Modern Romance Collection: May 2018 Books 1 - 4. Эбби Грин

mother was a good Greek girl.”

      “I know, but even after he decided to acknowledge me, Georgas was never going to acknowledge that, or his part in her downfall with her family and community.”

      “So, you are determined not to give in to even the least of his demands.”

      “Exactly.”

      Lucky for Andreas he’d never fallen in love, particularly with some beautiful Greek woman. It might have broken him. But then, maybe that was lucky for Kayla too, she was finally beginning to realize.

      “You weren’t ever looking for someone with social standing, a family that dated back generations.”

      “No. Those would be Georgas standards for measurement of a person’s worth, not mine. I am a Kostas, my own person.”

      “I can be emotional,” she pointed out. She wasn’t going to pretend to be an automaton after all this time.

      “You are eminently practical.” Andreas sighed and smiled. “When you aren’t haring off to New York and refusing to tell me where you are.”

      “I have emotions, Andreas. I am capable of love.” She knew her social awkwardness was often interpreted as a lack in that department, or any kind of sentiment, but the truth was nothing like that.

      “Good. Then you will love our children.”

      She hugged her knees tighter as a thrill of hope went through her that even six years of practice tamping it down didn’t seem able to diminish. “I want to adopt out of foster care.”

      “I know.”

      She’d told him her dreams of doing so six years ago, but assumed he’d forgotten. “That’s not a problem for you?” she pressed.

      “No. Though I am hopeful your willingness to forego birth control today indicates an openness to trying for children with our DNA, as well. I want Melia Kostas to live on in my children.”

      It was such a sentimental, emotional thing to say, Kayla was flabbergasted. “I did the math, the chances of pregnancy during this time in my cycle were astronomically low.”

      “There’s that practical side to your nature showing itself.” His lips quirked, his green eyes filled with amusement.

      “Do not laugh at me, Andreas.”

      “I’m not, pethi mou. The fact is, even a one-in-a-thousand chance remains a chance and you would not have taken it if you were unwilling to have children with me.”

      “I know.”

      “So?”

      “Would you treat all our children the same?” His answer mattered, enough she would turn him down if he gave the wrong one.

      Kayla had spent her entire childhood standing on the outside of the families she lived with, looking in. She would never allow that for her own children. Not if she could help it.

      And she was determined to help it.

      He curled both hands over hers again, scooting farther into her personal space, his body heat surrounding her. “Any child we bring into our home, any child who has reason to call me Papa, will enjoy every ounce of my protection, my support and my love. Adopted, natural or born to us within our marriage, no child of mine will ever doubt their importance to me. How can you doubt it?”

      Kayla’s heart just melted. Was it any wonder she’d loved this man since she knew him? Despite his corporate-shark side, he understood what really mattered.

      “I guess I don’t.”

      “Good.”

      She wanted to give in, but part of her still wondered how this could be real. “Why now? Why not six years ago?”

      “Six years ago, I was not ready to marry.”

      Right. It hadn’t been part of the plan right out of graduate school. “Now you are.”

      “It is time.”

      His words served as a cold reminder that Andreas was not asking her to marry him in some grand romantic gesture, but because he had a plan to prove to his overbearing father that Andreas Kostas was every bit as good, or better than he ever would have been as Andreas Georgas.

      And if Kayla said no, Andreas would find a wife. One way or another.

      “Come, Kay-love. Marriage between us will give you the safety and security you crave. From this point forward, no matter what business lies between us, you will know where you belong, where you have always belonged. With me.” She could not doubt the sincerity of his words, but they also proved that he knew just what buttons to push to get to her.

      And that helped her stay just that little bit wary. “But marriage isn’t a business contract. I’m not sure you understand that.”

      “Is it really so different?”

      “Yes.” She needed him to understand that.

      “If you say so, but I keep my promises. You know this. Once I sign a contract, I keep my side of the bargain, just as you will always keep yours. I do not break my word.”

      She knew that in business and life as she’d seen it with Andreas, he had a deep well of integrity. She could not deny his words, but still...who wanted to see their marriage likened to a business arrangement?

      Andreas did, apparently. Kayla was not so enamored by the classification.

      “What kind of promises are you proposing we make?” She wanted it spelled out, needed to be sure that Andreas understood the kind of commitment he would be making and what she would require him to make.

      What might be just another business deal for him, though apparently with much longer duration, was her life and her chance at the family she craved.

      “Fidelity, lifetime companionship, family. It will be a real marriage in every sense of the word. How could it not be?”

      “I don’t know. You tell me. You’re the one talking about it being like a business contract.”

      “Because that is what I know. What I understand.”

      That she could believe. He’d never understood the emotional devastation he’d wreaked when he broke up with her so he could bring her on board in his fledgling company.

      “What about love?” she asked.

      There was that look again. Disgust warring with anger. “My mother said she loved my father. Only that love destroyed her life.”

      “But not all relationships blow up like theirs did,” she had to point out.

      “My father claimed to love his wife, but he cheated on her. I will never take a mistress, or even have a one-night stand.”

      “That’s about integrity and commitment, not love.”

      “According to many they are the same thing. My father has plenty of integrity in business. It was his supposed love for my mother that gave him the freedom to cheat, to bring about her disgrace with her family.”

      Kayla didn’t have an answer for that and she didn’t need one.

      Andreas was not finished. “He said he loved me, that as his son, I was precious to him, but never once did he take into account my needs, my feelings, much less a single thing I wanted. He did nothing but disrupt and destroy the life my mother worked so hard to give me. Love is an excuse people give to justify their selfishness with others, or their own bad decisions.”

      Her heart hurt, bleeding from the wounds his words inflicted. “I don’t believe that.”

      “What do you know about love?”

      The stark demand of the question hit her like a physical blow. Kayla nearly blurted out her six-year-old secret then, but self-preservation kept her silent. “I know that you