Greek Pregnancy Clause - Page 44

Bewilderment. Pride? Shock. Fear?

She shook her head. Perhaps she was deluding herself and it was all in her imagination.

‘You’re spotting, and you didn’t think to mention it?’

His words emerged from a throat that was threatening to freeze up with the surfeit of emotions coursing through him. They moved too fast for any one of them to establish supremacy.

He’d delayed asking her despite his every sense clamouring to know. He knew enough about the path to conception to know the odds of it happening so soon were improbable. And yet…

The unsettled feeling he’d carried since the morning after their wedding had gone, making way for other, equally alarming sensations. Disappointment. Desolation. Panic.

She pulled her lips between her teeth, her silver eyes shadowing before she answered. ‘It happens sometimes with my period.’

‘I see.’ The words emerged clipped. Controlled. A direct opposite to what was going on inside him. ‘What does that mean, exactly? That it didn’t happen?’

The anguish darting across her face arrowed straight into him, making him realise the depths of his own expectations. And that she was equally affected. But then her chin rose in a way that would have amused him and made him proud had he not been stewing in peculiar sensations.

‘I hope I don’t need to remind you that it takes two to tango. Maybe we got the timing of things wrong.’

‘Easy, agapita. As much as I wish to vaunt my virility, I know instant pregnancy isn’t guaranteed, no matter how many times we have sex.’

Her shoulders relaxed a little, but her fight remained. ‘Well… I…’

‘Yes? You are expecting me to jump down your throat?’

She shot another fire-tinged gaze at him and his body responded. It was a call it apparently couldn’t resist, no matter the circumstances. Ares was beginning to accept—resignedly—that it was a power he might have to concede to her. Secretly. It wouldn’t do at all to make her aware of it…

‘It wouldn’t be unexpected,’ she said.

Her meaning was clear. Stung more than he cared for.

‘It seems you need reminding once more that I’m not one of those Neanderthals who blame their shortcomings on their women.’ He shook his head, dragged his fingers through his hair, trying to gain some composure. ‘Or am I wasting my time with that?’

She didn’t answer immediately, and something shrivelled inside him.

Did she really think him a monster? No. He wouldn’t lower himself into comparing what he was doing with what her father had done to her. He’d given her an option for freedom, for heaven’s sake! And he continued to live with the unnerving, chest-searing sensations that recollection brought. The oddly stomach-churning possibility that she might exercise that choice in a few short years, despite her insistence to the contrary.

Elio, on the other hand, had treated his own daughter like a second-class citizen. A chess-piece he could move around his power-hungry board in ways that benefited him.

He crouched down to her level once more, wrapped his hand over her nape and tipped her gaze up to meet his. ‘Tell me that’s not what you think of me,’ he demanded, and there was sensation that felt jarringly like desperation stirring in his gut as he searched her expression.

Her lips firmed and her eyes dug into his. Searching just as hard. ‘Do you care what I think of you?’ she whispered.

Ne. More than he suspected was wise.

‘I can wait for that verdict.’ He stood, held out his hand while digging out his phone. ‘Come.’

She frowned. ‘Where are we going?’

‘You’re spotting. That doesn’t mean you’re not pregnant. Let’s go and make sure one way or another, shall we?’

She glanced down at his hand. Then, in another impressive flare of mutiny, she shook her head. ‘Not until we discuss a few things.’

Harsh laughter seared his throat. ‘I’m impressed, agapita. You have timed it perfectly to pull a stunt like this.’

‘It’s not a stunt,’ she flashed back, her voice husky. ‘I’m fighting for what I want. Even you must respect that.’

A part of him did. If he was being truthful with himself, the fact that she’d been born into an organised crime family and yet had managed to remain morally untainted had been one of his initial draws to her. Which had made her actions back then all the harder to swallow. And in light of Elio’s clear manipulation of the situation, Ares had been teetering towards absolving her.