The Price of Fame (11 page)

The man got up and walked inside.

Seconds later, he was back out smiling and sat in the seat across from her. She gave him her full attention. “How long have you had this place? It’s so gorgeous. You’re very lucky.”

The man chuckled. “My father had it before me, and some day, when I have a child, he will take it over, I hope.”

“So you own this and run it all by yourself?”

“Yes, I have for the last eight years.”

She nodded, waiting for him to continue.

“My name is Petros. May I ask, lovely lady, what yours is?”

Feeling her cheeks heat, she reached out and placed her hand in his outstretched one. “Kylie, Kylie Breal.”

He kissed her hand, and as he lifted his head, his eyes widened and his mouth formed the shape of an
O
. Frowning at the man’s odd look, she turned to see what put the stunned expression on Pedro’s face, only to see Markus marching to them, narrowing his eyes in Pedro’s direction.

Kylie rolled her eyes at Markus’ audacity for getting jealous. All Petros had done was kiss her hand and tell her she was lovely, while Marcus seemed to think it was all right to make out with women who threw themselves at him to congratulate him. She glared back at him, showing him she was still angry and he better not cause a scene.

When he reached them, he leaned down and kissed her, and in a very clear, loud voice said, “
Omorphoula
, why didn’t you wake me? I would have come with you.”

He pulled a chair from the next table and sat beside her, grabbing her left hand. The stunned man still held the right. Markus made a show of kissing her hand, intentionally emphasizing her engagement ring.

Petros dropped her hand fast when he saw the ring. He stood, knocking over his chair. “Mr. Pegios, it’s an honor to have you in my restaurant.”

She watched as Markus glanced around him before his eyes landed back on her. “I trust you have been making my fiancée feel welcome.”

Petros’ eyes never left Markus as he nodded. “Oh, yes. We’d just halted her order to wait for yours.”

“Good. Well, I’ll have your big breakfast, please, and a strong coffee.”

Petros nodded. “Yes, I will make your breakfasts myself.” He rushed off.

Markus’ eyes hadn’t left hers, and she whispered, “Don’t do that. You don’t get to be jealous of something as insignificant as what you just saw when you were making out with women last night. You don’t get to be angry. I’m the one who is angry. You didn’t like it when James kissed me. So how do you think I felt watching all those women throw themselves at you while you did nothing?”

Raking her fingers through her hair, she tried to hide the action of wiping tears from her eyes. He made a grab for her, but she pulled away. “Don’t touch me. If you think you can act like you did last night and come home to me, you have another thing coming.”

Standing up, she whirled around, ready to leave, too furious now to eat. Kylie felt the world around her spin before blackness covered her vision.

* * * *

Markus sat in the hospital chair as the nightmare continued to play out in his mind. Kylie arguing with him at the restaurant, wiping the tears he’d caused before she stood up, only to fall to the ground, knocking her head and banging her body.

He’d dropped to the ground and pulled her into his arms as blood spilled from a wound to her head. He’d yelled for someone to call for help. What felt like hours later, an ambulance arrived and took her from him, telling him to follow.

Now he sat waiting to find out what the hell had happened. A doctor came out and came over to him. He stood.

“Mr. Pegios, your fiancée will be fine. She has a concussion from her fall and stitches in the back of her head. Those will need to come out in a couple of days. The baby is fine. At the stage she’s at, they are quiet resilient, although after this incident, and considering her low blood pressure, I want you to book her in and have an obstetrician monitor her. That’s what caused the fall. She hadn’t eaten, and her energy levels were down. Plus, it doesn’t help that she is still clearly jet-lagged. I don’t want her travelling alone or for long periods without her doctor’s consent. And I want her stress levels down. We’ll keep her overnight for the concussion, and if you like, I’ll organize finding a GP.”

Speechless, all he could do was nod and whisper, “Can I go in and see her?” The doctor told him what room Kylie was in and that, by that afternoon, he’d have OB/GYN check in and touch base.

Walking into her room, he groaned as she turned away from him, which he saw was quite the feat with the drip in one arm and blood pressure cuff on the other.

