Free An Heir for Alexandros: The Greek Billionaire's Baby by Holly Rayner

constant questions, the alcohol, or a combination of all three. Her stomach suddenly reminded her she hadn’t eaten in several hours, so she scrambled two eggs, and then three more, followed by toast and jam.
     
    When at last her appetite had been sated, and the dull pounding in her head had faded away, Kally allowed the previous day to play in her mind. Her world had turned upside down literally overnight. Yesterday morning, she had been intent on betraying Alexandros Stratos. Today, she was failing to convince herself that she wasn’t deeply interested in him. She wondered again how the next meeting was going to go. Would Alexandros keep up the pretense? Could she?
     
    “It never gets easier, does it?” she asked herself quietly. “Near as I can tell, there’s only one thing for it.” She gathered up the notes she had made during the interviews so far and began to work them into a narrative.
     
     

NINE

Over the next two weeks, Kally completed her interviews with Alexandros, fleshing out each of the characters in his life. His impossible father, Khristos, his long suffering mother, Agata, and his two brothers, one obsequious, the other fiendish. They delved more deeply into Alexandros’ relationship with his sister, Briza, who had stayed on as an accountant when the company changed hands, even though they hadn't spoken for years. Alexandros explained that he hoped to get past the way he felt about her one day, and provide her the means to pursue her passion for chemistry.
     
    During each of these sessions, both Kally and Alexandros acted as though the incident in the panic room had never happened. They never worked at his house again, and when the last interview was finished, they shook hands, and parted ways as colleagues. The most intimate thing Kally allowed herself to say to Alexandros that day was “congratulations”. Neither of them particularly enjoyed the pretense of indifference, but they knew it had to be done.
     
    Don turned out to be another problem entirely. The man had very little in the way of patience, and be became more insistent with every passing day. He’d long ago dropped his unflappable cowboy demeanor and whenever he spoke to Kally, his tone was borderline threatening. She was keeping him at bay with excuses and promises, but she knew sooner or later, she was going to have to tell him she was backing out of the deal.
     
    Somehow Kally managed to force the Texan from her mind, and turn her thoughts to the billionaire Greek from Kaminos. She holed herself up in her apartment, and focused all of her energies on putting together the first draft of the memoir, sorting through endless details. What was the name of the man Alexandros had saved from drowning? What company was he working for when it happened? She barely allowed herself to do anything else, telling herself she’d have plenty of time to sleep when she was dead. Not even Beth was able to reach her.
     
    Layla called several times, mostly for updates, and to offer the odd word of encouragement. At first, Kally had ignored those calls too, but ever the worrier, Layla had sent the police to her apartment to check if something had happened to her. After that misadventure, Kally never missed Layla’s calls again.
     
    When she wanted to be, Layla could be a great source of comfort, but Kally also had a complaint or two to lodge. Chief among these was that Don had decided to call her too, and complain that Kally wasn’t giving his project enough attention. Kally had yet to explain the true nature of Don’s assignment to Layla, so she had to endure endless lectures about learning to multitask, and meeting the needs of all of their customers.
     
    “And as I’ve pointed out before,” Layla had said a few hours earlier, “Mr. Lewis is a powerful and very influential client. We’re talking about a guy who tells senators what to do, who counts some of the country’s most powerful lobbyists among his close friends. Antagonizing