Along Came Twins…

As the elevator carried her skyward, Kellie planned to take care of business as quickly as possible. She knew she’d soon be on her way back home to Philadelphia, where she’d been living with her aunt and uncle for the last month. But that was about to change.

By next week she’d move her aunt and uncle from their small apartment into a lovely four-bedroom brick row home in Parkwood with her. It was a charming residential neighborhood in the far northeast corner of Philadelphia, perfect for children. She’d already put down a deposit. A new life awaited her, but first things first.

When the elevator stopped and the door opened, Kellie took a deep breath and headed through the foyer. She walked past Christos, her husband’s chief bodyguard. He started to reach for his phone to warn Leandros, but she put a finger to her lips and smiled. He nodded and sat down again.

A few more steps and she reached the entrance to her husband’s private suite, which was also protected by a security code. As CEO of the Petralia Corporation, which built resorts all over Greece, he was one of the most successful businessmen in the country and had been a target for crazies long before Kellie had met him.

She had no idea what she might be interrupting, but that wasn’t her concern anymore. It had been on her wedding day, two years ago, when Kellie realized she had an enemy in Karmela Paulos. Karmela was the sister of Petra, Leandros’s first wife, who’d been pregnant when she’d died in a plane crash. At Kellie’s wedding to Leandros, the beautiful, fashionable Karmela would willingly have scratched Kellie’s eyes out if she could have gotten away with it.

Fran had been Kellie’s matron of honor and had witnessed the obvious fact that Karmela had hoped to become the next Mrs. Leandros Petralia. But it didn’t happen, so his sister-in-law had done the next best thing by becoming indispensable to Leandros, first as a confidante to the grieving widower, who was family, and later as a secretary in his inner office, under Mrs. Kostas. With cunning, Karmela had worked her way to the top floor, where she had daily contact with him.

Combined with the stress Kellie had been under because she couldn’t conceive, plus her struggle with feelings of inadequacy, the situation had grown intolerable for her. After much thought and soul-searching, she’d told Leandros she wanted a separation, and had left on a trip with Fran. But because of disastrous circumstances, it came to an abrupt end, with her friend staying in Athens to be with Nik. At that point Kellie had left for Philadelphia.

On the night before she was due to fly back, she’d had a fainting spell and Leandros had taken her to the ER. When the doctor could find nothing wrong, she was sent home with the warning to eat, so it wouldn’t happen again. They’d just returned when Karmela, whose hand was obviously recognized by the security entry, slipped into their apartment, as she’d done when Petra still lived there.

The fact that Leandros said nothing about his sister-in-law letting herself in unannounced had led Kellie to worry that he had more than brotherly feelings for Karmela. After all, she did resemble Petra. Perhaps, as Kellie had confided to Fran earlier, Karmela had become his pillow friend?

Evidently his brazen sister-in-law figured she had free reign with Leandros now that Kellie was leaving him. Her smiling, catlike eyes stared boldly at Kellie as she explained she’d brought some work for Leandros that needed his attention. Before she slipped out the door again, she’d wished Kellie a safe flight back to the States. No doubt she thought she’d seen the last of her. Kellie knew that her presence would knock the daylights out of Karmela, but this wasn’t about her. It was about them—Leandros and Kellie—and their babies.

She put her palm against the glass next to the door. She suspected Karmela’s manipulative smile would falter when Kellie walked into the office and word eventually circulated about the miraculous news. Everyone close to Leandros knew he’d mourned the loss of his first wife and unborn child, who would have been a girl.

Despite Kellie’s impending divorce from Leandros, for him to learn he was going to be a father again would come as a tremendous thrill. But it would deal a near fatal blow to his sister-in-law’s plans to have him for her own.

Kellie knew in her heart that Karmela was waiting for her chance to provide him with a living heir. At least that’s what Frato Petralia had confided to Kellie at the wedding, after having too much to drink.

Frato was Leandros’s good-looking first cousin and closest friend in the family. Still single, he was one of the vice presidents of the corporation, and enjoyed the company of several beautiful women, which didn’t surprise Kellie at all. That evening he’d said quite a few things she didn’t take seriously in the beginning, but over time she realized he’d spoken the truth.

On the day Leandros mentioned in passing about hiring Karmela to work under Mrs. Kostas, she’d tried not to let it affect her. But her first impression of Petra’s sister at the wedding wouldn’t leave her alone. She’d seen the way Karmela had behaved and talked to him. Karmela was no impartial bystander. Two years later the younger woman had insinuated herself into Leandros’s office life, and who knew how much more. But it was all history now.

The elevator door opened silently along the wall away from his desk. Leandros sat in his swivel chair, half turned from her while engaged in an intense business discussion with Frato on the speakerphone. She recognized his voice.

At first glance she realized Leandros needed a haircut and a shave. There were wavy tendrils of dark hair, a shade away from being true black, clinging to his bronzed nape. It looked as if he’d been running his hands through it. The sleeves of the white shirt he wore had been pushed up to the elbows. Given his condition, and the accumulation of coffee cups on the desk, she could imagine he might have spent the night here.

She’d never seen him like this before. He was thirty-four, yet he looked five years older right now. Her normally fastidious, temperate husband was nowhere to be found. Kellie had seen him truly out of control only once before. It was the night she’d told him she wanted a divorce. In a way, this was worse—different, even—because there was a savage air about him. For a second she feared she’d done the wrong thing by coming here without his knowledge. But with so much riding on this, she couldn’t run from him now. Too much was at stake.

