‘You broke my nose!’ Oliver Lawson gasped in disbelief, blood staining his shirt front.
‘I would like to break every bone in your body but, fortunately for you, your daughter stopped me,’ Sev breathed icily, thrusting the older man in the direction of the door while Amy struggled to catch her breath.
Only minutes later she heard a car starting up and she released her breath in a long sigh of relief.
‘You hit him...’ Amy croaked as Sev appeared in the doorway.
‘Not half as hard as I wanted to,’ Sev breathed in a raw undertone. ‘The bastard! Thinking he could walk into our house and abuse you! And callingyoua gold-digger? A man who married a woman he didn’t love to milk her like a cash cow? I gather he assumed I’d be in London at my office...idiot! I was afraid of something like this happening because he’s blamingyoufor his downfall when it’s his own lies and extra-marital affairs which have caused his problems.’
A little thrown by that spirited speech and the surprising admission that Sev had feared such an approach on her behalf, Amy sat down because she was feeling somewhat dizzy in the wake of all the excitement. ‘You shouldn’t have hit him,’ she said numbly again. ‘Violence is never an answer.’
‘But it can be, in certain circumstances,verysatisfying,’ Sev slotted in without remorse. ‘When I caught that last sentence and saw him moving towards you, blatantly trying to bully you...and not only are youmywoman, you’re pregnant and even more vulnerable...’ He fell silent, compressing his lips as he expelled his breath in a pent-up surge and raked long brown fingers angrily through his already tousled black hair. ‘To be honest, I wanted to rip him apart for even daring to come near you! What did he want?’
Amy explained about the NDA and her refusal, concluding by saying, ‘Not that I want to mention that we’re related to anybody!’
‘I’m sorry that you were embarrassed like that and that I put you in the firing line with him without thinking about the consequences at the time,’ Sev murmured gravely as he studied her, his lean dark features taut with concern. ‘He would never have sought you out if I hadn’t brought you to his attention and embarrassed him.’
‘But you didn’t think that through when you embarked on your revenge project,’ she completed for him.
‘I wasn’t capable of putting myself in your position then. I had zero empathy and tunnel vision,’ he acknowledged curtly. ‘I just saw that Annabel was hurt and I wanted to hurt him back...but he’s not sensitive enough to be hurt in the same way as you are.’
Sev bent down and lifted her where she sat and settled her down again full length along the sofa. ‘You still look ill. He frightened you, shocked you. Maybe I should call a doctor.’
‘Oh, don’t be silly,’ Amy parried. ‘I was just thinking of poor Annabel having to deal with him all alone that night that she stumbled and fell. He’s scary in a temper and I’m ashamed that he’s my father. I didn’t appreciate until now that what my mother screamed at me about my father the day we rowedwasgenuinely the truth about him. I often thought that she could have said that stuff to punish me and make me more grateful that I had her.’
Sev hovered, still all shaken up but unable to grasp why that was the case in the aftermath of the encounter. He had enjoyed hitting Lawson and throwing him out, but he was appalled by Amy’s pallor and distress and the dreadful awareness that he had not kept her safe in their home from such an ugly approach. Indeed, a whole slew of unfamiliar emotions were assailing Sev in a tidal wave in that moment and guilt rose uppermost. He was incredibly protective of Amy and hated seeing her suffer, but it felt much worse to be forced to accept thathisactions were the direct cause of that suffering. In a blind need to seek revenge for the harm caused to his sister, he had fuelled Oliver Lawson’s resentment against Amy and her very survival.
‘I triggered his visit with what I did to you at the party,’ he murmured flatly. ‘I didn’t consider the outcome, not for you as his daughter.’
‘No, you didn’t,’ Amy agreed softly. ‘And it did kill any little fantasy I had about my mother having lied about the kind of man he was, but that was for the best.’
His high cheekbones were clenched as hard as granite. ‘This whole situation hashurtyou and I would never have knowingly chosen to do that to you.’
Amy sighed. ‘You wouldn’t do itnow. I know that.’
‘At the time, I only considered Annabel and I realised once I saw your history that he would never want a relationship with her child either,’ Sev proffered hesitantly. ‘I am ashamed that I was that arrogant, that insensitive to your feelings as his daughter.’
‘I forgive you because you’ve changed...at least with me,’ Amy interposed. ‘You lashed out in anger against him and, the way you grew up, that’s not that unexpected. You weren’t taught to consider other people’s needs because nobody considered yours as a child.’
Sev had never put that together for himself and he studied her in surprise, rejoicing in her calm strength, understanding and compassion with an intensity that shook him, his fists knotting as he thought about what a creep her father was and how little she deserved his cruel indifference. And such was the fierce power of his own response in that moment as he looked at her that he understood himself for the first time in weeks and, all of a sudden, everything magically fell into place for him. He swung on his heel and strode out of the room, leaving her staring at the space where he had been, in bewilderment at his abrupt withdrawal from the conversation.
Didn’t he believe that she no longer blamed him for that party confrontation with her long-lost father? He hadn’t understood what he was doing. He had not foreseen the likely consequences because what was obvious to others was not always obvious to him. An emotionally neglected child, Sev only knew how to protect himself from hurt, and he had buried his emotions deep as a coping mechanism to better handle a callous mother and a resentful stepfather, who had never wanted responsibility for another man’s child in the first place.
That was why Sev didn’t recognise his own emotions, never mind those of the people around him. He knew the basics and had got by fine on the basics until Annabel had been badly treated and deeper feelings and urges had become involved, and from that point on Sev, in all his magnificent arrogance, had been as lost as the child he had once been. Amy realised that, just as she understood that her own reluctance to trust him came from the anxious insecurity that had dogged her since her mother had abandoned her to foster care.
Sev strode back in, his lean, darkly handsome face taut, and Amy’s heart sank because she immediately recognised his tension and feared the source of it. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked jerkily.
‘You would be closer to the truth if you asked what’s right,’ Sev quipped, his dazzling smile curving his wide sensual mouth as he feasted his stunning liquid-bronze eyes on her and dropped down with fluid drama onto one knee in front of her.
Amy sat up with a sudden start. ‘What are you doing?’ she gasped, refusing to credit what her brain was telling her.
‘Would the marriage proposal be any more acceptable if I told you that I loved you and that that’s why I want to marry you?’ Sev asked gruffly.
Amy was so revved up with hope by that statement that her skin went clammy with shock, as though she were actually in the presence of a threat. ‘Er...possibly,ifit was true and not just something you’re saying to persuade me to do what you want,’ she muttered in a rush.
Sev reached for her hand and, with great care, threaded a glittering solitaire diamond ring onto the correct finger. ‘It’s true,’ he assured her squarely, treating her to a warm tender appraisal that literally stole the breath from her lungs.
‘It seems very sudden,’ Amy remarked in a brittle undertone, because she was so worked up by the possibility that he might care for her that she couldn’t catch her breath.