Secret Heirs: Baby Bargain. Эбби Грин

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      ‘And just for the record...’ this as her father’s driver was pulling into the courtyard, making a graceful turn before pulling to a stop and rushing round to open doors ‘...I think in this day and age it’s absolutely acceptable for a woman to bring a child up on her own! You could say I’m a changed person—forging ahead...pretty much a feminist... It took me a while to get there, but better late than never!’

      She leapt out of the car and immediately immersed herself in the nearest group of guests hovering by the front door. But she was nervously perspiring, relieved that neither of her parents had had the chance to follow up on that remark.

      * * *

      No drinking. Just one measly glass of champagne. She wondered how on earth she would make it stretch until one in the morning.

      She knew a huge amount of the invited guests. There were relatives from all corners of the globe. But she’d barely had a chance to chat to the bride and groom—just a few snatched words of congratulation.

      The marquee, which dominated much of the enormous back garden, was a thing of splendour, with lots of white swirling drapes and chandeliers. The flower arrangements on the tables were so huge that they would struggle to get through her front door, and they would take up more space in her sitting room than...

      Than a hundred assorted roses.

      She and Sergio had transported most of them back to his place the morning after he had brought them for her, had laughed and then fallen into bed—and had kept falling into bed because they couldn’t not.

      She felt a lump in her throat, and was on the verge of pinning a bright smile on her face to cover the moment of sadness when a voice behind her drawled, ‘Don’t burst into tears. It’ll look like sour grapes...’

      Susie swung round, shocked to her very core, scarcely believing her eyes.

      She’d been standing at the very edge of the garden, half concealed by dense shrubbery, nursing her single glass of champagne. He had crept up on her, unobserved, and for a few breathless seconds she was lost for words.

      ‘Surprised?’ Sergio asked softly.

      If she was, then she couldn’t be more surprised than he was. He had had no reason to question his assumption that she came from humble origins. So she had a couple of expensive things in her flat...? Certainly not enough to make him think that she was anything but a girl venturing out in a fairly hazardous profession. He had assumed that whilst she might have moral support from her family, that was pretty much it on the support front.

      In fact he had dared to question Stanley’s map-reading skills, only realising that he was, indeed, at the right place when the car drove up the lantern-lined drive.

      And now here he was.

      And there she was. Staring at him as though she expected him to disappear in a puff of smoke.

      ‘What are you doing here?’ Susie demanded.

      He looked perfect. Every inch the drop-dead gorgeous, brooding alpha male who had stolen her heart.

      ‘I couldn’t resist the prospect of pulling you behind the bushes and having my wicked way. Something about that dress...’

      ‘You’re supposed to be wrapping up a deal in New York.’

      ‘I like breaking with the expected now and again. Where’s the radiant bride and the lucky groom? I have to say...this isn’t what I was anticipating...’

      Susie flushed guiltily. She knew why she hadn’t breathed a word about her family—knew that if she had he would have seen her as just another little rich kid, all caught up in doing nothing much because she knew that she could be bailed out of her discomfort if she got bored or fed up. Why would someone like him want to go out with someone like that?

      ‘What did you anticipate?’

      ‘Why did you let me assume that you were penniless?’

      ‘I didn’t let you assume anything. Did you decide to come here so that you could check out my background?’

      ‘Comes with the terrain,’ he answered coolly. ‘We’ve been lovers for over two months. I like to know exactly what I’m getting into.’

      ‘And what if you’d found that you’d “got into” someone from a council house background? Or worse...a criminal background...? Would you have got out of it pronto?’

      ‘I don’t deal in hypothetical situations. At any rate, I never took you for someone from a long line of train robbers...’

      That said it all, she thought.

      Suddenly everything seemed very complicated. Her parents would adore him. He was just the kind of guy they’d been hoping she would bring home one day. But what was the point of introducing them to someone who wasn’t going to be around for very long? And when she broke the news to them that she was pregnant...

      Susie blanched. They would immediately know the identity of the father. Did she want that? Would her parents make it their duty to confront him? They were very traditional.

      She felt that she hadn’t thought anything through—but then how could she? She’d barely had time to digest the revelation herself.

      ‘You shouldn’t have come,’ she told him flatly.

      Sergio looked at her through narrowed eyes. ‘Not the response I was expecting...’

      ‘This isn’t a normal relationship, Sergio. This is...sex—and meeting my family isn’t part of the deal...’ She had to say it because she needed to start distancing herself.

      ‘But I’m here now...’

      ‘Not because you wanted to come as my partner.’ She looked up at him steadily. ‘In a normal relationship we would have travelled here together. You would have wanted to meet my parents, wanted to take that next step into the future...a future of getting to know one another’s family and friends...’

      ‘Where has this come from?’

      ‘Does it matter? I’m just telling it like it is. You showed up here to do a background check on me... I suppose now that you’re here and my family has passed muster it’s all right for you to meet them?’

      ‘You’ve managed to blow all this out of proportion and I’m wondering why...’

      Dark eyes that saw far too much rested on her flushed face and Susie did her best to get her breathing under control.

      ‘I’m a little stressed,’ she muttered, looking down. ‘It’s not every day the guy you’re going out with decides to check up on your family to make sure they’re not escaped convicts.’

      ‘That’s not the only reason I came.’

      Sergio was willing to let this go. What they had was good—better than good. He didn’t want her to start getting ideas about his place in her life because she was at her cousin’s wedding. He didn’t need long, intense conversations about normal relationships, where boyfriends СКАЧАТЬ