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She tried to wriggle away from him but he shifted over her and used his weight to press her into the bed.
‘For both our sakes, lie still,’ he gritted. Kelly glared up at him but his hard, intense gaze filled her vision.
‘You’re not playing fair.’ She needed to get away from him. She needed space to think about what was best for the baby.
‘I play to win.’
‘Well, I’m not in the game any more. I give up. I surrender.’ Kelly twisted under him but he put one hand on her hip and held her still.
‘Stop moving,’ he breathed. ‘Kelly, I know what I said upset you, but you wanted me to be honest. You said you wanted to know what I was thinking.’
‘Well, how was I to know you were thinking such awful things?’ She strained against him but that movement brought her into direct contact with his body so she stilled. ‘You’re Greek! You’re supposed to want hundreds of children.’
His expression was suddenly guarded. ‘I don’t.’
‘I gathered that.’ Kelly gave a groan and squeezed her eyes shut. This scenario was so far removed from what she’d expected that she had no idea how to deal with it. She needed time to work things out. No matter what happened, this must not turn into one of those occasions where she just blurted out what was on her mind. No; this time she was going to think it through, come up with a strategic plan and implement it carefully. She’d tell him when the time was right—when she was properly prepared.
Once she’d made a decision, she’d share it with him, and not before.
Alekos traced gentle fingers over the bruise on her forehead. ‘You ought to take the tablets the doctor left.’
Wincing with the pain, Kelly opened her eyes. ‘I can’t take them.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I can’t take tablets. Don’t ask me why.’
‘They will stop your head hurting.’ Alekos sounded puzzled and a touch exasperated. ‘You just swallow them. What’s so hard about that?’
‘I just don’t want to take them.’
‘Why?’
‘I said, don’t ask me why!’
‘Just take them, Kelly.’
‘No, because I don’t want to take anything that might hurt the baby!’ The words burst from her mouth like a dam breaking behind a force of water and she felt an immediate rush of anger directed towards herself and him. ‘I didn’t want to say that. I wasn’t ready to tell you yet! I told you not to ask me why, but you pushed and pushed, didn’t you? I’m going on an assertiveness course.’
Alekos looked as though he’d been shot through the head at close range. ‘Baby?’
‘I’m pregnant, OK? I’m expecting your baby,’ Kelly shrieked. ‘That’s the baby you don’t want, by the way. So I think you’ll agree that we’re in a bit of a fix.’
White-faced and shaking, Alekos slid into the driver’s seat of the Ferrari, started the engine and pressed his foot to the floor.
Baby?
The word echoed through his brain along with all the associated feelings. A child depending on him. A child whose entire happiness was going to be his responsibility. A child crying on his own.
A thin film of sweat covered his brow; he swore fluently in Greek and pushed the car to its limits, taking the hairpin bends like a racing driver.
Only when a horn blared did he finally come to his senses.
Treading on the breaks, he stopped the car at the top of the hill, staring down across the olive groves towards the villa.
Kelly was down there somewhere, probably packing her bags.
Crying her heart out.
