Page 46 of Pregnant and Stolen by the Tycoon

At six and a half months, her stomach was well pronounced. Resting her hand on it, she sucked in a long sustaining breath.

‘It’s burying your parents when you’re fifteen then finding yourself in foster care before the sun sets on the same day.’

He jerked forward, his elbows landing on his knees as he cursed darkly in Cardosian under his breath. ‘They didn’t provide for you?’

She exhaled shakily. ‘No. They didn’t bother to put a guardianship in place should anything happen, so I was destined for foster care. I also discovered the house was rented, not owned, and they were in rental arrears. Much like with every other luxury they’d helped themselves to. They’d perfected the art of living excessively beyond their means. In fact, the only thing I owned were the clothes in my wardrobe and my laptop. Even the more expensive tech equipment was on lease agreement.’

‘What about the deal with the Swiss bank?’

‘They’d already collected on it and the money was gone.’

Eyes filled with banked fury rested on her. ‘Dios mio, Genie...’

She looked away because something in his eyes promised far more danger. The kind thatwarmed.Comforted.Made this sharing almost...okay.

This should’ve been an information-delivering exercise. A means for him to see why she preferred the workspace she preferred. Even if, inherently, the choice was based on emotion?

She shrugged the probing voice away while attempting to push away the warmth burrowing inside her. He evoked far too many of those feelings in her lately, and it was becoming too convenient to blame it on pregnancy hormones. ‘Pity isn’t useful. I found a way around my situation.’

‘It wasn’t pity. Trust me, I know what that feels like.’

Her head snapped up and their gazes collided. His shadowed a touch, as if he regretted his revelation. Before she could ask him to elaborate, he asked, ‘How did you get around the situation?’

‘By shortening my time in foster care to one single month,’ she said, striving for the same matter-of-fact tone he’d used earlier, and missing by a mile. Because that month had been the most miserable of her already miserable life thus far, and what had come afterwards had been a mix of terror and loneliness, the residue of which she hadn’t ever shaken off, despite Dr Douglas’s help.

‘Onemonth? How? What happened after that?’ Seve bit out.

She allowed herself a smile, even though she usually hated gloating, especially over those circumstances. But she’d come through the harrowing ordeal stronger. If not fully in control of her life—because she’d never been quite successful in ridding herself of the abject loneliness—at least with the final say over who she let beneath her guard. ‘I ran away from my foster home and started a company that bought the building that eventually served as my head office.’

‘How?’ he rasped again.

‘I’m determined. I’m sure you know that about me. And it’s astoundingly easy when you’ve just written code for a Swiss bank. I hired myself out to companies wanting similar work who didn’t bother to ask how old I was. I used the money to acquire shell companies and usedthoseto buy a building.’

The slightest widening of his eyes was the giveaway that she’d impressed him. ‘And then what?’

‘A few keystrokes when you know what you’re doing is all it takes. I erased myself from most databases and hid from the system in the basement of the same building I bought. Even then I’d had enough of well-meaning men in suits who claimed to have my best interest at heart but insisted my continued well-being would proceed smoother by letting them help me hone my intellect. I disagreed. So I made myself a home in the basement of my building and I stayed there until I turned eighteen.’

Shock shrouded his face and the hands hanging down between his knees bunched for a few seconds as he said sharply, ‘You livedalonedown there in that square box for three years?’

A peculiar mixture of pride and shame fizzled through her. ‘Just about. I was a few weeks from turning sixteen when my parents died. And my choices were limited. I didn’t want to be an unwanted burden on anyone or let anyone else dictate my future. Especially the government.’

His nostrils flared and he raked his fingers through his hair. ‘Because the two people who should’ve made your welfare their priority didn’t.’

More emotion shook through her. ‘Yes.’ Her voice quivered with her answer.

He rose from his seat and approached, slowly, prowling languorously as if he didn’t want to spook her.

For the longest time, he just stared down at her.

She struggled not to fidget but it was hard when she could almost feel the atomic particles colliding from their proximity. Did every couple who had created a child between them feel this way? This constant edginess as if something seismic was about to happen?

No, she answered her own question. She was certain this was unique to them. Unique and ultimately detrimental if left unguarded against.

And yet she didn’t protect herself when he lifted his hand and caught a strand of her hair between his fingers. When he toyed with the silken tresses for an age before transferring that riveting gaze to hers. ‘You are a formidable creature, Genie Merchant. But while this is familiar territory and comforting for you, you don’t need to hide any more. You have more than earned the right to step out into the light now.’ His gaze raked her face intensely before he added, ‘And in the light is where you belong.’

The words were low and deep, rumbling through her like a seismic event until it stopped precariously close to her heart. Until it made her so weak, she raised her hand, braced it against his chest as he continued to play with her hair, to stare deep into her eyes, absorbing her every reaction.

Her fingers curled into warm, solid muscle. That weakening intensified.

---