His Heir, Her Honour / Meddling With A Millionaire: His Heir, Her Honour. Catherine Mann

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СКАЧАТЬ don’t care who you date.” And maybe if she kept saying it often enough, she would believe it. “That’s your business and has nothing to do with us. We were never a couple. You and I have nothing more to say to each other outside of hospital business until after the paternity test.”

      “Nancy and I are not an item, never were,” he ignored her final jab, sticking to the point he seemed determined to press. “We had a couple of casual dates, and I’d already decided to break things off before today.”

      “How convenient, but still not relevant.” She padded closer to him, her bare feet whispering along the cool, bare flooring. “If that’s all you came to say, then we’re done.”

      She pointed to the door.

      He flung aside his trench to rest on the back of a striped chair and clasped her wrist in a big but gentle grip. Silently, slowly, deliberately, he folded her arm back against her chest, which brought him closer to her. His eyes turned smoky with intensity….

      And focused on her mouth.

      Her heart somersaulted in her chest. “Don’t even go there, Carlos,” she warned, but didn’t pull away. “Any urge to kiss you evaporated once you refused to believe me about the pregnancy.”

      Teasing his thumb along her speeding pulse, he stilled her again with his eyes. “I came here to tell you that I’m willing to entertain the possibility this could be my baby.”

      The sensual tug, the raspy allure of his callused fingers on her skin sidetracked her, delaying her brain from absorbing his words for three, needy heartbeats.

      Then awareness faded from her body as his words penetrated, followed by realization of the reason for his surprise visit. She leaned nearer, her breasts so close to his chest a simple deep inhale could skim her tingling nipples against him.

      She kept her breathing shallow, even as she lowered her voice into a husky whisper sure to heat his exposed neck. “Got a sperm count check, did you? That was quick.”

      A fleeting dry smile twitched his mouth. “It helps having connections in the medical world.”

      Confirmation of her suspicion didn’t make her feel one bit better. He wasn’t here because he had a change-of-heart decision to trust her word. He’d gotten his proof. While she understood on an intellectual, practical level, she was currently feeling anything but sensible.

      Let alone amenable.

      “How nice for you.” She wrenched her wrist from his grip, wrapping her arms around herself and stalking to the window wall. “What a shock it must have been that you still have swimmers.”

      “How nice that you find my medical history so amusing.”

      “I don’t find any of this at all funny. Particularly your insinuations about my honesty earlier.” She half looked back at him over her shoulder. “Have you let your new girlfriend know?”

      Ouch, she hadn’t meant to bring up the whole Nancy issue again and sound—God forbid—jealous. She looked away quickly before he could see any betraying emotions on her face.

      His footsteps echoed behind her, closer, the sound and feel of him too familiar. “I told you already.” He stroked back her hair from her ear. “I broke things off with her.”

      Goose bumps rose on her skin, twinkling boat lights on the water blurring as everything faded but the sound of his breathing, the light skim of his fingers. Good God, his surgeon hands had such a capacity for minute movements, meticulous attentiveness until he turned even an inch of her shoulder into a volatile erogenous zone.

      “Well, she should know you can still—”

      Her words hitched up short on her next breath, heat flooding through her body and pooling low. The crisp scent of him—night air and ocean breeze—drew nearer, stronger, until she flattened her hand against the cool windowpane to steady herself.

      He cupped her shoulders in broad, careful hands and turned her to face him. “She does not need to be informed.”

      Did that mean they weren’t sleeping together or that he’d been more careful? She tried not to care about the answer, hating that he had such power over her feelings. The way her temperature spiked when she simply looked at him, the sensation of the room shrinking to just the two of them. All too easily she could lose sight of how important it was to keep her head clear.

      Shifting her focus from herself to her child, she asked, “What did the doctor have to say?”

      His fingers slid down the length of her arms before he tucked his hands into his trouser pockets. “I can give you the lengthy technobabble about motility and counts if you wish. But while chances are very low I can father a child,” he swallowed hard, “the chance does exist.”

      That simple slow swallow spoke emotional volumes from such an aloof man. Sympathy for him stirred against her will. What a shocker this day must have been for him on a number of levels, which didn’t excuse the way he’d betrayed their friendship over the past few weeks with his aloof behavior. But still, the hurt and disappointment eased at having him backtrack. Now, finally, they could make plans for their baby.

      She chewed her lip, tasting toothpaste from her earlier attempt to brush away the persistent memory of his kiss. “I realize this must be a big surprise for you—”

      “My feelings are irrelevant,” he charged over her, his face set again in a mask she’d seen him don during especially taxing surgeries. “I spoke with a GYN colleague and we can have a chorionic villus sampling done in your twelfth to fourteenth week of pregnancy to determine paternity.”

      An early paternity test? He still doubted her? So much for sympathetic leanings on her part.

      Anger starched up her spine again vertebrae by vertebrae. “Fine. You’ve said what you came here for—”

      “Actually, I haven’t finished.”

      “Well, good for you. However, I’ve had more than enough of your company for one day.”

      “That’s my point. Today hasn’t gone well for either of us. And regardless of how that test comes out, we’re going to be tied to each other, whether through the pregnancy or through work. I’m assuming you have no intention of changing jobs and neither do I.”

      “That hasn’t stopped you from being a jerk since December.” She jabbed him in the chest with her pointer. “Other people—” like Nancy “—may be willing to put up with your moodiness because you were a hospital legend even before you turned out to be some kind of royalty, but I happen to think that excuses nothing.”

      “You’re absolutely correct on all counts.” His angular face creased with the first smile she’d seen from him in so long, longer than she could remember. The power of it was so much stronger than it should be.

      Her arm fell to her side. “Pardon me?”

      “You heard me.” He stroked back a lock of her hair then withdrew his hand before she could object. “You’re right. I’ve been a—what did you say earlier?—a jackass.”

      She sank onto her sleek red sofa, trying to process this latest surprise turn from him, tough to do when he scattered СКАЧАТЬ