Read Online The Greek Billionaire's Secret Baby (Contemporary Romance) by Michele Dunaway - Free Book Online Page A

indicated that Lauren, being non-Greek, would always be the latter.
    “Don’t set your sights high,” Theo had advised. “It might be better if you take the check I’m offering and make yourself scarce. Alex will never marry you.”
    But now she was about to be Alex’s wife. And it was a marriage of convenience, designed only to keep the Pappas baby from being born illegitimate.
    So did Alex really have business to attend to, or did their fight send him to his mistress? Given their circumstances, she had no right to ask. Of course, he said he’d be faithful to her, but she didn’t trust him enough to believe. There was no way a man of Alex’s virility could have been celibate for the past seven and a half months. He’d also been pictured….
    She had to stop caring.
    Lauren replaced the lid on a wonderful looking chicken piccata. Perhaps she’d have some appetite later. With her head pounding and her back aching, all she wanted was sleep.
    #
    Friday dawned clear and sunny, a perfect June day. Even the city of New York seemed a bit less hurried, as if people were slowing down to prolong their enjoyment of the warm sunshine before they had to disappear back indoors.
    If the rest of everyone’s indoor situations were like the dark, wood paneled judge’s chamber Lauren now found herself in, she wouldn’t want to be inside either.
    The judge gave a discreet cough, and Lauren and Alex moved to take their respective places. Yesterday they’d gotten their marriage license and survived a dinner at what had been their favorite restaurant. They’d talked little, but the food had been great.
    She did have to admit he looked handsome, the custom Armani suit perfect for any occasion. The classic cut emphasized his broad shoulders and trim waist, and the black charcoal color accented his eyes and his jet-black hair.
    His secretary was witnessing the ceremony, and Clarice had insisted Lauren wear the off-white maternity suit, the one splurge Lauren had made on herself while shopping earlier in the week. The suit was comfortable, as were the new matching cream-colored shoes gracing her pregnancy-enlarged feet.
    “Dearly beloved,” the judge began.
    “Sorry I’m late.” A tall, yet stocky figure entered the chambers. He ran a hand through his gray-tinged hair. “Traffic.”
    As the judge nodded, Lauren struggled to rein in the myriad emotions crossing her face. Theo Pappas’s poker face didn’t smile or reveal anything as he took his place to Alex’s left. “Hello, Lauren,” he said.
    “Theo,” she replied. To hide the sudden chill of fear that traveled through her, she tightened her fingers on the small white rose bouquet that Alex had given her upon her arrival at the courthouse. Trust Theo to be best man. She should have known he would be there to witness the less-than-blessed event.
    Although as tall as Alex, Theo’s build was much heavier and stockier. His custom suit fit him but to Lauren he appeared more like a pallbearer, or worse, like one of those stereotypical thugs from a bad Hollywood gangster movie.
    “Dearly beloved,” the judge began again. “We are gathered here today to witness the marriage of Alexander Andreas Pappas to Lauren Gail Andrews. If there is anyone here that has just cause as to why this marriage should not take place, let him speak now or let him forever hold his peace.”
    As the judge paused, Lauren almost expected Theo to open his mouth. He would have, Lauren knew, had she not been pregnant. Instead he clasped his hands together and glanced at his feet as if studying a speck that dared to fall on his custom Italian shoes. So focused on Theo’s lack of movement, Lauren had to snap to attention when the judge spoke again.
    “Since there are no objections to this marriage, let us begin. Do you Alex take…”
    To her left, Alex shifted his weight to his opposite foot, his attention fully on the judge’s words. Lauren, however, hardly listened as an intuitive, instinctive feeling