The Greek Billionaire's Innocent Princess (9 page)

had assumed his friend was uptight about the fact that he had still not located the Stefani

diamond. But the prince had wanted to confide in him about another matter, and had sworn him

to secrecy before revealing that another scandal was about to rock the House of Karedes. His

sister, Princess Katarina, had been seduced by some unknown man, and was pregnant.

Theos
, no! It could not be true. He stared at Rina—unable to think of her as Princess Katarina—

and tried to decipher the truth from her pale face. Not again, not to him. Not after the tragedy of

his past that he would never forget for as long as he lived. But he knew instantly that this was no

cruel trick. It was entirely possible that Rina had conceived his baby, and from the frown

forming on Sebastian’s brow it was clear that his friendship with the prince was about to be

blown to pieces.

Kitty could not tear her eyes from Nikos’s face, and the glittering fury in his dark gaze filled her with trepidation. He could not possibly guess her secret, she assured herself. But her hand moved

instinctively to her stomach and she saw his eyes narrow as he witnessed the betraying gesture.

Sebastian was speaking, but his words did not register in Kitty’s brain as she watched his

concerned expression change to one of dawning comprehension followed by stunned fury. The

rushing sound in her ears grew louder, as if she were standing at the edge of a waterfall. And

then she was falling, and a great dark nothingness rushed up to meet her.

Kitty slowly opened her eyes and stared up at the fresco of cherubs that adorned the ceiling. For

a moment she felt disorientated, but then her brain clicked into gear—and her memory returned

with a vengeance. She turned her head to look around and realised that she was in the small ante-

room leading from the formal drawing room. She recalled the blanket of black nothingness that

had enveloped her, and understood. She must have fainted, for the first time in her life, and

someone had carried her in here and placed her on the sofa. That someone was now silhouetted

against the bright sunlight streaming in through the window, and even though she could not

discern his features she was conscious of the waves of anger emanating from him.

Nikos! She swung her legs off the sofa and jerked upright, and then gasped as a wave of nausea

swept over her. To be sick in front of him would be the ultimate humiliation, and she gritted her

teeth and waited while the room righted itself and her head stopped spinning.

‘There is a glass of water on the table next to you. I suggest you drink some,’ he said in a terse

voice. Kitty reached for the glass and lifted it to her lips. Her hands were shaking so much that

she could barely take a sip, but the water was ice-cold and refreshing, and gradually the sickness

passed. She stood up and risked a furtive glance across the room, and could not restrain a startled

cry when she saw the livid bruise on Nikos’s jaw.

‘What happened to your face?’

‘Sebastian,’ he informed her shortly.

Kitty shook her head disbelievingly. ‘He
hit
you?’ She recalled the expression of shocked

understanding she’d seen on her brother’s face just before she had slipped into unconsciousness,

and a heavy dread filled her.

‘After the news he’s just given me I don’t blame him,’ Nikos said, still in that cold, clipped

voice that could not disguise his fury. ‘In case you’re worried, I did not retaliate. Sebastian was

defending your honour, and to be honest I would have thought less of him if he hadn’t taken a

swing at me.’ He paused, and in the tense silence the ticking clock and the sound of Kitty’s

heartbeat both sounded over-loud to her ears.

‘But all things considered, it was a rather dramatic way to learn that I am going to be a father,’

he drawled—sarcasm his only outlet for the murderous rage burning inside him, because if he

lost control and vented his fury at the top of his voice he would alert the palace guards standing

on duty outside the door. ‘With you passing out, and the Prince Regent giving a good impression

of a prize knuckle-fighter in front of a hundred or so dignitaries and members of the press, the

story is likely to make the newspaper headlines worldwide.’

Nikos sucked in a harsh breath and swung round to stare blindly out of the window. Below, in

the courtyard, the crowds were dispersing and streaming through the palace gates, many

clutching flags bearing the national colours of Aristo and the coat of arms of the House of

Karedes. He felt a deepening sense of unreality, a feeling that his life was about to change

irrevocably, but he knew he must bring his anger under control and establish the real facts.

‘Is it true?’ His voice rasped in his throat, and he had to force himself to turn away from the

window. ‘Are you really pregnant, or are you playing another peculiar game of charades?’

‘It’s true,’ Kitty choked, forcing the words past her numb lips. ‘I did a test, and yesterday my

doctor confirmed it.’

She did not know how she had expected Nikos to react. She hadn’t dared picture a scenario in

which she told him she had conceived his child, let alone imagined what he would say. He was

clearly shocked, and she could understand that he might be angry, but the icy rage in his eyes

shook her.

‘And is the child mine, as Sebastian seems to think?’

His harsh tone triggered a flare of anger inside Kitty, and she flushed. ‘Of course it’s yours. I

was a virgin when I met you and I haven’t leapt into bed with half a dozen lovers since then. I

didn’t want to involve you. I don’t even understand
how
I can be pregnant,’ she added, dropping her eyes from his cold stare. ‘You used protection.’

‘It failed,’ Nikos said bluntly. ‘I discovered when I woke up that there was a slim chance I could

have made you pregnant. When I realised you had left the cave I searched for you, fearing you

may have gone for another swim and got into trouble in the current. It was only when I saw your

clothes had gone that I faced the fact that you had run out on me.

‘If you had stayed I would have told you there was a possibility you could have conceived, and

insisted we kept in contact until we knew either way,’ he finished curtly.

Nikos drew a ragged breath, recalling his concern in the days after he had had sex with Rina in

the cave that a faulty contraceptive could have resulted in a child. When he had tried to trace her, and found that she seemed to have disappeared from the planet, his concern had turned to a gut-wrenching fear he could not dismiss, despite telling himself that history could not repeat itself.

Now he knew that it could.

