Penniless And Secretly Pregnant - Jennie Lucas Page 0,4

home. Could Daisy really abandon her?

Uncertainly, she reached out and softly stroked the dog’s head. The animal’s big dark eyes looked up at her, and she licked Daisy’s hand with a tiny rough tongue.

No. She couldn’t.

“You’re right. I’m keeping her.” She pushed away the worry of expensive vet bills and dog food. “I’ll think about a name.”

Dr. Lopez tried to wave off her offer of payment, but she insisted on paying. She couldn’t live off the charity of her father’s friends forever. It was bad enough she’d lived in Franck’s apartment for so long, even if he insisted she was the one doing him a favor by house-sitting.

She wondered if the gray-haired artist would still think so, after he discovered she’d brought a puppy home.

Leaving the vet’s, she went to the nearest bodega and bought puppy food and other pet supplies. Passing another aisle in the store, she hesitated, then furtively added a pregnancy test into her basket, too. Just so she could prove her fears were ridiculous.

After Daisy got the puppy back home and fed, she stroked her fur. “How could anyone have thrown you away?” she whispered. “You’re perfect.” Finally, gathering her courage, she left the tiny dog to drowse on the fluffy rug in front of the gas fire and went into the elegant modern bathroom to take the pregnancy test. Just get it over with, she told herself. Once she took the test, she would be able to relax.

Instead, she found out to her shock her fears were right.

She was pregnant.

Pregnant by a man she loved, though she barely knew him.

Pregnant by a man who would never marry her.

Daisy didn’t have any money. She didn’t have a permanent home. She didn’t have a family. Soon, she’d be raising both a puppy and a baby, utterly alone.

She couldn’t do it alone. She couldn’t.

Could she?

She had to tell Leo at the party tonight. The idea terrified her. What would he do when he found out she was pregnant? What would he say? Fear gripped Daisy as she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror.

What had she done by following her heart?

Leonidas Niarxos was in a foul mood as he arrived at his skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, the headquarters of his international luxury conglomerate, Liontari Inc.

“Good morning, Mr. Niarxos.”

“Good morning, sir.”

Various employees greeted him as he stalked through the enormous lobby. Then they took one look at his wrathful face and promptly fled. Even his longtime chauffeur, Jenkins, who’d picked him up in Brooklyn—around the corner from Daisy’s building, so she wouldn’t see the incriminating Rolls-Royce—had known better than to speak as he’d driven his boss back across the Manhattan Bridge. Leonidas was simmering, brooking for a fight. But he had only himself to blame.

He hadn’t been able to tell Daisy his real name.

She’d looked at him with her mesmerizing green eyes, her sensual body barely covered by a sheet, and she’d hinted that seeing where Leonidas lived might make a difference—might give them a future.

At least, that was what he’d wanted to hear. So he’d given in to the temptation to postpone his confession. He’d convinced himself that pleading his case in the private luxury of his mansion, later, after he’d made love to her one last time, might lead to a different outcome.

Now he was paying for that choice. Leonidas Niarxos, billionaire playboy CEO, had just been upstaged by a dog. And he would be forced to confess his true identity in the middle of a political fundraiser, surrounded by the ruthless, powerful people he called friends. Besides, did he honestly think, no matter where or when he told Daisy the truth, she’d ever forgive what he’d done?

Standing alone in his private elevator, Leonidas gritted his teeth, and pushed the button for the top floor.

Daisy was different from any woman he’d ever met. She loved everyone and hid nothing. Her emotions shone on her face, on her body. Joy and tenderness. Desire and need. Her warmth and goodness, her kindness and innocent sensuality, had made him feel alive as he’d never felt before. She’d even been a virgin when he’d first made love to her. How was it possible?

Leonidas never should have sought her out a month ago. But then, he’d never imagined they would fall into an affair. Especially since he’d sent her father to prison.

A year ago, Leonidas had heard a small-time Brooklyn art dealer had somehow procured Love with Birds, the Picasso he’d desperately sought for two decades. His lawyer, Edgar Ross, had arranged