Briony’s muscles stiffened defensively, and she could not bring herself to look at Kieron.
‘Yes,’ he said quietly.
Nicky’s shoulders hunched.
‘I haven’t got a daddy,’ he said sorrowfully. ‘But I want one, don’t I, Mummy?’
Briony felt as though she wanted to die, or to have the ground open up and swallow her—preferably the former. A muscle twitched in Kieron’s jaw and she couldn’t tell whether he was angry or amused.
‘Well, we’ll have to see what we can do about that, son,’ he said in a deep voice. ‘Why don’t you have a little sleep while your mummy and I talk about it?’
‘Why did you have to say that to him?’ Briony breathed angrily, when Nicky had been tucked up in Kieron’s huge king-sized bed. To her surprise the little boy had evinced no concern at sleeping in the strange room, accepting Kieron’s assurance that they would be within call.
‘It’s already hard enough for us. He’s far too young to understand why he doesn’t have a father.…’
‘And young enough to forget that he ever did not,’ Kieron replied in a clipped voice.
She fell back, clutching the deep leather settee.
‘What do you mean?’ But she already knew what he meant, and her eyes told him so.
‘Nicky is my child, Briony, you can’t deny it.’
‘You fathered him, don’t you mean?’ Briony lashed back. ‘But you have no other right to him.’
‘No? I wonder what a court of law would say about that? He needs a father,’ he said abruptly. ‘Surely even you can see that?’
Her eyes dilated in fear, her voice choked.
‘You’re not going to take him away from me!’
He was watching her through narrowed eyes. ‘It needn’t come to that.’
What was he going to ask for? Visiting rights? She would never allow Nicky to be torn between them, and she would tell him so.
‘We could always marry and provide our son with both his parents.’
Shock silenced her.
‘Marry you?’ she croaked when she had got her voice back. ‘After what you did to me last time. Never!’
‘I gave you Nicky,’ he reminded her softly.
She moved away from him, sitting down on the settee and moving her head restlessly from side to side.
‘Nicky and I don’t need you.’
‘You may not, but Nicky does,’ he corrected. ‘He needs a father.’
‘Then I’ll find him one,’ Briony announced tartly, gasping in protest as his fingers fastened cruelly round her fingers. She had made a tactical error, and Kieron’s eyes betrayed it. He would never let her give his son a stepfather.
‘You little bitch!’ he breathed angrily. ‘You would do as well, just to spite me, wouldn’t you? Well, two can play at that game. Nicky is my son and I want him badly enough to take you as well if I have to, but if you won’t agree then I’ll find Nicky another mother. One who can be at home with him all day to make sure he doesn’t go falling out of trees,’ he taunted cruelly. ‘In custody cases the court’s prime concern is for the child. I could give him the security of two parents; not a mother who has to leave him with child-minders while she goes out to work. I’m sure you don’t need to use much imagination to know who the court would favour?’
How could he be so cruel? A sob rose in her throat, to be instantly suppressed. She must stay calm if she was to win the fight for Nicky. She must use logic and clear-sighted arguments.
‘Until today you didn’t even know he existed,’ she persisted. ‘How can you say you want him?’
‘Didn’t you, the first moment you set eyes on him?’ he asked softly.