Doorstep Twins / The Cowboy's Adopted Daughter: Doorstep Twins

Having been burned by Texas rancher and oil man Rand McCallister five years ago, Gabi had no intention of ever getting married or having children, but if the twins’ birth father didn’t want them, then she would take on the responsibility of raising them because they were her family. As such, she needed to go back to Virginia where she could rear them in familiar surroundings.

Her family’s home in Alexandria was the perfect residence in a guarded, gated community with other diplomats’ families, some of whom had small children. Gabi had always lived in it with her parents when they weren’t in Greece on assignment. Since Gabi’s father owned the house outright, she wouldn’t have to deal with a mortgage payment.

If she combined the savings from her job with her dad’s financial help, she could be a stay-at-home mom until they were both school age, then get back to her career. It could all work. Gabi would make it work because she’d grown to love the twins as if they were her own babies.

In all likelihood Mr. Simonides wasn’t interested in the children and had only made certain she got a ride back to wherever she’d come from. Therefore she would fly the twins to Alexandria with her next week.

After a quick meal, Gabi went up to her room on the fourth floor, reasoning that her mother would go with her to help the three of them settle in before returning to Crete. The consulate was no place for two new infants. Her parents would never admit it, but the whole situation had grown out of control.

No sooner did she let herself inside with the card key than she saw the red light blinking on the telephone. Her mother could have left a voice message rather than try to get her on her cell phone. Then again…

With an odd combination of curiosity and trepidation, she reached for the receiver to retrieve it.

“Another limo is waiting for you in front of the hotel, Ms. Turner. It will be there until eight-thirty p.m.” Her watch said eight-ten. “If you don’t appear with your luggage by then, I’ll understand this isn’t a life and death situation after all. Your hotel-room bill has been taken care of.”

Gabi hung up the phone feeling as if she were acting in a police procedural film, not living real life. He’d had her followed and watched. The fabulously wealthy Mr. Simonides inhabited a world made up of secrecy and bodyguards in order to preserve, not only his safety, but the privacy he craved.

She imagined the paparazzi constituted a living nightmare for him, particularly when someone unknown like Gabi materialized. Her intrusion reminded him there were consequences for a night of pleasure he couldn’t remember because everyone partying on the yacht had been drinking heavily.

Thea had confided he was a Greek god come to life. Unlike Gabi, who’d inherited her mother’s shorter height and curves, Thea had been fashionably tall and thin. Growing up, she could have any boy she wanted.

She’d always had a man in tow, even the bachelor playboy Andreas Simonides touted in the press, now the crowned head of the Simonides empire. When he’d picked Thea out from the other women on board and had started making love to her in one of the cabins, she’d succumbed in a moment of extreme weakness.

How tragic that in celebrating her divorce she’d become pregnant, the consequences of which had brought on her death…

Gabi couldn’t imagine Mr. Simonides forgetting her sister no matter what. But if he’d been like Rand, then there’d been many beautiful women in his life. As both sisters had learned, they’d only made up part of the adoring horde. What a huge shock it must have been to discover he’d fathered baby boys whose resemblance to the two of them was nothing short of astounding.

Gabi only had a few minutes to freshen up and pack her overnight bag before she rushed down to the lobby. It was a simple matter since she hadn’t planned to be in Athens more than a night and had only brought one other change of outfit with her.

Through the doors she spied a limo with dark glass, but a different driver stood next to it. She assumed she would be driven to an undisclosed location where Mr. Simonides was waiting for her.

“Good evening, Ms. Turner.” He opened the rear door to help her in with her case. “I’ll be taking you to Kyrie Simonides.”

“Thank you.”

Before long they were moving into the mainstream of heavy traffic circulating about the old Turkish quarter of Athens. Again she had the feeling she was playing a part in a movie, but this time she experienced a distinct chill because she’d dared to approach a complete stranger who had all the power.

The sky was darkening into night. If she were to disappear, her family wouldn’t have a clue what had happened to her. Their pain at such an eventuality didn’t bear thinking about. In the desire to unite the babies with their only living parent, she’d been blinded to the risks involved. Now it was too late to pull out of a possibly dangerous situation she’d created.

At this point she wasn’t quite sure what she’d hoped to achieve. Unless a bachelor who partied and slept with women without giving it a thought were to give up that lifestyle, he wouldn’t make the best father around. But for the sake of the twins who deserved more, she couldn’t just take them back to Virginia and raise them without first trying to let their father know he was a father. Would he want any part in their lives?

