“I’m a public relations superhero, Zach. I have a plan.” She patted the cushion next to her. He sat, but not next to her, and lifted his beer to take a hearty gulp. Hell, he might drink Pen’s wine, too.
“It’s simple. Over the next two weeks, you and I will be seen together less and less until we aren’t seen together at all. We’ll share a press release that you and I will not be raising the child together. We could even go with a story that we were friends and I wanted a child and you didn’t and—”
“No.” Zach’s voice was thunderous, bouncing off the high ceilings and echoing around the room.
Pen’s mouth was frozen midspeech for a second before she said, “I don’t expect you to take on a baby. You’re a CEO with a budding career. What we had—”
“Have.”
Her slim eyebrows rose. “Pardon?”
“What we have. Present tense.”
“What we have is a month-long, on-and-off sexual relationship.”
“Until five minutes ago, that was true.” She might have alarmed him with unexpected news, but his brain was now sliding into operation mode.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“That makes two of us.”
“I came here to reassure you that I’m not coming after your money.” She stood suddenly. He stood with her. She thrust her chin out, pride gleaming in her slitted eyes. “Plenty of working mothers manage to raise a child alone. I certainly don’t need your wealth to do it.”
“This isn’t a challenge,” Zach said, his voice firm. “I don’t doubt you’re capable of doing whatever you damn well set your mind to, but know this.” With his thumb and forefinger, he tipped her chin up. “My child growing in your belly isn’t insignificant to me. I’m not walking away.”
From you or our baby.
None of the determination slipped from her gaze but tenderness joined it. “I’d never deny you the right to see or support your child, Zach. I was suggesting that I get out of the way.”
“Whose way are you in, Penelope?”
She didn’t say it but he could feel the word yours in the tense air between them.
He dipped his face and captured her lips, sliding his tongue into her mouth and claiming her as his yet again. She wouldn’t be eschewing herself from his presence anytime soon.
In fact...
He bent and scooped her into his arms never breaking their lip-lock as he made a path for the bedroom. He was going to see to it that she didn’t get any farther away than his apartment.
Baby or no, he’d staked a claim on the blonde in his arms long before her surprise announcement.
And now she’d given him another reason to convince her to stay.