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

Andreas Simonides was a cold-blooded man. There was no way to reach him. As his hand moved to the button on the panel, alerting her that this conversation was over, she said, “Are you saying you never saw this woman in your life?”

Gabi pointed to Thea’s face in the newspaper picture. “Maybe this will help.” She put the items under her arm while she pulled out Thea’s Greek passport. “Here.”

To her surprise he took it from her and examined the photo. “Thea Paulos, twenty-four, Athens. Issued five years ago.” His black brows formed a bar. He shot her a penetrating glance. “Your sister, you say?”

“My half sister,” she amended. “Daddy’s first wife was Greek. After she died, he married my American mother. After a while I came along. This was the last passport Thea held before her divorce.” Gabi bit her lip. “She…celebrated it with friends aboard your yacht.”

He handed the passport back to her. “I’m sorry about your loss, but I can’t help you.”

She felt a stab of pain. “I’m sorry for the twins,” she murmured. “To lose their mother is tragic beyond words. However, when they’re old enough to ask where their father is and I have to tell them he’s alive somewhere—but it doesn’t matter because they never mattered to him—that will be the ultimate tragedy.”

The elevator door closed, putting a definitive end to all communication. Gabi spun around, angry and heartsick. For two cents she’d leave the incriminating evidence with his receptionist and let the other woman draw her own conclusions.

But creating a scandal within the Simonides empire was the last thing Gabi wanted to do, not when it could rebound on her own family, especially on her father whose diplomat position in the consulate on Crete might be compromised. In his work he met with Greek VIPs in business and governmental positions on a regular basis. She couldn’t bear it if her presence here brought on unwanted repercussions.

No one had asked her to come. Except for Mr. Simonides himself now, no one knew the nature of this visit, especially not her grieving parents. Since Thea had died in childbirth from a heart condition brought on by the pregnancy, Gabi had taken it upon herself to be the babies’ advocate. Every child deserved its own wonderful birth mother and father. Unfortunately not every child was so lucky.

“Mission accomplished,” she whispered to the empty room. Her heart felt like an anchor that had come loose and had plunged through fathoms of dark water to the lowest depths of the Mediterranean.

Once she’d put everything back in the envelope and stashed it in her handbag, she left his private office. The venerable receptionist nodded to Gabi before she disappeared into the hall. In a few minutes she arrived at the ground floor of the building and hurried outside to get a taxi back to her hotel.

To her surprise, the chauffeur of a limo parked in front got out and approached her. “Ms. Turner?”

She blinked. “Yes?”

“Kyrie Simonides said you had to wait a long time to get in to see him. I’ve been asked to drive you wherever it is you wish to go.”

Her adrenaline kicked in, causing her pulse to speed up. Did this mean the twins’ father wasn’t a complete block of ice after all? Who wouldn’t melt over seeing a photo of his own flesh and blood? If the boys’ picture didn’t completely convince him, the printout of their DNA would provide infallible proof of a match.

By sending a limo for Gabi, it could mean he planned for a second meeting with her, but he was forced to be discreet. With his money and power, not to mention his looks, the head man had learned how to keep his former liaisons private.

“Thank you. If you wouldn’t mind taking me to the Amazon Hotel?” She’d purposely checked in there because it was near the Simonides building in the heart of the Plaka.

He nodded as he helped her in.

Before carrying out her plan to meet with Mr. Simonides today, Gabi had told her parents that one of her female coworkers from Alexandria, Virginia, was in Athens on a trip. They’d decided to get together and see a little of the sights. Gabi felt awful for outright lying to them, but she didn’t dare let them know her true agenda.

Until Thea’s fifth month of pregnancy when she’d developed serious heart complications and was hospitalized, Gabi hadn’t even known the name of the babies’ father. But as the end drew near and it became apparent Thea might not make it, she told Gabi to look in her jewel box at home and bring her the envelope she’d hidden there.

Gabi brought it to the hospital. Thea told her to open it. She took one look and gasped when she realized who the man was. “This is all I have of him. Like everyone else on board, we’d both had way too much to drink,” Thea whispered. “We were ‘strangers in the night’ kind of thing.”

Her confession elicited a moan from Gabi.

“It didn’t mean anything to him. He didn’t even know my name. I’m ashamed it happened and he shouldn’t have to pay for a mistake which was as much mine as his. I wanted you to see him so you’ll know what kind of genes the children have inherited. Now promise me you’ll forget everything.”

Gabi understood how Thea felt and planned to honor her wishes. Besides the unsuspecting father, she realized that any news would be exploited if linked to the Simonides family. As they had recently lost the daughter of her father’s first marriage, Gabi wanted to save her parents any added grief.

While she sat there deep in thought the rear door opened. Surprised they’d already arrived in front of the hotel, she gave a start before getting out.

