LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

Desperate to distract him, she asked again if he would like a cup of tea, anything to make this situation less fraught than it seemed, but Matt merely shook his head.

      ‘No, thanks,’ he said, crossing the living room towards her. He paused in the entry to the kitchen annexe, successfully blocking her exit. ‘Is there any chance that you could just sit down and talk to me?’

      ‘Oh—sure.’

      Joanna managed a quick acknowledgement, adding hot water to the teabag she’d placed in her cup. She opened the fridge and took a carton of milk from the door. Then, when Matt was on the point of demanding that she stop fussing around, she added a little milk to her cup and came towards him.

      ‘Excuse me,’ she said, indicating that he was in her way, and Matt gritted his teeth and moved aside.

      Joanna carried her cup over to the sofa, and seated herself on the edge of the cushions. Then, cradling the hot cup between her icy palms, she said, ‘You should sit down, too.’

      Matt dragged one of the dining chairs over to the sofa and, swinging it around, he straddled it, facing her. He’d had time to think about what he was going to say, and Joanna was slightly disturbed by his grim expression.

      He was ominously silent for a moment. And then, he said quietly, ‘I don’t want you to spend the rest of your pregnancy in Padsworth.’

      Joanna was taken aback. She’d half expected him to join her on the sofa, but he hadn’t. This was a very different Matt from the man she’d slept with in Miami, she thought uneasily.

      Gathering her small store of composure, Joanna sipped her tea, to avoid meeting those intent dark eyes. ‘Well, I don’t want to stay here,’ she said at last.

      Matt considered her flushed face with some impatience. ‘I don’t want you to stay here either.’

      ‘So you understand why I’m going to Cornwall?’

      ‘I understand you thought it was your only option,’ Matt agreed tersely. ‘If you’d told me the truth from the beginning, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I’d have offered you an alternative.’

      ‘What alternative?’ Joanna still had some pride. ‘I don’t need your support, Matt.’

      ‘Maybe not, but you’re going to get it,’ he retorted. He controlled his temper with an effort. ‘God, I still can’t believe you kept this from me for so long.’

      ‘Must we go over that again?’ Joanna sighed. ‘There was always the possibility that you might deny the child was yours.’

      ‘You think?’

      ‘All right.’ She lifted a careless hand. ‘I don’t think you would have done that. I’m sorry. I should have told you.’ She paused. ‘Are you happy now?’

      Matt’s jaw hardened. ‘Where do you plan to have this baby?’ His voice was tense. ‘I don’t want you going into labour in some remote village in Cornwall. There’s no maternity hospital in the village, I know that, and it’s the middle of winter. If anything goes wrong, how long before you can get expert help?’

      ‘Why would you think that anything might go wrong?’

      ‘Joanna, we’ve been trying to have a baby for a few years now. Do you want to take the chance that there might be a complication?’

      ‘Well, it won’t be the middle of winter when I have the baby,’ she replied reasonably. ‘And nothing’s going to go wrong.’ She crossed her fingers superstitiously. ‘You always think the worst, don’t you?’

      ‘I wonder why,’ murmured Matt drily, but she heard the bitterness in his voice.

      ‘In any case, there’s a maternity unit in Padsworth—’

      ‘A unit.’ The way Matt said the words told her what he thought of that.

      ‘And there’s a large teaching hospital in the next town,’ she continued staunchly.

      ‘Which is what? Fifteen miles away? Twenty? On roads that are hardly freeways?’ Matt stifled a curse. ‘What if there’s a late snowfall? Those narrow roads get blocked, you know that. Think what you’re committing yourself to, Joanna. Much as I like your mother, she’s no Florence Nightingale.’

      ‘So what are you suggesting? That I stay in London where I can be sure of reaching a hospital that you’d consider satisfactory if there was an emergency?’

      ‘No.’

      Matt got up from the chair and pushed his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. It put her eyes on a level with his lower body and she bent her head, trying not to think about the hard muscles that stretched his tight jeans. Or imagine how he’d looked when he was naked. She dragged her eyes away. She needed to get a grip on her emotions, not focus on what she remembered of his lean powerful body.

      Matt, apparently unaware of her distraction, spoke tersely. ‘I’m suggesting you come back to Cable Cay with me.’ He rocked back on the heels of his boots and continued, ‘There’s a small house in the grounds at Long Point. A couple of bedrooms, one and a half baths. You would be perfectly comfortable there with your own staff.’

      ‘You can’t be serious!’

      ‘Oh, I am.’ Matt had never been more serious in his life. ‘There’s no large hospital on the island, I give you that. But I can put the helicopter I use on standby for an emergency. And there are at least three major hospitals in Nassau, half an hour away, catering to everything from insect bites to heart surgery.’

      Joanna shook her head. ‘But I don’t want to go to the Bahamas,’ she protested. She got to her feet. ‘I’ve met the doctor in Padsworth. He knows my mother very well.’

      ‘It’s not your mother he’ll be dealing with.’ Matt shrugged. ‘Besides, I don’t think it’s your decision. You owe me, Joanna. I may not have been around for most of the pregnancy, but I think I deserve to be there at my son’s birth, don’t you?’

       CHAPTER FIFTEEN

      JOANNA ASSURED HERSELF she wasn’t disappointed that Matt hadn’t come to meet her in Nassau. She’d taken the flight directly from London to the Bahamas and been met by Matt’s helicopter pilot, Jacob Mallister, instead. He’d flown her on to Cable West, the small airport that catered to Cable Cay’s commercial and personal needs, where Henry Powell, Matt’s steward, was waiting to greet her.

      It was good to see a familiar face. She’d met the old man before on the two occasions she and Matt had holidayed at the villa. ‘Hey, there, Mrs Novak,’ he exclaimed, his dark features beaming as he gave her a hand to negotiate the steps down from the aircraft. ‘Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?’

      ‘A sight, certainly,’ agreed Joanna drily, glad to be on solid ground again. She didn’t like helicopters. They tended to dip and sway quite alarmingly, and even the short trip from New Providence had left her feeling slightly sick. The thought of having to do that journey again, when she was in labour, filled her with a sense of alarm.

      ‘Well, welcome to Cable Cay,’ declared Henry cheerfully. ‘Did you have a good journey?’

      ‘It was fine.’ Joanna didn’t mention the helicopter ride. ‘But I’m glad it’s over.’

      ‘I’m sure you’ll feel better once you’ve had a good night’s rest,’ he said, taking charge of her cases. ‘I know Mr Matt will be glad you’re here safely.’

      Joanna made no comment to this. She doubted Matt would care, one way or the other. He’d given her an ultimatum: let him play a part in the remaining weeks of her pregnancy—which he regarded as only fair—or face the prospect of him petitioning for custody of the child after he was born.

      She

Скачать книгу