That, at least, was the same.
Though when her eyes dropped down to his feet, she could not hide her shock.
“Have you had an accident?” she asked.
“Other than the one I’m staring at just now? No.”
She ignored that. “Where are your shoes?”
“I left them to the fields.”
With his coat. He realized then that might have been sort of a mad thing to do, but he wouldn’t show her that he doubted his own sanity.
“All right, then. You might as well come in.”
He could see her. Doing mental calculations. Trying to figure out just how she was going to manage this. How she would come out on top.
He could think of nothing. Could strategize nothing. Because his brain had ceased to function. He was there. Standing before her. And she was pregnant.
“The child is mine,” he said.
He’d meant it as a question. It had come out a statement of fact.
“Oh, no,” she said. “I mean, itcouldbe. But it’s actually nearly impossible to say. I have just had endless sex since last we met. So many lovers I can’t even begin to—”
He’d thought that. Had the suspicion himself.
But when she did...
When she did it was clear to him it was a lie.
“I knew you would say that,” he said. “It’s not even a good con as cons go.”
“But you can take it as the answer, if you want to,” she said, looking at him. “I don’t know who the father of my baby is. I’ve had far too many lovers to keep track of. It could be anyone’s.”
She was lying. She didn’t have a tell. And that was the biggest tell of all. For if she had told the truth, he had a feeling she would look much more vulnerable. As it was, she was defiant.
But she was offering him a chance to walk away.
But he had no honor, no connection to family or blood. That was what she didn’t understand.
He wasn’t here forhonor.
He’d had to see. Like some beast had possessed him. Because she was here.
Here and pregnant.
And it had driven him here even though he now had no idea what purpose he served.
“You and I both know that’s a lie,” he said.
She shrugged, as if she didn’t care. “Suit yourself.”
He’d walked into the estate, and felt an oppressive sense of cold fold itself around him. And right then he hated that he had decided to take his shoes off, because being in here with his feet touching the floor felt far too much like being at home.
And this was not his home.
She tossed her hair. “I don’t know if you realize this, but I’m a millionaire.”