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‘How could it be anything other than hostile?’ Gaby’s lovely face was strained as she hovered in the greenhouse doorway.
‘Ithasto be something else for your son’s sake. Boys need a father,’ Clara informed her.
Paling, Gaby walked back indoors to make the coffee. Be polite, be civilised, she instructed herself, stop making it all so personal and emotional. Wasn’t that a dead giveaway of how Angel made her feel? Getting all riled up and shouting? She was making it far too obvious that she was emotionally involved and had been wounded by the fallout of that night in Alharia. Gaby flinched at the thought and reminded herself that she had been a consenting adult, who had believed that she knew exactly what she was doing. It was a little late now to acknowledge that she had fooled herself into reaching for what she thought she wanted only to discover afterwards that she had secretly wanted much more than a brief sexual encounter...
Angel was cold and he stood by the fire, which put out a miserable amount of heat. He checked his watch, regretting that he had to be back on Themos by morning to attend an important event. He needed time to deal with Gabriella and he didn’t have time to spare. In any case, he was naturally impatient, he conceded, a muscle tightening at his strong jaw as he struggled to clamp down on the volatile mix of anger, frustration and desire that Gabriella always evoked.
Her reappearance with a tray almost made him laugh. Gabriella serving him graciously with coffee was not a vision that rose easily to his imagination. He grasped the cup.
‘Months ago, you joked on social media about having a child with green eyes and curly hair,’ Angel remarked tautly.
Gaby lifted a brow. ‘And the significance of that...is?’
‘My mother had green eyes and curls. She was a legendary beauty. Queen Nabila. Look her up online,’ Angel urged forbiddingly, as though the subject were distasteful to him.
And, of course, on his terms ithadto be distasteful to contemplate the likelihood of his first child having been accidentally born to an ordinary woman not of his choosing. Both his parents had been born into royal families and he knew nothing else.
‘But that could just be coincidence,’ Gaby heard herself declare because, when push came to shove, she was realising that she was not eager to share her little boy with Angel. No doubt that was selfish but that was how she felt. Alexios was her family now and, having lost her family when she was fourteen, she was particularly keen now to hold her son close.
‘Do you have reason to believe that your son could have been fathered by someone else?’ Angel queried curtly. ‘Were you with any other man shortly before or soon after me?’
A tide of angry red flooded up her throat into her cheeks. ‘There was no other man. You were my first...’ and her voice ran out of angry steam on that admission because she had not meant to tell him that much.
Angel’s ebony brows pleated in consternation. ‘Your...first? Are you serious?’
‘Wish I wasn’t butyes,’ Gaby confirmed with bitter force.
‘I wouldn’t have taken you to bed had I known that,’ Angel breathed in a driven undertone, swinging away from her to stand by the window and stare out, his strong profile taut and set. ‘I don’t mess around with virgins. It’s too inequal, too open to misinterpretation.’
‘Not in my case,’ Gaby said dulcetly. ‘I knew what I was getting and I got it.’
Angel flipped back to her, sizzling dark golden eyes bright as the sun. ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’ he flared back at her, sensing that he was being insulted.
‘A guy who wouldn’t even wake me up to say goodbye.’
Angel visibly ground his even white teeth together and then froze to say, ‘No, we’re not doing this! You’re not going to derail me from the reason I’m here by making me angry again,’ he told her harshly. ‘And I’m here to ask if you will agree to a private DNA test being done.’
Gaby recalled how he had thrown it in her face thatshewould draghimto court to demand a DNA test. ‘No.’
Angel’s gaze narrowed, hardened. ‘Then we go through the courts.’
Gaby paled at that immediate rejoinder. ‘No, there’s no good reason to take it that far.’
‘Yes, there is. If your child is mine, then I will have to marry you!’ Angel bit out rawly.
Gaby’s dark blue eyes widened to their fullest extent and she stared back at him in disbelief. ‘Now it’s my turn to a-ask if you are serious,’ she stammered unevenly.
‘Serious as a heart attack,’ Angel qualified without a shade of amusement.
CHAPTER FIVE
THEMUGOFcoffee in Gaby’s hand trembled and she sank down into an armchair. ‘You’d have tomarryme?’
Angel swallowed hard. He would have to marry her to ensure his child was properly protected from damaging influences. After his own childhood experiences, he wouldhaveto be directly involved in the raising of his own child because the alternative would be, to his mind, a sin. He accepted that bringing up his child was his duty, but he also knew that, thanks to his own dysfunctional background, he had not a clue how to be a good husband or father, which was rather daunting. He studied Gabriella, striving to read her reaction to what he had said, but her jewel-blue eyes were unrevealing and she looked more shocked than anything else.
‘We’re jumping the gun,’ he acknowledged. ‘First, will you agree to the DNA test and will you allow me to see him?’
Gaby swallowed so hard she hurt her throat. ‘Explain why you said that you wouldhaveto marry me,’ she prompted tightly.
