Page 40 of Staking His Claim

He picked up his half-full glass of red wine and sat back in his chair. “I was annoyed that you’d gone back to work. I intended to confront you.”

“You have no right to question my decision. My practice is my livelihood. I don’t meddle in your business.” Ella leaned forward, determined not to allow him to push her around. For once, the big Russian had the grace to look abashed. “Besides, I made it clear from the outset that I wouldn’t look after the baby. I’m giving Holly up for adoption. I don’t want to make what is already a difficult situation more difficult by bonding with her.” Even by expressing her milk to feed the baby, Ella suspected she was becoming closer than she’d ever meant to be to Holly. Inside she could feel her muscles tensing and the all too familiar anxiety that she took such pains to conceal rising. The sense of well-being that the soak in the tub and the delicious meal had instilled was rapidly ebbing.

“I understand.”

“Then why your annoyance yesterday?”

He didn’t answer, instead swirling the glass and appearing to be enraptured by the deep ruby glow of the wine. Then he looked up, and the illusion of contentment shattered. His eyes were full of turmoil. “I understand now. I spoke to Jo Wells earlier.”

What had Jo said? Ella sought his eyes for answers. But found none to justify the panic that flared inside her.

Jo couldn’t have told him anything. Because not even Jo knew.

Unless Keira had told her...

Ella blocked out the possibility of such a devastating betrayal.

“The way Jo explained your decision not to bond with the baby made me realize that it wasn’t an act of neglect or selfishness.”

Her teeth snapped together. She’d been trying to get that through to him. But he listened to a stranger? “Thanks!”

“She also said that you wouldn’t be forsaking Holly—that you intend to keep in close contact with her. She told me that you were always adamant—even when Keira and Dmitri planned to adopt her—that Holly should know that you were her tummy mummy.”

Despite her outrage, it was so incongruous to hear him use that term for surrogacy that Ella almost smiled. “It’s always been important to me that there should be no deception in this kind of situation—it only hurts the child.” She shuddered inwardly as she looked away.

If he only knew...

When she glanced back, it was to find that Yevgeny was swirling the wine again, staring into the rich, red depths.

It must be hard for him to face the fact that he’d seriously misjudged her—and admit it. Many men would’ve shirked this. Maybe it was time to cut him a little slack.

“You can drink it,” she assured him to lighten the mood. “It’s a good wine—gold medalist, in fact.”

That brought his gaze back to her. “I didn’t think you would poison me.”

This time it was Ella who laughed. “What makes you so sure?”

“You uphold the letter of the law. I don’t see you as breaking it. I’m starting to realize you have plenty of integrity.”

The unexpected compliment warmed her.

Her lips tilting up, she said, “Flatterer!”

He shook his head. “No, it’s the truth...which I appear to have managed to miss.”

“While we’re on the topic of truth, what was really going on in my office yesterday? I asked you if you’d lost custody of a child in the past. Tell me about your child, Yevgeny,” she invited softly.

A mask dropped into place.

He smiled. But no hint of humor lit his eyes. It was as though a dark thundercloud hung over him. Ella shivered, no longer sure she should pursue this line of questioning. There was pain there...and something else.

“What child? I’ve never been married.”

Ella slanted him an old-fashioned look to lighten the mood. “I didn’t think you of all people would believe you had to be married to get someone pregnant.”

He chuckled. “Very funny!”

She wrinkled her nose at him, and decided to probe a little more. “So what was it all about?”

“What do you mean?” he stalled.

“There was something else going on.”

“You’re imagining things.”

She stared at him for a long moment. His mouth was flat, there was no hint of the humor that had lit his eyes only seconds before she’d started pushing. “I don’t think I am. What’s more...I think it has to do with a lawyer—but not me.” She thought about her own life, about what had caused her to develop her prickly, reserved shell. “Did a woman do a real number on you?”

He laughed, and she detected a palpable tension beneath the careless sound. “Never!”

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