Evangeline Snow’s P.O.V.

What are you doing here?”I ask, thinking back to the way he’d threw me out his office, his obvious lack of concern is something I would never forget.

“We need to talk”He says, the words flattened and devoid of any emotion. By his previous actions and behavior he’d made it obvious he couldn’t be bothered with me and my shattered pride, and my ego has me shaking my head.

“We have nothing to talk about”I murmur.

“Oh really?”He says sternly as his eyes bore into mine as though he could see all the fragments of my soul.

I hesitated for a moment. Letting him in means he would just barge into my life like he did before and storm out again. My hands trembled with the keys as I try to gather courage to face him. But it seems I hesitated too long for him to take the keys from me and open the door.

Long enough for him to scoop up the shopping bags and precede me into the hallway of my home. But every second that passed as I watch him try to take control of the situation gave me a chance to fight for my sense of control. When I step into the corridor and flick the lights on, I swallowed and licked my dry charped lips before I was able to meet him with at least an expression of boredom...

“I don’t have long, so say whatever sermon you've come to give and get the hell out of my house”I say, suddenly feeling good to return the cold gesture...

Payback is a bitch!

If he was surprised by my cold attitude and abruptness, he didn’t show it one bit...

What was I expecting anyway?

“Am I the father?”He ask sternly, as he stares at me...

Fuck!

Even the way he asks about it feels off and uncomfortable!

Sweet jesus, what kind of misery did I jump into?

I leaned back staring at him, still maintaining the bored look on my face as I sag against the door. Resting my full weight to ease the sudden heaviness on my back.

“It is not a difficult question.”He bites out,his expression giving nothing away.

“Given the timing, I presume I must be?”He says talking to himself.

“Unless you went to bed with another man quickly after leaving me, but then, why come and see me in Athens?”He asks as he paced around.

I closed my mouth holding back whatever forceful remark ready to pour out, I didn't say a word and let him continue with his ridiculous assumptions.

“So?” He prompted, very still, very watchful. “Is it true?”

“I don't know you tell me?”I say casually.

“Does it even matter?”I murmur saying.

I pushed off the door, straightening and mobilizing as I stalked past him, into the kitchen where I flicked the kettle on out of habit.

“There are two answers and assumptions to this silly question of yours. Which would you prefer to hear?”I say as I grab a cup from the top shelf.

“Anyway I tried to tell you.”I whisper...

“Well not hard enough.”He says angrily, his words contains every hint of judgement I’d thrown at myself these past months.

“Well harder than you deserved.”I retort as I glared at him.

What irks me most is he just simply sat and stared at me making my pulse thread and beat faster than it should, and all the air i'd lost moments earlier comes rushing back, making me feel light-headed and woozy.

“I tried, although am sure the answer you want to hear is that I found another greek handsome man to teach me the ways of pleasure in athens but I wasn't that lucky enough,”I say quietly as I dropped a tea bag in the cups.

“Stop it, It is not hard to say the words: I’m pregnant.”He grumbles out

“It’s harder than you think besides, you hardly gave me a chance,”I pointed out, filling the teacups with boiled water.

“I’m pregnant. That is the only thing you should have said to me.”He says irritatedly as he exclaims.

“You have two minutes,”I reminded him, mimicking his tone.

“I would have cleared my schedule for the day, believe me. And I don't sound like that”He says shocked at my childish behavior.

“Oh, how magnanimous of you!”I say laughing at him in a harsh way..

I turn away to lift a half pint of milk from the fridge and splashed a bit into each mug, watching as the white clouded through the brown. “I didn’t expect you to be glad to see me, but at least a little warmth and welcome that day would have been nice…”I say cheerily.

“So you were hurt and decided to punish me by keeping our child a secret?” He prompted coolly. “I presume I am the father?”

“Yes,”I confirm unnecessarily, and then almost wished I hadn’t when he turned whiter than a sheet beneath his deep tan.

“What?” She prompted. “You knew that, surely before coming here?”I said laughing at how scared he looked.

“Yes and there was a part of me that...” he agreed, rubbing his palm over his square, stubbled jaw for a moment, his eyes glinting when they locked to mine.

“Hoped you weren’t?”I finished for him as I breathed out angrily sighing out in frustration.

“Well, if you’re looking to be left off the hook, I’m happy to do that. You can go away again, right now, and pretend none of this happened.”I say calmly.

“Besides you don't need to be so scared. We won't interfere in your affairs, infact we don't need you”I says smiling at him.

He lifted a brow, watching me without speaking.

“I’m serious,”I say, pushing his teacup towards him and lifting my own cradling it in hands that were still cold from the snow.

“Don’t feel like you owe me any favours, just think of yourself as a sperm bank.”I say tactfully.

“And what about what I owe my child?” He drawls out, moving to the bench but not touching his cup. He placed his hands down on the timber top, and even though several inches separated them, I could feel him clouding my space.

