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Milly breathed in so deep that she felt dizzy as she exhaled again and she braced her hands on the back of a sofa, reckoning that hint of amusement would be short-lived. ‘I’m pregnant,’ she informed him apprehensively.
Lorenzo did a complete double take, his dark head jerking up and back, his dark eyes gleaming sharp as rapier blades.‘Pregnant?’he emphasised in astonishment.
Milly sighed as she sank wearily down on the sofa. ‘I’m almost three months along becauseIwasn’t using any birth control while we were together andyoudidn’t take any precautions,’ she reminded him.
Lorenzo hovered with an incredulous look stamped on his lean, strong face, his dark eyes glittering like polar stars.‘Pregnant?’he repeated a second time as if he could not comprehend such a development. ‘By...me?’
‘Oh...are you infertile? You never mentioned it,’ Milly shot back at him to punish him for that inexcusable second question, her colour warmer than ever.
Unexpectedly, Lorenzo dropped down fluidly into the seat opposite her, lustrous vibrant eyes fringed by black lashes pinned to her. Hurriedly she looked away, wishing he weren’t quite so spectacularly handsome that he distracted her every time she looked at him. On some level her eyes were in love with those hard, chiselled features of his. But she needed to be cool, calm and collected, not tied in emotional and physical knots by her memories of her time with him, she reminded herself doggedly.
‘Icouldbe infertile,’ Lorenzo mused almost conversationally. ‘I don’t know. Unprotected sex is a risk I’ve never taken with a woman...you’re the single exception.’ The instant he was forced to concede that point, he was plunged back into shock and the colour slowly leached from below his bronzed skin as her first words finally sank in. He stared at her, his dense black lashes framing his bemused gaze.Pregnant?How was that possible? But he now accepted that it was perfectly possible, even if he had not foreseen that possibility and that knowledge silenced him.
‘But as you said, it’s a risk you took many times with me,’ Milly reminded him shakily, her courage beginning to flag because he still looked absolutely stunned. ‘I’m not Brooke. I didn’t have the IUD you assumed I still had, and you didn’t protect me.’
‘No, I didn’t,’ Lorenzo acknowledged in a low, driven undertone. ‘I just assumed it would be safe.’
‘And I took your word for it.’ Milly sighed.
‘Madre di Dio,’Lorenzo groaned. ‘I’ve always wanted a child but not like this.’
‘I feel the same,’ Milly admitted heavily. ‘I’ve always wanted to be a mother, but this is hardly an ideal situation. Even so, I still plan to make the best of it. I won’t be considering termination or adoption or any other way out of this situation. Iwantmy baby.’
‘I wouldn’t have suggested those options,’ Lorenzo asserted in stark reproof.
‘Yet only minutes ago you were quite happy to suggest that this baby might not be yours,’ Milly reminded him curtly. ‘That was very offensive.’
‘How am I to know who you might have been with in recent weeks?’ Lorenzo countered in a driven undertone. ‘The idea that you could be out there seeing other men has driven me crazy over the past month!’
Milly stared back at him in wonderment. ‘I haven’teverbeen with anyone but you!’ she told him with a decided edge of bitterness. ‘I was a virgin butyoudidn’t notice...and although it hurt like hell I just thought it was a question of it having been too long since I’d last had sex, so I didn’t say anything about it at the time.’
Lorenzo vaulted upright. ‘You were a virgin?’ he breathed rawly.
‘Yes. And I was planning to stay that way until I was in a serious relationship,’ she admitted with spirit.
Lorenzo raked long brown fingers through his ruffled blue-black hair. ‘Dio mio...I’m sorry. You should’ve told me that I’d hurt you.’
‘I didn’t want to spoil the moment...engaged as I foolishly was in trying to save my rocky marriage...the marriage that didn’t actually exist,’ she completed tightly.
‘This...us...it is an unholy mess!’ Lorenzo growled in sudden frustration.
‘Well, I’ve told you now. Perhaps you would have preferred me to approach your lawyers with this little problem.’
‘No. Not with anything that relates to our baby and, by the way, our baby isnotand will never be a problem,’ Lorenzo declared, moving restively about the room, obviously too shaken up by her news to settle again.
Ourbaby was a label that warmed Milly’s heart and she hastily looked away from him, telling herself that she was simply relieved that he wasn’t angry or resentful. Hewantedtheir child. That was a more positive response than she had even dared to hope for. ‘I’ll make tea. I’m afraid I don’t have any alcohol.’
Lorenzo flashed her a sudden unexpected smile that radiated charisma. ‘May I have coffee instead?’
‘Of course, you can,’ Milly told him cheerfully as she jumped up, a sense of reprieve making her body feel shaky as she walked into the sleek kitchen.
‘I want you to come home with me tonight,’ Lorenzo announced with staggering abruptness from the doorway.
Wide-eyed with astonishment, Milly whirled round to face him where he lounged gracefully against the frame. ‘Why the heck would I do that?’
‘You’re expecting my child,’ Lorenzo countered evenly, as if her question was a surprising one. ‘And you’ve lost a lot of weight. I don’t want you living here alone.’
Her facial muscles locking tight with self-discipline, Milly turned away again to put the kettle on, grateful to have something to do with her hands. ‘You threw me out, Lorenzo. I’m not coming back.’
