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‘No, you’re not Kate.’ He had stood in front of her, looking down at her slender figure dressed in cream satin pyjamas. ‘You are far from fine.’
‘I just need to get some sleep, that’s all.’
‘Right.’ Nikos had put his hands on her shoulders, and as she’d tensed beneath his touch she had inflicted another wound on his pride. ‘So I’m being dismissed, is that it?’
Kate had given a heavy sigh. ‘I don’t want to argue, Nikos.’
He’d felt her shoulders shrug.
‘Neither do I. I’m trying to help, Kate, to do whatever I can to support you.’
‘Like I said, I just need some rest.’ She’d released one hand from behind her back and tucked her hair behind her ear. ‘It’s been a long day...’ Her voice had tailed off.
‘Very well.’ Nikos had swallowed down the hurt of her words. ‘I’ll go. Right after you’ve told me what you’re hiding behind your back.’
Kate had flushed. The first colour he’d seen in her cheeks since he’d arrived.
‘Nothing.’
Holding out his hand, palm upright, Nikos had done his best to suppress his irritation. He’d already had a good idea what it was, and he’d had no intention of being frozen out. He’d felt his heart begin to thud.
Realising there was no way out, Kate had slowly brought her arm round to her front. Nikos had seen the pale column of her throat as she’d swallowed, but it had been the look in her eyes that had sent ice through his veins. Fear. No—more than that. Panic. She’d been almost shaking with it.
He’d looked down at the little plastic stick in her hand. A swirl of emotions had run through him, too fast and too unexpected to be able to process in the time allowed.
Instead he had cleared his throat. ‘Let me see.’
He had fully expected Kate to argue, but instead she had submissively handed it over, as if all the fight had left her.
A diagram beside the little window on the stick had helpfully explained the result. Two pink lines; pregnant. One pink line; not pregnant.
Nikos had raised his eyes to find Kate staring not at the test stick but straight at him, a wild look in her eyes.
‘Well?’ Her anguished cry had made it clear she didn’t know the result.
‘You are not pregnant, Kate.’
‘Oh, thank God.’ With a gasp of relief Kate had taken the test from him, stared at it, then sunk to her knees.
Nikos had stared down at the top of her head, at the way the overhead light shone on the glossy chestnut hair that fell over her shoulders. And something had stirred inside him. The unfamiliar sensation had quickly gathered power as the events of the past few days had flashed before him, firing his temper, draining his self-control.
Suddenly he’d seen the way he had behaved for what it was—weakness. Not the compassion he had convinced himself he had to find as he had bitten his tongue, turned the other cheek. He had been treated like dirt by Fiona. Coldly distanced by Kate as if he was nothing...no one...their engagement brushed under the carpet. All this he had accepted because Kate had lost her beloved father. Telling himself she was grieving. That he had to give her time.
But this. This was the final straw.
‘I take it you’re pleased?’ His voice had been dangerously thin as he’d tried to gather together the threads of his composure.
‘Of course.’ Kate had looked up at him in surprise. ‘To get pregnant now would have been a disaster.’
‘A disaster?’
The word had felt like a stone in his mouth. With a sickening wave of realisation, Nikos had known he would never have seen it like that. Far from it. After the initial shock he would have been pleased, proud. Ecstatic, even. The thought of creating a new life with Kate, of being a father, would to him have been an exciting adventure he couldn’t wait to embark on. A few weeks ago he’d have been sure that Kate would react the same way. And yet here she was, treating the idea of being pregnant with his baby as if it would be some sort of ghastly ordeal.
With a bitter twist of resentment Nikos had seen that once again he was being betrayed by a woman he loved. His mother had rejected him as a son—now Kate was rejecting him as a father.
