‘Leave it, Ettie,’ he said softly. ‘The doctor’s on her way.’
Her eyes flashed open. ‘A doctor? I don’t need a doctor. I just need another day in bed...’
He was so very near and at her words something stirred in his eyes. Physical weakness sapped her willpower. His bed was very near. His bed, where he’d made her feel everything.
Her mouth dried as her skin sizzled. Her yearning multiplied to the point of madness. And he knew her thoughts, didn’t he? Because he leaned closer, his hand sliding through her hair as he cupped her head and searched her eyes.
‘I’m probably infectious,’ she mumbled, a final, hopeless defence.
She’d become a little challenge for him again, that was all.
‘Too late. I think I’ve already got it,’ he replied grimly. ‘Feverish. Sleepless. Loss of appetite...’
Her heart pounded so hard it was a wonder it didn’t snap her ribs. ‘Leon—’
A loud knock on the door dragged his attention from her and his too rare smile flashed even as he groaned. ‘Just in time...’
Ettie pulled herself into a sitting position while Leon answered the door. She heard a concise conversation in Greek and didn’t understand a word.
‘Ettie, this is Dr Notaras,’ Leon said briskly, returning to the lounge followed by a tall, glamorous brunette. ‘I’ll just be in the study. Call me when you’re done.’ He said that last to the doctor.
Ettie smiled wanly at the terrifyingly skilled woman and tried to tell her she was fine, but the doctor wasn’t all that interested in what Ettie had to say initially. She was too busy taking her temperature and looking in her ears and mouth.
‘You’ve not got any fever,’ the doctor noted with a cautious expression. ‘And there’s no sign of any ear or throat infection. Nothing in the chest. Your pulse is strong, blood pressure good.’ She then asked a few questions about her background—no diabetes or history of heart problems?
Ettie shook her head. But what about the nausea? And her sensitivity to some smells?
‘Is there any chance you could be pregnant?’ the doctor asked blandly.
‘N...’ She broke off.
There was only one, impossible chance. Although...
She pressed her lips together to stop herself stuttering. There’d been more than one chance in that one magical night. Her brain kickstarted into frantic overdrive—desperately searching her memory for dates, signs, denial. Finally she seized on the only important fact she could bear to consider. They’d used protection. Every time, right?
‘I have a home test in my bag and I can take bloods right now...’ the doctor said with quiet efficiency after Ettie’s lengthy silence had spoken volumes.
‘I can investigate that possibility on my own,’ Ettie whispered with a shake of her head. She needed to get away from Leon and find out for herself.
But the doctor searched in her bag for a second and then handed Ettie a slim foil package. She gave Ettie her contact card as well.
‘Get in touch if you’d like to see me again. It’s truly no problem.’ The doctor gave her a professional, but sincere smile.
Ettie had the horrendous feeling it was a huge problem.
‘I can come to wherever you are,’ the doctor said encouragingly. ‘Any time. Leon said—’
‘This is just between us, right?’ Ettie interrupted swiftly. This woman wasn’t about to tell Leon pregnancy was even a possibility, was she?
‘Of course.’ The doctor nodded and stood.
‘Thank you.’
Dr Notaras called something in Greek and Ettie quickly put the slim package into her pocket. She wasn’t discussing this with Leon; there was no need. Because it was impossible, wasn’t it?
She heard more rapid Greek and the lift chime. A few moments later Leon walked back into the lounge alone. He didn’t look any less serious, or any more relieved.
‘I should get back downstairs.’ She couldn’t look him in the eye.
‘You’re staying here,’ he replied curtly.
‘Leon—’
‘If you go back down, I’ll cart you straight back up here again even if you scream at me to stop. I don’t care who stares.’
Furious at his high-handedness, she determinedly stood in a swift movement. ‘I have a job to do and I’m perfectly capable of doing it.’
‘What’s this?’
Ettie glanced down. The pregnancy test had fallen from her pocket and with his damn panther-like reflexes he’d picked it up before she’d even registered it had tumbled.
‘It was just something the doctor...’ She trailed off, clenching her fists tightly as he read the print on the packet.
He looked from the test to her. His face had actually whitened beneath his olive-toned skin and his eyes narrowed. ‘Is this a possibility?’
She couldn’t reply; she was too shocked to see him looking so appalled. Her pulse skittered. He didn’t want this. He really, really didn’t want this. Well, nor did she. She breathed in and out, but couldn’t think for the noise of her blood pounding in her ears.
‘Ettie?’ he snapped.
She shook her head. ‘We used protection.’
Leon’s breath hissed out between his gritted teeth. Her plea granted the smallest peace in his sea of panic. It revealed she’d only him to consider, only that one night. There was no other man in her life and she’d not slept with anyone else in a long time. But then he’d known that the night he’d been with her. She’d been shy and sweet and definitely not especially experienced. The expression of rapture and amazement on her face when she’d come in his arms haunted him. He wanted to make her respond like that again; he’d been aching to do that for weeks.
But now?
The fear in her eyes only grew. ‘I just can’t be pregnant. Not to—’
‘Me?’ He frowned. Yeah, even she instinctively knew he wasn’t father material. His blood chilled. ‘Sorry, Ettie. I know there aren’t any other possibilities for the baby’s paternity.’
She swallowed but didn’t deny it.
‘Go and do the pregnancy test,’ he ordered. He needed to know. Now.
Her hand shook as she took the package from him. He could all but see her brain processing, frantically remembering dates, the dawning realisation that it might be real. That maybe the reason she’d been feeling rotten wasn’t from any infection.
Why hadn’t she told him just now? What would have happened had he still been away? If he hadn’t been here to see her faint? Would she have told him once she knew? Horror burned. This was everything he didn’t want. Flickering memories stirred—of the childhood he’d hated. Of loneliness and lack of power. Everything he didn’t want.
He paced the room as he waited. He had to get on top of this situation. Now.
She couldn’t look at him when she returned from the bathroom. She didn’t speak either. She just sat back down on the sofa and drew her feet up until she was in a small ball. An intense pressure built in his chest. But he leaned against the wall and waited, even though he already knew.
‘It can’t be right,’ she said in a whisper. ‘We used protection.’
He stared at her fixedly. ‘Nothing is one hundred per cent fail-proof.’
‘Abstinence is,’ she muttered grimly.
Her answer offered a wisp of amusement. ‘You know that wasn’t an option that night.’
She lifted her lashes, her eyes revealing her distress. ‘We’re talking lifelong consequences, Leon.’
So she was going to have the baby. One swirling chunk of unease settled within him.
‘What are you thinking?’ he asked as calmly as he was able. Which was frankly nothing on his usual impassive façade.
She shied away from looking at him again.
‘Ettie?’ His almost customary cool rose a few degrees. This was so persona
l, so deeply troubling, he couldn’t keep his equanimity. Because it wasn’t quite up to him any more.
‘I need some space.’ She tried to stand up but her face turned grey.
‘Sit down.’ He was furious with her.
‘It’ll pass,’ she snapped.
And just like that the atmosphere flared, leaping right into dangerous. Emotional.
‘Most probably. But until it does, you stay right where you are.’ He huffed out a tight breath. ‘You’re not going back to work today.’ He threw out a gesture to close down the immediate argument in her eyes. ‘Give this today at least, damn it.’
They both breathed out harshly. And then she sank back down to sit on the sofa again.