Double Trouble: Newborn Twins: Doorstep Twins / Those Matchmaking Babies / Babies in the Bargain

With a tortured sigh she reached for the phone on the dresser. Her best friend Jasmin knew she was coming home and probably wanted to find out her flight number and time. But when she saw who’d sent the message, her adrenaline kicked in, causing her heart to thud.

I just arrived in Heraklion. When you’ve put the twins to bed, meet me at the park.

I’ll wait till morning if I have to because we need to talk. A.

She had to stifle her cry of joy. This meant Leon had been having second thoughts about letting his children slip away without making some arrangement to see them again. It meant she would have contact with Andreas one more time. Gabi wished her pulse didn’t race faster at the thought.

After shutting the suitcase, she hurried to her bedroom to change. She slipped off her T-shirt and jeans, then reached for the tan pleated pants and kelly green cotton top she’d left out to wear on the plane tomorrow.

Once she’d run the brush through her curls and put on lipstick, she poked her head around the door of the nursery. Her parents were absorbed with the children, too busy to be unduly curious about her. “I’m going out for a few minutes to pick up some things at the store.”

“Don’t be too long,” her dad cautioned in between singing to Nikos off-key. The scene melted her heart.

“I won’t.”

A minute later she waved to the guard at the sentry and headed in the direction of the park. Because of the reflection from the water, twilight brought out the beauty of the Greek islands, but never more so than tonight. It was Andreas’s fault. The knowledge he was waiting for her had added that magical quality.

Maybe this was how Thea had felt when she’d met Leon that evening aboard the yacht, as if the heavens were close for a moment and one of the twin gods from Olympus had come near enough for a human to touch.

He’d come close all right, so close he’d touched her with two little mortals, and now his twin, the powerful god Andreas, was here to parlay a deal between the two worlds. When Gabi thought of him in that light, the stars left her eyes and sanity returned.

Tonight he wasn’t dressed like a god. She spied him at the fountain wearing a cream sport shirt and khakis. No one else was about. Instead of expensive hand-sewn leather shoes, he’d worn sandals like everyone else walking along the beachfront.

He watched her coming, but didn’t make a move toward her. “Yassou, Gabi.”

“Hi!” Keep it airy. “I came the minute I got your message because Mother and I have an early morning flight to Athens.”

“I’m aware of that.” He stood with his hands on his hips, emanating a stunning male virility. “Before you go anywhere, I have something in mind I’d like to discuss with you.”

She blinked. “Why isn’t Leon with you?”

Andreas studied her for a long moment. “I think you know the answer to that question.”

Gabi was afraid she did, but Andreas’s presence confused her. “Then I don’t understand why you’re here.”

“Because I don’t want you to leave Greece.”

She struggled to stifle her moan. Of all the things he might have said, his blunt answer wasn’t even on her list. Now if Rand had said, “I don’t want you to leave Austin…” But he hadn’t said anything. As for Andreas, she knew his agenda had nothing to do with her personally.

“I don’t understand.”

He took a deep breath. “Leon’s in a panic right now, but in another day or two he’s going to conquer it. When he does, the children need to be here, not clear across the Atlantic.”

Gabi was the one starting to panic and shook her head. “I can’t stay on Crete.”

His pewter gaze pierced her. “Why not?”

“B-because my parents need to get their life back,” she stammered. “The boys and I need our own home.”

He took a step closer. “You’ve had a home here for months. I would imagine your parents will be devastated when the babies are gone. Therefore that couldn’t be the real reason you’re so anxious to take flight. Do you have a lover in Alexandria waiting for you?”

Taking the out he’d proffered, she said, “As a matter of fact I do. Not that it’s anyone’s business.” While she spoke, she watched a young couple who’d wandered into the park and had started kissing.

“You’re lying. Otherwise he’d have flown here to whisk you and the children back to Virginia weeks ago.” The comment had come out more like a soft hiss. He would make a terrifying adversary if crossed.

She turned her eyes away from the amorous couple. “If you must know, I want the children to myself.”

“So they’ll know you’re their mother,” he deduced. “That makes perfect sense, but you don’t have to go to Virginia to do that.”

Gabi sucked in her breath. “I don’t have the means to earn a living right now and Dad’s home in Alexandria is paid for. With my savings and his financial help, it will work until they’re in school and I can go to work.”

He shook his dark head. “I’ve learned enough to know your father has the means to help you move into your own place here on Crete where you and the boys can be close by but still independent. Why are you afraid to tell me the truth? What’s going on?”

Andreas saw too much. “There are already too many questions being asked about the paternity of the twins. My parents don’t know anything. If it got out about your brother and Thea, my family as well as yours would suffer and you know it. That’s why I want to take them back with me.”

“Out of sight, out of mind, you mean.”

“Yes.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “That might work for a while, but it’s inevitable the day will arrive when the secret comes out. They always do. By then the damage will be far worse, not only for the families involved but for the twins themselves.”

“I realize that, but for the present I don’t know what else to do. There’s—” She stopped herself in time, but Andreas immediately picked up on it.

“What were you going to say?”

“N-nothing.”

“Tell me!” he demanded.

Feeling shaky, she said, “I should never have come to your office.”

“That isn’t what you were about to blurt.”

The man had radar. At this point she had no choice but to tell him. Not everything, but enough to satisfy him.

Taking a few steps, she sank down on the park bench. He followed, but stood near her with his tanned fingers curled around the back railing. “Thea’s husband would love to hurt our family for backing her in the divorce. He’s capable of making trouble that could make things unpleasant for Leon, too.”

“You’re talking about Dimitri Paulos.”

Gabi got up from the bench. “How did you know?”

His eyes played over her. “I did a background check. Thea’s passport alerted me she has an ex. Has he threatened you personally, Gabi?”

She pressed her lips together. “No, but suffice it to say he was furious when Thea divorced him. If not for diplomatic immunity through Dad, I don’t even want to think what might have happened to her. Dimitri considered her his possession. Thea was convinced he’d hired a man to follow her everywhere.”

One black brow lifted sardonically. “My father and I have had business dealings with Dimitri’s father in Athens. I’m familiar with his son’s more devious methods.”

That shouldn’t have surprised Gabi. Andreas knew everything. “The trouble is, before she died she told me he was still out for blood wanting to know who made her pregnant. If he were to learn your brother is the father of her twins, he’d love to feed that kind of gossip to the newspapers just to be ugly.”