Pregnant at the Wedding / Baby Business: Pregnant at the Wedding

“What can’t you understand?” he asked, momentarily frowning. “I want you to be my wife. I’ve given you an engagement ring to seal the promise.”

“It’s worth a fortune, and there’s not one shred of love between us.”

“Stop reminding me,” he said somberly, and grasped her hand once more. “Look, I’ll ask you again to give us a chance to let love flourish. I wouldn’t do this otherwise.”

She wished she could believe him, but she couldn’t. “Ryan, if I weren’t pregnant, you’d pull out of this engagement so fast I’d be in a spin.”

Something flickered in the depths of his eyes, a confirmation to her of what she’d just declared. “I don’t know what I’d do, because I like the idea of marriage to you,” he said. “But that’s beside the point. There’s a baby to consider. Now, let’s make some plans.”

Shaking her head, she looked down at the ring, which was beautiful beyond her wildest dreams, and yet what she longed for, what was a lot more important than diamonds or a ring was his love.

Their waiter came and placed crystal plates with tossed greens in front of them.

As soon as they were alone again, Ryan took her hand once more. “Even if we break it off later, this will give the baby my name and a heritage. It will give me more rights to my child,” he said quietly, and she heard a note of steel in his voice that chilled her.

“Are you going to try to take this baby from me?” she asked, wondering about his intentions. Now that she’d discovered he had a ruthless streak, she found him an enigma.

“Never. I couldn’t ever hurt a child by taking it from its mother. This is my baby, and I’ll love it. You should know that much about me by now.”