She drew a deep, shuddering breath. She knew it was useless to deny the truth, but she could barely form her words. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you now. Please. Just forget about it.”
He was on her in a second. She gave a guttural scream as he gripped her by the shoulders and jerked her away from the board. His lips were pale with suppressed rage, and a vein pulsed at his temple. “Forget about it? You want me to forget?”
“I didn’t think you’d care! I didn’t think it would matter to you!”
His lips barely moved. “It matters.”
“Please . . . I wanted a baby so badly.” She winced as his fingers dug into her arms. “I didn’t mean to involve you. You weren’t ever supposed to know. I’ve never—I’ve never done anything like this before. It was an . . . an ache inside me, and I couldn’t come up with another way.”
“You had no right.”
“I knew—I knew what I was doing was wrong. But it didn’t seem wrong. All I could think about was having a baby.”
He slowly released her, and she sensed he was barely holding onto his self-control. “There were other ways. Ways that didn’t involve me.”
“Sperm banks weren’t a viable option for me.”
His eyes raked her with contempt, and the menace in his soft Carolina drawl made her want to cringe. “Viable? I don’t like it when you use big words. See, I ain’t a hotshot scientist like you. I’m just a dumb jock, so you’d better keep everything real simple.”
“It wasn’t practical for me to use a sperm bank.”
“Now why’s that?”
“My IQ is over 180.”
“Congratulations.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with it, so it’s not something I’m proud of. I was born that way, but it can be more of a curse than a blessing, and I wanted a normal child. That’s why I had to be very careful in my selection.” She twisted her hands in front of her, trying to think how she could say this without angering him even more. “I needed a male with—uh—average intelligence. Sperm bank donors tend to be medical students, men like that.”
“Not Carolina hillbillies who make their living throwing a football.”
“I know I’ve wronged you,” she said quietly, her fingers twisting one of the brass buttons on the front of her dress, “but there’s nothing I can do at this point except apologize.”
“You could have an abortion.”
“No! I love this baby with all my heart, and I would never do that!”
She waited for him to argue with her, but he said nothing. She spun away, hugging herself with her arms and moving to the side of the classroom so she could put as much distance between them as possible, protecting herself, protecting her baby.
She heard him coming toward her, and she felt as if she were being regarded through the crosshairs of a highpowered rifle. His voice was whispery and strangely disembodied. “This is the way it’s going to be, Professor. In a few days, the two of us are taking a trip across the state line into Wisconsin, where the press won’t be likely to sniff us out. And once we’re there, we’re getting married.”
She caught her breath at the venom in his expression.
“Don’t plan any rose-covered cottage because this is going to be a marriage made in hell. As soon as the ceremony’s over, we’re each going our own way until after the baby’s born. Then we’ll get a divorce.”
“What are you talking about? I’m not marrying you. You don’t understand. I’m not after your money. I don’t want anything from you.”
“I don’t much care what you want.”
“But why? Why are you doing this?”
“Because I don’t believe in stray kids.”
“This child won’t be a stray. It’s not—”
“Shut up! I’ve got a whole ton of rights, and I’m going to make sure every one of them is spelled out, all the way down to a joint custody agreement if I decide that’s what I want.”
She felt as if all the air had been sucked from her lungs. “Joint custody? You can’t have it. This baby is mine!”
“I wouldn’t bet on that.”
“I won’t let you do this!”
“You lost any say in the matter when you came up with your nasty little scheme.”
“I won’t marry you.”
“Yeah, you will. And you know why? Because I’ll destroy you before I let a kid of mine be raised as a bastard.”
“It’s not like that anymore. There are millions of single mothers. People don’t think anything of it.”