His proximity sending my nerves haywire, making it hard to concentrate, much less stand up straight.

“What do you mean?”I was cautious making sure my expression didn’t give anything away.

“My child is growing in your belly. I’m going to be a father.”He says his words were suspiciously graveled and my heart ticked painfully in my chest at the very idea that he might be emotionally impacted by this development on any level.

“I have no intention of being an absent father.”He suddenly says as he fixed me with a look of determination, a look that might well have caused his business adversaries to tremble and which was scarcely less intimidating to me.

“Well I’m glad,”I say honestly, simply, sipping my tea and taking strength from its familiar warmth and flavor.

“I adored my father,”I say reminiscing the past as my voice crackled and softened by my bittersweet memories.

“My memories of my childhood are of this incredible, sunny, fun man. I wouldn’t be who I am without having had a father figure in my life.”I murmur.

“I won't stop you if you want to be involved, although you're a little too late but I won't stop you from being a father”I say spontaneously I reached over and put my hand over Vitalo’s, my eyes latching to his.

There is so much I want to say and so much I didn’t want to say. “I want this baby to know the love and adoration of both a mother and father.”I whisper to him in confident. Vitalo stood very still, his expression one I quite couldn’t fathom, but the longer he looked at me, the more the air around us seemed to thicken, and what had started as a gesture of compassion morphed into something else. My hand on his tingled and my skin lifted with goose bumps, all over.

“I am glad to hear you say so,” he drawled finally, the words soft and gentle, spiced with his exotic accent, curling around me, flicking my nerve endings until my stomach was laced with butterflies.

“I had thought you might be going to be difficult.”He murmurs

“Difficult?”I blinked at him, and went to move my hand away, but he flicked his over and captured my fingers, lacing them together.

“About our marriage.”He asks...

The words made no sense. I stared at him, wondering if, despite his impeccable grasp on the language, he’d misunderstood somehow.

“Sorry,”I say, after several beats had past. “What did you just say?”I asks confused.

“Our marriage.” His eyes were like black pieces of coal in his incredibly handsome face, and I found out I couldn’t look at him a moment longer  not without drowning in them.

“Pregnancy and marriage are two separate issues,”I pointed out stiffly. “And one certainly isn’t a justification for the other.”

“Of course it is.” He says as he drops my hand but before I could rejoice in the small reprieve from physical contact, and the sanity it might offer, he’d rounded the bench and come to stand in front of me, his hands braced on either side of me, trapping me with his much bigger and broader body.

“You just said so yourself.”He says smirking

“What did I say?”I ask confused

“That you’re the person you are because of your father.”He says smiling..

“Yeah, but,”I say trying to correct him, he was so close and his cologne swept me making my eyes close shut hoping to block him out.

“You can still be a part of his or her life without marrying me.”I say calmly. There's no way Vitalo would want to tie the knots definitely with not that attitude.

“So you want to force our child to grow up between our two homes?”He asks...

At that my eyes flew wide.

“What are you talking about?”I say..

“Naturally, we would share custody.”He says with his brows arched high.

“No,”I shook my head my heart twisting painfully now. “There’s nothing natural about that.”I say..

“What did you presume we’d do?”He says sharply.

“I thought I’d raise our baby and you’d be… involved.”I say...

“Like a holiday father?” He drawled, his contempt obvious. “Do you really believe that is how I would react?”

“Given that you threw me out of your office after all of ninety seconds…”I say snarling.. ..

His cheeks slashed dark with colour as he recoiled in shame. “I had no idea you were pregnant with my child.”He defends...

“Nor did you give me much of a chance to explain either”I say...

“You should have needed no invitation. If you had to shout it as I walked to the door, so be it. In any event,” he changed the subject swiftly, before I could respond. “I know now that you are pregnant, and I am telling you I will settle for nothing less than fully shared custody. It is either we raise this child on separate continents, each enjoying fifty percent of the baby’s life, or we marry and truly raise the child together.

My skin went suddenly cold and clammy all over. “But surely you don’t want that?

You're not exactly a family man, definitely not with your lifestyle”I reply..

“Says who?” He prompted, roaming his eyes over my face.

“Says everyone and everything I know about you!”

“You know very little about me, I promise you,” he said darkly.

I clenched my jaw together. “I know you’re more at home in a five star hotel than a home, you have a revolving door on your bedroom, a stripper pole and no doubt a billion notches on your gold-gilt bedpost. We both agreed this was just a one-night thing and my being pregnant changes nothing.”I scream out angrily.

“Don’t be so naïve, It changes everything. Everything. If you think I’ll walk away from my obligations, then you’re mad.”He replies angrily too..

“Well it marriage doesn't change the fact that I was just like the other girls. I was just one of the many few notches you've nailed on that bed of yours!

Damn you Vitalo!

Damn you!

You have no right to request for anything!

Absolutely no damn right!