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Sidonie shook her head, feeling sick at how she’d almost given herself away. Disgusted with herself for allowing some confessional conversation and some hot sex to melt away her feelings of anger. She’d only ever been a transitory visitor through Alexio’s bed. And now he was stuck with her.
‘Nothing. I’m not doing this, Alexio—committing to some sterile arrangement just for your benefit.’
‘We desire each other. Last night proved that beyond a doubt.’
Sidonie felt as exposed as if he’d just stripped her naked. A few hours ago he had.
Lifting her chin, she said tautly, ‘That was hormones.’
Alexio looked comically confused for a moment. ‘Hormones?’
Sidonie nodded, desperate to convince him that he had it wrong. ‘It’s in my pregnancy book—you can read about it. It’s very common for pregnant women to feel more...’ Sidonie faltered. In spite of her best efforts she blushed fiercely. ‘More...amorous. It’s because of all the extra blood.’
The confusion left Alexio’s face and now he looked livid. A muscle throbbed in his temple. ‘Hormones...? Extra blood? That was chemistry—pure and simple.’ He was almost roaring now. ‘Are you trying to tell me that any man would have done to satisfy your urges last night?’
Sidonie’s face burned, but valiantly she affected as much insouciance as she could and with a small shrug reiterated, ‘I’m just telling you what’s in my pregnancy book.’
Alexio’s face was rigid with rejection, and even she felt the sting of her conscience.
‘You wanted me as much as I wanted you. There might have been extra hormones involved, but it was inevitable.’
Sidonie cursed silently. So much for hoping to convince Alexio that any man would have done. As if. Even now she wanted him, in spite of his being so arrogant that she wanted to hit him.
Sidonie clenched her hands into fists and glared at him for making her love him. For making her want him. For humiliating her.
‘Nothing has changed, Alexio. We’re exactly where we were when you arrived in Paris. The only difference now is that I owe you money instead of a bank.’
Alexio looked livid again. ‘Stop saying that. You owe me nothing. I want to try and make this work, Sidonie.’
Sidonie felt bitter. ‘This is not a car, Alexio. And I can tell you that it’s not working. Desire or no desire. That’s not enough. I won’t allow you to put me and our daughter up like some kind of discarded mistress and her child. I am not a sponger. I will work to pay my way for me and my child, like millions of other women around the world.’
Alexio’s mouth was a tight line of displeasure. ‘Millions of other women around the world haven’t had the sense to fall pregnant by a billionaire.’
* * *
Sidonie gasped and went pale as his unspoken words throbbed silently between them: So stop pretending that you don’t want my support.
Alexio immediately put out a hand. ‘Sid...wait. I didn’t mean it like—’
Sidonie cut him off with ice in her voice, even as her heart was breaking all over again. ‘I’ve already told you not t
o call me that. My name is Sidonie. And you’ve said quite enough. You still don’t trust me, do you?’
She saw the flare of guilt in his eyes and something inside her withered and died. She couldn’t say another word. She shook her head and backed away, and then turned and walked out of the room.
Alexio watched her go and then tunnelled his hands through his hair. He closed his eyes and repeated every curse he’d ever heard under the sun. Watching the way she’d gone pale just now... Something inside him had curdled and now he felt the acrid taste of panic. That hadn’t gone at all the way he’d expected it to.
As if one moment of this relationship with this woman had ever gone the way he’d expected it to...
From the moment she’d appeared at breakfast with that shy smile Alexio had felt the dam of emotion inside him threatening to burst free. But he wasn’t ready yet. It was too much.
When he came out of the dining room he saw Sidonie putting on her coat and lifting her bag. The panic escalated, making him feel constricted, rudderless. As if he were freefalling from a great height.
‘Where are you going?’
Sidonie avoided his eye. ‘I said I’d go over to Tante Josephine’s this morning.’
She looked at him then, but there was no expression on her face or in her eyes. She was pale. The swell of her belly was visible under her top. Alexio had a sudden urge to beg Sidonie not to go, but something held him back. The memory of his mother’s cold face when he’d blurted out, Why can’t you love each other? Those tentacles were dragging him back, stronger than he could resist.
