‘We are getting a divorce, Nik,’ Betsy reminded him doggedly, wondering on what planet his reasoning had been formed. ‘You can’t just move back in and spring a reconciliation on me without my agreement—’
‘I don’t want a divorce. We have a son or a daughter on the way and we should be together to raise him or her,’ Nik informed her without fanfare.
‘Ideally speaking...’ Betsy commented weakly. ‘I had no idea you felt that way about the baby when you never wanted one.’
‘But the baby’s now a fact of life,’ Nik replied. ‘We’re going to be parents and I won’t allow my child to grow up without me.’
Betsy was afraid her legs would give out as support and she sidled over to a sofa and literally dropped down on it in a desperate attempt to clear her light-headedness. ‘Nik? All this is coming at me out of nowhere and I’m very confused—’
‘Why?’ Nik queried with apparent sincerity, crossing the rug to crouch down at her feet so that he could still see her face. ‘I’m home again—’
‘But that’s not a unilateral decision you can make!’ Betsy exclaimed in a raw outburst. ‘Obviously it concerns me as well. I know it’s best for a child to have two parents if possible but there’s the question of our relationship—’
His wide, sensual mouth quirked. ‘There wouldn’t be a child to worry about in the first instance if it wasn’t for our relationship.’
‘Depends on how you look at the situation.’ Betsy lifted her head, cobalt eyes sparking with annoyance. ‘I saw it as just sex and straight afterwards you did as well when you said that you believed it was quite common for divorcing couples to fall into bed together again.’
‘It was the wrong thing to say.’ Nik raked restive brown fingers through his silky black hair as he made that confession. ‘But I was...er...very confused that day. I didn’t know what I felt or what to say to you—’
Betsy found herself strangely touched by that uncharacteristically frank admission but it did not silence her. ‘No, you just ran—’
Nik’s green eyes flared with macho male defensiveness. ‘I did not run—’
‘Take it from me...you ran as if I was a one-night stand you regretted. Only a week ago you were divorcing me. How can you go from that level to suddenly saying you want to be married to me again?’ she prompted shakily.
Nik paced restively in front of the fire because he hadn’t expected so many questions or the barrier of resistance she was engaged in raising between them. But she wasn’t screaming at him, which he deemed a plus and an improvement. ‘You have to start somewhere—’
‘But all that’s changed is that I’m pregnant,’ Betsy reminded him, trying not to listen to the opening and closing of doors in the hall and the sound of voices and noise that accompanied Nik’s possessions returning to what had once been the home they shared. She was traumatised and trying not to show it. Not for the first time, Nik’s conduct had stunned her into silence. He had stopped the divorce, returned to her... But why? She didn’t understand. ‘I can’t believe that you care that much about a baby you never wanted—’
Nik tensed. ‘Believe,’ he urged. ‘I also care about you and I want to be here for both you and the baby now and in the future.’
‘It’s an amazing turnaround,’ Betsy told him numbly. ‘I don’t know how I feel about it.’