstairs and swept her son froh and shout with pleasure; there was nothing Elias loved , Maribel lifted hi that she would want to die if anything happened to hi Leonidas away; she knew she had done the right thing

But ere the chances that Leonidas would stay away? Maribel looped her damp hair off her anxious brow Leonidas, as mentally primed only to do what he wanted to do, and likely to want to do what he was told he could not or should not do? Elias had the sa She took Elias out into the garden with Mouse While her son and the wolfhound ran about doing nothingthe and let her memory take her back seven years…

Iht a house in Oxford and had persuaded Maribel, who had then been a student, to move in and take care of the property for her Maribel had been happy to reduce her expenses and take care of the doen, who had often been away froen had been twenty-three, and her career as a fashion hts she’d craved An indo herself to Leonidas Pallis when she’d run into hihtclub At the time Leonidas had been a student at Oxford University

‘He is so rich en, a tall, strikingly lovely blonde in a trendy short dress, was so excited that her words were tripping over each other ‘He’s an A-list celebrity and so cool, he just freaks me out Oh, and did I mention what a total babe he is?’

Listening to that artless flood of confidence, Maribel was en was all too easily influenced by the wrong people The advent of an infamous Greek playboy, who crashed cars and abseiled down skyscrapers for thrills, struck Maribel as very bad news Dating the heir to the Pallis billions, however, verypower as ashoulders with the rich and fa round the world to shoots, weekend parties and endless vacations

‘He’s the one…he’s the one I want to marry him and become a Greek tycoon’s fabulously wealthy wife I’ll die if he duht, and that saed Leonidas in to