Greek Pregnancy Clause - Page 50

A rough, bewildered sound left his throat. ‘You’re asking after him when you should be concerned for yourself?’

She shrugged. ‘He’s a worrier. And I suspect it’s not fun when the people you care about are in trouble, but out of your reach. Besides, I can multitask quite well.’

Her attempt at humour fell flat, but she was beyond caring. What absorbed her attention was Ares, ambling closer, that gaze never straying from her for a second.

‘No, it’s not fun,’ came Sergios’s disembodied voice.

Her jaw dropped when she realised the call hadn’t been concluded. Ares’s mouth twitched as he held out the phone.

‘He wouldn’t hang up until he’d seen you.’

She took the phone, her smile wobbling a little when Sergios’s worried face filled the screen.

‘Mikros?’

‘I’m fine. I promise.’

He nodded, but the reminder of what he’d been through was reflected in his sombre eyes. ‘It’s my turn to say a prayer for you, like you did for me five years ago.’

She inhaled sharply. ‘How do you know about that?’ she whispered.

‘Know about what?’ Ares enquired.

She pressed her lips together, shaking her head at Sergios.

His was warm, benign, his smile all-encompassing. ‘Tell him, mikros.’

She raised her gaze to Ares. ‘When I found out about the accident I said a prayer for your father,’ she confessed, and then, after a moment, she added, ‘And for you.’

Myriad emotions flashed across his face, too quick to read but all heavily weighted.

‘She did more than that. She lit a candle every morning and every night. And she petitioned the staff to do the same.’

Mortification and panic at this exposure of her emotions weakened her. ‘Sergios…’

The old man shook his head at her protest. ‘No, my dear. I won’t be quiet about it. You defied your father to spend hours in the chapel, praying for me and my son. He deserves to know it.’

Her face heated and emotion clogged her throat, sending prickles to her eyes.

Ares’s eyes flared, searched harder, then blazed with whatever emotions were moving through him. ‘Is that true?’

‘Do you want it to be?’

He looked poleaxed for a second, then fiercely intent. ‘Answer the question, Odessa.’

‘Yes. It’s true,’ she confessed in a whisper, dragging her gaze away, because the reminder of those three awful weeks when his life had hung in the balance was still viscerally heart-wrenching and something she didn’t like to revisit often.

He took the phone from her, said a few words to his father, then ended the call. ‘Look at me, Odessa,’ he commanded, his voice gruff and uneven.

She raised her head, boldly met his eyes even though she wanted to run. Shield herself from further exposure.

But that wasn’t what she witnessed. He looked…nonplussed. Unsettled. And, probably for the first time in his life…uncertain.

As if she…Odessa…had shaken his foundations.

‘Why?’ he rasped after several heartbeats.

Several unguarded reasons rushed to the tip of her tongue. She barely managed to bite them back. She’d revealed too much already.