“Go away. I want to be alone.”

Ignoring her, he pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat next to it. “My family is going to be here tomorrow. My mama is looking forward to meeting you.”

Turning her head the best she could, Kylie glared at him. “I don’t know if the doctor told you anything, but I’m supposed to be stress free, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t think meeting my boyfriend’s family for the first time isn’t a stress-free situation.”

He bit his tongue and tried to sort everything he needed to say in his head before he said something that got her worked up again. He noticed she called him boyfriend, and not fiancé. She continued, and his heart sank further with each word she said.

“The engagement ring is in the drawer.” She turned away from him. “I think we rushed into things. I don’t know if I can be in your world after everything that happened last night. I think I need to take a step back.”

Gritting his teeth, knowing his voice sounded broken, he whispered, “Don’t. Don’t do this, Kylie. This is just our first big fight. We can get through this. We’re stronger than this.”

She shook her head as he spoke.

“
Omorphoula
, please, I wasn’t thinking when those women kissed me. I should have pushed them away quicker.”

She huffed.

“Okay, moved out of their way entirely. Come on, give us a chance. This is all new to me too.”

Kylie blew a raspberry. “You’ve been a star for many years now.”

“I’m talking about a relationship with a non-Greek woman.”

The monitors went off as she turned around, not caring about all the medical stuff.

“You have got to be kidding me. So, you’re telling me if you were with a Greek woman, she wouldn’t have minded being locked in a bathroom, and then going to a party where her fiancé makes out with several women while she sits in a corner and watches?”

The nurses came running in and pushed him out of the room before he could respond, and he stared at the closed door, wondering what to do.

A couple of minutes later, a nurse came out to him. “Mr. Pegios, Miss Breal asked us to give this to you.”

He looked down to see Kylie’s engagement ring.

“She also asked us to not let you in anymore.”

He stared at the door behind the nurse and looked down numbly at the ring. Nodding, he walked away, feeling defeated for the first time in his life.

Since his teenage years, he’d always gotten what he wanted, first with his modeling career, and then with his singing. Markus had never had any problems with women, as they always threw themselves at him. He didn’t know what to do. He’d never needed to woo a woman. Even when he’d been with Helena, she hadn’t minded the groupies.

He called his parents and cancelled their visit, telling them he and Kylie needed some special time together, and they would come and visit when Kylie and he were ready.

After leaving the hospital, Markus drove around for a while, trying to decide what to do. What he needed to do was get Kylie back, and he needed a plan. He made his way back to his house.

He called his manager when he reached home and told him to reschedule the interviews scheduled for the day, telling Gaelan he would do some by phone tonight, and to figure something out for the others he’d missed and get back to him.

He felt better now that he had a vague plan on the professional part of his life. Now he just had to figure out what to do with Kylie. Hunger finally made itself known. Making his way into the kitchen, he froze as his sister’s face came into view when she pulled a pan of lasagna from the oven.

“Oh good, you’re home. Mama called. I know I’m not supposed to be here, but I had a feeling you needed my help, especially when I saw the news about your wife-to-be going to the hospital and you leaving the hospital.” She put her hand on her hips and glared. “So what did you do?”

Raising his eyebrow at his baby sister, Bettina, he mumbled, “What makes you think I did something wrong? Why do you think it was me?”

“You’re supposed to tell me you didn’t do anything. Tell me what’s happened.” She cut a big slice of lasagna and placed it in front of him as he pulled one of the stools from under the island and sat.

Markus told her everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours. When he finished, Bettina came around the island and whacked him on the head.

“Ouch, what the hell was that for?”

“Because you’re an idiot, and I was trying to knock some sense into you. I can’t believe you’re my brother. Markus, you are an asshole, and Kylie deserves better, but since we’re related, I’m going to help educate you. First, you are going to send her favorite flowers to the hospital, and then you’re going to call her best friends and pay for them to come over and visit her to help cheer her up.”

“I love you, sis, but there’s no way I’m inviting her best friends. I can’t stand one of them. He’s an ass…” He trailed off at the look on his sister’s face. Her eyes were bright, and a grin spread across her face as she rubbed her hands together.

