The Mistress: The Mistress\Wanted: Mistress and Mother (2 page)

All the blood left her face. She wavered precariously, but he
made no move to aid her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What are those
papers?”

His lips curled into a contemptuous sneer. “You stole from me.
You’re lucky that I’m not phoning the authorities. As it is, if I ever see you
again, I’ll do just that. Your attempts could have crippled my company. But the
joke is on you. These are fakes planted by me in an attempt to ferret out the
culprit.”

“Stole?” Her voice rose in agitation. She reached out and
yanked the papers from his hand. The words, schematics, blurred before her eyes.
An internal e-mail, printed out, obviously from his company ISP address, stared
back at her. Sensitive information. Detailed building plans for an upcoming bid
in a major international city. Photocopies of the drawings. None of it made
sense.

She raised her head and stared him in the eye as her world
crumbled and shattered around her. “You think I stole these?”

“They were in your bag. Don’t insult us both by denying it now.
I want you out of here.” He made a show of checking his watch. “You now have
twenty-five minutes remaining.”

The knot in her throat swelled and stuck, rendering her
incapable of drawing a breath. She couldn’t think, couldn’t react. Numbly, she
headed for the door with no thought of collecting her things. She only wanted to
be away. She paused and put her hand on the frame to steady herself before
turning around to look back at Chrysander. His face remained implacable. The
lines around his mouth and eyes were hard and unforgiving.

“How could you think I’d do something like that?” she whispered
before she turned and walked away.

She stumbled blindly into the elevator, quiet sobs ripping from
her throat as she rode it down to the lobby level. The doorman looked at her in
concern and offered to get her into a cab. She waved him off and walked
unsteadily down the sidewalk and into the night.

The warm evening air blew over her face. The tears on her
cheeks chilled her skin, but she paid them no heed. He would listen to her. She
would make him. She’d give him the night to calm down, but she would be heard.
It was all such a dreadful mistake. There had to be some way to make him see
reason.

In her distress, she took no notice of the man following her.
When she reached the curb, a hand shot out and grasped her arm. Her cry of alarm
was muffled as a cloth sack was yanked over her head.

She struggled wildly, but just as quickly, she found herself
stuffed into the backseat of a vehicle. She heard the door slam and the rumble
of low voices, and then the vehicle drove away.

Chapter 2

Three months later

C
hrysander sat in his apartment brooding in
silence. He should have some peace of mind now that there was no longer any
danger to his company, but the knowledge of why was hardly comforting. He stared
at the pile of documents in front of him as the evening news droned in the
background.

His stopover in New York was going to be short. Tomorrow he’d
fly to London to meet with his brother Theron and have the groundbreaking
ceremony for their luxury hotel—a hotel that wouldn’t have happened if Marley
had gotten her way. A derisive snort nearly rolled from his throat. He, the CEO
of Anetakis International, had been manipulated and stolen from by a woman.
Because of her, he and his brothers had lost two of their designs to their
closest competitor before he’d discovered her betrayal. He should have turned
her over to the authorities, but he’d been too stunned, too
weak
to do such a thing.

He hadn’t even ridded his apartment of her belongings. He’d
assumed she’d return to collect them, and maybe a small part of him had hoped
she would so he could confront her again and ask her why. On his next trip back,
he’d see to the task. It was time to have her out of his mind completely.

When he heard her name amidst the jumble of his thoughts, he
thought he’d merely conjured it from his dark musings, but when he heard Marley
Jameson’s name yet again, he focused his angry attention on the television.

A news reporter stood outside a local hospital, and it took a
few moments for the buzzing in Chrysander’s ears to stop long enough for him to
comprehend what was being said. The scene changed as they rolled footage taken
earlier of a woman being taken out of a rundown apartment building on a
stretcher. He leaned forward, his face twisted in disbelief. It was Marley.

He bolted from his desk and fumbled for the remote to turn the
volume up. So stunned was he that he only comprehended every fourth word or so,
but he heard enough.

Marley had been abducted and now rescued. The details on the
who and why were still sketchy, but she’d endured a long period of captivity. He
tensed in expectation that somehow his name would be linked to hers, but then
why should it? Their relationship had been a highly guarded secret, a necessary
one in his world. His wish for privacy was one born of desire and necessity.
Only after her betrayal had he been even more relieved by the circumspection he
utilized in all his relationships. She’d made a fool of him, and only the
knowledge that the rest of the world didn’t know soothed him.

As the camera zoomed in on her pale, frightened face, he felt
something inside him twist painfully. She looked the same as she had the night
he’d confronted her with her deception. Pale, shocked and vulnerable.

