But nothing prepared him for the surge of adrenaline that pumped through his blood, hearing she’d considered having his child in secret. Or perhaps not having it at all!
To be deprived of his own flesh and blood?
He who had no family at all?
Adoni shot to his feet, paced to the window then spun to march back to the door.
Damn this tiny room. There wasn’t space to breathe, much less think.
He turned and strode to the window, planting his fists on the sill and watching rain stream down the glass.
‘I don’t honestly know.’ Her voice was muted as if it came from far away. Perhaps the thunderous pulse in his ears blocked his hearing. ‘I needed time to think. What you said, the way you were in London, scared me.’
Adoni swung round, stunned. ‘I wouldneverhurt a woman. Or a child.’
Yet there was a brittle quality about Alice as she watched him that told him she wasn’t ready to trust.
Adoni scraped a hand across his collarbone, rubbing hard. The situation was laughable. It hadn’t been confirmed that the child was his. Yet there she sat staring down her nose at him as if he were the one who didn’t measure up.
A maelstrom of emotions warred inside him.
Adoni, with his usual single-mindedness, ignored them. Emotions didn’t help. They made you weak and you had to be strong to survive in this world.
First, he had to establish if the child was his.
Second, if itwashis, he and Alice needed to discuss the future. There would be arrangements to make, legalities to finalise.
He glanced around the sad little bedsit. Not here. His brain wouldn’t even let him picture his child here.
He breathed deep, considering his options.
If the paternity test confirmed her statement, there was one obvious path that would ensure the child’s future.
Marriage. It would cement his absolute right to bring up the child as he saw fit.
Except his distaste for marriage was all but insuperable, given Chryssa’s betrayal and that of his mother. Just the thought of it made his skin crawl. To be tied to a woman he barely knew, when those he’d thought he’d known absolutely had betrayed him utterly?
No, that wasn’t the answer. Which meant any other arrangement they made had to be completely watertight.
As the child’s mother, Alice could be an ally or a formidable opponent, with rights under the law that couldn’t be ignored. It was imperative they forge an understanding. Imperative she trust him.
Instead of looking at him as if he were the Prince of Darkness himself.
Adoni forced himself to take a seat on the narrow bed, composing his features. ‘I’ll have my PA reschedule the paternity test for tomorrow.’
Slowly, she nodded. ‘If that’s what it takes to convince you.’
He told himself things would be so much simpler if the baby were someone else’s. Yet already he was working on the basis Alice carried his child. His gaze dropped to her flat belly. Instantly she stiffened.
How different she was from the uninhibited, passionate woman he’d met in London. That inner fire and her cheeky attitude had attracted him. Along with that sexy, streamlined body and a mouth so delectable it made his head spin just looking at it.
Adoni spread his hands in a posture of openness. ‘In the circumstances my reaction to your news was reasonable.’ Alice opened her mouth but he lifted a hand, stopping her. ‘I can understand why you thought it wasn’t, but our experiences have been different. I know you had a close-knit family.’
‘I have nothing to hide. Anything you wanted to know you could just have asked, instead of paying an investigator to pry.’
At least now she looked haughty rather than spooked. Adoni preferred that. Alice’s spirit had appealed from the start.
‘Only a very little prying,’ he murmured. ‘I know you were born in Cornwall, only child to artistic parents, and that apparently you were all very happy together.’ Until her mother died in a car crash that put her father into a wheelchair.