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‘Because I’m a scandal for sleeping with your brother and getting pregnant or because your family is cursed?’
She didn’t seem to be taking this very seriously, Cal noticed. And he was almost certain she was pushing her breasts up on purpose. To torment him.
It was totally working.
Until he remembered the real reason they couldn’t do this.
‘Both. But also because Ross signed a contract with some awful magazine, promising that a reporter could come and live at the castle for a week at the end of this summer—next week, in fact—and write all about the life of the Earl of Lengroth.’
Heather blinked. Then she sat back, taking those beautiful breasts with her.
‘But Ryan’s the Earl. He can’t have some reporter following him around for a week! He’s nine!’
‘Which is why I’ve spent the last five weeks in legal wrangling with their contracts team.’ Cal sighed. ‘I can’t get us out of it. Trust me, Heather, I’ve given it everything I can. But the reporter is coming here next week—unless I hand over an absurd kill fee for the story and resign myself to them writing about us anyway, since apparently my brother was incapable of reading a contract.’
Maybe he’d been drunk at the time. Or just really, really desperate.
‘Why would Ross have agreed to something like that? I mean, I know he’d have thought it would be him the reporter would be following around when he signed up for it, but still... I can’t imagine anyone would want their lives being scrutinised that closely.’
Heather shuddered at the very idea. Cal didn’t blame her.
‘I’ve been trying to figure out the same thing myself. Ross was in debt, and in trouble with some...unsavoury people—so it could just have been that he needed the cash. Or...’
‘Or...?’ Heather prompted.
She’d shifted again, so she sat opposite him, cross-legged on the rug, and Cal found his gaze drawn to her stomach. Was that just the tiniest hint of rounding...the start of a baby bump there?
Cal sighed. That baby was coming, whatever happened, and it would be welcomed and loved. There was nothing Ross could do about that now.
‘Or because he wanted to put on a show. I think... I think that maybe rumours were starting. That people were beginning to talk about him and his behaviour. The Bryce family rule has always been to keep trouble away from Lengroth, but there were enough people locally that Ross owed money to, or who had seen something. People might have been asking questions...’
‘You think he was bringing the reporter here to show how perfect and scandal-free Lengroth Castle was?’ Heather asked incredulously.
Cal shrugged. ‘It’s the family way. But now...’
‘Now this reporter—’
‘Anna Jenkins,’ Cal supplied helpfully.
‘Now Anna Jenkins is going to arrive to find Ross’s pregnant one-night stand looking after his orphaned children and carrying on with his brother on the floor of the study.’
‘Basically?’ Cal flashed her a smile. ‘Yes.’
* * *
This was awful. This was worse than awful. It was potentially front-page news for all the tabloids and gossip rags in the country. It was basically Heather’s worst nightmare—and her father’s, too.
And the worst part of all was that it didn’t make her want Cal any less.
‘So what do we do?’ she asked, helplessness filling her.
The expression on Cal’s face matched the way she felt. ‘I guess we carry on as we were. Pretending that this—’ he motioned to the air between them ‘—isn’t there.’
Because that had been working so well for them before...
‘For ever?’
‘Hell, no.’ Cal swore, and then crossed the space that had opened up between them and pulled her back into his arms. ‘I can’t keep my hands off you for that long. Even the next week is going to be a struggle, to be honest.’
Relieved, Heather snuggled into his embrace. ‘So once the reporter has gone, then...?’
Cal nodded slightly—a gesture she felt rather than saw, since his chin was tucked over her head. ‘Just another week. Well, eight days. Then we’ll talk, figure this out together. What we’re going to do next and everything. I... Heather, I don’t know what this is between us. But I want to at least give us a chance to find out.’