But what the reporter said next stopped him cold, even as an
uneasy sensation rippled up his spine. He reported mother
and
child being listed in stable condition and that Marley’s
apparent captivity had not harmed her pregnancy. The reporter offered only the
guess that she appeared to be four or five months along. Other details were
sketchy. No arrests had been made, as her captors had escaped.

“Theos mou,”
he murmured even as he
struggled to grasp the implications.

He stood and reached for his cellular phone as he strode from
his apartment. When he broke from the entrance of the well-secured apartment
high-rise, his driver had just pulled around.

Once inside the vehicle, he again flipped open his phone and
called the hospital where Marley had been taken.

* * *

“Her physical condition is satisfactory,” the doctor
informed Chrysander. “However, it is her emotional state that concerns me.”

He simmered impatiently as he waited for the physician to
complete his report. Chrysander had burst into the hospital, demanding answers
as soon as he’d walked onto the floor where Marley was being treated. Only the
statement that he was her fiancé had finally netted him any results. Then he’d
immediately had her transferred to a private room and had insisted that a
specialist be called in to see her. Now he had to wade through the doctor’s
assessment of her condition before he could see her.

“But she hasn’t been harmed,” Chrysander said.

“I didn’t say that,” the doctor murmured. “I merely said her
physical condition is not serious.”

“Then quit beating around the bush and tell me what I need to
know.”

The doctor studied him for a moment before laying the clipboard
down on his desk. “Miss Jameson has endured a great trauma. I cannot know
exactly how great, because she cannot remember anything of her captivity.”

“What?” Chrysander stared at the doctor in stunned
disbelief.

“Worse, she remembers nothing before. She knows her name and
little else, I’m afraid. Even her pregnancy has come as a shock to her.”

Chrysander ran a hand through his hair and swore in three
languages. “She remembers nothing? Nothing at all?”

The doctor shook his head. “I’m afraid not. She’s extremely
vulnerable. Fragile. Which is why it’s so important that you do not upset her.
She has a baby to carry for four more months and an ordeal from which to
recover.”

Chrysander made a sound of impatience. “Of course I would do
nothing to upset her. I just find it hard to believe that she remembers
nothing.”

The doctor shook his head. “The experience has obviously been
very traumatic for her. I suspect it’s her mind’s way of protecting her. It’s
merely shut down until she can better cope with all that has happened.”

“Did they...” Chrysander couldn’t even bring himself to
complete the question, and yet he had to know. “Did they hurt her?”

The doctor’s expression softened. “I found no evidence that she
had been mistreated in any way. Physically. There is no way to find out all she
has endured until she is able to tell us. And we must be patient and not press
her before she is ready. As I said, she is extremely fragile, and if pressed too
hard, too fast, the results could be devastating.”

Chrysander cursed softly. “I understand. I will see to it that
she has the best possible care. Now can I see her?”

The doctor hesitated. “You can see her. However, I would
caution you not to be too forthcoming with the details of her abduction.”

A frown creased Chrysander’s brow as he stared darkly at the
physician. “You want me to lie to her?”

“I merely don’t want you to upset her. You can give her details
of her life. Her day-to-day activities. How you met. The mundane things. It is
my suggestion, however, and I’ve conferred with the hospital psychiatrist on
this matter, that you not rush to give her the details of her captivity and how
she came to lose her memory. In fact, we know very little, so it would be unwise
to speculate or offer her information that could be untrue. She must be kept
calm. I don’t like to think of what another upset could cause her in her current
state.”

Chrysander nodded reluctantly. What the doctor said made sense,
but his own need to know what had happened to Marley was pressing. But he
wouldn’t push her if it would cause her or the baby any harm. He checked his
watch. He still had to meet with the authorities, but first he wanted to see
Marley and said as much to the doctor.

The physician nodded. “I’ll have the nurse take you up
now.”

* * *

Marley struggled underneath the layers of fog
surrounding her head. She murmured a low protest when she opened her eyes.
Awareness was not what she sought. The blanket of dark, of oblivion, was what
she wanted.

There was nothing for her in wakefulness. Her life was one
black hole of nothingness. Her name was all that lingered in the confusing
layers of her mind. Marley.

She searched for more. Answers she needed to questions that
swarmed her every time she wakened. Her past lay like a great barren landscape
before her. The answers dangled beyond her, taunting her and escaping before she
could reach out and take hold.

She turned her head on the thin pillow, fully intending to slip
back into the void of sleep when a firm hand grasped hers. Fear scurried up her
spine until she remembered that she was safe and in a hospital. Still, she
yanked her hand away as her chest rose and fell with her quick breaths.

“You must not go back to sleep,
pedhaki
mou.
Not yet.”

