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A muscle throbbed at his temple. ‘So you still mean to prove me wrong?’ he rasped, but the probing intensified, as if her answer mattered.
‘Absolutely,’ she hissed fervently.
After an eternity with his eyes locked on hers, his gaze snapped to the horizon. She followed it, her heart thumping hard in her chest. Part of her wanted to push away this important but sensitive subject, but a larger part of her loathed the thought of letting it remain unconfronted, like a festering wound. And, considering the news she needed to divulge about her possible pregnancy, she needed a moment. Because it felt larger than life...soul-shaking in a way she couldn’t wrap her mind around.
If she was pregnant, then her life was about to change.
And if she wasn’t...
How could she be bracing herself to mourn something she hadn’t even contemplated this time last month? How could her heart be aching over the possibility that their activities hadn’t reaped the desired results?
‘What are you doing?’
She started, then refocused on where his gaze was locked on the sketchbook she’d brought on her walk. Heat flooded her face as his focus sharpened on her drawings.
‘Nothing much. Just some doodling.’
‘It looks like more than just doodling.’ He held out his hand. ‘May I?’
She shook her head, echoes of her father’s ridicule rising in her head. ‘I don’t think so...’
‘You think I’ll mock you because others did? I’m guessing your father?’
Her chest tightened at this insight, but she didn’t answer.
Nor did Ares put his hand down.
After a minute of silent battling, she reluctantly handed it over. Then drowned in mortified silence as he took his time to leaf through the two dozen pages. Just when she thought she’d die of embarrassment he raised his gaze. His expression—surprised, mildly shocked, impressed—choked her breath.
‘You did all of this?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ she whispered, still not sure she wanted to hear what he’d say next. ‘I know they’re—’
‘Seriously impressive?’ he interrupted. ‘Indeed.’
Her eyes widened. ‘What?’
‘I remember interior design was your passion.’ His jaw gritted. ‘Did he let you attend the college you wanted?’
He? Her father. As if.
‘Of course he didn’t,’ she scoffed, and then felt a twinge for speaking ill of the dead. ‘But I took some online courses on my own a few years ago.’
He nodded, his eyes still gleaming with surprise and warming respect. ‘Good for you, going after what you want.’
Her heart lifted, prancing pathetically in her chest. Because she’d impressed Ares Zanelis, a multi-billionaire who owned some of the most impressive real estate in the world.
His gaze returned to the sketchbook. ‘Speaking of what we want...’ He handed the sketchbook back, but his gaze sharpened, drifting over to linger on her belly.
Odessa’s heart lurched for a different reason, then squeezed at the thought of what she needed to divulge.
She sucked in a long, sustaining breath, her fingers tightening around the sketchbook now pressed to her chest, as if it might save or steady her.
‘I don’t know if I’m pregnant or not. My period didn’t arrive yesterday...but I’m spotting a little today.’
The excruciatingly sluggish hours before she’d known she’d definitively missed her period had prompted a dizzying exhilaration—only to slide into horror when she’d spotted the blood. Even now, with the possibility that she might not be pregnant, Odessa clung to faint hope as she looked up at Ares.
To see hard, mercurial emotions flitting out of his face.