“Markus, trust me, he’s the friend you want to come. You’re going to be the bigger man and invite him here. Explain the situation. He’ll come.” Bettina grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes. “Are you willing to give up all the women? To not let them fawn all over you? Because, if you’re not, you need to ask yourself if you really want Kylie and if you can be happy with just one woman’s lips and body for the rest of your life.”

An image of Kylie’s warm, love-filled brown eyes and her smiling face came into view, and he didn’t even hesitate a moment before he answered. “I love her with all my heart. I would be honored and blessed if she was the only woman’s lips I ever kissed again, or whose body I touched.”

Bettina nodded. “Good then, go get your butt into gear. Time’s a wasting. I’m going to the hospital to meet my future sister-in-law.” And with that, she turned and left him staring at the spot she’d just vacated.

Chapter 11

Kylie berated herself over and over again for the way she’d acted with Markus. She blamed it on the pain she was in and the hormones of being pregnant. Oh God, she was going to have a baby. Terrified, she didn’t know what on earth she should do. She debated whether to call her friends, but then she thought she didn’t want to hear the “I told you so” from James.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want the baby. It was just that her life right now was a bit of a mess, and she had no idea how to put it back together.

She reached for her phone for the hundredth time to call Markus to apologize for her earlier tirade. Kylie wanted him back to hold her hand the next time her new obstetrician talked to her. He could tell her she wasn’t going to do this all alone, that she and their baby would have a family.

Wiping at the tears rolling down her cheeks, she saw her door open, and a young, very pretty woman came in with a bunch of flowers and box of chocolates. Great, someone had the wrong room. Clearing her dry throat, she said in slow Greek, “I’m sorry, you have the wrong room.”

The woman shook her head and grinned down at her. “He didn’t say you could speak Greek. He left out quite a bit. Argh, not to worry. I’m Bettina, Markus’ sister, but don’t hold that against me. I’m a lot smarter than him.”

Bettina was stunning with long, straight, midnight-black hair, brown-olive skin, full, pink, pouty lips, and the most amazing emerald-green eyes Kylie had ever seen, which shone with mischief and happiness. There was no denying she was Markus’ sister; she was gorgeous.

Bettina sat on the end of her bed. “So, I hear my brother knocked you up. I really appreciate you letting him do that. Because now our parents will be off my back to find a man, settle down, and pop out some grandkids for them. They’re going to love you instantly when they find out you’re giving them what they want.”

Kylie stared, unsure what to say. “Argh … okay.”

Bettina moved up on the bed to hold Kylie’s hands. “I can tell we’re going to become great friends. I always wanted a sister.” She leaned down and hugged her, and Kylie didn’t know how to respond for a moment until Bettina hugged her tighter. Slowly, careful of the drips, Kylie wrapped her arms around her soon-to-be sister-in-law, at least she hoped she still was. She hoped she hadn’t stuffed it up and caused Markus to change his mind about being with her.

They pulled away from each other, and Bettina smiled, leaned down to her, and brushed some hair out of her eyes. Kylie nodded her thanks.

“We’re going to have a slumber party here tonight. Well, I don’t know how much sleep we’ll get when you get woken every hour, but I doubt you want to sleep anyway. You probably want to drill me for info on my brother, and you can because I have all the juiciest gossip. Then, in the morning when you get the all-clear, you’re coming home with me. Markus is busy with interviews and all that, so we will barely see him.”

Kylie watched as Bettina pulled a laptop out of a big backpack, and then came bags and bags of lollies, chocolate, pens, paper, nail products, and lastly, a stack of DVDs. Looking around for the nurse’s call-button remote, Kylie sighed when she noticed a grinning Bettina held it in her hand.

“Oh, looks like Markus did tell me one useful thing about you. You’re a bit of a loner and take some persuading to socialize sometimes. Don’t worry. You won’t be needing this while I’m here.” Kylie watched as Bettina put the call-button remote well out of her reach.

Groaning, she resigned to her fate and listened as Bettina told her about the time Markus locked her in the shed and the revenge she gave back.