Page 1 of Pregnant Behind the Veil (Brides for Greek Brothers #3)

Alessandra

My hand tightens over the small swell of my belly as butterflies flutter inside.

Not butterflies. A baby. My baby.

I smile as I gently tap my fingers against my skin, wondering if he can feel it yet. I’m nineteen weeks along, although I’ve only known for two. But in those fourteen days, my entire world has shifted, my focus narrowing to the tiny being growing inside me.

My eyes flicker to the millions of lights sparkling just beyond my window. Like a field of stars against the backdrop of New York City’s skyline. The last traces of clouds from an early-evening thunderstorm are drifting away, leaving traces of violet and orange in the night sky.

I’ve had this view for over a year now, ever since I earned my specialist certification in estate planning.

It came with a salary increase, my corner office and even more work.

I love it. I love the variety in my work, seeing the impact I have and making a difference with one of the most prestigious estate law firms in the world.

My gaze drifts away from the window, passes over the boxes scattered around my office, the half-empty shelves, the blank spaces on the walls.

Fingers reach into my chest, grab my heart and squeeze.

In that moment of pain, I feel every second of the last thirteen years: days jam-packed with classes, endless nights of clerking and studying, receiving the call that I had gotten my dream job.

All gone because of a foolish one-night stand.

My fingers tighten on my stomach. Before that day in the doctor’s office two weeks ago, I would have given everything to go back in time and turn away as Michail walked across the bar. Or, better yet, toss my drink in his face.

But once the doctor spoke the words “You’re going to be a mother,” the regrets disappeared, replaced by a fierce, inherent love for my unborn son.

I’d never admitted to myself how much I wanted to be a mother, not when my longest relationship had barely passed the six-month mark.

Nearly two years ago, I realize with some surprise.

So no more regrets. No more wishes for what might have been.

Yes, my future includes a career change instead of keeping my corner office and becoming a partner at Kingston.

But it will be an adventure, one that comes with an incredible gift.

Tonight is the last step before I’m finally free to move on to my new life.

Now I just have to tell my one-time lover he’ll be a father in before the year’s out.

Cold tendrils sneak in and steal the warmth from my chest. My smile evaporates as his name whispers through my mind.

Sullivan.

Except it’s not Sullivan. No, it’s Michail. Michail Sullivan. Self-made billionaire, internally renowned home and private security expert and recently discovered illegitimate son of the late Lucifer Drakos.

The same Lucifer Drakos who, until his death nearly three months ago, had been my wealthiest and most hated client.

The cold sinks deeper. I stand and rub my hands up and down my arms as I pace from my desk to the window.

I didn’t know anything about Michail when we locked eyes in a cliffside bar in Greece five months ago.

I only saw the rock-hewn jaw, the full lips curved into a half smile, the desire that flickered in his eyes.

Even when he told me whatever we shared would begin and end in one night, it hadn’t tempered my desire.

The illicit nature of a brief affair made me want him even more.

One night. One night of fiery passion, of pleasure unlike anything I’d ever experienced.

And, unexpectedly, moments of tenderness, secrets whispered in the dark as the moon colored the room silver.

Moments that had opened the door to a different desire when I’d awoken to the morning sun making his tan skin glow.

The desire to know this man, to spend more time. To imagine something beyond one night.

I turn away from the window. There had been zero tenderness when he’d walked into my office ten weeks ago. Hope had flared for one bright, beautiful moment when I’d looked up and seen Sullivan staring at me from the doorway. When I thought he’d come for me.

And then reality hadn’t just intruded. No, it had kicked the door in, blasting it to smithereens as I saw Sullivan’s eyes by the light of day for the first time.

Pale, pale blue. Eyes just like Lucifer’s.

I’d slept with a client’s son.

Nausea climbs up my throat. I stop and breathe in deeply, then out. I’ve never once violated the oath I took when I became a lawyer. Violating my ethics in such a spectacular manner, even unknowingly, makes me sick to my stomach.

Michail hadn’t bothered to disguise his disgust as he glared at me throughout the will reading.

A meeting that had left him and his two half-brothers in shock when I’d revealed that Lucifer had made it a requirement for Michail and his younger brother, Gavriil, to marry within a year and make it to their first anniversary.

