Page 23 of Her Diamond Deal with the CEO

‘No, thank you. I’ll go—’

Walking away from the couple, he felt almost drunk with shock and denial. Whatever that woman was saying was wrong. How could she be right? She knew nothing. She knew nothing about Ondine or him. She was just some random—

He stopped. Ondine was walking out of the restroom. She looked pale and shaken, but her shoulders stiffened as she saw him.

‘This way,’ he said curtly, grabbing her hand and towing her towards the exit.

‘What is it?’ He felt her fingers flex against his but he didn’t loosen his grip until he had propelled her outside. He glanced up the street and, moments later, their car pulled up to the kerb.

‘What is it?’ Rubbing her hand, she turned to face him as the car started to move, her blue eyes narrowing on his face. ‘What’s so urgent that you have to pull my arm out of its socket?’

‘I need to ask you something.’ He swallowed. His heart was suddenly racing. ‘Are you pregnant?’

She stared at him, her eyes widening with shock and confusion. ‘What kind of a question is that?’

‘The kind that needs answering.’ His eyes locked onto hers. ‘So I’m going to ask it again: is there any chance whatsoever that you could be pregnant?’

No. Absolutely not. No.

Gazing across the bathroom, Ondine felt her heart beating unevenly. That was what she had said to Jack when he had asked her if she could be pregnant, and she had believed it. She still believed it now. But the test in her hand told a different story.

Her eyes fixed on the plastic wand.

She had been here before, could picture the bathroom in the house she’d shared with Garrett, feel the swoop of disappointment as she’d stared down at the larger blank square.

They had tried for nearly two years. She had, anyway. At some point, without telling her, Garrett had given up. Suddenly conscious that her arms were shaking, she wrapped them around her waist, hugging herself tightly.

After she’d replied to his question Jack had stared at her assessingly, and then directed the driver to a side street. He had jumped out of the car, returning almost immediately without a word of explanation, and then they had been bumping in the boat across the Vineyard Sound back to Whydah Island and Red Knots.

Her throat had tightened. She had been so focused on trying not to throw up she had barely registered the huge gabled house with its shingled roof.

Not that Jack had given her any chance to do so. Holding her hand with a grip that had verged on the painful, he had more or less hauled her upstairs through the bedroom and into the bathroom. Reaching into his jacket, he had pulled out a paper bag and tossed it onto the vanity unit.

‘Let me know when you’re done,’ he’d said, and the authority in his voice had reminded her suddenly and alarmingly that, while he might act like a playboy, he had been raised to issue orders and expect them to be followed. ‘I’ll be next door.’

She stared down at the two thin blue lines, and then back at the instructions leaflet. Not that she needed to read it again. When she’d been trying for a baby with Garrett she’d lost count of the number of pregnancy tests she had taken. She knew exactly how they worked, and they all worked on the same principle.

The only difference with this one was that it was positive.

Positive.

As in pregnant. As in having a baby.

Her fingers bit into the handle of the plastic wand. Only that wasn’t possible. There must be some mistake. Only the kind of wand used by witches and wizards could conjure up the magic required for this test to be correct.

Her eyes locked onto the two lines. The first told her the test was working properly. The other told her that she was pregnant. Very slowly, she laid her hand across her stomach, her fingers flexing. But it must be faulty.

Holding her breath, she opened another box.

Then another.

And another.

Ten minutes later she was staring down at the fourth positive test when there was a knock at the door.

‘Ondine—’

It was Jack. Her heart seemed to swell up and fill her throat so that breathing was suddenly almost impossible. ‘Just a minute,’ she said hoarsely.

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