Lucy Gordon - For the Greek Tycoon's Pleasure

Luckily for Zephyr, he wasn’t other people and he had no trouble ignoring his best friend and business partner’s demand.

Piper closed her eyes with every evidence of counting to ten and he thought she’d probably succeed in ignoring Neo, too.

But then Cass elbowed her nosy fiancé. “Leave them alone, Neo.” Then she sighed. “Besides, it’s obvious and not something Piper should be forced to discuss before she’s certain one way, or the other.”

“One way, or the other, what?” Neo actually sounded plaintive.

Zephyr could not remember the last time he had heard that particular tone from Neo, but it had been at least a decade, probably longer. He had no idea how Piper would react to it. He thanked God and the angels besides when she laughed.

“So, what’s for dinner?” she asked.

Even Neo knew enough to allow the subject change to pass without incident.

The rest of the evening went well, considering. Cass kept Neo in line and Piper did her best to ignore any and all leading comments and questions.

But she didn’t turn toward his door when they left Neo’s penthouse. Instead, she headed for the elevator.

He put his hand on her shoulder as she pressed the button. “Where are you going?”

“Home.” She sighed and looked back at him. “I need some time to myself, Zephyr.”

Unexpectedly, the request hit him in that place permanently wounded when his mother left him in the orphanage and never took him home with her again.

Even so, he asked, “Are you sure? You seem to sleep well in my arms.”

“I’m not sure I’m going to sleep at all.” Unfortunately, she looked like the thing she needed most right then was a good night’s rest.

In his bed, snuggled against him, damn it.

But clearly, she did not agree. She did not want or need him right then. Maybe not at all.

“An even better reason for you not to be alone.”

She shook her head, a sad look passing over her face. “I’m sorry.”

Pleading not to be left behind when someone was intent on leaving you did no good. That was a lesson he had learned even better than how to make money and at a much younger age. But it still took an inordinate amount of inner fortitude to drop his hand from her shoulder.

He stepped back. “You will call me when you get word?” He did not like asking. It reminded him of asking for his mother’s consideration and getting excuses for why things could not be different.

“Yes, of course.”

But she did not.

Zephyr forced himself to wait until after lunch to try calling her. Surely, the doctor would have contacted her by now. His call went straight to voice mail, though. He did not bother to leave a message.

An hour later, he called her home, but got her voice mail again. At the office, her assistant answered the phone. However, she informed him that Piper was not in and not expected today.

Neo walked into Zephyr’s office later that afternoon, after Zephyr had called Piper yet again, only to get the too professional message on her voice mail box.

“You look like hell. What’s going on?” Neo demanded.

Without having to consider it, Zephyr told him. Everything.

“You should have brought her to meet Cassandra and I before last night,” was Neo’s first reaction.

“Why?” Neo had never been particularly interested in socializing with Zephyr’s other friends, unless it advanced their company’s interest.

“You have been in a sexual relationship with Piper for months and friends for over two years. How did I not know this?” Neo asked, rather than answering.

“You knew we were friends.”

“Not that good of friends.” Neo shook his head. “She’s the reason you told me sex with a friend was so good, isn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“Have you been with anyone else sexually since you began your relationship with Piper?”

“Do you really think that is any of your business?”

“Probably not, but answer anyway,” Neo insisted.

“Once, before I realized the first time wasn’t going to be a single shot.”

“And that did not tell you anything?”

“What? I like intimacy with Piper. I am too busy with our company to expend energy on other women.”

Neo’s lips twisted in a mocking frown. “How long has your head been in the dark place?”

Zephyr remembered accusing Neo of having his head up his ass once, in regard to Cass. Apparently this was payback. “It’s not. We both knew what we had and what we did not have.”

“And now?”

“And now she may be pregnant with my child.”

“So, that changes everything?” Neo asked.

“Naturally.”

“Why?”

“You can ask?” After the way they had both grown up, he would expect Neo to be the first to understand.

“You are not taking my point,” Neo said with exasperation. “Don’t you see that she is bound to think you are only wanting marriage because of the baby?”

“That is the only reason. I would not have considered it otherwise.”

“Why the hell not?”

“She deserves better.”

For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, Neo looked absolutely gobsmacked. “You are the best.”

“You are prejudiced.” But the belligerent certainty in his friend’s voice was surprisingly nice to hear.

“I am your brother, Cass says so. That means I’m allowed.”

Zephyr felt warmth he hadn’t known in decades, but he didn’t let it show on his face. He was no pushover despite these weird emotional twinges he was experiencing. “So, step outside your personal bias and look at this from Piper’s perspective.”

“I do not see the distinction here.” Neo’s eyes filled with something far too close to pity for Zephyr’s comfort. “You’re a good man, Zephyr.”

“I did not say I wasn’t.” Merely that Piper deserved better than what he had to offer her.

“So, what is the problem?”

“She wants to be in love with her next husband,” Zephyr explained grimly. “Like she was with Art.”

“And you do not love her?”

“No.”

“Bull.”

Zephyr shook his head. “Love doesn’t work for everybody.” At least on that truth, he was one hundred percent convinced. And he was one of those people.

Neo sighed. “You’re right, but giving up before you even try isn’t like you.”

“Sometimes trying is the stupidest thing of all to do.”

“That does not sound like you.”

“And you sound like a broken record,” Zephyr retorted.

“So, say something that makes me understand this defeatist attitude of yours.”

“She left last night.”

“When you wanted her to stay.” Neo knew him so well, he did not even have to make it a question.

“She said she was sorry.” Just like his mother had done, over and over again—first when leaving him behind and then when she refused to bring his little sister back to visit.

In situations like this, sorry didn’t mean anything.

“She also said she would call you, ne?”

“Yes.”

“So, trust her to do it.”

“When?” Zephyr snapped.

“When she is ready.”

“You were not this complacent with Cass.”

“I was in love with Cassandra.” Neo’s look challenged Zephyr.

Apparently, if he was not in love, he had no right to be worried, cautious or impatient. Like hell. “So, because I’m not playing the romantic hero, I have to wait and wonder if my lover carries my child?”

“You have to wait because she will call when she is ready and not before.”

“I am well aware of that.” And it was doing nothing for his mood, which he was sure was obvious, even to Neo.

Neo looked at him like he was a newly discovered species. “I still cannot believe you had a lover for almost a year and I did not know it.”