Free Baby of Shame by Julia James

Simultaneously he heard a gasp of shock from the nanny sitting on the towel, who had already started to get to her feet at his approach. Her eyes flew past him to Rhianna’s huddled form.
    ‘Look after Nicky!’ bit out Alexis, and strode back towards the villa. ‘Keep him away!’
    She was out cold. With a sharp voice he called out for the nurse, then scooped the inert body up into his arms. She weighed hardly anything—but she was a dead weight for all that. He hurried up the steps with her and took her inside.
    The nurse was hurrying towards him, exclaiming, but he silenced her.
    ‘Which bedroom does she have?’
    ‘In here,’ the woman replied, and opened the door to the master bedroom, which opened up onto its own section of the terrace around the corner from the beach terrace.
    Ungently , Alexis deposited his burden on the bed. ‘She tried to get down the steps and collapsed on the sand.’ He answered the nurse’s brisk enquiry tersely. At least the woman seemed competent enough not to make a fuss. She was checking pulse and heart, straightening her patient’s body.
    ‘Do you need to call a doctor?’ Alexis demanded.
    The nurse looked up briefly and shook her head. ‘She’ll come to in a moment,’ she predicted, and returned her attention to her patient.
    Alexis nodded, mouth tight. He left her to it and went outdoors again. On the beach he could see the nanny, crouching down beside Nicky, talking to him and clearly holding him back from rushing inside. Alexis felt another spurt of anger. Had Rhianna no sense at all? Frightening the boy like that? Or had she done it deliberately? His brow darkened. What was she trying now? Another affecting little scene like the one she’d put on for him when the boy had come out of care? Fawning all over him to prove how maternal she was suddenly?
    Just like his own mother—
    No. No memories. None. He would not allow it.
    He slammed his mind shut.
    Calming himself deliberately, he walked down to the beach and up to his son. Rhianna Davies was nothing to him. His son was everything.
    As he approached he felt his emotions start to churn again, but he suppressed them. To the child he was a stranger. He must not forget that. And right now the boy’s main concern was his mother, after seeing her collapse like that. Fear was naked on his little face.
    Alexis took a breath, forcing his voice to sound reassuring.
    ‘It is nothing to worry about,’ he said. He looked at the boy, dragging on his nanny’s hand. ‘Your mother will be better in a moment. Nurse Thompson is with her. She just felt dizzy.’
    The nanny took up the cue. ‘Giddy—that’s all! Your mummy has to take it easy, remember? She’s been ill, but she’s getting better. Now, look—you’ve got a visitor! Mr Petrakis?’
    She straightened up and looked at Alexis. She was very good, he registered. Professional. Whether she had guessed his relationship to her charge or not he neither knew nor cared. He gave her a brief, dismissing nod and she took her cue again, saying brightly, ‘Goodness me, look at the mess! Time for me to tidy everything up!’ She headed back to the mound of beach toys, and started gathering them into a pile. Alexis watched his son look uncertainly from his nanny to him.
    His nanny of one week was more familiar to him than his own father.
    I’m a stranger. A complete stranger to him.
    Thanks to his mother. Keeping him from me.
    Bitterness seared through him.
    And much more—a rush of fierce emotion. This would be the last time in his life when he would be a stranger to his own son. Starting now.
    Carefully, very carefully, he took the first step on that crucial journey.
    ‘Hello, Nicky. Have you been having fun playing on the beach?’
    For a moment Nicky’s expression wavered. Then it brightened.
    ‘I’ve been in the sea!’ he announced.
    With his heart still tight in his chest, Alexis made himself smile. It seemed hard to make the muscles around his mouth do that. He