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Something odd was happening inside him, a strange unsettledness. She was upset about this, he was sure. He couldn’t read a line of text, but hewasgood at reading people, and those white knuckles told their own story.
‘Were you hurt?’ he asked sharply. He liked to think he was a decent employer, but if she’d been hurt...
Her dark eyes widened. ‘Oh, no. No. It wasn’t anything like that. It was...a one-night thing.’
A one-night thing? The words sat oddly with him. Freddie was precise and ordered in everything she did. She was always prepared. And he imagined that any ‘one night thing’ she embarked on, she’d take the same approach. Which made an unplanned pregnancyextremelyunlikely.
‘A one-night thing when...what? Your partner somehow forgot the most basic approach to birth control?’ He knew as soon as he’d said it, that he was letting his headache and his fatigue speak for him, and that the habit of treating Freddie the way he’d treat himself was deeply ingrained. But he didn’t take it back, because somewhere inside of him he was angry. Angry with her.
She flushed even deeper, her spine stiffening, her narrow shoulders going back. ‘Sir, would you like some painkillers? You have a headache, I think.’
Augustine narrowed his gaze. Was that a...rebuke?
You deserved that, though.
Yes, he did. But she’d never rebuked him before.
There were high spots of colour on her cheeks, but her expression was still serene. Untouchable.
Except someone had touched her.
A deeper shock hit him. Someone had touched her. Someone had wanted her. Someone had taken her to bed.
‘Who was it?’ he asked, before he could stop himself. ‘Tell me. Who’s the lucky man?’
Those spots of colour blazed brighter in her cheeks and her expression was not quite so serene anymore. ‘I’m sorry, sir, but that’s my business.’ There was a slight husk in her voice, the sound of it hauntingly familiar. He couldn’t think where he’d heard echoes of it before, but he was sure he had.
He shook away the feeling. ‘Fair enough. I just find it difficult to believe that a woman as organised as you had sex that resulted in an unplanned pregnancy.’ He found himself looking at her hands again. She put them behind her back.
Interesting. She was hiding something, some kind of reaction from him. What was it?
Perhaps she’s upset she’s having an unplanned pregnancy. Just a wild guess...
Once, a long time ago, Augustine had considered other people’s feelings. But after the accident, he’d become selfish. His recovery from the head injury had been compounded by grief at losing the father he’d adored, then losing all the things he’d once been able to do that his father had been so proud of, that would make him a worthy heir and his father’s successor. Then had come the realisation that he would never get those things back, that he would never be the heir his father wanted or his country deserved.
After that he hadn’t had the time or energy to consider other people’s feelings as well, and it hadn’t bothered him before. He hadn’t let it bother him before. Except knowing he’d considered Freddie’s feelings least of all bothered him now.
Her face was pale except for those high spots of colour, her expression giving nothing away, and another realisation hit him. He didn’t know a thing about her. Not a single thing. It had just...never seemed important before. But now... curiosity tugged at him. Perhaps he was going to have to dig a little deeper into this pregnancy business, get some answers.
‘Well, whether you believe it or not, I’m still pregnant,’ she said. ‘Sir, if you would, I need to know if you’re going to give me that time off or not.’
‘No,’ he said automatically. ‘Of course I can’t give you six months off. That’s impossible, Freddie, and you know it.’
‘I have a replacement lined up and—’
‘No,’ he repeated. ‘I don’t want a replacement and you know very well why.’ He picked up his tumbler and downed the rest of his cocktail, pain throbbing in his skull. ‘There’s no reason you can’t continue to work for me while you’re pregnant. And if it’s other people you’re worried about, do not. I’ll make sure no awkward questions are asked.’
Her mouth compressed and he found himself staring at its shape. It was a perfect, full rosebud.
Someone had kissed that mouth. Someone had tasted it.
Why are you noticing her mouth?
He couldn’t think. He shouldn’t be noticing Freddie’s mouth or wondering who had kissed her, or feeling that strange possessiveness stalk through him. Or even being curious. It didn’t matter that she was pregnant. What did he care? As long as she did her job, that was all that mattered.
It’s that night three months ago, that’s the problem. You haven’t been the same since.
Unbidden, the memory of the night in Al Da’ira slipped through his head, the way it had been doing for the past three months, and often at the most inopportune times.