The man’s voice slid across her skin, leaving warmth in its
wake. Carefully, she turned to face this stranger—or was he? Was he someone she
knew? Who knew her? Could he be the father of the child nestled below her
heart?

Her hand automatically felt for her rounded belly as her gaze
lighted on the man who’d spoken to her.

He was a dominating presence. Tall, lithe, dangerously intent
as his amber eyes stared back at her. He wasn’t American. She nearly laughed at
the absurdity of her thoughts. She should be demanding to know who he was and
why he was here, and yet all she could muster was the knowledge that he wasn’t
American?

“Our baby is fine,” he said as his gaze dropped to the hand she
had cupped protectively over her abdomen.

She tensed as she realized that he was indeed staking a claim.
Shouldn’t she know him? She reached for something, some semblance of
recognition, but unease and fear were all she found.

“Who are you?” she finally managed to whisper.

Something flickered in those golden eyes, but he kept his
expression neutral. Had she hurt him with the knowledge she didn’t know him? She
tried to put herself in his position. Tried to imagine how she’d feel if the
father of her baby suddenly couldn’t remember her.

He pulled a chair to the side of the bed and settled his large
frame into it. He reached for her hand, and this time, despite her instinct to
do so, she didn’t retract it.

“I am Chrysander Anetakis. Your fiancé.”

She searched his face for the truth of his words, but he looked
back at her calmly, with no hint of emotion.

“I’m sorry,” she said and swallowed when her voice cracked. “I
don’t remember….”

“I know. I’ve spoken to the doctor. What you remember isn’t
important right now. What is important is that you rest and recover so that I
can take you home.”

She licked her lips, panic threatening to overtake her.
“Home?”

He nodded. “Yes, home.”

“Where is that?” She hated having to ask. Hated that she was
lying here conversing with a complete stranger. Only apparently he wasn’t. He
was someone she had been intimate with. Obviously in love with. They were
engaged, and she was pregnant with his child. Shouldn’t that stir something
inside her?

“You’re trying too hard,
pedhaki
mou,
” he said softly. “I can see the strain on your face. You mustn’t
rush things. The doctor said that it will all come back in time.”

She clutched his hand then looked down at their linked fingers.
“Will it? What if it doesn’t?” Fear rose in her chest, tightening her throat
uncomfortably. She struggled to breathe.

Chrysander reached out a hand to touch her face. “Calm
yourself, Marley. Your distress does you and the baby no good.”

Hearing her name on his lips did odd things. It felt as though
he was speaking of a stranger even though she did remember her name. But maybe
in the madness of her memory loss, she’d been afraid that she’d gotten that part
wrong, and that along with everything else, her name was a forgotten piece of
her life.

“Can you tell me something about me? Anything?”

She was precariously close to begging, and tears knotted her
throat and stung her eyes.

“There will be plenty of time for us to talk later,” Chrysander
soothed. He stroked her forehead, pushing back her hair. “For now, rest. I’m
making preparations to take you home.”

It was the second time he’d mentioned home, and she realized
that he still hadn’t told her where that was.

“Where is home?” she asked again.

His lips thinned for just a moment, and then his expression
eased. “Home for us has been here in the city. My business takes me away often,
but we had an apartment together here. My plan is to take you to my island as
soon as you are well enough to travel.”

Her brows furrowed as she sought to comprehend the oddity of
his statement. It sounded so...impersonal. There was no emotion, no hint of joy,
just a sterile recitation of fact.

As if sensing she was about to ask more questions, he bent over
and pressed his lips to her forehead. “Rest,
pedhaki
mou.
I have arrangements to make. The doctor says you can be released
in a few days’ time if all goes well.”

She closed her eyes wearily and nodded. He stood there a
moment, and then she heard his footsteps retreating. When her door closed, she
opened her eyes again, only to feel the damp trail of tears against her
cheeks.

She should feel relief that she wasn’t alone. Somehow, though,
Chrysander Anetakis’s presence hadn’t reassured her as it should. She felt more
apprehensive than ever, and she couldn’t say why.

She pulled the thin sheet higher around her body and closed her
eyes, willing the peaceful numbness of sleep to take over once more.

When she woke again, a nurse was standing by her bedside
placing a cuff around her arm to take her blood pressure.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” she said cheerfully as she removed
the cuff. “I have your dinner tray. Do you feel up to eating?”

Marley shook her head. The thought of food made her faintly
nauseous.

“Leave the tray. I’ll see to it she eats.”

Marley looked up in surprise to see Chrysander looming behind
the nurse, a determined look on his face. The nurse turned and smiled at him
then reached back and patted Marley’s arm.

“You’re very lucky to have such a devoted fiancé,” she said as
she turned to go.