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Another Man's Baby
Judith McWilliams
HOW FAR WOULD SHE GO… ?The mission: Ginny Alton had agreed to impersonate her cousin and travel halfway around the world with a newborn in order to have the child meet his paternal grandfather. The complication: Everyone believed she was the child's mother! The man: Philip Lysander knew Ginny was lying about something, so in order to protect his family, he told everyone he was the baby's father.Ginny suddenly found herself hopelessly attracted to the one man who could destroy her carefully constructed charade. But how could she deny herself the intensity of Philip's lovemaking when their time together was so short? Especially when he was about to discover the truth?
“This Conversation Is Getting Us Nowhere. My Business Is With Damon’s Grandfather. Please Take Me To Him.” (#u2d87df17-911e-5888-948f-c362300aa93f)Letter to Reader (#u40523be8-aa59-5e24-b047-cc03ed4e2a35)Title Page (#ud4cae299-7a8c-5d09-a83f-b6b3f124ad7e)About the Author (#uddcf4a04-dd56-5da6-9a99-47782c0cd161)Prologue (#ueaba5266-f17b-54c7-89b2-f423a4394a36)Chapter One (#u35d4edd6-6b7d-5923-9c6d-25be7bc36c5d)Chapter Two (#ub57f3001-cf2e-5c2b-8732-44e1b86c5381)Chapter Three (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
“This Conversation Is Getting Us Nowhere. My Business Is With Damon’s Grandfather. Please Take Me To Him.”
“Not until you agree to my proposal,” Philip said.
“What proposal?” Ginny snapped. “So far, all I’ve heard is you pontificating about things you know nothing about.”
“Damon’s grandfather Jason and I have discussed this, and we’ve agreed that we will say that you’ve brought the boy to see me.”
“You!” Ginny’s eyes widened as a powerful flood of tangled emotions twisted through her. Pretend that she had been Philip Lysander’s lover? That she had lain against his naked body? That he had kissed her and... Ginny swallowed against the sudden dryness in her mouth.
“That way, people will assume that the boy—”
“Damon,” Ginny corrected. “His name is Damon.”
“—is mine.”
Dear Reader,
This month: strong and sexy heroes!
First, the Tallchiefs—that intriguing, legendary family—are back, and this time it’s Birk Tallchief who meets his match in Cait London’s MAN OF THE MONTH, The Groom Candidate. Birk’s been pining for Lacey MacCandliss for years, but once he gets her, there’s nothing but trouble of the most romantic kind. Don’t miss this delightful story from one of Desire’s most beloved writers.
Next, nobody creates a strong, sexy hero quite like Sara Orwig, and in her latest, Babes in Arms, she brings us Colin Whitefeather, a tough and tender man you’ll never forget. And in Judith McWilliams’s Another Man’s Baby we meet Philip Lysander, a Greek tycoon who will do anything to save his family...even pretend to be a child’s father.
Peggy Moreland’s delightful miniseries, TROUBLE IN TEXAS, continues with Lone Star Kind of Man. The man in question is rugged rogue cowboy Cody Fipes. In Big Sky Drifter, by Doreen Owens Malek, a wild Wyoming man named Cal Winston tames a lonely woman. And in Cathie Linz’s Husband Needed, bachelor Jack Elliott surprises himself when he offers to trade his single days for married nights.
In Silhouette Desire you’ll always find the most irresistible men around! So enjoy!
Senior Editor
Please address questions and book requests to:
Silhouette Reader Service
U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3
Another Man’s Baby
Judith McWilliams
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
JUDITH MCWILLIAMS
began to enjoy romances while in search of the proverbial “happily ever afters.” But she always found herself rewriting the endings, and eventually the beginnings, of the books she read. Then her husband finally suggested that she write novels of her own, and she’s been doing so ever since. An ex-teacher with four children, Judith has traveled the country extensively with her husband and has been greatly influenced by those experiences. But while not tending the garden or caring for family, Judith does what she enjoys most—writing. She has also written under the name Charlotte Hines.
Prologue
“What happened? Why aren’t you at work? It’s two o’clock.”
Reluctantly, Ginny Alton turned as the whiny sound of her next-door neighbor’s voice accosted her.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Rolle,” Ginny said, shifting her heavy bag of groceries from one slim hip to the other.
“Not so far it hasn’t been.” Mrs. Rolle’s voice took on a peevish note that Ginny very much feared was a prelude to a recital of her problems, real and imaginary. Normally, Ginny listened patiently to the elderly woman’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of complaints because she felt sorry for her, but today she simply didn’t have the time.
