The Kristallis Baby

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I—’

‘No.’ He cut her off abruptly with an impatient gesture. Her sympathy was the last thing he wanted.

His father had died suddenly just two months ago—four months after Leonidas had been killed in the motorway accident. Nik had had a heavy couple of months, taking over the areas of the family business that his father had still controlled, but things had finally been coming into order when he’d made an astonishing discovery amongst his father’s personal papers. Leonidas had left behind an orphaned baby boy.

His gaze dropped to study the baby sitting in the buggy beside him—his brother’s son—then he looked back up at the woman who had taken him.

She swallowed convulsively as their eyes met, obviously unnerved by him, and took an awkward step backwards into the crowd of commuters.

‘Oi! Watch out!’ a young man shouted as he careered into her back, nearly knocking her off her feet. Her stiletto heels didn’t help, and she staggered forward, ramming the buggy hard into Nik’s shins.

He swore in Greek. ‘We need to get off the street,’ he grated, hauling Carrie and the buggy sideways, into the relative safety of a café doorway. ‘I’ll signal my driver.’

‘I’m not getting into a car with you.’ Carrie shrugged his hand off her arm and bobbed down to check on Danny. ‘I hardly know you,’ she said, rising to her full heel-enhanced height and meeting his eye.

‘We have to talk, and the street is not the place for it,’ Nik said categorically. ‘We’ll go in here.’ He indicated the stylish Italian café they were standing beside.

Carrie hesitated, biting her lip as she thought about it. She knew she’d have to talk to Nikos Kristallis some time, and quite honestly she’d rather get it over with.

‘All right, but I’m not staying long.’ She stooped to lift Danny out of his buggy. ‘He’ll be getting tired soon.’

A few minutes later they were sitting at a table in a quiet corner at the back of the café. Danny was balanced on Carrie’s lap, making alarming lunges for her cappuccino.

She edged her chair away from the table, automatically shifting Danny out of reach of the hot drink, and glanced surreptitiously at Nik. She couldn’t let herself believe that he really wanted to take Danny from her. It was six months since she’d contacted his family with news of Leonidas’s death, and if Nik had genuinely intended to take Danny he wouldn’t have waited so long to seek her out.

She was anxious to know what he really wanted, but she resisted the urge to ask him straight out. She wanted him to put his cards on the table first, to give her a chance to process what he said. But he’d hardly spoken since they’d sat down, and now he sipped his espresso in silence.

She couldn’t help letting her eyes run over him, drinking in his amazing good looks. His designer suit hung immaculately on his lean, athletic body, emphasising the powerful width of his shoulders and the strong hard planes of his chest. The crisp white shirt he wore was the perfect foil for his bronzed skin, which glowed with an attractive health and vigour.

‘I’m sorry about your father.’ She was still wary of Nik, but she couldn’t stand sitting in silence any longer. ‘It must have been awful to lose him so soon after Leonidas.’

‘Thank you for your concern,’ Nik said, putting his espresso cup down and lifting cold blue eyes to meet hers. ‘But I didn’t come here to discuss my recent bereavement. I’m here to make arrangements regarding the child.’

‘What do you mean?’ A bolt of alarm shot through Carrie, making her heart lurch and her stomach churn unpleasantly.

‘Danny belongs in Greece with me.’

Carrie swayed back in her chair, clutching Danny tightly as she stared at Nik in disbelief. It couldn’t be true. He didn’t really want Danny, did he?

‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ she said tautly. ‘But Danny is staying with me.’

‘No,’ Nik said. ‘Danny will return to Greece with me.’

‘I understand you’re upset, losing your brother and then your father so soon afterwards,’ Carrie said, desperately holding on to her control. She mustn’t let him see how upset she was rapidly becoming as the fact that he might be serious about taking Danny away from her started to sink in. ‘But you didn’t want Danny six months ago. You can’t just decide to look after a child when it suits you.’

‘Don’t insult me,’ Nik said, looking at her squarely. ‘This isn’t about me—it’s about Danny’s right to be part of his real family.’

‘Are you saying I’m not his real family?’ Carrie gasped.

‘You’re not his immediate family,’ Nik said. ‘And you are clearly not a suitable guardian.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Carrie was shocked. ‘You don’t even know me!’

‘I know that I caught you stealing,’ he said.

‘I wasn’t stealing,’ Carrie protested, thinking about Lulu’s plaintive cry for help. She wasn’t ashamed of trying to help her friend. It was none of Nik’s business, but suddenly she decided to tell him everything. It would be better than having him speculate about what she’d been doing. ‘Lulu asked me to do it. She was worried Darren would start a row with her over a message she’d left on his phone, so she wanted to delete it.’

She looked at Nik, to see if he’d accepted her explanation, but his expression was still unreadable.

‘I realise it can’t have been easy, looking after a baby on your own,’ Nik said, abruptly changing the subject back to Danny. ‘But—’

‘It’s been perfectly all right,’ Carrie said quickly. ‘Wonderful, in fact!’ There was no way she’d ever admit how hard she’d found it looking after the baby alone, juggling work commitments and trying to make ends meet financially.

‘I’m his uncle,’ Nik said flatly. ‘You are his cousin.’

‘What difference does that make?’ Carrie demanded. ‘I was there when he needed someone. Nobody else wanted him then. Your father called him a brat…’ She hesitated, looking down at the cold grey marble tabletop. She didn’t want to remember her horrible meeting with Cosmo Kristallis. It was too hurtful to think about the way Danny’s grandfather had viewed him.

‘You met my father?’ Nik asked sharply. ‘When?’

Something in the tone of his voice made Carrie’s eyes fly back to his face. A muscle pulsed at his jaw and a line of tension creased his brow.

‘He came to the funeral,’ Carrie replied carefully. At that moment she felt more than a little afraid of how he might react.

‘Last November,’ Nik said, after a slight pause.

‘Yes.’ Carrie looked at him warily, wondering whether talking about his father and brother was painful for him. He hadn’t shown any sign of it, but it was impossible to know what was going on behind his implacable expression.

‘What did my father say to you?’ Nik asked.

‘Not much,’ Carrie replied cautiously. ‘He simply said that he felt it would be in Danny’s best interests if he remained in England with his mother’s family.’

‘Really?’ Nik gave a sudden ironic burst of laughter. ‘I knew my father, and I doubt very much that those were his exact words.’

‘What your father said wasn’t funny.’ How could he be laughing at a time like this?

‘I’m sure it wasn’t.’ There was a hard glint in his blue eyes. ‘But listening to you putting such measured, almost caring words into his mouth is amusing.’

‘Your father didn’t care about Danny at all!’ Carrie said. ‘He wished Danny had never been born!’

‘Probably,’ said Nik. ‘But I do not share his view on that.’

‘If that’s the case, where were you after the accident? You didn’t care enough to come then!’ She was so upset that she didn’t realise her voice was rising. Suddenly Danny made another lunge for her cappuccino.

‘Careful, Danny!’ She pulled him back, but in her haste her own elbow caught against the cup. It rattled in the saucer, and a moment later the table was awash with foamy coffee.

She jumped to her feet to avoid the flood of coffee, quickly checking none of the scalding liquid had come anywhere near Danny.

‘Hot drinks and babies—not a good combination,’ Nik remarked smoothly. He turned and lifted a commanding hand to catch the attention of the girl behind the counter. ‘We need a cloth here.’