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“Are you okay?” She pressed a palm to the doorframe and looked around the room as if expecting someone else to be there. “It smells like a pub in here.”
“Just me.” He brought the glass to his lips again and drank, but now it tasted like nothing.
“Can I come in?”
He waved her over. She closed the door softly behind her and dropped down into one of the soft leather chairs on the other side of his desk. “I wanted to talk to you about—”
“I want a DNA test.” He hadn’t intended on blurting the request out, but his lips and tongue were loose. And his body’s reaction to her—his fingers itching to stroke her silky hair and his lips pining for hers—made him angrier than a cooped-up bull.
She blinked. “Huh?”
“A DNA test.”
“For what?”
“The baby.”
Her face was a pale mask. Her dark eyes showed nothing, not fear or regret or embarrassment. Like someone had made a cast of her, allowing her to hide whatever she felt behind it. “You don’t believe it’s your baby. When did that change?”
“The second I realized that I’ve been a fucking idiot.” He went to take another sip of his drink and realized the glass—and the bottle—were both empty. “To think this was all a giant coincidence, that you didn’t know I was meeting with your brother and you didn’t know the pill wouldn’t work and you didn’t know Julian was coming to see you.”
Her jaw twitched. “I guess I don’t know much.”
“Or you’re a good actress.” He let out a humorless laugh. “You have an innocent face. I bet you could tempt a man to walk straight off the edge of a cliff.”
“What is going on here?” She cracked then. Her bottom lip quivered in a movement so small, it could have been blamed on the shifting of light. But Nico caught it, because now he was paying attention to the details.
“I’m telling you I want a DNA test. This week. It’s a simple blood test, then we’ll know whether that baby is mine.”
“You’re only going to be making a fool of yourself.”
“I’ve already done that.”
She stared at him long and hard. “You know, at some point I would have let you intimidate the hell out of me. I would have run out of this room, packed my bags, and gone home. But I’m not going to do that because I know I’ve done nothing wrong. If you want me to get that test, fine. But the results will come back that you’re the father. I’d stake my life on it.”
She certainly sounded sure of herself.
“Coming here,” she gestured to the house. “Living with you…I’ve been out of my comfort zone. I’ve been away from my family, living with someone I didn’t know, living somewhere I didn’t speak the language, and I’m still in one piece. I let my brothers make me believe I needed protection, that I was incapable of looking after myself. But I’m strong, Nico. And you can flip-flop with how you treat me, but I am here for our baby, regardless of whatever spiteful things you say to me.”
“But you love another man.” His lip curled. “Julian.”
She closed her eyes. “It’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it? Because it sure as hell sounded like you said ‘I love you too.’ He sucked in a breath. The alcohol had muddled his head. “And then he said, ‘We don’t need his money. We can take care of the baby without him.’”
“Nico.” She rubbed a hand over her face. “It’s not how it sounds.”
“Do you love him?”
The silence that followed his question was like a python wrapping around his heart.
“Do you love him?” he repeated.
“I do. I think I always have. He’s like…family.” She shook her head.
“So it’s platonic love?”
“I’m not going to lie and say he means nothing to me,” she said. “At one point I wanted him, but it never went anywhere. Now I’m married to you and I plan to honor that commitment. But I’m not going to apologize for being attracted to him before I met you.”
It wasn’t the immediate denial he’d hoped for. Jealousy burned through him. “Is it his baby?”
“It’s your baby. I don’t know how many times I can repeat myself.” She pushed up from her chair, her hands shaking. “But don’t worry, I’ll take your stupid test and then you won’t be able to question it. You’d think the way you’re acting that you were a pillar of honesty.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I had lunch with Alethea.” She folded her arms across her chest, her cheeks glowing. “You’d think you could have given me a heads-up about your past.”
Dread settled in the pit of his stomach. Maybe this was what she had up her sleeve.
“According to your logic, since it happened before we met I don’t need to apologize for it.”
Her lips tightened. “You made me look like an idiot. She told me all about how you lived with her family and you got her pregnant.”
