Tall, Dark... Collection

She stared up at him dazedly as he stood in the doorway. ‘You actually broke the door down,’ she murmured incredulously as she stood up to examine the damage.

He shrugged, his expression grim. ‘I told you that I would if you didn’t unlock it.’

Yes, but—He couldn’t just go around breaking up her apartment! What was her flatmate Gina going to say, when she came home from work later and saw the damage Nick had done to the door?

‘You had no right to do that.’ She gasped her indignation. ‘No need—’

‘I had every need, damn it,’ he grated harshly. ‘You wouldn’t open the door.’ He shrugged unapologetically. ‘I couldn’t tell what you were doing in here.’

She gave a dazed shake of her head. ‘It’s a bathroom, Nick; what could I possibly have been doing?’

‘I had no way of knowing, did I? With that door between us,’ he came back hardly. ‘So a word of warning, Hebe,’ he added tautly. ‘Don’t ever put a locked door between us again!’

Hebe just continued to stare at him. Had the whole world gone mad? Her world, at least!

Hebe didn’t want to listen to him any more. She couldn’t think with him glaring at her like that. His eyes were no longer filled with the shadowy pain of the past but full of accusation now instead. And that accusation was directed at her. Because he believed she had deliberately set out to get pregnant that night they’d spent together!

She didn’t even look at him as she brushed past him to go back into the sitting room. It all looked so normal, exactly as she had left it this morning, with the bright autumn colours that she and Gina had had so much fun decorating with, her pot plants in the window, the early-evening sun shining through the almost floor to ceiling windows.

Only she had changed then, for she wasn’t the same person who had left the apartment early this morning to go to work as usual.

She was pregnant. With Nick Cavendish’s child. And that meant her life would never be back to what she thought of as normal ever again.

‘Well?’ She turned back to him challengingly. ‘When are you going to start accusing me again of being a gold-digger? Of deliberately getting myself pregnant so that I can get my hands on all that lovely Cavendish money? Because you do think that’s what I’ve done, don’t you, Nick?’ she scorned disgustedly.

Nick continued to look at her through narrowed lids. Yes, as he had driven to the chemist, bought the pregnancy test and driven back to his apartment only to find her gone, that was exactly what he had thought Hebe had done.

And he still did. Nothing had changed his belief about that.

It just didn’t matter any more. No, damn it, it mattered—but not to the ultimate outcome. Because Hebe was having his baby. His baby. And, whatever she might have thought would result from this, this child was going to be his as well as hers.

‘Don’t bother to answer that,’ she dismissed disgustedly. ‘I know that’s what you think. Well, do you want to know what I think?’ Her eyes flashed like molten gold.

Nick felt some of his own anger draining out of him as he took in all her outraged indignation. She really was a beautiful young woman. A woman who would be even more beautiful as her pregnancy developed. Nick knew from when Sally had been expecting Luke that pregnant women seemed to take on a beauty all their own, glowing from the inside rather than out.

A glowingly pregnant Hebe was going to be a sight to behold.

‘Yes,’ he answered briskly, moving to one of the armchairs to sit down and look up at her. ‘I would be very interested to hear what you think.’

‘I’ll bet!’ Hebe scorned. ‘You don’t seem to have taken too much notice of what I’ve had to say so far!’ She looked pointedly at the shattered bathroom door.

Couldn’t she see that was because he had been in shock himself? Because he couldn’t believe—hadn’t dared to hope—despite what he had said to the contrary, that Hebe really could be pregnant with their child.

He had loved being a father to Luke, and had been devastated when his son had died so tragically, so suddenly. He had felt totally bereft. Now, it seemed, he was to be given a second chance at fatherhood. With Hebe. He had never thought about having another child after Luke, but now the opportunity had presented itself he found he wanted this baby more than anything else in the world.

It was just going to take a little getting used to…

‘I’m listening now, Hebe,’ he assured her gruffly.

She would just bet he was. Waiting to hear her make demands, no doubt. To try and blackmail him out of some of the Cavendish fortune!

Well he was going to be disappointed.

She drew in a deep breath. ‘This is my baby, Nick—’

‘And mine,’ he put in quietly.

‘But you can’t be sure of that, can you?’ she taunted, pacing the room restlessly as she looked at him. ‘How do you know, how can you be sure, I haven’t been with another man in the last six weeks?’ she challenged.

He didn’t move, but a nerve began to pulse just below his jaw. ‘Have you?’

‘No, I haven’t, damn you!’ she denied furiously. ‘But there’s no way you can be sure—absolutely sure—is there?’ she taunted.

He continued to look at her for several long, breathless seconds, and then he nodded. ‘A doctor will be able to confirm just how pregnant you are.’

Hebe looked at him, frowning, but his expression was so inscrutable it was impossible to read any emotion behind those blue eyes. ‘And you will accept that?’

His eyes narrowed on her probingly. ‘If you insist we can have tests done too,’ he finally murmured softly.

‘If I insist…?’ she prompted suspiciously.

‘Hebe, once this baby is established as mine, that’s exactly what it will be!’ he grated harshly.

She gave a disbelieving shake of her head. ‘Are you saying you would take this baby away from me?’

‘I’m not saying that at all.’ He shrugged. ‘Although, obviously that will ultimately be your decision.’

‘I don’t understand you!’ she muttered emotionally.

‘It’s quite simple, Hebe. If you want to get your hands on “all that lovely Cavendish money” then you will also have to accept that I come along with it,’ he bit out decisively.

Hebe stopped her pacing to stare at him incredulously. ‘But I don’t want your money,’ she finally burst out forcefully. ‘I’m not interested in it. Or you!’

‘Methinks you doth protest too much,’ he taunted.

‘I’m not protesting at all,’ she snapped, stung by his mockery. ‘I’m stating a fact.’

‘A fact, Hebe, the bottom line, is I now have a responsibility to you and the baby,’ he shrugged.

A responsibility? Was that what she had become?

After years of independence, of paying her own way, was that was she was going to be reduced to?

No, she wouldn’t become that! No matter how difficult going it alone was going to be, she wouldn’t become that…

She gave a firm shake of her head. ‘I don’t need or want your help, thank you,’ she told him stiffly.

‘Haven’t you understood yet, Hebe?’ Nick ground out fiercely. ‘I’m not asking, I’m telling you how it’s going to be!’