Finding her courage, she called out softly to him. “Leandros?”

She knew he’d heard her voice, because his hard, lean body seemed to freeze in place before he slowly swung around to face her.

He’d lost weight. A pronounced white ring encircled his taut mouth, testifying to his incredulity at seeing her here. It stood out almost as much as his gray eyes, which had gone black as pitch at the moment. Their color reminded her of the dark sky before the tornado had struck the Petralia resort near Thessalonika five weeks ago, killing little Demi’s parents.

Frato was on the other end of the phone line, still talking. Leandros muttered something she couldn’t understand, before he hung up. His haunted look sent a shiver of alarm through her body. She sensed he was ready to spring from his chair.

“Don’t get up,” she urged, and walked over to one of the chairs in front of his desk to sit down. Not only had her legs turned to mush at the sight of him, she couldn’t handle him touching her. He was still the most gorgeous man she’d ever known. In that regard, nothing had changed.

Kellie heard his sharp intake of breath. “What in the name of all that’s holy brings you back to Greece?” His deep voice sounded so shaken, she hardly recognized it. His overarching look of disbelief sent a fresh shock wave of despair through her. The month apart had done the rest of the damage to their marriage, crushing the rubble to microscopic bits.

Suddenly there was a tap on the door and Karmela started to enter. “Not now!” Leandros snapped. Kellie had to admit she’d never seen Leandros this upset with an employee. Maybe he hadn’t even realized it was Karmela.

Kellie was shocked by the other woman’s sangfroid before she did Leandros’s bidding. She was tall enough to wear the attractive black-and-white dress skimming her figure. With her hair falling like a silky black curtain, she was extraordinarily beautiful and would cause a traffic jam when she walked down the street.

Since she and Petra shared such a strong resemblance, Kellie could well imagine how his former wife had turned the sought-after bachelor into a married man. Karmela’s hourglass figure was so different from Kellie’s rounded curves.

The younger woman closed the door, but not before she shot Kellie a venomous glance. That reaction alone vindicated Kellie’s belief that Karmela planned to win Leandros one way or another, if she hadn’t already.

“Karmela still works for you, I see. And is still dropping in unannounced. As I recall, the last time we thought we were alone, Karmela dropped by with some papers for you. Though she didn’t find us making love, she certainly could have if we hadn’t been on the verge of divorce.”

That was the first time Kellie had truly feared Leandros had been unfaithful to her with Karmela. Before that time, she’d only worried about the other woman’s behavior.

“She was wrong to have done that, Kellie.”

“It certainly was wrong, but you didn’t say so at the time. I was so hurt when you let her come to work for you, and I told you as much, but you kept her on. We’re almost divorced, yet she still works for you. As I’ve told you many times, your sister-in-law always had a habit of insinuating herself around you.

“Even a little while ago she walked in without as much as a tap on the door, but it’s all right with you because she’s family.”

Why did she sound so bitter? Kellie wondered. It was no longer her concern what Karmela did with Leandros. They were getting divorced. But the thought that he’d replaced her so soon hurt more than she could ever admit.

His beautiful olive complexion darkened with lines. “It’s never been all right with me and I am going to do something about it. I’ll ask you again. Why are you here?” He seemed to have lost some color.

Clearing her throat, she said, “I have news that demanded I come here in person.” She was in possession of certain facts that would alter his world forever.

His hooded gaze pierced hers. “Has something happened to your aunt or uncle?”

Kellie could understand why he’d asked that question. He’d been wonderful to them from the moment he’d first met them. “This has nothing to do with them. They’re fine.” She moistened her lips nervously. “A week ago I was so nauseated, I went to the doctor in Philadelphia to find out what was wrong. I learned that I’m…pregnant.”

His dark head reared back in complete shock. “What did you say?” She heard excitement exploding inside him before he’d even had time to assimilate the news. Though he’d never given up hope they would get pregnant, Kellie had stopped believing such a miracle would happen to them.

She breathed in deeply. “I’m more amazed than you. It seems that the last artificial insemination procedure I underwent worked. Impossible as it sounds, Dr. Creer says I’m already seven weeks pregnant.”

A triumphant cry escaped Leandros. He leaped out of his chair, charged with an energy that transformed him before her eyes. Her pulse raced, because she’d known this would be his reaction. “The doctor said it’s the reason I fainted the night before I left Athens. My periods have never been normal, so I never suspected anything.”

Leandros came around and hunkered down in front of her, like a knight kneeling before his lady. When he grasped her hands, she could feel him trembling. Emotion had taken the blackness from his eyes, filling the gray irises with pinpoints of light. “We’re going to have a baby?” There was awe in his voice as he kissed her fingertips. The news had started to sink in, but he didn’t know all of it yet.

“There’s more, Leandros.”

Fear immediately marred his striking features and his hands gripped hers tighter. “Did the doctor tell you you’re a high-risk pregnancy? Is something wrong?”

“No,” she rushed to assure him. After he’d lost his first wife and unborn child, she didn’t want to put him through such anxiety again. He didn’t deserve any more trauma in that regard.

His expressive black brows furrowed. “Then what do you mean?”

Averting her eyes, she said, “The doctor ordered an ultrasound.”

“And?” His voice shook.

“The technician detected two heartbeats.”

“Two?” His explosion of joy reverberated off the walls of his office. “We’re going to have twins?”