“That’s too bad,” Ginny murmured as she inched closer to her apartment door. “But I really can’t stop to talk. My cousin is waiting for the baby’s formula.” She knocked softly on the door, not wanting to wake up Damon if he were sleeping.
“Has Beth given you cancer, too? Is that why you’re not at work?” Mrs. Rolle’s face took on an avid expression that chilled Ginny.
“Leukemia is not contagious.” Ginny knocked again, a little harder this time, mentally urging Beth to hurry before she said something very rude.
“Ha! What do doctors know? Why, when they took out my gall bladder—”
Ginny ignored the oft-repeated story as she fished her key out of the pocket of her well-worn jeans. Why hadn’t Beth answered? she wondered uneasily. She wasn’t strong enough to leave the apartment by herself. Could she have had a delayed reaction to yesterday’s chemotherapy treatment? Could she have fainted?
An escalating sense of urgency filled Ginny as she unlocked the door and shoved it open. Dropping the groceries just inside, she closed the door behind her, not even hearing Mrs. Rolle’s outraged gasp.
Fearfully, Ginny glanced around her spacious living room, but it was empty. As was the small kitchen with its minuscule dining area. Ginny was about to check the bedroom Beth shared with her son when the muffled sound of sobbing raised the hair on the back of her neck.
Ginny hurried down the hall toward the heartbroken sound. It was coming from her own bedroom. Ginny silently pushed the door open and found Beth sitting in the middle of her bed crying in a hopeless fashion that tore at Ginny’s heart.
“Hey, it’s not that bad, kiddo.” Ginny made a determined effort to sound positive. “You know the doctor says that by this time next year you’ll be back in the classroom with your kindergartners. Although why he would want to threaten you with that...”
Beth didn’t smile as Ginny had hoped. She merely sobbed all the harder. As if... A cold slither of fear trickled through Ginny. Could the hospital have called with bad news while she had been out doing their grocery shopping?
“Beth, tell me what happened.” Ginny fought to keep her panic out of her voice. Beth was hard-pressed to deal with her own fears. She certainly couldn’t deal with Ginny’s, too.
Beth looked up, and her bleak, lost expression made Ginny want to sit down and cry with her.
“He...he said I was lying. He said...” Her voice dissolved into tears.
“He who?”
Beth fumbled behind her and picked up a crumpled sheet of paper that she waved at Ginny. “Creon’s father. He said that I’m lying. That Damon couldn’t be Creon’s son. That Creon would never have had an affair with me. That I’m only saying it now because Creon’s dead and can’t defend himself. He said...that Creon would never have been capable of loving someone like me,” Beth finished on a rush.
Ginny clenched her teeth to keep from blurting out just what she thought that jerk Creon had been capable of. It would only upset Beth further because she was totally blind where Creon was concerned. Even after he had deserted her to return to his native Greece, Beth had believed that he really loved her and would eventually return and marry her and that they and their child would live happily ever after. Despite all evidence to the contrary, she had continued to believe it right up until Creon had managed to get himself killed in a speedboat accident six months ago.
“Let me see that.” Ginny took the letter out of Beth’s hot fingers and quickly scanned it. Her sense of anger grew with every word she read.
“Damon is his grandson. Why won’t Mr. Papas admit it?” Beth’s lower lip quivered piteously. “All I’m asking him to do is to provide for his education.
“Normally, I wouldn’t even care about his school fees, but if I die...” Beth’s voice faltered.
“You aren’t going to die!” Ginny said emphatically, as if the very force of her denial could make it so. “The doctor says you have every chance of making a complete recovery.”
“But there’s still a chance that I won’t get better,” Beth persisted. “And if I don’t, I won’t be here to tell Damon about his father and how much he loved me and how glad he was when he found out I was pregnant and how he wanted to marry me, but he couldn’t until his father got over his heart attack.” Beth gulped back more tears.
Ginny shoved her fingers through her shoulder-length blond hair in frustration. It seemed as if the sicker Beth got, the more important it became to her to force Jason Papas to acknowledge his grandson. It preyed on Beth’s mind, using up precious emotional energy that she needed to fight the cancer threatening her life.
Ginny looked back down at the letter, frowning when she realized that this was only the first page.
“Where’s the rest of this?” she asked Beth.
Beth peered around and found the second sheet on the floor beside the bed. Picking it up, she handed it to Ginny.
Ginny’s deep blue eyes darkened incredulously as she read it. “After calling you an opportunistic liar, he wants you and Damon to fly to Greece and discuss the matter with him!”