Memories of the past that he had ruthlessly suppressed for so long surged into his mind. Five

years ago his lover had fallen pregnant with his child. During his relationship with Greta he had

confided that he felt as though a part of his identity was missing because he did not know who

his father was, and he had vowed he would not abandon a woman if she fell pregnant with his

child. Soon after, when Greta had revealed she was expecting his baby, he had immediately

proposed. But his desire to marry the Danish model had not only been for the sake of the child.

He had loved her, Nikos acknowledged grimly. After his mother’s death, work had become his

obsession and he had never allowed any of his lovers to get too close. But Greta had been

different. Their affair had been Nikos’s longest relationship, and he had finally admitted that the

beautiful blonde had got beneath his guard and captured his heart.

After his initial shock he had been glad about the baby, knowing that his child would be his only

blood relation in the world. But a month after he and Greta had married, tragedy had occurred.

To his dying day he would never forget her phone call from Denmark, where she had gone for a

modelling assignment, telling him that she had miscarried.

Nikos stared blindly out of the palace window, remembering the sorrow that had swamped him.

It had been a bitter blow, but he had dealt with his grief privately, and done his best to comfort

Greta—unaware that her tears had been an act. In the months that had followed she had appeared

to recover well, and quickly returned to modelling. But it had not been long before cracks

appeared in their relationship. Greta loved to party, and had accused him of being a boring Greek

husband. And she had been adamant that she wanted to concentrate on her career when Nikos

had suggested they should try for another child.

Her open use of cocaine, and her revelation that she had hidden her habit before their marriage,

had led to a series of increasingly bitter rows, and it had been during one of her drug-fuelled

rages that Greta had screamed the truth at him. She had never wanted a baby—but when she had

fallen pregnant, and Nikos had proposed, she had seized her chance to marry a multimillionaire.

She had waited until after the wedding, but on her trip to Denmark she hadn’t miscarried their

child—she had chosen to terminate her pregnancy.

Nikos swallowed the bile in his throat, and forced his mind away from his ex-wife. Greta was in

the past. The newspaper reports two years ago of her death from a drug overdose had elicited no

sympathy from him. From the moment he’d learned how she had callously deprived him of his

child his heart had frozen over, and, although he was a living, breathing man, inside he was

emotionless and cold.

But he did not feel dead inside now. For the first time in five years something stirred within him,

and he stared at the woman who had sworn she was carrying his baby, his heart pounding. Fate

had given him another chance, another child— and he would move heaven and earth to ensure

that the tiny speck of life created from his seed would have a chance of life.

KITTYstared numbly at Nikos, shaken by the bleakness in his eyes. He looked
devastated
by the news that she was expecting his baby. His jaw was rigid, his skin stretched so taut over his sharp

cheekbones that he looked as though he had been carved from marble—cold and hard and utterly

unforgiving.

The idea of fatherhood definitely did not appeal to him—that much was clear, she brooded

bitterly. The tiny flame of hope that had lurked deep in her subconscious was snuffed out and

pride made her voice strong. ‘Don’t look so worried, Nikos. I don’t want anything from you.

This is my problem, and I’ll deal with it. You needn’t be involved.’

Something flared in his eyes, an emotion Kitty could not define but that made her feel as though

her legs were about to give way, and she sank weakly back down on the sofa.

‘
Deal with it?
’ he said in a dangerous tone. ‘You are talking about a human life. In what way were you planning to deal with it?’

‘I meant that I will take care of the baby, financially and in every other way,’ Kitty faltered.

‘What do you think I meant?’ Her eyes widened as the implication of his words hit her, and

sickness surged through her. ‘You can’t possibly think…’ She took a shaky breath, but when she

spoke her voice was fierce. ‘I am having this baby, and as far as I’m concerned there is no viable

alternative I would
ever
consider. But as I said before, you don’t have to be involved.’

Nikos felt some of the terrible tension that had gripped him lessen. She had sounded convincing,

but Rina, or Katarina as he now knew her, was an accomplished actress—he had evidence of

that. ‘But I am involved,’ he said implacably, his eyes locked with hers. ‘You are carrying my

child, and I have a responsibility towards both of you that I fully intend to honour.’

He thought again of how she had deceived him, and was swamped by another wave of bitter

anger. ‘When were you going to tell me? Or weren’t you going to bother? It would have been

difficult, I suppose, when you had lied about your identity,’ he added scathingly.

Kitty flushed and hung her head. ‘I haven’t known what to do these past few weeks,’ she

admitted huskily.

Nikos gave her a savage glance. ‘While you were trying to decide, I was doing my best to find

you. I made enquiries at the palace, but when I was told there was no employee here called Rina

I contacted all the catering companies on Aristo. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that

nobody had ever heard of you,’ he drawled acidly. He paused, his dark brows lowered in a

slashing frown. ‘So tell me,
Rina
, do you often masquerade as a servant, or did you deliberately set out to make a fool of me?’

‘I didn’t…’ Kitty bit her lip when she caught the glittering anger in his eyes. ‘You have every

right to be angry,’ she admitted honestly.

‘Well, that’s good to know—’ his voice dripped with sarcasm ‘—because I’m
livid—

YourHighness
. Hell!’ He swung away from her and raked a hand through his hair, ‘I don’t even know your name. Are you Rina, or Katarina?’

‘I’m Kitty,’ Kitty said quickly. ‘It was my father’s nickname for me when I was a little girl, and

it stuck.’ She risked another glance at him and felt her stomach dip. He was even more gorgeous

than she remembered. In a pale grey suit and blue shirt he looked remote and forbidding, every

inch the sophisticated, urbane businessman who was at the top of his game. He had been in her

mind constantly since he had made love to her on the night of the ball, and now she could not