“Please thank your employer for me.”

“Of course.”

Once he’d gone, she hurried inside, anxious to eat something at the snack bar before going up to her room. Whatever Mr. Simonides intended to do, he was in the driver’s seat and would be the one to set the timetable for their next conversation. If there were to be one…

She could only hope he would make the arrangements before morning. Tomorrow she needed to fly back to Heraklion on Crete and rejoin her family. On top of their sadness, they had their hands full with the twins who’d been born six weeks premature.

When it had looked as if Thea was in trouble, Gabi had taken an undetermined leave of absence from the advertising agency in Virginia to fly to Heraklion. Since then she’d taken over the care of the babies because her busy parents’ demanding diplomatic position didn’t allow for the constant nurturing of the twins without full-time help.

That was four months ago and Gabi’s job as public relations manager had been temporarily filled by someone else at Hewitt and Wilson, so she had a vital decision to make. If Mr. Simonides chose to claim his children, then she needed to get back to her work in Virginia ASAP.

Her immediate boss had been made regional director of the East Coast market and hinted at an important promotion for her. But she needed to get back home if she wanted to expand her career opportunity with him. The only other career more important would be to become the mother to Thea’s children. But if she chose to do that, then it meant she would have to give up her advertising career until they were school age.

Having been burned by Texas rancher and oil man Rand McCallister five years ago, Gabi had no intention of ever getting married or having children, but if the twins’ birth father didn’t want them, then she would take on the responsibility of raising them because they were her family. As such, she needed to go back to Virginia where she could rear them in familiar surroundings.

Her family’s home in Alexandria was the perfect residence in a guarded, gated community with other diplomats’ families, some of whom had small children. Gabi had always lived in it with her parents when they weren’t in Greece on assignment. Since Gabi’s father owned the house outright, she wouldn’t have to deal with a mortgage payment.

If she combined the savings from her job with her dad’s financial help, she could be a stay-at-home mom until they were both school age, then get back to her career. It could all work. Gabi would make it work because she’d grown to love the twins as if they were her own babies.

In all likelihood Mr. Simonides wasn’t interested in the children and had only made certain she got a ride back to wherever she’d come from. Therefore she would fly the twins to Alexandria with her next week.

After a quick meal, Gabi went up to her room on the fourth floor, reasoning that her mother would go with her to help the three of them settle in before returning to Crete. The consulate was no place for two new infants. Her parents would never admit it, but the whole situation had grown out of control.

No sooner did she let herself inside with the card key than she saw the red light blinking on the telephone. Her mother could have left a voice message rather than try to get her on her cell phone. Then again…

With an odd combination of curiosity and trepidation, she reached for the receiver to retrieve it.

“Another limo is waiting for you in front of the hotel, Ms. Turner. It will be there until eight-thirty p.m.” Her watch said eight-ten. “If you don’t appear with your luggage by then, I’ll understand this isn’t a life and death situation after all. Your hotel-room bill has been taken care of.”

Gabi hung up the phone feeling as if she were acting in a police procedural film, not living real life. He’d had her followed and watched. The fabulously wealthy Mr. Simonides inhabited a world made up of secrecy and bodyguards in order to preserve, not only his safety, but the privacy he craved.

She imagined the paparazzi constituted a living nightmare for him, particularly when someone unknown like Gabi materialized. Her intrusion reminded him there were consequences for a night of pleasure he couldn’t remember because everyone partying on the yacht had been drinking heavily.

Thea had confided he was a Greek god come to life. Unlike Gabi, who’d inherited her mother’s shorter height and curves, Thea had been fashionably tall and thin. Growing up, she could have any boy she wanted.

She’d always had a man in tow, even the bachelor playboy Andreas Simonides touted in the press, now the crowned head of the Simonides empire. When he’d picked Thea out from the other women on board and had started making love to her in one of the cabins, she’d succumbed in a moment of extreme weakness.

How tragic that in celebrating her divorce she’d become pregnant, the consequences of which had brought on her death…

Gabi couldn’t imagine Mr. Simonides forgetting her sister no matter what. But if he’d been like Rand, then there’d been many beautiful women in his life. As both sisters had learned, they’d only made up part of the adoring horde. What a huge shock it must have been to discover he’d fathered baby boys whose resemblance to the two of them was nothing short of astounding.

Gabi only had a few minutes to freshen up and pack her overnight bag before she rushed down to the lobby. It was a simple matter since she hadn’t planned to be in Athens more than a night and had only brought one other change of outfit with her.

Through the doors she spied a limo with dark glass, but a different driver stood next to it. She assumed she would be driven to an undisclosed location where Mr. Simonides was waiting for her.

“Good evening, Ms. Turner.” He opened the rear door to help her in with her case. “I’ll be taking you to Kyrie Simonides.”

“Thank you.”