Beth nodded. “There was a pair of plane tickets included. Funny, isn’t it? I can’t even walk to the corner store, and I’m supposed to fly to Greece with a four-month-old baby. I guess I should have told him about my being sick, but I didn’t want it to seem as if... And now I can’t...” Beth paused and her eyes suddenly focused on Ginny. “But you can,” she said slowly.
“Me! Why would I want to see this—” Ginny gestured impotently with the letter “—this parody of a human being?”
“Ginny, listen.” Beth grabbed hold of Ginny’s long slender fingers and held on to them as if they were a lifeline. “You could go, pretending to be me. Damon would be perfectly happy with you, and you’re very good with him. And I never used my first name when I wrote to Creon’s father.” Beth rushed on when Ginny opened her mouth. “All Jason Papas knows me by is Miss Alton. And you’re Miss Alton, too. I wouldn’t ask you, but I’m so worried about Damon’s future if I should...”
“Beth, I swear to you. I’ll take care of Damon, no matter what happens,” Ginny vowed.
“Yes, but what about when you marry? Will your husband want to spend money on your dead cousin’s orphan?”
“You always did have an overactive imagination,” Ginny said dryly. “I’m not even dating anyone, let alone considering marriage to a miser.”
“Wait till you fall in love,” Beth said sadly. “You won’t even notice that he’s cheap.”
Like you never noticed that Creon Papas was an immature jerk, Ginny thought on a wave of guilt. If she hadn’t brought him to the apartment, Beth would never have met him and never had an affair with him and never had been left holding a baby. Literally.
Ginny absently chewed on her lower lip as she tried to rationally consider Beth’s idea. She didn’t like it, but she had to admit that Beth was right about one thing. It was feasible. Since the investment firm where Ginny worked was allowing her to work at home while Beth was undergoing chemotherapy, she was free to go to Greece.
Not only that, but mentally she was far better equipped to deal with a tyrant like Jason Papas than the shy, retiring Beth was. Jason Papas wouldn’t be able to browbeat her. One thing her career as an financial analyst had taught her was how to stand up to male chauvinists and petty bullies. And much as she disliked lying about who and what she was, she liked the alternative of Beth brooding about the situation even less.
And it wasn’t as if she were going to personally gain anything by impersonating Beth, Ginny rationalized. All Beth wanted from the very wealthy Jason Papas was for him to provide for his grandson’s education.
That and to acknowledge that Damon had a right to the Papas family’s support. An acknowledgment that Ginny suspected was far more important to Beth than the money.
Ginny let her breath out on a long, shuddering sigh. Despite her doubts about the wisdom of the impersonation, she couldn’t see any way to refuse Beth’s request. Beth needed to forge some kind of relationship with Creon’s family. Needed it to relieve her mind so that she could concentrate on getting better.
“All right, I’ll do it,” Ginny said, and then shivered as her words seemed to hang ominously in the air like a portent of disaster to come.
One
Ginny looked around the airport lounge where Jason Papas’s letter had told Beth she’d be met. It was deserted. Ginny sighed. Of course Jason Papas hadn’t bothered to show up. It was entirely in keeping with the rest of her trip. A disaster from start to finish. If there was anything worse than taking a long plane trip with a four-month-old baby, she didn’t want to find out about it.
Being extremely careful not to wake the now-sleeping Damon, Ginny set his car seat down on the floor. To her relief, he didn’t stir.
Wearily she sank down in a seat and checked her watch. Ten-fifteen. Only thirty-five minutes past the time her flight had been scheduled to arrive. Not very late for a flight that had originated in New York.
Where was Jason Papas? Ginny wondered, as annoyance began to nudge aside her tiredness. Damon needed to be changed and fed and put into a proper bed. And she needed a shower. Ginny glanced in distaste at her rumpled blue linen suit with its varied collection of baby stains garnered in the course of the long trip.
Could leaving her cooling her heels here at the airport be a deliberate tactic on Jason Papas’s part? A tactic designed to impress on her the fact that he didn’t think neither she nor Damon was important enough to be met on time?
It was certainly possible. In fact, if Jason Papas was anything like his obnoxious son then it was probable. But while those kinds of tactics would have reduced the gentle Beth to a dithering mass of uncertainty, they only made Ginny mad. And more determined than ever to stand up to the old tyrant.
Absently, Ginny brushed back a strand of hair that had escaped from her chignon. She’d wait another fifteen minutes on the off chance that Jason Papas’s delay had been caused by traffic, and then she’d leave a message for him at the airline desk and check into a hotel.
Feeling slightly better now that she’d decided on a plan of action, Ginny leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. Within seconds she was asleep.
