Page 10 of Billion-Dollar Baby Shock

When Elena had left earlier, he’d looked at his son in his arms and had suddenly become aware of just how fragile he was.

And that he was now looking to Dion to fulfil needs that Dion had no idea how to fulfil.

And then Niko had gone from zero to full-on meltdown and then his security guard had informed him they’d found an intruder, and she’d appeared.

Dion didn’t like to admit it to himself, especially now, but, before she’d dropped her bombshell, he had been toying with the idea of seeing her again, in spite of everything—her innocence, and the fact that he rarely saw the same woman twice.

But thankfully he hadn’t exposed himself. She’d got to him and she’d exposed a weak link in his defences and that was unforgivable.

There was a small sound from behind him and then a voice. ‘He’s down. He’s exhausted, the poor mite.’

Dion turned around. Tara was standing a few feet away.

Still in bare feet. Long legs slim and pale under the shorts.

She’d taken off the jacket and now wore just the sleeveless silk shirt.

There were stains on her clothes, evidence of her clambering through his bushes.

Her hair was loose and wild, reminding him of how it had looked spread out over the pillow as he’d joined their bodies.

The memory made his voice sharp. ‘Shouldn’t you be with my son?’

She held up a white plastic device with different colours going up and down along a display. ‘It’s a baby monitor. He’s asleep. He’s fine. I’ll hear if he wakes up. And speaking of which, shouldn’t you have been with him last night?’

‘His nanny was with him.’ Dion’s conscience pricked.

The truth was that even if he’d been here he would have deferred to the nanny’s care.

The gaps in his knowledge about how to bond and handle his own son were becoming glaringly apparent and he didn’t welcome the sense of exposure in front of this woman who seemed to be able to see through him in a very disconcerting way.

‘He’s got the best of care, around the clock.’

She shook her head. ‘Who does that? Acquires a baby and then hands it over to staff?’

Dion gritted his jaw. No one spoke to him like this. ‘You have no right to judge my reasons for having a son. He will want for nothing.’

‘Except a mother?’

Dion’s patience snapped. ‘My mother had me purely to extort money out of her rich lover. When the money ran out she dumped me on the steps of an orphanage and walked away. I survived and thrived. I’m proof that perhaps mothers don’t always know best.’

He saw how the woman in front of him went pale. Her eyes widened. He immediately regretted blurting out his sad story but it was too late.

‘I’m so sorry that happened to you, that’s… awful . Where was your father?’

Dion spoke around the almost physical sensation of a stone in his chest. ‘He was a married man with his own family, no interest.’

‘Dionysios… I’m so sorry, that’s just…no child should experience such cruelty.’

To his fascination and horror, Tara’s eyes shimmered with emotion and that stone in his chest got even bigger. Curtly he said, ‘Don’t call me Dionysios—that’s what she used to call me. It’s Dion.’

Tara blinked and, to Dion’s intense relief, the shimmering emotion went away. She said, ‘I’m sorry, Dion, it is.’ Hearing her speak his name had a direct effect on his body, like a little electric charge.

His conscience nudged him to acknowledge what she’d done. ‘I should say thank you for settling Niko.’

‘And also,’ he had to add, ‘for showing up a weakness in my security system.’

She grimaced. ‘I really didn’t think you’d let me in.’

‘You were good with him… Niko,’ he also had to admit grudgingly. It wasn’t usual for Dion to feel redundant and he didn’t like it. He vowed to get over his fear of tending his own son.

She shrugged a little. ‘Babies are pretty straightforward. They eat, sleep, poop and once those needs are met they’re usually content.’ She looked at him and Dion felt momentarily breathless under that aquamarine gaze.

She said, ‘I know he’s my son. He even looks a little like one of my brothers when he was a baby. Daniel. He’s the only dark-haired one in our family. We always used to joke that he was the postman’s.’

She blushed a little. ‘Sorry, sometimes I don’t know when to stop talking.’

Dion tried to curb the way he felt a softening in his chest. Until he knew for sure what was going on she was an unknown quantity. He could see some logic now in keeping her close, at least until he knew he could get rid of her for good.

But you wanted to see her again. Last night was amazing.

Dion scowled at his rogue thoughts but before he could say anything else she asked, ‘Would you mind if I had a glass of water, or something?’

Now Dion felt embarrassed. He was forgetting his manners. No matter who she was. ‘Of course, you must be hungry.’ He thought of how he’d all but hustled her off the island and despatched her in the taxi.

He pulled out the tray of breakfast items that the housekeeper had left prepared for him in the fridge. Fruit, granola, yoghurts. He found a plate and cutlery and a napkin.

‘Take a seat.’ He gestured to the other side of the island. She came closer and put the baby monitor down. He caught her scent, clean and flowery with a hint of musk, and instantly he could taste her skin in his mouth, the slight salt of her perspiration as she’d climaxed around his body.

Theos. He gritted his jaw and found where the pastries were kept and put some on a plate and pushed the tray and plate towards her. ‘Would you like some coffee?’

She nodded as she picked up a mini croissant and put it straight into her mouth. She spoke with her hand over her mouth. ‘Yes, please. Thanks.’

Dion poured her some coffee. She took a sip. ‘Thank you.’ Then she said, ‘You mentioned no one knows about Niko yet…why?’

Dion felt like telling her it was none of her business but he’d already spilled his sorry life story. ‘I haven’t gone out of my way not to tell people. I just haven’t made an announcement. I wanted time to let him settle before a media frenzy is unleashed.’

‘I don’t think a six-month-old is going to be all that aware of a frenzy.’

Dion felt like scowling. She’d hit a nerve because maybe he was avoiding the glare of media attention and all the inevitable questions about why he’d choose to have a baby on his own, questions that could lead back to his less than ideal start in life.

People knew he’d come from nothing, from the streets, but no one knew the grittier details of his very early life and that was how he wanted to keep it. He didn’t need his personal humiliation to be made public.

In a bid to try and divert her attention from him he asked, ‘Do you have a job?’

She shook her head. ‘I just graduated from university.’

Dion frowned. ‘But you’re twenty-five?’ She struck him as bright. Bright enough to get his attention. He wanted to scowl again and schooled his features.

Her face flushed again, and Dion felt as though he’d never get used to the way emotions played across her face so easily. She swallowed what she was eating and wiped her mouth with the napkin. ‘I did it over five years, part-time. That’s why it took longer than most degrees.’

‘A degree in what?’

‘Quantity surveying.’

Dion’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected that. ‘How did you get into that?’

‘My father was an architect. I used to go on site visits with him when I was small and I was always fascinated by the QS, who seemed to be the one who really had the full picture of the build. I loved the way they managed to merge the creative with the practical.’

Dion was a little flabbergasted. He too had always had an appreciation for those in the business who had the practical measure of things.

‘You mentioned siblings…four?’

She nodded and lifted a hand, ticking off fingers. ‘Daniel, Mary, Lucy and Oisín.’

‘Osheen?’

‘It’s Irish. It means little deer, as in, a fawn.’

‘That’s a big family.’ Dion couldn’t even imagine such a thing. It had been him and his mother, until it hadn’t. As it was, he barely remembered those years with her because she’d routinely left him alone to fend for himself.

‘I guess so.’

‘Why did you become an egg donor? Was it for the money?’