Page 36 of Prognosis Irreconcilable Differences

Jacqui glared at him. Bloody traitor. He left us. But the truth was they’d left each other.

Nathan grimaced. ‘Got anything stronger?’ He had things to say that required a beverage with a little more kick.

She escaped to the kitchen, pleased at the respite. What the hell was he doing here? Her brain turned the question over and over as she fixed herself another cup of tea and grabbed a beer from the fridge left over from some dinner party months before. She took a deep breath before heading back.

Nathan looked up from petting Shep as Jacqui re-entered. She passed him the beer and he cracked the top, taking a long, deep swallow. He watched as she settled herself on the chair opposite, then shut his eyes briefly. The thin cotton covering her didn’t immunise him against what lay beneath.

She looked as good as the cool beer sliding down his throat felt. But her toffee gaze was turbulent with emotion. She looked confused, wary, and mad as hell.

‘Don’t look at me like that, Jacq.’

Jacqui gave a disgusted half laugh. ‘Like you’ve lost your mind?’

Nathan guessed he deserved that. ‘I owe you an explanation.’

Jacqui’s eyebrows just about hit her hairline. ‘You think?’

He sighed. ‘You’re angry.’

‘Damn right I’m angry, Nathan. I mean, who do you think you are? Got a few billion dollars and you think you can buy anyone? Well, I’m not for sale, Nate.’

Nathan shook his head vehemently. ‘No. It wasn’t like that. The last few weeks have been great. Really, really great, and I was lying there with you and I suddenly realised that I missed you. Really missed you.’

Jacqueline slammed the mug down. ‘So you offered me a baby?’ she practically shrieked.

‘Okay, yes,’ he agreed, holding out his hands in a placatory gesture. ‘I handled that badly. I spoke without really thinking it through. I just couldn’t bear the thought of you leaving in a couple of weeks, so I guess I wanted to offer you a deal you couldn’t say no to. But I have thought about it since. A lot.’

God knew, he’d been unable to think of anything else since she’d run from his bed and refused to talk to him. And when he had come home the next afternoon to an empty house he’d been devastated. ‘I have missed you, Jacqui. I was just too busy in my rush to the top to admit it.’

He stopped and looked at her, knowing she’d been one of the casualties of his single-minded drive to succeed. His beautiful Jacqueline, with the crazy hair and the bangles and the big toffee eyes.

‘Oh, poor Nathan. Poor little rich boy,’ she said frostily. ‘Do you think giving me a baby is going to appease your empty existence?’

Nathan shut his eyes — boy, was she steamed. He opened them again. ‘I’m sorry. It was clumsy of me. But...’ He stopped again, hoping to broach the subject more delicately this time. ‘Why not, Jacq? I know you want a baby. Always have. I’m a fertility doctor with a chain of clinics worldwide. I can do this for you. There was so much I couldn’t give you when we were together. But I can give you this. Let me.’

Jacqui snorted. He was acting as if it was a diamond ring or an expensive dress. He just didn’t get it. He hadn’t back then, and it seemed a decade and several billion dollars hadn’t wised him up. ‘I never wanted anything but you, Nate.’

Nathan shook his head. ‘Yes, you did. You wanted a baby.’

She rubbed her brow, her bangles jangling. ‘Your baby, Nathan. Not just a baby. Yours.’

Nathan swallowed as his male pride swelled and rose in his chest, his throat. The thought of her belly pregnant with his child pierced his heart with a savage arrow of possession.

‘It’s not that I didn’t want to have a child with you, Jacqui. I just wanted to wait.’

‘Wait? Till what? Your first million? Billion? Till you floated your company? What? What the hell were you waiting for?’ Despite herself she felt a huge well of emotion rise in her chest and tears stung her eyes. ‘I was right there, Nate. For years.’

Available. Eager. Some would even have said desperate. And now, when they were estranged, nearly divorced, now he wanted a baby?

Nathan shrugged. Truthfully, he didn’t know where he’d thought the end point would be. All he knew was that now he was where he’d always wanted to be — on the verge of his ultimate goal — his life had never felt emptier. Less complete. Making a career out of helping make other people’s baby dreams a reality had suddenly seemed to magnify the barrenness of his own life.

‘I’m ready now.’

Jacqui shook her head at his supreme arrogance. This from the man whose company was just about to go public? When would he even have the time? Was he ready, or did he just hate to lose? To have his plans thwarted?

‘You want this with all your heart, do you?’ she demanded. ‘You want it so bad that you’d give up every penny just to hold your child in your arms?’

Jacqui could see Nathan recoil from the suggestion, the tentacles of his past holding him firmly in their grip.

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