Around her, the air sharpened. She could feel people turning to stare at them curiously.
Forcing herself to hold his gaze, she glared at him. ‘This has got nothing to do with you.’
A nerve pulsed along his jawline.
‘And you want me to take your word for that, do you?’ He gazed at her in naked disbelief. ‘On the basis of what? Your outstanding display of honesty up until now?’
She blinked. ‘You don’t know for certain if you’re the father,’ she said quickly, failing to control the rush of colour to her face.
His eyes locked onto hers, and instantly she felt the tension in her spine tighten like a guy rope.
‘No. But you do.’
She flinched, wrong-footed.
How was this happening?
Not him finding her. It would have been a matter of moments for his secretary to check her flight time. But why was he here? Over the last three months she’d spent hours imagining this moment, playing out every possible type of scenario. In not one of them had he pursued her to the airport and angrily demanded the truth.
Her heart began to pound fiercely.
It would be tempting to think that he cared about the baby.
Tempting, but foolish.
Ram’s appearance at the airport, his frustration and anger, had nothing to do with any sudden rush of paternal feelings on his part. Understandably, he hadn’t liked finding out second-hand that she was pregnant. But that didn’t mean he could just turn up and start throwing his weight around.
‘I don’t see why you’re making this into such a big deal,’ she snapped. ‘We both know that you have absolutely no interest in being a father anyway.’
Ram studied her face, his pulse beating slow and hard.
It was true that up until this moment, he’d believed that fatherhood was not for him. But he’d been talking about a concept, a theoretical child, and Nola knew that as well as he did.
His chest tightened with anger.
‘That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know when I am going to be one. In fact, I think I have a right to know. However, if you’re saying that you really don’t know who the father is, then I suggest we find out for certain.’ His eyes held hers. ‘I believe it’s a fairly simple test. Of course it would mean you’d have to miss your flight...’
Imprisoned by his dark grey gaze, Nola gritted her teeth.
He was calling her bluff, and she hated him for it.
But what she hated more was the fact that in spite of her anger and resentment she could feel her body unfurling inside, as though it was waking from a long hibernation. And even though he was causing mayhem in her life, her longing for him still sucked the breath from her lungs.
Glancing at his profile, she felt a pulse of heat that had nothing to do with anger skim over her skin. But right now the stupid, senseless way she reacted to Ram didn’t matter. All she cared about was catching that plane—and that was clearly not going to happen unless Ram found out, one way or another, if this baby was his.
So why not just tell him the truth?
Squaring her shoulders, she met his gaze. ‘Fine,’ she said slowly. ‘You’re the father.’
She didn’t really know how she’d expected him to react, but he didn’t say or do anything. He just continued to stare at her impassively, his grey eyes dark and unblinking.
‘I know you don’t want to be involved, and that’s fine. I’m not expecting you to be,’ she said quickly. ‘That’s one of the reasons I didn’t tell you.’
‘So you had more than one reason, then?’ he said quietly.
She frowned, unsure of how she should respond. But she didn’t get a chance to reply, for as though he had suddenly become conscious of the sidelong glances and the sudden stillness surrounding them, he reached down and picked up her suitcase.
‘I suggest we finish this in private.’