‘Open up, Leah.’
Her knees actually buckled. She braced both hands on the door—whether to keep herself upright or hold the door secure she wasn’t sure, as raw elation flared a split second before fear exploded. A welter of emotions cascaded through her body. Was that really—?
‘Leah? It’s Theo.’
He was so arrogant he didn’t give his surname. He didn’t need to.
‘Open up, Leah.’
She was so thrown she obeyed almost without thinking, somehow distanced from reality. She saw dark blue jeans first, and then glanced up to take in the white tee stretched snug across a masculine chest that looked so powerful a rush of something illicit pooled low in her belly. She snapped her attention further north, only to be ensnared by his gorgeously rare green gaze.
Time simply stopped.
She had to tell him.
‘Theo.’ She dragged in a decent breath, trying to clear her head.
The casual clothing didn’t make him any less powerful or less intimidating than when he’d been in his perfect suit. If anything he seemed more dangerous. He looked literally edgier, as if a little loss of weight had sharpened his features, making them more starkly apparent. He was more sensational than she remembered. Her body hummed and all she wanted was to move closer.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked vacantly, still unable to stop staring.
He didn’t answer. He was too busy staring back at her. His gaze trawled over every inch of her face, then her body. Her self-consciousness grew as the silence thickened. Her leggings were so faded they were more grey than black, with a hole at the knee, and her oldest pair of lurid leg warmers were barely clutching her calves. Her tee was old too. But happily it was loose. She curled her toes into the thin rug beneath her feet, almost squirming through his undeniably sensual inspection. Everything—her thoughts, senses, wants—heightened. It was as if she’d only been half alive these last few months and the second he’d crossed her threshold she’d been plugged back into the mains power supply. Energy and excitement thrummed through her veins.
She had to tell him.
‘I heard you were trying to get in touch with me.’ He smiled but his eyes were sharp as he watched her jerkily step away from him.
She couldn’t smile back. She wasn’t sure she could even speak. But now was the time. Horribly short of breath but trying to hide it, she leaned against the wall for support as he closed her door and walked into the middle of her too-small flat.
‘How did you hear that?’ she asked.
‘You called into the London branch.’
‘So you got my message.’
‘Unfortunately the message was lost or I’d have got here sooner.’
He hadn’t got the message? ‘If you didn’t get the message then how—?’
‘There were cameras, security guards.’
‘And I looked suspicious?’ She’d laugh if she weren’t so terrified about telling him. ‘How did you get my address?’
‘My security team is very good.’
At what? Protecting him from the unwanted attentions of women? Did they have to do that often?
His gaze didn’t waver from her. ‘All of this is irrelevant. Why did you want to see me, Leah?’
She felt as if she were standing on the edge of a very high precipice and had no choice but to jump off. ‘I’m pregnant.’
He didn’t move. In fact he remained so still she wondered if she’d actually said it. Had her words even been audible? She swallowed hard.
‘I’m pregnant.’ She made herself repeat it, only now her throat had tightened so much it came out on a husky breath.
‘Congratulations,’ he said mechanically.
She stared, waiting for more of a response. But he still didn’t move. She realised he didn’t fully understand. She made herself breathe again and pushed on. ‘I’m pregnant by you.’
‘No.’ He was uncompromising in stance and in denial. ‘It’s not mine. We slept together months ago.’
‘Yes. I’m four months pregnant.’
His mouth compressed and his searing gaze skimmed over her body again. ‘You don’t look four months pregnant. You’d be larger.’
‘And you’re an expert?’ Anger suddenly bubbled within her—she wasn’t an idiot and she wasn’t going to let him treat her like one. ‘Because I’m so tall, there’s room for the baby to hide,’ she muttered. ‘But the doctor said everything’s developing okay.’
He stared at her fixedly. ‘It’s not possible. I used condoms.’
‘Well, apparently one of them failed.’ Her heart clogged her throat, choking her.
He remained rigid in the centre of the small room. ‘And you’ve known all this time?’
‘No, of course not.’ She frowned. ‘I only found out last week.’
An almost vicious brightness lit his eyes, slicing through her. ‘Well, I’m no expert,’ he drawled, ‘but how is that possible?’
‘I...um...’ She swallowed. ‘I’ve been so busy, I just didn’t realise—’
‘You didn’t realise?’ He stepped forward before stopping himself with a jerk. Tension streamed from his body.
She winced at the flare of fury in his eyes. ‘I went to the doctor last week. She confirmed it. Then I tried to contact you.’
‘You tried?’ he echoed sarcastically.
A horrible hot feeling slithered inside as she nodded.
‘You phoned my office but didn’t leave your number. You walked into the London office once. You gave up pretty quickly.’
His scathing assessment flayed. He was right. She’d not done enough.
He shook his head. ‘Am I the only possible father?’
His question stabbed—how could he think otherwise? She paused; had he had other lovers since her? Of course, he probably had. That reality hurt more than it should. But he’d known she’d been a virgin—hadn’t he realised how rare it was for her?
‘You think I started having casual sex every other night?’ She glared at him. ‘We can get a DNA test if you don’t believe me.’
His eyes blazed before he abruptly turned away, rolling his shoulders. ‘No. It’s okay. I believe you.’ His voice sounded flat and hard. He drew in a deep breath and swung back to face her. ‘What’s the plan?’
‘Plan?’ she echoed.
‘You’re four months pregnant. You’d failed to contact me, so what were you going to do?’
‘I was going to...’ She swallowed. She’d been trying to get over her panic enough to make progress. She’d been failing on that so far.
‘Were you going to go home to your parents?’ He watched her closely.
‘No,’ she muttered. She wasn’t ready to face the recriminations and rolled eyes, the sighs of impatience because she’d failed to meet their standards again. She couldn’t even move to another city and make a success of it.
‘You haven’t told them either?’
‘They’re very busy and they live too far away.’ She’d never want her baby in that cold intellectual environment where normal people couldn’t perform highly enough.
‘I live even further away.’ He stepped towards her. ‘Have you thought about that?’
She hadn’t thought about it at all. She’d not been able to get past worrying about telling him. Frankly she’d been too paralysed to predict his reaction. But it was bad. Bitter betrayal burned in his eyes and he was coldly furious, the antithesis of the man she’d trusted so completely that night. There was no softening in his reserve now.
‘You travel a lot.’ She tried to reason a way out of the mess. ‘If you want, you can visit...a lot.’
‘If I want?’ He looked astounded. ‘You think I’ll settle for seeing my child every other week at best?’ The lethal way he fired his words made goosebumps lift—let alone the impact of what he’
d actually said.
He loomed closer, even angrier. ‘Not going to happen, Leah. Never going to happen. Have you talked to anyone about this?’
‘Only the doctor.’ She hated how pathetically breathy her answer sounded.
She’d not told anyone at work. She’d avoided Maeve. She’d not returned Zoe’s last call... She’d been in denial.
‘Good. That means we can work out our story more effectively.’
‘Our story?’