Page 15 of The Venetian One-Night Baby

Sabrina blinked rapidly. ‘Then why did you ask her to marry you?’

He walked over to the leather-topped mahogany desk and picked up the paperweight he had given his father when he was ten. He passed it from hand to hand, wondering how to answer. ‘Good question,’ he said, putting the paperweight down and turning to look at her. ‘When we first dated, she seemed fine with my decision not to have kids. We had stuff in common, books, movies, that sort of thing.’ He gave a quick open-close movement of his lips. ‘But clearly it wasn’t enough for her.’

‘It might not have been about the kid thing. It might have been because she knew you didn’t love her. I never thought your chemistry with her was all that good.’

Max moved closer to her, drawn by a force he couldn’t resist. ‘Unlike ours, you mean?’ He traced a line from below her ear to her chin with his finger, watching as her pupils darkened and her breath hitched. Her spring flowers perfume danced around his nostrils, her warm womanly body making his blood thrum and hum and drum with lust. Don’t touch her. His conscience pinged with a reminder but he ignored it.

Her hands came up to rest against his chest, the tip of her tongue sweeping over her rosebud lips. But then her eyes hardened and she pushed back from him and put some distance between them. ‘I know what you’re trying to do but it won’t work. I will not be seduced into marrying you.’

‘For God’s sake, Sabrina,’ Max said. ‘This is not about seducing you into changing your mind. You’re having my baby. I would never leave you to fend for yourself. That’s not the sort of man I am.’

‘Look, I know you mean well, but I can’t marry you. I’m only just pregnant. I can’t bear the thought of everyone talking about me, judging me for falling pregnant after a one-night stand, especially to you when I’ve done nothing but criticise you for years. Anyway, what if I were to have a miscarriage or something before the twelve-week mark? Then you’d hate me for sure for trapping you in a marriage neither of us wanted in the first place.’

The mention of miscarriage gave him pause. He had seen his mother go through several of them before and after the death of Daniel. It had been torture to watch her suffer not just physically but emotionally. The endless tears, the longing looks at passing prams or pregnant women. He had been young, but not too young to notice the despair on his mother’s face. ‘Okay. So we will wait until the twelve-week mark. But I’m only compromising because it makes sense to keep this news to ourselves until then.’

Sabrina bit her lower lip and it made him want to kiss away the indentation her teeth made when she released it. ‘I’ve kind of told Holly. She was with me when I did the test.’

‘Can you trust her to keep it to herself?’

‘She’ll probably tell Zack, but she assures me he won’t blab either.’

Max stepped closer again and took her hands, stroking the backs of them with his thumbs. ‘How are you feeling? I’m sorry I didn’t ask earlier. Not just about how you’re feeling about being pregnant but are you sick? Is there anything you need?’

Fresh tears pooled in her eyes and she swallowed a couple of times. ‘I’m a bit sick and my breasts are a little tender.’

‘Is it too early to have a scan?’

‘I’m not sure, I haven’t been to see the doctor yet.’

‘I’ll go with you to all of your appointments, that is, if you want me there?’ Who knew he could be such a model father-to-be? But, then, he figured he’d had a great role model in his own dad. Even so, he wanted to be involved for the child’s sake.

‘Do you want to be there or would you only be doing it out of duty?’

‘I want to be there to see our baby for the first time.’ Max was a little surprised to realise how much he meant it. But he needed to see the baby to believe this pregnancy had really happened. He still felt as if he’d stepped into a parallel universe. Could his and Sabrina’s DNAs really be getting it on inside her womb? A baby. A little person who would look like one or the other, or a combination of both of them. A child who would grow up and look to him for protection and nurturing. Did he trust himself to do a good job? How could he when he had let his baby brother down so badly?

The door suddenly opened behind them and Max glanced over his shoulder to see his mother standing there. ‘Oh, there you two are.’ Her warm brown eyes sparkled with fairy godmother delight.

Sabrina sprang away from Max but she bumped into the mahogany desk behind her and yelped. ‘Ouch!’

Max reached for Sabrina, steadying her by bringing her close to his side. ‘Are you okay?’

She rubbed her left hip, her cheeks a vivid shade of pink. ‘Yes...’

‘Did I startle you?’ Max’s mother asked. ‘Sorry, darling, but I was wondering where you’d gone. You seemed a little upset earlier.’

‘I’m not upset,’ Sabrina said, biting her lip.

His mother raised her eyebrows and then glanced at Max. ‘I hope you two aren’t fighting again? No wonder the poor girl gets upset with you glaring at her all the time. I don’t want my party spoilt by your boorish behaviour. Why can’t you just kiss and make up for a change?’

Max could have laughed at the irony of the situation if his sense of humour hadn’t already been on life support. He’d done way more than kiss Sabrina and now there were consequences he would be dealing with for the rest of his life. But there was no way he could tell his mother what had gone on between them. No way he could say anything until she was through the first trimester of her pregnancy. It would get everybody’s hopes up and the pressure would be unbearable—even more unbearable than it already was.

‘It’s fine, Aunty Gillian. Max is being perfectly civil to me,’ Sabrina said, carefully avoiding his gaze.

Max’s mother shifted her lips from side to side. ‘Mmm, I’m not sure it’s safe to leave you two alone for more than five minutes. Who knows what might happen?’

Who knew, indeed?

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