Getting ready to meet Sev at the upmarket bar in Highgate, Amy would not allow herself to make a special effort. She wouldn’t be staying long; she wouldn’t be trying to attract him. There was no longer anything between them, although the birth of their child would change that, she thought in shock acceptance of the link that would be created between them. If Sev planned to be involved with their child, she would have to work on having a more friendly relationship with him. She shrugged, reckoning that the occasional smile and polite word would suffice if their paths crossed. That would cost her little but, for all she knew, he wouldn’t be interested in access to their son or daughter. He might not be too much different from her own father.
Petting Hopper and tucking him back in his cage with the promise of a future treat, she headed for the Tube station. The meeting place was a fashionable bar and busy. She picked her way through the throng, feeling underdressed in her somewhat shabby black sweater and jeans amidst all the smartly dressed office workers congregated round the bar, her anxious gaze engaged in skimming round the room in search of Sev. He lifted a lean brown hand to signal her from a corner booth, which would mercifully offer them, she realised, a fair amount of privacy.
It was now or never, Sev registered grimly. He had to apologise,hadto bite the bullet and hope that that climbdown worked some magic for him. He wanted his life back to normal and it didn’t feel normal any more without Amy. He didn’t understand that extraordinary fact, but didn’t need to understand it to know that he wanted her back, wanted to see her smile at him again. And if the miracle cure to the emptiness dogging him was an apology, he was determined to give it a go, even if on some level the concept still struck him as humiliating.
Sev signalling her, Amy thought painfully, suddenly reminded her painfully of their first encounter at the café, and she stilled before she remembered that that had all been one big fake from his supposed interest to his every question. Now pale and taut, she sank down on the bench opposite him and fought not to be electrified with excitement by his eyes glinting at her from below the lush black screen of his lashes.
‘Hi,’ she muttered awkwardly, her fingers plucking nervously at the cuffs of her sweater.
Sev breathed in deep, afraid of losing his momentum. ‘I’m sorry I hurt you,’ he murmured quietly, apologising for the first time ever to a woman. ‘That was never my intention. I’m afraid I didn’t spend any time thinking about how that little confrontation would impact on you.’
‘We don’t need to talk about that any more,’ Amy told him uncomfortably, her facial muscles tightening for she saw no point now in going back over still-sensitive subjects, but she was relieved that he had ultimately recognised his mistakes. ‘I think we did the topic to death and it’s behind us now.’
‘What would you like to drink?’ Sev asked as a waitress appeared by the edge of the table and stared at Sev as though he had walked off a movie screen in front of her.
‘Just a water for me, please.’ With his attention momentarily distracted, Amy feasted her attention on him, noting the shadow of dark stubble accentuating his sculpted jaw line and beautifully full sensual mouth, and suppressing a shiver to stare down at the leopard-print table surface instead. Remembering his mouth on her body, she felt hot all over and she pressed her thighs together, fighting to shut out those embarrassingly intimate memories, which now felt inappropriate. But it was a challenge because Sevdidlook exactly as though he had walked off a movie screen. His sheer masculine beauty made him incredibly noticeable.
Sev studied her with an odd little smile that lit his stunning eyes to gleaming gold and quirked his mobile mouth. ‘So...what issourgent?’ he prompted in a distinctly playful tone.
Amy breathed in deep as her bottle of water arrived and then swallowed hard as she poured it into a glass. ‘It’s something serious.’
‘Lawson hasn’t been in touch with you, has he?’ Sev demanded in a concerned undertone. ‘I assumed he hadn’t kept tabs on you and wouldn’t know where you lived butif—’
‘No...er...it’s nothing to do with him,’ Amy hastened to assure him.
Soft colour had lit up her cheeks and as she stared down at her glass, the very image of awkwardness, Sev wanted to reach across the table and haul her into his arms, an urge that shook him when he was trying to play it cool. Although, he reasoned, playing it cool with Amy, who hadn’t a clue about how to play anything cool, was kind of surplus to requirements and might indeed lead to them sitting there saying nothing of importance all evening if he left the control of events in her hands.
Looking at her, though, was a treat, he acknowledged, stretching out his long legs in the vague hope of easing the taut fit of his trousers across the groin. She was wearing a sweater so large and long and loose, it might have been said that the sweater was wearing her, but the black against her hair accentuated the sunshine gold of its colour and the pink in her cheeks enhanced those violet eyes, making them seem more purple than ever. He could see faint dark shadows beneath, though, that hinted at sleepless nights, and he liked that suspicion, indeedhopedshe had tossed and turned a few nights the way he had.
‘I’m pregnant, Sev,’ she whispered baldly.
And it was as if the world stopped turning for Sev, spinning him off unprepared into foreign territory, and he lost colour and froze.
‘And ithasto be yours,’ she added to prevent him from asking that question in the awful sudden silence, which sat like a brick wall between them and the loud bar chatter. ‘You’re probably wondering how.’
At that, Sev flung his dark head back, liquid-bronze eyes narrowed, steady. ‘No, I’m not wondering. I was irresponsible. What do you want to do?’
That simple question plunged right to the heart of the matter and his impressive calm reassured her that an ugly scene or recriminations were unlikely. ‘I want to have the baby,’ she almost whispered, bracing herself for a critical comment.
Sev released his breath in a slow measured hiss. ‘OK.’
‘That’s what was urgent,’ Amy explained. ‘But I don’t want anything from you. I can tell you that now. Letting you know about this is just a courtesy.’
Sev’s bronze gaze blazed brilliant gold. ‘Just a courtesy,’ he repeated, his dark deep drawl almost swallowing the phrase.
How the hell was it just a courtesy to tell him when it washischild as well? But he said nothing, reluctant to say anything that might upset or alienate her. Why? At that moment, she might as well have had a little heavenly halo blossoming over her head etched with the immortal words,mother of my unborn child. And heknewhe had to be cautious with what he said and what he did. Even so, he wasn’t planning to sit back and hope for the best as his own rather naïve father had done when his pregnant fiancée had changed her mind about marrying him. Nor was he prepared to watch from a distance as she inevitably brought other father figures into her life to bring up his child.
‘I would like to be involved,’ Sev murmured quietly. ‘Fullyinvolved...’
Amy nodded, wondering why she had the strangest suspicion that she was sitting dangerously close to a ticking time bomb as goose flesh broke out on her skin below her sweater. ‘What would that entail?’
‘I would like to come to scans and stuff.’
‘No. I wouldn’t like that.’ Amy rebutted the idea of that instantly.
‘Perhaps you could share them after you receive them,’ Sev said stiffly, shifting gear at that first tacit refusal but maintaining his assurance. ‘I would also like to help you financially now or in any other way that would be helpful to you.’
‘No...er...no,’ Amy interrupted in dismay. ‘Nothing like that will be necessary until the baby is born. I can manage fine until then. I’ve got a job and somewhere to live. I’m all right for now.’