page4 (1/2)

“For , he brushed her shoulder carelessly with his hand An electric shock reverberated across her body For a single second it stopped her heart

Then she realized that Nikos was taking Misha away from her

And handing both bag and baby to her replacement

“No!” Anna cried out, shaking herself out of her stupor “Not to her!”

Nikos stared straight back at her, as if he were htyou”

Anna opened her mouth And closed it

“I thought so” He turned back to Lindsey “Take my son to the nursery I’ll follow in a moment”

She tossed Anna a look of venomous triumph “With pleasure”

As they passed him, Nikos kissed the baby on the forehead “Welcome home, my son,” he said tenderly

Anna watched as Lindsey disappeared down the hall toward the nursery She could see her baby’s sweet little head bobble dangerously with every swaying step and clackety-clack of the girl’s four-inch heels against the marble floor She wondered if Nikos had destroyed all of Natalie’s hand-painted murals and her own carefully chosen antique baby furniture He probably ordered Lindsey to redecorate the nursery froht, and her heart broke a little more

Ason the run, this orse Here, every hallway, every corner, held aat Nikos was a cruel reht him to be, the man she’d respected, the man she’d loved That was the cruelest trick of all

“You don’t like Lindsey, do you?” Nikos said, watching her

“No”

“Why?”

Did he want her to spell it out? To ad he’d done? Not in this lifetime

“I told you After you fired ers at the worksite, co up your es Her mistakes probably cost the company thousands of dollars It nearly caused a delay in the liquor license”

Nikos pressed his lips together, looking tense “But you said those complaints stopped”

“Yes,” she retorted “When you had the house staff block all my calls Even from my mother and sister!”

“That was for your own good The calls were causing you stress It was bad for the baby”

“My mother and sister needed me My father had just died!”

“Your mother and sister need to stand on their own feet and learn to solve their own proble to you first You had a new family to care for”

She squared her shoulders She wasn’t going to get into that old arguain “And now you have a new secretary to care for you How’s she doing at solving all your problems? Has she even learned how to type?”

His jaw clenched, but he said only, “You seem very worried about her capabilities”

Oh, yeah, she could just i from Nikos’s brief touch, bereft of her baby, Anna could feel her self-control slipping away She was tired, so tired She hadn’t slept on the plane She hadn’t slept in months

The truth was, she hadn’t really slept since the day Nikos had rejected her in the last triht since

She rubbed her eyes

“All right I think she’s vicious and shallow She’s the last person I’d entrust with Misha Just because she’s in your bed it doesn’t ood caretaker for our son”

He raised a dark eyebrow “Doesn’t it? And yet that’s the whole reason that you are the caretaker of my son now…because you were once in my bed”

Their eyes met, held And that was all it took Meh her blood and caused her body to heat five degrees A hot flush spread across her skin as a single drop of sweat trickled between her breasts It was as if he’d leaned across the four feet between them and touched her As if he’d taken possession of her ht on hers against the wall

One look from him and she could barely breathe

He looked away, and she found herself able to breathe again “And, as usual, you are ju conclusions,” he said “Lindsey ismore”