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A touch of regret zinged through me. ‘You’ll have to excuse me for not being at my best that day. I wasn’t aware that a tangible part of my future had been affected until I heard your news. It was hard to deal with. Almost as I hard as it was for you to deliver the news to me, perhaps?’
After a beat, she shook her head. ‘It wasn’t easy, no. I guess it’s fair you’d want to put it behind you.’
Memories of the passionate way that day had ended blazed hot and insistent. ‘Not all aspects of it. And, as it turns out, it will be impossible to do so now.’
Again awareness flashed in her luminous eyes, before she shrugged and took a few steps away from me.
‘It is what it is. Now, I’d really like to make that flight, so if you don’t mind...?’
I let her leave, granting us both a moment’s necessary reprieve. But within seconds of her walking out, I was back at my desk. A quick phone call to my assistant with a handful of immediate action instructions, and I was heading out through the door.
She was already in the lift, her gaze triumphant as the steel doors slid shut between us. I called the next one, further unsettled by the whisper of a smile that I felt curve my lips. I frowned it off.
This was no smiling matter.
When Ax had delivered the news of his unexpected son I experienced a moment’s searing jealousy, even while being overjoyed at his good fortune. But I also witnessed his despair at missing his son’s first few months.
Nothing would come between me and every step of my child’s growth in its mother’s womb. Nor a single moment of its life.
If it’s yours.
Seven months. For the chance at fatherhood I believed had been cruelly snatched away by a computer mistake, I would endure the torturous wait.
She rounded on me the moment I stepped out of the lift, the tail of her long hair a swinging, living flame I wanted to wrap around my fist.
‘Really? You’ve instructed your goons to stop me from leaving?’ she spat out.
‘I have done nothing of the sort. Wendell is aware of my intention to give you a lift to the airport and he merely wished for you to wait for me. Isn’t that so, Wendell?’ I arched a brow at the stoic ex-military man.
‘Precisely, sir.’
Sadie rolled her eyes. ‘You two make a cracking comedy duo. Can I leave now?’
‘Of course.’
She looked surprised when I held the door for her. How had the male she’d indulged in that brief relationship with treated her? Clearly not well enough, if a little chivalry surprised her. What about her mother?
Registering that I knew next to nothing about the woman who was possibly carrying my child rankled. Enough to make me grow absent-minded as I slid my hand around her waist.
She started, her breath hitching as she shifted away from my touch and stepped dangerously close the kerb.
I caught her arm, stemming momentary panic. ‘Easy, pethi mou.’
‘I... You startled me, that’s all.’
‘I merely touched you to guide you to the car.’
Her translucent skin flushed again, the captivating sweep of her long lashes brushing her cheeks as she blinked. ‘Well, I wasn’t expecting it.’
The car drew up. I waved the driver away and opened the door for her. With another flick of her green eyes, she slid in. I followed, tightening my gut against the punch of lust that hit me at the display of one smooth, shapely leg.
The fact that she seemed determined to secrete herself as far away from me as possible when I joined her triggered a bolt of disgruntlement. Was I really that fearsome?
Yes. You all but slapped on the handcuffs both times she attempted to contact you.
Perhaps I had been fearsome—whereas Sadie, both times, had been...brave.
Registering the path of my thoughts, the new respect for her actions, I sheared off the notion. It remained to be seen whether her motives were truly altruistic.
