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Roman spun a pencil between two fingers. “You’re not seriously thinking about keeping it?”
Penny felt herself visibly blanch. “Thinking about it? I’ve already decided—I’m having the baby. Period. Fin. End of story.”
Roman stood, snapped the pencil against his desk with a delicate click. He strode across the room, closed the door behind Penny, and lowered his voice to a soft hum. “I would strongly suggest you reconsider. I’ve already offered to give you whatever you want. That offer expires the second you leave this room.”
“Are you threatening me?” Penny didn’t back away as he brushed against her.
The physical contact wasn’t subtle. It was meant to intimidate. Penny held on to her confidence, grasping at it with slippery fingers.
She shivered. Roman moved so he stood between Penny and the exit, blocking any easy escape. She held her ground as the scent of his spicy cologne, the one that had previously driven her wild, now churned her stomach. How had she been so blindly in love with this man?
Her mother had been right. It had been a mistake to chase after Roman Tate. Penny had fallen for his brilliant sparkle. Roman was a disco ball of glittering silver dots dancing across a dark ceiling. Penny had chased the glimmer, chased and chased and chased until she realized it was all an illusion. As she’d reached out, clinging to her naive beliefs that he was the answer to all her problems, she’d grasped at air. Roman wasn’t the disco ball. He was the darkness around it.
“I would never threaten you,” Roman said. “I’m just trying to talk sense into you. It’s obvious you’re not thinking straight. Use your head, Penny.”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child. I’m a grown woman, a mother now.”
“You don’t have to be.”
“I’m not giving up this child.”
“If you were on birth control, then you wouldn’t have to make that choice.” Roman’s eyes hinted that he didn’t believe it. “If you had been taking birth control, then you were already trying to prevent the conception of a child. You have options.”
“One option. Nonnegotiable.”
“I’ll pay for the abortion if that’s the issue.”
Penny felt as if she’d been gutted. “I can’t believe I loved you. Tell me the truth, Roman. Are you and Eliza even separated?”
“I’m trying to talk sense into you. Penny, you’re practically a child yourself. Can you afford the hospital bills? A crib? Diapers? A car seat? Going solely off the state of your car and apartment, the answer is no.”
Penny shook with anger. Her fists tightened into balls. It took everything in her power to stand in silence and look at him. When Roman extended a hand and rested it on her shoulder, Penny flinched.
“Think about the bigger picture,” he implored. “You moved here—what, six months ago?—to make something of yourself. You’re talented, Penny. You could go far in this business, and I mean that.”
She closed her eyes. His fingers on her shoulder singed through her dress.
“A baby changes everything,” he continued. “How do you expect to star in a movie when you’re struggling to lose the baby weight? How will you be creative with your screenplay when you’re up with a child every hour of the night? How will you pay for health insurance?”
Penny wanted to interrupt but couldn’t. Roman was siphoning the very fears from her own mind and spitting them back at her. These ideas were nothing she hadn’t considered, but somehow, hearing them from his mouth made them polluted.
“Your dreams are over, Penny. But it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Penny forced her eyes open but left her fists clenched. “It was a mistake to come here. I should have seen the writing on the wall.”
“Make this simple on all of us, please.”
“Did you ever love me at all?” Penny ducked out from under his grasp. “Were you ever going to leave your wife?”
Roman sucked in a breath. “For Christ’s sake, Penny. Don’t do this.”
Penny swallowed hard. She hurried to the door, her heart pounding. One glance over her shoulder told her Roman hadn’t moved.
“I’m keeping the baby,” she said hoarsely. “Just leave me alone.”
“This is a mistake, Penny,” Roman warned. “You’re not thinking straight.”
“I know exactly what I want, Roman. And if you ever try to interfere in my life or the baby’s, you will be sorry.”
