Baby of Shame Read Online Free PDF Page B

breathless, as he stood up.
    He looked—breathtaking. He was freshly shaved, his hair very slightly damp from showering—and he was fully dressed in a business suit.
    She felt a coldness start around her heart, a pooling of dismay nascent in her stomach.
    He was looking at his watch, shooting back his cuff. He spoke again, but now his words were clipped, his voice terse.
    ‘Unfortunately I have a business meeting this morning which I cannot avoid. So, much as I regret, I will have to leave you now.’
    She heard the words, but for one dissociated moment she did not understand what they meant.
    Then their meaning hit her with a sickening blow.
    Oh, God, he was going—walking out.
    She’d been taken for a one-night stand.
    That was all it had been.
    A convenient, handy, fast-food snack to stave off night starvation. He’d eyed her up, made his move on her, had sex with her, taken his fill, slept it off—and now he was going.
    She felt sick. Reeling. And then, out of nowhere, another shockwave hit.
    MML.
    Horror galvanised her. Oh, God. This wasn’t just any man she’d gone to bed with within hours of meeting him for the first time, who was now walking out on her in the customary brutal morning-after ritual. This was Alexis Petrakis —the one man in all the world who could stop her father’s company going under…
    And instead of getting him to approve the MML takeover, she’d fallen into bed with him—like a ripe, wanton peach.
    Sickness drenched through her.
    He was speaking again, drawing out a mobile phone from his inside jacket pocket.
    ‘However, I will be—’
    ‘No! Please—wait—don’t go yet.’
    He stopped speaking in mid-sentence.
    ‘ Rhianna , I—’
    ‘No! Wait—please wait. There’s something I must—something I wanted—’
    She broke off. Oh, God—she had to do this. She would have given a million pounds not to, but she had to!
    She pulled herself upright, clutching the sheet to her. Her heart was pounding. But she had to do this. However horrible it was to do it now…
    ‘Before you go—there was—there was something I wanted to talk to you about!’ She took a hectic breath. ‘MML,’ she said.
    She stared at him wide-eyed, still clutching her sheet to her, her hair tumbled around her naked shoulders.
    Alexis Petrakis had gone still.
    ‘Go on.’ His voice was controlled. Very controlled.
    She swallowed. Forcing herself to speak. He’d told her to go on—she had to do so.
    ‘You’ve frozen all its corporate investments. One of them is my father’s company—Davies Yacht Design. I came to the dinner last night to meet you. To persuade you—’
    ‘Yes?’ The voice cut across her. ‘To persuade me—?’
    She stared at him. Something was happening to his face. The expression was draining out of it. Completely. Absolutely.
    ‘Yes.’ Her voice was breathy, her throat tight with nerves, her eyes distended. ‘To persuade you to—’
    Her voice broke off. A chill was starting through her. She could feel her skin contracting, tightening.
    ‘To persuade you…’ Her voice had husked to a low, breathy whisper. It was all she could manage. Her throat was stretched tight with nerves, with desperation, as she gazed up at him, her eyes wide with urgency. ‘To go ahead with the takeover. It would be good for you—it really would. I promise. I can show you right now…’
    Her voice trailed off, leaving unsaid the fact that she had a financial print-out in her handbag next door. There was something about his face that was frightening. Chilling her like ice.
    Her heart started to thud as she stared up at Alexis Petrakis’s expressionless face. Slowly he slid the mobile phone back inside his jacket.
    ‘There is something you should know. You have made a mistake,’ he said. And though his voice was soft, it was a softness that was deathly. ‘A very bad mistake. You see…’ He paused, and the eyes resting on her held, she realised , the same chill that was hollowing through her,