He could cope with clingy, he decided, as long as she got the love stuff out of her head and grew up a little.Sì,he could cope with clingy fine. Nobody was perfect, after all. She would text him, he surmised. She would save face by asking him about Harley or even Annabel, he thought confidently. He would have her back long before Christmas.
CHAPTER EIGHT
AMYEMERGEDFROMseeing her doctor even paler than when she had arrived at the surgery.
Although she had believed it was impossible, although she had thought she was safe from the risk, she was pregnant with Sev’s baby. Over the past ten days she had been sick on two occasions, had developed a strange sensitivity towards the smell of frying food and her breasts had moved up half a cup size while also becoming painfully tender. She had taken a pregnancy test when her period was late just to reassure herself that there was nothing to worry about, only to learn that there was very definitely something to worry about.
It had been ten days since the party. As December advanced, all around her the Christmas season was gathering steam. Customers at the café were chatting about office parties and arriving laden with shopping and their children were bursting with anticipation. She hadn’t seen Sev again but unbelievably he had sent her flowers. Flowers with a card.
Waiting to hear from you
And ironically that had actually made her laugh, because it was textbook Sev to be bold and not to give an inch and there wasn’t much that roused her amusement in her current existence, which was just work, work and more work and now worry into the bargain. It was demoralising to appreciate that she had repeated her mother’s mistake and conceived by a man who would want neither her nor her child. A man who had casually sent her the most gorgeous bouquet just as if he hadn’t broken her stupid heart. Well, wouldn’t a pregnancy be a shock for him? she thought unhappily. Not to mention a huge shock for her, but she honestly hadn’t thought it was possible.
Only the test she had carried out for herself had told her that itwaspossible. The doctor in the clinic had reminded her that when she had recently changed to a different brand of pill she had been warned to take extra precautions for a month. She didn’t remember being told that, but perhaps her mind had been wandering because at the time, without an active sex life, the threat of consequences had not been something to worry about. Then there had been the bug she had succumbed to that same week, which would also have weakened her protection. Of course, none of that would have mattered hadSevremembered to use a condom. She reminded herself of that oversight on his part. They had both been very careless.
She texted him on the way home, a clutch of leaflets in her hand and a date organised for her first scan.
Need to see you urgently.
My house tonight. I’ll pick you up at six-thirty.
No, somewhere more neutral...but private.
A bar?
Amy deliberated and then agreed. At least if they were somewhere public they were less likely to have a row and she could get up and leave any time that she wanted. She returned to the shelter, which was abnormally quiet. Harold had surprised her by closing the surgery for two days, explaining that he had important appointments to keep. He had been unusually evasive with her as well when she’d asked questions and it was a surprise to her to climb the stairs to her room and find her boss and a stranger standing chatting outside her door.
Harold looked awkward. ‘Amy...this is my son, George. I’ve been showing George round our little domain. Would you be willing to let him see your room, just to see the size of it?’
‘Of course.’ Amy was only slightly surprised that she had not had the chance to meet George before, because he had been working abroad as a veterinary surgeon for several years.
The younger man nodded. ‘That would be helpful...if you don’t mind?’
‘Not a problem.’ Amy undid the lock that had been installed on the door when she moved in the year before. She was wondering what the size of her room had to do with anything. They glanced in and talked in low voices and, eventually, Harold gave her a smile of thanks and went back downstairs. Amy was tired, ridiculously tired, she thought, considering that she had had the day off, and she lay down on the bed to take a short nap, wanting to be firing on all possible cylinders by the time she met up with Sev.
When she told him her news, he would be shocked and angry, she thought heavily, probably reacting much as her father had twenty-odd years earlier because an unplanned pregnancy between two people who were not a couple was clearly a problem. But what could she do about that? And she was only telling him as a courtesy, not seeking his advice or support or anything else. Would he be disappointed that she wasn’t even prepared to consider a termination? Well, what did it matter if he was?
Amy didn’t have a single living relative aside of the father who didn’t want any contact with her, and she wanted her child, regardless of how difficult raising her baby alone would be. When her baby was born, she would have a family for the first time ever and she savoured that concept. Yes, it would be tough going it alone as a parent, but other women managed and why shouldn’t she, when she was willing to work hard? She was relieved that she would, at least, have completed her apprenticeship by the time her child was born, because that would equip her for a decent job in the future.
All those sensible thoughts aside, Amy’s drowsy brain centred back on Sev, lingering on unforgotten moments with Sev’s lean, hard body arching over hers and giving her the most incredible pleasure. Guiltily shelving that recollection, she curled up tighter.
While Amy dozed that afternoon, Sev struggled to concentrate on work. He had assumed that Amy would cave sooner. Ten days was longer than he had expected to wait to hear from her again and he had been mulling over other possible approaches before she texted him while at the same time reminding himself that he intended to allow her to walk away and stay away, that she was scarcely irreplaceable, that he had many other tempting options. Only that inner pep talk hadn’t worked because his libido seemed to have centred on her, so that the allure of other women, and the appeal of the variety he had always thought so necessary to his comfort, had faded. Was that because Amy had now made herself a challenge?
Was he one of those strange men doomed to only reallywanta woman who seemed unavailable? A bored man in need of novelty, who could only seriously desire what he couldn’t have? The suspicion bothered him, not least because he kept on breaking his own strict rules with Amy. He had had sex with her even though he had promised himself at the outset that he would not do so. He had taken her home, kept her thereall nightand his hunger for her had still not been sated. But it would get messy with Amy, drama queen that she was, he reflected grimly.
Did it ever occur to you...that I could be falling in love with you?
Who the hell said that to a guy she had only spent one night with? True, it had been an extraordinary night, but they had still only shared one night and a handful of meetings. And what was with the‘urgently’in that text of hers? In their relationship nothing could be urgent...
Except his desire to have her again, he acknowledged, a desire that kept him hard and aching. So, was he planning to forgive her? She had infuriated him, offended him. He leant back in his office chair and cursed. His mind, his thoughts were all over the place, not concentrated as was the norm for him. A lean brown fist clenched. He wanted his peace of mind back, his ability to focus. Was she the key?
He was willing to admit that he had screwed up with Amy. The sex had muddied the waters. He should have resisted her,notslept with her, at least not until that party was over and the truth was out. He could do nothing now to change anything that had happened, although it should have occurred to him sooner that Amy would be hurt by her father’s indifference and that she would blame him for that experience.
As for her accusation that he had neither compassion nor decency, that was categorically untrue. A lack of humility? Well, he was willing to own up to that flaw. He had tasted enough humility as a persecuted child to ensure that he would rarely be humble without good cause as an adult. In addition, he possessed the fierce confidence of a guy who very rarely found himself in the wrong.
But whether he liked it or not, hehadgone wrong with Amy. But if he could go back, would he be willing to forgo the pleasure of seeing Lawson’s face freeze and pale when he realised who Amy was? No, he had gained too much satisfaction from that moment to regret it, particularly when he thought of his sister’s tears and the hollow look of hurt that still haunted her eyes. Annabel had been bright and bubbly and happy until Lawson got hold of her and crushed her spirit and her ability to trust.
But that said, Sev was even angrier that Amy had been hurt too and that he had to accept that he had recklessly,blindlycaused that hurt. As for Lawson’s wife, well, he hadn’t thought of her at all, except as a sort ofdeusexmachina, who would hopefully punish Lawson even more for him. He felt vaguely sorry for the woman, but she had to have some idea of the nature of the man to whom she had been married for over twenty years.