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Yet this was Annabel’s father.
They were alone in the small room, and she was conscious of her own ragged breathing, her pounding heart. His eyes flicked over her in cool and clearly unimpressed assessment.
‘You have a child in your hotel room?’ he asked in a detached voice, as if it were of little interest.
‘Yes…yours.’
‘I see.’ His smile was cold, mocking, a parody. ‘When did we conceive this child, I wonder?’
Shock drenched her in icy, humiliating waves as she realised the assumption he’d so easily—and obviously—made. He really did think she was a liar. ‘Annabel’s not mine!’
‘Annabel. A girl?’
‘Yes.’
‘Whose child is she, then? Besides mine, of course.’
‘Leanne Weston. You…you met her at a club in London, took her to Naxos.’ She felt silly repeating information he must already know—but perhaps he needed clarification? Perhaps, despite his reputation, there had been women? Many women.
The thought made her stomach roil unpleasantly.
He raised his eyebrows in surprised interest. ‘I did? Ah, yes. Naxos. Beautiful place. Did we have fun?’
Rhiannon gritted her teeth. ‘I couldn’t say, but from Leanne’s description you were certainly busy!’
‘And why is she not here herself?’ Lukas questioned silkily. ‘I’d recognise her, of course. Perhaps I’d even recall our dirty little weekend. Or would you prefer that I do not see the woman who supposedly bore my child? Maybe I wouldn’t recognise her after all?’ The derisive lilt to his voice made Rhiannon grit her teeth.
‘If Leanne were able to be here, I hope she would be,’ she said, her nerves taut, fraying, ready to split apart. ‘Although after your weekend affair she was pragmatic enough to realise it was over. You never gave her your phone number, or attempted to contact her.’ Frustration rose within her, clamoured into a silent howl in her throat. ‘But this is nonsense to talk like this. I don’t care about what you did with Leanne in Naxos. What I care about is your daughter, and I should think that’s what you would care about too.’
‘Ah, yes, my daughter. This Annabel.’ He folded his arms, smiled with the stealthy confidence of a predator. And Rhiannon was the prey. ‘You brought her here? To the hotel?’
‘Yes…’
‘I suppose you thought the added embarrassment of an actual child on the premises would increase your pay-off?’
‘My what?’ Rhiannon shook her head. Did he still think she wanted to blackmail him? Was that what this horrible little interrogation was about? ‘I don’t want your money,’ she said tightly. ‘As I’ve said before. I just wanted you to know.’
‘How kind of you. So now that I know, we can say goodbye. Correct?’ His cool eyes suddenly blazed silver with challenge; Rhiannon felt a hollow pit open inside her—a pit to drown in.
She’d come to France to find not just Lukas Petrakides, but a man who would love Annabel openly, wholly, unconditionally.
The way fathers did.
The way they were supposed to.
She should have realised what a fantasy that was.
‘I thought you were a man of responsibility,’ she said in a choked whisper. ‘A man of honour.’
Lukas stilled, his eyes darkening dangerously. ‘I am. That is precisely why I’m not going to pay you to keep silent about your little brat!’
‘Your brat, if you choose to use such terms,’ Rhiannon flashed, wounded to her core by his nasty words, his brutal assessment. He was talking about his own child. She shook her head. ‘I don’t understand how a man like you—a man like the papers claim you are—cannot care one iota for your own flesh and blood. I thought…’ She shook her head slowly, realisation dawning with painful intensity and awareness.
‘You thought what?’ he demanded flatly, and she looked up at him with wide, guileless eyes.
‘I thought it would be different because she was yours.’ It came out as a wretched whisper, a confession. An aching realisation that a dream she’d cherished and clung to for so long was in fact false. Rhiannon didn’t know what hurt more—the current reality or the faded memory. Annabel’s past or her own. ‘I thought you would care.’
He stared at her for a moment, his mouth tightening in impatience. ‘But you know, Miss Davies, that this is a fabrication. I don’t know who dreamed up your sordid little scheme—whether it was you or your suspiciously absent friend Leanne—but we both know I did not father the child that is in your hotel room.’
