AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘It’s a shock, I know.’ She began standing. Her legs were still wobbly but it was a relief now that she had said her piece. ‘I’ll leave you to mull things over.’
‘What?’ Leandro said sharply.‘Mull things over?’
‘Yes. We can always talk again soon.’
‘No, no, no. I think you’ve got the wrong end of the stick here, Celia. There’s nothing tomull overthat’s going to propel me into reaching any kind of alternative conclusion. You’re pregnant and it’s my fault.’
‘It takes two to tango.’
‘We need privacy for this conversation.’ He was already moving towards a concealed door, pushing it so that it sprang open and reaching for a tan coat in the softest of cashmere.
‘Where are we going?’
‘My place.’
‘What? No!’
‘Why not?’ Leandro strolled in front of her, invading her space for a couple of seconds, hands shoved deep in the pockets of the coat. His dark eyes ensnared her and the silence stretched taut.
Leandro’s eyes drifted down, remorselessly drawn to her stomach, and it hit him hard that this was more than just a theoretical discussion about what happened when faced with an unexpected pregnancy.
She was carrying his child.
He felt shaken to his very foundations. Nothing in life had braced him for this eventuality. How had he ended up being cavalier, at least on one occasion he could remember when the distance from kitchen to bedroom to get protection had been a little too far, and not foreseen the consequences?
And yet now, as he stared down at her, what should have horrified him, didn’t.
What should have filled him with resentment, didn’t. He didn’t feel the walls closing in. He felt...a surge of protectiveness that knocked him for six.
Where didthatcome from?
He’d never factored children into his life. Why would he? He’d seen the damage parents could do, he’d lived the unspoken sorrow born of growing up with the whiff of abandonment because, although he’d had his father, what child would not be affected by a mother who left him when he was barely out of nappies?
So having kids? Never been on the horizon. Easier to shelve that whole issue than take the risk of being an unwitting cause of hurt to a kid who hadn’t asked to be born. He worked all the hours under the sun. That, for starters, augured badly for the sort of family lifestyle children needed.
And yet...
Leandro had an insane desire to whip this woman away, wrap her up in cotton wool and protect her because she was now the mother of his unborn child.
He stepped back, looked away, shaken to the core but channelling her up and then out, barely aware of telling his startled PA to block out all meetings for the remainder of the day.
Urged on by Leandro, Celia felt as though control had been whipped away from her.
She’d come to tell him what had needed to be told but after that? She’d vaguely assumed that a billionaire who had been frank about his views on commitment and marriage and everything that went with it would hardly have flung down the welcome mat at what she had to say. After that? Who knew? After that, her mind had been taken up with the ensuing way forward, breaking the news to her mum and dad, absorbing their disappointment, which would be hidden beneath their loving support. They would ask themselves how it was that she had made mistakes not once, buttwice, and, this time, a mistake with long-reaching consequences.
They would wonder how it was that they had brought her up to respect the tradition of marriage and to value love and commitment only to get involved with a guy who had no interest in any of that.
The tangle of thoughts had stopped at Leandro’s office door, like a messenger ringing a doorbell to deliver a package and then leaving.
So she was in a daze as she was ushered to an underground car park where she vaguely noted three high-end cars, all black, parked alongside one another.
He took the middle car, a low sleek sports car that purred into low-throated life as he slowly manoeuvred it out of the car park and into the London traffic.
‘When did you find out?’ Leandro glanced across to her before refocusing on the stop-start traffic.
‘A couple of days ago,’ Celia said unevenly.
‘And have you told...anyone yet? Your parents?’
