Page 8 of Claiming His Baby At The Altar

‘Do I look stupid?’

‘I know you’re not stupid, but it’s the fairest way of going about it.’

‘Possibly, but the sad fact is, my pretty littlebombón, you are not to be trusted, so it’s marriage first, charges dropped second or no deal. And if you think you can marry me and then divorce me as soon as your brother’s set free then I warn you now, the charges will be slapped back on him and he will spend the best years of his life in a prison cell. There will be no divorce.’

As languid as a panther, he stepped to her and lowered his face. His spicy scent seeped into her airwaves and before his hypnotic stare could capture her, Flora closed her eyes tightly and held her breath.

He whispered, ‘One hour, and then your nightmare will be over. Your brother will be free and you will have all the riches you could ever want.’ He traced a finger lightly over her cheek.

His touch made her stiffen.

It also set her pulses surging.

All her nerves strained as his face moved closer. His breath whispered against the sensitive skin of her ear, sending tingles dancing through her.

‘It looks like your selling of your soul to the devil has paid off,’ he murmured. ‘I congratulate you. Your brother will be very proud when you tell him how you bought his freedom.’

The air around her swirled as he walked away.

Flora kept her eyes tight shut until she heard the door close.

Once certain she was alone, she wrapped her arms around her belly and expelled the breath she’d held for so long, and tried to clear the fuzz in her head enough to think.

Thinking proved impossible. Her head was too full.

This was crazy.

How could he still affect her like this? It shouldn’t be possible, not after everything he’d done.

But he thought she’d slept with him for her brother. He thought she’d used him...

There had been a moment—only a brief one—when she thought she’d seen hurt flash in his eyes.

Oh, this was all so confusing! Asifshe could have hurt him. The man had the hide of a rhino.

But even if she had and if he’d genuinely misinterpreted her brother’s message, that didn’t excuse him ghosting her, not after the night they’d shared, or from kissing her goodbye the way he had and making promises to see her he’d never had any intention of keeping.

If he’d genuinely believed that then why hadn’t he confronted her about it? The answer to that came quickly—that was what Ramos did. Wrong him and he severed you from his life without thought or hesitation.

Hecouldn’tmean to marry her.

Another tightening cramp low in her abdomen cut her panicked thoughts off sharply. Pressing a hand to the underside of her belly, frightened to find that her belly seemed to have sucked itself in and that she could feel the outline of her baby even more clearly, she gritted her teeth and breathed through her nose.

By the time it eased, her forehead was damp with perspiration.

How long had passed since the last one? Twenty minutes? More? Less?

She forced herself to think clearly and take note of the time. She’d had four Braxton Hicks total, each days apart. None had gone on as long as those two. None had been as painful.

Was her baby coming now? It couldn’t be! It was too soon. She wasn’t due for another three weeks.

Her back was aching again. It hadn’t really stopped aching, just ebbed to a dull ache. It wasn’t dull now.

Her tear ducts had started working again too. There was a hot sting in her eyes and she wished with all her heart that her mum were still here. She needed her desperately, for advice and comfort over the coming hours.

But her mother had been dead two years and there was no one else she could turn to for advice, at least no one whose advice she trusted, and, feeling more alone than she’d done since Justin’s arrest, Flora began to rock lightly, backwards and forwards.

Marry Ramos and set Justin free.

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