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Her emerald gaze remained steady. ‘You heard about the sale?’
‘How could I not? It made the news in most of the papers, I should think.’
‘I needed the money.’ Her slender shoulders lifted in what looked like a resigned shrug. ‘It was as simple as that.’
‘You needed the money before, if the place you lived in was any indication!’ Blaise couldn’t contain the impatience in his voice. ‘Why decide to sell it now?’
‘Because there’s not just myself to think about any more.’
‘You’re seeing someone else?’
Everything inside him constricted with despair, fury and tension. Why had he left it so long to contact her after she left? Why? Why? Why?
‘I’m not seeing anyone else.’ Sighing, she rose slowly to her feet, her hands linking restlessly together. ‘I’m pregnant, Blaise. I’m afraid I made a mistake about it being a safe time.’
‘Pregnant?’ The word filled his mind like a snowstorm, blotting out all other thoughts.
‘That’s why I needed to sell the portrait. I’mkeeping the baby, whatever you decide to do, and I didn’t want him or her brought up in an atmosphere of tension and uncertainty like I was. I wanted to give my baby a better start and a more secure future.’
‘You’re going to have a baby? My baby?’ Again the knowledge deluged him, making it almost impossible to think with any clarity. Then came the terrible fear that he couldn’t possibly be a proper father to the child—not if there was the remotest chance that he would turn out like his own father. But in the next instant that unhappy thought died away, and Blaise started to feel genuine excitement and joy pulse through his bloodstream. It took two to make a baby, and ideally two to be his parents and take care of him. Whatever happened, he and Maya were in this together.
‘There’s no doubt that the baby is yours, Blaise.’ Her teeth nibbled a little anxiously at her soft lower lip. ‘I’ve been with no one else.’
‘I’m not suggesting anything like that.’ He frowned. ‘Are you okay? Have you seen a doctor?’
‘Both me and the baby are doing just fine.’
‘But the portrait…it meant everything to you. I can’t believe you sold it. It was a little piece of your father, you said.’
‘At the end of the day it’s just a painting…if a valuable one. I was shocked to learn just how valuable. But I’ll use the money wisely…I’m sure—I’m sure if my dad were alive he’d want me to use it to help take care of his grandchild.’
‘Were you going to let me know about the baby?’
A shadow of hurt flickered in her eyes. ‘Of course…But I knew you were in New York with the play, and that I’d have to wait until you came back to tell you face to face.’
‘How far along are you?’
‘Nine weeks.’
Blaise rubbed his hand round the back of his neck, thinking hard. Impatiently he pulled his tie loose from his shirt collar so that he could breathe easier. It wasn’t every day that a man who had been contemplating a decidedly lonely future learned that he was to become a father, and it took some sinking in to get used to the idea. But the more he contemplated it, the more he sensed a wild exhilaration and sense of purpose gathering momentum inside him, instead of fear and apprehension consuming him.
‘So…I’m to become a father?’
‘Are you angry?’
‘Are you serious? How can I be angry when this must be the most incredible piece of news I’ve ever heard?’ In front of Maya now, Blaise caught hold of her worryingly chilled hands and held them, infusing them with the heat from his own.
‘You mean it?’
‘Yes, I mean it! Though I understand why you have your doubts. I’m not proud of the way I behaved, Maya. The way I so easily let you leave and made no attempt to stop you or contact you afterwards.’
Saying nothing, she simply listened.
‘I would never have expected you to raise the baby on your own,’ he continued, his voice hoarse with regret that she might have believed that. ‘I would always have supported him—and you.’ Lifting those cold, slender hands to his lips, he tenderly kissed each one in turn.
‘So what exactly are you telling me, Blaise? That you want joint custody when the time comes?’
‘No, that’s not what I’m saying at all.’
‘Then—’
Letting go of her hands, Blaise urgently encircled Maya’s slender waist to impel her hard against him. For a moment his senses were saturated by her warmth and those delicious feminine curves, and the unmatched feeling of holding her in his arms again almost overwhelmed him.
