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‘There are no things to have out,’ she muttered.
‘I beg to differ. We have lots of things to have out, mostly concerning your misconception about my feelings for you.’
Her laugh was wry and bitter. ‘I was never in any doubt over your feelings for me, Alex.’
‘You could be wrong, you know.’
* * *
Harriet knew she wasn’t wrong. The only reason Alex had come after her was because he didn’t like being left in the lurch, either in his office or in his bed.
‘If you think you can seduce me again, then you have another think coming.’
‘I never seduced you in the first place, Harry. You came to my bed willingly.’
‘You know what I mean. You engineered our being alone together so it would be harder for me to resist you.’
‘I plead guilty to that one.’
Wrenching her arm out of his hold, she hurried ahead of him, not saying another word till she was standing by her front door fumbling with her keys.
‘You can come in,’ she threw over her shoulder at him. ‘But not for long. It won’t take long anyway, because there’s nothing you can possibly say to make me change my mind on this. We’re over, Alex. As hard as it might be for a man of your ego, I suggest you learn to take no for an answer.’
‘Hell, but you don’t make things easy on a man, do you?’ he ground out as he strode after her into her living room. ‘I almost pity poor old Dwayne.’
‘I suggest you leave Dwayne out of this,’ she snapped, banging the door after him and tossing her sunglasses onto the hall table. ‘Now, just get on with what you have to say.’
‘Okay, I will. The thing is, Harriet, that I love you. Sorry if that’s not the most romantic of declarations, but it’s hard to be romantic when you’re this angry.’
Harriet would wonder afterwards if she looked as shocked as she felt. All she could remember in hindsight was that her heart stopped beating and her body seemed to freeze on the spot. Nothing worked. Not her brain, her tongue or anything.
He started pacing, throwing snatches of words at her as he circumnavigated the room with long, angry strides.
‘I know I said I didn’t do love... And I don’t...or I didn’t... Till you came along. You changed everything... Loving you changed everything...’
He finally ground to a halt in front of her again, his handsome face all flushed and frustrated.
‘I love you, Harriet. And I want to marry you. I even want to have babies with you, which believe me is such an astonishing concept that it took me a while to get my head around it. But once I did, I saw that it could be wonderful. You’d make a marvellous mother. When you told me this morning that you weren’t pregnant, I actually felt disappointed. But I could hardly tell you that because at the time I thought you didn’t love me back. But then Audrey stormed in and told me that you probably did. So then I got to thinking that maybe you did love me, that that was the reason for your anger. But now that I’m here, I’m not so sure.’
He took abrupt hold of her shoulders and dragged her close. ‘Tell me that I’m not wrong, Harry,’ he demanded in a passionate voice which fairly vibrated through the air. ‘Tell me that you love me, because if you don’t, I don’t know what I’ll do.’
Harriet’s eyes swam with the impact of his declaration. He loved her. Alex loved her. He even wanted to marry her and have babies with her. Oh, God...
‘Please don’t cry,’ he said, then gathered her to him. ‘Just tell me that you love me.’
‘I love you,’ she choked out against his throat. ‘Oh, Alex...’
* * *
His heart almost burst with happiness and relief. She loved him. She really loved him.
‘And you’ll marry me, even if I don’t tick your check-boxes for a husband?’
‘You tick the most important ones. But, Alex...’
His heart tightened at the sudden wariness in her voice. Holding her at arm’s length, he looked deep into her still-teary eyes. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing. I hope... It’s just that I...I never imagined that you loved me. You were always so adamant that our relationship was about nothing but fun and sex. I honestly believed that if I was pregnant you’d try to talk me into having a termination. So I lied to you this morning. I lied and I...I’m sorry...’
His shock was evident. But it was quickly followed by delight. ‘So you are pregnant?’
She nodded, still looking slightly guilty. ‘I thought I was doing the right thing at the time.’
‘I can understand that. So you were planning on raising our child all alone, were you?’
