Page 54 of Irreplaceable

“Option two.” She licked her lips. Lips I’d kissed and worshipped. “We do a paternity test. After the results come back—”

I couldn’t listen to any more. “Harper, stop.” I grabbed her hands. “Just stop,” I repeated when she continued to ignore me.

“Maybe it would be best if I leave this with you.” She slid her hands from mine and stood without looking at me. “You can reach out to my attorney after you’ve had some time to think it over.”

Fuck that.

She hurried toward the door, but I was faster, my long strides eating up the carpet in no time.

“Harper.” I gripped her wrist, pulling her so her back was to my front.

My arm rested atop her stomach and between her breasts, and I was suddenly keenly aware of our position. Of the way she nestled in my arms, the tension vibrating between us. Of her breasts rising and falling and the smell of her skin as I placed my lips beside her ear. Of the shiver that ran down her spine.

“Let me go,” she pleaded.

“Why? What are you going to do?” I teased. “Knee me in the balls again?” Though I knew it was a definite possibility.

She dropped her chin to her chest. “Yeah… Sorry about that. I panicked, and my Krav Maga training kicked in.”

I chuckled, thinking back on our time together in Bali. “Another former hobby, as I recall.”

“Enzo,” she sighed. She sounded so tired, so…broken. And it nearly destroyed me.

I turned her so she was facing me. I cupped her cheeks, peering into her gorgeous eyes. “Please.” My voice was full of anguish. “I just… This is a lot to take in. I’m sorry. I don’t believe any of the terrible things I said.”

“A small part of you must believe they’re true. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have said them.” Her tone was gentle, but pain reflected back at me in her eyes.

I frowned, hating myself for how I’d reacted. For the way I’d made her feel.

“Regardless of what you do or don’t believe—” she waved a hand through the air “—I’m willing to do this on my own. I don’t expect anything from you.”

My hands tightened into fists, my knuckles turning white. “You don’t expect anything of me?”

“From you,” she said, as if that was much better. She might as well have said she didn’t expect anything of me. And I honestly wondered if she didn’t.

“I know this is a lot to take in.” Her shoulders relaxed. “And I know you don’t want children.”

“I—”

She shook her head as if to silence me.

“Just…don’t rush into any decisions. You’re still in shock. I get it. I’ve had months to adjust to the idea, and it still took me weeks to even believe it was true.”

“Because of the failed…procedures?” I led her over to the couches and took a seat beside her.

She nodded. “A few months before we met, I suffered a loss very early in my pregnancy. It was devastating.” That explained the sadness I’d seen when we were in Bali.

“Were you…with someone?” Crew? I swallowed but didn’t reference him by name, hating the mere idea of it.

“No.” She dipped her head, her cheeks turning pink. “I was using a sperm donor.”

I hadn’t realized just how committed she’d been to having children. Using a sperm donor, going it alone as a single mom—that wasn’t an easy road. And I remembered the way she’d evaded the topic of children when we’d touched on it briefly in Bali. Now it all made sense.

“And then…” She swallowed. “Once I found out, well, I didn’t have any way to get in touch with you.”

Whether she realized it or not, she rested her hand on her stomach. She was such a natural, so maternal, and something in me roared to life. Some primal urge to protect her and our baby. And I knew there was no way I was letting her or the baby go.

“Look, Enzo,” she sighed. “Or should I call you Lorenzo?”

“Enzo,” I insisted. Even though no one else in my life had ever called me Enzo, I couldn’t stand the thought of Harper calling me anything else.

“You should think carefully about what you want before deciding.”

“What I want is you.”

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