She wanted him to be a real man and claim his children, invite them into his home and his life…be there for them for the whole of their lives. Give them his name and seal their legacy.

But of course that kind of thing just didn’t happen. Gabi wasn’t under any illusions. No doubt he was convinced she’d approached him to extort money and was ready to pay her off. He would soon find out she wanted nothing monetary from him and would be leaving for the States with her precious cargo.

Before Thea died, she’d asked Gabi to help get the babies placed for adoption with a good Greek couple. She wanted them raised Greek. Both sisters realized the impossible burden it would put on their older parents to shoulder the responsibility of raising the children. For all their sakes Gabi had made Thea that promise.

But after her death, Gabi realized it was a promise she couldn’t keep. In the first place, the twins’ birth father was alive. Legally no one could adopt them without his permission.

And in the second place, over the last three months Gabi had learned to love the boys. She’d bonded with them. Maybe she wasn’t Greek, but, having been taught Greek from the cradle, Gabi was bilingual and would use it with them. They would have a good home with her. No one but their own father could ever pry them away from her now.

Suddenly the rear door opened. “Ms. Turner?” the driver called to her. “If you’ll follow me.”

Startled out of her thoughts, she exited the limo, not having realized they’d arrived at the port of Piraeus. He held her overnight case and walked toward a gleaming white luxury cabin cruiser probably forty to forty-five feet in length moored a few steps away along the pier.

A middle-aged crew member took the bag and helped her aboard. “My name is Stavros. I’ll take you to Kyrie Simonides, who’s waiting for you to join him in the rear cockpit. This way, Ms. Turner.”

Once again she found herself trailing after a stranger to an ultraleather wraparound lounge whose sky roof was open. Her dark-haired host was standing in front of the large windows overlooking the water lit up by the myriad boats and ferries lining the harbor. The dream vessel was state of the art.

Since she’d last seen him in the lift, he’d removed his suit jacket and tie. He’d rolled his shirtsleeves up to the elbow. Thea had been right. He was spectacular-looking.

She understood when the man announced to her host that the American woman had come aboard. He turned in her direction. The lights reflecting off the water cast his hard-boned features into stark relief.

“Come all the way in and sit down, Ms. Turner. Stavros will bring you anything you want to eat or drink.”

“Nothing for me, thank you. I just ate.”

After his staff member left the room, she pulled the envelope out of her purse and put it on the padded seat next to her, assuming he wanted a better look at everything. He wandered over to her, but made no move to take it. Instead his enigmatic gaze traveled over her upturned features.

She had an oval face, but her mouth was too wide and her hair was too naturally curly for her liking. Instead of olive skin, hers was a nondescript cream color. Her dad once told her she had wood violet eyes. She’d never seen wood violets, but he’d said it with such love, she’d decided that they were her one redeeming feature.

“My name’s Andreas,” he said, surprising her. “What’s yours?”

“Gabi.”

“My sources tell me you were christened Gabriella. I like the shortened version.” Unexpectedly he reeked of the kind of virile charm to turn any woman’s head. Thea hadn’t stood a chance.

Gabi understood that kind of potent male power and the money that went with it. Once upon a time she’d loved Rand. Substitute this Greek tycoon’s trappings for seven hundred thousand acres of Texas ranch land with cattle and oil wells and voilà—the two men were interchangeable. Fortunately for Gabi, she’d only needed to learn her lesson once. Thea had learned hers, too, but it had come at the cost of her life.

One black brow quirked. “Where are these twins? At your home in Virginia, or are they a little closer at your father’s consulate residence in Heraklion?”

With a mere phone call he knew people in the highest places to get that kind of classified information in less than an hour. Naturally he did. She wanted to tell him that, since he possessed all the facts, there was no need to answer his question, but she couldn’t do that. Not after she’d been the one to approach him.

“They’re on Crete.”

“I want to see them,” he declared without hesitation, sending Gabi into mild shock that he’d become curious about these children who could be his offspring. She felt a grudging respect that he’d conceded to the possibility that his relationship with Thea, no matter how short-lived, had produced them. “How soon are you due back in Heraklion?”

“When I left this morning, I told my parents I was meeting a former work colleague from the States in Athens and would fly home tomorrow.”

“Will they send a car for you?”

“No. I told them I wasn’t sure of my arrival time so I’d take a taxi.”

He shifted his weight. “Once I’ve delivered you to Heraklion, there’ll be a taxi waiting to take you home. For the time being Stavros has prepared a room for you. Are you susceptible to the mal de mer?”

They were going back by sea?

“No.”