Michail’s older brother, Rafael, was newly married but still had to reach the first-anniversary mark.

I’d counseled Lucifer to take out the clause. Then, for the first time in my career, I’d argued with a client. But still he’d refused, leaving me to deliver his manipulative stipulations.

Gavriil had been mad but determined. Rafe had been his usual reserved self. But Michail…

It had been like watching a volcano about to erupt. His eyes had blazed, furious flames of blue, his hands curled into fists. He’d told us he would join Lucifer in hell before ever marrying or accepting a single dime. He’d stalked to the door, turned and fixed that burning gaze on me.

“And if anyone tries to persuade me otherwise, they won’t like the consequences.”

Tame compared to the accusations he’d flung at me four weeks later at Gavriil’s wedding reception. Wild theories like working with Lucifer to blackmail him into marriage, of seeking Michail out for myself.

Of being just like the other women who had set out to conquer him and his fortune.

I hate that his last allegation stabbed so deep.

Not only did he consider our night together to be just like all his other affairs, but he labeled me an opportunist. A gold digger.

A liar. How could I have been so damn stupid as to think he saw me, really saw me, in those moments we spent together?

All he saw was a willing body and the chance for quick, no-strings-attached sex.

I was the idiot who saw him as someone I could fall for.

The shrill ring of my office phone cuts through my musings. I glance at the screen, recognize the number. Our front desk, manned by our night security guard, Donnie, when everyone else goes home.

I let it ring once, twice. Then I punch the talk button.

“Hi, Donnie.”

“Evening, Miss Wright. Your visitor is on his way up from the lobby.”

A thickness fills my throat. “Thanks.”

Donnie clucks his tongue. “I hope you don’t work as hard at your next job. You should go out with friends, maybe a date.”

“Are you offering, Donnie?”

His booming laughter gives me a much-needed boost.

“If I was thirty years younger and unmarried, Miss Wright, I’d…” His voice fades. I hear him murmur something, then come back on the line. “Your client is here.” Another pause, then he drops his voice. “Need me to come sit in your office with you? Man looks like he just chewed rocks.”

“He probably did.” The knock on my door makes me flinch. “I’m okay, Donnie. I promise.”

“I’m checking on you in ten minutes.”

“Hopefully he’ll be gone in five.”

I hang up, smooth my hands over the silky material of my skirt as I suck in a deep breath and walk to the door. Each step echoes in my bones as dread wars with memories of a hard body pressing me into bougainvillea blooms cascading over a stone wall and kissing me like I was his last breath.

God, I need this to be over.

Another knock sounds, sharper and louder, as I reach for the door handle. Irritation gives me something to grab onto other than illicit memories and misplaced hopes.

I straighten my shoulders, lift my chin and open the door.

Too close . He’s far too close, his massive frame filling up the doorway as he towers above me.

Hands tucked into the pockets of his black pants and a navy dress shirt molded to his chest. Sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top button undone as if he couldn’t be bothered with it.

Wealth and power and confidence wrapped into one extremely tall, muscled body.

Heat radiates off his skin. A rich yet woodsy scent drifts toward me, teasing me as it tries to pull me back into the past. Not just our night together, but the shock I’d barely managed to conceal when he’d walked into my office over two months ago and I’d realized that Michail Drakos and Sullivan were one and the same.

Reluctantly, I tilt my head back to look up into a glowering, handsome face.

His square jaw is visibly tense beneath his dark beard.

Full lips that curved into a sexy smirk the first time I saw him are now flat.

And his eyes…pale blue, like his father’s, his brothers.

I didn’t make the connection in the dim lighting of the bar, the darkness of Santorini’s winding streets, the moonlit villa where I let down my guard to a stranger who, for one night, made me feel like I wasn’t alone in this world.

But now, as suspicion and anger glimmer in the depths, I know I’m a fool. For so many things. As soon as he’d walked into my office and I’d seen him next to Rafe and Gavriil, the family resemblance had been obvious.

“I see patience is still not a virtue of yours, Mr. Sullivan.”

His eyes narrow. “Thought you might have changed your mind and left. As usual.”

My spine stiffens. I don’t owe him an explanation for why I left his bed at dawn. Not when he had made it abundantly clear the night before that our affair would go no further than one night. No questions, no commitments, just sex.