‘The train stops for almost an hour in Paris. I’ll get off and find an all-night chemist. They’ll have a morning-after pill. I can’t believe I didn’t use protection. I’m sorry. It’s inexcusable.’
What? She blinked and her head lifted a few milli-metres off his chest.
That’s what he was thinking? What? Poor little Kelsie needed safeguarding from the big bad man without protection? Or maybe he was worried that she’d trap him! As in the opposite to dropping him fifteen years ago? Did he think she cruised through life unprepared?
Not what she’d expected to hear. Maybe because she’d known she was covered pregnancy-wise but he hadn’t even asked that.
Apparently she was still too silly not to have thought of contraception.
I’m on the Pill, she shrilled at him silently. And as for the other concerns she didn’t think that, no matter how much he’d changed, Connor was the kind of man to give a sleeping partner a notifiable disease. Well, neither was she.
It was disquieting the way his mind worked, though. Did he trust her so little? Was he that worried about unwanted complications? Was that finally the price she would pay for her actions in the past?
Did he think she would escape in London and not follow through? Did he want to ensure all was settled before they parted?
Her bubble of euphoria deflated and disappeared like suds down a porcelain bowl onto railway tracks and she sat up. Slid from the bed and picked up her robe.
‘You okay?’ he asked.
Umm. No. But she didn’t say anything. Slipped the robe on and belted it before she turned to face him. Saw the closed look on his face and tried to keep her own expression blank as she wondered how she could escape so she could figure this out by herself.
She poked her feet into her slippers and unlatched the door. ‘Excuse me.’ Smiled in his general direction and fled.
Connor jammed his fingers through his hair.
He’d truly lost it. Their lovemaking had been torrid. The last thing he wanted was Kelsie finding out in a month she was pregnant and he’d ruined her life. Especially if this was only a one-night stand for her.
He pushed away the stupid idea that he could live with the incredible idea of Kelsie having his child.
A child? Imagine if she left him then!
He shuddered. He wasn’t doing wives and children and family who could leave at any time. He needed to put his trust in his work. It was his job to make sure other people had families.
He slid from the bed and began to dress before she came back, though he doubted even his grandmother would rouse the train to look for him—though she hadn’t worried about shocking him when she’d sent Max in to talk to him.
He hadn’t even had time to digest that startling turn of events in the last crazy few hours. But he had his own dilemmas now.
Kelsie still wasn’t back as he shrugged into his jacket, the better to hide his crumpled shirt he’d rescued from the floor—he couldn’t believe he hadn’t hung it up!—and he straightened his tie and checked his phone.
Looked again. ‘Please call urgently.’ Damn. The Wilsons. Another baby in danger. He highlighted the number and opened Kelsie’s door but she wasn’t in the corridor.
He couldn’t phone here, with people sleeping in every cabin, and he moved swiftly in the opposite direction until finally he reached the dimly lit bar car and could phone without fear of disturbing others.
He listened to a tearful Connie beg him to call and reassured himself that of all people Kelsie would understand when a mother needed him. Ignored the thought that flitted through his mind that he couldn’t wait to get back to a situation in which he had some rules to follow. Because he was damned if knew what the rules were with Kelsie. He dialed the Wilsons’ number.
When Kelsie came back from the bathroom he’d gone. She’d thought he might have.
Her shoulders drooped and she shut the door and locked it. Hadn’t she been the biggest goose. All soft and squishy over the old boyfriend and he had just been there for the night. Thank goodness she hadn’t said anything to reveal her feelings. But inside she was shrivelling.
Mourning the silly dream she’d indulged in when he’d never said anything about tomorrow. Thanked her stars it wasn’t a ten-night train journey or it could have been really embarrassing.
But it was a one-night journey. Breakfast would be served in the cabin in four or five hours. She wouldn’t even see him. Then would be the pause in Paris, when she’d say goodbye to Anna and Josef, and hopefully meet the new father and make sure all was fine.
Then no doubt she’d see Connor at that point, because he’d drop in her little parcel containing the morning-after pill.