Philip Lysander pushed back the sleeve of his gray suit jacket and looked down at the thin gold watch on his wrist. He’d kept this Alton woman and the bastard she was trying to trick a sick old man into acknowledging waiting forty minutes now. Long enough to drive home the fact to her that the family considered her entirely insignificant. It was now time to pick her up.
Draining the remainder of his whiskey, Philip set the empty glass back down on the table and left the airport’s bar.
It took him five minutes to locate the lounge where Jason had told him the Alton woman would be waiting. Philip had absolutely no doubt that she would be there. Anyone brazen enough to try to pull off the fraud she was attempting wouldn’t back out at the last minute.
Despite having his opinion confirmed, Philip took no satisfaction from the sight of the woman sitting on the far side of the lounge with a car seat at her feet. He headed toward her, relishing the prospect of telling her that she wasn’t going to get away with her lie. That he knew her for what she was and would never allow her to harm his family.
His lips tightened when he realized that she was asleep. It seemed the final insult to him that she should be blissfully unaware of the fact that he’d kept her waiting.
Philip’s eyes widened in surprise as he got close enough to get a good look at the woman. Instead of the cheap, overblown opportunist that he’d been expecting, she looked...elegant, he finally settled on. Her dark blond hair was the exact shade of the lemon blossom honey his mother used to pour on his breakfast toast when he’d been a child. It even looked like honey, sleek and smooth. Unconsciously his fingers twitched with the urge to stroke her hair and see if it were as silky as it looked.
His gaze wandered lower, down over her face, and his mouth dried under the impact of her beauty. And she was beautiful, Philip reluctantly conceded. Not only did she have classically perfect features, but a flawless complexion, as well. His eyes lingered on the pale rose flush on her cheekbones before dropping down to the soft lusciousness of her full mouth. He swallowed uneasily as an unexpected urge to press his own mouth to hers slammed through him.
He wrenched his gaze away from the lure of her lips with effort, focusing instead on the slight swell of her breasts beneath the severely cut blue suit she was wearing. He frowned at her outfit. It didn’t fit her delectable body. Someone as feminine as she looked should be wearing something soft and clinging and...
He pulled his imagination up short. What was the matter with him? he wondered uneasily. He wasn’t some immature boy to be thrown off balance by the sight of a woman’s body, no matter how beautiful it was. Especially not when he knew that the character behind the beautiful facade was rotten to the core. His features hardened. He couldn’t afford to forget for a moment what she was really like.
Ginny stirred uneasily as a prickly sensation danced over her skin. Confused, she half opened her eyes and checked Damon. He was still sleeping. A soft smile curved her lips at his peaceful expression. She started to yawn and then stopped as she caught sight of a pair of gray-covered legs standing slightly behind Damon’s car seat.
Dreamily, her eyes followed the pants upward over a powerful pair of masculine thighs, up over a flat stomach to a broad chest. Approvingly, she noted the impressive breadth of his shoulders, but she wasn’t so sure about the hard thrust of his jaw. He looked very determined. Ginny watched his long tanned fingers clench spasmodically. His fingers should be wrapped around a spear, she thought whimsically. And instead of a suit, he should be wearing one of those short white skirt things the ancient Spartan warriors wore. No, even better, he should be an athlete. Her stomach twisted in instinctive response to the sudden image she had of him naked. His bare skin was gleaming with the oil that the athletes rubbed on it and...
An icy sensation suddenly ripped through her languid daydreams as her eyes collided with his coal black ones. They seemed to smolder with suppressed emotion. An impression heightened by his tightly compressed lips.
Ginny slowly straightened up, trying not to let him see just how disoriented she was. She’d only found him fascinating because she was so tired, she assured herself. Tired and half-asleep. Under normal circumstances this was not a man who would appeal to her, not for a second. As she quite obviously didn’t appeal to him. She watched the imperious way he was regarding her. As if she were a bad smell that he intended to eliminate as soon as possible.
He couldn’t possibly be Jason Papas. He was far too young. So it stood to reason that he was an emissary of Jason Papas sent to pick her and Damon up like a stray package that had to be dealt with.
Ginny was unable to entirely suppress her feeling of unease as the man’s features hardened even further, reminding her of a painting she’d once seen of a judge at the Salem witch trials. He looked absolutely merciless. But she didn’t want mercy, she bolstered her sagging courage. She wanted justice. Justice for Damon and poor Beth. And this man, no matter who he was, wasn’t going to stop her!
Ginny squared her shoulders and returned his glare, waiting for him to break the brittle silence that stretched between them.
Finally, just when she was starting to feel limp with the strain, he did.
“You won’t get away with it!” His intriguingly accented voice was rasped seductively over her nerve endings.
“And what precisely is ‘it’? For that matter, who are your?”
