LITMIR.BIZ

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him since he had arrived and she would continue until she got what she had to say off her chest.

      Sergio’s jaw hardened. ‘The reason I’m repeating myself,’ he drawled, with just the right level of boredom to induce in her another jag of misery, ‘is because weddings can sometimes do things to a girl. She sees her best friend, or in your case her cousin, walking up the aisle and suddenly she starts thinking that it’s about time her turn came along.’

      ‘I wasn’t thinking that.’

      ‘No? Because your father happened to mention in passing that a big white wedding is the only thing you’ve ever really wanted. Apparently you used to spend your childhood days dressing up your dolls in big wedding dresses and marrying them off to whatever stuffed toy was handy.’

      Susie’s cheeks flamed. She’d forgotten about that. She’d certainly never thought that her father had paid the slightest bit of attention to that phase of her life.

      ‘I had no idea you’d been having such in-depth conversations with my parents. What else did they happen to mention “in passing”?’

      ‘That you insisted on that secretarial course which had only ever been a suggestion. You clung to it and stuck it out—even though it was obvious from day one that you were allergic to all things technological and got bored the second you stepped foot inside an office.’

      Shaking, Susie slithered towards the chaise longue and sat down, giving her wobbly legs a rest.

      He had no right to just turn up and then to burrow his way into her past via her parents. Not now. Not when everything was changing.

      ‘That’s not the way I remember it…’ she said, distracted. ‘Alex was always the golden girl.’

      ‘Memories can get a little distorted. The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle.’

      ‘Well, it doesn’t matter. The truth is your showing up uninvited to Clarissa’s wedding…meeting my parents…wasn’t a good idea.’

      ‘Because they might get the wrong impression and think that this is more serious than it actually is…? Your mother might start shopping for a hat…? Your father will begin to prepare his father-of-the-bride speech…? You’ve already mentioned that. This conversation is beginning to go round in circles.’

      ‘It’s okay for you to sit there and smirk!’ she said in a high-pitched voice. ‘But you don’t know what it’s like!’

      ‘And maybe you’re overplaying how you think your family might respond to the fact that you’re going out with me. They might, actually, be a little more pragmatic than you give them credit for… They might be just a little more realistic…’ He shifted, looked at her with cool, assessing eyes. ‘And since when have you taken to shouting?’

      ‘I wasn’t shouting. I was trying to make a point.’ She sighed and ran her fingers through her tumbling hair. ‘Maybe this is just a side to me that you haven’t seen before. The shouting side.’

      She wiped her perspiring hands on her dress and flopped back on the chaise longue, because her legs were beginning to come over all weak and wobbly again.

      ‘Look…I just want you to know that I don’t expect anything from you. Nothing at all.’

      Sergio’s eyes narrowed. He tilted his head to one side, as though listening for something only he would be able to hear.

      ‘I’m not following you.’

      Tense as a bowstring, Susie sprang to her feet and began pacing the room, her movements agitated. Every so often her eyes slid across to him—and the closed expression on his beautiful face didn’t exactly fill her with confidence.

      She fought against the temptation to put off this awkward conversation for another day. When she was feeling a little stronger. After she had absorbed all the ramifications of her situation for herself and rustled up some kind of plan. At which point she would be able to present him with a fait accompli, all-corners-covered type of situation…

      ‘There’s something you need to know…and I’m afraid it’s going to put a completely different spin on what we…er…have…’

      Sergio stilled. Normally so adept at reading situations, he discovered that his breathing had slowed down and his brain was not operating to its usual heightened state of efficiency.

      Something was wrong. What? She still fancied the hell out of him. Even sitting there, barely meeting his eyes and wringing her hands, he could sense the mutual attraction pouring between them like a wave of electricity, undiminished.

      Was she about to announce that she had done something at the wedding? While he had been busy discovering all sorts of things about her, thanks to her parents and her sister? She had seemed to know nearly every one of the guests there, including all the young men, who were obviously mutual friends of the bride and her cousins.

      Jealousy rammed into him with such force that he drew his breath in sharply. Graphic images of her sneaking off with some guy behind his back competed in his head to make him feel physically sick.

      Jealousy? Since when had he ever been jealous when it came to any woman?

      ‘I’m losing patience with this long-winded non-explanation,’ he said tightly, reining in unfamiliar emotions with difficulty. ‘If you have something to say, then why don’t you stop going round the houses and just say it?’

      ‘I’m pregnant.’

      It was the last thing he had expected to hear and so it took him a few seconds to digest the revelation.

      Then he laughed mirthlessly.

      ‘You have got to be kidding.’

      ‘Do I look like someone performing a comic routine, Sergio? I’m pregnant. I only found out yesterday. I did the test. In fact I did two tests. There’s no mistake. I’m having a baby. I’m having your baby.’

      He vaulted upright, stared at her and raked his fingers through his hair. ‘You can’t be.’

      He stood in front of her, feet apart, challenging her to defy that simple statement of truth.

      But in his heart he recognised the ring of sincerity and fought against it.

      Pregnant? How the hell had that happened? He was going to be a father? Even when he had loosely contemplated the idea of eventually settling down with a suitable woman his thoughts had not stretched into the realms of fatherhood.

      His eyes flew to her stomach and just as quickly looked away.

      ‘Don’t tell me that I can’t be,’ Susie snapped.

      She glared at him. Did he think she was lying? No, of course not! He was desperately clinging to denial because the alternative was so hideous that he couldn’t bring himself to give it credence. He was a man who liked to control every aspect of his life, and just like that he’d lost it.

      She’d gone into this with her eyes wide open, never realising that she would be playing with fire. This was what it felt like to end up loving someone who didn’t actually love you back. A sick, empty feeling, as if you were spinning in a black abyss, not knowing how to get out.

      But there was no point getting all worked up in the face of his reaction.

      ‘I’ve worked out that it happened that first time,’ she said, gathering herself. ‘Yes, we were careful all the other times—but there you go. I don’t see the point of wasting time trying to blame one another…’

      ‘Who said that I was apportioning blame?’

      ‘I wish you’d sit down, Sergio. You’re not making this any easier for me. I…I’m having to take all this in myself…’

      ‘You knew the entire time we were at the wedding?’

      She nodded.

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