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Sanity prevailed. She was right, they didn’t need to get married. He’d support their child—financially—of course he would. Hell, that was the one thing he could really offer. He knew how hard it had been for his father in the early years, starting up a business while caring for a baby on his own. Financial security had become his priority and he’d fully made it. At least Kelsi didn’t have to worry about that. In that way Jack could give her everything.
But, no, he wasn’t going to be around full-time. His life just didn’t work that way, but that didn’t mean he should be ousted completely—which Kelsi obviously wanted. She was slicing the ground from beneath him. He really hadn’t expected her to turn mother tiger on him and try to evict the male. In those minutes when he’d been waiting for the results he’d envisaged tearful scenes with her leaning on his shoulder, weak and helpless and needy. The reality of her rejection was far worse than the nightmare.
And then there was the brutal physical impact of pregnancy. He couldn’t stop the worst-case scenario fears from spreading in his system like snake venom, threatening to shut down his vital organs, most especially his brain. Kelsi was petite—he remembered his hesitance on the beach when he worried he’d crush her—so the thought of her bearing the burden of his baby?
Terrifying.
His child could kill her. He knew. Because having him had killed his mother. Less than two hours after his birth, she’d gone.
He walked faster, trying to flee the fear and recover rational thought.
It wasn’t going to happen. He wouldn’t let it. Kelsi would have nothing but the best of medical care. His mother had had none. History would not repeat.
Twenty minutes later he was no less angry, no less determined, no less devastated as he walked back into Kelsi’s flat with a couple of cartons of noodles. Neither of them touched them.
‘It’s going to be fine.’ She smiled but it wasn’t a natural one. ‘It’s all going to be okay.’
‘Oh?’ He stopped. She still had her back pressed against the window, as far away from him as possible.
‘Sure.’ She nodded. ‘I have a good job. I have no worries financially. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be doable.’
Somehow that didn’t make him feel any better. Now she was suggesting she didn’t even want his money? Ridiculous. Doing it alone wasn’t easy—even with ‘only’ one child. His instincts sharpened—body becoming even more battle ready. ‘What will you do with the baby?’
‘When it comes I can keep working from home. Later I can return to the office part-time and work my hours back up as it gets older.’
‘You’ve thought all this through,’ he said, not keeping the sarcasm out.
She looked cool. ‘Funnily enough, I haven’t been able to think of much else.’
Okay, so he knew it was the twenty-first century and all and there were plenty of working mothers out there, plenty of solo mothers, too, but there was that basic instinct in him now rearing its head up from the cave it had been born in, saying the man ought to provide for his woman and child. And there was another instinct rising, too, threatening to override everything—his need for this woman, pushing him to do what he’d been dreaming of for ever. ‘And where did you see me fitting in with this?’
‘I don’t.’
‘Pardon?’ Jack couldn’t control the snap of his muscles.
‘I already said you don’t need to worry about it.’ Kelsi looked away from the wild expression in his eyes ‘I can manage just fine on my own.’ And she could. And she would.
‘Really.’ He looked furious. ‘Then let’s say, for a second, that that’s true.’ He walked towards her, his anger surging ahead of him in an invisible cloud. ‘Let’s say you can manage just fine on your own and you don’t need me.’
Kelsi froze, despite her instinct screaming at her to run. And then it was too late. He swiftly pulled her into his arms—lifting her right off her feet. Her heart thundered at the feel of his hard strength pressed so close to her. And it almost beat right out of her chest as his mouth descended.
Her whole body convulsed as his lips pressed hard on hers. It was anger she tasted, but also passion. And she couldn’t do anything except put her hands around his neck and hold on. She tried so hard to stop the spinning inside but she couldn’t contain her response, couldn’t stop herself softening, opening for him and feeling the rush of desire for more. He was all strength, all heat. And all fury.
She shuddered deeply again as he ravaged, showing her no mercy, kissing her until she succumbed completely—not just to his desire, but to her own. Until suddenly she was kissing him back as keenly and as wildly. Until just as suddenly she panicked and pushed him away, hard.
He dropped her and she gasped.
‘What do we do about that?’ he demanded.
Kelsi quickly took three paces away, her emotions tossed about like corks on a stormy sea. What was he thinking kissing her like that?
‘You think complicating this even more is a good idea?’ she demanded shakily.
‘It’s that complicated already. I don’t think this is going to make much difference.’
‘You’ve got to be kidding.’
‘I still want you.’
