Page 11 of The Heir Affair (Claimed by a Greek #1)

She took a careful breath. The good news was, while Alex’s wealth was intimidating, his business was also extremely important to him, which meant he would soon realise it was in his best interests not to claim the baby as his…

She swallowed. Not Alex, Xander .

She had to stop thinking of him by that name.

He wasn’t Alex, he had never been Alex. Not really.

That man had been an illusion, whom Xander Caras had created to seduce her and she had become besotted with far too easily.

The brooding magnetism, the curt, guarded responses of the man she had met on the beach in Rhodes, had called to someone inside her who had always wanted to be seen by a man like him.

A man who had appeared to be so emotionally unattainable even then.

And so, as soon as he had finally been persuaded to give her a lift to the island, she had made it her mission to make him smile, to entertain him and not make him regret his decision.

And that day. When he had softened, when he had smiled at her and eventually laughed with her, when he had encouraged her to talk about her mum, she had been utterly captivated, while also feeling empowered, because she’d thought she had achieved something magnificent.

That she had made this hard, closed-off man lighten up a little.

And then, when they’d made love, and he’d been so intense, so focussed, so determined to give her pleasure, she had been intoxicated.

And believed she had given him something equally precious in return, when it had all just been a tactic.

She breathed through the renewed swell of loss. The bitter stab of betrayal.

Get over it, Poppy.

Maybe Xander Caras had played her. But she had been unforgivably foolish and hopelessly na?ve, too.

You let yourself get played because you got high on his attention that day. And then his lovemaking.

And that hadn’t been all Xander Caras’ fault. Why wouldn’t he take advantage of her when she had been such an eager—and willing—participant? So addicted to their chemistry still, she hadn’t even been able to resist him when he’d kissed her again, ten minutes ago.

‘I’ll leave you for the night, Miss Brown,’ Meghan said, yanking Poppy out of the feverish internal monologue. ‘But if you think of anything, just press the call button.’

‘Thank you,’ Poppy said again, but as Meghan opened the door to leave, a question surfaced that had been lying in wait ever since the woman had mentioned the selection of nightwear—and even before that, when Alex, no, Xander , had talked about his relaxation regime in the hot tub.

‘Wait, Meghan… W-would you mind…? Could I ask you something, in confidence?’

The service manager paused, a curious expression on her face. ‘Of course, miss.’

‘Has Alex…? I—I mean Xander… Sorry, Mr Caras. The older Mr Caras…’ She stuttered to a halt, embarrassment making her cheeks burn.

Good grief, could she actually make this any more awkward?

‘You have a question about Mr Xander?’ the woman prompted, not looking perturbed by Poppy’s rambling non-question. Which made Poppy feel hopelessly foolish again—and tongue-tied.

This woman was employed by Xander Caras, of course she would be loyal to him, which meant she would probably refuse to answer a personal question about him. But who else could she ask?

‘Does Mr Caras invite a lot of guests on the yacht?’ she blurted out, almost choking on her own embarrassment.

Meghan looked momentarily nonplussed. ‘He often conducts business on it, yes.’

‘No, I meant… Does he have a lot of female guests, you know, like girlfriends?’ She flung a hand out to indicate the armoire. ‘You mentioned there was nightwear here. I just… I wondered. If having women stay the night onboard is a regular thing.’

The woman’s eyebrows rose as she realised what Poppy was asking her. And Poppy suddenly wished she could just chuck herself overboard…

But then instead of being outraged or, worse, offended, Meghan let out a surprised chuckle.

‘Actually, no, he doesn’t. Not a lot. Since I’ve been working for him—which is over a year now—he’s only brought a couple of women on board socially, and neither of them stayed the night.

’ The woman’s warm smile took on a mischievous tilt.

‘And there’s been no one at all in the last six months.

Mr Theo, on the other hand, is more…’ She cleared her throat, discreetly.

‘Shall we say sociable? But I can honestly say, they’re always very well behaved with the staff.

Surprisingly so for men in their position. ’

The easy expression sobered. ‘Obviously, I’d prefer if you could keep that information between the two of us.

Mr Xander, particularly, is very strict about his private life remaining confidential and I wouldn’t want him to think I was gossiping about him or his brother.

’ Meghan’s gaze rested for a moment on Poppy’s pregnant belly.

The kindness in her eyes made Poppy feel stupidly grateful when she continued.

‘Although it’s clear Mr Xander now considers you to be part of his private life, so hopefully he won’t mind. ’

‘I… Right…’ Poppy managed, tongue-tied again. ‘I won’t tell him what you said, you have my word.’

Meghan nodded and left.

It wasn’t until the door had closed behind her, though, that Poppy realised the identity of her baby’s father was now not a secret to anyone on the crew. Apparently, Theo had been right about them broadcasting the information to the whole ship during their argument.

But somehow, as she showered and changed into a brand-new silk negligee she found wrapped in tissue paper in the armoire, her stomach unknotted enough to allow the tiredness back in.

As she drifted into a deep, drugging sleep on the thousand-thread-count sheets, listening to the lap of the waves against the yacht’s hull, she decided that Meghan’s confidential revelations about Xander Caras’ not so prolific love life made her feel a tiny, weeny little bit less overwhelmed.