Page 18 of The Billionaire's One-Night Baby

He issued another command to mute their conversation, ran his hand through his hair and shook his head, looking only mildly harassed.

Nobody would ever guess that she’d just told him he was about to become a father, that their impulsive one-night stand had resulted in a great big ‘oops’. He jammed his hands into the pockets of his trousers and stared at her, his gaze shuttered. Jago was so good at hiding his emotions and she couldn’t tell if he was sad or mad, flummoxed or resigned.

She couldn’t read him, and a little part of her loathed him for being able to conceal his emotions so well. In contrast, her face was the emotional equivalent of Times Square.

Jago, after many minutes of contemplation, spoke again. ‘Are you planning on keeping the baby?’

Dodi threw her hands up in the air. ‘I heard I was pregnant a little over an hour ago—I’m still coming to terms with the idea!’

‘But you came here, to me, straight away.’

Why had she done that? Why had she run to him? She should’ve gone home, taken some time to let the news settle, to make sense of this three-sixty turn her life had taken. But her need to see Jago, to share this moment and news with him, had been overwhelming.

‘I have no idea what I’m doing, feeling, to be honest. This is all a bit surreal.’

Jago touched his tie, started to pull it down and dropped his hand. Did he need air? She sure did.

Another buzz, followed by the words, ‘Sir, you are now more than a few minutes late.’

Jago grimaced at the admonishment coming from the hidden speakers and stood up to walk around the back of his desk. He pulled on his jacket, ran his hand over his head and looked at Dodi from his great height. He gestured to the door. ‘I’m sorry but I have to go. This is important.’

And having his baby wasn’t?Seriously?

Dodi placed her hand on her sternum, trying to physically push back the rolling wave of pain and disappointment. She hadn’t expected him to jump for joy, for him to take her in his arms and hold her close—she wasn’t that much of a fool!—but she hadn’t expected to be dismissed a few minutes after dropping her bombshell news.

And in that instant she was a child again, desperately waiting for her parents to see her, to acknowledge her, to interact with her. To pay her some attention,anyattention. Then, like now, she’d been treated as an afterthought, a pesky fly that could be ignored, waved away. She wasn’t anyone’s priority and was of little, or no, importance.

She’d lived with self-involved parents, and after watching her grandmother die had broken up with her long-term boyfriend when she was informed he’d been pathologically unfaithful and emotionally manipulative. She’d experienced grief and loss, heartbreak and betrayal, but she’d never felt as alone as she did right now.

And there was nothing she could do to change it. Dodi pulled in a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and planted her feet on the floor. Pulling her bag over her shoulder, she stood up, feeling her thick hair falling out of its hastily pinned bun.

Jago placed his hand on her lower back, physically encouraging her to head for the door. She flinched, pulled away from him and quickened her pace. His arm shot past her to open the door and she didn’t bother to thank him, choosing instead to walk out of his life with her head held high and her back straight.

‘I’ll call you later and we can discuss this further,’ Jago murmured in her ear.

‘You now know, so there’s nothing more to discuss.’ This was her baby, her body, her life. Had he had anything but a calm, unemotional, almost non-reaction she would’ve agreed to another discussion, to try and find a way forward together. But because he’d been so damn robotic, practically uninterested, she knew she, and the baby, were problems to be solved, an obstacle to overcome.

Well, at least she knew where she stood. She was on her own.

And that was okay. Being alone, being independent, was what she did. The essence of the person she was.

Hours later, Jago sat on the expansive deck overlooking a waterhole within a private game reserve on the outskirts of Muldersdrift. He tipped his beer bottle to his lips and listened to the shrill song of the cicadas, interspersed with the occasional croak of a bullfrog. The sun was sinking behind the acacia trees, and he heard a group of laughing guests heading towards the open-top game-drive vehicle which stood outside the pub. The place would be quiet for a while—exactly what he needed.

He needed to think, dammit.

After the meeting with his investors finished, he’d driven out to this extensive property, forty minutes northwest of the city, windows down and hoping the hot air would blow the cobwebs from his groggy mind. He owned a half-share in this five-star boutique safari lodge and came here, as often as he could, to this place where the air was clean, the traffic minimal and the birds, animals and insects were frequently his only company. This was his thinking place, a spot with no mobile-phone reception and where he couldn’t be disturbed. After taking a beer from the bartender, he had found the most isolated, out-of-the-way corner of the deck and propped his feet up on the railing, desperate to make sense of his suddenly topsy-turvy world.

He leaned back in his chair and tipped his head up to look at the bright stars appearing in the purple-blue, velvety sky. It was past seven and he was exhausted. Physically and mentally drained.

He guessed that was a natural outcome of splitting your thoughts and attention between a complicated business deal and imminent fatherhood. Business was easy...

He’d been working on acquiring a platinum mine for more than eight months, one of the biggest in the world, but he couldn’t leverage enough funding for Le Roux International to buy the mine without partners. Few people in the world could. So he’d looked around for investors, found businessmen he knew and trusted, and pitched his idea. He could’ve easily postponed the meeting this afternoon, citing a personal emergency, and his colleagues would’ve understood.

But, feeling sideswiped and off-balance, not knowing how to respond to Dodi’s declaration and close to panic, he’d turned to work, something he could control.

But he was done with work and meetings and had run out of excuses, so he had to face Dodi’s out-of-the-blue announcement.

She waspregnant. The baby washis.

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