Page 12 of Christmas Baby with Her Ultra-Rich Boss

‘I paid her off because she was pregnant.’ He sat back on the armchair and locked his eyes back on her while he rolled thick socks onto his long feet. ‘I didn’t have to give her anything and there is not an employment judge in Europe who would have disagreed, but her baby didn’t deserve to be born into hardship because of its mother’s negligence, and now I would like you to explain to me how you thought you could make it to the birth without me finding out.’

It took Lena’s brain a few moments to catch up with the swerve from Annika back to herself. She shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I was going to work as long as I could and hope you didn’t get wind of it before I left.’

Socks on, he dug his elbows into his thighs and continued looking at her with the gaze of an enemy interrogator. ‘You must have made some form of plan. Were you planning to leave without working your notice? Take maternity entitlement? What?’

‘I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could arrange maternity leave without you finding out.’ Konstantinos would have to personally approve whoever was appointed to cover for her, which meant he would have definitely learned about the pregnancy before she was ready for him to know.

‘Then what were you going to do? Give birth in the staff room and then demand the immediate paternity test you spoke of?’

‘I don’tknow,’ she repeated, her voice rising and quickening in response to his icy sarcasm. ‘I just knew I needed to work for as long as I could and save as much money as I could before the baby comes because I have nothing. I have no savings, no home of my own–’

‘So you want my money?’

‘Absolutely.’

For a moment his expression morphed into surprise before his top lip curved in distaste. ‘You admit it?’

She would not feel shamed into wanting what was best for her baby. ‘My child is entitled to support from its father, and let’s face it, you’re not short of a bob or two.’

‘Is that what this is all about? A way to extort money from me?’

‘God,no!’

‘You told me you were on the pill.’

‘I told you—’

‘Excuse me if I treat what you say with cynicism when you’ve spent months hiding the child you claim is mine. How very convenient that you fell pregnant after one night together.’

The implication that she’d either deliberately connived to get pregnant by him or was deliberately conniving to make him believe he was the father winded her.

She gazed into his cold green eyes and begged the fresh tears burning her retinas not to fall.

Were all her memories of the night they’d shared false? Had she spent months imagining the passion that had consumed them both in a whirling vortex of sensation that had left no room for thought or rationality? Had sheimaginedthe depth of the shared intensity? Why else would he even consider that she’d approached their lovemaking with calculation if that passion and intensity hadn’t been shared?

Somehow, that hurt far more than his scepticism of his paternity. All these months she’d comforted herself by thinking that whatever the future held for her child, at least it had been conceived with genuine passion. That she could be here now and still feel that same burning awareness for Konstantinos only made it worse.

‘See?’ she said shakily. ‘This is why I didn’t want you to know until the baby was born. You’re so cynical about everything that I knew you wouldn’t take my word for it being yours.’

His eyes glittered. ‘Don’t forget your assumption that I would sack you for it.’

‘Can you blame me?’

‘Yes, I can and I do, and I blame myself, too, for falling for your seduction.’

‘Myseduction?’ She threw her hands in the air and shook her head with disbelief. ‘So now you’re rewriting history? We’d both had too much to drink, and yes, I made the first move but at least I hold my hands up and accept my responsibility for what happened but it takes two to tango, so don’t even think about portraying me as some money-grabbing seductress who deliberately set out to get pregnant because if you think I ever wanted to be in the position of being a single mother with sod all money and limited emotional support then you are raving.

‘All I’ve been trying to do these past months is build a nest egg to carry me and the baby through the birth until a paternity test confirms what I’m telling you.’

‘And then what?’ he sneered. ‘You must have thought about what comes after. What would you like to happen? A large transfer of cash into your bank account?’

‘Well, that would be nice,’ she said tartly, refusing to let him see how badly his coldness was hurting her. His reaction was nothing she hadn’t anticipated but living it was much worse than she’d imagined.

The pulse set off on his jaw again. ‘I won’t marry you,’ he warned.

She reared back. ‘I don’t wantthat.’

Marriage hadn’t even crossed her mind. Never minding that they’d spent the grand total of one night together, what woman in her right mind would want to tie herself to a man likehim?

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