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‘It is. And I know I told you that already. Three months ago.’
He still didn’t answer, and she had to wonder whether her pedantry made her more of an idiot in his eyes or less. Either way, his intense glower did funny things to her insides. The way it had three months ago. And the way it had every time she’d thought of him since then.
Except that this was so much more...real. So much more potent.
‘You should have told me,’ he growled.
Yes, she should have. No matter how she ran events through her head, that simple fact was unmistakable.
Saskia paused. She wasn’t used to feeling so cautious, as though she was on the back foot. She prided herself on being confident, strong and bold. Ordinarily she would have brazened it out. But then ordinarily she wouldn’t have been facing off against Malachi.
Still, she tilted her head up boldly.
‘I know that it was a one-night stand. I understand that. And that this is an unforeseen consequence. But I want to keep my baby, and that’s my choice. It doesn’t have to be yours. Right here, right now, I’m officially releasing you from any responsibility.’
‘Is that so?’
His eyes glittered furiously, and it was all Saskia coul
d do to hold her ground.
Not that she thought she was in any danger from Malachi—at least not physically. But emotionally...? That was a whole different concept.
It made her choose her next words very, very carefully. ‘I’m trying to be reasonable here,’ she offered at last, trying surreptitiously to take a step back.
He took a step closer to her. Just one, single step. But his stride was longer than hers anyway, and it was enough to force her to tip her head back to look up at him.
Enough for her entire traitorous body to leap in thrilled anticipation. Her hands actually itched to reach up and grab the material of his dark wool coat which had no business clinging to every ridge and muscle which she already knew lay beneath.
‘Reasonable?’ he echoed quietly. Too quietly. ‘Is that what you call it, zvyozdochka?’
‘It is.’
Her voice was altogether too raspy for her own liking. And the name he’d called her that first night coursed through her as though it somehow made her his.
She took another step back before she realised how it might look to him. ‘You don’t agree?’
‘Damned right I don’t,’ he growled, taking them both another step backwards, until she felt the cold sea wall against her back and realised she had no further to go, and his arms locked down either side of her, effectively to cage her.
What was wrong with her that she found the whole thing so utterly arousing?
He wasn’t some knight, claiming her. And she certainly wasn’t a damsel in distress.
‘That’s my baby you’re carrying. You don’t have the right to “release” me from it as though I have no say in the matter. As though the baby has no right to a father.’
‘That wasn’t...’ She shook her head. ‘That isn’t what I’m doing.’
‘That’s exactly what you’re doing.’
‘No. I was just...’ She took a breath, trying to get her thoughts straight in her head before attempting to articulate them. ‘You said that I should have told you, and you’re right—I should have. I was all geared up for it the first couple of times I went to Care to Play, only you weren’t there.’
She stopped, giving him a chance to respond. Almost hoping that he would say something to explain it, but he didn’t. Yet his expression had altered and her heart tumbled.
She was right. He had been avoiding her.
‘You were always there before we had that weekend together,’ Saskia whispered, with no idea how she managed to stay upright, to seem confident, when inside she was crumbling like a sandcastle on the beach under the onslaught of the incoming tide. ‘But after that weekend you were never there. At least not when you knew I would be. As though you were avoiding me...’
And still he didn’t answer. He didn’t even move. If she hadn’t known better she might have thought he’d turned to stone.