Rhiannon stared at him in disbelief. ‘But you…you said you were in Naxos!’
‘I may have visited my family’s resort in Naxos,’ he agreed with stinging clarity. ‘But I did not take your friend—or any other woman there—and I certainly did not father a child.’
‘But Leanne said—’
‘She lied. As you are lying.’
‘No.’ Rhiannon shook her head. ‘No. She didn’t lie. And neither did I. She was so certain…she spoke of you so warmly…’
He made a sound of impatient disgust. ‘I’m flattered.’
‘But how do you know? How can you be sure?’ She gulped down her own uncertainties, the fears clamouring within her, threatening to spill over in a scream of denial, of desperation. Everything had been turned upside down by this revelation.
Rhiannon had never doubted Leanne’s word. Never. There had been no reason to—no reason for her friend to lie. Now she wondered if she should have questioned. Doubted. If Leanne, for some inexplicable reason, had lied. It would be a terrible deception. And for what purpose?
But, no…When Leanne had named Lukas Petrakides as the father of her child she’d been so certain, so…appreciative. Wistful. The memory, for Leanne, had been sweet. There had been nothing calculating or deceptive about her explanation—and why should there have been?
She’d been dying.
‘How do I know?’ Lukas raised one eyebrow, as if daring her to make him answer such a question.
‘I mean…’ Rhiannon felt humiliating colour flood her face. ‘There must have been women…’ She assumed, despite his unsullied reputation, that there still were women. There were always women. Attractive, wealthy, discreet, willing to give and receive pleasure—satisfy a need.
‘Ah.’ His smile was mocking, bittersweet. ‘But there you’re wrong, Miss Davies. There have been no women. Not for two years.’
His face remained impassive even as Rhiannon gaped in shock. She wasn’t sure why she should find this so surprising; she hadn’t slept with anyone in the last two years. Or, for that matter, ever.
Lukas Petrakides, however, exuded raw strength, powerful virility. The idea that he’d gone without women—without sex—for such a length of time seemed ludicrous. Impossible.
Men like him thrived on passion…needed it. Didn’t they?
Was Lukas really different? Was he gay? The thought was absurd. Cold, then…? Although there seemed nothing cold about him.
Was he just incredibly restrained?
After her mind had stopped whirling she realised with cold, stark clarity just what this meant.
Annabel couldn’t possibly be Lukas’s child.
She’d come here for nothing.
‘Are you…sure?’ she asked, her voice a rusty croak. Yet she knew what an inane question it was—just as she knew he was telling the truth. In some bizarre, inexplicable way, she trusted him. Trusted his word.
‘I don’t forget such things. If there was any possibility of course I would have a paternity test taken. If the child were indeed mine I would care for it. Naturally.’
Rhiannon shook her head. She didn’t want to believe it. Didn’t want to consider the utter waste of her travelling to France, spending far more money than she ever should have on a hotel and, worse, losing any hope of a better life for Annabel.
Lukas Petrakides was not Annabel’s father. Rhiannon stared, her mind forming one impossible denial after another. She wanted to cry. To cry for Annabel, for herself.
For lost dreams of the father-daughter reunion she’d been dreaming of for years.
It was never going to happen.
But she wasn’t going to cry.
‘I’m sorry your little charade didn’t pay off,’ Lukas said with a cold smile. ‘But at least you can be thankful that I won’t press charges. You and your…prop will vacate the premises within the next fifteen minutes.’
‘My prop?’ Rhiannon repeated blankly, before she realised he was talking about a person. A child. Annabel. ‘You still think this is a blackmail attempt?’ She shook her head, surprised at the rush of relief that Annabel would not be tied to a man who thought so little of her, of humanity. ‘Why can’t you believe I came here with your interests—Annabel’s interests—at heart? I didn’t come for money, Mr Petrakides. I came to find Annabel a father.’
‘Charming.’ Lukas’s eyes were flat, cold and hard. ‘Since you didn’t, you can leave.’
Rhiannon knew he didn’t believe her, and she forced herself not to care. She didn’t need to impress Lukas Petrakides; she was out of his life, and so was Annabel.
