Page 13 of Greek’s Christmas Heir

He watched something in her soften at that. Her smile changed, and there was a deeper sort of sheen in her gaze. She let out a sound like a sigh, then covered his hand with hers, guiding it to a different part of her belly.

It was like sorcery, he thought.

It was magic.

She talked softly, telling him which parts of the child he was touching. “She’s just about ready to meet us,” she said.

And it all shuddered through him. It was a complexity he had never imagined. He was touching a woman’s belly, and within that belly was a child.

Hischild, no matter how this had come about.

She, Constance had said.

His daughter. Just there, separated from him and the world, by this fragile wall of flesh. By this surprisingly tough woman, who had not seemed to fight him at all—but had not backed down.

“Constance,” he said then, urgent and low, but necessary. “I understand that this is strange. I understand that you don’t know me. I understand there’s no time for any of that. You have no reason to trust me at all and I am not sure that I would trust you, given the same circumstances. But it’s true that I am a very wealthy man. And I cannot bear the thought that you and this child will not be under my protection in every possible way.”

Something was different between them, then. Something he did not think he could put into words. It was the way their hands were still pressed together. It was the truth of this thing between them, that should not have made sense.

It made no sense at all, but it was beautiful—and theirs all the same.

She carried their daughter. A little girl, who he would meet. And soon.

“I’m sure there are implications that I need to think through,” she said, her low whisper matching his. “But if what you’re saying is true, I can’t blame you for wanting to come here and do this. I would feel the same way. Anyone would. I’m sure we can work something out.”

He felt something else wind its way through him, iron and dark, but shoved it down. There would be time for that. There was always time.

“I appreciate your generosity more than you know,” he told her, gazing down into those marvelous eyes of hers. “But I’m going to ask you for something more. It will be a legal umbrella, that is all. So that you are safe. So that the child is safe.”

She stared back at him, and Anax was aware of so many different things at once. It was the profundity of this moment, he was sure. His hands pressed against his own child, nearly ready to come out into the world when he hadn’t known this possibility existed a scant fourteen days ago.

The fury was gone. Or at a low simmer.

Here, now, there was certainty instead.

“Constance,” he said quietly, “I want you to marry me. Let me take care of you and this child in every way I can.”

“My grandmother always told me that while she, for one, would not go around looking gift horses in the mouth, or any horse for that matter, it was a fool indeed who argued their way out of a good thing.” Constance’s voice sounded rougher than before. Beneath his hand, he felt a tremor. “I can’t think of a good enough reason not to marry you, if it’s just the legal thing.”

“Of course it is,” he said smoothly. “What else could it be? We’re strangers.”

“It is only for your protection,” Vasiliki chimed in.

And he was glad that he and his sister were not looking at each other while they said these things. While they did what they always did—what was necessary.

No matter how it felt to him in this moment, it was necessary above all else.

He needed to remember that.

“If the Baby Jesus could handle three wise men and who knows how many shepherds, I suppose I can do the same,” Constance said after a moment, and she let out a long sigh. “But you’re going to need to hurry. Especially if you’re concerned with legitimacy.” This time, when she laughed, it was tinged with something like hysteria. “Because I’m pretty sure my water just broke.”

CHAPTER FOUR

CONSTANCEMARRIEDTHEstrange man who showed up at the back of the nativity play that very Christmas Eve, because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Or that was how she remembered it, anyway.

She had no idea how even a man with his intensity and thatforceall around him managed to get a county judge to attend them in the hospital room. The hospital room Anax Ignatios had brought her to himself after her announcement in the classroom at the back of the church. It had been a whirl of the looks on the faces of the people she knew still milling about in the church lobby, then her awkward and inelegant attempt to climb into the waiting SUV.

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