Page 64 of Pregnant After One Forbidden Night

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

SEBASTIANSATBEHIND the wheel at a lonely fork in the road.

A right would lead him to the capital, where he could lose himself in work, raking his mind through the muck in order to forget what kind of man he was.

A left would take him to Redcliff, the house that he had spent the past month transforming into a home with Jenna.

His mother had hated Redcliff—she had thought it too far away from the city, too high in the mountains, and too rainy and foggy. She had called it moldy.

Jenna was nothing like his mother, but for one similarity—her uncanny ability to bring a Redcliff man to his knees.

Sebastian had sworn he wouldn’t be like his father, that his weakness would not live on beyond him.

He had come so close to keeping his word.

And then he had encountered Jenna.

Jenna’s face, aching as he left the hospital room, was seared into the backs of his eyelids, taunting him every time he closed his eyes.

He knew he was a cold man, but here he was, at a new level, abandoning the mother of his child after she’d put her heart on the line.

The immensity of impending fatherhood swept over him once again, washing over him with a sense of vertigo more concrete than ever before, now that he had seen and heard his child.

A right was his life in the capital, unchanged, pretending to be the city’s most notorious playboy, all the while immersed in the work of maintaining the international security of the country.

A left, a family life.

Fatherhood, watching his child grow, evening walks and morning after morning with Jenna.

But that was wrong.

A left wouldn’t bring him any closer to a future with Jenna. If it could be so simple, he’d have already made the turn. Only giving her everything she wanted from him would bring him closer to a future with Jenna. Only letting go of his inner demons was good enough for her.

He had fought and striven to be a man far removed from his parents his entire life, and in rigidly controlling his life, in ruthlessly filtering what emotions he allowed in and out, he had merely repeated their mistakes.

He had made himself into the impossible-to-love creature that he’d always feared he was, and now that creature was hell-bent on bringing the same fracture to his own burgeoning family. And it was all because he couldn’t deal with his own feelings and fears—his obligations—like an adult.

The choice was clear when he thought of it that way. There was no choice.

Tearing himself open and letting her shed light into the deepest corner of his shadow was the only option. Facing his fears to give her what she wanted, over and over again—endlessly—was the only way.

Jenna was the mother of his child, identified by a plan and process he’d had no role in, but that had somehow led him to the right woman. She had loved even with the barriers he had put up to stop it from happening.

His body and what scarred bits remained of his soul had recognized her, and his need for her, long before the strategic mind that he was so proud of had.

In much the same way, his heart now dragged the same resistant mind toward acknowledgment of what his instincts had known immediately: he was in love with her.

It didn’t matter if they were married or not, she already had the power to make a fool of him, as his mother had his father.

He was clearly a fool, driving away like an ass instead of standing beside her.

Beside the mother of his child...and the woman he loved.

The admission slammed into him like a wrecking ball, demolishing the last protective wall that stood between him and the truth.

He loved Jenna.

Utterly and absolutely. He had from the moment he’d laid eyes on her, and so he had also been right.

Because he was a man who had no qualms and much means when it came to protecting and pleasing that which he loved, she was the most dangerous woman in the world.

And the only defense the world had against her was the fact that she was alive with an inextinguishable inner goodness and light. That she didn’t ask for the whole thing on a silver platter—only that he love and adore her and the child that grew within her.

He didn’t turn toward the capital or toward Redcliff. He turned the car around and drove back to the hospital.

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