Yet it still hurt.
She straightened her shoulders, lifted her chin. ‘Fine. I’m sorry I wasted your time.’
Lukas jerked his head in the semblance of a nod. Rhiannon forced herself to continue, even though she didn’t want to accept anything from this man…to need anything from him.
‘You mentioned another hotel as redress? Could I have the details, please?’ Colour scorched her cheeks. If she’d had any money left she wouldn’t have asked, but she was desperate, and they needed a place to stay until their flight tomorrow.
‘The information will be at the front desk by the time you leave.’
‘Thank you.’ Stiff with dignity, her legs trembling, she walked out of the room. Lukas’s eyes seemed to burn into her back.
She wouldn’t cry. She wouldn’t. She was stronger than that. Tougher. In all the years of loneliness, disappointment, and grief, her eyes had remained dry. They would remain so now.
* * *
LUKAS WATCHED HER go, his lips twisting in a mocking smile. She’d given up quite easily when she realised he wasn’t playing ball. She was obviously an amateur at the blackmail game—as was this mysterious Leanne.
Had they honestly thought they could pin something on him—him, Lukas Petrakides? That he would bow to their outrageous demands?
Something pricked him, pricked his conscience, and he realised with a jolt of uncomfortable surprise what it was. Guilt.
Why should he feel guilty?
Because she so obviously didn’t want your money. She hadn’t actually asked for a single euro.
Had he assumed the worst?
He shook his head. The baby wasn’t his, and the friend Leanne had to have been lying. She’d have to know she hadn’t slept with him!
And yet…what if Rhiannon hadn’t known?
What if she’d been duped?
Lukas hesitated; he didn’t like uncertainty. He didn’t like not knowing.
So, he decided grimly, he would find out.
* * *
RHIANNON’S MIND WAS numb as she paid off the babysitter and began packing her paltry possessions. Annabel was asleep in the travel cot, one arm flung above her head, her breath coming in soft little sighs.
Rhiannon gazed down at her sleeping form with a mixture of longing and desperation. What now? What future could they have? What future could she offer this child?
‘I tried,’ she whispered as she gently touched one chubby fist. ‘I really tried.’
‘Whose child is that really, Miss Davies?’
The harsh voice had her whirling around. Lukas stood in the doorway, his face composed, closed. Cold.
‘How did you get in?’ she demanded, and he shrugged.
‘I own the hotel, Miss Davies. I can enter whichever room I please.’
‘It’s a violation of privacy—’
‘If anyone is going to speak of violation, it should be me,’ he replied. ‘Whose child is that?’
‘Not yours, apparently,’ Rhiannon snapped. ‘And you don’t need to know anything else. You’re not involved, Mr. Petrakides, as you were kind enough to remind me.’ She turned away, stuffing her belongings into the cheap suitcase.
He watched, nonplussed. Rhiannon was conscious of the mess of the room: the spill of cosmetics by the bathroom sink, a bra hanging on the back of the chair. She grabbed the garment and stuffed it in the bag, saw how Lukas’s lips quirked in a rueful smile.
She glared at him. ‘Why are you here?’
In response he moved closer to the cot and studied Annabel.
‘This Leanne is the mother?’ he asked after a moment.
‘I told you she was!’ Rhiannon replied in exasperation. What was he playing at? Why did he care now?
‘And you really believed her?’ Lukas continued slowly. ‘That she had an affair…with me?’
Rhiannon paused. He sounded different—as if he might believe she actually wasn’t in on the so-called scam. ‘She had no reason to lie,’ she said after a moment. In her mind she could picture Leanne’s wasted body, hear the cough that had racked her thin frame.
‘Didn’t she?’ There was a cynical edge to his voice that Rhiannon didn’t like. ‘Surely,’ he continued, turning away from Annabel, ‘you must realise that she was hoping for this exact situation? Even if I didn’t acknowledge the child—which she no doubt expects—I might be willing to cut a generous cheque to keep this unfortunate episode from reaching the press. I guard my reputation very closely, Miss Davies, as you undoubtedly know. Where is this Leanne now? Waiting nearby? Or back in Wales?’
